MTG Top 10: WORST Orzhov | Magic: the Gathering | Episode 374

[@NizzahonMagic]

SPOILERS: As many have pointed out, I read Executioner's Swing wrong -- but even so, it deserves to be on this list. The creature getting to damage you or force a chump block before you can kill it is pretty horrendous.

[@vivecanada1]

Doesn't say to a player.

[@kaimcloskey9943]

@@vivecanada1 he said “or force a chump block”

[@superbaas8822]

Prob the best use of it is axing someone's Niv Mizzet, but there are still better ways to do that.

[@Samael767]

Eh, not nearly as bad though.

[@superbaas8822]

@@Samael767 it may actually be worse, because now you can't be proactive about it. Effectively 90% of ways that white/black would trigger this are combat, but it having to be the opponents creature means Mardu can't set it up with a ping.

[@chuckstevens4985]

I think you read executioner’s swing the other way around by accident

[@GreyMage]

A shame these mistakes come up every once and a while.

[@ymmijx6061]

just what i was gunna say. "that dealt damage" not "that was dealt damage"

[@vivecanada1]

@@GreyMage Unfortunately Nizzahon is prone for this style of mistake.

[@smegmalasagna]

@@ymmijx6061 Hey ymmij whatsup

[@FRAAANKYSUUUPER]

Human error effects us all, but as competent magic players we can adjust for this and carry on tapping those lands

[@NarcoticIsland]

Lmao. I run Conjurer's ban and name other people's commanders. I really only run it because I have a foil one and it looks pretty

[@nickbalmes6640]

Good enough for me!

[@Weltenbastler2000]

Sometimes getting one extra turn can be good enough. There are a lot of effect which reveal cards and having a 2 mana cycle spell at worst is fine. Better than drawing an unnecessary land

[@nedsummers9992]

What if you put it on isochron scepter and name your opponents lands every time

[@superbaas8822]

And then there are people who just want to watch the world burn. Perhaps the best use of it though would be in bigger formats to name nessesary basic lands.

[@grahamoliver1470]

You could always just name a basic land type against a mono colored deck and probably prevent them from playing a land.

[@TheSquareOnes]

Honestly Orzhov seems to be doing pretty alright if this is their ten worst. All of the cards are bad, but a few of them don't seem thaaat baaaad in comparison to most of what pops up on these worst lists.

[@jamesgratz4771]

Orzhov got a huge burst in strixhaven with +1/+1 counter synergies all over the place. I’m kaldheim it was pretty garbage but the white and black cards individually were pretty good. Thinks real devourer and starnheim unleashed

[@chrismarlow9585]

It's because there aren't as many WB cards as you think. Also, most come at uncommon or higher so have a reasonable level of power. Worst for mechanics or by magic set tend to come out a lot worse than colour combinations

[@UwURainUwU]

"you can visit their store with my referral link below" BUT WILL THEY KNOW THAT YOU SENT ME THERE?!?

[@crabobserver]

There's no such thing as a bad orzhov card. And there's a fine for telling me otherwise!

[@SuperSilverSerpent]

Something to note about Martyr’s Tomb is that it doesn’t even see play in edh, which is indicative of how bad it really is considering there are fringe decks like Selenia who want free life pay outlets like wall of blood

[@davispo7550]

Conjurer's Ban can name lands! In the early game, if you have a discard spell, it becomes a cantrip that can time walk the opponent. I think its placement on this list is too high and should be #10-#8 range. I'm not saying it's good, but it's not the third worst Orzhov card

[@lancelot717]

Your pfp shows how much of a gigachad you are

[@MechEngDommo]

It was a brutal draft card if you went orzhov because you could totally mana hose someone bad if you went first. I turn 2'd this card on people several times and it basically made them waste a turn while I was able to ramp up into my beaters unmolested on turn 3. This could put you two mana ahead of your opponent by turn 4 easy.

[@abuelovinagres4411]

Wait… Executioner’s Swing kills creatures who dealt damage, not creatures that have been dealt damage… 😐

[@mushclone298]

Was going to say ... but it's really easy to misread.

[@xunxekri]

0:39 It's so refreshing that someone else pronounces Orzhov the same way I do.

[@NizzahonMagic]

The correct way! Inevitably, I have someone in the comments telling me I say it wrong, but the way I say it is the official way.

[@ellitbo9863]

Conjurer's Ban seems kinda nutty against a mono-colored deck where you just name Mountain and make them miss a land drop

[@hugeheadliang]

These cards seem to be a lot better than other worst top 10s.

