Magi-Nation Card Review
Orothe
by Kroodhaxthekrood
Rating Scale
Magi-Nation Duel has only one traditional format,
Constructed, where all cards are legal except for a limited few. Cards will be
rated in this context with the rating scale shown below. These grades do not
tell the whole story and should be viewed in the context of the writing which
accompanies them.
1: Unplayable. Actively bad or
detrimental to your board own board in some way.
2: Low-Impact. Not actively bad but
doesn’t do a whole lot.
2.5: A little better than “meh”.
3: Role Player. Cards which are
simply not played as much but either could be good given
support or are at least decent or fun options.
3.5: Very strong with the required
support.
4: Staple. Strong cards which see
lots of play (or should) but are not completely busted.
5: All-star. Practically an
auto-include in most if not all of decks from that region.
Now, on with the show:
Magi
Arosa – 5
Arosa has one of the game’s most powerful and unique
abilities in Shell Game, and this makes her a top-tier choice to build around.
She is currently the best magi in the controlling, relic-heavy Orothe decks
because, when set up, Shell Game creates a massive value and disruption engine
that is very difficult to stop. The combo pieces are Karak Band and Karak
Necklace which cause Shell Game to give Arosa two cards and two energy, and
Orlon’s Ring which gives Arosa even more energy as well as discarding the
creature you just stole (as long as it isn’t Orothe). If you don’t want to
limit yourself to only Orothe spells, you can even swap the Orlong’s Ring out
for the less powerful Corathan. Essentially what this means is Arosa gains huge
amounts of energy every turn, draws tons of cards, and gets to kill a creature
for free every turn. That’s way too much value for most decks to compete with.
Aula, Mindseeker – 3.5
Mindseeker is dual-region, which is inherently busted by
itself, and in the best dual-region combo in the game. She’s a little harmed by
the 4 energize and the two potential drawbacks on her version of Windsight.
First, she is forced to include lots of big spells (Cataclysm and Typhoon
mostly) which takes up deck space. Second, she has the potential to create
awkward situations (like drawing a Tradewinds after using Windsight). Still,
very fun and powerful given the right deck.
Blu – 3
When he was printed, Blu was one of the better setup magi
around. Artifice, it turns out, was a little too powerful so they nerfed it
significantly. Now relegated to one extra card per turn (but without the energy
cost), Blu doesn’t have enough impact as a starter. He’s still fun to play,
allowing you to get value from setting up relics and Hubdra’s Chest for your
next magi, but he doesn’t do enough. Below average starting cards don’t help
either.
Borse – 3.5
Borse is another magi whose power merited errata, but wasn’t
harmed as much as Blu was. Tinker is still the only way to get any weird
combination of relics into play, so he has some serious brewing potential. I
haven’t seen anyone abuse Tinker, but I’m sure it’s possible. The nerf to
Orothean Horn is probably a bigger nerf to Borse than his own errata, but I’ll
discuss that card in its own section. The key with Borse is deck manipulation
such as Orothean Goggles to make combining weird relics a more likely scenario.
Bria – 3.5
Speaking of magi who can combine weird relics together, Bria
can do this as well. She is more consistent than Borse by far but more limited in
scope. Very often you’ll see Bria try to draw cards using guaranteed relics
like Secrets of the Book, but she can do a lot of different things.
Bria, Relic Hunter – 3.5
Limited to Core relics (oh no!), Relic Hunter will still
likely be drawing cards with Secrets of the Book. The Desire/Loss engine is
annoying for your opponent but not backbreaking. Try to get out Hubdra’s Chest
to minimize the impact of Loss.
Brothers of Vengeance – 3
These guys are not terribly competitive, mostly because
taking up two magi slots is a big drawback. Obviously their energy numbers are
great (though six energize for two magi is still low compared to the others).
They have amazing starting cards, and both of their abilities are very strong. We’re
Back is especially compelling but requires you to play out lots of creatures
and lots of relics to make it good. This happens to be the natural play pattern
for River Abaquist as well, so there’s something there. Maybe they’d see play
in relic decks if Arosa wasn’t so busted.
Ebylon – 2.5
Ebylon + Tidal Karak is still one of my favorite combos in
MND. That said, he doesn’t do anything. Sure, Shatterwave lets you kill enemy
relics but that’s very low-impact in general. You don’t even know if there will
be targets for it.
Jaim – 2.5
Another relic magi, Jaim has good energy and starting cards and
the ability to protect his relics from being blown up. That’s pretty cool. For
some reason, they decided to give him a medium-sized drawback to slow him down.
My biggest issue with him is that the Orothe relics aren’t what actually win
you the game. The payoff cards are, and Hubdra’s Chest basically does the job
of Guardian anyway. Not sure what the point of this magi is.
Karse – 3.5
Karse does two things: 1) play Cawh and 2) crush Cald decks
thanks to Vengeance. Orothe is already a much better region than Cald, so let’s
disregard this niche effect. Karse mostly sees play in Cawh decks, since he can
guarantee you draw one of your (probably) three creatures in the entire deck,
so he’s somewhat essential there. On the other hand, Fury is actually a very
strong mechanic. Here’s a list of Orothe and Universal fatties he can discount:
Colossus, Rayje’s Construct, Monarch Hyren, Cawh, Giant Parathin, Megathan,
Monsoon Hyren, Sarazen Guard. Of those, Colossus, Rayje’s Construct, and Giant
Parathin are good while Cawh is its own deck. Sarazen Guard would be an amazing
card as an 8-energy defensive guy that only costs 5. Orothe had more of an
ability to play big fat stompy decks in the past, but Karse can still be a good
magi in that fringe archetype even now.
