This Week: I explore an Orhzov EDH deck built around locking down my opponents and draining their life totals for fun and profit.
When I did my write up for the Kellan Curses deck I made a sweeping assessment of the other commanders from Eldraine. I made an offhanded comment as well about Eriette of the Charmed Apple just being a pacifism style commander. When I had that initial thought I went and checked her stats page but there was no pacifism theme listed. Even when I checked the top enchantments section there was a glaring hole for Pacifism and Arrest effects.
These cards seem at odds with Eriette's first ability. If I enchant a creature an opponent controls, that creature can't attack me. That's great. I can go a step further and encourage that same creature to have to attack. But what happens if Eriette dies? Then I'm left with a series of supercharged creatures that are no longer bound by my commander. I'm in danger. But what's worse, if that creature I enchanted does attack another opponent and dies then I lose out on Eriette's second ability of draining and drawing. These Pacifism effects take all of the guesswork out of it. It can't threaten me and it won't die in combat and kill my investment plan.
If these effects are so important, which ones made the cut? Well, a lot. More than I would normally run in an enchantress deck. Bonds of Faith was an easy include for me. Not only could I shut down a non human creature but I could instead use it to pump one of my humans, like my commander, to make it more of a threat. One Thousand Lashes is pricey at 4 mana, but the continued ability to suck life from an opponent just accelerates my game plan. That's the same reason I put Pillory of the Sleepless in. Plus the whole cursed sleep/sleepless thing is funny. Intercessor's Arrest and Bound in Gold give the added benefit of shutting down vehicles. I like Prison Term more than I expected in the deck. I've passed the aura around to whatever the new threat is on the table.
That was a lot of Auras, but not all that are packed into the deck. I also have some well worn enablers and payoffs in the deck. Mesa Enchantress and Sram, Senior Edificer draw me cards. Starfield Mystic and Hero of Iroas both make my effects cheaper. I don't need to drop all of these at once. I like to keep one in hand until a board wipe comes through. Ashiok's Reaper offers more upside. I'm going to have tons of cards to draw with it. I'm less worried when an opponent drops a board wipe or starts sacrificing the creatures I enchanted.
There are better ways to support this strategy than just through draw or cost reduction. Blightcaster will let me remove some troublesome creatures. Similarly, Doomwake Giant can sweep the field for me. I don't really want to do that all the time. I find it best to drop my enchantments on creatures with more than 3 toughness. That way I can use the Giant to sweep smaller tokens, lock down a new troublesome creature or two, and not hurt my game plan to drain and draw. If I do have to sweep the board more aggressively and send some creatures I enchanted to the graveyard I have Warehouse Tabby as insurance. Those rats can't block so they're easy for me to point at an opponent and not care what happens to them. Back to my drain plan, Grim Guardian works one angle of drain, causing life loss to opponents. On the flip side, Archon of Sun's Grace brings me flying tokens whenever I cast an enchantment. Even better though, the Archon gives them lifelink so I push my life total over the top between it and my commander.
Eriette is a key part of this strategy. As such, she needs to be protected. With all the pacifism effects she's relatively safe from other creatures attacking or blocking her at any given time. I still need to look out for board wipes and targeted removal. There is a class of enchantments that do just that, they bring the enchanted creature back from the dead and under my control. Even better though, I can enchant someone else's creature and I'll get it back after it dies. Unholy Indenture and Kaya's Ghostform are great examples of this. It's very telegraphed and people have the opportunity to remove the enchantment. I've had someone spite naturalize my Ghostform in response to a board wipe, so I don't count on getting the creature until everything is settled. But I do have Minion's Return to be sneakier. Flash allows me to surprise steal or recur whatever I want.
With all this life I needed to use it like any other resource in a deck like this. Underworld Coinsmith allows me to pay life to sap life from opponents. It's easy to just dump some mana into the ability on the end step of the turn before mine. I also included Killing Wave as a board wipe. It might seem like an odd choice as none of my opponents pay to keep their enchanted creatures alive. But with any wrath effect they would lose all their creatures anyway. I tend to be up on life I can pay to keep an extra creature or two after the fact. When someone does overextend himself I gladly capitalize with some drain effects and combat damage. I also put Doom Whisperer in the deck. I can churn through a lot of cards with some life. I push past some junk and draw into gas.
A quick word on removal. Black and White are stacked with it. I could have spent days combing through some of the best options. Winds of Rath was easy to justify as it leaves my game plan intact. I like flexible options so Damn and Valorous Stance are here. Since I tend to have so many cards in hand I'm bound to have extra lands. So I put in Abolish to free cast my removal. Mostly free cast, all it costs is an extra Plains to play for free. Finally, Ray of Distortion. It's pricey, but I have a soft spot for it. If it wasn't for the flashback I wouldn't have kept it no matter how nostalgic it is for me. But come to think of it, I don't know that I've ever cast it from the graveyard. I remember getting excited about surveilling it away with Doom Whisperer, but I don't remember actually casting it.
There are 2 new cards that I haven't had much experience with yet, but I've already marked out space for them. Fungal Fortitude plays nice with my plan to protect my commander. I'm not stealing anyone else's creatures with it, but it's there for Eriette. I have enough other effects that do the same thing so this was an easy swap in. The second card is Petrify. It's an Arrest effect for the cost of a Pacifism. Talk about power creeping 2 cards out of the game. It was an easy swap out for a 3 mana card for the same effect.
I got ahead of myself. There is one more card I want to talk about, but I was not able to include. Xenk, Paladin Unbroken would be a homerun here. I wouldn't need to throw in a lot of exalted options because he turbocharges himself. He's just too expensive right now to drop real money on. Here's to hoping we get another Dungeons and Dragons set sometime soon.
How did the deck turn out? Check it
Eriette of the Charmed Apple
Blightcaster Giant Killer Mesa Enchantress
Archon of Sun's Grace Bonds of Faith Sram, Senior Edificer
Ashiok's Reaper Bound in Gold Kor Spiritdancer
Spellbook Vendor Cage of Hands Killian, Ink Duelist
Neva, Stalked by Nightmares Petrify Starfied Mystic
Heliod's Pilgrim Choking Restraints Danitha Capashen, Paragon
Grim Guardian Desert's Hold Hero of Iroas
Wicked Visitor Intercessor's Arrest Starnheim Courser
Doomwake Giant Onethousand Lashes Dawn of Hope
Ajani's Chosen Cooped Up Read the Bones
Auramancer Planar Disruption Sign in Blood
Underworld Coinsmith Pillory of the Sleepless Greed
Warehouse Tabby Prison Term Underworld Connections
Doom Whisperer Prison Sentence Solemn Simulacrum
Vizkopa Guildmage Realmbreaker's Grasp Killin Wave
Kaya's Ghostform Open The Armory Winds of Rath
Minion's Return Dead Man's Chest Damn
Unholy Indenture Mind Stone Valorous Stance
Gift of Immortality Thought Vessel Murderous Rider
Fingal Fortitude Commander's Sphere Abolish
Crystal Dragon Ray of Distortion Shatter the Oath
Shepherd of the Flock
Temple of Silence Cave of Kolios Cradle of the Accursed
Desert of the Glorified Desert of the True Sunscorched Desert
Dunes of the Dead Swamp X15 Plains X13
The deck provides some interesting choices on what creatures to enchant. But it's not as entertaining for my opponents to just have their creatures sitting there. I don't see this deck lasting indefinitely in this form. The drain was great and it was nice to have a full grip of cards all the time. If I go too far from this plan to something like a good stuff Auras or goad based enchantments I wind up outside my MEDHWA style. Stay tuned to see what comes next for the deck.
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