A unique card! With a kindred that was entirely forgotten about, “Evil Eyes”. Personally, I wish this got some more support; a balance of your non-eyes not being able to attack matches well with a lot of powerful abilities. There was only other “Evil Eye” kindred printed, being Evil Eye of Urborg in Time Spiral which allowed you to destroy target creatures that block it; essentially deathtouch.

Now, what is pretty much fear with walls instead of black mana or colorless; that’s powerful. Not many decks run walls, unless in vintage or you’re playing against EDH wall weirdos “creatures assign damage from their toughness” deck. Loads of fun things you could do with this vintage piece even today; slap a whisper-silk cloak on it and just buff it to high hell with red mana or green mana. Or, perhaps throw a quietus spike on their with some infect and proliferate (add one of any token to any target) cards on hand.

Weirdly enough, some of the more 50s politically minded might see this as a reference. It’s unconfirmed, but it’s likely a jab at David Ormsby-Gore; why? Well, either because of the attempted play (seen as distasteful at the time) he had with Kennedy’s wife after his death. Or perhaps, one of the card designers saw his name in the newspaper and went…“hmm…monster name”. There is also the flavor text…a reference to the Cuban Missile Crisis?

There is also a wizard called Orm in the vintage “lore”; however, likely to be unrelated.

A unique, powerful card that contains a mystery. In these times, ramping wasn’t as notable as mana rocks like the Moxes or other artifacts. Five mana back then was no joke; but nor was a 3/6 creature that couldn’t be blocked…also neat art.

“The highway of fear is the shortest route to defeat”

Illustrator - George Pratt