Lithionlx

Thoughts? Comments?

Yes it sucks, so does this deck.

Cost and Cost. Thats the only thing stopping that.

Mark of Mutiny was perfect last night. Taking their largest threat then sacrificing it to Falkenrath or Cartel. I can't wait to do it to Thragtusk and get a 3/3 Beast for it. LOL

My New baby.
http://www.mtgvault.com/lithionlx/decks/orzhov-midrange/

Awesome. Now, There is a concept that you have to muster the constitution and courage to accept and learn. Or else you cannot fully understand what makes Orzhov have the potential to even be a "thing" in the first place.

it is called Tempo. Tempo has various definitions and interpretations. Especially in Magic. Because Tempo is not simply one "thing" it has applications in every part of the game.

Specifically the "Tempo" I am referring to is the same as what is defined in Chess. Causing your opponent to need more moves to accomplish a task that could have otherwise been done in less moves. In magic. This means board presence, control and manipulation. In chess it means not only presence but arrangement and accompaniment.

Presence, Control and Manipulation? Quite Orzhovian don't you think?

Presence:
Low Cost creatures that offer benefit via Deathtouch, Lifelink, Extort , Soul Tokens.

Control
Exquisite Blood, Blind Obedience, Crypt Ghast, Blood Baron of Vizkopa, Cartel Aristocrat, Blood Artist, Sin Collector.

Manipulation
Low Cost Spells
Smite, Tragic Slip, Bump in the Night,
and
Cartel Aristocrat, Sin Collector, Blood Artist, Crypt Ghast, Crypt Incursion, Blind Obedience.


Catching my Drift? You want to just drop mana on the table and every turn cast at least two spells. Two on theirs and two on yours. All of which extorted. Taxing them for making you have to cast spells. Taxing them for making you play your deck. you tap a land, means they are going to lose 1 and you gain 1. Incrementally taking their most precious resource.

Just a few more suggestions.
Remove the Tribute to Hunger all together. <-- do it. (yes, I know exactly what your going to say but do it)
+1 Smite , +1 Tragic slip +1 Bump in the night. <-- do it. Removal, Removal, Damage. Cheap, Cheap, Cheap,

Remove the High Priests and Kingpins pet. <-- do it.
+2 Blood Baron +3 Sign in Blood <--- do it. (You need a draw engine, You + No Cards in hand = Dead)
Or +1 the Screecher and +1 the Nighthawk and +3 Sign in Blood.

Remove Thrull Parasite for Doomed Traveler. <-- do it. ( 1) If you ever pay 2 life to remove a counter your a fool and your better off swinging at the planeswalker. 2) it will screw with your opponents head and force them into the wrong meta.) Not to mention the fact that he is 2 creatures for the low low price of 1 mana.

( Sideboard mechanic)
+3 Cartel Aristocrat +3 Lingering Souls +3 Blood Artist +3 Crypt Incursion +3 Sin Collector

Sac the souls to the Cartel swing unblockable and creature deaths = Blood Artist puts on his work boots.. Crypt Incursion is amazing against reanimator, Sin collector is Amazing versus Control.

Declare Blocks
Block using Souls and Cartel.
Smite a Blocked Creature
Sacrifice Souls that blocked to the Cartel and declare protection from color of choice.

+ Smite Blocked Creatures + tragic Slip for Morbid + Blood Artist Trigger = Opponent gets butt hurt.

XXMattXX , Take a look at some of my decks. I have been working on Orzhov competitively for a while.

Never run more than two Debt to the Deathless.
Drop the Devour Flesh and the Murder for Tribute to Hunger
Go to three Tragic Slips
Teysa is garbage, Replace her with Obzedat or Blood Baron. If she was a six drop she would be amazing.
Get rid of Marshall Law and Oblivion Ring for Exquisite Blood.
*Hint Exquisite Blood is the exact OPPOSITE effect of Vizcopa Guildmages Second Ability*
How do you think that would interact if you extorted for 1 ? :)

Get rid of Treasury Thrull, and Basilica Guards,
Drop in 3 Vampire Nighthawks.

