(Lurrus of the Dream-Den | Art by Slawomir Maniak)

Bless this sinner, who sacrificed his blood so that I may live

Hello, dear readers! It's me again, bringing you another Back to Basics article after my last list on the most played Modern Horizons 3 cards. This time, I've sacrificed my blood, sweat, and tears so that you don't have to lift a finger to find out what the most played Orzhov cards in Commander are. And to be honest, I wouldn't have it any other way, as the white-black color pair is all about giving something up to contribute to the greater good. (Or, to benefit authority figures and oligarchs, but we don't need to have that conversation right now.)

Similar to previous lists, I've taken the liberty of grouping similar cards. These articles are all about highlighting a color pair's splashy signature effects. No one wants to read a list where half of the most played cards are removal spells that do much of the same thing. With that disclaimer out of the way, let's find out what Orzhov cards make the list!

 

10. Liesa, Forgotten Archangel - 42813 decks

We're starting off with an exciting Angel that helps black and white decks out in a lot of important ways. First, Liesa boasts impressive stats. A 4/5 with flying and lifelink is nothing to scoff at, and her types - Legendary Creature and Angel - are very relevant in popular Orzhov and Mardu (white, black, and red) decks like Kaalia of the Vast, Ratadrabik of Urborg, and Shanid, Sleepers' Scourge.

Liesa offers a decent amount of value as well, returning your sacrificed (nontoken) creatures to your hand once you're done squeezing the life out of them. And finally, her Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet-esque graveyard hate ability turns off opposing shenanigans. While there are a lot more efficient creatures in this color pair, Liesa makes your five-mana investment worthwhile.

 

9. Inkshield - 47034 decks

Orzhov decks also have a ton of catch-up tools at their disposal. The pair has access to most of the board sweepers ever printed, as well as a ton of lifegain effects. Inkshield is a potent form of pseudo-lifegain, preventing a big attack from killing you, while also dumping a ton of evasive power into play. Aside from seeing play in Strixhaven-flavored decks like Breena, the Demagogue and Felisa, Fang of Silverquill, this instant slots into many different kinds of decks.

Inkshield also helps Queen Marchesa maintain the monarch token, gets cast with jump-start in Niv-Mizzet, Supreme, and can go bananas when you attack with Commissar Severina Raine and a ton of Inklings.

8. Teysa Karlov - 47425 decks

The recently-departed Teysa (seen here in an MTG Arena-only card) does a ton of work for different decks in an earlier incarnation. She's simultaneously a doubler for "dies" synergies while also giving your token strategies a little boost. While a lot of decks may not fully be able to utilize both halves of the card, Ratadrabik is going to go wild creating TWO lifelinking copies of dead Legendary Creatures that won't even succumb to the Legend rule.

Orzhov is also replete with Commanders that love to see creatures dying, including Felisa and Elenda, the Dusk Rose (whom I'll cover later).

Of course, you don't need to dip into niche commanders to get value out of Teysa when she pairs so well with format staples like Cruel Celebrant, Zulaport Cutthroat, and Blood Artist. There are going to be times when you've got an infinite combo going and don't need a doubler to get the job done. But Teysa is great in grindier situations where actually getting another Skullclamp trigger could swing the game in your favor.

Speaking of infinite combos, check out Teysa's page on Commander Spellbook for the many ways she threatens to end the game.

7. Primevals' Glorious Rebirth - 48482 decks

The colors white and black are also the best at reanimating creatures, dating back to classics like, well, Reanimate, but also to old-school cards like Purgatory, Pulsemage Advocate, and Animate Dead, among others. Primevals' Glorious Rebirth cranks this slice of the color pie up to 11 by letting you return a whole stack of Legends in your graveyard to the battlefield.

Of course, this is a Legendary Sorcery, which means you need to control a Legendary Creature to be able to cast it, but this is EDH! A whole host of Legends-matters decks want this card, from the aforementioned Shanid to Kethis, the Hidden Hand, Dihada, Binder of Wills, and Jodah, the Unifier.

I wouldn't be exaggerating to say that Legends-matter is one of the most-supported themes in the format, so it's unsurprising this card sees so much play. Can you imagine casting this late in the game with an Annie Joins Up in play?

6. Merciless Eviction - 51579

Farewell may have stolen this sweeper's thunder by virtue of being easier to cast and more flexible, but it's hard for a powerful card like Eviction to become truly obsolete in a singleton format like EDH. Control players can always just run both cards, and Eviction gives you a little something extra by letting you get rid of pesky Planeswalkers in games where that card type matters the most.

