∆ ILLUMINATI CONFIRMED V. 2.3??? ∆

Commander / EDH Aggro Lifegain Midrange Multiplayer WB (Orzhov)

McMayhem

Enablers (21)

• 1x Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1x Archangel of Thune
• 1x Auriok Champion
• 1x Authority of the Consuls
• 1x Baneslayer Angel
• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Divinity of Pride
• 1x Kambal, Consul of Allocation
• 1x Pontiff of Blight
• 1x Pristine Talisman
• 1x Retreat to Hagra
• 1x Sorin Markov
• 1x Sorin, Solemn Visitor
• 1x Soul Warden
• 1x Soul's Attendant
• 1x Sunscorch Regent
• 1x Suture Priest
• 1x Sword of Light and Shadow
• 1x Trespasser's Curse
• 1x Twilight Prophet
• 1x Umezawa's Jitte

Removal (14)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Aura of Silence
• 1x Austere Command
• 1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
• 1x Merciless Eviction
• 1x Mortify
• 1x Profane Procession  ^Flip
• 1x Righteous Confluence
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Utter End
• 1x Vindicate
• 1x Vona's Hunger
• 1x Wrath of God

Utility (16)

• 1x Blighted Fen
• 1x Blighted Steppe
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Forbidden Orchard
• 1x High Market
• 1x Opal Palace
• 1x Scoured Barrens
• 1x Shambling Vent
• 1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 1x Temple of Silence
• 1x Thespian's Stage
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Vault of the Archangel
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold
• 1x Westvale Abbey  ^Flip

Goodstuff (15)

• 1x Aven Mindcensor
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Cliffhaven Vampire
• 1x Crested Sunmare
• 1x Debt to the Deathless
• 1x Felidar Sovereign
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
• 1x Mother of Runes
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Sanguine Bond
• 1x Serra Ascendant
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Tree of Perdition

Draw (4)

• 1x Azor's Gateway  ^Flip
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Tymna the Weaver

Commander (1)

Colors (21)

• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Concealed Courtyard
• 1x Fetid Heath
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Orzhov Basilica
• 1x Orzhov Guildgate
• 4x Plains
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Scrubland
• 4x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Field

Tutors (7)

• 1x Beseech the Queen
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Ranger of Eos
• 1x Recruiter of the Guard
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Weathered Wayfarer

Recursion (1)

• 1x Sun Titan

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Maybeboard

Other (2)

• 1x Sorin Markov
• 1x Vraska's Contempt

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Now with a foil gallery - updated 9/20/16

Introduction

For the longest time, I've been bouncing between various Orzhov-aligned strategies, and I'd acquired a large concentration of powerful cards for the color combination from trying out several color splashes and approaches to the strategy.

I eventually got sick of all of the decks I built which just jammed all my powerful black and white cards and disassembled them, but then I'd been sitting around with a lot of super-powerful Orzhov cards, like Divinity of Pride, Mother of Runes and Sorin Markov, to name a few, that just weren't doing anything, and I wanted a home for them, so when Modern Masters 2015 Edition came out, I saw that Ghost Council of Orzhova had been reprinted, and after hearing that Commander 2015 was going to feature enemy dual-color strategies, stuck with the lack of commitment the Ghost Council came with until C15 printed something refreshing and new to try. I was getting tired of all the token decks the color combination's legendary creatures forced people into, and I didn't want to build Zurgo Helmsmasher or any other Abzan deck, as the third color would disrupt the manabase, and I would just go back to Karador if I played Abzan, because I hate the other generals for the colors.

When Daxos the Returned was first spoiled, I decided to make a temporary list while I waited for Karlov to be spoiled, just to be sure I wasn't rushing into spending money on Academy Rector and Serra's Sanctum:

Daxos Show

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S A D B O Y S

Commander / EDH* McMayhem

SCORE: 1 | 1 COMMENT | 529 VIEWS

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I thought that Karlov, being part of the Ghost Council, was just going to end up being a lifedrain gimmick again, but Wizards of the Coast proved that they could come through and make something new and interesting for the color combination. While I definitely liked the idea of Enchantress, I liked that I could skip on Auriok Champion and add cards I already owned to the deck rather than spending a bunch of money on it, and decided to stick with Karlov. When I tested it as a proxy, I played against my 55-creature Maelstrom Wanderer deck and Purphoros, God of the Forge, so after landing the turn 1 Soul Warden, I ended the game with Karlov at 44/44 having exiled 4 creatures. Suffice it to say, the test, even though it was a great draw for me, sealed the deal.

