Commander Collection: Oblivion

Commander / EDH Bracket 4 Combo Lifegain WB (Orzhov)

Jurrane

Land (37)

• 1x Ancient Tomb PGC
• 1x Brightclimb Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Castle Locthwain
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Concealed Courtyard
• 1x Emergence Zone
• 1x Fetid Heath
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Hall of Heliod's Generosity
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Kor Haven
• 9x Plains
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Shineshadow Snarl
• 1x Silent Clearing
• 10x Swamp
• 1x Urza's Cave
• 1x War Room

Card Draw (7)

• 1x Black Market Connections P
• 1x Esper Sentinel
• 1x Exemplar of Light
• 1x Haliya, Guided by Light
• 1x NecropotenceGC
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Sign in Blood

Other Win Conditions (4)

• 1x Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1x Felidar Sovereign
• 1x Test of Endurance
• 1x Vedalken Orrery

Combo Pieces (19)

• 1x Beacon of Immortality
• 1x Bloodletter of Aclazotz
• 1x Bloodthirsty Conqueror
• 1x Cliffhaven Vampire
• 1x Defiant Bloodlord
• 1x Enduring Tenacity
• 1x Exquisite Blood
• 1x Fraying Omnipotence
• 1x Heliod, Sun-Crowned P
• 1x Marauding Blight-Priest
• 1x Revival / Revenge
• 1x Rush of Dread
• 1x Sanguine Bond
• 1x Sorin Markov
• 1x Starscape Cleric
• 1x Tree of Perdition
• 1x Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose
• 1x Vizkopa Guildmage
• 1x Walking Ballista P

Removal & Boardwipes (10)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Damn
• 1x Day of Judgment
• 1x Excise the Imperfect
• 1x Kaya's Wrath
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Stroke of Midnight
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Vindicate
• 1x Wrath of God

Protection (1)

• 1x Teferi's Protection PGC

Commander (1)

Lifegain & Lifedrain Sources (12)

• 1x Assault Intercessor
• 1x Auriok Champion
• 1x Authority of the Consuls
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Liesa, Shroud of Dusk
• 1x Rhox Faithmender
• 1x Rug of Smothering
• 1x Serra Ascendant
• 1x Shattered Angel
• 1x Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
• 1x Soul Warden
• 1x Soul's Attendant

Ramp (5)

• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Smothering TitheGC
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Hierarchy
• 1x Thought Vessel

Tutors (4)

• 1x Demonic TutorGC
• 1x Enlightened TutorGC
• 1x Grim Tutor
• 1x Vampiric TutorGC

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{W}{B} Introduction: No Pain, No Gain {W}{B}

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Welcome to my primer for "Oblivion", an Orzhov lifegain and lifedrain deck for the EDH format, with Kambal, Consul of Allocation as its Commander.

If pushed, I would say Orzhov is my favourite colour identity in Magic. I'm not sure what that says about me but there's something about the dual identity at the heart of the BW philosophy that really strikes a chord. On the one hand, we have white's love of law, order, hierarchy and structure; on the other there's the selfishness, greed and subservience typified by black. Coming together, they combine to form an outlook on life that can only be described as organised crime. In this deck, we impose and exploit conditions to benefit ourselves, at the expense of hardship and harm to others.

About the Deck

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An unfortunate opponent once described this deck as being like back pain: the longer you ignore it, the worse it gets. The cards we play are intended to cause the whole board increasingly inconvenient amounts of incremental damage, while offsetting the loss of life we suffer with lifegain effects of our own. Kambal, Consul of Allocation exemplifies our strategy by incurring life loss for our opponents when they cast spells while rewarding us by gaining life, allowing our own life points to be used as a resource. In some cases, such as Felidar Sovereign, Aetherflux Reservoir or Test of Endurance, having a high enough life total enables us to win the game on the spot.

I would characterise this deck as akin to a boa constrictor, slowly squeezing the life out of you until an inevitable outcome is reached. At its heart this is a control deck, unlikely to win through combat but by layering lifegain and lifedrain effects on top of each other, attemping to win slowly and incrementally. Once opposing life totals are low enough, we have a series of finisher cards to end the job, either as infinite combos or as singularly powerful effects.

