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BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
Orzhov control

May 23, 2006

Hello,
 
I have been trying to make a strong orzhov deck for fnm with moderate success.  I have tried some different combinations but the only thing I have seen that is real effective is weenie/discard.  I want to keep my angels in but its seems freakin impossible to get them out especially against blue.  This is what it looks like at the moment.
 
8 plains
9 swamp
1 godless shrine(working on more $$$)
4 orzhov basilica
 
4 angels of despair
2 ghost council
4 souls of the faultless
4 blind hunter
4 agents of masks
 
4 hissing miasma
2 debtor's knell
4 mortify
4 pillory of the sleepless
4 faith's fetters
2 castigate
 
I've tried to slow the game down with cards like miasma and souls of the faultless but its still very susceptible to counters.  Right now I'm feeling like I just don't get it. PLEASE HELP!
 
 

The deck seems good so far, but it could use a few tweaks.  First of all, if you want to fight a counter strategy, you should include some more discard spells or other cards to frustrate counterspells.  Second of all, the deck as a whole could be made faster.  These two elements are the twin pillars of defeating a counter-control strategy.  As such, you will need to implement them, as well as be able to defend against them since your deck is also a control deck.
First, to speed up the deck.  You have 4 Agent of Masks currently; I think 2 of them should become Orzhov Guildmage.  The Guildmage is much easier to cast and is a good turn-two play, since it can attack into most turn-two creatures and at least trade.  By the time the Agent hits play, your opponent will have bigger creatures out and the Agent will be useless in combat.  It's essentially an enchantment.  But leave two Agents in, because they have an advantage over the Guildmage in that the Guildmage needs 9 mana every turn to do what the Agent does for free.  The Guildmage's abilities are great late game when you're sitting on plenty of mana, or just don't have any cards to play, but the Agent is still worth two slots.
 
Next, drop two Angels of Despair.  keep two in, because they're good and you said you wanted to, but four Angels is too much.  If you have four copies of a card, you have a good chance of drawing one in your opening hand.  You don't want an Angel in your opening hand; it's no good to you that early.  Having four ensures that you'll draw one at least a few turns before you can cast it, and then it's a dead card in hand for those turns.  Fill those two slots with two smaller creatures; something that can hit the board early (turn two at the latest), something with a reasonably good ability, and yet something you won't mind sacrificing to Ghost Council of Orzhova.  My first impulse was Ravenous Rats, though Nezumi Shortfang, Order of the Starts, or two more Guildmages would all work too.  I'll say the Shortfang, since he gives you good, reusable discard and that's another way of handling counters.  I wouldn't blame a player for picking any of the other options though.
 
Now, to give you a little anti-counter tech.  My first impulse was lots of discard spells, but that would mean taking out a lot of your creature removal.  So I looked through Gatherer and found just the card you need: Uba Mask.  With Uba Mask, players can only play cards they drew this turn.  Which means if your opponent wants to counter a spell you play on your own turn, she’ll have to draw the counter on your turn.  And she can’t do it by playing a card draw spell, unless she drew it this turn.  Get it?  Pretty much all instants are severely hurt by Uba Mask, and your only instant is Mortify, which you can still play on your turn (unlike a counter that needs a spell on the stack to be of any use.)  Best of all, most counter decks feature spells like Boomerang as their main source of dealing with creatures already resolved.  But that puts the card back in your hand, where Uba Mask won’t find it and you can replay it whenever you want.  Replace Hissing Miasma with 4 Uba Mask—the Miasma won’t be much help on top of Mortify, Pillory, Fetters, Souls of the Faultless, plus all the “bleeder” effects gaining you life.
 
That should just about do it.  Keep in mind, your stall tactics and slow bleeding are powerful, but you still need to take the initiative sometimes and attack when possible.  If you get out an Angel, you should beable to kill anything that stands in its way.  Otherwise, Blind Hunter can usually get in for about 6 or 8 points each before dying, and Ghost Council can swing for 4 and use its ability to dodge nasty blocks or removal, or even just come back into play untapped so it can attack and block (and drain a point of life on the way back in of course).  I’ve done all I can do, the rest is up to you and your skill as a player.  Good luck!

 
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