[@seijhik]

Yeah ? Honestly for a few of them they really feel like they don't belong here.

[@apjapki]

At least there are some interesting mechanics here. Martyrs Tomb would probably be powerful at 2 mana. Conjurer's Ban would be great in a suspend-heavy standard.....and when you are able block a land drop with it, then it's pretty much Orzhov ramp....hard though that is to set up.

[@TDancausE]

The creature targeted by executioners swing doesn’t have to have taken damage, it has to have dealt damage.

[@SmugLookingBarrel]

Why is it always these cards that have the coolest art?

[@danielpichardo7749]

They want you to use/by them one way or another

[@monkeygaming2859]

My only argument with martyrs tomb is that I run it in a deck where I can gain infinite life and once that happens the tomb becomes an enchantment that reads give your creatures damage dealt to this creature is reduced to 0

[@rattlesnek3847]

The quality of the new mic really jumped out to me in this one, also, algorithm

[@PokeBattlerJaze]

It’s a legends orzhov for number one isn’t it? Edit: also you read executioner’s swing wrong, it says if the creature dealt damage not took damage

[@-ZH]

Guess he just added the word “was” before “dealt”

[@davispo7550]

They didn't print enemy color pair/wedge cards in Legends, and I think this trend held until Invasion block, where Planeshift did weird things

[@PokeBattlerJaze]

@@davispo7550 didn’t know that, now I do

[@ClexYoshi]

I feel like if we ever got say... an esper damage prevention matters commander that Martyr's tomb would suddenly look pretty neat.

[@johanandersson8252]

Look up a card named Lady Evangela.

[@asmodean7239]

Righteous war is actually decent. Just make sure all your creatures are Orzov and they have protection from 2 main removal colours. Just imagine how many paths or fatal pushes that can ruin.

[@phoebehamilton8957]

I run Righteous War in Zur, tutorable with him and gives him protection from 90% of creature removal.

[@NegalikroStudios]

I think you misread executioner's swing

[@samuelirwin4880]

Yea, I recall this being pretty efficient removal in limited at least

[@nath28king]

Its actually a decent card, not the best, but far from the worst

[@TheMightyBattleSquid]

@@nath28king That's half the cards on this list

[@nath28king]

@@TheMightyBattleSquid nah, they're mostly all shite or extremely niche. Axe-swing-thingy is actually decent

[@TheGloriousLobsterEmperor]

Ahhh Orzhov. I haven't as much of an attachment to Ravnica as most people, given that I started playing around Ixilan, but I especially don't care for the Orzhov. Maybe I just hate rich bureaucrats, but I never did care much for the Orzhov. Still, some people like them and that's not OK: I was recently declared as the baseline for opinions so everyone who likes Orzhov is going to have to toil in the mines. On a less serious note, I can't think of a good segue into "Top 10 Vintage Cards (Minus Power 9)". But I guess Mournful Zombie represents me best right now, sad I can't think of a good way to shill it.

[@nathanl8622]

The Orzhov are hard to root for (all the guilds are kind of evil but they're the most blatantly evil) but I think a church/bank/mafia is really interesting and really cool. But I'm also a sucker for W/B decks and gothic architecture so perhaps I'm a bit biased. As for the segue... the Syndicate is the guild with the most cash and is the most likely to support something like the Reserved List. I feel like there's a Vintage joke in there somewhere.

[@DimT670]

@@nathanl8622 ravnica used to be a lot more grimdark huh? Like all of the guilds were super duper evil. Even selesnia originally was a violent cult intent on ruling ravnica through war, who sent out assasins abd didn't ket any member leave its enclaves unless ordered to

[@manjr]

It's really funny to me that you finally step out in front of the camera and look exactly like... the OTHER MtG KZbinr I watch. :) Keep on making the great content!

[@noahr4951]

I truly appreciate the clarity of your mic.

[@NizzahonMagic]

Me too!

[@lessercrow]

Conjurer's Ban is sweet in budget EDH, you can just make Forest on your Mono Green opponent's turn two and it's nearly a stone rain

[@destructimus]

Yeah, but you're using a card and paying 2 mana for it, so you're skipping a turn even moreso than your opponent. It would be funny on isochron scepter if it were an instant though lol.

[@HienNguyenHMN]

Executioner's Swing requires that the creature deals damage. So you could be hit by the creature and then kill it. It's still bad, though, if it requires to be hit first.

