Fellwar Stone as a land? Bizarro-Reflecting
Pool? Uh, okay? Granted, it could produce any
color of land, but you don't know which colors
when you choose to put it in your deck! This
thing thrives in an environment of 5-color,
which we're in now, but if you're not 5-color,
there's too much risk that this won't tap for a
color you need when you need it. And if you play
it in your 5-color deck and get matched up with
a monocolor deck, well, you kinda got screwed.
In today's environment, there's just better
lands available.
Constructed- 2
Casual- 2,5
Limited- 1.5
Aethereal
Wednesday - Exotic Orchard
The land version of Fellwar Stone. Fellwar Stone
has never been a bad card, but there has usually
been better stuff available (most recently the
Ravnica block Signets). Like its older brother,
Exotic Orchard is not bad, there's just better
choices available in the form of Reflecting Pool
and Vivid lands. This might see more play when
those cycle out, but for now, I wouldn't expect
it.
In limited, same. You don't have much control
over what color(s) it can produce.
Constructed - 2
Casual - 2.5
Limited - 2
David Fanany
Player since
1995
Exotic Orchard
Fellwar Stone was always one of my favorite
cards. I still play with it occasionally in
random casual decks. Exotic Orchard is an
interesting twist on the concept. On the one
hand, your opponent will almost always have
lands, and in the modern Standard many of those
lands will be able to produce any color. On the
other hand, that means you can play your own
Vivid lands, which will produce a similar effect
more reliably. Still, it doesn't cost you spell
space like Fellwar Stone does, and it is capable
of color-fixing under at least some
circumstances, which cannot be dismissed.
Constructed: 2/5
Casual: 3/5
Limited: 2/5
Miguel
Wednesday 2-11-09
Exotic Orchard
Constructed:
This is a great card. Turn your opponents Vivid
lands into your own. This can really help or
hurt mana fixing for most decks. But for
Standard most players play at least 2 colors,
except Red maybe. We will see how much play this
card will get.
Casual:
Great for multi-player games, you will always
have the mana you will need. But most players
around my parts stay with good old basic lands.
Limited:
It can be a really great card or just another
generic land. Shards and Conlfux is one limited
format that picking up mana fixing is top
priority. If your are going 3 or more colors
than this will be a top pick. But I will still
get a good removal or creature spell if there
was one.
This land isn't quite a Reflecting Pool, but
it's still nice. It will ALWAYS produce mana
(except the first trn, when you play first)
unlike Reflecting Pool. The downside though, is
that you are at the mercy of your opponent to
give you the colors you need/want.
Oddly, this land is almost better when you can
predict the metagame a bit. It's going to be
great in an environment with lots of five color
decks. It can also be good when you are playing
1-2 colors shared among the most popular deck in
your area.
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 2
Limited: 1.5
Ricky
Riles
Exotic Orchard
This card could be real big or make no impact at
all. It's just one of those cards.
At first glance I love the card. I really do. I
run 5 Color Control as my maindeck right now in
type-2, so this is going to help me in many
ways. Since I run five colors, anything they
have is going to help me. So that's great,
right?
Well, maybe.
On the other hand, you'd only run this card in a
deck that plays several colors, possibly all
five colors. When you run five colors, what you
look for in a mana-base is consistency. The key
to running a five color deck is a consistent
mana base. If you struggle just to get the
needed mana to play your cards you'll never win
consistently with the deck.
This card is anything but consistent.
It's matchup dependent. Sometimes it'll give you
exactly the mana you want, other times you'll be
disappointed. For instance, I run 5 Color
Control; however, I don't run many black cards.
In fact, I run so few black cards that I don't
have any dedicated black-mana-producing lands. I
just run Vivid lands and Reflecting Pool to get
what I want.
But what if I get Exotic Orchard heavy draws and
my opponent is playing mono-B? Or even BG, BR.
These aren't the primary colors in my deck. This
would cause the Orchards to only tap for mana
that I don't really want. Of course, this is
just an example.
With so many other great lands in standard right
now, is it worth the trouble?
Maybe. It all depends.
That's the difference I've noticed between M:TG
and Yu-Gi-Oh! When I reviewed cards for Pojo's
Yu-Gi-Oh! Site years ago, the reviews were
simple. If a card was good, it was good. If it
was bad, bad. Because there were so few decks
that were viable in competitive play, the card
choices were easy.
Not so much in M:TG. This card can be good in
some places and bad in others.
