Made an account just to say I love your Orzhov deck list Mega. DAT delicious life gain. I'm glad that you added the card draw and some thinning cause holy crap I got flooded.

So, couple of questions:

How good is blood cursed knight really when you have only 6 auras ?

You have 0 reliable spot removal besides reave soul for the early game. What do you do when someone battlecruisers you ?

You have no graveyard interaction. Maybe Read the Bones would be better than Bitter relevations in this list ?

With this amount of white I'd seriously consider running some consul's Lieutenants. They are white's best 2 drop after all.

Your deck got trounced by the Hard AI orzhov god draw btw

I'm gonna test this out :

2 x Consul's Lieutenant
3 x Topan Freeblade
3 x Child of Night
3 x Nimbus Wings
1 x Infernal Scarring
3 x Reave Soul

2 x Blessed Spirits
2 x Heliod's Pilgrim
1 x Auramancer
2 x Blood-cursed Knight
3 x Read the Bones

1 x Archangel of Tithes
2 x Kytheon's Irregulars
3 x Suppression Bonds

1 x Totem-Guide Hartebeest
1 x Gilt-Leaf Winnower
1 x Tragic Arrogance
1 x Angelic Edict

2 x Kothophet, Soul Hoarder

8 x Plains
5 x Swamp
2 x Isolated Chapel
4 x Orzhov Guildgate
4 x Evolving Wilds



Infernal Scarring may seem bad, but it's pretty decent vs black. Topan+wings gets blown out by reave soul if it can't connect, and blown out by fleshbag if it does. Scarring makes Lieutenants better than 90% of the creature pool, puts all your other dudes out of reach of reave soul, and goes 1 for 1 with fleshbag.

Thanks Digitend! Welcome to the forum!

Blood-Cursed Knight has been fine with the aura count at 6. The Heliod's Pilgrims are essentially auras #7 and 8. I look for mulligans with one of the auras in them. I want a two drop and a Nimbus Wings in my opening hand every time if I can get it. I'll settle for 3 creatures and no auras though.

What does 'battlecruises' mean? Like.. suit up some 1 or 2 drop with a bunch of auras? I race them with lifegainers.. chump them with Pilgrims or one of the other two drops if I have spares, drop Suppression Bonds on them or shoot them with Winnower. I had Reprisal in this list but not because of that issue.. but because I got smashed with some big pump spells. I can also tap down battlecruisers with the Irregulars.

Why would I want graveyard interaction? And what would I cut for it? Those cards are expensive.. and they rely on there actually being something in the graveyard worth taking. I'm usually Suppression Bonds-ing bombs.. they're not in the graveyard to begin with.

I chose Bitter Revelation over Read the Bones because seeing 4 cards is better than seeing two cards. Read the Bones is better in Mill decks because it triggers Tutelage and Bitter Revelation doesn't.. but outside of that, Bitter Revelation is a pretty superior card IMO for the reason I mentioned.

I thought about Consul's Lieutenant.. but I didn't want double white making my mulligans tougher than they already are. The other reason is because Nimbus Wings is my only way to make him better.. so let's compare the other two drops vs Consul's Lieutenant with Nimbus Wings on them:

Consul's Lieutenant with Nimbus Wings is a 3/3 first striker who becomes a 4/4 first striker with a buff the team ability. This is great for strategies that wanna go wide.. but that's not what we're doing here.. we wanna go big.

Topan Freeblade with Nimbus Wings is a vigilant 3/4 who becomes a vigilant 4/5. He attacks and blocks like a boss, each phase, survives Languish AND Reave Soul, AND doesn't have tough mana requirements.

Child of Night with Nimbus Wings is a 3/3 lifelinker who produces a 6 point life swing each attack. He (and Blood-Cursed Knight) make it so we don't even need to worry about blocking our opponent's attacks unless the blocks are favorable. The biggest downside here is that he's vulnerable to Reave Soul, Languish, and Twin Bolt.. and these weaknesses are also shared by Consul's Lieutenant.

So.. that's why Lieutenant isn't in here.. his Nimbus Wings synergy sucks.. and he dies to a bunch of crap I'm trying to avoid. Winnower and Irregulars can't be hit by Reave Soul, and if you Wings them.. they survive Languish too. This deck is all about the Nimbus Wings. When you add that with the other flyers, you have a pretty substantial air force.. and flying is really powerful in this game. There aren't a lot of flyers, and there's next to no reach. Pair that with Lifegain.. and you can clock your opponent through the air pretty much care free.

I think your list is too unfocused.

I also think (if you compare the two) that you will find that Read the Bones is pretty inferior to Bitter Revelation. 4 is greater than 2.

I only like Infernal scaring on Skyhunter Skirmisher in these colors.

Battlecruiser is yes, an aura'd up dude that slips by your reave soul. Or just a dude thats bigger than what you currently have that can race you. You are hoping to snipe it, and you do have removal, but all of it is either conditional or fragile. Hence my concern.

Revelation sees 4 cards, but its other upside, the discard effect, is a non- factor in your deck, since you have no graveyard interaction. That's what I meant.
I think mana efficiency is a thing. You have buckets of 2 drops. Going Read the Bones + 2 drop is pretty good turn 5. As a rule you don't wanna read the bones turn 3, but the option is there if you need to dig.
Revelation is stronger, but slower.