Kayliel – 2.5
Great starting relic collection. Relic Subversion can be
annoying. The power is there, and can sometimes compensate for her otherwise
below-average flip power, but after that what is she doing? Another in a list
of relic magi with no real plan.
Mobis – 3
Mobis is fine. He has a good chunk of energy and Legacy
gives the next magi a more powerful flip turn. That’s all he does. Mobis + Trug
is not really a thing anymore, but if you then bring out a powerhouse third
magi that’s a really fun way to build a deck.
M’Rika – 4
M’Rika is one of the three pillars of Orothe’s Interchange
decks, along with O’Qua and Shaper’s Apprentice, but even straight-up she’s
pretty good. Basically, she incentivizes you to spend a full 17 energy when she
flips and then Interchange out to a magi with full starting energy who is much
more difficult to kill. This is good even if you’re not looping it, and clearly
strong when you are. The guaranteed Parathin Dream Twist is also interesting in
decks with few creatures. Interchange decks rely on creatures so you don’t
often see Parathin being played there, but in some odd-ball brews, it’s pretty
cool.
O’Qua – 5
Dear God, this magi. Conjure is so stinking powerful. Even
with some of the worst energy numbers in the game, O’Qua manages to perform two
roles better than anyone else. First of all, she’s Orothe’s current best setup
magi as she can simply Conjure out Sea Barl a couple times, draw a bunch of
cards, and then die. Second, specifically in Interchange decks, she can Conjure
out Giant Parathin to switch to M’Rika after spending a bunch of energy
(hopefully) drawing some cards. O’Qua synergizes with most of the good Orothe
creatures, but one I want to mention specifically is Abaquist. Generally,
Abaquist is too much work to be amazing, but when you can Conjure it out at 4
energy, you can start stealing things right away, and that’s awesome.
Orlon – 2.5
Barls and Wellisks are generally good creatures, so
Anti-Magic is a reasonable effect. It basically means your opponent has to play
into the controlling effects they represent or has to kill your card draw Barls
in a fair way. He even starts with a Sea Barl. Still, no one plays him because
10 starting energy is awful. I think giving him more energy would be all he’d
need to see play.
Orthea – 2
Salvage is nice in theory, but it will never trigger. Ever.
Your opponent knows about it and can just attack you or kill all your creatures
first like they were going to do anyway.
Quilla – 5
Ye olde 14/7 magi is just hard to deal with. I’ve said it many
times but those numbers are really, really good. The reason, basically, is that
you’re sacrificing one starting energy to generate two energy per turn above
most magi’s rate of 5. The longer a magi with this sort of advantage can stick
around, the more trouble she’ll cause. Unlike Nar magi whose starting energy
numbers a woefully low, 14/7 characters like Quilla are just fine going first
(though not many of them do). Getting to cherry-pick two Orothe relics is quite
nice as well. Most often you see Orothean Goggles and Hubdra’s Cube starts, but
you can get what you need. Quilla fits into any deck type and will always be
good, even against Sorreah.
Sellia – 4
Good numbers, good cards, good start. Whirlpool isn’t a
power she’ll use every turn, but it does efficiently kill a lot of really good
creatures. Dual-region creatures tend to be powerful because a lot of the cards
that were printed in Nightmare’s Dawn have silly levels of power creep. This
basically means Sellia is a solid choice for any type of Orothe deck.
Shaper’s Apprentice – 3.5
Shaper’s is a personal favorite of mine. At face value he is
the worst of the three Interchange magi because he has the highest costs
associated with him. Dream Twist leaves Shaper’s only one energy to work with
for the turn. In Interchange decks, this isn’t a problem because you can just
keep looping magi to spend as much energy as you can anyway. However, Dream
Twist has the added downside of needing creatures to sacrifice. In Orothe, this
is a real cost because you don’t have access to much creature recursion (except
Corathan). Still, the Interchange engine is quite strong and Shaper’s is the
third piece of its puzzle. The upside is re-buying the Giant Parathin that’s
already in your discard pile from O’Qua’s Conjure earlier. Outside of
Interchange decks, Shaper’s doesn’t see much play in Orothe. For that, head on
over to the Kybar’s Teeth review which will happen in the future.
Voda – 5
The only reason every Orothe deck doesn’t run Voda is
because the best two Orothe decks have their magi locked in. For Relic Control
you have O’Qua, Quilla, Arosa. For Interchange you have O’Qua, M’Rika, Shaper’s
Apprentice. Voda complements Karse and O’Qua/Quilla in Cawh decks and Fattie
decks alike and wins games by himself. Seriously, have you ever faced off
against Voda first? Look at his opener: Play out Coral Hyren and Reef Hyren,
Submerge the Coral Hyren, Deluge the Coral Hyren, keep 3 energy on his face. Before
you’ve had the chance to do anything, you’re facing off against an active Reef
Hyren and a 12-energy Coral Hyren. The worst part is that’s 100% consistent. Even
Tiller has an extremely small chance not to find Forest Hyren on the opening
turn. Voda just has it. Backed by all the Orothe control options available to
him, Voda will usually not lose control of his Deluge, so good luck. As long as
he keeps your board in check he’s a 14/9 magi. Remember how I said 14/7 was
good? Yeah…
Voice of the Storm – 5
This is one of the most busted magi in the game. First of
all, we have the best possible dual-region combination so already she is great.
