Stopping Power! *PRIMER*

Commander / EDH Casual Enchantment Multiplayer Tokens WB (Orzhov)

NV_1980

Enchantment (26)

• 1x Anointed Procession
• 1x Attrition
• 1x Authority of the Consuls
• 1x Blind Obedience
• 1x Cathars' Crusade
• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Exquisite Blood
• 1x Flickering Ward
• 1x Ghostly Prison
• 1x Grasp of Fate
• 1x Greater Auramancy
• 1x Hallowed Haunting
• 1x Karmic Justice
• 1x Land Tax
• 1x Leyline of the Void
• 1x Luminarch Ascension
• 1x Martyr's Bond
• 1x No Mercy
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Sigil of the Empty Throne
• 1x Smothering Tithe
• 1x Smuggler's Share
• 1x Sphere of Safety
• 1x Starfield of Nyx
• 1x Underworld Dreams
• 1x Wound Reflection

Instant (7)

• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Heliod's Intervention
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Unmake
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Vanishing Verse

Land (36)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Fetid Heath
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 9x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Shambling Vent
• 5x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Field
• 1x Temple of Silence
• 1x Vault of the Archangel
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Windswept Heath

Artifact (9)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Jet Medallion
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Pearl Medallion
• 1x Scroll Rack
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring

Commander (1)

Creature (16)

• 1x Academy Rector
• 1x Aegis of the Gods
• 1x Ajani's Chosen
• 1x Archon of Sun's Grace
• 1x Athreos, God of Passage
• 1x Celestial Ancient
• 1x Doomwake Giant
• 1x Erebos, God of the Dead
• 1x Esper Sentinel
• 1x Fate Unraveler
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Grim Guardian
• 1x Heliod, Sun-Crowned
• 1x Mesa Enchantress
• 1x Underworld Coinsmith
• 1x Weathered Wayfarer

Sorcery (5)

• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Extinguish All Hope
• 1x Gift of Estates
• 1x Idyllic Tutor
• 1x Replenish

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Welcome to Stopping Power! {W}{B}!

Hi there! Welcome to the primer of my Orzhov, enchantment, token-deck; commanded by Daxos the Returned. The air is thick with spells and I’m weaving a web of arcane energy around you like you wouldn’t believe; summoning ever greater quantities of weave-mesh to ensnare everything you hold dear (including your life). Once it’s ready, tied into a perfect knot that simply can’t be untangled, breached, broken or penetrated, I’ll have my boy use its twisted power as fuel for his spirit tokens. Get ready to be smacked by the force of righteous yet putrid energies, kicking you into the grave from the astral plane! This deck is meant to be played casually. It’s not meant to be used in a competitive fashion, but of course I welcome anyone to try! Feel free to comment on anything you (dis)like throughout this primer; I hope you will enjoy it!

Why Daxos?

He’s unique! One of the only commanders in existence that is so clearly supposed to interact with non-aura enchantments. It’s appropriate that Daxos is of the Orzhov guild. White and black arguably have the most powerful enchantments in MTG, so having these at my disposal has a positive impact on the deck’s power-level. This guy can create some pretty powerful tokens once the deck gets going, and he’s not expensive to (re)cast.

Strengths and Weaknesses

I use the following parameters to determine the strength of the deck. For each, I allocate a score of 5 (very good), 4 (good), 3 (mediocre), 2 (bad) or 1 (very bad); when totalized this score represents the power rating of the deck.

• Mana: indicates the availability of mana sources within the deck.
• Ramp: indicates the speed at which mana sources within the deck can be made available.
• Card Advantage: indicates availability of filter- and draw resources represented within the deck.
• Overall speed: indicates the deck’s potential for pace, based on resource availability and mana curve.
• Combo: indicates the measure of combo-orientation of the deck.
• Army: indicates the deck’s creature-army strength.
• Commander: indicates how much the deck is commander-oriented/dependent (less dependency is better).
• Resilience: indicates the measure in which the deck can prevent and take punches.
• Spellpower: indicates the availability and strength of high-impact spells.

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Mana: 3

During turns, I want to be able to summon a token with Daxos, while simultaneously having enough mana left over to cast at least one other spell. Thus, it’s important to have decent mana available within this deck. It contains five rocks, two cheapeners and two enchantments that relinquish treasure tokens whenever my opponents attempt to gain the upper hand.

Ramp: 2

The second most efficient color at ramping after green, is actually white. This means there are a decent number of options. I’ve included only three of them though, and all of them can only be used when at least one player controls more lands than I do.

