Orzhov Faithbound Judge Control

Standard* Arena Control Jank WB (Orzhov)

torridus

Land (25)

• 4x Brightclimb Pathway  ^Flip
• 2x Cave of the Frost Dragon
• 2x Crawling Barrens
• 4x Field of Ruin
• 1x Hive of the Eye Tyrant
• 5x Plains
• 4x Shattered Sanctum
• 1x Shineshadow Snarl
• 2x Swamp

Planeswalker (2)

• 2x Sorin the Mirthless

Sorcery (9)

• 1x By Invitation Only
• 2x Doomskar
• 2x Path of Peril
• 1x Starnheim Unleashed
• 3x Vanquish the Horde

Instant (8)

• 3x Fierce Retribution
• 2x Infernal Grasp
• 1x Power Word Kill
• 2x Vanishing Verse

Creature (7)

• 1x Angel of Destiny
• 1x Bloodvial Purveyor
• 1x Enduring Angel  ^Flip
• 4x Faithbound Judge  ^Flip

Enchantment (5)

• 2x Borrowed Time
• 1x Sigarda's Splendor
• 2x The Meathook Massacre

Artifact (4)

• 4x Mimic

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Sideboard

Creature (5)

• 4x Silverquill Silencer
• 1x Toxrill, the Corrosive

Enchantment (4)

• 4x Curse of Silence

Artifact (3)

• 2x Portable Hole
• 1x Treasure Chest

Instant (3)

• 1x Fateful Absence
• 2x Fracture

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This is a Faithbound Judge   control deck best suited for best-of-one Arena matches. It has weaknesses, but people rarely mainboard the most effective hate cards. (There are exceptions like Vanishing Verse.) But overall, it has potential for easy wins versus some of the top decks. Several sweepers, "I win" cards, kill spells, and options for old-fashioned "attack until they go from 20 to 0" strategies.

CREATURES

Faithbound Judge   - Works well with sweepers, because then we get Sinner's Judgment to win the game for us. A 4/4 flying vigilance for 3 isn't too bad either. If you can attack with Judge 5 times, that's 20 damage and you win anyway.

Enduring Angel   - A hedge against losing the game, and a useful creature in general. It can be replaced with another large creature as a backup beater (such as Bloodvial Purveyor).

Angel of Destiny - Another "oops I win" card, and helps enable Sigarda's Splendor. Optional card, but funny if it works.

Starnheim Unleashed - Backup beaters. Late-game you can foretell, cast a sweeper, then get 3+ angels the following turn.

SWEEPERS

Doomskar - The default sweeper for control decks.

Vanquish the Horde - A Day of Judgment with 4 creatures on the field.

By Invitation Only - Gets around indestructible, although tbh the card is only here because I got it in a draft and ran out of rare wildcards for something better.

Path of Peril - Underrated sweeper. Maybe not as good as Doomskar, but it's still fast against aggro decks. Hits more targets than Murder, and has the Cleave option for later in the game. It's more effective against decks running Esika's Chariot.

The Meathook Massacre - No commentary necessary.

CARD ADVANTAGE

Sorin the Mirthless - We don't particularly like the Dark Confidant loss of life on the +1, but (1) you don't have to draw your top card (2) 67% of the cards in the deck are 0-2 mana. The -2 for a 2/3 flying lifelink can be helpful sometimes, and the -7 ult can win games if you've attacked enough times.

Sigarda's Splendor - Draw cards and gain a little life. Some people may prefer Cosmos Elixir, but we're more interested in card draw than lifegain.

OTHER SPELLS

Borrowed Time - an Oblivion Ring for miscellaneous difficulties like Wrenn and Seven and Lolth, Spider Queen.

Mimic - Helps get you to 7+ mana, and avoids sweepers so you can still block/attack with a 3/3 as needed. Spending 2 mana to deal 3 damage is equivalent to a repeatable Volcanic Hammer.

Fierce Retribution - Underrated kill spell. The Cleave cost is off-putting, but you'll probably never use it. Creatures that don't attack typically aren't threats. Fierce Retribution doesn't have conditions like Power Word Kill and works against threats like Goldspan Dragon. Which is why we have several kill spells instead of more sweepers; haste creatures can be problematic. Infernal Grasp is good but we'd prefer to avoid losing life.

Vanishing Verse - Only hits one-color targets, but it's sometimes a better Anguished Unmaking.

LANDS

Cave of the Frost Dragon / Hive of the Eye Tyrant / Crawling Barrens - Manlands avoid sweepers so you can still block/attack as needed. They can potentially win games too. If you adjust the manabase to use snow lands, you can use Faceless Haven instead.

Field of Ruin - As I said, manlands avoid sweepers. Opponents run them too, and I've had some bad run-ins with Lair of the Hydra late-game. Field can also fix your mana in an emergency if you need 1 more plains/swamp to cast something.

Click here for the budget version.

Date added	3 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is not Standard legal.
Rarity (main - side)	11 - 1 Mythic Rares 26 - 10 Rares 12 - 4 Uncommons 4 - 0 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	3.46
Tokens	Angel Warrior 4/4 W w/ Vigilance, Blood, Clue, Foretell, Slug 1-1 B, Treasure, Vampire 2/3 B