Second, her energy numbers are solid. Third, Hurricane Orish is a strong card
and the ability to cherry pick any Arderial or Orothe relic makes her more
flexible than Dhalsim from Street Fighter. If that was it she’d still be a 4.
Diplomacy, however, is incredibly powerful and will save metric tons of energy
over the course of her time in play. It was even better before errata, when she
could double dip on the discount.
Whall – 1
Thank heaven 2i printed Shaper’s Apprentice because regular
Whall is the pits. 10/5? Are you kidding me? His Dream Twist costs his entire
energize! And it doesn’t even let the creature attack, where Shaper’s does. You
still have to discard a creature as part of Dream Twist’s cost. But wait, where
are you getting this creature? You have precisely no extra energy to spend on
it and your opponent killed all your stuff on their turn. This guy stinks.
Magi: TLDR
5
Arosa
O’Qua
Quilla
Voda
Voice of the Storm
4
M’Rika
Sellia
3.5
Aula, Mindseeker
Borse
Bria
Bria, Relic Hunter
Karse
Shaper’s Apprentice
3
Blu
Brothers of Vengeance
Mobis
2.5
Ebylon
Jaim
Kayliel
Orlon
2
Orthea
1
Whall
Creatures
Abaquist – 3
Possess is great when you can use it. Stealing stuff is
twice as good as killing it, after all. The problem with Abaquist is that it
takes real work to pump him up. Orothe doesn’t get that sort of thing for free,
like Naroom does. Basically you’re only playing this if you have O’Qua (you
probably do), and not even all the O’Qua decks will run it.
Allio – 2
When the hell are you ever getting a payoff from Douse?
First, you have to face down a Cald deck (slim chance) or a Granas (better
chance). Second, they have to play into it! They won’t. It’s not actively bad
but it’s close.
Blue Yajo – 3
This unassuming guy is some secret tech in Arosa decks since
it can’t attack and you can sort-of give it to your opponent without a drawback.
The thing is, you have to find a way to damage it a little first or they’ll
just use Strengthen and you’ll be sad. It does survive a decent percentage of
the time, since it’s big and has Weave and you’re probably controlling them to
begin with, so needing to be in play before the Attack Step is actually a
reasonable ask on this card, unlike most others with similar text. Also,
three-for-six is quite a good pump effect. Even with all that, most people
don’t bother with this card.
Bog Wellisk – 4
I like free stuff, don’t you? Seriously, your opponent
doesn’t know you have this unless they’ve looked at your hand, and relics are
good so lots of decks play them. When they do: gotcha! You don’t see a lot of
these played in Orothe either, but it’s super-duper solid.
Bubble Xyx – 2.5
Formerly a 5, the errata hit this guy pretty hard. Burst is
a very good power. Drawing one card in Magi-Nation is roughly worth two energy,
so drawing three cards is roughly worth six energy and Burst allows you to do
it for effectively four. That’s a big deal. The fact that it has to survive and
can no longer be copied with Sorreah’s Dream brings this guy down quite a bit.
Bwill – 2
Power creep was not kind to thee, oh noblest of shellfish. Back
in Unlimited, when direct damage was rare, decks would have to spend a real
card to kill a Bwill. Not anymore.
Cawh – 3.5
There is no way to break this card. Whatever degenerate
nonsense you’re thinking of, it doesn’t work. Still, this guy is a whole
sub-archetype all on its own. With the dubious honor of being the single
biggest creature in all of MND, and quite difficult to kill as well, Cawh is
much talked about, at least in my own circles growing up. There’s always a home
for this kind of muscle. Heck, my brother even played one of these in Naroom with
Yaki, Core Stalker and had Overgrowth and pre-errata Shadow Rain when he was
done with the Cawh. Sometimes bigger is better.
Coral Hyren – 3.5
Orothe decks are not known for playing tons of spells, otherwise
Spelltap would be a nightmare. There’s plenty of room to build around a
creature with a powerful effect like this, and obviously Voda makes it insane.
Coral Pyder – 3
I’ve written in another region review that 3 is my rating
for “this does some stuff and I have no idea what to do with it”. That’s pretty
much the case here.
Corf – 2.5
I love this creature. Look at it. It’s a magical dream
lobster wearing a wizard hat! As far as game rules go, it’s pretty bad. Final
Blow is always card disadvantage, and kind-of requires you to make bad attacks
to activate Final Blow. It’s still removal, but it’s bad removal.
Deep Barl – 3.5
This card has high upside. Oddly enough, the Weave magi
Scyalla is the one most likely to use it though (I’ll go over that in her
entry). What Deep Barl wants to do is Consume creatures who have used up most
of their energy with powers or in attacks, converting them into cards. In
practice, this happens less often than you’d want but it’s still very strong.
