Pointed Discussion

"Krag, your a douche" - Goblin Free For All Player reacting to someone playing forbiden orchard in a FFA battle and throwing off the balance of the game by giving away free tokens

Can you tap it solely to produce the creature token, even if you can't use the mana?

Sure you can Coufu, but unless you spend that mana you'll take some burn. If you're playing Æther Flash and Repercussion it's a good idea to toss a few of these in there instead of Mountains, if that's what you're thinking, but it's still going to give you some mana burn if you leave it unspent before the current phase ends.

By itself this land is rather one of the worse WUBRG/paradise lands, but it has great combo potential and often lets you turn the drawback into a further advantage:

Nine-Ringed Bo seems to be the most obvious way to kill those guys, but isn't really worth using since you won't be able to make further use of this artifact, thus only resulting in card disadvantage.
But either the combo mentioned by crenel with Æther Flash (and Repercussion) works nice,
or Goblin Sharpshooter to get rid of them (and other 1/1 chump blockers),
Avatar of Might can be used for reducing its cost by {{6}},
Sheltering Ancient to provide creatures for its cumulative cost,
Biomantic Mastery for some extra cards,
Congregate/Divine Congregation for some extra life,
Mana Echoes for mana accel - given that you're running a spirit deck,
Netherborn Phalanx/Stronghold Discipline for some extra lifeloss,
Retaliation to make the spirits less useful as chump blockers,
or make use of their cip(/enter the battefield)-trigger:
Carnival of Souls for {B} and the further cost of 1 life,
Intruder Alarm to create several loops along with a third card, e.g. by animating this land,
Lethal Vapors to kill them immediately,
Poisonbelly Ogre to let your opponent lose one life,
Mantle of Leadership for a +2/+2 buff of the enchanted creature,
Portcullis to get rid of them without any possibility for them to return,
Tainted Æther to get rid of them - once again - or even to force him to sacrifice another creature or a land if you are able to destroy them before this ability resolves, e.g. by using the aformentioned Sharpshooter.
Of course you can then again make further use with graveyard triggers,
Toshiro Umezawa will be able to copy instants in your graveyard,
Black Market provides more black mana,
Burning Sands to make your opponent sacrifice his lands,
Deathgreeter, Soul Net and Dross Harvester for lifegain,
Dingus Staff, Vicious Shadows or Hissing Iguanar for damage,
Inheritance to draw cards by paying {{3}},
or Sadistic Glee, Rockslide Elemental, Scavenger Drake, Algae Gharial, Kresh the Bloodbraided or Deathbringer Thoctar for +1/+1 counters on the accordant creature.

Whew.
This should be most thinkable cards to combine with that land i listed here.
I left a few really useless cards out, but as you see there are lots of possiblities, it's up to you how to handle that colorless Spirit token.

I personally love the card (including the artwork).
I guess now you know why - Johnny approves! ;)

Wow, I can't believe someone actually listed a whole bunch of cards. Nice little Timmy cards, but all you needed to put was Oath of Druids. It's an easy combo with Progenitus for the win!

@Kislev: People seem to forget Progenitus isn't an "I win" card, merely a "you might be in trouble now" card. And you might have been thinking of Johnny.

Let me add Defense of the Heart to the list. Then you have another way to search out your Progenitus, as well as other goodies. Nice Johnny card, this.

Haha. I could use this with Blood Seeker

@ Coufu and Crenel, of course, mana burn is no longer an issue since you posted that, so that particular trick works even better.

@ Rainyday2012, I use this in a deck with Defense of the Heart too. And Nacatl War-Pride, mainly for the lulz.

Leyline of Singularity? Also prevents any duplication and makes all creatures legendary, which could be helpful with say Day of Destiny.

Mode what are you on about. "One of the worst Paradise lands". Why don't you list the paradise lands you think are better I'd like to know which ones you think they are. And @everyone why would you bother moulding your whole deck just to counteract this pithing disadvantage its not worth wasting card slots for.

Actually good with Ascendant Evincar, because it autokills all nonblack 1/1's.

