Octo Opus MTG Card
Text of card
When Octo Opus enters the battlefield, create a 4/4 blue Octopus Performer creature token named Contortionist with "At the beginning of your upkeep, you may fold this token in half." (It becomes 2/2, then 1/1, ½/½, and so on.) Sacrifice Octo Opus: Draw a card and an additional card for each of Contortionist's folds.
Cards like Octo Opus
Octo Opus strides into the landscape of card advantage tools in Magic the Gathering with its unique artistic twist and skillful effect. This card bears some resemblance to Thirst for Knowledge – both allow you to enhance your hand by drawing cards. However, Octo Opus requires you to discard not one but two cards unless you’re discarding an artifact or a creature card, bringing an element of strategy to what you keep in play.
For those who relish more creature-focused strategies, there’s Fact or Fiction, which presents a different kind of choice, dividing the top five cards of your library into two piles. While Octo Opus facilitates straightforward card acquisition, Fact or Fiction involves a minigame with your opponent, adding a peculiar layer of psychological warfare to the mix. But if it’s mere volume of cards you’re after, Compulsive Research offers a similar but more flexible card draw with the option to discard a land card instead of two from your hand.
Through this comparative lens, Octo Opus shines as a versatile option for MTG players who value both the quantity of cards drawn and having control over the makeup of their hand, especially in decks that can maximize the value of discarding specific card types.
Cards similar to Octo Opus by color, type and mana cost
Card Pros
Card Advantage: The Octo Opus card excels at providing an edge in card economy, allowing players to draw multiple cards and remain ahead in the match. This advantage is crucial in building hand dominance and increasing options for strategic plays.
Resource Acceleration: In addition to hand growth, Octo Opus offers an impressive boost in mana accessibility. This acceleration is key to ramping up your board presence, letting you mobilize your threats more swiftly than your opponent can respond to.
Instant Speed: The ability to play Octo Opus at instant speed is another feather in its cap, adding a layer of unpredictability and tactical depth to your game. It affords the flexibility to respond to an opponent’s move or end their turn with a flourish, thereby seizing the tempo and catching them off guard.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: In the nuanced dynamics of gameplay, ever so important is the conservation of cards in hand. Octo Opus, while intriguing in its offering, demands the disheartening act of discarding from your already precious cache of spells and creatures. This compulsory forfeiture of resources can leave a player at a tangible disadvantage, particularly when their reservoir has run low, or the strategic tides call for a full grip of options.
Specific Mana Cost: The demanding nature of Octo Opus’s mana cost cannot be understated – a pursuit for a diversely hued mana base in blue and black is indispensable. Such specificity narrows its hospitable deck environments, predominantly cozying up to those already steeped in the arcane arts of these color philosophies. Decks outside these hues may find the card’s inclusion an unyielding puzzle, hard to justify in the grand scheme of their gameplan.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: In a realm where efficiency is king, the mana investment required by Octo Opus raises brows in contemplation. For the allocation of four mana, spellcasters must ponder – does the utility provided by Octo Opus surpass other available incantations that beckon with a more modest tithe? The scales of judgement tip with each match, and the verdict on its worth may vary from duel to duel.
Reasons to Include in Your Collection
Versatility: Octo Opus is a multifaceted tool in players’ arsenals, seamlessly integrating with various decks. It excels in matchups where adapting tactics on the fly is crucial, offering both immediate and long-term advantages.
Combo Potential: This card’s ability to churn out Clue, Food, and Treasure tokens makes it a linchpin for synergistic combinations. Whether you’re fueling sacrifice mechanics or synergizing with artifact-centric strategies, Octo Opus acts as a catalyst for powerful plays.
Meta-Relevance: Current deck trends often highlight the need for cards that provide diverse strategic options. Octo Opus aligns well with these demands, proffering an array of responses to suit the shifting landscape of competitive play.
How to beat Octo Opus
Octo Opus emerges as a challenging card to tackle in the Magic: The Gathering arena, presenting players with a multitasking spell capable of affecting the battlefield in several ways. What makes Octo Opus intriguing is its modal nature, allowing players to choose from diverse options during gameplay, ranging from creating tokens to drawing cards. To undermine the versatility of this card, a strategic approach is to focus on reactive and instant-speed interaction.
Applying removal spells on the tokens immediately as they hit the board can nullify part of its impact. Dispel and other counterspells are your allies here, particularly when your opponent casts Octo Opus with big plans in mind. Furthermore, disrupting your opponent’s gameplan by applying pressure and maintaining a strong board presence ensures that even if Octo Opus resolves, its effects won’t tilt the game in your opponent’s favor. Efficient resource management and picking the right moment to act are key to overcoming the multifaceted challenges posed by Octo Opus.
Ultimately, staying one step ahead of your opponent by anticipating this card can turn the tide of a match. Denying resources and keeping a close eye on board state can effectively counteract the adaptability that Octo Opus brings to the table.
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Octo Opus MTG card by a specific set like Unfinity and Unfinity, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.
For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.
Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.
Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Octo Opus and other MTG cards:
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- eBay
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
- MTGO Traders Magic Online
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Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Octo Opus card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2022-10-07 | Creatures in Un- games with power between 0 and 1 still deal damage equal to their power, and players can have fractional life totals. For example, if a ½/½ creature deals combat damage to a player with 10 life, the player will go to 9 ½ life. |
| 2022-10-07 | If Contortionist is no longer on the battlefield, you may still sacrifice Octo Opus to draw a card. |
| 2022-10-07 | If an effect instructs you to do something based on Contortionist’s power or toughness that can only be done in whole numbers, such as draw cards, and Contortionist’s power or toughness isn’t a whole number, ignore that instruction. You can’t draw half a card, mill a quarter of a card, etc. |
| 2022-10-07 | If you control more than one creature named Contortionist as the last ability resolves, perhaps because you created a copy of the token or created more than one to begin with, choose one of them and use its number of folds to determine how many cards to draw. |
| 2022-10-07 | If you’re not using a printed token or another Magic card to represent the token, you can’t fold it in half. Its power, toughness, and the number of folds it has (zero) remains the same. |
| 2022-10-07 | Sacrificing Octo Opus has no effect on Contortionist. It will still have the ability to fold in half at the beginning of your upkeep, but doing so is optional. |
| 2022-10-07 | To represent the token, you have three choices: (1) Use the printed token included in some Unfinity booster packs, (2) use another printed Magic card or token as a substitute, or (3) use anything else, read the next ruling, and be slightly sad. |