Our Commander

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In MTG lore, Kambal, Consul of Allocation is an underworld kingpin who is involved in all kinds of shadowy schemes in Avishkar (FKA Kaladesh). He also makes an appearance in Outlaws of Thunder Junction as the corrupt mayor of Prosperity, the wealthiest metropolis in Thunder Junction. In both guises, he's portrayed as a ruthless crime lord who has attained his status through illicit connections and dark deals. As the flavour text for his KLD card mentions:

"...He has 'friends' in places both high and low, and all seem to owe him favours."

Because of his triggered ability, Kambal is the ideal Commander to head up a deck that drains our enemies' life and gains it for ourselves. In the typical EDH game, that trigger will happen quickly and often, and opponents ignore him at their peril. His mana cost is relatively low, at just {1}{W}{B}, which means he can usually withstand quite a few instances of Commander tax and, although his stats are nothing to write home about, we're not planning to win through Commander damage - we're going to use his triggers as the centrepiece of a lifegain and lifedrain strategy.

It's worth noting that the other option we generally have for an Orzhov deck of this type is Liesa, Shroud of Dusk. While she definitely makes the cut for the 99 in this list, Kambal is preferred for his asymmetric effect. But I've seen other decks like this run Liesa very effectively too, so it's really just a case of personal preference.

Power Level

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I categorise decks in my collection according to four tiers of power, from 1 (most powerful) to 4 (least powerful):

Tier 1: Higher powered decks with fast mana, free spells, and infinite combos or instant wins that are searchable with tutors.
Tier 2: Well tuned decks which may have infinite combos or instant wins that are searchable with tutors, but not many fast mana sources and/or free spells.
Tier 3: Reasonably well tuned casual decks that are capable of powerful plays. May occasionally have infinite combos or instant wins but don't generally use tutors to find them.
Tier 4: Lower powered or linear decks, weak enough to play against other casual decks.

Currently the power level of the deck is the medium to high side of casual. We have access to several two-card combos (see the "Infinite Combos" section below), along with tutors like Demonic TutorGC, Vampiric TutorGC, Grim Tutor, Enlightened TutorGC and Idyllic Tutor to find them. What holds us back from high power is our slow ramp-up: we don't run many fast mana sources and this is one of the decks I'd love to prioritise for Mana VaultGC etc. We're also quite vulnerable to disruption - while we have access to some of the best removal cards and boardwipes in the game, we're a bit stuck if key creatures or enchantments are removed, with very few ways to protect them.

I'd therefore categorise this as one of my Tier 2 decks, suitable for stronger casual tables but falling short of a competitive level. I'm perfectly happy with it sitting in that niche for now and it's a fun deck to play.

In terms of WotC's new EDH power brackets, this is a Bracket 4 list. It runs five game changer cards (Ancient TombGC, Smothering TitheGC, Demonic TutorGC, Vampiric TutorGC and Enlightened TutorGC), so more than the maximum suggested for Bracket 3, plus it can draw on a number of infinite combos that can be executed at nearly any point in the game, all with tutor support. But it's nowhere near cEDH level so would struggle at competitive tables.

Budget

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The inclusion of tutors and other premium card choices make this quite an expensive deck to build as it currently sits at an average price of around $850 on Card Kingdom. About 10% of that is down to Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, with its current popularity in most constructed formats pushing the cost up. Elsewhere, cards like Esper Sentinel, Smothering TitheGC, Demonic TutorGC, Vampiric TutorGC and Enlightened TutorGC remain stubbornly high although it's good to see NecropotenceGC a lot cheaper these days thanks to the Enchanting Tales reprint as part of Wilds of Eldraine. Many of the more expensive cards are nice-to-haves so don't feel obligated to include them if you're building an Orzhov gain and drain deck, as they can be substituted for cheaper tutors or card draw pieces.

Infinite Combos

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This deck can either drain our opponents' life totals slowly and steadily, or it can do so in single bursts of lethal damage using our infinite combos. This section outlines the various infinite lifegain/infinite damage combos we have access to. Taken in combination, they form the centrepiece of the deck, in the sense that we primarily operate as a combo deck first and foremost.

We can tutor for the various pieces with Demonic TutorGC, Vampiric TutorGC, Grim Tutor and Enlightened TutorGC.

