One of the great things about Magic: The Gathering is how structured and (generally) balanced it is. Each color has a handful of paths that it likes to follow to victory and if you stay within that framework you can build a decent deck without too many problems.
The other great thing about Magic: The Gathering is how the storyline (and yes, for those newbies out there there is a storyline) will often COMPLETELY WARP those strategies. Check out my deck recommendations, after the jump!
Lands:
4 Terramorphic Expanse
16 Plains
Creatures:
3 Inquisitor Exarch
4 Suture Priest
3 Basilica Guards
4 Syndic of Tithes
4 Ajani’s Pridemate
3 Restoration Angel
2 Fiend Hunter
Other Spells:
4 Turn to Mist
4 Midnight Haunting
2 Blind Obedience
2 Defy Death
2 Beckon Apparition
3 Niveous Wisps
MONSTERS AND MOBSTERS
White, the color of honor, chivalry and passive aggressive control. Usually the big W doesn’t do lifeloss, but in New Phyrexia the game designers wanted to get across a very transgressive feel so white cards like Soul’s Attendant got warped into cards like Suture Priest. Completing this deck’s strategy are cards from Gatecrash’s Orzhov guild. The Orzhov are a black/white guild and their mechanic “Extort” can be paid for with black or white mana. Put these two together and you get an obnoxious deck that penalizes players for playing creatures and rewards you for doing the same.
MEET THE TEAM
Creaturewise the deck relies on Suture Priest and your extort permanents to drain life from your opponent, while simultaneously creating a huge life advantage for you. Inquisitor Exarch is a good life drainer, especially if you use him as an extort trigger, Fiend hunter is there to deal with problematic creatures, Restoration Angel can reset certain parts of your line up (just remember that her flicker ability is not re-casting the spell, so you don’t get to extort off of the creatures you exile). Lastly Ajani’s Pridemate can become truly colossal in this deck, which might allow you to get in for lethal damage, but more likely will be a way to draw fire away from your life-drainy workhorses.
I packed the deck with a few useful, cheap spells that can be easily ‘extorted’. Niveous Wisps can make the difference in a combat; Midnight Haunting and Beckon Apparition give you a little more air support on the cheap.
ADDITIONS AND CHANGES
I’m a big fan of Dawn Charm and I specifically didn’t throw it in here because I find myself putting it into a lot of my white decks. Phyrexian Metamorph may give you more flexibility (especially when copying your opponents’ stuff) The phyrexian mana cost to cast it is nothing if you consider that this deck can easily rack up a ton of life in just a couple of turns.
EXTORT FOR FUN AND PROFIT
Well, that’s it for me, if you guys get a chance to play White Meanie let me know how it does.
3 Comments
It’s been years since I’ve played Magic (still have a few old decks sitting around), but Extort confuses me. The wording leads me to believe that for every card with Extort out on the board I could pay W/B every time I cast any spell to cause enemies to lose that much life and gain that much myself. Is that right?
If so, that seems quite fun. I really enjoyed Orzhov the first time Magic visited Ravnica, and the “enemy loses life you gain life” mechanic is my second favorite (Slivers were my first Magic love, and they remain my favorite).
That is exactly correct. If you have three syndics of tithes on the board and you cast niveous whisps (and pay 3 extra mana) you will drain 3 life from EACH opponent and gain that much. This also means that if you’re playing against 3 other people in a battle circle you hit each of them for 3 and gain 9 life.
9 life? Gosh that’s obnoxious…sign me up.