Ever hear someone wax poetic about a card and just think, “Really?” I’m that way with Coiling Oracle. Everyone and their kid sister seems to think that it’s amazing in ETB decks, but as an avowed ETB connoiseur, I’m not impressed. Paying two mana to either draw a card or put a land into play is merely average, and when that mana has to be UG, the luster really begins to fade. Getting UG on turn two is difficult in most three-color decks, so the oracle can sit in your hand until turn four or five until you’ve been able to fix your mana with Cultivate, and by then you’d rather be casting Titans and getting some board presence going, not wasting time on pseudo-cyclers. Yes, it can be bounced to get more value, but you’re not really getting that much value off your bounce. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather be getting re-buys on Mulldrifters, Acidic Slimes, and Karmic Guides. My 99s are cramped enough as it is, and I don’t have the space to waste on piddly little do-nothing elf…things.
So that’s a load off of my chest. I feel much better now. I’m curious, though – what other community favorites out there have their own little hatedoms? Speak up in the comments – inquiring minds want to know!
10 responses to “Sacred Cows…or Snake-Elf-Druidy…Things”
2 mana to put a land from your deck directly into play, that also has a 1/1 body is far above average.
Doing it more than once in a game is very strong.
That is all I have to say.
Putting a land into play on turn 2 is awesome, yes, and if it did that all the time, I’d be much more charitable towards it. But 2/3s of the time, it just draws you a card and shows everyone what you drew. Yeah, you can bounce it or recast it for value after that, but mid-to-late game it’s just not that profitable of a bounce target. There are dozens of excellent ETB creatures out there, but this one is notable because it’s cheap, not because it’s powerful. And it’s not even that cheap, since it’s restrictive mana cost means that it’s much harder to cast than its CMC of 2 would lead you to believe. A 3 color manabase kitted out with duals and fetches is still probably only going to have UG available on turn 2 around half the time.
But he is only 2 to cast. Even mid to late game, you only costs 2 mana. Its not like you are tapping out on turn 8 to draw 1 card. You get to play a speed bump, and draw a card for 2 mana, or get a land boost, which is amazing at every stage of the game. I feel like you are pretending you are making a choice of EITHER playing coiling oracle, or sun titan, when often you can play both. If you are going to compare this card to others, then you could at least compare him to other similar creatures. 2-cast value dudes, and out of those, he is one of the best.
I see your point, but in the mid-to-late game the limiting factor on how many times you get to bounce or blink creatures isn’t really determined by the mana cost of the creature in question. More often, you either have a set number of blink/bounces per turn, ala [card]Venser the Sojourner[/card] and [card]Crystal Shard[/card], or the mana cost for blinking is independent of the creature you’re blinking, ala [card]Mistmeadow Witch[/card] and [card]Tawnos’ Coffin[/card]. So while it may seem silly to compare a svelte 2 drop to top heavy beasties like [card]Chancellor of the Spires[/card], in practice there’s really surprisingly little to differentiate the two in a blink deck The only time that the mana cost of the creature is relevant is when you’re bouncing with [card]Cloudstone Curio[/card], [card]Equilibrium[/card], or [card]Tidespout Tyrant[/card] (which is more of a combo card than a bounce enabler)..
Now, even if mana cost was relevant, I would still maintain that Coiling Oracle isn’t worth playing in most decks. Why? Because 99 cards is nowhere near as much as it sounds like. When I’m deckbuilding, it’s a constant struggle to determine what I cut and what I keep in, and more often than not some very, very good cards get left by the wayside. And when I’ve got Coiling Oracle going up against things like [card]Consecrated Sphinx[/card], [card]Woodfall Primus[/card], and [card]Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir[/card], well, I’m definitely not going to be picking the glorified cycler. I mean, take a look at my Jenara list, and let me know what you would cut in order to make room for the oracle. I pore over that list on a fairly regular basis, and I still can’t figure out what to take out to put in a [card]Consecrated Sphinx[/card].
Now, all this is not to say that [card]Coiling Oracle[/card] is not a good card. It is. I just think that it really only belongs in straight UG lists.
It’s an auto-include in creature-only decks that run UG, or in decks that are similarly constrained (a Simic-only theme deck, pauper, etc.). Otherwise, I’m with Coda: I generally leave him out.
I don’t know that I have any sacred cows to turn into steak at the moment, but if I can think of one, I’ll fire up the barbecue.
How about [card]Rhystic Study[/card]? It’s a profoundly annoying card that everyone hates that tends to specifically prey on newbies. It’s not even that good, since experienced players will just treat it like a [card]Thorn of Amethyst[/card].
I completely disagree. Rhystic Study is a house, though more so against new/irresponsible players, but a house nonetheless. Even good players would rather just let you draw than wait an extra turn half the time. Even if you only draw 4 or 5 cards off it, that’s 4 or 5 cards for 2U.
While it’s pretty vicious when played on turn 3 and can sometimes get even experienced players to not pay the tax when they’re still trying to develop their board, Rhystic Study’s usefulness drops off precipitously in the mid-to-late game. It’s essentially a dead draw when your opponents have a dozen or more lands on the table. And really, if your opponents are playing properly, than you shouldn’t be drawing many, if any cards off it. I tend to shy away from cards that scale inversely with the skill of my opponents.
Then again, maybe I’m just flat out wrong, but I haven’t run Rhystic Study in any of my decks for over a year and haven’t looked back.
i can see what you’re saying about coiling oracle. i’ve only ever really loved it in Momir, but thats probably because is a demonic tutor and a 1/1 and another free card, so it’s pretty nuts.
i must admit i actually agree with you on this hailey. i almost habitually run it in my decks and upon further reflection i am sure it could come out for something more proactive. the only instance i ever found it incredible was in my aluren jenara combo deck (w/cloudstone i once played my entire deck and drew my whole hand on turn 2). but then again that was just a little combo and it provided nothing besides.
PS i dig your blog guys.