Table of Contents
Orzhov is the name given to the Black-White color combination. It takes the best of both of the colors, mashing them together to make for a fantastic color pairing. There are a lot of Orzhov commanders out there to choose from, along with different playstyles. This Orzhov Showcase will highlight various archetypes and a commander decklist to show what they’re capable of.
Orzhov Showcase: Aristocrats
Perhaps the most well-known Orzhov archetype is Aristocrats. These kinds of decks want you to sacrifice your own creatures for value, generally for burn damage. It usually has a token subtheme so that you can generate tokens to sacrifice to outlets to trigger death triggers.
Elias il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim
For this Orzhov Showcase, we’ll be using Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim as the commander. This provides both lifegain and burn from creatures entering and dying. In a similar fashion, you have sub-commanders in the 99 that share a similar effect. Cruel Celebrant gives you life and burns everyone when creatures die, and Vraan, Executioner Thane does the same. However, the latter only triggers once each turn.
In Aristocrat decks, you need creatures to sacrifice. As such, you want token generators to guarantee you always have fodder for your enablers. Cards such as Skrelv's Hive is one that gives you a token with no extra hoops to jump through. Others require you to not control a specific creature, such as Ophiomancer and Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia. Since you sacrifice so many creatures, it’s easy to ensure Hidden Stockpile and Denethor, Ruling Steward trigger at your end step for extra tokens.
Just as important as ways to make sacrifice fodder are sacrifice outlets. These are cards that let you sacrifice your creatures (ideally for no mana) so you can trigger your death triggers at any point. Woe Strider and Viscera Seer let you sacrifice a creature for scrying. Warren Soultrader turns creatures into a Treasure token to help ramp, and Carrion Feeder can grow its stats with +1/+1 counters.
A sample decklist can be viewed below. The deck is constantly triggering enter the battlefield and death triggers by constantly making tokens and sacrificing them. As with all Aristocrat decks, they’re a slow burn (literally), so you have slow, passive gameplay, using tokens as blockers before sacrificing them for value.
Commander
Creatures (33)
Instants (8)
Sorceries (6)
Artifacts (10)
Enchantments (9)
Lands (34)
100 Cards
$207.28
Orzhov Showcase: Lifegain
The other most popular archetype for Orzhov is Lifegain. The color pairing is naturally great at it, with one half offering lifegain and the other half burn to your opponents for gaining life. You can play a lot of different commanders in this archetype with Orzhov colors, but this Orzhov Showcase will highlight just one.
Liesa, Shroud of Dusk
Liesa, Shroud of Dusk is one of Orzhov’s most popular commanders. It has a fantastic effect that essentially makes it so you never truly have to pay commander tax. Instead, you can pay 2 life, and in a lifegain deck, you’ll always have more than enough, no matter how high the tax has become. With how much passive lifegain you get off of cards like Soul's Attendant and Soul Warden, you’ll have a big life total.
With how much life you gain, you’ll want ways to also convert that life into burn damage. Marauding Blight-Priest is the only one that causes burn damage to go to all your opponents. Other cards only target one, such as Enduring Tenacity, Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose, and Sanguine Bond. All these effects add up to convert into a lot of burn damage over time.
In addition to all the lifegain, you’re punishing opponents from playing spells. This is both with your commander, and with cards such as Kambal, Consul of Allocation and Mai, Scornful Striker. This passive burn damage can be made bigger with Wound Reflection effectively doubling it, and Exquisite Blood turning that burn into lifegain. With Exquisite Blood, it also enables infinite combos with cards that burn when you gain life to create a loop.
A sample decklist can be viewed below. This is a more powerful deck in this Orzhov Showcase that rests in bracket 4. There are infinite combos and a lot of passive burn damage to make all your opponents struggle against it while you keep your life total high with lifegain.