Card Advantage: 4

It’s great to have lots of options during turns and that requires to draw cards often. I’ve featured five cards as direct-draw resources and five tutors to allow for this. Also, two amazing filter-artifacts have been added.

Overall speed: 4

Lots of cheap resources, draw and inhibiting spells/enchantments allow this deck to kick-start itself with a very decent speed. During most games I will be able to undertake the first, serious inhibitive actions before turn four.

Combo: 1

Not a very combo-oriented deck, but there are some nice synergies in here. A number of permanents benefit from the fact that Daxos doesn’t just generate spirits, but enchantment-spirits. This feeds into enchantment-ETB effects.

Army: 2

Most of this deck’s potential for combat damage relies on its token army. In terms of non-token creatures, the amount included can be considered below average. Their individual strengths aren’t really combat oriented either; most of them have been included for their inhibitive/supportive abilities or their synergy with the deck’s enchantments.

Commander: 4

The ability to generate (potentially) strong tokens is really quite useful in a deck that mostly relies on combat damage to finish off opponents. Daxos can do this quite well by himself, but redundancy has been added in abundance (five options), in case Daxos ever becomes unavailable to us. If the deck is deprived entirely of token generation options, it will still take one heck of a pounding before it goes down.

Resilience: 5

This deck’s primary mode is not offensive but defensive. Orzhov happens to excel at that. This color-combination sports a wide variety of inhibition-, rebirth- and outright destructive options. I’ve chosen to include ten cards (mostly enchantments) that slow down my opponents or negate their advantage. These are supported by no less than fourteen removal options (eight specifically meant to get rid of opposing creatures). Last but not least, I’ve included three cards that allow me to retrieve lost enchantments from the graveyard.

Spellpower: 5

In terms of high impact on the board, this deck really packs a wallop. This becomes particularly apparent if I am allowed to create a board-state of more than a few enchantments at the same time. Options to hurt me or impact me in other ways becomes severely limited in such cases. I would say that at least twenty-one cards within the deck fall within this category.

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Total power score: 30

Ever since Daxos came out, this creation has evolved into a strong combination of cards that can counter most opposing threats, and this is reflected in the deck’s power score. It’s not particularly fast, but it’s quite hard to get rid of and becomes very dangerous once it gets going a few turns without losing enchantments. I love it for its versatility and its ability to make an impact on the battlefield.

General strategy

This deck starts slow and adopts a defensive posture. A significant amount of casting is spent on barriers, taxation and other forms of inhibition while building up resources. While this goes on, Daxos is to make as early an appearance as possible. He will keep a low profile at first, just gain experience as turns go by and more enchantments are cast. This increases his chances of survival a bit and keeps potential recasts later a bit cheaper.

Once I’ve gained a decent measure of experience (4+ usually takes me between 6-8 turns), the deck enters its mid-game phase during which I will have Daxos create at least one Spirit token a turn (more if possible). While doing that, I will try to keep enough resources available to keep casting new enchantments and/or support cards that strengthen my existing forces. This will also be the phase during which I will start to prod the enemy with my army. Unless opponents perform a wipe or (consistently) target Daxos and my enchantments, I will be able to overwhelm the opposition with a token army between turns 12-16.

Starting hand

At least three cards in the starting hand ought to be lands (or two lands and a cheap-to-cast rock like Arcane Signet, Orzhov Signet, Fellwar Stone, Jet Medallion, Pearl Medallion or Sol Ring. This is a must; I’m not going to start a game without this hand (even if I have to mulligan down to three cards). The ideal hand would also contain some additional ramp and/or low-cost draw options or maybe a cheap inhibitor like Authority of the Consuls.

Early game

Before I embark on the offense, I want to create a board-state from which I will be (very) hard to dislodge. This requires the casting of resources to be prioritized. Aside from the aforementioned cards in the ‘Starting Hand’ section, I’ll consider some slower options like Knight of the White Orchid, Land Tax, Scroll Rack, Smuggler's Share and Weathered Wayfarer. Now comes the task of making myself the most unattractive target of attacks possible. Some very solid protection can be gained through the casting of cards like Aegis of the Gods, Athreos, God of Passage, Ghostly Prison, Grand Abolisher, Greater Auramancy and Karmic Justice. While putting up these barriers, I need Daxos the Returned to join the field early, so that I can start gaining experience from enchantment castings asap.

