http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/pat-cox-talks-orzhov/
“Just tell her we broke it.” -BenS

As you may have heard, it was a real pain in the ass to get to Grand Prix Fort Worth. My girlfriend was wondering why I would go through so much trouble just to attend a GP, and I suppose Ben’s proposed response sums it up. We’d come up with this great Orzhov deck, and I’d be damned if I wasn’t going to play it.

(She just asked, “broke what?” when I showed her this article. Good thing I went with a more detailed response at the time.)

On Naming Conventions

I never liked the name Boros. Sure, it is fine to label Paul Rietzl’s Paris deck as Boros. But White Weenie with two red cards is suddenly Boros? That is asinine. However, now that we also have a White Weenie deck splashing two (ish) black cards, I guess we can’t call them both White Weenie. For the purposes of this article, let’s just call them Boros and Orzhov. They, like Death and Taxes, are still just White Weenie decks, though.

From Boros to Orzhov

After my 10th place finish with Boros in GP Albuquerque, I saw no reason not to play the same deck for GP Fort Worth. LSV was not a believer prior to Albuquerque, but after watching a lot of my matches there, he was on board. I suggested we try to get BenS on the Boros train, since assumably (#shitBenSsays) he would just play it a ton on MTGO and tune it for us. This plan worked perfectly. I should be some sort of Magic manager.

For reference, here is what I ran in Albuquerque:

Main Deck
4 Boros Elite
4 Dryad Militant
4 Soldier of the Pantheon
4 Precinct Captain
2 Imposing Sovereign
1 Azorius Arrester
4 Daring Skyjack
4 Banisher Priest
4 Brave the Elements
1 Spear of Heliod
4 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
2 Boros Charm
4 Temple of Triumph
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Mutavault
10 Plains
Sideboard
2 Boros Charm
1 Gideon, Champion of Justice
1 Burning Earth
2 Electrickery
2 Mizzium Mortars
2 Pacifism
1 Glare of Heresy
1 Spear of Heliod
3 Fiendslayer Paladin
Our main concern was how to improve the Mono-Black Devotion matchup. Play more Pacifisms? Sideboard lands and Assemble the Legion? Red didn’t afford a lot of options.

After a few days, our friend (and last GP Fort Worth finalist) Orrin Beasley and I came up with the idea of trying Orzhov. You can only reasonably splash red or black because scry lands are great and guildgates suck, so other colors weren’t considered. Why Orzhov? Boros Charm really only shines against control, so why not play a Charm that is better against everything else? Plus you get Dark Betrayal to help with our goal of improving the black matchup.

Our first cut at the deck just switched Boros Charm to Orzhov Charm, Mizzium Mortars to Doom Blade, Electrickery to Profit // Loss, and jammed in some Sin Collectors. This deck was fine, but drastically worse against Esper.

Luis, Orrin, and I immediately started tinkering with Orzhov, while BenS took the surprisingly methodical approach of playing Plain-Jane-No-Splash White Weenie for a few days to figure out where the holes were. Ben isn’t a Google Docs scientist, so he then suggested we cut the Frontline Medic from a three-week-old tab, and asked us about trying Orzhov, which already had its own tab.

Orzhov Charm improved the Blue and Black Devotion match-ups an appreciable amount, but it made us much softer to control decks. The Sin Collectors alone weren’t cutting it. Being a preemptive Boros Charm is nice, but it’d be even nicer if your discard took Blood Baron and Jace. This is how we ended up with the Thoughtseizes.

The big breakthrough came when BenS wondered if Xathrid Necromancer could be good, and the rest of us essentially said, “holy sh*t, that’s the best thing I ever heard.”

Incidentally, by playing all the best white beaters, you are playing a bunch of Humans. Out of the 27 creatures in the main deck, 23 are Humans. Why couldn’t they just print Human Militant?

Creature type counts aside, why is Necromancer good? Well Mono-Black is trying to kill all your guys and grind you out, and Necromancer makes that plan a lot worse. Also, it is a threat that you can play into Supreme Verdict against control, which I’m always interested in. See: Gideon in my GP Albuquerque deck.

