The 27 Best Orzhov Mythics in Magic Ranked

Seraph of the Scales | Illustration by Magali Villeneuve

Hello planeswalkers! Time to get down to some serious business with our favorite syndicate. That’s right, today we journey back to Ravnica to look at some of the best and most iconic Orzhov cards (). I mean, what could fit MTG better than the name “Church of Deals”?

We’ll look at the rarest, often most expensive, and possibly most powerful Orzhov cards out there: the mythic rares. Everyone knows that feeling when you open a pack and see that deep orange symbol instead of a gold one: It’s thrilling!

So, what are the best Orzhov mythics to include in your decks? Let’s get into it.

What Are Orzhov Mythics in MTG?

Emptiness | Illustration by Ryan Pancoast

Orzhov cards have a white () and black () color identity with not additional colors. The mythic rarity is indicated by an orange set symbol. They’re found in about 1-in-8 booster packs, and often represent the biggest characters and most expensive cards.

We won’t look at cards that have a mythic rare printing but aren’t mythic in other sets. Lands like Godless Shrine and cards like Talisman of Hierarchy have a mythic printing, but the majority of original versions are in a different rarity.

Grand Marshal Macie doesn’t make the list because it's in an Un-set and mostly just for fun. I’ll also leave the Alchemy Arek, False Goldwarden and Teysa of the Ghost Council for another time.

#27. Moira and Teshar

The Eternal-only Moira and Teshar turns casting historic spells into impulse reanimation. You can fill the graveyard with cards that only need a single turn to be devastating, like Archon of Cruelty, and reanimate them easily.

#26. Daxos the Returned

Players with experience can see that Daxos the Returned provides a ton of upside. You can add up experience counters every time you cast an enchantment and turn those into creature tokens. Daxos can really take off in later games with a non-tap activated ability, making multiple huge creature tokens each turn.

#25. Scriv, the Obligator

You can support Breena, the Demagogue‘s politicking and the upside of targeting opponents’ creatures through Eriette of the Charmed Apple with a card like Scriv, the Obligator. This inkling bird creates auras to attach to opponents’ creatures and incentivize them to attack other players. Scriv can be a commander on its own, but I prefer it supporting other great Orzhov commanders.

#24. Vito, Fanatic of Aclazotz

Every turn you can sacrifice three permanents, Vito, Fanatic of Aclazotz becomes fantastic. Fitting into one of the most popular Orzhov builds, this card gives you a ton of great sacrifice benefits. Lifegain, damage, and great creature tokens await!

#23. Silverquill, the Disputant

I know I may be in the minority here, but I believe that Silverquill, the Disputant is a much better version of the elder dragon than Shadrix Silverquill. This version is cheaper and provides aristocratic benefits for doubling up on spells. Another plus is you don’t have to make decisions about what to give your opponents. All that said, Shadrix Silverquill isn’t a bad card in its own right.

#22. Killian, Decisive Mentor

Killian, Decisive Mentor is another enchantress-style Orzhov card like Eriette, but it benefits from attaching auras to your creatures. Those auras grant you card draw, and when they enter, you alter opponents’ combat strategies. Killian is a nice, cheap Orzhov commander to build around with enchantments.

#21. Tomik, Wielder of Law

The elusive affinity for planeswalkers! Tomik, Wielder of Law is a great Orzhov addition to superfriends decks. This card is cheap and punishes opponents for attacking you or planeswalkers with multiple creatures. On top of your potent planeswalker strategies, dealing 3 damage and drawing cards is a way to overwhelm opponents.

#20. Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit

I don’t think we could ever skip the partnership of Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit and Sam, Loyal Attendant. Sam makes the food and Frodo is tempted by the Ring; sounds about right. In MTG, this is a powerful combo with a ton of interactions. You pile up some great card draw and put pressure on opponents when Frodo is the Ring-bearer.

