Way back when Fifth Dawn was new, this was
one of the cards from the set that immediately
caught my eye. The "build-around-me" quotient of
this card is absolutely off the charts. It's not
uncommon to find yourself making a sunburst or
domain or Power Conduit deck with this card in
it, looking for ways to do "simple" things like
get extra counters on it so you can use its
activated ability repeatedly, and then realizing
that it also does things like hold off creatures
that are even larger than 5/5 because who the
heck wants their opponent to Fog them and draw
three cards? This card is one of the faces of
five-color Magic decks (more if your card pool
includes Unhinged).
Due to the nature of this card this review will
encompass only its modern applications casual
and multiplayer and limited. In modern this card
seems too slow and relies on having a 4+ color
deck to function properly, the card draw is
impressive but the slow nature of it means this
card will never fulfill anything more than a
niche use. In casual and multiplayer this card
is impressive card draw for domain or sunburst
decks and can provide a solid creature body with
possible proliferation shennagins. In limited
its solid and powerful card in multicolor and
domain based decks making it a solid pickup.
Overall a card with a definite niche and a nice
power level but requires set up to use
effectively.
Today's card of the day is Etched Oracle which
is a four mana artifact creature with Sunburst
and for one mana you can remove four +1/+1
counters from it to have target player draw
three cards. This card requires quite a bit of
support from either mana production or counter
addition. Without one or both it is a fairly
mediocre card, but with even four counters it is
a decent 4/4 threat that can be turned into card
advantage with one mana if needed. Overall it
needs a little too much support and isn't as
compelling out of block, but can be an
unexpected addition to five color, Modular, or
Doubling Season themes.
In Limited formats that allow it this is
playable, primarily by being an artifact and
working with three or more color decks. A two
color deck only gets a 2/2 and without outside
effects it isn't a viable threat or likely to
enable card drawing. In Sealed the value depends
on how many colors you are running or how much
support is available, so inclusion priority
varies greatly. In Booster it is a late pick
unless artifacts are desperately needed or you
are already heading into more than two colors
for your build.
The multicolorer, the better! This card really
needs you to be playing lots of colors, or at
least lots of ways to generate off-color mana,
to reach its full potential-- a 4/4 for four
that can sack for 1 to draw you three cards. But
of course, the REAL potential is in putting more
counters onto it. Despite being a card from the
first Mirrodin block, the Oracle plays best in a
deck built out of the second Mirrodin block's
mechanics-- proliferate, specifically. Build up
the Oracle as a beatstick or spend the
counters to refill your hand? It's the option,
and the relative ease of adding +1/+1 counters
onto creatures, that makes this card shine.
