Orcish Veteran
Creature — Orc
This creature can't block white creatures with power 2 or greater.
: This creature gains first strike until end of turn.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Fallen Empires
- Price
- $0.11
- EDHREC rank
- #30752
Orcish Veteran is a vanilla 1/1 for three mana with a situational first strike rider — playable only when you're already losing combat. The opportunity cost of a three-mana 1/1 with no enters-the-battlefield effect is too high in any competitive context.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Orcish Veteran sees essentially no competitive play across any format it's legal in. In Commander, a three-mana 1/1 needs to do something immediately impactful to justify the slot — Orcish Veteran's conditional first strike doesn't clear that bar. Pauper is the one format where cheap bodies with keyword upside occasionally find a home, but the mana cost here is prohibitive for what amounts to a situational combat trick stapled to a creature. Legacy and Vintage have no interest in it.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.11 bulk tier
At $0.11, Orcish Veteran is deep bulk — the kind of card that ends up in a common box at the bottom of a game store. That price reflects the demand accurately and isn't going anywhere.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.