Anyway, here is where Orrin and I ended up:

Main Deck
8 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Orzhov Guildgate
4 Mutavault
4 Temple of Silence
4 Godless Shrine
4 Soldier of the Pantheon
4 Dryad Militant
4 Boros Elite
4 Daring Skyjek
4 Precinct Captain
3 Imposing Sovereign
2 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
4 Banisher Priest
2 Spear of Heliod
4 Brave the Elements
3 Orzhov Charm
Sideboard
1 Profit Loss
3 Dark Betrayal
2 Doom Blade
3 Xathrid Necromancer
2 Sin Collector
2 Thoughtseize
2 Fiendslayer Paladin
This list differed slightly from that of BenS, Wrapter, and LSV because I didn’t want to give up Ajani, Caller of the Pride. BenS argued that the deck needs the reach from Ajani less, thanks to the additional removal. This is true, but “needs it less” and “doesn’t need it” aren’t the same thing. I did win several games with Ajani during the tournament by jumping, and the ability to grow a single guy continually helps break board stalls. Spear of Heliod doesn’t give you this flexibility.

The list Ben made Top 4 with is:

Main Deck
8 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Orzhov Guildgate
4 Mutavault
4 Temple of Silence
4 Godless Shrine
4 Soldier of the Pantheon
4 Dryad Militant
4 Boros Elite
4 Daring Skyjek
4 Precinct Captain
3 Imposing Sovereign
2 Xathrid Necromancer
4 Banisher Priest
2 Spear of Heliod
4 Brave the Elements
3 Orzhov Charm
Sideboard
2 Profit Loss
3 Dark Betrayal
3 Doom Blade
2 Xathrid Necromancer
2 Sin Collector
2 Thoughtseize
1 Orzhov Charm
Play These Black Cards

You can find a discussion of the shell of the deck in my Boros article here, so I won’t cover that again. But let’s talk about the new additions.

Orzhov charm
Orzhov Charm is what got us interested in black in the first place. Despite seeing no play previously, it is one of the most versatile removal spells in Standard. Unlike Doom Blade and Ultimate Price, it can kill Nightveil Spectre. The life loss isn’t totally irrelevant, but certainly less so in a deck where you are the aggressor. This also makes Soldier of the Pantheon’s lifegain a bit more relevant than in Boros, though it admittedly still doesn’t matter much.

The return a creature ability is actually fairly relevant, as well. Not only does it make Charm not a dead card against control, but it means that even if you have nothing to kill against a creature deck, you can potentially add to your board. I only used the bounce ability once (to return/replay a creature blocked by a Fiendslayer Paladin while alpha striking), but I won’t complain about more options.

Xathrid necromancer
As mentioned previously, this was the big “ah ha” moment for the deck. Xathrid Necromancer is meant to come in against both Black Devotion and Esper, though it can have other applications such as against red decks with a lot of burn. Sadly it is not good against Anger of the Gods, but you can’t have everything I suppose.

When Necromancer is good, it is great. I watched a game where Wrapter had eleven tokens off of two Necromancers. I had an opponent Shrivel away three guys, only to read Necromancer and sigh. Don’t forget that your Mutavault is a Human too.

Unfortunately, Necromancer isn’t so great against UW Control, which is gaining popularity over Esper. It is still awesome against Supreme Verdict, but none of their other removal actually kills things, instead exiling them. I wasn’t sold on the card in the main deck already, and I think the weakness against UW cements its place in the sideboard for me.

Another reason I don’t like Necromancer as much maindeck is that its primary purpose is against Mono-Black Devotion, where it is better after sideboard because they bring in additional removal.

Doom bladeDark betrayal
Nearly any creature that anyone plays will: a) be better than your creatures, b) cost more than the thing you are killing it with. These spells allow you to remove blockers and keep attacking. It is unfortunate that the removal is so conditional, meaning you have to sideboard different spells for different decks, but you have the room in your sideboard.

If you want to have some amount of overlap, you can play an Ultimate Price, since it kills things against both Blue Devotion and Black Devotion, but it doesn’t kill everything in either deck. I’d stick with the three Dark Betrayals at least. It is efficient enough that you can almost always play another spell the turn you cast it, and a large portion of the games you win against Mono-Black are by coming out of the gates hard and fast.

profitloss
Loss is Electrickery, and Profit counters Electrickery. Not a bad deal for a single card! You want to bring this in against the mirror, the red decks with X/1s, and Mono-Blue Devotion. I also was bringing one in against control, since it kills Elspeth tokens or helps you kill a Jace by negating his +1 ability.

