Orzhova, Keepers of the Libris Mortis

Commander / EDH WB (Orzhov)

Gundam-Tyrfing

Creature (24)

• 1x Auramancer
• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Burnished Hart
• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Gold Myr
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Grave Titan
• 1x Gravecrawler
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Hex Parasite
• 1x Karmic Guide
• 1x Knight of the White Orchid
• 1x Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 1x Leaden Myr
• 1x Mangara of Corondor
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Nether Traitor
• 1x Puppeteer Clique
• 1x Reassembling Skeleton
• 1x Reveillark
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Sorcery (9)

• 1x Beseech the Queen
• 1x Bitter Ordeal
• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Victimize
• 1x Vindicate

Land (36)

• 1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Concealed Courtyard
• 1x Fetid Heath
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Mistveil Plains
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 9x Plains
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 8x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Field
• 1x Tarnished Citadel
• 1x Temple of Silence
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Instant (11)

• 1x Angel's Grace
• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Mortify
• 1x Orim's Chant
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Pull from Eternity
• 1x Silence
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Unmake
• 1x Utter End

Commander (1)

Artifact (15)

• 1x Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Basalt Monolith
• 1x Cloudstone Curio
• 1x Coalition Relic
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Darksteel Ingot
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x MImic Vat
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble

Enchantment (4)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Carnival of Souls
• 1x Dance of the Dead
• 1x Phyrexian Arena

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Hello, and welcome to Keepers of the Libris Mortis a Ghost Council of Orzhova Deck! Once again I will discuss the Pros and Cons, and why you should play Ghost Council of Orzhova . Lets discuss my history though with the General or more precisely the colors!

Orzhov or is actually one of my favorite color combinations and one of the first type of decks I ever tried to make before I knew what EDH was. When I got into EDH, I wanted to play Orzhov but at the time none of the Generals really appealed to me except, Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter I even made a list I was gunna use, probably for the best but I never got around to building it and overtime the idea of playing Orzhov faded away. That was until a few months ago when I was working on a deck that I went to see if there was any Orzhov General that fit me now that my play style had changed, that's when I got a good read of Ghost Council and realized that I wanted to play this deck!

Well there are better generals in the colors then Ghost Council, I think they are still a powerful general and might honestly might be in the top three Generals in the colors!

Now I wanna address an Elephant in the room right away, Obzedat, Ghost Council I've had a lot of people ask me why I didn't just play them since I do use some flickering effects among other things to replay Ghost Council. The main reason is because of the sac effect on the Council which you can target them with it allowing tons of Graveyard shenanigans. This is not to say Obzedat is a bad General or anything of the sort just I feel that style of play is not what I had in mind when I created this deck concept.

Keepers of the Libris Mortis

Who is the Orzhova? Well Ghost Council of Orzhova is a 4 cost 4/4 costing , when the Council enters the battlefield, it causes target opponent to lose 1 life and us to gain 1 life. The Council has an activated ability.

The ability costs and allows you to sacrifice a creature, to Exile the Council and have it return on the next End Step which allows its ETB to go off again.

This ability is interesting in that if we have enough mana we can sac our whole field and the Council without having it get exiled allowing for tons of Graveyard shenanigans, it also allows the Council to evade Board Wipes.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

-Resilient

-Many ways to win and plenty of ways to get to them

-Lots of removal and recursion

Cons:

-Some combos have many pieces.

-Requires setup

-Gets destroyed by graveyard hate

Combos

Now Ghost Council of Orzhova can be a very combo oriented General and many of these combos are very powerful!

Ashnod's Altar + Karmic Guide + Reveillark + Zulaport Cutthroat or Blood Artist classic combo makes infinite LTBs and Infinite ETBs, also produces infinite Mana! This combo also works with other Sac outlets!

Carnival of Souls + Gravecrawler + Carrion Feeder + Aetherflux Reservoir You need a single to set this up, but first you sac Crawler to Carrion then use the single black to recast Crawler. This triggers Carnival and Aetherflux, giving us and losing one life, and causing us to gain one life from Aetherflux rinse and repeat for infinite life to Aetherflux each opponent.

Gray Merchant of Asphodel + Hex Parasite + Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Ashnod's Altar This creates infinite mana and infinite etbs of Gray Merchant. Which drains everyone of all their life well we use some of it to help pay for Parasite's effect. You can also use this combo with another sac outlet and Carnival of Souls

Ghost Council of Orzhova + Hex Parasite + Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Ashnod's Altar + Angel's Grace This lets us not lose the game, and constantly reoccur Council to drain all of our opponents.

