Hello awesome folks! I hope that your day and week have gone equally well! Today I want to grab one of my top legendary gold dorks from the set and someone that made my first Top Ten cards list from this set. Let's turn to it and look at how I am building around it.

Let's turn to Ratadrabik of Urborg, an on-curve 3/3 with vigilance and ward 2 that gives other Zombies vigilance, which is nice in multiplayer when you can swing at the open player and still keep your defense open. And then you can copy a dead legendary dork as a 2/2 Zombie when it dies. Nasty fun stuff, and that suggest either a Zombie matters or a legendary stuff matters brew to me, either of which works. We are doing legendary-matters.

Ready?

Legendary Stuff that Matters

This fun Silverquill flyer with the nasty double strike can end things. At the beginning of your combat, you can trigger it twice and choose different players. You each can make a 2/1 flyer, draw a card and lose a life, or put a +1/+1 counter on each dork. I like the third on a creature-less player, and then you can draw or make a dork as needed based on the game state, although turning this into a 3/6 with double strike and then 4/7 the next turn can end things quickly on a naked board, so don't sleep on it.

The Human Wizard is a 4/4 that exiles opposing dorks as they die, and then in your upkeep can bring them all back with decayed. This is a great brake on creature-based graveyard abuse and a free way to build up your dork corps without investing more cards and infrastructure.

I leaned heavily into legendary (and other) dorks with recursion built in that can keep up the pressure after death. Let's turn to some now.

This 4/7 with indestructible needs devotion of seven to Black and White to make it a creature, but even without that you can put coins on stuff in your end step. Then as they die (or are exiled, by the by) and then you can bring it back to the battlefield for free. Strong value over time, and I am also running the first Athreos here as well. This three-drop 5/4 God can put dying stuff back to your hand or force a (targeted) foe to spend three life, so it's a life tax early and a Raise Dead later. Nice pair here.

Most of my support legendary are grounded dorks, save for a key four card cycle we'll look at later, so Broodmoth should trigger pretty reliably. Then you can give your non-Humans undying with the Zombie Cleric. This 6-drop is a bit hard on the mana but it's a nice-sized 5/5 with intimidate to swing away. I also like this as a No Mercy against opposing Humans while giving your team undying so they'll come back even bigger. This bonus also helps pump our leader, and this is a Zombie so it gets vigilance when you control your Commander and can swing with intimidate and keep back to block.

This recently printed 3/2 with menace can swing with the best of them. When it deals combat damage (likely with menace) you can Raise Dead a creature if it died this turn (likely with all of the sacrifices this deck will be doing). I also tossed in Rogue's Passage and Access Tunnel to help slip this dork past defenses for the trigger. Then you can sacrifice something when this is unblocked with the death triggers of your things and recast it. Nice little combo there. Also note that this does not have flying and is not a Human for those synergies.

I am also running the Rebirth, an admittedly high 7 mana which requires you to control a legendary dork or 'walker, but that's likely here. Then you can return all of your legendary dorks to the battlefield from the graveyard, and here? That can be quite a lot of fun things to play around with. Love this sorcery in here way much. When this is on the stack, sacrifice your legendaries for triggers and then bring them back on resolution.

Sacrifice Engines

Now let's turn to some sacrifice engines. The first will drop for two of any color, spend three of any color, sacrifice, and then draw a card - nice card flow over time. The latter turns a sacrifice into a key card drawn and also gains you life, and don't sleep on that by the by. Each of these add card flow to the brew.

Next up is Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim, which has deathtouch to trade up. You have two sacrifices on this stick for other dorks. For one mana you can gain life equal to the sacrificed dork's toughness, which can be quite a bit here. For three you can exile a target nonland, if you have 50 or more life. Although that's not super likely here since we have a lot of card flow with life loss, a few activations of the first ability on big beaters can easily turn your 32 life into 53 and then activate for multiple Utter Ends.

Now let's turn to four famous legendary dorks that have death triggers for us to sacrifice. The first is the previously banned Kokusho. This 5/5 with flying will drain 5 life from each foe on death and gain you a ton of life for Ayli. Ao is a five-drop 5/4 with flying and vigilance. When it dies you have two options, place two +1/+1 counters on your stuff, or dig 7, can drop up to 4 mana value of nonlands onto the battlefield ready to go! That's what the default is.

Junji is a 5/5 with flying and menace and you can force your foes to discard two and lose two life (my default) or reanimate a non-Dragon with casting cost of 4 or fewer, which might have nice value with things like Solemn Simulacrum or Ravenous Chupacabra. Yosei will tap five permanents and force a foe to skip their next untap step, so that's nice bit of tempo.

