I love this deck, and I want to give my own bit of advice.

I do agree, Treasury Thrull isn't that great. It brings stuff back but, that means you also leave it open for death to a bigger creature, removal, or bounce then counter. It isn't viable enough to hold its own. Have you ever thought of Kingpin's Pet ? A 2/2 Flying/Extort creature that only costs 1WB is amazing.

Game 1. Vs. The Beast and the Harlot (Grixis wins, 2-0)

Early game, your deck took the lead with a large creature presence and extort mechanic kicking in. I was on the ropes until around turn 4; wasting a kill spell nearly every turn on your critters. On turn 4-5 I dropped Liliana of the Veil and began diminishing your hand size. Albeit at the cost of my own answers in-hand. Turn 7 saw Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker and a Counterflux answer to Oblivion Ring . Turn 10 you sacrificed half your permanents to Liliana of the Veil ultimate and the rest to Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker ultimate. From this point, I used Bolas to blow up anything you played. I dropped Jace, Memory Adept turn 14, and coupled with two Nephalia Drownyard , you were milled out. The second game went similarly to this, with an early board presence putting me on the ropes. Staff of Nin put in work in game two, helping me take care of a bunch of your lower-defense threats as I awaited the arrival of either Bolas or Jace. Once one of them was on the field I had the game in-hand.

Game 2. Vs. Vexing Defiance (You win 2-1)

This one is much simpler; your deck is able to chump-block and Extort until Treasury Thrull takes the field and brings stuff back from the dead. In the game Gruul won you just had horrible draws.

Game 3. Vs. J.R.R. Controlken (You win 2-1)

This was kind of a game of Combo deck Verses Combo deck and your deck just out-combos mine. you have more Extort triggers and lifelink cards that keep you going. You also have those pesky Oblivion Ring that keep my Assemble the Legion from doing its job. If I could sideboard, I'd have sideboarded in more control-oriented answers and perhaps the results would have been different. I dunno.

Final play-test Vs. God ain't on your side (you lose 2-0)

Similar to my Grixis list, my Esper list is also extremely control-y and simply prevents your deck from ever getting its combo going.

I think what we have here is the stereotypical Combo beats Aggro beats Control beats combo. I do honestly like your deck and it's pretty good at what its supposed to do. However, your hardest matchups will probably always be the control due to their ability to prevent your combo and Extort triggers from going off. I don't run an Orzhov deck, so unfortunately I have no advice on sideboard options to help with the control matches.

I hope this was more along the lines of what you were looking for in terms of feedback. :)

Definitely thanks

What's your reasoning behind not MBing Pontiff of Blight ?

As a fellow Orzhovian, I would like to commend you on a simple, yet elegant design. +1

It is worth noting that the extort mechanic can still fare well against control matches. Counterspells can prevent your casts from resolving, but extort will still trigger on casts. Bounce mechanics give you an extra chance to extort. The life gain / life loss can pressure the control player to make a play. Board wipes will diminish the pace of extorts, though.

Not bad mate, I would like to go against it with a few of my decks. My Blood Debt and RDW. I am also making a new 2 new decks R/U/W Superfriends and a G/W Populate. 5/5 Wurms and 3/3 and life gain.

Great deck!

Go for it x8bitGangsta

I saw the posts bemoaning the loss of Sanguine Bond

I'll just remind everybody that Vizkopa Guildmage and Exquisite Blood are both standard legal, and provide a kill shot about a turn sooner than Sanguine Bond and Exquisite Blood .

Just to clarify the Extort mechanic a little more (in case there was any confusion).

1). Player 1 casts the spell. (Puts it on the stack, pays costs, etc.) Extort triggers. 2). Extort is added to the stack. 3). Other Players get priority. 4). Extort resolves. Player 1 chooses to pay the mana. Each opponent of his loses 1 life and he gains that much life. 5). Other Players get priority again. 6). The spell resolves.

By this account, if the Extort is not triggered immediately, it loses it's place in the stack; i.e. you cannot wait for a response from your opponent via counterspell or what-have-you, you cast spell and then extort trigger immediately following during your priority. Otherwise, if I were to, say, cast Blind Obedience with a Basilica Screecher in play, and wait for my opponents response via counterspell or to allow the spell to resolve, I've lost the point in which Extort triggered and allowed me the option to pay for it...

Of coarse he was just saying even if its countered you can still extort it when its cast

@bluemax87 - Refer to the following for clarification with detailed rules discussion.

It depends on the timing and how things are declared, but you can still Extort. This has come up in FNM and have verified this with multiple judges.