ThoughtseizeSin collector
The exact split of these spells is debatable, but you want some combination of both. As mentioned earlier, Thoughtseize takes a larger variety of problematic cards against control. However, the most problematic card is Supreme Verdict, and it cannot be overlooked that Sin Collector comes with a body.

I was siding in the Thoughtseizes against Mono-Black, though only the Sin Collectors if they had the green splash with Gaze of Granite. I also brought in a single Thoughtseize against Mono-Blue Devotion, because you need to side out all of the Dryad Militants (due to Tidebinder Mage), and I only had three cards for the matchup.

Fiendslayer paladin
Ben, Luis, and Wrapter ended up cutting this card at the last minute, and I can’t say they were wrong to do so. I didn’t side it once during the tournament. When it’s good, it’s great, but aggressive red decks have largely fallen out of favor. Necromancer also does a reasonable impression of Fiendslayer against those decks.

Grand Prix Fort Worth

In retrospect, I probably should’ve just accepted my fate when my flight was canceled. But the last time I missed a GP due to weather was GP Miami. I’d worked with Reid Duke on a Jund list that I thought was great, wasn’t able to go, and then Reid won the tournament. I thought our deck was even better this time, and didn’t want to miss out again. Irrational? Probably.

For those of you who don’t know, a massive winter storm hit the midwest last weekend. The very bottom of the affected area was Dallas/Fort Worth. By the time I was flying to the GP, the storm was over, but none of the planes going there from DC had ever arrived in DC in the first place. My flight was predictably canceled, but there were flights in the morning, so not all was lost.

I went online to switch to a morning flight, but my itinerary was straight-up not on American Airlines’ website anymore. So I called them. I got an automated message to the effect of, “too many people are calling right now, goodbye -click-.” I certainly do not blame American Airlines for the weather or having an increased call volume, but what in the hell? Neither their website nor their phone number can reschedule me? That is horrible.

Luckily, I work 10 minutes from National Airport, so I just drove over to talk to an agent there. This went relatively quickly, and I was rescheduled for the next morning. Roughly 30 minutes after returning to work, that flight was canceled as well. I tried to call American again, but got the same message and hang up. Four days later this same automated message is still all I get when I call trying to get a refund. American Airlines has great customer service.

I ended up instead flying Southwest out of Baltimore to the farther away of the two Dallas airports, but I was glad enough to have made it at all. I arrived to perhaps the worst road conditions I have ever seen. I assume part of it is that they don’t have many plows in Dallas, but I’m not actually sure plows do anything about giant sheets of ice anyway.

Apparently cabs were barely running, but luckily my friend Mike Bennett lives in Texas and was able to pick me up. Also luckily, Bennett, like me, used to live in Blacksburg, Virginia, and was therefore used to driving in winter conditions. It took awhile, but we made it to Fort Worth without incident.

Luis and Ben were delayed even more than me, so our plan of finalizing the deck when we met up Friday night went out the window. We texted about it for awhile, but couldn’t come to a consensus and I was tired, so I submitted and went to sleep. This is how we ended up with the slightly different lists.

The tournament started off great for me: I ended Day 1 at 8-1. I narrowly missed Top 8 after this start in Albuquerque, so I was feeling good when I went to bed Saturday night.

Sunday didn’t go as well. In the last four rounds, I had something like 6-7 zero land hands, including mulls to 4 and 5 in the same match. I also made a mistake by not attacking with a Mutavault in my last turn of the penultimate round, and got punished by a topdecked Nylea, God of the Hunt. I ended up in 56th.

The deck did great overall, though. BenS made it Top 4, and Orrin and Wrapter both Top 16'd. Not too shabby for only five pilots.

Aside: I know I mentioned this in a previous article, but I still don’t get how I keep seeing people say “X is the current best player,” and X isn’t BenS. I guess people just forget because he stopped going to GPs when he had eight finishes before anyone else had five? Admittedly, basing skill evaluations purely on results is silly, but he also just plays better than everyone else.

Should You Play Orzhov Right Now?

Well, you should certainly play it over Boros. If you expect a ton of Esper, it is still probably better to just maindeck Xathrid Necromancer than have Boros Charm.

As to whether you should be playing any White Weenie variant: I think that depends on how much UW Control you expect. The matchup seems like a huge pain. If you have any suggestions on how to improve it, please let me know in the comments section.