Why Karlov of the Ghost Council?

Karlov has the potential to drop on turn 2 as a 4/4 if you land a turn 1 Soul Warden.

Much like the character's greed and opulence, his wealth of synergies is nearly bottomless:

-Primarily, repeatable, separate lifegain triggers such as Blood Artist, Pontiff of Blight, Pious Evangel   and the aforementioned variants of Soul Warden

-Various powerful lifelink creatures like Divinity of Pride, Shambling Vent, Archangel of Thune, Felidar Sovereign, and especially Baneslayer Angel, who also has first strike, potentially creating two in-combat lifegain triggers from your lifelink creatures;

-Value creatures and spells that drain life, such as Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Blood Artist, Debt to the Deathless and an active Bloodchief Ascension;

-Various random lifegain enablers like Scoured Barrens, High Market, Vault of the Archangel, Blighted Steppe, Sword of Light and Shadow and Sorin, Solemn Visitor;

So, as you can see, a number of powerful cards synergize extremely well with Karlov without having to sacrifice the value of your cards for his sake (though Sun Droplet and Curse of the Forsaken admittedly are a little weak without Karlov on board), and you get to run various extremely powerful cards that happen to continuously grow Karlov into a monstrosity and end people by giving it evasion with Sword of Light and Shadow, Shizo, Death's Storehouse, or in the perfect world, an Elspeth, Sun's Champion emblem.

Lines of Play/Synergies

Okay, so now you know that there's a lot going on with Karlov, and you have the potential to make him enormous if you draw the right hand. The trick is making sure not to overextend, and lose all your resources, and concurrently, the game you're playing, while still getting the most value out of your cards.

Karlov's activated ability, where you pay and remove six +1/+1 counters from him to exile a creature, is very easy to enable as you've just seen, but the ability to keep up mana at crucial times separates good Karlov players from great ones. Opponents who are smart will play around what Karlov does, allowing you free tempo of swinging blindly into your opponents without fear of retaliation.

If you fear removal, the deck runs various protection spells and recursion engines so you don't lose too much by having Karlov get some wayward hate. If you fear a faster clock, there are some silver-bullet catch-alls in the deck to help make sure you don't get screwed over by opponents who gun for you in the early turns of the game.

The biggest trick is to make sure you are aware of how you use your mana. Tapping your mana correctly is crucial, as B/W is the most unforgiving color combination for the use of its colored mana symbols. Be sure to always keep up when Karlov has 6 or can threaten 6 +1/+1 counters, as it prevents opponents from throwing too important a creature to his mercy.

Often times, however, when you do have mana to spend, you want to spend it on the play that will accumulate you the most resources. The deck contains a wealth of cheap tutors which you can use to assemble various enablers for Karlov or play the game like a boxer, punching in for a large chunk of general damage while being able to keep up a crucial answer for your opponent's game plan.

If you find yourself in a position where Karlov has bit the ethereal bullet too many a time, the deck has a suite of recursion, making Karlov entering your graveyard a viable option. Sun Titan, the aforementioned Sheoldred, Whispering One, Animate Dead, Phyrexian Reclamation and Sword of Light and Shadow can help you evade taxes like a true Orzhov mage, and if all else fails, Unburial Rites is an option, though it's much better as an anti-control brute-force weapon to stick a fattie that can threaten them.

If that isn't enough, you also have the staying power provided by Avacyn, Angel of Hope, Mother of Runes and Sun Titan to help keep your bigger threats around to end the game with.

But if that's not enough, while this deck is tuned to make Karlov a fast, aggressive threat, the deck can play defense exceptionally well. Aven Mindcensor and Aura of Silence are superb pivots in slowing down early-game ramp and combo strategies, leading into one of several board wipes or locking the board down by foddering your wealth of tokens to trigger Dictate of Erebos to keep the creature decks off your back. The deck's Planeswalkers also generate obscene value; Ob Nixilis Reignited and Sorin, Solemn Visitor threaten quick emblems that can spell doom for the control and Voltron/aggro players, respectively, and Elspeth's emblem is terrifying when coupled with Karlov or the various tokens in the deck. Overall, the deck has tools to play a wealth of lines of play, and sacrifices very little consistency in doing so.