Our combo lines are generally focused around several key cards: Exquisite Blood, Bloodletter of Aclazotz, Sanguine Bond and Heliod, Sun-Crowned. These are as follows:

Combo Line 1: Exquisite Blood (or Bloodthirsty Conquerer)

Note that all our Exquisite Blood combo lines also work with Bloodthirsty Conqueror as an alternate option because the two cards are functionally identical, other than the latter being a creature. Exquisite Blood // Bloodthirsty Conqueror combines with each of the following cards, to cause infinite lifegain for us and infinite life loss for our opponents, winning the game outright. These are as follows:

• Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Bond
• Exquisite Blood + Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose
• Exquisite Blood + Marauding Blight-Priest
• Exquisite Blood + Starscape Cleric
• Exquisite Blood + Vizkopa Guildmage (requires {1}{W}{B} to activate)
• Exquisite Blood + Cliffhaven Vampire
• Exquisite Blood + Defiant Bloodlord // Enduring Tenacity

In each case above, all we need is a single source of damage to get the life loss going and any of the two-card combinations to start triggering each other.

Combo Line 2: Bloodletter of Aclazotz

Explorers of Ixalan was a very good set for a gain and drain strategy, as it gave us Bloodletter of Aclazotz, a nasty demon that doubles the amount of life lost by opponents during our turn. If the Bloodletter is in play, it combines with several cards to instantly kill one or more opponents as follows:

• Fraying Omnipotence (kills all opponents)
• Rush of Dread (kills one opponent if the additional spree cost of {2} is paid).
• Revival / Revenge (kills one opponent if the {4}{W}{B} for Revenge is cast).
• Sorin Markov (an opponent losing more than 10 life from Sorin's -3 would cause them to lose (life total minus 10)x2 life instead due to Bloodletter's doubling ability).
• Tree of Perdition (works in exactly the same way as Sorin Markov above but with 13 being the magic number).

Combo Line 3: Sanguine Bond // Beacon of Immortality

Sanguine Bond doesn't just combo with Exquisite Blood. It also combines with Beacon of Immortality to remove an opponent from the game if that opponent meets the prerequisite of having equal or lower life than our current life total.

Combo Line 4: Heliod // Ballista Combo

Finally, we have the Heliod, Sun-Crowned // Walking Ballista infinite damage/lifegain combo that can take out the whole table on the spot, providing both are in play, Walking Ballista has at least two counters on it and we have {1}{W} available.

Other Card Choices

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This is a tightly built list with very few spaces to swap out redundant cards. Many of the card choices are quite obvious and are Kambal, Consul of Allocation staples, but this section explains some of the key decisions I've made. I've grouped our various supporting cards into categories for ease of reference.

Lifegain & Lifedrain Sources
In addition to the combo pieces listed above, the bulk of our non-land cards are dedicated to various lifegain and lifedrain abilities. While we can - and sometimes will - win through combat, it's far more common for us to gradually deplete our opponents' life totals using these cards, or with our infinite combos. Aside from those combo pieces, here is a full list of the other gain and drain sources we have.