Deep Hyren – 3.5
This thing needs specifically Orothean Gloves to make it
good, because then it can survive to discard itself to Hurricane’s second cost.
Hurricane really only needs two creatures to become very good, since you’re
hitting their magi as well. Obviously against another Orothe deck it does worse
than nothing, but you’re not jamming three of these into your deck. Probably
only the one copy.
Deep Wellisk – 3
That errata is serious business. “Your cards cannot increase
Deep Wellisk’s energy total”. Still, Deep Wellisk is a decent control card that
stops relics before they get a chance to use them.
Giant Parathin – 5
Interchange on Giant Parathin is one of the more powerful
abilities in the game and leads to some pretty silly decks, most obviously the
Orothe Interchange staple. Without this card, the entire archetype doesn’t
exist. Other regions can also do dumb combo stuff with GP, and as a leading
contributor of degenerate stuff in MND, the big turtle gets a 5.
Grotto Phrup – 3
My favorite card nickname goes to the Ghetto Phrup right
here. Another tool Orothe has at its disposal, Ghetto Phrup’s niche is in allowing
you access to whatever they hit with Rayje’s Belt while shutting off their
other relics for a turn in the transaction. Yes, you can simply destroy their
Belt to turn it off, but this goes wider than that. As a one-of it’s pretty
interesting.
Hunter Jile – 2.5
Now this is a region hoser. As long as you have the board
under control, Drench will be backbreaking for virtually any Core deck. Hunter
Jile also has the secondary mode of just being a decent-sized guy they can’t deal
with except by attacking it. Still, it’s a region hoser and therefore narrow as
heck.
Hurricane Orish – 4
This guy is a big deal. There’s not a single competitive
deck in the game that doesn’t play Relics or Spells, meaning Spell Drain will
often trigger at least once. If it ever triggers twice, this guy more than pays
for itself. The real bonus is that a five-energy creature is big enough to
merit a serious resource commitment to actually kill, meaning that trigger is
all the more likely to happen. Also, VotS.
Husp – 1
Awful, awful card. Would you like to discard 4 energy to
look through your opponent’s deck? And not impact the board at all? No? Me
neither. There are even plenty of decks where this might help them! It’s too
bad because it looks so cool.
Iceberg Hyren – 3.5
At face value, this card is fine. They can’t really attack
into it so they’ll have to find another way around it. Orothe has Will of
Orothe to make them attack into it. That’s a lot cheaper than doing the same
thing with a Cawh. This interaction probably won’t come up much, but the card
is just fine on its own.
Iximin – 4
A fine creature. Nothing much to say about Spite other than,
it does what it says and that’s pretty good.
Karak – 2.5
Steal won’t last very long, because it’s not hard to kill a
3-energy creature. There are much better ways for Orothe to deal with opposing
relics.
Malevolent Corf – 2
Only because it has a cool tattoo. Seriously, even against
Orothe, what does this card really do?
Megathan – 2.5
Big, dumb guy with a minimal effect.
Monsoon Hyren – 3
Ravaging Storm costs 9 which means you need two other
creatures in play to Ebb from. Actually using Ravaging Storm requires three or
more enemy creatures with 4 energy or less. There are lots of conditions here,
and quite honestly you’re probably better off using a Deep Hyren in 90% of
cases. The times where the direct discard matters are against Treepsh or
Burrow, which are very common in their respective regions, so it’s not like Monsoon
Hyren has no upside, but it’s pretty conditional and fiddly.
Nalo – 3
Nalo is a smaller Deep Hyren which is not really as good,
but is just fine if you’re in the market for such things. At least it doesn’t
need support.
Orathan – 3
This guys is just fine. It never does anything exciting, and
I mean never, but it’s all right. What that means is it meets the bar for
starting cards being included in a deck but really not much more than that.
Orpus – 2.5
Nice in theory but they can just kill it.
Paralit – 2
This card is actually interesting, but just doesn’t have
much of an impact. The drawback makes it so that if you have two other
creatures in play you’re only breaking even on energy and it’ll kill your
Phrups right off. It seems like a small cost but it’s actually very real,
basically requiring a creatureless strategy to be decent. Orothe doesn’t really
do creatureless decks.
Parathin – 3
What a weird ability. Only useful in a quirky deck, but
really cool. The thing is you want to virtually guarantee a specific result out
of this Dream Twist. Something very big and splashy and perhaps not in Orothe.
Pearl Hyren – 2.5
Hoard doesn’t even punish Vaporize or other forms of mass
relic destruction, which I have serious problems with. It doesn’t punish Rayje’s
Belt shutting down one of your relics because it names the ability and doesn’t
choose the relic. Jealousy is both conditional and minimal. I don’t like this
card and it could have been really cool.
Phrup – 4
Time Lapse lets you stop the worst thing your opponent can
do to you. It’s an effective protection tool and becomes part of the Orothe
control puzzle in combination with other controlling effects.
Platheus – 3
Soporific gets pretty great with Orothean Gloves and it’s a
decent little control ability even at face value. It’s never very good like
some of the other tools Orothe has access to, but it’s decent.
Porphin – 2.5
I wish this didn’t discard itself, because since it does,
you’re basically looking at a 3-energy way to attack big creatures down in a
relic deck. Except you can just play removal spells for much less hassle.