There are also a few commanders that may actually prefer Eviction's extra color requirement, including multicolor-matters leaders like the two Carthalions and two of Niv-Mizzet's incarnations.

Maybe Jenson really wants to scry 1 before dying, okay?

5. Elenda, the Dusk Rose - 55345 decks

This Legendary Vampire Knight featured in a recent Commander preconstructed deck from Lost Caverns of Ixalan, which you can read more about here. She slots very nicely into a sacrifice-flavored deck, and more so if you just happen to run a bunch of Vampires that care about her card type. She is simultaneously a threat that can get very big and potentially attack for lethal and an engine that turns sacrifice triggers into more tokens down the line, and her versatility doesn't cost you anything other than a slot in your deck.

There are a lot of ways to make her ability pop off when combined with a sacrifice outlet, including token generators like Charismatic Conqueror or other payoffs like Skullclamp.

You could also go the combo route and net infinite +1/+1 counters, mana, and triggers alongside several engines including Nim Deathmantle and Ashnod's Altar:

 

4. Corpse Knight - 58047

This 2/2 is a little similar in function to some of the cards I've grouped together later in this list. Orzhov as a color pair does tend to enjoy the "death by a thousand cuts" approach. Still, I wanted to highlight Corpse Knight for its relevant typing and because you can build around it differently and in more ways than some of the other cards that drain repeatedly. They're a bit of a Jack-of-all-trades, slotting into decks that care about Zombies, Knights, tokens, or some combination of the three.

Its Top Commanders section highlights this versatility, with Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir, Teysa, Opulent Oligarch, and Varina, Lich Queen all interested in this card despite doing pretty different things.

Combo enthusiasts also make great use of Corpse Knight, especially alongside Ghave, Guru of Spores and a couple other cards in Abzan (white, black, and green) decks.

 

 

 

 

3. Kambal, Consul of Allocation and Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff

I've grouped these two Legends because they both punish your opponents for doing something as natural in EDH as casting spells, even though they do it in slightly different ways. They're both supremely effective at what they do, that's for sure, and their time on any given battlefield is likely to be short.

Lotho, which sees play in 79,040 decks, rewards you for your opponents' efforts with Treasure tokens. These can be put to good use in Vihaan, Goldwaker, Olivia, Opulent Outlaw, and Kambal, Profiteering Mayor, among others.

You can just run Lotho, like Kambal, in a controlling deck leveraging powerful, taxing staples like Esper Sentinel, Smothering Tithe, and Mystic Remora.

Kambal, seen in 59,712 decks brings the additional benefit of passively gaining you life, which is very useful in Oloro, Ageless Ascetic and Karlov of the Ghost Council. I'd also love to see the game where he takes you most of the way towards the 111 life you need to activate Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant.

2. Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim and Cruel Celebrant

 

Our last Legend of the bunch and the one that sees the most play is Elas il-Kor, who is currently in 100,743 EDHREC decks. She does most of what you want from sacrifice-synergy creatures like Cutthroat, Cruel Celebrant, and Blood Artist, but her Legendary typing makes her uniquely suited to the format.

As with several other members of this elite Orzhov club, Ratadrabik would pick her first or second in his Undead Legend Dodgeball team. She also does a lot of work in sacrifice decks like Bartolomé del Presidio or Teysa, Orzhov Scion.

Meanwhile, Cruel Celebrant features in 84377 decks, acting as more redundancy in the various sacrifice engines you can dive into here. Redundancy matters a ton here, as having extra copies of the effect in play will only hasten your victory, while also not costing you anything because these creatures can themselves be sacrificed for value.

1. Anguished Unmaking and other Catch-All Removal Spells

I'm glad this list has hit all the notes of what you'd expect mechanically from this color pair. We've seen sacrifice stuff, a sweeper, and taxing or punishing creatures all in the mix. The most played Orzhov card in Commander is, however, the removal spell that can hit everything, or almost everything.

Sometimes, the spell costs you life, as with Anguished Unmaking. Other times, there are restrictions on what you can hit, as with Mortify or Despark. And sometimes, you can kill anything, but it'll cost you more mana or be restricted to sorcery-speed.

In any case, if you're playing Orzhov cards, you have the privilege of often not having to worry about problem permanents.

Just a nibble for now. I wouldn't want to ruin my appetite

I'm really enjoying focusing on the most played cards in each color pair. If I had the time and space, I would be happy to go down the list even further, regaling you with tales of times I ground an opponent to death with Hidden Stockpile or went old-school with Ashen Rider. Feel free to let me know in the comments which Orzhov cards give you the most joy. Until next time!

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