• Aetherflux Reservoir: One of our best win conditions. This deck finds it very easy to get above 50 life (going over 100 isn't uncommon) so we can then start picking off opponents with our Death Star. Staple for this list.
• Assault Intercessor: The Warhammer 40K Commander decks gave us a more powerful Blood Artist. While it only triggers on enemy creatures dying (ie. not ours), it's still a great lifedrain source and will trigger regularly in most games. Plus it's a 3/2 first striking creature with menace so it has a good chance of connecting in combat from time to time.
• Auriok Champion: One of white's Soul Sisters that gains us life each time a creature ETBs. A valuable source of lifegain in this deck, plus protection from black and red is often relevant too.
• Authority of the Consuls: Although it's a handy Stax piece, we mainly run it because of its lifegain effect. Having other creatures ETB tapped can also be useful though, blanking hasty attackers and reducing the number of enemy blockers.
• Crypt Ghast: Two relevant abilities here. Doubling the output from our Swamps helps with our higher costed spells. Extort is a handy source of lifegain and lifedrain that soon adds up over time.
• Gray Merchant of Asphodel: A bit like Blood Artist in that we don't have any ways of abusing its ETB but it's such a strong card in its own right, and so well suited to this deck, it definitely makes the card, Our devotion to black is normally pretty good.
• Liesa, Shroud of Dusk: Our plan B Commander if Kambal is taxed so much it no longer becomes viable to cast him. Another staple for this deck.
• Rhox Faithmender: One of our favourite cards if we're on our Aetherflux Reservoir plan. Getting to 100+ life is pretty straightforward when he's around.
• Rug of Smothering: This is a little workhorse of a card. Wise opponents will remove it straight away but it often goes unanswered for a while. We can mitigate its life loss but, like our commander, it becomes increasingly annoying for other players. The damage it does quickly adds up.
• Serra Ascendant: Included for the insane value it can offer in the early turns, especially when it's entirely possible to play a 6/6 flying lifelinker for just {W} on turn 1. Our life total is invariably above 30 in most situations so the power this little creature provides is incredible.
• Shattered Angel: In the typical EDH game, our opponents are going to be playing a lot of lands. Gaining 3 life for each enemy land drop is no joke. Another good setup card for Aetherfluc Reservoir.
• Sheoldred, the Apocalypse: I can't believe this card has hit nearly $100. Actually I can: it's amazing. Our deck is the perfect home for it as it taxes opponents for drawing cards while rewarding us for doing the same. Absolute staple.
• Soul Warden: Another of white's Soul Sisters. Play it early and reap the benefit.
• Soul's Attendant: Same as Soul Warden but with better flavour text.

Removal
The Orzhov colour identity is blessed with great removal options. We can destroy or exile pretty much any permanent we want with Anguished Unmaking, Vindicate, Excise the Imperfect and Stroke of Midnight. Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares and Damn offer a good rate for removing creatures. Or we can turn Damn into a boardwipe, along with Kaya's Wrath, Day of Judgment and Wrath of God.

Card Draw
If ever there was a deck to get the best out of NecropotenceGC, it's this one. Our life total frequently gets high enough that we can draw pretty much as many cards as we like, helping us to find our combos or other impact cards. Or we can turn to other useful card draw resources including Esper Sentinel, Exemplar of Light, Haliya, Guided by Light, Black Market Connections, Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, War Room and Castle Locthwain.

Ramp
One of this list's major weaknesses is it can be somewhat ponderous and slow. Our mana curve is a bit clunky, the average mana value of our nonland cards is higher than I'd like and it can therefore be quite easy for opponents to 1-for-1 us. I've definitely played games where faster or more aggressive decks outrace us and it can be difficult to recover. One solution would be to power up and add more fast mana sources like Mana VaultGC etc. For now, we have a few mana rocks and Smothering TitheGC but they won't always be enough.

Alternate Win Conditions
Finally we have two additional relevant and achievable win conditions in Felidar Sovereign and Test of Endurance. Going above 50 life is very achievable and then we usually just have to survive a turn cycle for either to trigger and win us the game (but obviously expect to be the archenemy in the meantime).

We also include both Emergence Zone and Vedalken Orrery to counteract the drawbacks of Test of Endurance and Felidar Sovereign ie. their insta-win effects aren't really instant. These two cards change all that. If either Vedalken Orrery or Emergence Zone are in play and we have the mana available, we wait til our opponents' end step to make our move, winning on the next upkeep. They're also a good way of playing around countermagic from those pesky blue mages.

Future Improvements

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With the addition of powerful new staples in Bloodthirsty Conqueror and Haliya, Guided by Light, this list is now in pretty much its final form and I'm not looking to make any other changes for the time being. Thanks for reading this primer!

