Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant // Sasaya's Essence MTG Card
| Converted mana cost | 3 |
| Rarity | Rare |
| Type | Legendary Enchantment |
| Released | 2005-06-03 |
| Set symbol | |
| Set name | Saviors of Kamigawa |
| Set code | SOK |
| Number | 145 |
| Frame | 2003 |
| Layout | Flip |
| Border | Black |
| Illustred by | Christopher Moeller |
Key Takeaways
- Card advantage through exponential mana generation when transforming into Sasaya’s Essence.
- Resource acceleration allows casting game-changing spells earlier than usual.
- Instant speed mana availability indirectly via Sasaya’s Essence transformation.
Text of card
Whenever a land you control is tapped for mana, add one mana of that type to your mana pool for each other land you control with the same name.
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Once transformed into Sasaya’s Essence, this card unlocks the potential for exponential mana generation, translating into significant card advantage as you can deploy numerous spells or activate abilities that would otherwise be unaffordable.
Resource Acceleration: By flipping into Sasaya’s Essence, this legendary card becomes a powerful engine for resource acceleration. With enough lands in hand, it can rapidly increase your available mana pool, setting the stage for casting high-impact spells much earlier than usual.
Instant Speed: While Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant itself does not operate at instant speed, its ability to flip into Sasaya’s Essence sets you up to utilize lands at instant speed indirectly. With an abundance of mana, you can effectively respond to opponents’ moves with costly instant spells, giving you a reactive edge.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant demands a unique setup where you reveal your hand containing seven or more lands to flip into Sasaya’s Essence. This prerequisite means you need to amass a significant amount of land cards in-hand, which not only broadcasts your strategy to opponents but seriously hinders your ability to hold other critical spells you might need for defense or control.
Specific Mana Cost: As a legendary creature with a cost centered around green mana, Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant can be challenging to play in multi-color decks. This focus limits deck diversity and requires a commitment to primarily green resources which might not always align with broader deck themes or strategies.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a three mana investment for a 2/3 creature, the initial cost of Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant isn’t necessarily high. However, considering the additional requirement to flip it into the enchantment Sasaya’s Essence, the real cost becomes the opportunity cost of holding a large number of lands in hand rather than playing them—a strategy which may delay critical plays and leave you vulnerable to faster, more aggressive opponents.
Reasons to Include in Your Collection
Versatility: Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant // Sasaya’s Essence offers a unique transformative ability that can fuel a diverse array of strategies. Once flipped, Sasaya’s Essence turns your land base into a powerhouse of mana production, which can be a game-changer in decks that thrive on large amounts of mana.
Combo Potential: In combination-centric decks, Sasaya’s Essence enables explosive turns where casting high-cost spells or activating demanding abilities becomes achievable. The card’s capacity to exponentially increase your mana opens the door for infinite combos or casting multiple high-impact spells in a single turn.
Meta-Relevance: In metas where games draw out and board states become complex, Sasaya can be the trump card. The ability to access vast mana resources can allow you to overpower opponents with overwhelming threats or outmaneuver them with key abilities that require substantial mana investment.
How to beat
Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant // Sasaya’s Essence is a transformative card with the potential to fuel massive mana ramping for decks centered around land count. Once flipped into Sasaya’s Essence, players can produce an exponential amount of green mana, turning even the slightest edge into an overwhelming advantage. However, its efficacy depends on the ability to reveal a hand with seven or more lands, which is the key to flipping Sasaya.
To combat this, effective strategies include hand disruption to prevent the accumulation of lands in your opponent’s hand or land destruction to limit the resources available for Sasaya’s flip. Counterplay could involve utilizing cards that force the opponent to discard at crucial times or land bounce spells to reset their land count. Additionally, instant speed removal can dismantle their game plan if used right before the transformation. Ensuring pressure is applied consistently to pressure your opponent’s resources and maintaining a strong board presence helps to offset the potential for a flipped Sasaya to take over the game.
By employing these tactics, players can navigate around the strength of Sasaya, protecting their strategy and maintaining the upper hand within a game.
Cards like Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant // Sasaya's Essence
Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant is a special entry in the Magic: The Gathering deck of enchantments, akin to other legendary creatures that transform into powerful game-altering enchantments. A close relative in functionality is the card Azusa, Lost but Seeking, which allows players to play additional lands on each of their turns, enhancing land play much like Sasaya. However, Sasaya holds the potential to dramatically increase mana generation upon transformation, leading to a significant tactical advantage.
Another card worth comparing is Mana Reflection. While not a creature, Mana Reflection doubles the mana produced by permanents, which emulates the essence of Sasaya’s activated ability. But Mana Reflection lacks the challenge of transforming, providing its benefit unconditionally. Yet, it does come with a higher mana cost.
Comparatively, Sasaya’s flip side, Sasaya’s Essence, invites strategic deck building to harness its full potential, elevating it beyond simply providing additional mana. It requires careful planning and a focus on reaching the seven land threshold in the hand to unlock its potential, setting it apart from both Azusa and Mana Reflection. Therefore, while other cards may seem similar at first glance, Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant // Sasaya’s Essence facilitates a unique play style that combines the excitement of transformation with the rewards of abundant mana.
Cards similar to Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant // Sasaya's Essence by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant // Sasaya's Essence MTG card by a specific set like Saviors of Kamigawa, 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 Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant // Sasaya's Essence and other MTG cards:
- eBay
- TCG Player
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
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Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant // Sasaya's Essence has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Commander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Predh | Legal |
| Penny | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant // Sasaya's Essence card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2005-06-01 | Each Ascendant is legendary in both its unflipped and flipped forms. This means that effects that look for legendary creature cards, such as Time of Need and Captain Sisay, can find an Ascendant. |
| 2005-06-01 | If Sasaya’s Essence’s controller has four Forests and taps one of them for , the Essence will add to that player’s mana pool for a total of . |
| 2005-06-01 | If Sasaya’s Essence’s controller has four Mossfire Valley and taps one of them for , the Essence will add three mana (one for each other Mossfire Valley) of any combination of and/or to that player’s mana pool. |
| 2005-06-01 | If Sasaya’s Essence’s controller has two Brushlands and taps one of them for , Sasaya’s Essence adds another to that player’s mana pool. It won’t produce or unless the land was tapped for or instead. |
| 2005-06-01 | Sasaya’s Essence has a triggered mana ability. Like activated mana abilities, the triggered mana ability doesn’t use the stack. |
| 2005-06-01 | The triggered mana ability counts the number of other lands with that same name and adds that much mana to the player’s mana pool. The type (that is, the color of mana or colorless mana) is the same as the mana the land just produced. |
| 2005-06-01 | You don’t need to have seven lands in hand to reveal your hand. You leave your hand revealed until the ability resolves. If you don’t have seven or more land cards in your hand at that time, the effect does nothing. |
| 2005-06-01 | You don’t need to tap Sasaya to use its ability, so you can activate the ability on the turn Sasaya comes under your control. |