Orzhov Extort

     This week the featured mechanic is From the Orzhov Guild, Extort. A card with extort reads, "Whenever you cast a spell, you may pay White/Black. If you do, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain that much life."

      I find extort to be very useful throughout the entire game, early game you get a life advantage, mid game you can keep your life off, and late game you can finish off your opponent.

 

      The legendary creature for Orzhov is Obzedat, Ghost Council with the sub-type of Spirit Advisor. It's text reads, "When Obsedat, Ghost Council enters the battlefield, target opponent loses 2 life and you gain 2 life." The next rule is, "At the beginning of your end step, you may exile Obzedat. If you do, return it to the battlefield under it's owner's control at the beginning of your next upkeep. It gains haste." Wow, I'm trying to think of cards to kill it but the only ones that come to mind are instants like murder and ones that kill all creatures. I like this card because it's pretty much a free 2 damage to opponent and +2 health for you. By the time you get this out you could just keep pulling it into exile and playing until your opponent casts an instant to kill it. Also seeing that the only Orzhov creature with greater power or toughness than Obzedat gives your opponents creatures who block it lifelink, this Spirit Adviser is the best physical attacker Orzhov has.




     The Orzhov charm's abilities look terrible, destroy target creature and you lose life, return a card to your hand, ok, if it had an activate ability it would be fine, and regen a one mana cost to the battle field? If you're not building a deck with every Orzhov card or collecting it, I see little reason to put this into your deck. Likely will see very limited usage.

     Time for the keyrune of the Orzhov; the keyrune is mainly a defender with it's four toughness and lifelink but won't end up  being a game changer. At three mana Basilica Guards would be a better three drop because the Guards have extort but the keyrune also can act as a land. Personally I'd pick the Basilica Guards over the keyrune in any Orzhov deck.

      Finally we have the Guildmage, Vizkopa Guildmage. Like all guildmages, it's golden and has two abilities.  The first ability is colerless, white, and black, "Target creature gains lifelink until end of turn." For the same mana, "Whenever you gain life this turn, each opponent loses that much life." So at a cost of six mana each turn you have a more powerful extort mechanic, however unless the creature is gaining you over six life, mana wise it is better just to extort six times. However you might not always be able to extort six times and that reasoning would be invalid. As far as guildmages go this one isn't bad and goes with the extort mechanic nicely. If you are debating putting this card in your Orzhov deck, think to yourself, 'Why not?'



     Of course there is the rare Orzhov land but that is the same as the guildgate except the option to pay two life. Hope this helps explain the unique guild cards to better your understanding of the Orzhov. See you next post!



As always, credit to Wizards of the Coast LLC for the images. Images can be found at  this address http://www.wizards.com/Magic/TCG/article.aspx?x=mtg/tcg/gatecrash/cig#.