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Moxonomy

Surrounded by Orcs

Sorcery3 generic manaBlue mana

Amass and mill are the same resource viewed from two angles, and this card is where a designer put both on one card: the Army's power feeds the mill directly, so the counters you spend assembling a board double as the fuel for graveyard damage. Three counters strip at least three cards, and any Army you had already grown pushes the number higher. That single shared value is what separates it from ordinary blue mill, which pays for its cards purely as attrition and leaves nothing behind. Here the mill leaves a body, and the body is a clock rather than a spent effect: blue gets a mill spell that leaves an Orc Army on the battlefield after it resolves, one that arrives already having damaged the opponent's library. The sorcery speed and the flat four-mana rate keep the trade fair; you cannot ambush anyone with it, and you commit the mana up front whether or not the Army sticks. What it opens up is a self-mill build that also wants a growing threat, or a targeted-mill deck that would rather not spend a card on a spell with no presence on board. Neither is a headline archetype, but the design idea (one spell feeding two win conditions off a single number) is cleaner than the rate lets on.

Surrounded by Orcs (ltr)
LTR · #524common
Pricing
Normal: $0.28
Foil: $0.33
Oracle Text

Rules text

Amass Orcs 3, then target player mills X cards, where X is the amassed Army's power. (To amass Orcs 3, put three +1/+1 counters on an Army you control. It's also an Orc. If you don't control an Army, create a 0/0 black Orc Army creature token first.)
Legalities

Format Status

Standard
N/A
Pioneer
N/A
Modern
Legal
Legacy
Legal
Vintage
Legal
Commander
Legal
Pauper
Legal
Brawl
Legal
Historic
Legal
Alchemy
N/A
Timeless
Legal
Standard Brawl
N/A
More formats
Old School
N/A
Premodern
N/A
PreDH
N/A
Pauper Commander
Legal
Oathbreaker
Legal
Gladiator
Legal
Penny Dreadful
Legal
Duel Commander
Legal
Future Standard
N/A
COMPETITIVEBRAWL
Legal
TLR
N/A
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