Royal Ass.
09-12-2011, 06:32 PM
I started playing magic back in 94 and Chaos Orb was considered one of the best and most feared cards. I remember getting all my lands blown up by Chaos Orb multiple times. The rule at the time was that once someone played Chaos Orb you could not move your cards and when Chaos Orb landed on a card it destroyed all the cards underneath it. This was a problem for a dorky 6th grader like myself because I stacked my lands on top of each other.
Now that I have given you some history about my experience with Chaos Orb I want to discuss a local rule errata for playing this card amongst your commander group.
The first question to ask is; Why do you want to play with Chaos Orb?
For me much of commander is the nostalgia element that it provides me. My deck has many of the old school cards that I wanted to own back when I was a kid by my weekly $5 allowance wouldn't allow. Chaos Orb is one of those cards.
There are two reasons that Chaos Orb is banned in constructive Vintage Play. The first reason is because it messed with the playing field because people don't want to have their cards too close to each other so as not to get X for oned. The second reason is because it requires manual dexterity.
The manual dexteritiy reason should not really apply to commander because it is a casual format and hell, shuffling a 100 card deck is a lot more physically difficult than dropping a card onto the table.
The real issue when addressing an errata to make Chaos Orb legal is the first issue dealing with playing space and spreading out cards. Thus to address that issue I propose the following errata:
1, Tap: If Chaos Orb is on the battlefield, chose another card on the battlefield and flip Chaos Orb onto the battlefield from a height of at least one foot. If Chaos Orb turns over completely at least once during the flip, destroy the chosen card if Chaos Orb touches it upon landing. All equipments and auras on the chosen card are also destroyed. Then destroy Chaos Orb.
This errata makes it so that you actually chose (though not target) the card you want to destroy and does away with the problem of people having to spread cards out. In a way it makes Chaos Orb worse because you usually only get a 1 for 1, making Chaos Orb essentially a colorless vindicate with the downside of missing.
I added the part about destroying equipments and enchantments attached to the chosen card because it fits in with the flavor of the card and also pays homage to the history of how the card function in that it destroyed any card under the card Chaos Orb was touching.
I plan on testing this errated version of Chaos Orb next time I play commander. I'll let people know about it before the game since it is technically a banned card in EDH. However, I think with this errata it is a very fair card for EDH and also makes for a fun game event. One of the nice things about Chaos Orb is that since it doesn't target, it can take out a creature with Lightning Greeves as well as taking out the equipment.
Please let me know your thoughts on this errata and the use of Chaos Orb in EDH play.
Now that I have given you some history about my experience with Chaos Orb I want to discuss a local rule errata for playing this card amongst your commander group.
The first question to ask is; Why do you want to play with Chaos Orb?
For me much of commander is the nostalgia element that it provides me. My deck has many of the old school cards that I wanted to own back when I was a kid by my weekly $5 allowance wouldn't allow. Chaos Orb is one of those cards.
There are two reasons that Chaos Orb is banned in constructive Vintage Play. The first reason is because it messed with the playing field because people don't want to have their cards too close to each other so as not to get X for oned. The second reason is because it requires manual dexterity.
The manual dexteritiy reason should not really apply to commander because it is a casual format and hell, shuffling a 100 card deck is a lot more physically difficult than dropping a card onto the table.
The real issue when addressing an errata to make Chaos Orb legal is the first issue dealing with playing space and spreading out cards. Thus to address that issue I propose the following errata:
1, Tap: If Chaos Orb is on the battlefield, chose another card on the battlefield and flip Chaos Orb onto the battlefield from a height of at least one foot. If Chaos Orb turns over completely at least once during the flip, destroy the chosen card if Chaos Orb touches it upon landing. All equipments and auras on the chosen card are also destroyed. Then destroy Chaos Orb.
This errata makes it so that you actually chose (though not target) the card you want to destroy and does away with the problem of people having to spread cards out. In a way it makes Chaos Orb worse because you usually only get a 1 for 1, making Chaos Orb essentially a colorless vindicate with the downside of missing.
I added the part about destroying equipments and enchantments attached to the chosen card because it fits in with the flavor of the card and also pays homage to the history of how the card function in that it destroyed any card under the card Chaos Orb was touching.
I plan on testing this errated version of Chaos Orb next time I play commander. I'll let people know about it before the game since it is technically a banned card in EDH. However, I think with this errata it is a very fair card for EDH and also makes for a fun game event. One of the nice things about Chaos Orb is that since it doesn't target, it can take out a creature with Lightning Greeves as well as taking out the equipment.
Please let me know your thoughts on this errata and the use of Chaos Orb in EDH play.