Matchup Analysis

This deck has various good and bad matchups. A lot of the variance in your games will come down to specific cards, and the attitudes and decisions of the table at large, but matchups to consider:

Good Matchups Show

While I admit, I'm a little green with the shift in strategy that Karlov has brought to the deck, I believe the Voltron/aggro matchup is still the deck's absolute best. While the blue ones, especially tuned Zur lists, do have what it takes to go toe-to-toe, most tuned "unfair" lists like Zur tend to draw the entire table's ire, allowing you some breathing room. If you aren't constantly answering their boards, you're providing repeatable fodder to force them into finding evasion / trample, which allows you time to answer them (because it usually means they lack trample, indestructible or hexproof, Uril notwithstanding). Overall, the fact that you'll always have blockers, and the fact that Karlov's continuous growth combined with his ability to on-demand exile not only the threats but most of the pillars (such as an opposing Mother of Runes) means that you not only have the time to answer them in a lot of games, but when you do, they'll struggle to stay relevant as Karlov looms over them as they stay stuck in the command zone, unable to kill you due to an 8/8 or larger Karlov keeping them down.

Many of the combo decks that rely on specific permanents that also contain some sort of recursive package tend to dislike a Karlov that has 6 or especially 12 +1/+1 counters on him. He gets around Kiki-Jiki by exiling it in response to whatever it makes that untaps it, he gets around Hermit Druid by exiling it on-sight, blanking all the reanimation those decks tend to contain to have staying power with their combo, and with enough counters, he can keep up with a Navigator's activations, or respond to its Soulbond trigger. A big part of what makes these matchups great is Karlov's ability to go over most counterspells provided you're before the control players (which blanks them while going off, because you have an answer to them that they can't go off with until Karlov is out of the way), and the fact that you don't require to use resources counterspells beat. Against the slower combos, you also tend to attack these players while they're assembling or tutoring the pieces, killing them before they're able to obliterate you with Exodia.

Decks that rely heavily on their generals to function get picked apart by Karlov. These strategies tend to cast their generals early and snowball to victory, but the strategy lacks staying power when the general isn't there, and being able to repeatedly remove it through Lightning Greaves or other such protective permanents can seriously shut these decks down hard.

Bad Matchups Show

Sigarda is a huge problem for Karlov; not only can she go over Karlov a lot of the time and threaten a faster clock in many draws that hexproof denies the deck from answering, the deck packs so much staying power that a simple boardwipe often times doesn't keep her down. It doesn't help that many of the ways to answer these matchups involve the word "sacrifice", which she blanks entirely.

I'm very strongly considering Lightning Greaves to combat these. Mystifying Maze is especially nightmarish for Karlov to deal with, as he loses all his +1/+1 counters. The deck does have the ability to go over these, but it's not easy.

Karlov doesn't like dying and looking at Elesh Norn in the command zone. In fact, I can't think of many decks that like playing against Elesh Norn.

Nobody puts baby in a corner. While many of the "anti-lifegain" clause cards are not a problem, the indestructible, most-of-the-time-non-creature one is the biggest problem the deck has, as without the ability to gain life, Karlov can't function and pick apart boards and kill people.

Card Choices

Cards I'm Considering Show

-Lightning Greaves

It helps me fight Maze of Ith variants and dodge spot removal. Most people don't spot remove generals that you don't commit resources to, but this is a deck that sorta demands you do sometimes, and I think I want a way around that.

-Auriok Champion

It's a lot of money, but the effect is the best thing this deck can do, and more never hurt.

Cards I Won't Add Show

-Sanguine Bond / Exquisite Blood / Vizkopa Guildmage

Hate is a strong word, but I hate infinite combos. The only ones I'll tolerate are 4+-card combos. Just don't suggest me any infinite combos, please.

-Zulaport Cutthroat, Healer of the Pride

The versions of these effects that only work with me encourage me to sacrifice the consistency the deck has to accommodate them by adding more token generators to the deck, which I don't want to do.

-Well of Lost Dreams, Cradle of Vitality, Sunbond

Way too cute, and way too win-more.

Date added	8 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	24 - 0 Mythic Rares 40 - 0 Rares 15 - 0 Uncommons 11 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.38
Tokens	City's Blessing, Emblem Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Emblem Sorin, Solemn Visitor, Horse 5/5 W, Human Cleric 1/1 BW, Knight 2/2 W w/ Vigilance, Soldier 1/1 W, Spirit 1/1 C, Vampire 2/2 B, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	deck ideas, interesting, Upgrades, edh ideals, EDH, EDH, EDH Decks, Karlov ideas, NetDecks, Primers