Solemn Simulacrum + Hex Parasite + Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Ashnod's Altar + Angel's Grace Searches all our lands and lets us draw all the cards in our deck in addition to infinite colorless mana also Angel's Grace keeps us from dying.

Kokusho, the Evening Star + Hex Parasite + Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Ashnod's Altar Same as the Gray Merchant combo but with Kokusho!

Carnival of Souls + Cloudstone Curio + Aetherflux Reservoir + Viscera Seer + Carrion Feeder Allows us to get infinite triggers off of Aetherflux by bouncing Seer and Carrion can also substitute any of these for Gravecrawler or vice versa with Seer or Carrion!

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Ashnod's Altar + Puppeteer Clique allows us to get infinite colorless mana and steal everything from our opponents' graveyards. You can add Skullclamp to this for infinite draw as well.

Carnival of Souls + Gravecrawler + Carrion Feeder + Angel's Grace + Bitter Ordeal This allows us to not lose the game, and exile everything from every opponent's deck.

Carnival of Souls + Reassembling Skeleton + Nether Traitor + Ashnod's Altar + Angel's Grace + Bitter Ordeal Allows us not to lose the game and exile everything in each opponent's Deck.

Assembling Combos

So how do we get our glorious combos? Well as you can see we're packing a lot of tutors and some draw engines! This is just our best way to get to our combos and with some many things being potential pieces you're usually likely to have a couple pieces in your opening hand usually!

Typical Game

So with Ghost Council a typical game you want to open with a tutor in your hand and if you can potentially a draw engine. Usually that's something like Reassembling Skeleton and Skullclamp , and lets say Diabolic Intent , alternatively Phyrexian Arena is also acceptable since it allows consistent draw instead of paying 3 Mana a turn to draw with the Skeleton engine. Although the Skeleton Engine does get us more cards and we don't lose life but either or is good!

The tutor in our hand we use to grab a piece to set up for later. Once we can cast Council we do since we can use the Skeleton to protect Council from removal if its thrown at him and reproc his etb. Since we're also having a draw Engine going on this means we'll be getting into other pieces quickly and also keeping up with or Lands every turn. Now of course if the engine is disrupted with say graveyard hate or artifact removal being thrown at the clamp, we do get slowed down so hopefully we get into another tutor quick.

Card Analysis

Now to discuss my card choices for Orzhova!

Managara of Corondor This card is an allstar due to being able to sac it in response to its effect allowing us to exile a permanent and then put this in our Graveyard where we can reoccur it to get its effect again. Now of course we don't have a Haste source so we do have to wait a rotation to use this effect so in the future it might be a good idea to add a Lightning Greaves or Swiftfoot Boots to allow us to get some crazy value out of its effect overall though its good!

Kokusho, the Evening Star so this card was just a filler card because I missed getting a Harvester of Souls but honestly I'm debating keeping this over Harvester because it can fit into a couple combos and drain out opponents quickly! Its good but perhaps a little slow.

Carnival of Souls a lot of people look at this at might think why would we use this? Well beyond it comboing with Aetherflux Reservoir combining it with Angel's Grace allows us to get some crazy effects off and potentially win the game with other pieces, it also can allow for some crazy draw engine shenanigans! Again with the right cards. Its a great card and it fits well into this deck!

Gravecrawler Not a zombie tribal deck but we got crawler? Are we insane? Yes, but is it great in this deck? Yes! Using Crawler gives us access to so many combos and plays as well as draw engines! This card forms the core of several combos and I love it!

Pull from Eternity sometimes when someone removes a card you just wanna say the rules don't apply and its in your graveyard and this card is that card! It's White's equivalent of Riftsweeper and is really important especially if we lose a piece! Also is a cantrip so we can get a Paradox trigger off it!

Path of Ancestry this card was originally supposed to be Emeria, The Sky Ruin but I couldn't find one at the time I'm gunna swap it out as soon as possible!

Notable Exclusions and Potential Upgrades!

I actually find this list to be decently solid but there are a few things I feel could be added.

Potentially a haste source such as, Swiftfoot Boots , or Lightning Greaves , also adding Phyrexian Altar would be an excellent idea as well!

Sidisi, Undead Vizier this card I feel needs to be in this deck! It would be great I just gotta find one!

Final Thoughts and Feedback

Well there you have, Orzhova, Keepers of the Libris Mortis. I hope you enjoyed reading through this list and I can't wait to hear everyone's feedback!

Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	3 - 0 Mythic Rares 38 - 0 Rares 26 - 0 Uncommons 15 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.73
Tokens	Copy Clone, Zombie 2/2 B