Orim’s Chant – Planeshift
Date Reviewed: May 23, 2024
Ratings:
Constructed: 4
Casual: 4
Limited: 3.25
Multiplayer: 3.88
Commander [EDH]: 4.13
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Way back when a bigger proportion of white’s spells made Nothing happen than they do now, the gap between the most and least powerful could be downright immense. For maybe every ten “prevent 2 damage” effects, you got an Orim’s Chant, which was and is cheap enough and versatile enough to lock opponents out of the game when used correctly. You can use it on offense, after a fashion, as it will get you an extra turn in a damage race, and sometimes more than one given that anything they’re prevented from casting won’t have an impact for at least one extra turn. We think of Mirrodin as being from an entirely different era because of the new card face, but it’s easy to forget that it was actually close enough that Orim’s Chant was the first thing many people thought of when they saw Isochron Scepter. I think it has a chance to make a comeback in Modern; you do see the “evergreen” version (Silence) occasionally in both Modern and Pioneer, and the extra you get from the kicked version adds a little appeal to it.
Constructed: 4
Casual: 4
Limited: 3
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4
Telling opponents “no” has always been an effect that, when used carefully, can swing a game open. On its own, a card like Orim’s Chant is a minor nuisance…but it can also be used as a way to buy time and space if your opponent has a developed board already. One thing to note here is that Orim’s Chant targets a player to block spells from, but the creature attacking freeze is in effect for all players if kicked.
Orim’s Chant does two things in one card, and role compression has always been valuable. It’s even only one mana, which is usually more of a boon than anything else. The only real hole it has is that activated abilities and triggers can still happen, but the decks that want this can usually finagle ways to deal with the other things just fine. It also makes for a fun pairing with Isochron Scepter; if you have the mana to kick it, you can make sure opponents have a Very Fun Time for the rest of the game at only three mana per turn.
Orim’s Chant has a dearth of printings outside of its original outing, and this also marks its debut in Modern with the upcoming Modern Horizons III printing. I don’t know where it’s going to settle in the format; it’s a general upgrade to Silence, which sees play in Modern already, and it does see Legacy play. It’s not strictly better than Silence, thanks to “target player”, but there’s definitely space for this to be a very annoying part of the format it’s joining.
Constructed: 4
Casual: 4
Limited: 3.5 (can buy you a turn, but you need the board to capitalize on the space it creates)
Multiplayer: 3.75
Commander [EDH]: 4.25
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