#19. Athreos, Shroud-Veiled

Athreos, Shroud-Veiled is the more expensive Athreos card, but it comes with the high upside of stealing creatures from opponents when they die. This should be highlighted alongside a ton of removal, or at the very least it should give your opponent pause when attacking and blocking.

#18. Kaya the Inexorable

There are several good mythic Kaya planeswalkers out there, but I believe that Kaya the Inexorable is the best of them all. With instant exile upside when it enters, you can then add ghostform counters to replay removed creatures again and again. And the final ability is nothing to sneeze at as well.

Kaya, Geist Hunter, Kaya, Orzhov Usurper, Kaya, Spirits' Justice, and Kaya, Ghost Assassin are all relatively cheap for planeswalkers and provide a wide range of useful loyalty abilities, usually around exile and spirit tokens.

#17. Felisa, Fang of Silverquill

Felisa, Fang of Silverquill works as insurance and a token creator when your nontoken creatures with counters die. You can be quite aggressive with your attacks with pump effects like Cathars' Crusade, and preserve a boardstate through mass removal. This Orzhov token/counters theme works well with cards like Bartolomé del Presidio and Teysa Karlov.

#16. Pest Control

Pest Control is a wonderful sideboard piece to take care of those large or even infinite token strategies. This board wipe can’t take care of anything that costs more than 1, but the cheap mana cost and cycling make it roster-worthy. It can also slow down Treasure tokens or other noncreature token strategies.

#15. Blot Out the Sky

Blot Out the Sky is quite expensive as a noncreature board wipe, but it can change the board advantage with flying Inkling tokens. If you have the patience and the mana, this card can devastate artifact, enchantment, and superfriends strategies. A stellar Orzhov sideboard card!

#14. Emptiness

Emptiness is an evoke creature version of Unearth and Skinrender. In the Orzhov colors, this card works quite well with recursion to recast it and get the enters triggers again. There’s a lot to love about this mythic Orzhov card, but I’m obsessed with the art.

#13. Karlov of the Ghost Council

Karlov of the Ghost Council works as a nice self-rap kind of creature with a deadly activated ability. With the sheer amount of lifegain possibilities in Orzhov, this Ghost Council member could gain an absurd number of counters each turn. You can swing hard or remove them to exile creatures. You can’t go wrong!

#12. Eriette of the Charmed Apple

Eriette of the Charmed Apple is one of the premier commanders for targeting opponents’ creatures with your auras. You can get the killer advantage of making sure opponents’ creatures unable to attack you, as well as detrimental effects for opponents with auras like Darksteel Mutation and Parasitic Impetus. Add on top of that a life siphon for the number of auras you have, and Eriette is a witchy good Orzhov card.

#11. Ravos, Soultender

Partner always makes a card more valuable and useful. Ravos, Soultender is a great Orzhov card with partner, providing a repeatable Raise Dead effect. This creature works well with large token armies and graveyard strategies and partners well with Tana, the Bloodsower or Tormod, the Desecrator.

#10. Ketramose, the New Dawn

Ketramose, the New Dawn is a god that takes a little work to wake from its desert slumber, but once going, this card is quite good. The strategy revolves around exile and needs some multi-card exilers like Farewell or Relic of Progenitus to be effective. You can really benefit from removal like Swords to Plowshares, flicker like Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd, and attacking with an indestructible god!

#9. Brimaz, Blight of Oreskos

Outside of maybe some of the praetors, Brimaz, Blight of Oreskos is one of the best cards to build a Phyrexian deck around. The cost is perfect, you can double up on casting Phyrexian or artifact creatures with creature tokens, and you have an easy way to pump those tokens. A card with a ton of interactions and strategic maneuvers is always good. Let Brimaz be a blight on your opponents!

#8. Eirdu, Carrier of Dawn / Isilu, Carrier of Twilight

Eirdu, Carrier of Dawn and Isilu, Carrier of Twilight form a two-sided Orzhov combo that can put a ton of pressure on opponents. Eirdu can greatly reduce the casting cost of creatures, leading to a wave of extra creatures. Isilu can then bring some aggressive swings by bringing dead creatures back to the fight. You can cheaply change sides to best fit the most useful strategy for each turn.