There is a lot that you can do to make this work better. You have way to many extort triggers and not enough to stabilize after a board wipe quickly enough to recover.

Overall, a good start. Thin the heard some. Think "speed damage" (Bump in the Night)

http://www.mtgvault.com/lithionlx/decks/tempo-orzhov-v2/

Yeah, I am going to swap for the Nighthawks. It is just to much value. To ignore at this point. Previous to DMZ, I wouldnt have because I needed to keep enough extort triggers available.

VERSION 14: http://www.mtgvault.com/lithionlx/decks/merciless-orzhov-v14/

I wrecked this version entirely. Version 12: http://www.mtgvault.com/lithionlx/decks/merciless-orzhov-v12/

I am combo'ing Exquisite Blood with Killing Wave :) for every creature they keep. I get to keep one at no loss of life. When I killing Wave it is normally for 9 or more. EG: Turn 4 Crypt Ghast into a turn 5 Killing Wave for 9. Turn 6 I am consistently dropping Exquisite Blood.

That turn 5 Killing Wave though. If they keep one. I will do the same and keep Crypt Ghast. Version 8 consistently comes back stronger after the board wipe. I can easily get back to 22+ LP. I love that version of the deck. It just isn't strong enough to "get there" consistently. Against Agro? It wins every time. that killing wave for 9 just sticks it to their asses. Turn 5 they have blown their load. Jund Rites , more often than not. Esper, 50/50. Naya consistent wins.

Everyone at the LCS is leaving behind Jund and Naya and moving towards Boros, Azorius and splashing Selesnya.
I have several people slurping at my feet for the Armed // Dangerous 's and the Tajic, Blade of the Legions I pulled from the two pre-releases I did this weekend. My girl did even better pulling a play set of Savageborn Hydra , 2 Advent of the Wurm , 1 render silent, and 2 AEthering. go go buying Pre-Cons. Getting amazing pulls from highly coveted Boosters.

Cruncher, I like this build but im not sure about the curve. That 4 count of 9 cards. with only 24 in the 1/2 range has me nervous about getting mana screwed. 24/16 --- I'd like it to be 30 in the 1&2 range and 10 cards 3+ Mana.

If I drop the Pontiffs and the Blood Baron I can get that. Thoughts?

I have reworked again and again... I have two very different build directions below and I'm not sure which fork in the road to take.

http://www.mtgvault.com/lithionlx/decks/merciless-orzhov-v11a/

http://www.mtgvault.com/lithionlx/decks/merciless-orzhov-v11/

So i opted to be a school girl... Two Sorin@ $15.00 each. I now own the deck.

Cruncher, You know how this goes. I will tweak the hell out of this for weeks.

I made some changes. I did neg 1 Teysa & Pontiff.

Smite and Tragic Slip are gone in exchange for Ready // ( Willing ). Bump, Lingering, Sign are all +1 to 4 each.
added two Sorin.

Am I crazy for wanting to find a way to slip a couple Gift of Orzhova into this?
I have dropped some snipes @ $3.00 on several Sorin auctions.
LCS doesn't have any in stock. There is one shop a bit farther, but I don't feel like being raped like a school girl.

I <3 The idea of Sinister Possession. Tithing for Damage. that just seems to me something I may one day main board. Its one of those "I'm going to Troll you" cards that make your opponent think before attacking or blocking.
1/1 Spirit with Death Touch and Life Link swings and is blocked by a 2/1 with Sinister Possession. Lose a creature and take 2 and I gain 1. Value.

In this deck or any deck for that matter. You need to take each turn in a way to get the most value out of that turn. What constitutes value is a matter of the deck. Here the value is extorting off of cheap spells, Killing opponents creatures with great ease. Making your opponent suffer.