I wouldn’t change the main deck at all, but would remove the Fiendslayers from the board for additional removal, like my teammates’ list. I think Ajani is too good to cut—it pained me to go down to only two copies. Though we did jokingly agree that whichever version had the higher finish was better, so I suppose I can’t fault you if you maindeck the Necromancers.

Wrap-up

By Sunday, the same storm had made its way to DC, so my flight home was canceled. In my three consecutive weeks of GP travel, this was my second time missing my flight home on Sunday. Which, oh well, sh*t happens, but I’m certainly excited to be home for the next month. That being said, I know I’ll miss it soon enough, so excuse me while I go book a flight to GP Sacramento.

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http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=11543

Return to Orzhov in Standard
Feature Article from Adam Yurchick
Adam Yurchick
12/10/2013 10:00:00 AM
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It has been two months since Pro Tour Theros, where the Standard metagame as we know it debuted. The next set in the block, “Born of the Gods,” is now two months away from release, so this particular format is halfway through its lifespan. In the information age, Magic decklists from the multiple, weekly, competitive tournament circuits, including the TCGplayer.com MaxPoint series, are widely available to everyone on the internet. In addition, the competitive and fast-paced Magic Online metagame is operating 24/7, all the while providing top decklists to the masses. This creates the perfect storm for a rapidly evolving global metagame; the ever-increasing number of Magic websites and their teams of writers, many of whom digest this information (myself included), only increase awareness further. The widespread popularity of social media in the Magic community adds yet another form of information exchange and Magic technology migration. Top-tier strategies are apparent and widely adopted, and in turn metagames evolve faster now than ever before.

At this advanced point in the metagame decks become further tuned, and players jockey for edge through careful card choices and deck selection. Grand Prix Dallas showcased this in a variety of ways. Leading into the Grand Prix, it was apparent that the top dogs were Devotion decks and Azorius based control. Monoblack Devotion had dominated the last two American Grand Prix, while Monoblue Devotion sailed to victory in Vienna. Dallas would be a window into how far, or how little, the Standard metagame had evolved.

After the dust settled in Dallas, it was an Orzhov deck on top. This particular version was first piloted by Andreas Ganz to a Top 16 finish in Vienna, and Raymond Gutierrez took the identical maindeck to victory in Dallas.

Orzhov Control by Marlon Gutierrez
Finished 1st Place at 2013 Grand Prix Dallas - 12/7
Main Deck
Sideboard
4 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
4 Desecration Demon
4 Pack Rat
1 Sin Collector
Creatures [13]
4 Devour Flesh
2 Duress
4 Hero's Downfall
2 Last Breath
4 Thoughtseize
2 Ultimate Price
4 Underworld Connections
Spells [22]
4 Godless Shrine
4 Mutavault
1 Plains
12 Swamp
4 Temple of Silence
Lands [25]
Deck Total [60]



3 Dark Betrayal
1 Doom Blade
1 Duress
3 Lifebane Zombie
3 Pharika's Cure
1 Pithing Needle
1 Shrivel
2 Sin Collector
Sideboard [15]




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This Orzhov control deck is an evolutionary branch off of Monoblack Devotion: a deck that owes its livelihood to Thoughtseize. The deck removes the Devotion aspect entirely, swapping out Grey Merchant of Asphodel for the hatebear-turned-Baneslayer Angel that is Blood Baron of Vizkopa. This metagame choice presents a very powerful maindeck card against much of the metagame. It is a great hoser against Monoblack Devotion, it presents a huge problem for White aggro, and it dodges all of the targeted removal from the Azorius and Esper control decks. Blood Baron of Vizkopa is also a better threat on its own than is Grey Merchant of Asphodel, an important fact given that opponents are becoming increasingly capable of removing monoblack's devotion permanents.

Lacking the need for devotion, the deck does away completely with Nightveil Specter. This creates room for more disruptive elements, including Duress and Last Breath. This change was clearly a great metagame call, especially given that the Standard metagame has warped itself to beat Nightveil Specter much like it warped around Boros Reckoner after the release of Gatecrash.

A prime example of this metagame warping is the rise of Last Breath. Previously, Last Breath has occasionally been seen in control decks, but the cat is out of the bag. There were 13 copies in the Top 8 of Dallas, most of those in maindecks. Last Breath is a premier answer to Nightveil Specter as well as the two main high-end devotion threats from the top two decks, Master of Waves and Grey Merchant of Asphodel. Last Breath is a good bet going forward and a card I would look to play in any controlling white deck.