Mid-game

Once primary defenses are in place, I will start to use Daxos’s token generation abilities to create a spirit army. In an ideal situation, he is joined by token generators that are triggered by enchantment ETB’s to increase my army’s size even further: Ajani's Chosen and Archon of Sun's Grace. Having Anointed Procession around helps me even more in such scenarios, doubling the amount of all my token generation. Other cards I should not forget at this stage, involve bonuses triggered by enchantment casting (like Celestial Ancient, Doomwake Giant, Hallowed Haunting and Sigil of the Empty Throne).

While building up my force, I’ll move to strengthen my defenses even further. Especially tax and stax pieces should be appearing in this stage, like Blind Obedience, Dictate of Erebos, Martyr's Bond, No Mercy, Sphere of Safety and Underworld Dreams. Non-combat related strategies, that are still capable of dealing overall damage or other inconvenience, can be disrupted with Heliod's Intervention, Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares, Unmake and Vanishing Verse to get rid of their key components.

End-game

Once I’ve created a board-state that’s very hard to get rid of, my tokens will move in for the kill. They can be strengthened through the use of Cathars' Crusade or can be given a clean sweep by removing all non-enchantment creatures from the field with Extinguish All Hope.

Card Choices

Lands

My reliable sources of mana, and some utility:

• Ancient Tomb: major colorless mana for a small price in life-points; excellent land to start games with.
• Arid Mesa/Bloodstained Mire/Flooded Strand/Marsh Flats/Polluted Delta/Verdant Catacombs/Windswept Heath: the lands I use to filter through my deck, which enables me to find the cards that matter to my strategy quicker.
• Command Tower/Exotic Orchard/Mana Confluence/Reflecting Pool: great all-color mana lands that have very few disadvantages in their use.
• Caves of Koilos, Fetid Heath/Godless Shrine/Isolated Chapel/Shambling Vent/Tainted Field/Temple of Silence: lands that provide Orzhov mana, that depending in circumstances enter the battlefield tapped or untapped. I’ve tried to incorporate the best MTG has to offer on this front, except for the original dual lands which are outside my (and most players’) price-range.
• Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx: very useful mana battery in a permanent-rich deck; especially when said permanents are hard to get rid of.
• Reliquary Tower: because I hate to discard.
• Vault of the Archangel: very powerful, though temporary, bonuses for Daxos’ spirit tokens.

Mana and ramp

The cards I use to accelerate mana-availability:

• Arcane Signet: cheap-to-cast, doesn’t come into play tapped and grants me any Orzhov mana whenever tapped.
• Chromatic Lantern: love the mana fixing this does.
• Gift of Estates: sort of a one-shot Land Tax but for Plains only; still nice!
• Fellwar Stone: useful mana source that in 4-person play groups almost always allows me to generate white or black mana.
• Jet Medallion: cheapens all my black spells; score!
• Land Tax: many of the successes I’ve had in games featuring white, are owed to the presence of this card. In my view, arguably the best non-green land-fetching device that was ever created and it’s a staple in all my decks featuring white.
• Orzhov Signet: I can’t have two Arcane Signets, so let’s include this instead.
• Pearl Medallion: cheapens all my white spells; score!
• Smothering Tithe: pay taxes for drawing! You don’t want to? Thank you for the mana!
• Sol Ring: are there EDH decks without this card?
• Weathered Wayfarer: fetches any land for me, not just basics, provided someone else currently controls more lands than I do.

Card Advantage

The mechanisms that provide me with card advantage:

• Academy Rector: a tutor and battlefield-placer for enchantments, perfect for this deck.
• Demonic Tutor/Vampiric Tutor: the perfect cards to find whatever I need.
• Enlightened Tutor/Idyllic Tutor: some enchantments and artifacts are just too good not to tutor for.
• Erebos, God of the Dead: life for draw; quite often a nice trade-off.
• Esper Sentinel: I get to draw unless you pay tax; most decide not to pay.
• Mesa Enchantress: casting enchantments allows me to draw!
• Phyrexian Arena: one of the standard black enchantments I use for additional draw.
• Scroll Rack/Sensei's Divining Top: awesome filter- and draw mechanisms for hardly any cost. I try to include them in the majority of my decks.
• Smuggler's Share: more cards and more mana for me, if others gained a bit too much advantage this turn first.

Damage, Removal and Stax

Cards to atomize, banish, destroy or vaporize the opponents’ stuff.