Commander
Creatures (30)
Instants (7)
Sorceries (5)
Artifacts (13)
Enchantments (11)
Lands (34)
100 Cards
$468.36
Orzhov Showcase: Vehicles
A more niche archetype for Orzhov is Vehicles. As the name probably makes obvious, it is built around the Vehicle artifact type. These are artifacts that can be turned into creatures for a turn by tapping creatures with a certain power threshold. Orzhov in particular gets you both great Vehicle support cards, and artifact support to bring it together.
Greasefang, Okiba Boss
When it comes to Orzhov Vehicle commanders, it’s hard to pick anything besides Greasefang, Okiba Boss. A bane of Pioneer players, Greasefang, Okiba Boss lets you get around casting costs by reanimating Vehichles from your graveyard directly for a turn before returning them to the hand. Tune Up is another reanimation for Vehicles that permanently makes the Vehicle into an artifact creature. You can also use Teleportation Circle to keep the Vehicle reanimated with Greasefang, Okiba Boss around by blinking it.
There are a lot of great Vehicles to reanimate. As Pioneer players likely know, one of the best options is Parhelion II to give you Angel tokens on top of a good attacker. Valor's Flagship can keep cycling itself into the graveyard while also making Pilot tokens to make crewing future Vehicles easier. Cybership lets you steal opponents’ cards and convert them into 2/2 Cyberman to help build a bigger battlefield.
You need ways to get Vehicles into the graveyard. Otherwise, Greasefang, Okiba Boss doesn’t actually do anything. Oriq Loremage is great at this, as you can keep dumping cards into the graveyard by just tapping it. Cynical Loner needs to be tapped at your second main phase, but if it is, you get to put any card into the graveyard from your library. Since you tap to crew Vehicles, this is easily accomplished without putting it in danger by attacking with it. You also have sacrifice outlets in Dockside Chef and
A sample decklist can be viewed below. The deck can be very aggressive with the right openings, otherwise it plays more like a Midrange deck taking advantage of the many powerful Vehicles in the game.
Commander
Creatures (27)
Instants (6)
Sorceries (6)
Artifacts (25)
Lands (33)
100 Cards
$246.8
Orzhov Showcase: Group Hug/Pillowfort
Group Hug and Pillowfort strategies go hand in hand with Orzhov decks (and in general). The White half offers a ton of Group Hug cards, while the Black half can punish opponents for sending attacks your way.
Breena, the Demagogue
When it comes to Breena, the Demagogue, there’s actually an entire precon with her at the helm. While you can play the precon, it’s also a great commander on its own. Breena, the Demagogue rewards your opponents for attacking the one with the highest life with card draw while you put counters on your creatures. Being able to put +1/+1 counters on your creatures is especially useful when you can play Ayara's Oathsworn to tutor and Envoy of the Ancestors to give all creatures with counters lifelink.
There are a lot of ways to discourage opponents from attacking you. Windborn Muse, Sphere of Safety, and Ghostly Prison all tax your opponents for mana if they want to attack you. Tomik, Wielder of Law and Mangara, the Diplomat both reward you with card draw (and burning your opponent in the former’s case).
Just as you want to prevent attacks from coming your way, you always want to make it so your opponents don’t want to attack you at all. Wedding Ring links you to an opponent, letting you both draw cards and gain life when the other does. Tempting Contract gives your opponents the ability to make a Treasure token, and you make that many for some extra ramp for everyone. Noble Heritage lets everyone put two +1/+1 counters on a creature and gain protection from that player if they decide to as an extra layer of safety.
A sample decklist can be viewed below. If you enjoy playing politics in Commander, Orzhov is one of the best colors for this, and Breena, the Demagogue is one of the best commanders for it.
Commander
Creatures (28)
Instants (10)
Sorceries (5)
Artifacts (9)
Enchantments (13)
Lands (34)
100 Cards
$293.94
Orzhov Showcase: Legendary Matters
When it comes to Legendary Matters, the most common color pairing tends to be Five-Color. This can have a high price tag, so if you want a more budget-friendly flavor of Legendary Matters, Orzhov is the perfect choice.