[@sombat2788]

Martyr's Tomb is one of my favorite combo cards. I ran it in a white/black 100% enchantment deck (obviously not including lands) that stalled everyone out with life manipulation and choice 'enchantments matter' effects. Near-Death Experience was by no small stretch my favorite win-con. Martyr's Tomb was the heart of that deck, since it protected my creatures using life that was afforded me by my creatures. If my life total was odd (which was very easy to achieve), I would just go down to 1 with Martyr's Tomb and win off of NDE. Edit: There were other ways to pay life - I was just making the point that Martyr's Tomb could serve that way as well.

[@KongtheGentlemen]

Sup Nizzahon Magic, new player here (who unironically/ironically is running an Orzhov EDH deck). Im not sure how receptive you are on suggestions for top 10's, but I have one for you that im sure you will have to revisit every 5-7 years or so. Im also sure this isn't the first time someone asked this of you, but, I've been watching alot of you best and worst top 10's and noticed alot of cards reappearing over and over again on those list. So how about - "Top 10: Most Useful Cards Overall" and "Top 10: Least Useful Cards Overall". You do have a considerable video library, and I can't search it specifically because im on mobile so if you did do this before apologies. Thanks again for these videos, definitely helps a new player out!

[@karrg7832]

i feel like its a good idea, but its too vague. What would constitute one card being better overall then another card if theyre not even the same card type? Think would be better if you narrowed it down to more like, best creatures, best sorceries, best instants, so on and so forth

[@KongtheGentlemen]

@@karrg7832 I agree, essentially what I was aiming for, but I was mainly talking about the amount of times a single card appeared on his top 10's (sharazard or however you pronounced it was on like 3 top 10 list XD, not necessarily good list at that) but thanks for helping with the clarification of my request 👍 😀

[@karrg7832]

@@KongtheGentlemen thats actually a really good idea

[@schylerreis5227]

Your new microphone has improved your videos. Thank you to your patrons for helping you out. I enjoy your videos a lot.

[@NizzahonMagic]

Good to hear!

[@Earthboundmike]

wow number 7 was on the screen for like 20 seconds lol

[@Jigwally]

I suppose for Conjurer's Ban you might bring it in against Mono-Color Aggro and name a basic land in the hopes of disrupting their early mana curve, but even then you'd so much rather just have spot removal

[@tehrulefoo]

Executioner's Swing: Because Reciprocate was too game-breaking.

[@worgenzwithm14z]

Executioner's Swing is a flavor win because the creature needs to have harmed something to get the axe

[@jamesgratz4771]

It should just be “destroy creature that dealt damage this turn” but it does get around indestructible weirdly enough

[@mikechurchill1071]

I think you mispoke on number 6 executioners swing. You were taking like the card had to be damaged before you could target it when it actually says that it had to deal damage to something. So like after it attacks and it’s blocked if it’s still alive you could then target it or if you took the dmg then you could kill it. Not that it had been dealt dmg already like a creature ping it for 1 then cast the swing on it:) great videos I love them and watch them all keep it up!!!!

[@NizzahonMagic]

This has been addressed several times in the comments, including in a pinned one!

[@teatree7334]

Honestly, I’m pretty sure I have thought most of these cards to be very good in my earlier days of playing magic. Executioners Swing is actually decent removal in limited, often being 2 mana destroy target creature. It’s not great, but probably should be here

[@NizzahonMagic]

It is removal that makes you take a hit, that's never very good.

[@ROMANTIKILLER2]

... and now I feel like I need to find an abstruse way to build around Martyr's Tomb to make it work.

[@jeremyphillips3087]

ab·struse /abˈstro͞os,əbˈstro͞os/ Learn to pronounce adjective difficult to understand; obscure

[@TheMightyBattleSquid]

There are those jank builds where people try to switch life totals once they've tanked their own.

[@Mechsrule1]

Executioner's Swing could possibly be quite strong in some cases for one reason: it bypasses indestructible. Not mega powerful but its something.

[@NizzahonMagic]

There are literally hundreds of better cards that get around indestructible.

[@jacobdewar4258]

Not gonna lie, Mayrtr's tomb, has some neat artwork. Reminds me of FF8.

[@dustyfox6511]

May want to reread Executioner's Swing.

[@JUSTINBURPER666]

Yo but Moratorium stone would be BONKERS in a land destruction deck, like Mardu. Blowing up lands, Boros charm, then popping this bad boy on Island or Forest would be devastating in EDH, but social contracts amirite?

[@slycooperscane]

Executors swing targets a creature that dealt damage not a creature you dealt damage to.

[@mdover2948]

Well obviously number 6 is an oopsies. It happens.

