Welcome to Part 2 of our weeklong Commander Top Ten series for Ravnica Allegiance! I want to thank Steve for covering the Gruul portion of the Top Ten series yesterday. Gruul is, at best, dull and miserable. Oh look, another big dumb thing smashing. Steve is a real trooper to agree to do that!

Today is the highlight of the entire week! We are covering the best guild, and my personal favorite, Orzhov! I've always found Black and White cards to work well together. White seems able to handle virtually every permanent that hits the table, while Black has been spreading damage and misery to all opponents for a very long time. My love was cemented with the Extort mechanic. Any time I have the opportunity to hit everyone for just a tiny bit of damage and gain all that life, then count me in!

When working out the Top Ten, we are looking at Orzhov cards, but we are also looking at all White or Black cards too. So if I choose a White card that seems particularly Azorius aligned, just understand I'm covering White, Black, and White and Black. I think I've explained how this goes in Black and White, so let's get started!

Honorable Mentions

I wanted to bring a little attention to the utility cards that you need to be running in every deck, but don't have the "Pow" to make the Top Ten. Expose to Daylight is the latest "Destroy target artifact or enchantment" card in White, and this time it can scry 1. It maintains the essential instant speed and costs three, so it is still a decent cost. I'm generally a fan of the scry mechanic, so I'll be taking this one out for a test drive in my decks.

Final Payment lets you destroy a creature with no restriction. It only costs two mana and is instant speed. The catch is that you have to pay for life or sacrifice a creature or enchantment. First off, did Aminatou really need help? Sac an enchantment to destroy a creature? With Ravnica Allegiance and Afterlife, you'll generally have a token that can serve as the sacrifice, so it seems a small price to pay for a valuable effect.

Finally, I wanted to quickly mention Kaya, Orzhov Usurper. I do appreciate a card that messes with opponent's graveyards, but this just doesn't do enough. I love Kaya as a character in Magic, but I'm not impressed with either of her cards. She just doesn't do enough to be in the Top Ten and will likely only be good enough for very specific commander decks.

10. Cry of the Carnarium

I love me some graveyard hate! Commander has reached a point where your deck simply isn't good enough if you aren't running some graveyard recursion. You need to get more from your cards, and your creatures in particular, than you can get if you have no way to interact with your graveyard.

Cry of the Carnarium is a way for you to say "no." It is a cheap way to rid the battlefield of small creatures so your big stuff can swing. It is also a flexible option. You can play it early on your turn and let everyone know that blocking will likely mean that your creature will be exiled. You can play it late in your turn as a way to finish off creatures who suffered combat damage but aren't quite dead yet. Playing it late also means you surprise your opponents by yanking out all those creatures that died that they thought they were going to be able to get back soon. A sweet, unassuming uncommon that is more than it appears!

9. Font of Agonies

When Ravnica duals enter the battlefield, you can pay two life.

When lands that search for other lands do their thing, it costs a life.

Phyrexian Arena costs one life to draw a card.

Can you think of other ways you pay life over the course of a game?

I know initially this is a slow card. You'll be paying life in small increments. As the game progresses though, watch how quickly you'll tally four blood counters. Now if you choose to run it in a deck that can add counters or has a focus on life loss for other benefits, Font of Agonies will become a house.

8. Tithe Taker

I don't believe that this card is going to stay on the battlefield for long. Using a creature with only one toughness to tax all your opponents' spells and abilities will mean that the next available removal spell will take this out.

However, it means that there is one less removal spell for your other creatures. It also means that you will have an early gauge of how much removal your opponents currently have in hand. If it survives a full round of the table, you can be fairly sure other spells are safe to play! And it doesn't hurt that it will give you a 1/1 flying creature after they burn a removal spell, so you don't feel like you lost a card while most of your opponents did not.

Of course, if you already have that deck that tries to tax your opponents into submission, this is a nice addition. Although I thought you were raised better than that!

7. Revival // Revenge

The joy of a good split card is that it is rarely dead in your hand. In the early game, Revival is a great way to get a creature lost to some early combat or forced discard out on the battlefield. A second enter the battlefield trigger to give you a little more advantage. Making it two hybrid mana just means it is that much easier to cast in your deck. You'll be able to use this on turn two most times, and almost any time you have a target in your graveyard worth recurring, you'll have the mana you need to get it.

Revenge, as a dish best served cold, comes later in the game when you have the six mana. Doubling your life total is nice as long as you have more than say, eight life. If your life total is bigger, the Revenge is just gaudier and more obvious. Halving an opponent's life total is also interesting. Do you get the most bang for your buck and go with the obvious opponent who has more than 50 life, or do you take someone from a comfortable twenty to a precarious ten? These options get even more juicy when there are attack options on the board. If another player can do ten damage, do you bring someone in range or work in concert to try to bring the player at 50 to 25 then fifteen? The flexibility just makes this a fun card all the time!