• Attrition: altar upon which I can sacrifice my critters to kill yours.
• Dictate of Erebos: kill my creatures in combat and everyone gets to sac as many.
• Doomwake Giant: superb creature removal; especially when I can get multiple enchantments to enter the battlefield in a single turn.
• Extinguish All Hope: perfect wipe when enough of my Daxos tokens have been summoned.
• Fate Unraveler/Underworld Dreams: drawing is going to be painful, … for you!
• Grasp of Fate: getting rid of key permanents from each opponent can be instrumental to victory.
• Heliod's Intervention: gives me the choice to kill off a bunch of enchantments and artifacts; or just gain a whole lot of life.
• Karmic Justice: bit of a stax piece that protects my enchantments (for the most part).
• Leyline of the Void: not exactly removal, but does send stuff into oblivion instead of the graveyard, from which it’s much harder to return.
• Martyr's Bond: great protection for my permanents; removal of one of mine, results in every opponent sacrificing a similar permanent.
• No Mercy: any non-indestructible creature damaging me is dead. Just plain dead.
• Path to Exile/Swords to Plowshares: cheap exile in exchange for minor opposing benefit.
• Unmake/Vanishing Verse: more ways to exile creatures or other permanents.
• Wound Reflection: ANY damage my opponents receive is doubled; youch! That includes the damage I didn’t deal.

Protection and Recursion

Good luck trying to harm me!

• Aegis of the Gods: engage shield against opposing spells!
• Athreos, God of Passage: allow me to keep that creature, or get pinged!
• Authority of the Consuls/Blind Obedience: slows down some of my opponents’ permanents and lets me gain some life in some circumstances.
• Exquisite Blood: helps me to build up a nice life-point buffer from the pain my opponents are receiving.
• Flickering Ward: great enchantment to use for triggering ETB effects.
• Ghostly Prison/Sphere of Safety: puts a tax-gate around my side of the battlefield.
• Grand Abolisher: you’re responding with a counterspell? In my turn? I think not.
• Greater Auramancy: yay, all my (other) enchantments have spell protection!
• Replenish: you’ve just destroyed all my enchantments? No big deal :)

Benefits, Bonuses and Pain

When enchantments ETB/are cast, my opponents are in for some pain OR I get boons (or both)

• Ajani's Chosen: a cat for every enchantment I place on the battlefield, which can be multiple enchantments a turn.
• Anointed Procession: doubling Daxos’ spirit-token output has been instrumental to victory a number of times, and I’m not complaining about the other types of token copies either.
• Archon of Sun's Grace: a recent addition to the deck that has proven to be one of my more powerful token generators.
• Cathars' Crusade: a boost that’s so much more fun when combined with token generation.
• Celestial Ancient: provides my (token) army with nice boosts when I weave some more enchantments.
• Grim Guardian: every opponent is going to be hurting when my enchantments enter the battlefield; including Daxos’ spirit tokens.
• Hallowed Haunting: such a superb synergy with Daxos’ abilities; upgrades his spirit tokens AND can generate tokens by itself that actually benefit from the amount of Daxos tokens!
• Heliod, Sun-Crowned: this deck’s got a nice number of ways to gain life, so this God’s bonus comes in handy.
• Luminarch Ascension: in a deck that makes it very hard for opponents to harm me, it kinda makes sense to add this beauty. Generation of a nice squadron of Angels.
• Sigil of the Empty Throne: casting enchantments is what this deck does; this lovely thing adds a little Angel cherry on top to make the perfect sundae.
• Starfield of Nyx: acts as my doomsday device (the Weave, IT’S … ALIIIIVE!) and has a very useful recursion element as well.
• Underworld Coinsmith: love the life-gain, but love the drain even more!

Notable exclusions

• Serra's Sanctum: best card ever for this deck, but too expensive.
• Twilight Drover and Drogskol Cavalry: fits the Spirit theme, but I didn’t want to focus too much on that.
• Heartstone: makes the creation of Daxos-tokens cheaper, but I've found this isn't really necessary as by the mid-game, I can easily create enough tokens per turn
• Spirit of the Labyrinth: don't want to hurt my own draw capabilities.
• Crystal Chimes: will sometimes be put in as a redundancy next to Replenish , depending on the meta I’m facing.

Thank you for reading!

I appreciate the time you took to read my primer. Hopefully it was entertaining and useful to you. If so, feel free to leave a +1 and/or feedback of any kind in the comments below. Thanks again!

Date added	7 years
Last updated	1 year
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	14 - 0 Mythic Rares 54 - 0 Rares 13 - 0 Uncommons 5 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.97
Tokens	Angel 4/4 W, Cat 2/2 W, Enchantment Spirit */* WB, Experience Token, Pegasus 2/2 W, Spirit Cleric */* W, Treasure
Folders	Dax decks, Reference Decks, Deck Inspiration