[@stevenrhodes8338]

I remember getting my 1st fat pack of khans and getting 4 of unyielding and tried using it unsuccessfully.

[@arbit4468]

Call me crazy but I think Martyr's Tomb could be pretty good if it was a lot cheaper to cast or was on a cheap creature. You don't need to prevent ALL the damage, just enough so it survives. Paying two or four life to swing a trade in your favor or counter damage based removal would be decent. It messes with X spells, too - you'll almost certainly pay two life to save your creature, so how much overkill do they need? Kind of a fun concept, really.

[@markadkins1842]

Teenage me really thought Righteous War was so cool. Glad I improved my card evaluation skills somewhat since then...

[@craig1287]

Ouch, that #1 pick hit me. Okay, yeah it's a bad card. I tried to use it in Type 2 but never could. It is hard to make an activated ability with no Mana cost or a tap requirement bad, but they did manage to do so.

[@plain6677]

Martyrs’ Tomb look awesome though

[@aldotrioksidi]

I will never ever accept badmouth about Righteous War. That's extremely useful in my experience, it gives the most relevant protections at least in EDH.

[@Umbra_Nocturnus]

With Meddling mage, could you just call "Forest" to lock your mono green opponent out of standard land mana?

[@NizzahonMagic]

No

[@TransformersBoss]

Righteous War is pretty nice if you’re expecting the opponent to steal your creatures… I guess…

[@jamesgasik3424]

Executioner's Swing is even worse than Nizzahon thinks it is. If it's dealt damage, then lowering it's power likely has no impact whatsoever, so you're really only after it for removal. And I get it, things that lower toughness are primarily removal spells, but it's nice to have some versatility, by using a spell like that to save you some damage or save a creature in a pinch. This one is just dumb and better cards exist in both white and black.

[@NizzahonMagic]

The number of comments telling me because I got it wrong it is way better and shouldn't be on the list is pretty funny.

[@researchinbreeder]

The idea is to chump block with one of the plentiful Spirit, Soldier, or Vampire tokens in this color pair, then use it as a 2cmc kill spell. Not great, but not terrible.

[@theunwelcome]

I had at least one Martyr's Tomb back in the day... wretched card, never used it once...

[@DimT670]

Wow these are.... Decent. Especially executioners swing. That was a bomb in limited

[@jamesgratz4771]

It also has a cool name

[@NizzahonMagic]

It wasn't anywhere close to a "bomb," don't devalue the word! It was mediocre removal.

Martyr's Tomb looks lie it could be fun in a lifegain deck to protect key creatures from being killed by damage.

[@TheMajesticYak0]

The flavor of Execution's Swing is just weird to me. The text makes it clear the executioner is taking the creature's head off, not some other appendage. So why does decapitating a creature only give it -5/-5? For that flavor it should just destroy the creature.

[@tehrulefoo]

I think it's referencing Dismember. Cards that imply it's removing every single limb from the creature tend to give -5-5. But the flavor text implies they're only removing the head, so a simple destroy probably would have worked better.

[@johngleeman8347]

I always love seeing gold cards from the older sets. Very good list of trash this time.

[@ludwikahawryszuk6637]

I would buy Righteous War just for the artwork

[@gustavomartinsdesouza5548]

I can see martyr tomb being run in Selenia decks haha

[@sonsysy4195]

Martyr's Tomb isn't so bad in an exchange life totals strategy deck in edh

[@NizzahonMagic]

I think the fact that nobody plays it in EDH tells you something about that.

[@CidAghast]

Alright well you got executioner swing reverse but reversed but it's still not a good card gate crash limited was so Is fast that being reactive with the removal spell and not proactive means the thing has already gotten in and dealt its damage to you

[@Xinofos]

Righteous War is pretty good in aggro commander decks.There is probably worse cards then it.

[@superbaas8822]

Hence why it's only at #10

[@NizzahonMagic]

Yep, 9 Orzhov cards are worse.

[@kaimcloskey9943]

Consider subscribing to my other channel, pizzahon, where I discuss pizza and it’s complexities

[@alexrovner5080]

New intro?

[@benkentucky4380]

Vectis Dominator is one of those cards that gets worse everywhere you look. Cost, ability, stats. The only effective way for it to stop an attacker is still just to block and die.

[@apjapki]

Does anyone think it's weird that the followers in Conjurer's Ban are clearly members of other guilds? Weird.

