The Torpor Effect

On the latest MTGCast, Conley Woods isn't too interested in Torpor Orb.

As a dedicated casual player, mostly from the Commander/EDH perspective, Torpor Orb has been a long time coming.

The first time I saw an enter the battlefield trigger on a creature, it was this one:

At the time it was a novel idea, essentially giving you both a Terror and a creature for a single mana cost. More removal, more creatures…people immediately saw the upside. But from that point forward, extra spell-like abilities have grown on creatures until they've reached a point of saturation…when the specialness really isn't there anymore. And the worst are enter-the-battlefield effects like Nekrataal, where the creature is more of an after-thought anyway.

How many enter-the-battlefield trigger creatures are in New Phyrexia? 24. How many are in all of Magic? 1052.

In the Elder Dragon Highlander world, people love creatures with enter-the-battlefield effects. I'll name two cards: Eternal Witness and Karmic Guide. If either of these creatures dies, you really don't care. In fact, you might even be happy. Because what you wanted was the recursion engine. The phrase "rinse and repeat" typically gets bandied about in these situations.

Even cards like Farnhaven Elf and Wood Elves are really just rampant growth spells with creatures tacked on.

A player with Teneb on the board needs two things: an enter-the-battlefield trigger and a sac outlet. When these are found the madness begins.

Should we get angry at people who use these types of creatures? No. I use them plenty…why would I get mad about cards I use? Instead, we should have interesting weapons to make it so that using these cards are not ALWAYS the correct option.

Torpor Orb is easy to cast, goes in any deck, and is actually pretty easy to tutor for. I for one am excited to see how it changes the game.

It even stops Aura Shards.