Darkened skies, An Orzhov
production.
By Scott Biggs 27 July 2006
When the
Guild Wars idea was first announced, Ghost-husk and Ghost-dad were rife in the
field, top eighting here there and everywhere, so
when I was asked which guild I wanted I snapped up Orzhov.
Then someone tells me its casual, and get this, no
money rares! This is where I start to panic, so I
have to build a casual Orzhov deck? and I am instantly disabled by not being allowed to use Ghost
Council, rare lands or any such Pontiff trickery? This is going to be
difficult. It has been a long time since I have played magic casually and
picking cards for a deck when there are better cards available just seems
wrong.
Enough
complaining, the deck, what to do? My first thought: Abuse Skeletal Vampire.
Seemed like a good starting point, as long as the abuse is magic based *ahem*,
anyway, the first draft of the deck I tried to utilize the Belfry Spirit, Skeletal
Vampire, Twilight Drover combo FTW! However, the mana
curve was way too high, the combo was clunky and any such removal would disrupt
it easily, first idea scrapped.
After
talking with Chris and Richard the Skeletal Vampire was still my favorite to be
the basis of my deck and it was suggested that an aggressive flying deck might
work, interesting. So, removal plus evasion, this might actually work.
For this
deck to work the creatures need to be cost efficient and perform some other function,
Shrieking Grotesque for example, flying Ravenous Rat anyone?
4 Blind
Hunter
4 Daggerclaw Imp
4 Keening
Banshee
3
Shrieking Grotesque
3
Skeletal Vampire
3
Stinkweed Imp
4 Last
Gasp
4 Mortify
4 Shadow
Lance
4 Bottled
Cloister
4 Orzhov Basilica
7 Plains
12 Swamp
Sideboard
4
Castigate
4 Faith's
Fetters
4 Pillory of the Sleepless
3
Hide/Seek
Although
this deck is missing some vital cards in terms of type 2, i
think this is actually very strong, the shadow lance is an awesome card for
this format, coupled with plenty of removal from mortify, last gasp, keening
banshee and the recurring stinky imp; card advantage from bottled cloister and
a regenerating fatty in the shape of skeletal vampire this deck could be a real
contender for the guild wars play off's.