Orcish Oriflamme

Usage of R&D's Secret Lair

What are so examples of uses of R&D's Secret Lair?

You can make Island Sanctuary prevent damage to you from your non-flying creatures. Works well with things like Orcish Artillery.Orcish Oriflamme and Orcish Artillery cost 1R.You can make the player pay for your drink with Ashnod’s Coupon.

Ashnod's Coupon Creatures Island Sanctuary Orcish Artillery Orcish Oriflamme R&D's Secret Lair Secret Lairs

Orcish Oriflamme Costs

In the earliest days of the game, did Orcish Oriflamme have two different mana costs, depending on whether you were playing the alpha or non-alpha version?

Very early Magic cares about specifically which card you were playing. (Alpha Orcish Oriflamme costs 1R Instead of 3R.) Once Oracle got set up, the rules changed to have all cards with the same name work the same and that quirk of deck building went away.

Alpha Mana Orcish Oriflamme Rules

Goblin Oriflamme Joke

Okay, the Goblin Oriflamme was a joke 26 years in the making - reflecting the Orcish Oriflamme Alpha misprint - pure GENIUS.

I’ve tried to get that card made for almost as long as I’ve worked in R&D.

Alpha Card Printing Goblin Goblin Oriflamme Humor Orcish Oriflamme

Card Misprints

Orcish Artillery, Orcish Oriflame, Cyclopean Tomb all were wrong

Correct. Orcish Artillery and Orcish Oriflamme were both incorrectly listed as 1R instead of 1RR and 3R respectively. Cyclopean Tomb was missing a mana cost all together.

Card Printing Cyclopean Tomb Mana Orcish Artillery Orcish Oriflamme

Orcish Oriflamme Query

Why was Orcish Oriflamme on the first Restricted list? What made it so powerful in that particular environment? And while I'm thinking about it, are there any other Restricted or Banned cards you can remember that wouldn't be Restricted or Banned in today's Standard/Modern environment?

Alpha’s version of Orcish Oriflamme mistakenly cost 1R instead of 3R. That’s why it was on the banned & restricted list. Interestingly, development believes that 1R was actually the closer to correct cost. I don’t have the list in front of me but I know that the list demonstrates the lack of what we think of modern day development at the time.

Alpha Bannings Format Legality Format Legality Modern Orcish Oriflamme Standard

Alpha Cards Modern Potential

Following cards from alpha are not modern legal and have no reserve list, color pie, complexity or power level concerns, think you could see if any can get fit into a set?: Dwarven Warriors, Hurloon Minotaur, Copper Tablet, Conservator, Burrowing, Celestial Prism, Castle, Animate Artifact, Ironclaw Orcs, Ironroot Treefolk, Lance, Living Wall, Obsianus Golem, Orcish Oriflamme, Pearled Unicorn, Plague Rats, Phantom Monster, Phantasmal Forces, Scavenging Ghoul

Interestingly, most of those cards we’ve made better versions of them.

Alpha Animate Artifact Artifacts Burrowing Caves Celestial Prism Color Pie Colors Conservator Copper Tablet Dwarven Warriors Golem Hurloon Minotaur Ironclaw Orcs Ironroot Treefolk Living Wall Minotaur Modern Obsianus Golem Orc Orcish Oriflamme Pearled Unicorn Phantasmal Forces Phantom Monster Plague Rats Power Level Prism Rat Rat Scavenging Ghoul Treefolk Unicorn Wall Warrior

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