Reef Hyren – 5
Rebuke is so annoying. This is probably the most powerful
and obnoxious of Orothe’s control effects, mostly because it’s repeatable. This
card is my pick for best Orothe creature and I honestly don’t know why more
decks don’t play it. It’s mystifying to me. Unless you’re in a Fatty/Cawh deck
that might not have access to energy reserves to make use of Rebuke, you should
be playing this card.
River Abaquist – 3.5
The perfect 3.5 ability: requires some setup, including
building your deck with a good balance of creatures and relics and the ability
to keep your relics in play, but the payoff is very strong. Dreamwarp also
means that this guy really only costs 2 energy unless you want it to actually
be a body, in which case it can be 2, 3, or 4 energy as meets your needs best.
Saladarit – 3
Guard is a powerful defensive ability that your opponent can
play around 100% of the time by not attacking your thing or simply by killing
it with spells and powers. In practice, you probably don’t have time for this.
Sarazen Guard – 3
This card is too expensive, and that’s really the only
drawback. Protect means they have to attack into your big creature first, or
they’ll end up doing that at the cost of a card anyway, so it’s basically
always going to be a meat shield. It’s just too big to be played normally. Then
again, there’s a Fattie deck somewhere out there.
Sarazen Keeper – 2
This card asks too much of you and will therefore never do
anything. You have to have 12 energy cost worth of creatures (unless you’re
splashing for the Outcast in which case it’s still 10) to draw a card from
Strength in Union. Never happening. Forged Alliance requires this plus a hyren,
which is more doable but you’re probably only getting one energy onto itself.
Big deal.
Sea Barl – 5
Every Orothe deck runs 3 copies because Lore is one of the
better ways to draw cards after all the erratas hit the game. Pretty
self-explanatory there. The best decks also find ways to use the 1-energy body
that’s left over after it uses Lore. For example, Arosa can give it away with
Shell Game. It isn’t doing anything. Discard it to the cost of another
creature’s power, like a Deep Hyren say. Decks that can find a use for the leftovers
can really milk a lot of value out of this creature.
Seaweed Lascinth – 3
This is a mean attacker in a region not really focused on
attacking things until they die. However, Reflexes is always, always good if
this thing survives the round, and Weave even helps it do that a little better
than average.
Sphor – 4
I don’t know how many times I’ve heard the phrase, “And my
Sphor gains an energy” over kitchen table games of MND. Scavenge triggers when
anything happens. Phrup. Wellisk. Leftover Sea Barl dies. Orlon’s Ring kills
something Arosa just stole. Deep Hyren. River Abaquist. Regular Abaquist. All
the things I just mentioned are good cards you should probably be putting in
your decks and Sphor triggers on all of them, as well as a host of other Orothe
cards as well as just having things die to attacks. Normally a 3.5 is the
rating I give cards that need other things to be good, but the sheer breadth of
activators for Scavenge means that it’ll always just happen through the course
of normal play. You don’t have to put in any extra work here.
Spray Narth – 3.5
Unlike in Arderial, where you can sort-of play this in a
normal deck, mono-Orothe decks don’t have time for this because splashing
Pharan isn’t great. However, the Arderial/Orothe dual-region deck is still a
very real thing and this is an auto-include in there.
Surf Diel – 2
They’ll kill this little bugger before Comb the Beach ever
triggers. That means, it’s a 3.5-level anti-Cald tool and the narrow nature of
this combined with the condition of “before the Attack Step” means on the whole
I’d give it a 2.
Sylorum – 3
Here’s what Sylorum can reasonably pay for with Relic
Affinity: Hubdra’s Spear, Orathan Amulet, Book of Ages, Dream Balm, Forgotten
Dancer, Gauntlets of Colossal Power, and Mirror Pendant. I might be missing
something here, and I didn’t check Arderial for the dual-region deck, but that’s
all right to be getting on with. If you’re planning on making heavy use out of
any of those relics, Sylorum can be like making a down payment. Energizing
creatures are pretty good in general because free energy is always good. This
dude is a tad on the expensive side of things, but there’s some room to
experiment with. It’ll never be a top-tier card but it’s fun.
Tidal Karak – 2
Same problem as regular Karak: they’ll just kill it, coupled
with the less useful “non-Universal” and “discard pile” means this card is bad.
Like I said earlier though, I love the combo with Ebylon, another bad card.
Weethan – 2
Too small to matter much. They’ll just kill it and then draw
a bunch of cards and you’ll be sad.
Wellisk – 4
Shockwave is good right? This costs 2 less. Sure, they can
kill it but then they had to spend their time doing so. Got worse when Crushing
spells hit the market but that’s what Phrup is for. This is another good piece
in the Orothe control game.
Wellisk Pup – 3
Erratic Shield is good 67% of the time and when it’s bad
you’re only out 2 energy. Their creature still had to attack it, so it’s not
like it can attack again this turn. Better than it might look. Still not
amazing or anywhere in that neighborhood. Sort of hilarious with Orlon.