So, here's my question, in a deck that's going to require some serious mana coverage. Why no Crypt Ghast ? I've been sitting on my extort deck, which is very similar to this. I've only got two in there...but when they're out and a Pontiff is out as well. It's heinous, to say the least. It completely ramps up your extort capability. I'm working on a mono black extort to capitalize on this.

Will put the answer in the description. Been asked too many times.

One, I know Hexproof doesn't stop terminus. L2 Sarcasm :)

Two you have zero ramp.

Three Thrull Parasite is garbage and a waste of slots. Zero Value.

Four, You have lost your mind in my humble opinion when it comes to your Artifacts and Ethereal Armor .

I'd really like to understand exactly what you plan on Extorting out of this gaggle of creatures but it makes my brain hurt. When your ready to look at a better Extort model Merciless Orzhov

Good Luck to you in FNM.

Extort can be activated /triggered once you cast a spell, regardless of its resolution.

They can Dissipate till their little hearts content, However they are still taking loss of life.

Proper Extorting:

Tap your mana for your spell, Declare Casting of Spell and immediately Declare activation of Extort triggers. At this point you may Pass priority. or not. However, if your playing control you need to put on your big boy pants and remind them that they do not have priority until you have added everything to the stack for that Spell+Extort. Then they can Psychic Strike and Dissipate like lil heathen sissies.

Really? Thrull Parasite is useless? are you mentally retarded? Thrull Parasite is the ONLY 1 drop extorter available today. And it doesn't ever lose value, even late game a Thrull Parasite can be dropped for 1 and extorted with the rest of your mana. He can take counters off planeswalkers, Predator Ooze , Champion of the Parish , etc.

See description for lack of Crypt Ghast . While your still tapped out for putting him out I will start extorting before you.

This deck has 11 enchantments in it, making any creature permanently buffed for 1 mana for +1/+1 for EVERY enchantment I have out and first strike. This on any of these creatures, (especially Vampire Nighthawk is broken) not to mention I can extort the shit out it.

Look, I'm not going to argue over the internet. You want to run it? Fine. lol

You will lose him blocking. You have nothing to negate the attack. You may as well just build Extort / Pillow Fort and call it a day.

Agro is going to wreck this. I'm sorry man. We both want Orzhov to be "a thing". Since its 100% a synergy based mechanic you have to get it on the table asap. Even my build isn't finished or correct.

Hes not really meant to be a blocker, but he can be with a Ring of Xathrid equipped, netting him buffs every turn and me an early body with which I can chump block multiple times with, whilst attacking with my pumped nighthawk, or any other creature.

just throwing this out there.... i HATE extort decks... -_- Extort is HORRIBLY broken in 2HG(which I play a LOT of). and there is no answer for extort in the colors that i like to use... :(

on the other hand... i do kinda like the deck... :D good luck with it. :D

How about you and I start over. We both are quite passionate about our builds. The issue is we have a difference as to what constitutes value in Orzhov Extort.

You find value in keeping your creatures alive and strengthening them. Which I can respect regardless of my lack of understanding it. I take the approach of them being expendable. through the use of Willing. in an attempt to create an artificial board wipe.

In previous versions I have combo'd Exquisite Blood with Killing Wave with great success. However, Casting a Killing wave for 9 (Crypt Ghast Ramped) sucks that you have to wait till turn 5/6 to guarantee they will sacrifice everything. I have looked at Lily OtDR at her targeted mutilate and mutilate itself. Sometimes board wiping is needed, sometimes its not. Its something that has to be side boarded and you play accordingly.

Based on my current build. Opening hand should be Crypt Ghast , 2-3 Land , Tithe Drinker , Vampire Nighthawk, Bump in the night or Ready / Willing.

I have turn 2,3,4,5 spells lined up. based on probability of card draw.

Anything X4 in your deck you have a 60% probability to draw it opening hand or turn 1. anything X3 of , you have a 40% chance. x2 24% Chance. x1 16% Chance.

Of course all of these numbers increase as you draw cards. By turn 7 I should see everything I need at least once.

Your not retarded. You know what your doing. We just are going about the same thing differently. So how about instead of being dicks to one another we work together and MAYBE,. JUST MAYBE, Orzhov Extort can actually work well in standard.

Sounds like a plan, I see now how it could work for you, however, you play a more risky game of percentage while I play a safer more controlled version. It could work for you, but, with my bad luck it would never. See, I had to build this around my bad luck too, which if you look into the old comments you'll see someone said "even the bad hands look good" I had to make it that way. My luck is just that bad.

So i just got my brain stomped in about my deck by someone we could all trust. I will update the new build tomorrow. But! its running x4 Thrull Parasite lol

Roflmao

Updated Merciless Orzhov