I've been having a lot of trouble getting a good feel for an effective orzhov deck, without splashing blue, which I feel really weakens the potential of this deck. I like where it's going, I have had all of these cards in my deck at one time or another, but the low card counts is what gets me. You have a lot of great stuff but nothing that you will likely draw if needed.

Also, Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts is virtually a useless card imho. she's too expensive (even with the mana ramp from the ghast). Blood Baron of Vizkopa is more useful, albeit only 1 mana less, but that keeps his CMC in line with pontiff, angels, so a 9 drop for Immortal Servitude will bring him back as well. Another Pontiff of Blight for the additional extort trigger on creatures is also a great option. or even another Debt to the Deathless .

If you have a Sorin, Lord of Innistrad i think i'd replace Gideon, Champion of Justice for him, otherwise play what you got (i hate buying specific cards usually unless they are ~$1.)

I'd also run Exquisite Blood in place of Blood Reckoning in mainboard, sideboarding Blood Reckoning and Blind Obedience for aggro decks. Exquisite Blood with Vizkopa Guildmage for the Instant win with extort trigger or lifelink (which Sorin, Lord of Innistrad can provide). Just some thoughts. I love The idea behind what you have, and the super low budget. Good luck.

Correction, Blood Baron of Vizkopa is a 5 drop, so ignore the Immortal Servitude comment about him.

Thanks for the thoughts DjinnjerVitis. The main problem i am finding with it is to get the extra copies of the more useful cards, as you said i have a lot of good cards that wont necisarily be there when i need them. Ive found that High Priest of Penance is a great card and ideally i'd like to run at four if i could get the final copy. It really slows down the opponent giving my deck the time it needs to get going. What you have said about Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts has been going through my head too, though a lot of my friends seem to play boros or rakdos and i find she can bring them to a standstill which is always fun to see them try and get around her :p if i had the Blood Baron of Vizkopa i would be running him but no such luck, he'd be a great replacement for my Deathpact Angel which while useful doesnt compare to him.

I've never considered Sorin, Lord of Innistrad but he looks amazing, so far Gideon, Champion of Justice has let me win each time i've got him out, he disteacts from my life and the opponent can't really afford to ignore him, so just playing with what i have but i will bear sorin in mind :) thanks for that!

As for the instant win i have thought about it and will look into getting a couple for more competative play but i think my friends would hate me forever if i pulled that out against them! We play a lot of multiplayer and i find a Vizkopa Guildmage , some Crypt Ghast and a Debt to the Deathless can lead to a multiple person knock out quite nicely. For now i may consider a second Debt to the Deathless over Teysa as i dont have the second Pontiff of Blight !

Again thanks for your super post and all the help given!

Anytime. I'll be following this post too, seeing what ideas others have, as I'm running into a lot of issues with Black/White. I just can't seem to fine-tune the mechanics at my local FNM (which runs around 40-50 people).

Okay so have ordered some Exquisite Blood to put into my main deck in place of Blood Reckoning , also got my final High Priest of Penance and another Pontiff of Blight to replace Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts and get even more extorting going. I looked into both Sorin, Lord of Innistrad and Blood Baron of Vizkopa . Sorin i fear is possibly going out with the next rotation when M14 comes around as he's from innistrad, and comes with a hefty price tag which defeats the object of keeping this to a budget. Same with the blood baron as well but obviously he will stay in rotation for a long while yet and hopefully i may come across him as the year progresses... if i get that lucky! I might keep Blind Obedience in for the moment as a lot of the people i've played against dont have that much enchantment removal and the extort on it makes it very handy indeed but will have to just play test and see what works.

Any suggestions as to how many Vizkopa Guildmage i should run? i don't particularly want it at a full set as its only really useful for the finisher combos but don't know if other people think it needs more

2 Vizkopa Guildmage should be alright. you dont really want to be drawing them in place of a much needed card later on, but even if you did you could always drop it in and pop one of the activated abilities at the same time, so... i'd stay with 2.

Sorin, Lord of Innistrad should be around until the expansion after M14. M14 will replace M13, and innistrad block will remain until the first block releases.

That is an excellent conclusion about enchantments. I have also noticed very minimal enchantment removal, and its usually in the form of a Detention Sphere or Oblivion Ring . Blind Obedience is always good both sideboard or mainboard.

I've taken out the Blind Obedience to try it at the moment but i've played a few decks that seem to wipe monsters away in one foul swoop losing me all my extorts and its hard to recover from. Then again thats where Immortal Servitude has also won me a lot of duels as people dont expect your whole grave to come back in one turn!

