Orcish Settlers MTG Card

Weatherlight (WTH)
1997-06-09 - Number 112

Orcish Settlers - World Championship Decks 1998 (WC98)

World Championship Decks 1998 (WC98)
1998-08-12 - Number bs112b

Card sets	Released in 2 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost	2
Rarity	Uncommon
Type	Creature — Orc
Power	1
Toughness	1

Key Takeaways

Targeted land destruction creates a strategic edge, giving you control over the game’s tempo.
Orcish Settlers’ ability to scale destruction ensures adaptability to various gameplay scenarios.
Facing this card requires careful mana management and counterplay strategies to mitigate its impact.

Text of card

o Xo Xo R, oc T, Sacrifice Orcish Settlers: Destroy X target lands.

They wouldn't know their house from a charred hole in the ground.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: With Orcish Settlers in your deck, you gain the strategic advantage of being able to repeatedly disrupt your opponent’s land base. By trading one card for potentially multiple lands—a scarce and crucial resource—you tip the scales in your favor and deprive opponents of their vital mana sources.

Resource Acceleration: Even though Orcish Settlers doesn’t directly accelerate your mana resources, it significantly slows down your opponent by destroying their lands. This relative acceleration can put you ahead, as you maintain your land drops and development while your opponent struggles to recover.

Instant Speed: While the Orcish Settlers’ ability is not at instant speed, it holds the strategic merit of being usable at any point during your turn. Timing the land destruction can be crucial, especially after an opponent has tapped out, ensuring maximum disruption to their game plan without the chance of a counterspell or other instant speed interaction.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Orcish Settlers requires players to discard an additional card to activate its land destruction ability. This can put players at a disadvantage, especially if their hand is already depleted or if they’re in need of every card they possess to maintain a strategic edge on the battlefield.

Specific Mana Cost: The activation cost of Orcish Settlers’ special ability is not only color-specific, requiring red mana, but it also asks for a generic mana investment. This demand places a constraint on its flexibility, confining it to decks that can consistently produce the necessary red mana or have enough mana fixing to satisfy this requirement reliably.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a total casting cost of three mana and additional costs for the activated ability, Orcish Settlers falls on the higher end of the mana curve for its land destruction effect. Players could potentially opt for other cards within the same category that offer a more cost-effective solution for hindering opponents’ mana bases.

Reasons to Include Orcish Settlers in Your Collection

Versatility: Orcish Settlers offers flexible land destruction capabilities, allowing players to strategically disrupt opponents’ mana bases in various game situations.

Combo Potential: This card pairs well with strategies that capitalize on your opponents having fewer resources, potentially enabling crippling combos in land destruction or control decks.

Meta-Relevance: In formats where land-heavy or multicolor decks dominate, Orcish Settlers can serve as a powerful tool to undermine the opponent’s strategy and secure an advantage.

How to beat

Orcish Settlers presents a unique challenge in MTG, offering players the ability to destroy land, a resource pivotal to every deck’s operation. Facing this card, the key strategy lies in land protection and counterplay. Land-focused decks, notably those featuring green spells such as Heroic Intervention, can guard against land destruction. Additionally, leveraging instant-speed removal like Swords to Plowshares to eliminate the Settlers before they use their ability is crucial.

Similarly, utilizing an efficient mana curve helps reduce the impact of losing land by maintaining a board presence with less mana. Cards with land recursion abilities like Life from the Loam also serve as impactful countermeasures, returning destroyed lands to your hand. By having a plan in place for restoration and defense, you can mitigate the disruption caused by Orcish Settlers and maintain control of the game.

By understanding and employing these tactics, MTG players can safeguard their resources and stay ahead, even when facing the disruptive power of land destruction cards like Orcish Settlers.

Cards like Orcish Settlers

Orcish Settlers, a niche card from the Weatherlight set, brings a distinctive strategic element to Magic the Gathering. This card allows players to destroy land cards at a cost directly proportional to the amount of mana invested, quite similar to the functionality of cards like Stone Rain or Pillage. Both Stone Rain and Pillage share the land destruction theme, with Stone Rain destroying a land for a flat three mana cost, while Pillage adds the flexibility of targeting artifacts in addition to lands.

Comparing the Settlers to cards like Ice Storm and Thermokarst, which also focus on land disruption, offers insight into the diverse strategies of MTG. Ice Storm has a fixed cost that targets lands explicitly, and Thermokarst adds a touch of utility by enabling the targeting of snow-covered lands, delivering a slight edge in specific scenarios. The Orcish Settlers stand apart with the adjustable nature of their land destruction ability, allowing players to scale the effect based on their available resources.

While each card occupies its unique position in MTG, Orcish Settlers provide a rare versatility, appealing to players who seek control over the game’s tempo and resource balance through strategic land removal.

Cards similar to Orcish Settlers by color, type and mana cost

Goblin Elite Infantry - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Orcish Settlers MTG card by a specific set like Weatherlight and World Championship Decks 1998, 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 Orcish Settlers and other MTG cards: