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Total Votes : 1
Mono789
Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2006 1:50 pm
Joined: 26 May 2006 Posts: 12 Location:
--- description ---
An Orzhov control deck that stalls the game and leeches out a win.
--- end description ---

The idea for a perfected Orzhov deck came to me one day when I was thinking about how annoying Orzhov’s stalling and drawing tactics were. Soon I realized that some of the best stalling cards are black and white, leading me to think of Orzhov!

The Deck

Land [26]
x4 Orzhova, The Church of Deals
x4 Godless Shrine
x9 Swamp
x9 Plains

Creatures [14]
x4 Plagued Rusalka
x4 Martyred Rusalka
x4 Agent of Masks
x2 Blind Hunter

Other [20]
x4 Ghostly Prison
x4 Hissing Miasma
x4 Pillory of the Sleepless
x4 Faith’s Fetters
x4 Infernal Tutor

Sideboard [15]
x2 Blind Hunter
x4 Souls of the Faultless
x4 Order of the Stars

Plagued Rusalka:
More of a cheap blocker if anything. Also a great way to get rid of little white weenie cards if necessary.

Martyred Rusalka:
Another cheap blocker. It’s unlikely that you will be using his ability unless your opponent doesn’t have many creatures. After all, you have other ways of draining their life.

Agent of Masks:
Now we get to the interesting part. It may seem a little bit to expensive, but with all the control in this deck, your opponent will have a hard time dealing damage to you before you get him out. Believe me, it’s a really efficient drainer!

Blind Hunter:
Oh, this can be quite irritating. At this point in the game, you would probably have Ghostly Prison or Hissing Miasma. If you want Blind Hunter to haunt something, sac it to Plagued Rusalka.

Ghostly Prison:
This will help to slow down any aggro deck, especially if you have more than one out. Paying 2 for each creature is just way too much.

Hissing Miasma: Doesn’t stop my opponent, but makes them wonder if their life total is worth it.

Pillory of the Sleepless:
Stops a creature and drains it’s owner’s life. This can be a nuisance.

Faith’s Fetters:
Gets rid of a creature and nets you 4 life. That just makes things even harder for an opponent to defeat you.

Infernal Tutor:
Since you have multiples of everything in this deck, it will be easy find something you want.

Playing the Deck
In the early game, you should throw out the Rusalkas. A couple of turns later, you can increase your defenses by sending out cards like Ghostly Prison and Hissing Miasma. Use Diabolic Tutor to search for anything that you know will help in numbers. Once Agent of Masks, Pillory of the Sleepless, or Orzhova, the Church of Deals are in play, and with a couple of stallers, you should be able to drain your opponents life enough to win.

Matchups
Aggro:
Just wait until your stallers show up, because if they can’t attack and you get Agent of Masks out, the game is yours. You’ll be kind of screwed if you don’t get something...

Control:
Being against another control deck will be awkward, but satisfying if you hold them off. It ’s likely they’ll have about as many creatures as you do, so you should be fine until Agent of Masks is out.

Burn:
Argh, this is probably this deck’s main weakness. With hardly any creatures, this deck will have no use for your stalling cards. If you manage to keep Agent of Masks in play long enough, you should be able to push through an attack. This is when you should add in 2 more Blind Hunter.

Try it out and you may just find yourself a great deck! Stalling opponents so they can’t do much and draining their life is hard to resist. Just remember one thing: if things are going your way, the game might take a while to finish.

Happy playing!
I am always looking for more burns...
I am always looking for good mana accelerators...
I am always looking for good counters...
I am always looking for good kill spells...
I am always looking for good life gain cards...

And most of all, I like playing against people who don't cry and/or flip me off when I play Faith's Fetters on their best creature!
Cobra
Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2006 2:27 pm
Joined: 12 Jul 2005 Posts: 1202 Location: Austin, TX, USA
This is your first MTG strategy article, right? Welcome! Very Happy

You say in the card analysis that "it’s unlikely that you will be using [Martyred Rusalka’s] ability," and that Hissing Miasma "doesn’t stop my opponent." I agree. Cool I think you can find more efficient cards to fill those slots in the decklist.