The best home for Last Breath is Azorius control. It provides the deck a critical removal spell in the Azorius colors, meaning it does need to turn to black for the job. This allows the deck to stay more consistent while playing a stronger manabase. By leveraging its powerful card advantage and removal elements, Azorius control was perfectly positioned to attack the devotion-based metagame in Dallas.

Control decks thrive when the metagame is known. The metagame has become stratified, the cream has risen, and the control decks can configure themselves to best skim off their share. I am not surprised to see three Azorius control decks reach the Top 8 in Dallas. Huey Jensen piloted this Andrew Cuneo designed deck all the way to the finals, and given their pedigree it's the Azorius list I would most readily imitate.

Azorius Control by William Jensen
Finished 2nd Place at 2013 Grand Prix Dallas - 12/7
Main Deck
Sideboard
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
3 Jace, Architect of Thought
Planeswalkers [4]
4 Azorius Charm
4 Detention Sphere
4 Dissolve
4 Divination
1 Elixir of Immortality
2 Quicken
1 Ratchet Bomb
4 Sphinx's Revelation
4 Supreme Verdict
2 Syncopate
Spells [30]
4 Azorius Guildgate
4 Hallowed Fountain
8 Island
2 Mutavault
8 Plains
Lands [26]
Deck Total [60]



1 Blind Obedience
3 Fiendslayer Paladin
3 Gainsay
1 Jace, Memory Adept
3 Last Breath
2 Negate
1 Pithing Needle
1 Ratchet Bomb
Sideboard [15]




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Compared to the other Azorius builds in the Top 8, Huey's deck is much more controlling, as is the style of Cuneo control decks. In theory this makes the deck superior against other control decks; this is a believable story given the deck was designed by the man known on Magic Online as “Gainsay.” This anti-control slant may help make up for some of the edges typically lost by Azorius to Esper, and it also seems to make the deck better at controlling Monoblack Devotion, which shares many elements with the archetypal “control” deck.

Where the other Azorius decks play the typical control configuration of an AEtherling and a pair of Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Huey plays just one Elspeth, Sun's Champion as a win condition.

While the other two control decks had just one Divination between the two decks, Huey plays the full four in the maindeck, along with a pair of Quicken to expedite the card drawing.

While the others are content with a playset of Dissolve, Huey uses two Syncopate.

The lack of win conditions may be startling, but for that Huey plays a copy of Elixir of Immortality. Knowing that many Sphinx's Revelation control mirrors come down to decking in the end, Cuneo's deck plays a brutally effective way to this battle. In the matchups where decking is not an issue, say against the aggressive decks, the bauble is fine as pure lifegain. It also has the useful effect of re-seeding a deck with powerful cards.

Huey also plays two Mutavault. These are great at competing against opposing planeswalkers, but they also serve as a back-up win condition for after the game is completely under control, an end-game this deck is capable of achieving.

Most interesting is the decision not to play a single scry land. I have considered these to be excellent and try to use them whenever possible, but it looks like they just aren't necessary. Cuneo has clearly determined that the deck is consistent enough without scry lands and instead plays more lands that enter the battlefield untapped. Cuneo's faith paired with Huey's results speak loudly about their deck.

----------

When this Standard format was in its early stages, Patrick Chapin designed a BW Aggro/Control deck to attack the perceived Pro Tour metagame. Patrick played the deck to a ninth place finish, while Paul Rietzl used the deck to reach the Top 8.

Orzhov Midrange by Paul Rietzl
Finished 5th - 8th Place at Pro Tour Theros
Main Deck
Sideboard
1 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
4 Desecration Demon
3 Obzedat, Ghost Council
4 Precinct Captain
2 Sin Collector
4 Soldier of the Pantheon
Creatures [18]
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
Planeswalkers [1]
3 Doom Blade
4 Hero's Downfall
3 Read the Bones
4 Thoughtseize
1 Whip of Erebos
Spells [15]
4 Godless Shrine
1 Mutavault
4 Orzhov Guildgate
7 Plains
6 Swamp
4 Temple of Silence
Lands [26]
Deck Total [60]



1 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
1 Devour Flesh
1 Doom Blade
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
3 Fiendslayer Paladin
1 Last Breath
2 Lifebane Zombie
1 Pharika's Cure
1 Pithing Needle
2 Sin Collector
1 Underworld Connections
Sideboard [15]




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This deck was meant to attack a specific Pro Tour metagame during the infancy of the format, and it was quite successful in doing so. As the format has evolved the deck has faded away in favor of more focused strategies, but there is much to learn from it.