Creatures: TLDR
5
Giant Parathin
Reef Hyren
Sea Barl
4
Bog Wellisk
Hurricane Orish
Iximin
Phrup
Sphor
Wellisk
3.5
Cawh
Coral Hyren
Deep Barl
Deep Hyren
Iceberg Hyren
River Abaquist
Spray Narth
3
Abaquist
Blue Yajo
Coral Pyder
Deep Wellisk
Monsoon Hyren
Nalo
Orathan
Platheus
Saladarit
Sarazen Guard
Seaweed Lascinth
Sylorum
Wellisk Pup
2.5
Bubble Xyx
Corf
Hunter Jile
Karak
Megathan
Orpus
Pearl Hyren
Porphin
2
Allio
Bwill
Paralit
Sarazen Keeper
Surf Diel
Tidal Karak
Weethan
1
Husp
Relics
Barqua’s Bubble – 4
This is one of the game’s premier defensive relics, as it
can shut down an endless list of things. You’ll definitely want one in your
control decks, if not two. It’s expensive and a bit unwieldy with the shuffling
back in, otherwise it would get a 5.
Corf Pearl – 2
Wow. A 50-50 chance to not screw me over.
Horn of Renewal – 2
All this does is basically let you try and refill after they
Vaporize you. That’s very thin. If it let you refill your deck with Warrior’s
Boots this card would be pretty cool. It doesn’t.
Hubdra’s Chest – 3.5
The treasure chest does two things for you. Lock Box (this
card was printed shortly after the Gore v. Bush election and Lock Box was a
pretty big joke on SNL) is relatively inconsequential but is a small punish
against single-target relic removal like Relic Stalker, Raxis, or Oranragan. We
can mostly ignore this ability, as it doesn’t come up. What you’re playing
Chest for is Safe Deposit, allowing a magi to set up a ton of Orothe relics and
perform economic suicide (a term coined in the old-school Prima strategy
guide), which is finding a way to kill your own magi so you control the terms
of the flip. In other words, it allows your deck to play one-of copies of all
your important relics but make use of them on two different magi. That’s a big
deal for relic decks and means this is a must in those styles of deck. It gets
a 3.5 because obviously it doesn’t do anything unless you have a bunch of other
relics.
Hubdra’s Cube – 5
Hubdra made some pretty nice relics and but this one takes
the cake. I can’t think of a single Orothe deck that doesn’t run at least one
of this card, if not two. I don’t think any run three, but it’s a relic.
Three-of relics are quite rare to begin with. I’ve said before that stealing
something is twice as good as killing it and Cube applies that concept to
relics. The best part about this card is it’s 100% free of charge.
Hubdra’s Spear – 4
Stab is an expensive power but it has the potential to kill
magi out of nowhere. Orothe has some other ways to deal direct damage to a
magi, but you can also just use removal spells and powers on all their
creatures in the first PRS Step and attack them to death. You don’t even have
to kill them with Stab for it to be good. Just having the conditional ability
to take a big chunk of energy away from them is pretty great.
Karak Band – 3.5
Before the errata, this relic led to some really broken
stuff, netting about an energize worth of energy on multiple turns over the
course of a game. Even at once per turn it’s very nice. River Abaquist costs 2
once you’re set up, and this gives you back 2. Obviously it’s nuts with Arosa
because she’ll automatically trigger Acquisition every turn thanks to Shell
Game. If your deck doesn’t have many theft abilities in it this card isn’t
worth the slot, so it’s mostly only seen in Arosa or other relic-based
strategies.
Karak Ink – 3
This is the least powerful Karak relic, but only because you’d
really want access to Cloud against the opponent’s setup magi and there’s no
way to guarantee drawing it outside of starting with Quilla which most decks
don’t want to do. When you can play it in a good spot, Cloud is quite strong
and definitely worth the 1 energy cost. It’s just not going to happen every
game.
Karak Necklace – 3.5
See Karak Band. The trigger condition is the same, as is the
errata which makes it once per turn. None for You gives this relic additional
upside against enemy Orothe or Core decks which tend to steal a lot of your
stuff, and that’s a really big swing.
Orathan Amulet – 2.5
Before Daybreak, this card was a meme. There were only 2 Orathans
and the Flyer already has an energize of 2. Arderial/Orothe decks just have
better stuff to do. Gets a little better after Daybreak. Still kind-of a meme.
Orlon’s Ring – 3.5
Purity rings are very good overall and this is probably the
best one. In any Orothe relic deck it’s generating tons of energy, which means
your magi can safely spend a ton and not worry so much about conserving some in
case of death. In Arosa decks, this is also a zero-energy removal spell you get
every turn. Like some of the other relics on this list, it’s a 3.5 rating
because you need to set it up. The payoff is outstanding though.
Orothean Belt – 3.5
Hydromancy is a very nice effect with very little support.
Submerge is the only reasonable Orothe spell that adds energy. It is a good
one, but playing a support card that only affects up to three other cards in
your deck isn’t great. If you’re playing this card, you need to be running
either Heal or Voice of the Storms, because Hydromancy will trigger separately
on each creature you spread the boosts to. That can be an amazing combo but
does require you build a bit differently than you see a lot of the time.
Orothean Gloves – 2.5
Useful in combination with specific creatures, the best of
which is certainly Deep Hyren. It can also (maybe) let your Sea Barl use Lore
twice, but your opponent probably won’t allow that sort of nonsense. A list of
other things it benefits: Blue Yajo, Monsoon Hyren, Platheus, Saladarit, Bubble
Xyx, Karak, and Tidal Karak. These creatures are all aggressively medium or
worse, which is the main issue with Orothean Gloves. Unlike the Belt, it
doesn’t have an incredible upside either.
