Today's card of the day is Torpor Orb which is
a two mana artifact that prevents creatures from
triggering enters the battlefield abilities.
With the large number of cards that have effects
related to a creature entering the battlefield
this can disrupt quite a few builds as part of a
sideboard or be used alongside creatures that
normally have a huge penalty. Not having
any other effect is a drawback as it won't
directly move you closer to winning the game,
but it does create some interesting options and
may see some Casual decks built around it.
Overall you can build a deck without entering
the battlefield effects and disrupt opponents by
playing or sideboarding Torpor Orb, though
whether it is worthwhile in competitive formats
remains to be seen.
For Limited there are many cards with enters the
battlefield effects which makes this just as
likely to be a detriment to yourself as any
opponent. You have less control in
designing your deck and passing on decent cards
because they have an opposing effect can only
decrease your chances of winning. In some
situations this will be a card that slows you
down when a simple creature would be more useful
and in others it makes for one of the worst
topdecks possible. An easy pass in Booster
and should be left in the sideboard for Sealed
unless your pool happens to have few or no
creatures with enters the battlefield effects.
Welcome to a new
week of card of the day reviews here at
Pojo.com! We kick start the week with Topor Orb
from New Phyrexia. Torpor Orb is a two generic
cost artifact that says creatures entering the
battlefield do not cause abilities to activate.
The Torpor Orb can be extremely useful. Any ability
that is on the board saying whenever a creature
enters the battlefield, or any creature being
cast that says when it enters the battlefield,
no longer activate. This card can shut down
Pandemonium decks, Blood Seeker and Suture
Priest decks, and even devour decks.
While the Torpor Orb may not necessarily be an every
deck option, it certainly could become side
boarded for many different options.
Without some triggered abilities, either ETB
abilities of creatures or "whenever a creature
enters the battlefield" abilities of other
things, Torpor Orb does absolutely nothing. In
order for this to be worth a card in your deck,
you need to basically build around it, or
possibly sideboard it in against Pandemonium or
Allies. So, what we have here is a combo piece
and nothing more. The power of Torpor Orb,
therefore, is directly dependent on the strength
of the combo you're using it for. Reviewing it,
therefore, is complicated-- I can't talk about
its general uses because there aren't any
outside combos.
If someone built a deck around a Torpor Orb
combo, I could evaluate that, but evaluating
just the Orb is like trying to evaluate motor
oil without being able to talk about the engine.
Motor oil is completely useless without an
engine to put it in, and so is Torpor Orb.
