For the past month or two I've been playing Orzhov midrange with Obzedot, Ghost Council Blood Baron of Vizkopa and some Pack Rat craziness. The deck was playing very well against the local meta but was running into a few problems and had just about run its course. I decided to change things up and run Orzhov humans because I had all the pieces and well Athreos is just spectacular.
Last night at FNM it went 5-0 with a loss to mono-blue (game 2 round 3) and one game to Ajani and friends. (Game 1 round 5)
I've seen a couple of variants of this deck orzhov-humans-30-04-14-1 orzhov-humans-11-02-14-1 orzhov-humans-11-02-14-1 but I like mine a little better...
Ok lets take a tour of the decklist.
Win Conditions:
Athreos, God of Passage -- I find that pain abilities are not always as good as people hope because your opponent will always choose the worst (for you)of those 2 possibilities. However, with Athreos... he's just awesome and either option works in your favor. I put three in the deck because he has so much potential. He also represents an immediate threat and demands an answer by your opponent. I like cards that do that.
Xathrid Necromancer
pairs so well with Athreos. The deck list also commits hard to the human tribal so there is never a lack of willing victims ready to become Zombies.
Brave the Elements
so much love for this card. Makes your creatures hard to kill, unblockable, and awesome. Most of the creatures in this deck are also white so it works with just about everything.
Creatures: Soldier of the Pantheon Imposing SovereignThese two are excellent "hate bearer" cards. Soldier is also great against multicolor decks, while sovereign delays people and prevents a lot of flash creatures from being relevant as blockers.
Daring Skyjek
Boros Elite
Precinct CaptainAll do excellent things when attacking and with the rest of your team I would expect to be attacking a lot. This deck has lots of cheap effective creatures. Attack early and often for greatest effect.
Removal: Hero's Downfall -- Kills almost everything and their fancy planes-walkers.
Deicide
-- Everyone are running Gods these days.
Banisher Priest
-- I get a human and you lose a creature. I just can't decide if i want 3 or 4 in this deck.
Lands: I Think I have the right mix here. I wish I had some mutavaults but it wasn't in the cards... Suggestions welcome.
Sideboard.
Honestly these cards could change a lot. I like the idea of running hand destruction against control. Lifebane is great against Xenagos or Ajani's friends. Aegis is my only answer to burn... Burn is such a bad match up for this deck.
Fiendslayer PaladinLifebane ZombieSin CollectorThoughtseizeAegis of the Gods
Bad Match ups: Burn baby Burn. Anything running Anger of the Gods or Magma spray will wreck this. Haven't had much trouble with anything else, but I'd imagine a mid range with Blood Baron would be a pain.
I'm thinking about adding
Azorius Arrester
or even
Lyev Decree
because they lock people down pretty good, and that's attractive to this deck. I'm also looking for a little advise on High Priest of Penance and
Thrill-Kill Assassin
. I don't know about Thrill mainly because it isn't protected by brave the elements.
Launch the Fleet Looks like it might be amazing. Win-more condition? I don't know, I think I would love to play it with
Brave the Elements
, but I wouldnt know where to put it in the deck.
Any and all comments welcome. Thanks.