The deck revolved around Thoughtseize, which he considered the best card in the format (a position he still holds, and a subject he discussed during his SCG coverage last weekend). Pat complemented Thoughtseize with some additional disruption elements, namely Hero's Downfall, to create a complete control package. He paired that with aggressive elements, a requirement for actually winning the game.

Pat used a mix of creatures to achieve victory, but the backbone of this creature base started at the bottom with the one- and two-drop creatures. Draws that combine early aggression with targeted disruption is a strong plan for any game of Magic and a strategy seen time and time again. This is the general strategy employed by decks like Modern and Legacy Jund, which pair Thoughtseize with cheap threats like Tarmogoyf and Deathrite Shaman.

Pat turned to white creatures because pound-for-pound, they offer the most bang for their buck, and they do not require any sort of synergy. Where other one-drops either hit too soft or come with awkward drawbacks, white offers one-drops with benefits. Soldier of Pantheon is part Enemy of the Guildpact, part Soul Warden, and entirely Savannah Lions. This high-powered one drop attacks well and blocks well in the early turns, while the protection makes it especially useful against the metagame.

The prevalence of hybrid cards in the metagame, in no small part due to their easy access because of their dual-colored nature, makes Soldier of Pantheon particularly potent. Soldier of Pantheon completely dominates in combat many of the universally played creatures in Standard, including but not limited to Rakdos Cackler, Frostburn Weird, and Burning-Tree Emissary. It also attacks past Nightveil Specter and Boros Reckoner. The lifegain aspect of the card is also quite effective against the metagame and can lead to a considerable amount of extra value, value that often breaches the gap between winning and losing. From a theoretical, deck-building perspective, the lifegain from Soldier of Pantheon balances out the life loss from Thoughtseize.

Going further up the curve to the two-drop slot comes Precinct Captain. This card was a common sight in Return to Ravnica Block constructed, so Chapin was aware of its potential in his own deck. First strike allows Precinct Captain to control the battlefield against other small creatures in either the aggressive or defensive role. On the offensive Precinct Captain is capable of creating a stream of 1/1 token value. Anyone who remembers Bitterblossom should be able to picture what Precinct Captain is capable of. This ability to win games by itself is what makes Precinct Captain so good, and particularly stellar combined with Chapin's removal suite.

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Chapin also employed Sin Collector, which functionally is Savannah Lions with Duress tacked on for a one mana premium. Sin Collector is a dose of discard plus a source of aggression, making it tailor made for the deck. Sin Collector is quite a good card in general, and for an idea of how good it actually is, consider that it is played as part of the creature toolbox in Birthing Pod decks in Modern, which has access to over ten years' worth of cards.

This assortment of efficient creatures provided a backbone of board presence for Chapin's BW Midrange deck. These creatures are important for interacting with opposing creatures or attacking the opponent. These creatures are a nuisance for the opponent, but their low cost makes them difficult or unprofitable to deal with from a tempo standpoint. Precinct Captain simply demands removal from the opponent, but spending three mana on Hero's Downfall to do so is inefficient by definition.

The early creatures also draw resources and removal from the opponent. By pressuring the opponent and forcing interaction, these early drops create the opportunity for the expensive, powerful creatures in the deck to reign free.

In days after the Pro Tour, BW saw popularity online and in paper, but as the weeks went out the deck seemed to slowly fade out of existence. Focused, synergy-based strategies like the devotion decks have proven to be the best, while Azorius Control fills the role of true control deck by leveraging the most powerful cards in the format, Supreme Verdict and Sphinx's Revelation.

Chapin's BW deck does a little bit of everything, but at the end of the day it is no more than a rock deck. Half of the deck is disruption and removal, while the other half is creatures, none of them synergistic and some of them rather clunky.

All this being said, Pat was certainly onto something with his deck, and it is interesting how the metagame has come full circle to the point where Orzhov is now so effective. It as if the two halves of Patrick's deck have each spawned their own decks.

