Mox Opal – Scars of Mirrodin
Date Reviewed: January 23, 2024
Ratings:
Constructed: 5
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 3.25
Multiplayer: 3.75
Commander [EDH]: 4
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Any Magic player will look at a Mox and recognize it as a good card – it is impossible to make a bad one short of it giving ten poison counters instead of just one. So I have to give a lot of credit to Magic’s designers for continuing to approve new Moxen, because every single one will be played and played hard. Sometimes hard enough to get banned, like Mox Opal. Legendary is a real drawback, because there are situations where you want more than one, but it’s not enough of a drawback to seriously hold it back. Artifact themes are not going away – back in the Opal’s first day, there was Esper and Affinity, and now that it’s back, there are indestructible artifact dual lands. Those might be slow for Modern and similar formats, but not for casual. And besides, Modern has a whole lot of Esper and Affinity and Urza cards just waiting for a new or old Mox. I think things might be about to get spicy.
Constructed: 5
Casual: 5
Limited: 3.5
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4
Mox Opal marked, at the time, the first new Mox since Mirrodin‘s Chrome Mox, and Chrome Mox was certainly potent enough to leave a mark. Mox Opal, in that regard, does not disappoint, even if it’s nowhere near as splashable as Chrome Mox was. It being legendary means that, while you can use multiples, you may have to make multiples work like a really opalescent Lotus Petal, and the metalcraft limitation means that you’re not going to get much out of this without already being on the artifact/affinity gameplan. It turns out, though, that even with those limitations, Mox Opal was…quite powerful, especially because artifacts were quite powerful at the time it came out, and it’s still powerful. Powerful enough to earn a ban to rein in affinity for a couple years in Modern, though it did earn a parole to give affinity/artifact combo a bit more life.
Mox Opal’s definitely a narrow Mox, but nearly every Mox has been absurdly powerful at some point or another, and Mox Opal has a lot going for it. In the dedicated decks that focus on artifacts, it basically has no downside, and it enabes a lot of the common shenanigans the strategy is known for. It even got a toy in Urza’s Saga that it plays perfectly with, and while that’s hardly make-or-break, it didn’t need any help to become even more absurd. It’s definitely a backbone card in Modern, Legacy, and even (to a point) Vintage decks that can play around its limitations, and that says as much as its nearly $200 price tag does.
Constructed: 5
Casual: 4
Limited: 3 (not a great Limited bomb, but it can pay off in the right format)
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 4
We would love more volunteers to help us with our Magic the Gathering Card of the Day reviews. If you want to share your ideas on cards with other fans, feel free to drop us an email. We’d be happy to link back to your blog / YouTube Channel / etc. 😉
Click here to read over 5,000 more MTG Card of the Day Reviews!
Daily Since 2001.