I really like these other Orzhov decks that think a little outside of the box. I'd like to do something like this, but I dont like the high mana cost of things and i like to play a little more aggressively, you should check out my deck Orzhov: Plan B to see Orzhov through a different perspective and tell me what you think.

Or my pauper version Orzhov: Plan B (Standard Pauper), I think the pauper version is actually better, or at least more balanced, i need to go back and fine tune the other one, both will only get me 2-2 at FNM for some reason tho...

Really like the different take on orzhov acousticcancer i do think orzhov is underused on thr offensive, it can be rather nasty

I think it'll be even better after Innistrad rotates out, but so will other Orzhov decks too i think, i really want Orzhov to be a thing

I would say orzhov is a thing, extort can work with any spell and no other deck has the potential for so much life gain and drain off every spell a player casts... will be interesting to see what happens, it does look like core M14 is going back to mono-colour though so we will see what becomes of the guilds

I meant like I would like to see it around more, maybe even win for a while. Idk about being mono colored tho, I'm looking forward to running a sliver or beast deck and those require 2 colors, we still have the shocklands too

I didn't realise orzhov wasn't around much... i think the main problem is it takes a lot of experimenting to get a consistent deck, when it runs well though it really does make your opponent pay for every action you take. And yeah the silvers are looking interesting, waiting for the full card list to be announced before i decide what my next deck may be. I've always wanted to run a mono green or blue but haven't got round to it.

Well played this deck tonight and won all my matches, admittedly it tended to be i lost one game out of three and some were really close. I managed to get a Sorin, Lord of Innistrad who i greatly enjoyed getting on the field, he fits in slightly better than Gideon, Champion of Justice but i will keep gideon in my side board for against boros decks or the like... main problem i had was against a dimir mill deck which was very fast, Elixir of Immortality saved me so many times that game, and the game i lost was mainly due to me having no more than 3 land... it happens sometimes... i'd almost be temped to main deck elixir but i dont think i need to, its just helpful to recycle my remove cards and is a good turn one play :)

I've tested your deck 2 times and there's not enough lands, i think.

I've been lucky so far with land pulls so far elariand i know that 22 is a low land count for a control deck but it does work... what would you suggest removing for more land? I find once i have 4 this deck can run comfortably

Keep the land, 22 is fine with Crypt Ghast , i dare you you could make it work with 20 because of the Crypt Ghast , but thats just my opinion, i had a question tho, what does Deathpact Angel do? couldn't you use her slots for more Obzedat, Ghost Council ? or maybe even put the Blood Baron of Vizkopa back in since hes not only harder to kill, but will give you a way to finish an opponent off in case you cant for some reason. I might run a variation of you're deck soon, i kinda like it. ill for sure be leaving Deathpact Angel out for Blood Baron of Vizkopa tho

Unfortunately I don't have Blood Baron of Vizkopa otherwise he would be in there like a flash, at the moment the Deathpact Angel is there purely as a offensive card. Its the first one to go when i want to run Elixir of Immortality , Blood Reckoning or any other card that happens to help me against a particular deck... infact i was playing a very nasty simic/golgari and this think spammed the field so fast the only way i was winning was a cheeky Debt to the Deathless ... so i got myself two Merciless Eviction s to wipe the field if needed... pricey but against that kind of deck i need it... also do wish i had more Obzedat, Ghost Council but afraid not at the moment, i'm loath to spend a fortune on single cards as tempting as it may be!

Here's my two cents. Use playsets of Vampire Nighthawk , Blind Obedience and Tragic Slip .

I finally took the time to upload my deck, using a few key idea's I liked from yours ie Riot Control , and some of the card quantities, and some of the things I decided differently on. Debt to the Pontiff

@CarnageProphet - I like the idea of running a playset of Vampire Nighthawk and probably will try that at this weeks fnm... I do love Blind Obedience but as the tap effect is only useful on that first turn I just find its too slow when i'm not able to play as aggressively and follow up the benefit i'm getting from the stuff entering tapped... still against the right deck I can see its benefits and of course the extort is very valuable. Quick question about Tragic Slip , can it set off High Priest of Penance 's effect... if so then I may well run a play set... if not then it will likely remain side decked

@DjinnjerVitis - That's awesome, glad i've been able to inspire a bit, it's been fun shaping this deck with yours and others advice, atm it is playing very strongly at my local fnm, have only lost one match so far... i'll go have a look at your deck now!

Tragic Slip does not set off High Priest of Penance because it isn't dealt damage

Ah thought that was the case, in which case i'm more retisent to take tragic slip... we will see though

its not as necessary as people make it seem, but theres been a couple of times where i have wished i had it, just sideboard it for now if you have any