Went 7-2 with this on arena ranked. My first pick had
Priest of Forgotten Gods
so I decided to try and go with sacrificial creatures. My second pick was
Vindictive Vampire
, so I really wanted to try and synergize with cheap creatures or tokens. When the boosters were being passed I noted a decent amount of Orzhov cards with afterlife. So I attempted to try and snag as many from that point onwards to allow good trades and provide more fuel for potential sacrificial creatures.
Most games played with me trading creatures to retain field presence, while keeping my life total high from lifelink until the opponent runs out of steam and I whittle them down. In one of the games though I had a "burn and trade" with an opponent and was able to use
Priest of Forgotten Gods
with
Vindictive Vampire
and 1/1 Spirit to defeat them on the last turn, while I had 2 life and they had two
Ill-Gotten Inheritance
ready to kill me their next turn.
Deck Breakdown
~~ Creatures ~~
Thirsting Shade
Gave good early game presence with lifelink and the ability to spend 2B to buff for even more lifelink or trade against a defender with 2 toughness.
Twilight Panther
I picked up early after deciding the deck theme. I wanted to try and spread my mana more evenly between black and white, and having the ability to spend B for deathtouch allowed me to force the opponent to decide if they really want to block it with a stronger creature.
Imperious Oligarch
were a good staple to keep my field presence. Since they have vigilance I was able to attack pretty freely early game and either force a trade or start chipping at their life. Since they have afterlife, when I did trade I would come out with that 1/1 flyer. I could then use the spirit for defense against flyers, chip away at their life if they have no flying/reach, or as a sacrifice.
Priest of Forgotten Gods
was the 1st card I picked and tried to build the deck around. In practice I ended up only really using the sacrifice ability when my opponent was getting low on life. It did have some deny action when an opponent tried to burn some of my creatures and I would just sacrifice them in response though. Most of the time my sacrificial 1/1 Spirit could not be blocked by my opponent, so it was better to just attack with the token for 1 each turn to whittle them down and keep the priest for defense. The deck was flush with land too, so I hardly ever "needed" the mana boost to drop anything quick. This did win me a game though where an opponent was burning me down fast, and after attacking I would just need a little bit more damage to finish them before they killed me next turn.
Forbidding Spirit
Worked great as a 3 cost drop, and would help delay me until I could get more on the field if I did not draw many of my key cards in my starting hand. Being a 1WW was problematic in a game where I only had Swamps and a Guildgate on the field on turn 3, but I drew a plains the next turn and was able to place them down to delay longer. If the cards were right I could have abused this a lot more by taking them out/back into play, but I decided to use this more as a speed bump and focus on Afterlife cards. Had a few matches where I could drop these back to back on turn 3 and 4 to delay until turn 5.
Noxious Groodion
With deathtouch they allowed me to swing at opponents with costly creatures and force them to either trade poorly or allow me to attack directly. I could also posture in defense with these as blockers to delay my opponent until I draw a direct response to target them.
Syndicate Messenger
Allowed me to fly over defenses, or block enemy fliers. Generally I had other creatures with vigilance block and would use this to whittle away at an opponent. Bonus it has afterlife for a replacement flyer, or to sacrifice.
Vindictive Vampire
This was another card I tried to pivot the deck around. Since I would be using a lot of smaller creatures and tokens, I would have consistent ways to trigger the ability to deal 1 damage to enemy life and heal myself 1. Sometimes I would even just have him sit for defense while I send in tokens/creatures to trade. Since I had a few creatures with deathtouch as well, this made sure those trades were real good since would not only kill their creature but also do 1 damage to the player while healing me. My only complaint was that I couldn't add more of these to the deck since I didn't draw any others in the boosters.
Orzhov Racketeers
I'm going to be honest, I mainly picked this card for Afterlife 2 on it and to be a target for the enemy when I drop it. The ability to force the enemy to discard a card is nice, but unless the enemy is wide open I was unlikely to trigger the effect with the cards I had.
Debtors' Transport
Were my late game responses. When I got to the mana level I'd drop them regardless for their presence, but they came in great use for trading since their attack is higher than toughness as well as having Afterlife 2. I could use them for defense against a strong creature an opponent dropped that I can't get rid of with deathtouch, or force the opponent a bad trade if their creature is more equal on power/toughness level. Then the 2 tokens when it dies continue to help fuel the rest of the deck or whittle the opponent down.
~~ Non-creatures ~~
Sentinel's Mark
This came in handy way more than I expected in my matches. I could easily drop this on a creature to provide a minor buff but more importantly keep them for defense since it adds vigilance. I would always drop it on my main phase as well, making sure I get lifelink for that turn to add a bit more to my life. I found good use attaching it to my
Noxious Groodion
, as that meant I would always have a defender with deathtouch to handle any big creatures. Sometimes I felt it was a bit wasteful to drop on
Imperious Oligarch
since they already have Vigilance naturally. Having them bump up to 3/3 though would help a lot for defense since they can always block, allowing me more time to chip away at the opponent or draw into something better.
Bladebrand
If the drawing was different and more of these appeared, I might have put more of these in the deck. Having a 1B cost card that gives something deathtouch AND card advantage is very useful for this token/low cost creature deck. That way someone is attacking with a large creature and I have a 1/1 token defend, I can drop this card to trade extremely well, potentially do another damage while healing 1 for my creature dying, AND get that extra card.
Final Payment
I only took one in my drawing, but was very tempted to take another I saw in a rotating booster. Having lots of tokens and a decent amount of lifegain, I could easily pay the alternate costs to cast. I already had a few other creatures with deathtouch or ways to clear creatures though, so I opted for other cards during that rotation. When the booster came back around it was not an option anymore unfortunately, and none of the other boosters had one.
Bankrupt in Blood
Came up near the end of my drafting, and I did not have too many ways to gain card advantage so I picked it up. Since I would likely have extra tokens on the field or I could sacrifice cheap creatures (potentially with afterlife to recoup some), I figured it would not be difficult to pay the alternate costs. Since I also would have abilities that trigger on creature death, I could combo those together. In play I only drew this in one of my games, so I didn't have a good pulse on the usage unfortunately.
