Theros (Limited) Combo Alert: Ordeals

I did a little drafting on the online Theros beta today and wanted to report one of my more interesting findings.

Heroic can be real fast and real furious.  I put together an unfocused white-black deck with some crazy mana costs, but a couple times in the course of four games I got a real sweet turn one, turn two curve.

Theros spoilers after the jump.

 

Squire + Aura = Good?

Play it out in your head.
Turn 1: 1/2
Turn 2: Ordeal, 2/3, Attack, 3/4
Turn 3: Attack, 4/5, Gain 10 life, Play a three-drop

Believe me, this is a nutty sequence. If I am on the play, the score is now 30-11 as the villain starts his third turn facing down a rampaging Erhnam Djinn. Yikes!

This guy used to dominate on turn three in the bad old days.
Start with a mana elf and follow-up with 'geddon.

While the white Ordeal (Heliod) is on color, there may even be some better things to do if you branch out to a second color. I figure a ranking is in order. Counting down:

5)

It still buffs your one-drop.

Black ordeal Mind Rots your Villain. That is nice card advantage, but doesn't affect the board at all until they run out of cards. With the pressure you are applying, if they discard a six-drop, it wouldn't have mattered anyway. I like discard when I can hit Villain's last two cards (bombs) and this doesn't do that reliably. This usually gives a turn to prepare and possibly even sandbag something.

4)

Why is three damage to creature or
player unexciting? Context.

In a surprise showing in fourth place, is lightning bolt, searing spear, er... lightning strike ordeal.  I like three damage to whatever as much as the next guy, but unless you are dropping this on a creature that already has a counter or two, I don't like that this gives your opponent advance warning. In the Favored Hoplite example, the Villain won't play a target that dies to this until after it fires. The tempo hit of Villain not developing his board has some value, but I'd rather have some of the other effects in the early turns than an extra three to the face.

I admit I might be out on a limb here.

3)

Card draw as the median of the cycle?
That can't be right.

I like this one because we've already dumped a good portion of our hand setting up our early 4/5 beater. If the first creature eventually gets Prometheused to the Rocks or something, now we have refilled our hand, but while always welcome, this effect isn't game-breaking.

2)

Why does slaying a Minotaur gain me 10 life?
Was this art intended for something else?

Wizards is really pushing the life gain recently. As always, I wouldn't play a "gain 10 life" card (I don't think, but there must be some amount of life that would be good value for a card and some mana). But buff my guy for 3 counters and gain 10? Sign me up. As we learned with the green gatekeeper in Dragon's Maze, 7 is a lot of life, and 10 is significantly more than 7. As noted earlier, if Villain does not attack on turn two, the scoreline gets lopsided in a hurry.

1)

JUST WOW

I want to do this SO HARD. Let's go back to our previous turn-one hoplite example. Instead of gaining 10, we get to cast a three drop and ship the turn with FIVE LANDS IN PLAY to Villain's two (soon to be three). This means we can play a SIX-DROP (or two threes) on turn four, not to mention our 4/5 that is swinging away and fewer lands left in our deck. It even fixes your splash colors if that is something we want. Yes please on all of this! <makes home-run hand motion>

The stapled-on effect of the Ordeals is mostly gravy. The real threat is the 4/5 that must be dealt with, but the green one gets you way ahead in development even if the Villain does deal with your threat.

There are a couple other herioc guys who add +1/+1 counters at higher mana costs.

What these heroes allow you to do is skip attack steps before you get full value from the Ordeals. Three attacks is a lot, especially if you don't want to be attacking, whereas two attacks with these aggressively-costed dudes is much more manageable. Since they get one counter from the aura targeting, then another when they attack immediately, it is also tough for Villain to block two extra power and toughness than they were expecting. (Who blocks?)

There are a handful of other aggressive one-drops in the card image gallery that don't grant extra counters. I will expect a quick attack from some of my opponents come pre-release day and I think you should, too.