Lieutenant is a 2/1 first strike, and therefore beats every other 2 drop besides Myr and Goblin Arsonist, which it trades with, right out of the box. Hell, it trades/beats a **** of 3 drops for that matter. It becomes a 4/4 flying first striker with wings, that also has a team buff effect. That's just massive. You don't have to go wide for a 4/4 flying first strike to be great. otoh, you run alot of dudes, so his buff power is hardly irrelevant. Twinbolt its a thing though, but hey you already ran 4 child of night
Lieutenant + infernal scarring trades 1 for 1 with burn and is a one sided the abyss turn 3 in this pool if not removed. Just food for thought.

And I agree my list is less focused. I'm trying to tweak your deck to minimize its limitations. There might be a middle road waiting to be discovered, or not. Who knows

On turn 5 i want to play a 5 drop.. or see 4 cards and get my 6th land for Kothophed. The discard effect doesn't bother me.. it's almost always two lands. If it's not.. I'm happy to have gotten two quality cards as opposed to Read the Bones where I see two, keep the one I want, then get stuck with whatever. It really is inferior. See.. this is a lifegain deck.. we have time for slower options. We can even run stuff like Angelic Edict in this list.. bc we'll get there.. alive and kicking!

Also.. your 4/4 flyer still dies to languish.

The flood was soooooooooo real. Like.. 40% of my games had flood. It was maddening. I'm glad you like the list. Has any card been underperforming for you? I'd like to hear what you think works and doesn't.work.

Counting only on lifegain to get you there isn't good enough in this pool. Can argue all you want, it isn't

Really? What blitzkrieg aggro strategies exist that are gonna end me on turn 5? RDW is a joke. Simic Bounce is a pretty bad matchup.. but it is for any deck that wants to go big. I beat Boros and Mono White everyday with this list.

That deck beat Hakeem's Golgari Control yesterday with a pretty standard draw.. so it's not control that I fear. I don't fear Thopters bc lifegain saves me there. Elves are the biggest problem.. but they can be beat through the air.

Edit: Also.. please don't test vs the AI. It proves nothing. The deck is designed to beat people, not the cheating computer who knows what's in your hand.

I think I've played vs people more than you, when I hear stuff like "RDW is a joke" "I don't fear control"

Fine, your deck is perfect. I am obviously wasting your time discussing with you

OMG.. don't be all like that! I'm just saying that I haven't seen any RDW that strikes fear in my heart.. especially when I can get so much of the deck out of burn range. As far as control goes.. the decisions I've made in it were specifically tailored around beating Reave Soul and Languish. Fleshbag and the 5 mana spells are still a thing.. but there's only so many of them. If I can blank Reave Soul and Languish I feel I'm doing pretty good. The deck also stacks up very well vs Sackdos (the bane of my Timmy ways). Bc the lifegain let's me just swing back at them after they use my own creatures against me. I just have to prioritize killing/suppressing their sac outlets.

Obviously.. I'm going to defend my decisions.. bc I've put in a lot of time playtesting them. This isn't some theorycraft list only tested vs the AI.. this thing is field tested.

On the play:

T1 Any goblin.If it's Glory seeker, brace yourself.
T2 Call of the full moon/ Infectuous bloodlust / Magering bully
T3 Twinbolt + titans strength/ Pulse + Magering Bully/ titans strength + Magering bully/ Exquisite Firecraft/ 2 drop + keep red open for titans' strenght to counter reave soul.

I agree it's less scary on the draw. You telling my your deck beats that type of RDW opening reliably though ?

Glad to see someone embracing Kothoped
To me, Child of Night seems like the weakest link. I guess Nimbus Wings really fixes that pretty well.

You mean does it beat God draws? Most decks lose to God draws.

The day I get slammed with that opening.. I'll change my tune.. and probably run Reprisal.. which was in there along with max copies of Reave Soul in one of the previous versions.

I know it's normal to think lifegain control beats mono red, but I agree with rabblerauser that I think it’s a bad match for your build. Seems like my removal would wipe the floor with your PT boats before they become battlecruisers. I have three mono red decks, beast. We should play these against each other when you come back. It'll be a best of three. If you win, I'll be convinced

Read the play sequence again.

Think about the number of viable goblins/vanguards. The amount they run depends on the build but its 7 at minimum most of the time.
Think about the 10 enchantments and the 6 possible prowess 2 drops red has. add the goblins "make target wheenie unblockable" if still not convinced.
Think about the variety of options they have on the play to remove your blocker and hit you for a **** turn 3.

Admit I'm not talking about GOD draws, I'm talking about good RDW builds with a decent opener. A good RDW player will mull to 5/4 to get this out on the play.

Barney hit it on the head :



My guess is, if you have not been hit by this at least a couple of times playing this game, then you either don't play alot, or your meta is full of nitwits. /pcmasterrace

Here's my take on Orzhov:

Creatures (19)
4 x Perilous Myr
1 x Liliana, Heretical Healer
2 x Graveblade Marauder
3 x Fleshbag Marauder
3 x Blood-cursed Knight
2 x Kothophed, Soul Hoarder


Other Spells (19)
4 x Bone Splinters
3 x Divine Favor
3 x Reprisal
4 x Suppression Bonds
2 x Sigil of the Empty Throne
2 x Unholy Hunger


Lands (22)
7 x Plains
7 x Swamp
2 x Isolated Chapel
4 x Orzhov Guildgate
4 x Evolving Wilds


Please let me know what you think in a constructive manner. Thanks!

cruel revival is better then unholy hunger

He said constructive !

that was constructive I could have said his deck is awful (which it is ) and been nonconstructive