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Orzhov Midrange Guide by Mogged
The Deck
Last week I won the Standard Challenge that followed the Showcase that had shown Esper as once again the most dominant deck in Standard.
This is the deck I played:
$727/125.4 Tix
Maindeck (60)
| Creature [14] | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 Ambitious Farmhand | $0.35 | |
| 4 The Restoration of Eiganjo | $0.79 | |
| 3 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse | $79.99 | |
| 2 Lord Skitter, Sewer King | $3.49 | |
| 4 Deep-Cavern Bat | $0.69 | |
| Instant [11] | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2 Destroy Evil | $1.99 | |
| 2 Cut Down | $1.29 | |
| 3 Go for the Throat | $1.49 | |
| 4 Virtue of Loyalty | $15.99 | |
| Sorcery [2] | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2 Virtue of Persistence | $17.99 | |
| Enchantment [4] | ||
|---|---|---|
| 4 Wedding Announcement | $12.99 | |
| Planeswalker [3] | ||
|---|---|---|
| 3 The Wandering Emperor | $29.99 | |
| Land [26] | ||
|---|---|---|
| 4 Shattered Sanctum | $21.99 | |
| 2 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire | $9.99 | |
| 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire | $12.99 | |
| 4 Caves of Koilos | $0.59 | |
| 2 Mirrex | $7.99 | |
| 4 Restless Fortress | $0.69 | |
| 5 Plains | $0.01 | |
| 4 Swamp | $0.01 | |
| Sideboard [15] | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2 Duress | $0.35 | |
| 2 Parasitic Grasp | $0.35 | |
| 1 Destroy Evil | $1.99 | |
| 2 Cut Down | $1.29 | |
| 3 Razorlash Transmogrant | $0.49 | |
| 1 Anoint with Affliction | $0.35 | |
| 3 Invasion of Gobakhan | $5.99 | |
| 1 Sunfall | $7.99 | |
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Similar Decks
Proxies
Archetype Analysis
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Apprentice and MWS .dec
My Thought Process
My choice was WB Midrange, a deck we have seen before, but it didn't fully utilize Virtue of Loyalty, which I think is this version's win condition.
My approach to deckbuilding and selecting a deck relies heavily on timing. The circumstances indicated that this deck would be well-suited for the weekend, so I created a rough list and fine-tuned some of the numbers, drawing inspiration from an old one.
You can learn more about my deckbuilding approach in my article ”Building And Breaking Metagames: The Halo Effect Of Deckbuilding”.
Here’s how I came to building this deck:
I knew the metagame would be dominated by Esper once again for the Challenge, and we have learned from the past that white, and specifically Wedding, is how you improve at grinding against the mirror.
Esper has dominated for so long because it has a plan for every kind of strategy. There is more to it, but to simplify, here's how Esper counters enemy strategies.
- Black contributes to stopping aggressive and creature-based strategies.
- White contributes to providing value and excels in midrange strategies
- Blue contributes to stopping strategies that go beyond your midrange deck by countering the expensive threats that mere removal can't stop.
To beat the mirror, you need both white to outgrind them and black to disrupt their Raffine plan.
Blue is the color you can sacrifice to gain more advantageous cards against midrange decks in white and black.
In this metagame, I thought counters weren't that exciting, but I was sad to see Raffine go—a sacrifice that had to be made to improve your advantage against Esper.
Other than being better at grinding while exchanging resources efficiently, WB has better mana than Esper does, allowing for more consistent games and the ability to include more utility lands such as Restless Fortress and Mirrex.
At its core, this is a highly resilient, slow-paced deck that may lack significant punch but possesses incredible endurance in lengthy games.
Card Choices
White-Black Midrange is a deck created to battle against Esper and generally perform well in midrange wars. Most of its cards and their configurations have been used in the past, but the new addition from the latest set is the bat.
Deep Cavern Bat
Deep Cavern Bat aids white-black midrange by providing a temporary hand disruption solution, a role that counterspells fulfill in Esper. Previously, Duress was used in old white-black shells to disrupt opponents.