Orothean Goggles – 5
Every magi will benefit from having this card in play as
Foresight smooths out your draw for the turn. If you’re drawing extra cards,
you can use it to see what you’ll have access to right away. It also synergizes
with the few other abilities that let you reveal the top X cards of your deck,
making it a little bit more likely to hit what you want. It’s also an Orothe
relic for everything that cares about how many of those you have in play. The
reason this gets a 5 and not a 4 is that you’re going to be doing this for free
turn after turn and it often slides somewhat under the radar compared to other
things you’re doing to your opponent. Your opponent will usually feel bad about
committing energy or even a Relic Stalker to killing this card, because it’s
not really affecting the board at all. All in all, this is one of the subtle
reasons Orothe control decks can be as good as they are.
Orothean Horn – 1
Boy was this card good before errata. This was the reason an
Orothe Fatty deck was powerful back in the day, because you could look for
something with Goggles and then get a free Colossus or whatever. Now that the
creature can’t attack at all, you have to be doing something incredibly wacky
to even consider plaything with this card in your 40 and even then it’s
probably not worth it. You can’t get a Cawh. You have to run a high
concentration of big stuff for Call of the Sea to have a good chance at hitting
something. It’s just too bad now.
Parathin Shell – 3
I don’t like that this costs 3. At 2 I would be really
excited about it (probably). Barqua’s Bubble this ain’t.
Sphor Charm – 2
For this card to be good you have to pack your deck full of
Parathin Shells or Vault of Knowledge Keys or whatever. Half the 2-cost relics
are better in play than when discarded to Resourceful. I love this idea but it
just doesn’t get there.
The Last Words – 1
This stops you from being able to use Hubdra’s Spear or
Maelstrom or even Implosion on a magi. These are Orothe’s main ways of killing
a magi and Orothe traditionally has no problem controlling the board. Unlike in
Cald where the power can make up for the drawback some of the time, in Orothe
this card is a trap.
Vault of Knowledge Key – 2.5
Get out your magnifying glass friends. There’s a lot of text
on this one. Let’s deal with one effect at a time. We can generally disregard
the nameless effect since it doesn’t ever come up though it does mean Qwade
can’t play this with Agram’s Staff and it also means you don’t want to put it
in decks with Storm of Fishes or Riptide. Animite Infusion lets you double up
on relic powers once and then discard those relics after. The only thing I’ve
ever seen this card duplicate is a Mirror Pendant, letting O’Qua use Conjure
three times in a turn for tons of energy. That deck was a weird version of
Interchange that would apply the Will of Orothe + Entangle lock, Burrow a Giant
Parathin, and make all their creatures attack it to essentially wipe the board
every turn. It was incredibly difficult to pilot correctly and way too
complicated but it was pretty sweet. I only mention it because it’s the only
time I’ve ever seen a Vault of Knowledge Key in play. Archive has a little more
utility, allowing you to turn other relics into additional copies of Warrior’s
Boots or whatever, especially in combination with Animite Infusion. The thing
is, typically you play relics because you want to keep them in play and use
them so this is only marginally useful. This relic is a shame, as Orothe is the
“big relic region” and I wish it had access to a win-condition-like relic. This
would have been it but it really doesn’t do much.
Relics: TLDR
5
Hubdra’s Cube
Orothean Goggles
4
Barqua’s Bubble
Hubdra’s Spear
3.5
Hubdra’s Chest
Karak Band
Karak Necklace
Orlon’s Ring
Orothean Belt
3
Karak Ink
Parathin Shell
2.5
Orothean Gloves
Vault of Knowledge Key
2
Corf Pearl
Horn of Renewal
Sphor Charm
1
Orothean Horn
The Last Words
Spells
Boil – 2
This card is pretty bad unfortunately. At face value, you’re
probably losing energy. They’d need six creatures in play for me not to be sad,
and that pretty much only happens on a flip turn if ever. Yes, it’s good
against Orothe and destroys Bograth, but most decks don’t have room for a hoser
card they can’t make use of in situations where it isn’t good. Cald being able
to play it doesn’t really matter either, because they have Wildfire.
Crushing Surf – 4
I’ll say it once per review, but Crushing spells are good
and they warp the game around them. This card is quite good. It’s medium-sized
removal, controls enemy relics, and triggers your Karak Band and Karak
Necklace. Even if you don’t have those relics in play, this card is a casual
three-for-one.
Curse of the Abaquist – 3.5
This is a great one-of spell. It’s powerful and you’re not
really losing out on card economy since stealing their creature is already a
two-for-one. You don’t want too many of the Curse because it’s pretty
situational. Orothe doesn’t have too much access to growth effects. This is
another fantastic reason to put Sphor in your decks though.
Entangle – 3
An annoying piece of disruption that most decks don’t
utilize because it’s somewhat inefficient (3 energy plus a card, passive rather
than active). You have to be winning to make Entangle useful, but it can lock
people out. In casual games of MND a turn is not a big deal, but at the
competitive level that should be enough time to get a lot accomplished. Also
some Interchange decks have the ability to loop this with Will of Orothe but
that’s pretty difficult to pull off.