The Orzhov control deck that won in Dallas is the extension of the black half of his deck. Thoughtseize and Hero's Downfall are the prime plan, while Blood Baron of Vizkopa has replaced Obzedat, Ghost Council as finisher of choice. A set of Desecration Demon can be found in both decks.

The white aspect of Chapin's deck intrigues me. I played his deck for a while online, and while I did not excel, I truly enjoyed the aggressive aspects of it. Earlier I wrote in detail about the white weenies in his deck, and how effective they were because of their individual strength. Recently, the rise of Orzhov Aggro in the metagame is more proof that Chapin was on the right path. Rather than mess around with disruption, this Orzhov deck is heavy on the aggression.

Orzhov Aggro by Ben Stark
Finished 3rd - 4th Place at 2013 Grand Prix Dallas - 12/7
Main Deck
Sideboard
4 Banisher Priest
4 Boros Elite
4 Daring Skyjek
4 Dryad Militant
3 Imposing Sovereign
4 Precinct Captain
4 Soldier of the Pantheon
2 Xathrid Necromancer
Creatures [29]
4 Brave the Elements
3 Orzhov Charm
2 Spear of Heliod
Spells [9]
4 Godless Shrine
4 Mutavault
1 Orzhov Guildgate
8 Plains
1 Swamp
4 Temple of Silence
Lands [22]
Deck Total [60]



3 Dark Betrayal
3 Doom Blade
1 Orzhov Charm
2 Profit // Loss
2 Sin Collector
2 Thoughtseize
2 Xathrid Necromancer
Sideboard [15]




View a Sample Hand!


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This deck plays a near identical creature base to the Boros Aggro deck that has been popping up. In fact, in the comments of a previous article, the merits of opting for black instead of red were discussed, and it seemed as if the deck was well positioned. Ben Stark piloted this list to the Top 8, while Josh Utter-Leyton played it into the Top 16.

The core of this deck is the same core that Chapin used, Soldier of the Pantheon and Precinct Captain, which I discussed in-depth earlier. This deck pushes the envelope a lot further and gives those creatures a whole team to battle with. Boros Elite and Dryad Militant give the deck blazing fast starts. As far as additional two-drops, Daring Skyjek is aggressive and evasive, while Imposing Sovereign gives the deck a bit of disruption without toning down the creature pressure.

A key draw to black is Xathrid Necromancer, which serves a pseudo-lord for the multiple humans in the deck. The card advantage generated from the two maindeck and two sideboard Xathrid Necromancer is great against just about everyone opponent, especially Monoblack Devotion, Azorius Control, and other rush aggro decks.

Pushing Orzhov towards the aggro extreme provides a card that did not make sense for Chapin, Orzhov Charm. This is among the most flexible and powerful removal spells in Standard because it can destroy any targeted creature for just two mana: something no other removal spell can claim. The loss of life, which would be too high price to pay for a control deck, is more negligible out of an aggressive deck. Orzhov Charm also has the mode of reanimating a dead creature or lifting a creature out of the path of removal, both useful modes for this white weenie deck.

This Orzhov deck has been pushed to such an aggressive extreme that playing Thoughtseize as an answer to opposing threats no longer makes sense because it is simply better to play more threats of its own. The deck still has access to Thoughtseize out of the sideboard, so it can come in when most effective. The sideboard also brings a pair of Sin Collector, another relic of the Chapin deck.

One important thing of note is that the Orzhov aggro decks plays a full playset of Mutavault, compared to Chapin's one. This is made possible by the most focused and consistent manabase, a luxury the Chapin deck could not afford.

Standard is anything but solved or stale, and to be honest this tournament leaves me with more questions than answers. Neither of the supposed tier one decks, Monoblue and Monoblack Devotion, was star of the show. Monoblack just slipped into the Top 8, while Monoblue was completely absent. The rise of Azorius Control was bad news for Monoblue in Dallas, and three copies of the devotion deck in the Top 16 lead me to believe it faltered against Azorius in the later rounds of the event. It will be interesting to see how this trend develops. Orzhov Control looks interesting, and while it does not represent massive change, it signals that the metagame is evolving. Dallas is also another victory for White aggro, though it might bring about the rise of Orzhov and the decline of Boros. As for me, I'm still devoted to monoblack.

-Adam