Orzhov life gain and drain is a powerful archetype that has been making a lot of headlines these days because of Bloodthirst Conqueror making infinite 'I win' turns very possible in Standard or even in draft. We're not going to play with that guy today, though, because I set out to build a with only four copies of a single rare with the rest of the 60 being made up of commons and uncommons.
This deck is a glass cannon that wouldn't likely survive sideboarding well, so we're playing in Best-of-One.
The Rare
The one rare we're using is an absolute banger in Raise the Past. This card has caused a pretty significant stir within the brewer community for having insane top-end power in decks that can support it properly. Since it cares about creatures that cost two or less, our deck is going to be riddled with one-drops that can give us value upon entering and fill our graveyard. If our top decks break perfectly, we could pop this right on turn four for the win.
Since our deck is full of small creatures, we're likely going to play them out to the board to either chump block or punch in for damage. If our opponent spends removal spells or creatures to answer them, they're simply loading our graveyard for later.
The Win
Our primary win con will be through Soul Warden-style effects like Hinterland Sanctifier and Lifecreed Duo being paired with the drain power of Starscape Cleric. We have plenty of cards in our deck that can gain us life, but Starscape Cleric is the only one that drains as a result. If we pop the Raise the Past without a Starscape Cleric in the graveyard or on the field, we will likely gain enough life to stabilize and force our opponent into a board-wipe-or-bust position, but it won't win on the spot the way we want to.
We also have Elas Il-Kor, who can add a few death trigger pings to the mix if the legend rule comes into effect. She's redundancy and the deathtouch is surprisingly relevant if played out on turn two.
Filling the Graveyard
Given how many creatures we have entering the battlefield repeatedly throughout the course of the game, getting a surveil every time one does is very powerful. Whenever surveilling with the Gorehound, be sure to dump creatures into the graveyard every chance you get because every mill gets you one card closer to drawing the Raise the Past. Often, if you fire one Raise the Past but aren't able to deliver a kill shot, the surveils off of Snarling Gorehound alone will fill the graveyard back up and make sure the next card you draw is a Raise the Past.
Faerie Dreamthief is here to be a one-drop blocker and the surveil on its entering is also value. It also has the added benefit of being able to draw you a card if it's in the graveyard in a pinch. The fact that its type is faerie is a slight downside that we'll get into in a minute, but its upsides easily make up for that.
The Value
Small creatures entering and drawing cards is a critical piece of our setup, so we naturally have Helpful Hunter in the mix. We also run Splitskin Doll because we're almost never without additional creatures, so it's almost always redundant with Helpful Hunter, but it also has two power so it can trade with meaningful threats in combat or even apply pressure if our opponent isn't setting up creatures early. I've been very impressed with the Doll's performance.
The last time you saw Nurturing Pixie, it was probably bouncing a Tithing Blade or Hopeless Nightmare to keep stripping you of resources before a Rottenmouth Viper showed up. Well, we're using it a bit differently here, but its value remains. As a one-drop, it can just be a decent chump blocker very early and another body entering to trigger our Soul Wardens later, but it also has the chance to reset our Splitskin Dolls or Helpful Hunters to keep digging in a pinch. We could even reset our Starscape Cleric if we have enough mana to pay the offspring cost.
The one downside, though, is Faerie Dreamthief is not an eligible target for Nurturing Pixie's trigger as it specifies non-faerie. As a one-drop with a good enter trigger, Dreamthief would have been a great target, so that is a slight downside, but it's not disqualifying by any means.
Conclusion
So, you ask, is this deck any good? Honestly, I think it's far better than it has any right to be.
This kind of glass cannon combo reads like it should be a meme, but the gameplay actually bears out a pretty solid winning record. I'm currently playing it in Platinum with a relatively small sample size, but I have a comfortable 80% win rate and the games didn't feel particularly close. Like I mentioned in the introduction, graveyard hate would strip the ammunition we need to fire our combo, so I suspect this deck would not translate well to Best-of-Three, but that might be a fun experiment.
If you're a budget-conscious Magic Arena player, the lack of heavy wildcard investment makes this a solid choice if you're trying to climb the ladder with a fun deck that's a bit different from your traditional red-based aggro lists (not that there's anything wrong with those).
Thanks so much for reading, and happy brewing!
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