Implosion – 2.5
An inefficient way to damage magi is still a way to damage
magi. I’ve died to this card lots of times. That said, it is very inefficient
and most decks would rather splash for a Maelstrom and pay the one extra
energy. Mostly played because O’Qua starts with one if you want her to.
Owinda’s Gift – 3.5
I’m amazed they printed this card the way they did. Four
cards? Incredible. Post errata, we’re looking at a medium-power Gift spell. You
probably want to be returning your used-up Sea Barls to hand, but there’s also
Phrup, a Deep Wellisk that has activated once, or a free Bog Wellisk.
Pillar of Brine – 2.5
It’s cheap enough for the effect. The question is when is
this a useful effect, and the answer is not often.
Possession’s Glee – 1
This card is the most win-more card I can imagine. Look, you
already stole their guy. Play actual good cards instead of trying to swing the
game this hard. Having dead draws in MND is pretty awful. It’s bad in most card
games but when the decks have much less variance what do you want to introduce
a bunch of it for? Submerge is almost as good a rate as this card anyway.
Ripcurl – 4
That’s a big swing. Four energy for eight energy worth of
stuff. This is a good card that I’ve never seen played. It probably should see
more play than it does.
Ripple – 2
This card is way too fiddly for comprehension and has a
pretty small effect to begin with. Even if you’re messing around with Orothean
Belt this card is too wonky.
Riptide – 3.5
This is a very powerful control tool and doesn’t cost you
much at 2 energy. I see two homes for it. The first would be some sort of “fair”
deck that doesn’t plan on drawing tons of cards and is content with the normal
two per turn (maybe Fatties). The second would be in a deck that can dump its
whole hand on a magi flip and then try to ice the game with a Riptide (Orothean
Belt decks or some versions of Interchange).
Shell – 3
Here’s another reason you don’t see Entangle that much
anymore. This card accomplishes a similar task, also protects against hand
discard (which is relatively rare I’ll admit), and is one energy cheaper. You
can’t loop it turn after turn like you can with Entangle, but if you’re just
using it to protect your post-flip board for a turn, that’s pretty good. Post
errata they can still Ormagon you but you’ve got Reef Hyren or Phrup or Wellisk
right? Also, Shell doesn’t stop enemies from doing their own thing with spells
and magi powers, it just protects yours.
Spirit of Orothe – 4
This is one of the better Spirit spells. If you notice,
Orothean Goggles and Hubdra’s Cube both received stellar ratings and the flexibility
to choose any Orothe creature in your discard pile (because you have to pick
from there first and if one of your magi is dead, there’s at least one creature
in there) is quite nice as well. None of those cards are even limited by deck
type. This is also probably just a strict upgrade going into Quilla.
Storm of Fishes – 3.5
If you can build your deck without spells or without relics,
this card can be a big deal. Even in a normal deck, you can just play out all
your relics before choosing relics and you can make this a one-sided effect. Same
goes for spells but that’s a bit more difficult to pull off because spells
actually cost energy.
Submerge – 3
It’s not as common as a starting card as Arbolit or Shooting
Star, but several Orothe magi do start with this card. It’s a good card too,
just not incredible.
Tidal Wave – 3.5
It’s expensive but it does the job. This card wants you to
play Robes of the Ages. Also, unless you’re playing a dual-region magi, this
card is strictly better than splashing Shockwave. Even when Awakening was the
new hotness I saw Orothe decks splashing Shockwave a decent amount. Between
this and Undertow you should never splash Shockwave in your Orothe decks. Hitting
two things happens very rarely but it’s nice to have the option.
Typhoon – 2
Imagine if you roll a 1. Now understand the fact that unless
you’re rolling a 5-6 you’d probably be much happier with a Deep Hyren. Typhoon
is just so expensive. That’s why I’ve only ever seen this card in decks with
Aula, Mindseeker since she can draw 4 cards by discarding it.
Undertow – 4
In 9 of 10 scenarios, this card is better than Shockwave in
pure Orothe decks. The only time shuffling something back into their deck is
bad is when they have tutor effects like Hyren’s Call/Nocturne or O’Qua’s
Conjure (only in Interchange). Shuffling back is even a bonus against discard
pile-centric decks like some versions of d’Resh. Even if they draw the creature
again, they still have to spend the energy to play it.
Will of Orothe – 3.5
This card is expensive but its effect is undeniably
powerful. Because it’s so expensive, you mostly see it played in Interchange
decks that have the ability to use multiple magi worth of energy in a single
turn. Even in those decks, you still need some way to create bad attacks for
them to make. This can lock players out of the game though, especially when
combined with Entangle. Unlike Entangle, this can also just dominate the board
for a big swing. Be careful playing this card against Paradwyn because of Spell
Pulse.
Spells: TLDR
5
N/A
4
Crushing Surf
Ripcurl
Spirit of Orothe
Undertow
3.5
Curse of the Abaquist
Owinda’s Gift
Riptide
Storm of Fishes
Tidal Wave
Will of Orothe
3
Entangle
Shell
Submerge
2.5
Implosion
Pillar of Brine
2
Boil
Ripple
Typhoon
1
Possession’s Glee
Find all the regional reviews on the Magi-Nation Duel hub page. Swim with Orothe, or the fishes!
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