Orzhov is a guild that gets a lot of design space to play in. Often times in Limited it's the "gain and drain" color pair, but it also gets to play with sacrifice synergy and tokens in a lot of sets. Other times, it just gets to have all of the best removal. It usually gets to pair this last one with something else, though, and that's typically what leads to a format where Orzhov comes out on top.

The problem is, this is a very oppressive combination and WOTC is clearly aware of that fact. If Orzhov has strong cards that aren't removal, the fact that is also gets to play the best kill spells can make it a difficult colour pair to balance. The data suggests that this is rarely allowed to play out, and Orzhov is usually somewhere in the middle of the pack. It's rarely unplayable, but even more rarely is it allowed to be the best. Even a quick glance at the rest of this article will show you what I'm getting at. We had to go all the way back to Strixhaven - five whole years - to find a set where Black-White dominated. And there are only two entries.

Strixhaven

Amusingly, the last time Orzhov was the best color pair in a format, it wasn't even called Orzhov. Silverquill did a lot of the things you expect of Black-White by any other name, though. Blot Out the Sky was both sweeper and token creation. It came at a steep cost, but was one of the best cards in the set. Shadrix Silverquill was the best entry in the elder dragon cycle and it had a slew of other excellent rares to push you towards drafting the guild school.

As always, it's the lower rarities that really count, though, and Silverquill/Orzhov was blessed here, too. Professor of Symbology was one of the best uncommons in the set, and it paints an interesting picture. While Silverquill was, in theory, the school of Ink tokens, it was really about grinding out games in small increments. Closing Statement is a weird but very efficient removal spell. Killian, Ink Duelist has nothing to do with the mechanics of the set, either, but still sits near the top of the 17lands data.

Killian was a great target for the shockingly good Humiliate, which sits just a few places below him. The fact that a two-mana Thoughtseize made it to B+ tells you a lot about the format. The card looks unobtrusive on first glance, but it did enough little things in a format where attrition was a big deal to make it an excellent card. You felt so good if you ever got to nab your opponent's bomb rare, but even the fail case of pumping your guy and finding out your opponent only has a land in-hand was reasonable. It wasn't the best card in the set, or even the best in its colour pair, but it was the most emblematic of what made Black-White good.

Ravnica Allegiance

I recently covered Ethereal Absolution in an article about the best bombs of all time, (https://www.coolstuffinc.com/a/michaellongsmith-seo-08082025-the-biggest-arena-limited-bombs) so we're off to a good start here. Interestingly, this was actually a format dominated by powerful uncommons. Orzhov had Mortify and Basilica Bell-Haunt taking up two slots in the top five cards in the entire set with Consecrate // Consume is just a little bit lower down the 17lands graphic. The pattern is clear, and familiar: attrition was big in RNA, and Orzhov was grinding with the best of 'em.

Grasping Thrull was an absurd common, coming down just in time to swing the game in your favour on turn five. Imperious Oligarch played offence and defence excellently, as did Thirsting Shade. Both of those cards seem innocuous at first glance, but both played into the Orzhov strategy of dragging the game out and winning later. Thirsting Shade looks a lot better when both players are top-decking and you have nine lands in play, doesn't it?

Really, it was the combination of all of these cards - coupled with the fact that you could easily get multiple copies of some - that was back-breaking. You can race one Grasping Thrull, but two or three? Not likely. You couldn't easily overpower an Orzhov player with busted rares either, since many of them performed worse than Orzhov's uncommons. In fact, it was even more unlikely, because many of the best rares were in Black-White to begin with.