6. Seraph of the Scales

In Commander we tend to want creatures that do something beyond just swinging in. Seraph of the Scales however, is just value. A 4/3 flyer for four mana is fine, but the vigilance and deathtouch options are great. Opponents will always have to plan as though you are going to activate both and attack on your turn. When you don't attack, or attack with vigilance, then they have to assume that Seraph will have deathtouch when they attack you. That is a lot to think about and all it really costs you is four mana to play and a little mana left open. And even if they do kill it, Seraph offers two 1/1 flying creatures. As if the vigilant, deathtouching, 4 power flyer wasn't enough, the 2 power that stays on the field when it is gone really tips the Scales.

5. Kaya's Wrath

When I started playing Commander, I never understood the power of a Wrath effect. I was always playing mostly creatures, so why would I want them to die? Clearly these mass removal cards were for decks with almost no creatures. Gradually I learned that a mass removal effect wasn't about what was on the battlefield, but what was in your hand. Losing some creatures is a small price to pay when I have plenty more, and I'm getting rid of my opponent's lynchpin creature.

Kaya's Wrath hits all the right notes for me. It only costs four and if you happen to have a few creatures in play, you get to gain some life for your trouble. The key is to remember that this is going into a deck that is running Black. You are going to be happy with creatures in your graveyard. Whether you get a benefit for creatures in your graveyard or you can bring them back or you can exile them for another benefit, hitting Kaya's Wrath is going to end up all upside for you!

4. Ethereal Absolution

This play off of Zealous Persecution is interesting. While Persecution is more of a surprise combat trick, Ethereal Absolution is there to shut down opponent's token strategies and buff your dudes. I like it but by itself, I don't think that would be enough to merit the six mana cost.

Adding in the graveyard attack is what puts this card into the Top Ten for me. Interrupting recursive plays is becoming practically a requirement in every deck, and Ethereal Absolution does that and gives you a 2/2 flying token that can only be effectively blocked by a 3/3 flying creature.

I am concerned about the costs on this card. This may very well plummet out of the Top Ten if it turns out that six mana to cast and four mana to activate is just too much. I wish there was a way to make a bunch of Treasure tokens so all of this could be a little more affordable. Oh and that flying spirit would be so much better if it had lifelink and vigilance. Ah well, what can you do?

3. Teysa Karlov

I tend to rank cards higher when I think they will fit in more decks, but Teysa Karlov is crazy! So many Black creatures are in decks because they do something when a creature dies. Getting that triggered ability a second time is a great ability and promises all sorts of interesting decks.

I've seen several people almost ignore Teysa's second ability, treating it as a throw-on. I think that is a particularly valuable part of the card. So many Orzhov decks have a strong token creature theme and giving those creatures these boosts is amazing. Vigilance is such an underrated ability for creatures in Commander games, letting you attack and still have a defender is key to keeping so many games moving along without getting run over. Lifelink on creatures in a Black deck means that Phyrexian Arena and other Black, "lose a life to get X" effects are not quite so painful. Then consider Anointed Procession and Divine Visitation from recent sets, and Teysa looks like a solid commander option for a token creature good stuff deck.

2. Smothering Tithe

They can call it Smothering Tithe, but this is Rhystic Tithe and we all know it. I'm not a fan of Rhystic Study. Constantly asking throughout the game if each player is going to pay the extra or let you draw a card is just an annoying reminder that you are drawing extra cards all the time. Everyone knows that you are building up your hand into a sculpted masterpiece and they are getting more annoyed every turn.

Having said that, people still use Rhystic Study because it is effective. You will draw cards. The hate that eventually comes your way often involves one swing against you or as little as losing your enchantment.

Smothering Tithe is going to be just as annoying. Probably even more so since you are asking if they are going to pay for every card draw, something that happens on every turn at least once. However, you are only getting 1 mana. This isn't a land that you can use repeatedly, this is a one-time use. A Treasure artifact token just isn't that scary.

Until your opponents play against it the first time.

Assuming no one will pay two to stop you, you will be getting at least three mana per round. This means that by turn five or six you will likely have nine or ten mana available! This is also assuming that others aren't drawing more than one card.

When you consider that White is amongst the worst colors for ramp, Smothering Tithe is going to be great!

1. The Haunt of Hightower

Vulturous Zombie is a staple in Commander decks and for good reason. It has evasion and grows quickly. Anyone who doesn't just automatically use a d20 instead of a d6 to track the +1/+1 counters is just being disingenuous. The Zombie is a creature that must be dealt with, or it will kill you and do it quickly.

The Haunt of Hightower has everything Vulturous Zombie has, except it comes in just Black, so it will go in more decks, and it costs one more, putting it at six mana. However, for just one more mana you get lifelink and it forces a discard when it attacks. Not when it does combat damage, but when it attacks! This means it isn't really a 3/3 since as soon as it attacks it is getting a counter. The Haunt of Hightower is a spectacular card that will go into every deck that Vulturous Zombie would go into, and so many more. This vampire earns the top spot with ease!

And that is the Top Ten for Orzhov! While everything is only going to get worse from here, I still recommend checking out the rest of the series. Everyone worked very hard to make the lesser guilds sound exciting and it would be a shame for you to miss it. I'll pass the baton off to Mark who will be covering the Azorius guild. I look forward to seeing his Top Ten for the Guild of Boring Bureaucrats!

Bruce Richard

@manaburned