Colonel Autumn
Colonel Autumn is a unique Commander deck that mixes sacrifice with counters. It gives all your legendary creature exploit, which lets them put +1/+1 counters on all of your creatures. There are a few legendary creatures that get their own counters when creatures die, such as Elenda, the Dusk Rose and Judge Magister Gabranth. All of this leads to creatures getting massive the more creatures you cast.
The most vital aspect of the deck is ways to generate tokens so that you don’t have to sacrifice your legendary creatures to trigger exploit. Rabble Rousing can generate a ton of tokens just by attacking with creatures. Horn of Gondor creates an increasing number of Human tokens. A lot of your creatures are Human too, adding to the tally to enable large numbers of creatures being made. Ria Ivor, Bane of Bladehold can negate damage from an attack and convert that into 1/1 tokens to create a big amount of sacrifice fodder for later.
You also have cards that support the legendary typing. Urza's Ruinous Blast is a way to exile all permanents that aren’t lands or legendaries. Most of your creatures are legendary, so you only have to worry about your artifacts and enchantments getting exiled. Ardbert, Warrior of Darkness is another way to get counters on your legendary creatures. If you play a multi-color spell, it’ll trigger both of the effects, making it so casting an Orzhov legendary means all your legendary creatures get two +1/+1 counters. Flowering of the White Tree gives all your legendary creatures protection and a decent stat boost. It even gives nonlegendary creatures a minor stat boost as a bonus.
A sample decklist can be viewed below. This deck offers a blend of creature focus that mixes in a sacrifice theme. It is very snowbally, and can lead to games quickly snowballing once your exploit engine gets going.
Commander
Creatures (30)
Instants (9)
Sorceries (4)
Artifacts (12)
Enchantments (11)
Lands (34)
100 Cards
$357.59
Orzhov Showcase: Party
In Magic, Clerics, Rogues, Warriors, and Wizards are considered party members. You are considered to have a full party when you control one creature of each type. It’s important to note that the number of creatures in your party does not exceed 4, and only one of each type counters (so you can’t have 2 Wizards and 2 Clerics in your party; it is only 1 of each).
Nalia de’Arnise
Nalia de'Arnise is the face commander of the Party Time precon, and the best choice for a Party commander. It lets you spread +1/+1 counters to all your creatures once you have a full party. The idea is to get all slots of your party on the battlefield as quickly as possible. Cards that give you a two-for-one such as Mage's Attendant and Irregular Cohort are especially strong to fill up your party fast.
You have a lot of counter support cards available to you. Damning Verdict is often a one-sided board wipe since it destroys all creatures without counters. Mikaeus, the Lunarch can convert its +1/+1 counters into +1/+1 counters that get spread through all your other creatures. Oona's Blackguard is especially powerful, as it makes it so all your creatures with with +1/+1 counters force your opponents to discard cards if they ever deal combat damage.
Some of the most important kinds of permanents are ones with changeling. This gives them all creature types, letting you fill the gaps in your party with whichever one(s) you need. Firdoch Core is a mana rock, so you never have to worry about it dying in combat (unless you animate it). Universal Automaton is a one-mana changeling for an easy party member. Maskwood Nexus gives all your creatures all creature types while also being a token generator. This is the best way to ensure you have a full party at all times.
A sample decklist can be viewed below. While it might seem difficult to get four specific creature types on the battlefield, it’s surprisingly easy. As soon as you have a full party, with Nalia de'Arnise on the battlefield, you snowball out of control quickly.
Commander
Creatures (44)
Sorceries (4)
Artifacts (9)
Enchantments (1)
Lands (38)
100 Cards
$167.16
In Conclusion
Orzhov in Commander has a ton of different variations. Whether you like the more passive damage of Aristocrats, the more aggressive flavor of Legendary Matters, or the political games of Group Hug/Pillowfort, there’s something for everyone.
There are great Orzhov commander options at every power level. So whether you want to be in the casual bracket 1 or the maximum power of bracket 5, Orzhov is there for you with a hefty amount of options.