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All My EDH Decks

{W} Giada, Font of Hope {W}
S(i)erra Sidewinder: Mono-White Angel Tribal

{U} Orvar, the All-Form {U}
Clone Zone: Mono-Blue Shapeshifters Combo

{B} Sidisi, Undead Vizier {B}
Swamp Thing: Mono-Black Midrange Combo

{B} Ayara, First of Locthwain {B}
Black Diamond: Mono-Black Aristocrats Combo

{R} Torbran, Thane of Red Fell {R}
Red Force: Mono-Red Group Slug

{R} Rionya, Fire Dancer {R}
Firebird: Mono-Red Storm/Tokens

{G} Titania, Protector of Argoth {G}
Timber Terror: Mono-Green Land Sacrifice

{W}{U} Grand Arbiter Augustin IVGC {W}{U}
Control Freak: Azorius Control

{W}{U} Elminster {W}{U}
Crystal Wing: Azorius Skies & Scry

{U}{B} Oona, Queen of the Fae {U}{B}
Dreamcatcher: Dimir Faeries Tribal

{U}{B} Narfi, Betrayer King {U}{B}
Ice Breaker: Dimir Snow/Zombies

{U}{B} Lord of the Nazgul {U}{B}
The Black Gate Opens: Dimir Spellslinger

{B}{R} Rakdos, Lord of Riots {B}{R}
Steamin’ Demon: Rakdos Life Loss

{B}{R} Juri, Master of the Revue {B}{R}
Pandemonium: Rakdos Sacrifice

{R}{G} Wort, the Raidmother {R}{G}
Barnstormer: Gruul Conspire

{W}{G} Sigarda, Font of Blessings {W}{G}
Stampida: Selesnya Humans Tribal

{W}{G} Captain Sisay {W}{G}
Legendia: Selesnya Legendary

{W}{G} Sythis, Harvest's Hand {W}{G}
Diamondback: Selesnya Enchantress

{W}{B} Daxos the Returned {W}{B}
Curse of Novgorod: Orzhov Constellation

{W}{B} Kambal, Consul of Allocation {W}{B}
Oblivion: Orzhov Lifegain & Lifedrain

{W}{B} Eriette of the Charmed Apple {W}{B}
Flight of the Wicked Witch: Orzhov Auras

{U}{R} Firkraag, Cunning Instigator {U}{R}
Dragon’s Fury: Izzet Dragons/Goad

{B}{G} Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons {B}{G}
Scorpion Express: Golgari Deathtouch

{B}{G} Nath of the Gilt-Leaf {B}{G}
Outlaw Run: Golgari Elves/Discard

{W}{R} Bruenor Battlehammer {W}{R}
Steel Force: Boros Equipment

{W}{R} General Ferrous Rokiric {W}{R}
Gatekeeper: Boros Multicoloured

{U}{G} Ezuri, Stalker of Spheres {U}{G}
Toxic Garden: Simic Infect

{W}{U}{B} Tivit, Seller of Secrets {W}{U}{B}
Steel Vengeance: Esper Artifacts

{W}{U}{B} Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign {W}{U}{B}
Riddler’s Revenge: Esper Topdeck

{U}{B}{R} Marchesa, the Black Rose {U}{B}{R}
Revenge of the Mummy: Grixis Dethrone/Combo

{B}{R}{G} Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire {B}{R}{G}
Dragon Wagon: Jund Dragons Tribal

{W}{R}{G} Pantlaza, Sun-Favored {W}{R}{G}
Raptor Attack: Naya Dinosaurs Tribal

{W}{U}{G} Galadriel, Light of Valinor {W}{U}{G}
Vapour Trail: Bant Flicker

{W}{B}{G} Karador, Ghost Chieftain {W}{B}{G}
Hair Raiser: Abzan Reanimator

{W}{B}{G} Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant {W}{B}{G}
A Long-Expected Party: Abzan Lifegain/Combo

{W}{U}{R} Kykar, Wind's Fury {W}{U}{R}
Storm Runner: Jeskai Tokens

{W}{U}{R} Hinata, Dawn-Crowned {W}{U}{R}
Phantom’s Revenge: Jeskai Control

{U}{B}{G} Yarok, the Desecrated {U}{B}{G}
Boomerang: Sultai ETB Triggers

{W}{B}{R} Kaalia of the Vast {W}{B}{R}
Abyssus: Mardu Angels & Demons

{U}{R}{G} Omnath, Locus of the Roil {U}{R}{G}
Boulder Dash: Temur Landfall

{U}{R}{G} Eshki, Temur's Roar {U}{R}{G}
Thunder Striker: Temur Power Matters

Date added	3 years
Last updated	1 month
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	13 - 0 Mythic Rares 46 - 0 Rares 16 - 0 Uncommons 6 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.24
Tokens	Copy Clone, Human 1/1 W, Incubator, Phyrexian 0/0 C, Shapeshifter 3/2 C, Starscape Cleric 1/1 B, Treasure
Folders	edh, bw