Right from the beginning, we knew typal themes would be a big part of the upcoming Hobbit set. A teaser from Mark Rosewater was quickly followed by some incredibly exciting Commanders, celebrating the many creature types that call the world of Middle-earth home. Alongside these, we’re also getting Orcrist, Goblin-cleaver, an insane new value engine for any typal deck.
MTG Orcrist, Goblin-cleaver
Orcrist, Goblin-cleaver is the type of MTG card that’s basically an auto-include in every typal deck going forward. Whether you’re going wide with Krenko, building around Elves with Lathril, or Vampires with Edgar Markov, having tons of Treasures is never a bad thing. Even Orcrist’s catch, of needing to connect to generate Treasures, is offset by the buff and Trample it provides.
Beyond being good everywhere, Orcrist, Goblin-cleaver has insane synergy with Commanders like The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl. Not only does this deck run tons of Squirrels anyway, but Orcrist can fuel Squirrel Girl’s ability, making more Squirrels for more Treasures next time around. Similarly, Cadira, Caller of the Small works wonders with Orcrist, quickly spiraling out of control when equipped with it.
Naturally, Orcrist, Goblin-cleaver will also be an auto-include in any Treasure-focused deck like Magda, Brazen Outlaw. Even with the split typal focus here, you can still easily generate Treasures aplenty to cheat out some massive artifacts or Dragons. Alternatively, you can run Orcrist with Vihaan, Goldwaker to make your Treasures into threats that fuel more Treasure generation.
As if that somehow wasn’t enough already, you can push Orcrist, Goblin-cleaver even further with dedicated support. Cards like Xorn and Academy Manufactor are natural auto-includes with this in mind, as is Goldspan Dragon. Alternatively, you can use Cloud, Midgar Mercenary and Felix, Five-Boots to double Orcrist’s trigger, while Anointed Procession doubles your Treasure production.
Infinite Turns, Combats, and Instant Wins
If you’re not content with its amazing value when played fairly, Orcrist, Goblin-cleaver even enables some classic infinite combos. Alongside Aggravated Assault, for instance, you can fairly easily create infinite combat steps. So long as you control five or more creatures of a given type and connect, you can keep paying for more combat steps.
While this combo should let you close out games with combat damage, creating more than five tokens gives you near-infinite mana, too. Not only does this let you protect your combo, making ending games trivial, but it opens the door to redundancy. With Najeela, the Blade Blossom and Hellkite Charger offering the same loop, and Time Sieve providing an infinite turns variant, Orcrist has serious combo potential.
Should you want to be a bit fairer, Orcrist, Goblin-cleaver also enables slower win conditions like Revel in Riches or Mechanized Production. Admittedly, while making enough tokens for these cards is trivial, their triggers being during your upkeep is a major hurdle. Even if they don’t win you the game, however, these cards are hardly bad inclusions within a Treasure-focused Orcrist deck.
All in all, there’s no denying that Orcrist, Goblin-cleaver is one hell of an MTG card. Offering insane value for any typal deck in Commander, this card is bound to see widespread play. Sadly, this may also mean that the card is ridiculously expensive, potentially even the most expensive card in the set.
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