[@Chace957]

Can’t change the intro ad! Ruined my lip sync 😂 😂 😂

[@tehsavage]

Deathpact Angel: some of the coolest Angel art, with a super flavourful mechanic, that is so overpriced as to be depressingly terrible

[@aynehz1705]

And thus Rekindling Phoenix was born

[@crooker23]

moratorium stone is pretty cool

[@basicpigeonbee]

Shit I wanna play martyrs tomb, it seems cool

[@Jolfgard]

Exhilarating Elocution is stupidly expensive for what it does. Granted, it's better than Marty's Tomb at the same cost, but that's a really low bar.

[@NizzahonMagic]

It almost made the list for me, but I decided it was slightly better than "bad filler" in Limited.

[@mcd9468]

OMG I have 1 Righteous war!!🤣 Edit: And Revenant Patriarch, holy

[@YTzinkk]

good list

[@dennisstrawhacker8504]

Conjurer's ban could be used on lands.... not that it would make it any better

[@benrutgers6329]

I'm convinced people are uploading bad cards just to troll ol' Niz

[@UltimaterializerX]

Oh shit, it’s time for my guild!! Time to do a deep dive into this video… Edit: Dude, go listen to your take on Executioner’s Swing and then RTFC. If the card did what you’re saying it does, of course it would suck. But it has to DEAL damage, not receive it.

[@NizzahonMagic]

See pinned comment. It is still horrible.

[@UltimaterializerX]

@@NizzahonMagic Yeah but it's not bottom 10 awful as written. Agent of Masks, Ascent of the Worthy, Final Payment, Identity Crisis, Profane Procession, and Vectis Dominator are ATROCIOUS cards. Swing is decent enough.

[@NizzahonMagic]

@@UltimaterializerX Swing is way worse than all of those! Except the dominator. Profane Procession was an outright bomb in Limited and Final Payment was a reasonably card, so the inclusion of either of those is laughable, frankly.

[@RaynmanPlays]

Top 10 Worst Eldrazi/Worst Gods when?

[@ApexZer0]

I felt dominator could be OK at 1 mana

[@Tempest_Murder]

Righteous War is so bad mechanically, but it is such a uniquely weird effect that begs for a meme deck.

[@MaxAim]

Martyrs' Tomb has great flavour text but it's so bad I'd rather play One With Nothing

[@sagesmukler9383]

Damm, those cards didn't even seem that terrible. Some even seemed good in limited.

[@NizzahonMagic]

Nope

[@sagesmukler9383]

@@NizzahonMagic swing seems solid, and I've personally lost a draft to a guy who managed to stack dominators.

[@Based_Goddd]

In a year make this again but top 10 silverquill cards

[@JoycenatorGaming]

Executioner’s Swing is even worse than you made it out to be. The creature is question has to DEAL damage that turn. Meaning it already hit you or one of your creatures. Big time 👎

[@captainshiner42]

Alms Beast is pretty terrible. I'm kinda surprised it didn't make the list

[@NizzahonMagic]

It has a premiere event top 8.

[@captainshiner42]

@@NizzahonMagic Oof. I suppose I can see that happening.

[@shikabaneconga]

nizz are you ok? you seem down and bored, and lacking, executioner's swing is so much better than all cards here

[@NizzahonMagic]

Uhm...what? To everything in this comment.

[@shikabaneconga]

@@NizzahonMagic i said, that you look sad, you look tired, i was actually worried about your health..

[@epicnessbrian5295]

guys we get it he made a small mistake its not a big deal

[@superduper853]

purge the profane doesn't seem that bad tbh

[@NizzahonMagic]

It is awful tbh

[@superduper853]

@@NizzahonMagic it's pretty bad but i wouldn't feel completely terrible being forced to play this in limited, at least compared to some other cards. i guess you have to consider a lot of things for your list choices though so i'm not complaining

[@Omjegasian]

U reversed executioner swing

[@faust167]

Let's get a top ten video for the funniest flavor texts.

[@RedJuicebox]

Man those were some bad cards

[@cspeeds96]

Woooo

[@Earthboundmike]

A lot of orzhov garbage came from the 2006 era huh.

[@ScourgeofPeaches]

Epic

[@TheJackal100]

First

[@mutaharyourmomisinmyharema1373]

Executioner's Swing must have some pot of greed levels of hard to understand huh

[@ich3730]

isnt martyrs tomb an easy way of getting your own life down? for this one orzhov commander where you wanna go low on life and then swap totals?

[@NizzahonMagic]

Sure, but there is a reason that even those decks don't run it

[@ameliaward7429]

@@NizzahonMagic Such as?

[@NizzahonMagic]

@@ameliaward7429 There are better cards to take advantage of that synergy.