One possibility is a removal spell like Last Gasp. You have an incredible ability to disable creatures, but sometimes you need a real kill spell -- against an opposing Agent of Masks, for example. Some Gasps would also reduce the deck’s potential weakness to enchantment killers.

I would definitely maindeck all four copies of Blind Hunter. The life swing is great, and with your opponent’s flyers dead or disabled, your own flyers become a faster win condition. You might also consider some Shrieking Grotesques for that reason.

Finally, your 15-card sideboard has only 10 cards in it! If you’re worried about burn decks, definitely add something here (Circle of Protection: Red? Ivory Mask?) to win that matchup. And if you do move those extra Blind Hunters to the maindeck, you’ve also got space for 3x Cranial Extraction to cover anything unexpected.

Nice article, hope to read more from you!
Last edited by Cobra on Wed Jun 07, 2006 6:16 pm; edited 1 time in totalhttp://cobracards.com -- Web's best deals on Trading Card Games.
Felipe Musco
Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2006 5:56 pm
Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 2434 Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
I like Conor’s ideas, specially Cranial Extraction... Maybe some Mourning Thrulls would be nicer blockers, since they can also block in the air, and DO gain you some life. The draining lands just seem too much mana, and you have A LOT of lands in your deck, so maybe you could use the new cousin of Drain Life (forgot its name, though...). Denitely maindeck Last Gasp or Mortify, and BOTH, if you can find a way of doing it. If not, at least keep Mortify in the SB, should you deal with a really fast aggro deck. I don’t quite see, however, how can you control the board for so long (the draining just seems to be very little) without Wrath of God... And, instead of the enchantments that drain life from attackers, you could use Contaminated Bond, for doing the same thing, but being cheaper (and without the need from double colored mana). Also consider using Ghost Council of Orzhova, if you keep an elevated number of creatures, since it is at worst a decent swinger (maybe SB it).
I don't like YOU.
The First
Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2006 7:43 am
Joined: 07 Oct 2005 Posts: 195 Location: Anderlecht, Belgium
Hissing Miasma and Ghostly Prison strike me as 2 opposites. You either want them to attack and use Miasma (so they take damage) or you don’t want them to attack and use the Prison. When using the Prison, the Miasma won’t do that much damage.

You rather have an expensive deck. 5cc to play the Agent. 5cc to use Orzhova. You seem to be playing the expensive cards, no-one uses, or long forgot about but you forget to pack the essentials like the Orzhov Guildmage or Thief of Hope (great when using the shoals for removal).

Kami of False Hope seems to be a lot better than the white Rusalka. Heck, Ghost-Lit Redeemer is even better. Kami of Ancient Law (Koala) is another great spirit.

Are the Fetters really necessary? You should be able to gain some life with this deck. I would opt for cheap and decent removal like Condemn, MORTIFY!!, Last Gasp or even Devouring Light.

I liked the Infernal Tutor a lot when it was first spoiled because it read "... search for any card with the same cc as a card in your hand..." without hellbent activation. However, the version they printed in the end doesn’t seem that powerful. Why would you use a Tutor that can only get a card already in your hand? If it were at instant speed, maybe...
Felipe Musco
Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2006 12:24 pm
Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 2434 Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
Yeah, First raises a good point about the Tutors. They may be nice, even a game-winning tool in SOME kinds of deck (check my Mill deck, "Milling Deep", and you’ll see it being put to good use), but not THIS deck. Faith’s Fetters is very nive, but if you use another life-gaining cards and preventers (like Kami), it could be dropped to SB for the sake of packing actual removers, after all, the idea of the deck is to drain your opponent’s life, not to damage him, so a Fettered creature would just sit there until your opponent can fetch an enchantment killer (which could put you in a very dangerous position, depending on WHEN that happens). Thief of Hope is a possibility, but rather expensive. And yes, lose the white Rusalka, AND the black one... So far, the only mildly usable Rusalka I’ve seen is the red.
I don't like YOU.
Mono789
Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2006 1:08 pm
Joined: 26 May 2006 Posts: 12 Location:
Actually, Infernal Tutor is useful, because is there is multiples of literally everything in this deck. Diabolic Tutor is a bit more expensive, and by the way, Agent of Masks only costs 3BW. I would love to use this deck in a tournament and see how it fares...
I am always looking for more burns...
I am always looking for good mana accelerators...
I am always looking for good counters...
I am always looking for good kill spells...
I am always looking for good life gain cards...