Any of this tickle?
Lyev Decree – Common
Riot Control – Common
Sin Collector – Uncommon
Debt to the Deathless – Uncommon
Maw of the Obzedat – Uncommon
Profit // Loss – Uncommon
Obzedat’s Aid – Rare
Blood Scrivener – Rare
Blood Baron of Vizkopa – Mythic

Edit:
P.S. - Better to buy two Sorin v. Tybalt? or Sorin? Whats the value in the Precon ?

Edit:
Holy shit.. It just hit me...

Pontiff ( Extort Generator)
Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts (token generator)
Lingering Souls
Beckon Apparition
Profit // Loss (SB and MAYBE at that...)
Ready // Willing (death touch)
Debt to the Deathless
Crypt Incursion (SB)
Sinister Possession
Blood Scrivener
Tithe Drinker (maybe)

Cruncher, now that the whole damn set is spoiled I made a list of what I am after. The rest of the set to me personally is kindling. I still can't believe a damn common has killed Reanimator and other from the graveyard combos. I am not even sure how the hell i am going to re-do Merciless Orzhov in order to accommodate Dragon's Maze yet. I can't do Teysa and the blood Baron. that WAY to high of curve. Syndic will be going away for Tithe Drinker. 2/1 Lifelink / Extort for 2. I may even have to re-org all together and run gift of orzhova or something. This set has made a major impact on the block. So far Orzhov and Dimir look paired well together. I'm hoping that with the two pre-release (orzhov/dimir) boxes and the two booster boxes I purchased I will have what I have yet to purchase on Ebay.

What so far I have purchased; has been play sets.
Lyev Decree – Common
Riot Control – Common
Crypt Incursion – Common (purchased)
Sinister Possession – Common
Pilfered Plans – Common
Orzhov Cluestone - Common
Dimir Cluestone - Common
Tithe Drinker – Common (purchased)
Sin Collector – Uncommon (purchased)
Warped Physique – Uncommon
Debt to the Deathless – Uncommon (Foil & purchased)
Maw of the Obzedat – Uncommon (purchased)
Far // Away – Uncommon
Profit // Loss – Uncommon (purchased)
Toil // Trouble – Uncommon
Blood Scrivener – Rare (purchased)
Pontiff of Blight – Rare (purchased)
Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts – Rare (purchased)
Breaking // Entering – Rare (purchased)
Ready // Willing – Rare (purchased)
Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker – Rare (purchased)
Obzedat’s Aid – Rare (purchased)
Lavinia of the Tenth – Rare (purchased)
Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch – Rare
Emmara Tandris – Rare
Legion’s Initiative - Mythic
Master of Cruelties - Mythic
Reap Intellect – Mythic (purchased)
Blood Baron of Vizkopa – Mythic (purchased)

**God Bless Pre-purchasing on Ebay**

Like the idea, but Smite is what keeps creatures on the board. Smite+Tragic Slip is just to powerful to take out.

Ultimate Trolling of Merciless Orzhov:
So last night at FNM, I was playing against Esper. Tamiyo was of course immediately O-ringed. Then he drops Jace on his next main phase. So he is +1'n his heart out on Jayce while I am just ignoring him. He keeps wondering why i'm not pinging Jace. He asks at every combat who i'm hitting; I say "you" and keep going at it. Extorts and Combat damage all the while i'm gaining and gaining. So Jace reached +8 and he sac's him. Opponent gets all kinds of excited. (We have more than a few people watching the match).

So a few of our mutual friends are standing behind him as he starts riffling through my deck. His face begins to grimace as he keeps digging and digging.

We all burst out laughing. Why? He's looking for a Win Condition that isn't there. He's muttering about how he's gonna go get my Griselbrand. Dude gets an O-ring and rings OF ALL THINGS one of my two Blind Obedience. People.. in Orzhov? The Deck IS the win condition.
TROLLLLOLOLOLOLOL

Cruncher... I <3 U. I have purchased a set.
Was he spoiled last night?

Increasing Confusion and Breeding Pools are the only expensive cards in the deck.