Virtue of Loyalty
After playing numerous Esper mirror matches, I've observed that there are more methods to counteract Raffine, Scheming Seer now than there were previously. While the traditional removal spells like Go for the Throat and Cut Down are still viable, Destroy Evil has surged in popularity. Additionally, casting Mastermind in response to the Raffine trigger is likely to render the Raffine attack less advantageous. As a result, Esper mirrors tend to progress to late-game states more frequently, with battles over tokens. The number of successfully resolved Virtue of Loyalty spells often acts as the deciding factor in determining the winner.
My idea is that Virtue of Loyalty is primarily this deck's win condition. The rest of the deck should enable you to reach that point. That is why I played so much removal and added Restoration of Eiganjo, which somewhat ramps you to the Virtue of Loyalty's mana requirement.
Restoration of Eiganjo
I don’t think this card is great, but it does play a role in helping the rest of your deck. The problem is that you lose a lot of pressure by taking an empty turn, which is only useful in very specific situations.
Destroy Evil
The best card against Esper and even useful against ramp, its only sin is being almost useless against most aggro decks.
Virtue of Persistence
This deck is prone to flooding often; however, the first mode is sufficiently acceptable to justify casting the 7-mana enchantment side only in very late-game scenarios.
Lord Skitter Sewer King
A card that can win on its own if you have enough removal, yet it still has perfect synergy with Wedding Announcement and Virtue of Loyalty.
Wedding Announcement
The best card in the format is difficult to interact with and provides significant value as it scales into the late game.
Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
This card isn't exactly what the deck needs, but it is a necessary four-drop for curve purposes, and its life drain could be relevant in some situations. However, its main problem is that we usually don't have enough pressure to threaten lethal with it early enough.
The Wandering Emperor
Our better four-drop for creating tokens synergizes with Wedding and Virtue. While it helps when you are under attack, as it can gain you time to reach a critical mass of tokens.
Navigating the Deck
#1. Defense!
Against most midrange and aggressive strategies, you will eventually have enough tools to outgrind them if you stabilize. Therefore, the main goal is to survive until you reach that point.
#2. Versus open mana
You won't always be able to beat counters, but you can overcome removal and deny your opponent mana by playing an enchantment rather than a creature.
#3. Free Threats
Mirrex and Restless Fortress work well together with Virtue of Loyalty, creating free threats out of your lands. You also get to untap Fortress.
#4. Eiganjo’s Bats
The Restoration of Eiganjo's second mode will often bring back your Deep Cavern Bat. You can anticipate this and choose to play a different card on turn two to make the most of the two mana.
Other than that, the deck is pretty simple to play. There's a lot of math involved in managing the tokens and bringing your opponents into lethal range, but most decisions will simplify themselves over time.
Sideboard Guide
Esper Midrange
This matchup is slightly favorable; games are usually long and grindy. Raffine is probably the biggest threat because the ground becomes clogged up with blockers.
On The Play
On The Draw
Domain Ramp
It's a bad matchup. Sometimes we can turn the game into a coin flip if we force them to discard enough pieces, causing them to stumble. However, it's usually very difficult to deal with sweepers.
Azorius Midrange
This plays very similarly to Esper midrange. I think Subterranean Schooner is their biggest threat against us because it could outgrind us. However, they also commit to the board a bit more than Esper does, which forces us to take action earlier.
Azorius Soldiers
This is a good matchup. Our only priority is to survive, as we outgrind them in most scenarios, and to keep them from achieving lethal evasion with Harbin, Aviator Vanguard.
RW Humans Aggro
Another good matchup: RW aggro decks have always been the victims of black midrange decks, and have been specifically cut down by them.
Monored Aggro
Another good matchup; we have enough lifegain and removal to easily survive their burn plan, so it's really hard to lose when on the draw.
Golgari Midrange
Another good matchup: we are great at dealing with solitary threats, while their removal will be unable to stop our token strategy.
Esper Control
It's a bad matchup because of how good their Sunfall is against us.
Red Green Aggro
Another good matchup for us, but they rely too much on having a single threat to overwhelm us; however, that usually doesn't work against so much removal.
Final words
This deck is a lower-powered version of Esper Midrange in a vacuum. However, it could be the best choice when the meta is heavily focused on midrange and aggro, without too many ramp or control decks present. What it lacks in power, it compensates for with consistency and resilience.
For those looking for an aggressive approach to the Standard meta, take a look at my previous guide on Boros Humans , which I also piloted to the top 8 in a previous Standard Challenge.
Until next time!