And most of all, I like playing against people who don't cry and/or flip me off when I play Faith's Fetters on their best creature!
Felipe Musco
Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2006 2:52 pm
Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 2434 Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
Picture this: imagine a deck that has A LOT of burn spells (or worse: ONLY burn spells, no creatures at all). Your creatures won’t survive, and you’ll be wide open for a massive swing, and no life-gain in the world will save you. Now picture this: a deck that plays about 2 creatures per turn, all around 2/2, 2/3, 3/2, 3/3 (well, you can see where this is going). You won’t be able to hold them off long, since they start dropping bombs turn ONE, and you won’t be able to control the board with about 8 removals. Another picture: a deck makes you mill (put in the graveyard) about 30 cards before you even get your hands in your first Fetters, and even when you do, there’s no creatures at all worth playing it. Final picture: a deck that, by turn 3, can be set up to counter any threat you can play, until by turn 6 or so they Blaze you for about 25-30 points of damage... The last one is a typical Heartbeat of Spring deck, you can find some online. About the other three, go through the Article Contest area and check the following decks: "Don’t Play With Fire"; "Third degree burn"; "Milling Deep"; "Rakdos, the Defiling Jerk"; "G/U Powerbeats"; "Breeding Pool in the Hallowed Fountain"; and "The best defense is a doog offense", for starters. If you have a simulation program (if you don’t have, download one, it’s a GREAT help), run your deck against these ones (not to mention Zoo/Orzhov aggro). You’ll see what we mean: your deck needs SPEED, it’s just too slow. You cheap creatures won’t protect you AT ALL from a more concentrated assault, heck, try my "The new Goblin Grenade" deck and you’ll see what I mean. But I liked the general idea of draining life instead of beating opponents, just work on it on simulators first, ’cause if you go and enter a tournament with such a high cost, you might take a beating so serious you may wan’t to drop the idea, and THAT would be such a loss! Just try it out a little, and post the results here.
I don't like YOU.
La_Sin_Grail
Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2006 8:58 pm
Joined: 14 Aug 2005 Posts: 806 Location: Maryland
I don’t think tutor is going to help much here,,, you shouldn’t run out of cards too easily.

It looks like in general you’re trying to mix control with agro, and I’m not sure how effective that will be. I think you would be better off dumping the rusulkas and playing wrath.
Osion
Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2006 10:26 pm
Joined: 17 Dec 2005 Posts: 62 Location: MD
Martyred Rusalka is quite a slow card, in my opinion. I would definitely maindeck Order of the Stars over this. Order can stop attackers easily, can dodge removal, and in general a better stall-creature than the white Rusalka.

the 16-pack of Ghostly Prison, Hissing Miasma, Pillory of the Sleepless, and Faith’s Fetters is a bit too excessive; a single Kodama of the North Tree or a Silhana Ledgewalker would easily bypass your defences.

I recommend Paladin En-Vec instead of the Miasma, and maybe some ghost council of orzhova.
La_Sin_Grail
Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2006 4:53 pm
Joined: 14 Aug 2005 Posts: 806 Location: Maryland
They would still have to pay for the fetters and lose a life from miasma, but yes, I agree. I think miasma needs to be cut.

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