Pointed Discussion

Pretty crappy for a rare. Of course, this was in the same set as Mons' Goblin Raiders and Goblin Hero.

Way back when, I guess it was big for red to have some heavy hitters without a drawback.

But a 7cmc vanilla with 6/6 isn't too fantastic. I'm embarassed that I own this card and it's other horrible Orgg counterparts.

It's not even a beast anymore. It got even worse.

Abysmal. If you use this card and have been playing magic for more than a month you should be shot. Vanilla cards aren't very good normally unless they are very aggressively costed, which this guy is not. There are so many cards better than this guy that are cheap and affordable that there really is no excuse to playing him unless you don't have enough cards for a deck otherwise.

Deus of Calamity, just about any dragon, and even his cousin Butcher Orgg are strictly better than him, although the latter still isn't very good. Heck, if you are willing to pay an additional mana you could play Akroma, Angel of Fury, who is just amazing.

Why doesn't this have its own meme a la Storm Crow and Chimney Imp? He's just so brutally below average.

I'm just happy they stopped printing this. I have an assload of these and Vizzerdrixes, and I hate them both. Why a vanilla 6/6 for 7cmc is considered worth it is beyond me.

What angers me the most about this card and it's laughable blue cousin is that they knew that these things were terrible when printed, and yet made them anyway. While we are all used to creatures being effectively priced these days, there was a time in Magic's distant past where creatures - at least larger ones - were becoming LESS effective than what the game started with. Good cards like Shivan Dragon, Phantom Monster, and so on were removed to make way for underpowered drek like this. It's no wonder that so few creatures were tournament worthy back then, and most of them were aggressively costed smaller ones since the larger creature slots were being filled up with this nonsense.

A bad card and a relic from a time when the game was going backwards.

Presenting a comprehensive list of the strongest monored vanilla creatures to date. Note that this list does not include "virtual vanillas" like Raging Goblin or Kird Ape.

1 Mana:
Mons's Goblin Raiders, 1/1
Dwarven Trader, 1/1

2 Mana:
Goblin Bully, 2/1
Goblin Piker, 2/1
Independent Troops, 2/1

3 Mana:
Regathan Firecat, 4/1
Goblin Cavaliers, 3/2
Goblin Roughrider, 3/2
Balduvian Barbarians, 3/2
Riot Devils, 2/3
Hurloon Minotaur, 2/3

4 Mana:
Cobblebrute, 5/2
Cyclops of One-Eyed Pass, 5/2
Lowland Giant, 4/3
Ogre Resister, 4/3
Shatterskull Giant, 4/3
Borderland Minotaur, 4/3
Highland Giant, 3/4

5 Mana:
Raging Poltergeist, 6/1
Scoria Elemental, 6/1
Fire Elemental, 5/4
Earth Elemental, 4/5

6 Mana:
Axegrinder Giant, 6/4
Flameborn Viron, 6/4

7 Mana:
Trained Orgg

It's actually the only monored vanilla 7-drop, surprisingly, thereby making it the best by default. However, it's woefully underpowered and underwhelming. The worst thing about this is that it's not even as evocative as Shivan Dragon, which is flavorful and feels powerful when it hits the table. This doesn't inspire that kind of awe, and for obvious reasons has not come back in recent times.