To heck with killing those little spirits! Use them to fuel Defense of the Heart and get a turn 3 Darksteel Colossus and Platinum Angel (or whatever). Win!

Mode, every comment you've ever made has been awesome.

Hehe, giving the oponent soldiers anytime I tap my land is my number 1 wish ^^

i like to use it with palinchron and have a nemesis mask on my swans of bryn argoll. if you get 4 out and a couple high tided islands your opponent draws infinite cards

I shudder to think what gatherer would be like without Mode.

Oath of Druids question mark?

I've seen this used both with Oath of Druids and Varchild's War-riders/Blood Seeker/Blade of the Bloodchief.

It's not an integral part of either deck, but this card definitely has its uses.

This doesn't even come into play tapped. If the spirits had flying, this might not be so good, but as is, it's great!

This card is okay in alot of 3+ color decks, especially one's with some kind of pinging or big enough creatures you don't give a damn. It's solid mana fixing. However, situationally, in the right deck, this is killer.

I just ordered 4 of these to add to a deck built around Varchild's War-Riders (another way to force opponents to gain creatures) and Suture Priests (to gain life and force opponent's to lose life for taking on creatures) along with other similar cards (Soul Warden, Soul's Attendant, Blood Seeker). As has already been mentioned, Goblin Sharpshooter is a great way to get rid of the chumps (with a Basilisk Collar on he'll get rid of almost everything without shroud or indestructibility... or pro red). Forbidden Orchard will mana fix my tri-color deck (white, red, black), while making my deck less dependent on drawing the War-Riders.

5/5 in a deck built for it, still probably a 4/5 in just about any other deck that needs mana fixing. I'll compromise and give it 4.5/5.

This card is becoming attractive of late; next to Blood Seeker, we have the upcoming "Acorn Catapult", Suture Priest and...oh god...Massacre Wurm...
I smell a deck idea...

Lots of fun combo potential here. Æther Flash has been mentioned of course, but it's always fun to put this into decks where 1/1 creatures don't really matter. Lightmine Field decks, Peacekeeper decks, anything running Urza's Armor... lots of mildly humiliating possibilities. It's also a surprise winner for Pestilence/Pyrohemia, where you can either use the one mana you just produced to kill of the creature that just came into play, or disregard the mana and use the spirit token as a way to keep your enchantment on the board.

I'm also very, very happy that the creation of the spirit token is a separate ability and not a cost. That way if your opponent is using something like Ivory Mask or Leyline of Sanctity you aren't screwed out of a land because they can't be targeted.

God is deeead.
God is deeeeeeead.

Loves my 5 color armageddon/Dingus Egg deck with personal sanctuary, Festival et al. I like this better than ANY dual land 5/5.

I'd been trying to find a home for this card for ages...then I realized I had a board destruction multiplayer-centric deck. It became the most politically advantageous card on the board when an opponent played Etched Champion...pretty much the only thing that could block it were the spirit tokens I was handing out.

Might be obvious but Curse of Death's Hold from Innistrad works too.

Apparently, Kamigawa tree of paradise is better guarded than one in Eden.

Bloodseeker, Suture Priest, Soul warden, or Soul's Attendant all work fairly well, as well as playing against a Heartless Summoning deck or using a Massacre Wurm to pull life out of your oppentents. I originally thought it was a terrible card, but now I see the abuse potential. a solid 4/5. Elesh Norn also likes this card

Defense of the Heart

YEAH!!

Massacre Wurm

Question. When the spirit tokens come into play, your opponent obviously controls them, but who owns the tokens? You or your opponent? Looking for some kind of interaction with Zedruu.

Some combos with this one, and the drawback is not bad at all if you are just using for mana.

How about comboing with Hunted Phantasm?

I want on of these for my group hug EDH deck

4/5 Stars

Amazing in EDH. The 1/1 creature won't be used solely against you. You can choose the player who can use it to the least advantage against you. If a player can get use out of the tokens they might suck up to you.

This card single-handedly made oath a viable archetype in vintage. That alone makes it 4/5