#7. Clavileño, First of the Blessed

Clavileño, First of the Blessed is a beautiful way to ensure you board presence. Orzhov vampires is always a popular and well-resourced build. When this creature attacks, you give those vampires a “new life” as a demon creature token if they die. This should greatly protect against a ton of removal and board wipes. You can also use the attack trigger on turn 3 as soon as Clavileño enters, instantly giving your aggressive attacks insurance.

#6. Athreos, God of Passage

The better version of Athreos has got to be Athreos, God of Passage. This cheap Orzhov god creature is a great aristocrat roleplayer, and it adds some combat complications for opponents. Sacrifice creatures and attack opponents at will to put them in the awkward situation of taking lots of damage or making your creatures endlessly recursive.

#5. Sorin of House Markov / Sorin, Ravenous Neonate

There are many things we can highlight about all of the mythic Sorin planeswalkers, but let’s keep it to the best one for today. Sorin of House Markov is a cheap legendary creature that can easily turn into a planeswalker. Once transformed into Sorin, Ravenous Neonate, you have a direct life siphon from opponents. The extort on both sides just adds to the Orzhov lifegain/life siphon strategy.

#4. Carmen, Cruel Skymarcher

A sacrifice benefactor and recursion ability make Carmen, Cruel Skymarcher a stellar aristocrat card. The P/T is quite low for a 5-drop, but it'll pump up when any player sacrifices a permanent. This is inherently good, but even better with cards like Accursed Marauder. Sacrifice your permanents at will and recur them whenever Carmen attacks. A lovely cycle of interactions.

#3. Breena, the Demagogue

Breena, the Demagogue is a great Orzhov card for politicking in multiplayer games. Giving incentives for opponents to attack each other is always a great way to last longer in big Commander games. Plus, you get counters for your creatures as your opponents duke it out. Breena ranks up there with cards like Xantcha, Sleeper Agent and Tivit, Seller of Secrets as ways to manipulate the flow of multiplayer games.

#2. Ashen Rider

Get them coming in and leaving. Ashen Rider is an exploitable Orzhov card because of its enters and death triggers. Exiling permanents is an absolute devastator for many strategies. With blink and reanimator cards aplenty in white and black, Ashen Rider’s triggered abilities can be used many times to great effect.

#1. Elenda, the Dusk Rose

Elenda, the Dusk Rose fits the Orzhov theme of dealing with death perfectly. This card gets counters anytime another creature dies, whether through sacrifice or removal. This card also brilliantly has a death trigger to come back from removal or board wipes. There’s so much to love about this Orzhov mythic, and it should find its way to many, many decks.

What Are the Most Expensive Orzhov Mythics?

Here are some of the most expensive Orzhov cards with a mythic printing:

• Godless Shrine (Zendikar Expeditions): $118.01
• Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff (The Hobbit Eternal #74): $46.83
• Fetid Heath (Zendikar Expeditions): $46.25
• Anguished Unmaking (Breaking News #74): $36.97
• Tymna the Weaver (Commander Legends): $32.95

Here are some of the most expensive Orzhov cards that only come in mythic printings:

• Dark Leo & Shredder (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #299): $128.44
• Ketramose, the New Dawn (Aetherdrift #549): $45.58
• Sorin of House Markov (Modern Horizons 3 #470): $44.94
• Athreos, God of Passage (Secret Lair Drop): $39.42
• Elenda, the Dusk Rose (Rivals of Ixalan Promos): $30.14

Wrap Up

Vito, Fanatic of Aclazotz | Illustration by Marta Nael

That’ll do it for some of the rarest, most expensive, and most powerful cards in the Orzhov color identity. Whether this is your first time with some of these cards or you run them regularly, I hope you gained something from this article. In the comments below, tell us if we missed any you think should be on here, or if you disagree with some of the rankings.

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