Synergies, Answers and Win Cons

Check out this mono-White pair. The former is a 2/2 with flying and can cast a legendary, artifact (or Saga, but there are none here) into a free 3-drop or less creature card like Esper Sentinel or Zulaport Cutthroat. Yoshimaru gets permanently bigger and can really win quickly over time.

The first is a classic in these brews at the kitchen table, as dorks hit your graveyard from anywhere you force your foes to lose a life. Discarding, death, milling, etc. You can also spend two mana to mill and kill when a key foe is down to single digit life. The second can swing with the best of them or just trade up on defense. Then you can force your foes to lose life when your stuff dies and then gain life as it arrives like a Soul Warden on a Zulaport Cutthroat. Nice here, and, again, don't sleep on that life gain with Ayli frumping around.

Most of my answers are obvious like Generous Gift and Vindicate. But I have a few mass sweepers in here as well. The Blast will exile all non-legendary nonland permanents, so most of your stuff will survive quite easily. You can only cast it when you own a legendary creature or planeswalker, but that's likely here. And then you exile your things - but if they have coin counters? Bring them back! The latter can net you copies if you control legendaries and then your Commander, as well as other triggers like the aforementioned ones. Nice!

Card Flow

Most of my card drawing is obvious, but then we have these two planeswalkers. Sorin is here for that +1 to draw the top card from your library and then force your foes to each lose life equal to its casting cost, which is a win con in card draw form. Don't forget his -X to shoot any target for damage and gain that life. The Nixilis is a 5 loyalty that is here for that +1 to lose a life and draw a card. And then you can -3 to Murder something so it adds in board control to card flow, and both work quite ably here. Love this pair a lot here! They also count for our two legendary sorceries.

Ramp and Lands

Most of my ramping is two-drop mana rocks since our leader costs four. The Orb was just printed for three to drop, two to sac, and then can ramp out two basics (or Gates), one to the battlefield and one to your hand much like an artifact version of CCC (Commander Classic Cultivate). The Relic is a Manalith that taps for any color of mana and then can tap an untapped legendary dork to make mana for free; it's a Chromatic Lantern with upside.

Plaza of Heroes arrives untapped and ready to tap for any color of mana for legendary stuff. Don't sleep on the final ability to give a key legendary dork hexproof or indestructible until the end of the turn. Vault of the Archangel can tap for four to give your team lifelink and deathtouch for the turn, which is a great combat trick with your 2/2 Zombies as well as legendaries that you'd love to get back after trading. Don't forget to gain a bunch of life when you have an unblocked team just out of nowhere to have enough for Ayli as well.

Orzhov Legendary Aristocrats | Commander | Abe Sargent

• Commander (1)
• 1 Ratadrabik of Urborg

• Creatures (27)
• 1 Arvad the Cursed
• 1 Ayli, the Eternal Pilgrim
• 1 Ao, the Dawn Sky
• 1 Athreos, God of Passage
• 1 Athreos, Shroud-Veiled
• 1 Bennie Bracks, Zoologist
• 1 Breena, the Demagogue
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim
• 1 Esper Sentinel
• 1 Gisa, Glorious Resurrector
• 1 God-Eternal Bontu
• 1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 1 Junji, the Midnight Sky
• 1 Luminous Broodmoth
• 1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1 Moira, Urborg Haunt
• 1 Ravenous Chupacabra
• 1 Shadowheart, Dark Justicar
• 1 Shadrix Silverquill
• 1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Syr Konrad, the Grim
• 1 Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle
• 1 Yosei, the Morning Star
• 1 Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful
• 1 Zulaport Cutthroat

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
• 1 Sorin, Grim Nemesis

• Instants (5)
• 1 Altar's Reap
• 1 Deadly Dispute
• 1 Generous Gift
• 1 Teferi's Protection
• 1 Utter End

• Sorceries (9)
• 1 Ambition's Cost
• 1 Ancient Craving
• 1 Damn
• 1 Night's Whisper
• 1 Read the Bones
• 1 Sign in Blood
• 1 Urza's Ruinous Blast
• 1 Vindicate
• 1 Wrath of God

• Enchantments (4)
• 1 Anointed Procession
• 1 Land Tax
• 1 Phyrexian Arena
• 1 Vampiric Rites

• Artifacts (12)
• 1 Ashnod's Altar
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Carnage Altar
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Navigation Orb
• 1 Orzhov Signet
• 1 Phyrexian Altar
• 1 Relic of Legends
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Talisman of Hierarchy

• Lands (39)
• 1 Access Tunnel
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Caves of Koilos
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 High Market
• 1 Isolated Chapel
• 1 Phyrexian Tower
• 1 Plaza of Heroes
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Shattered Sanctum
• 1 Temple of Silence
• 1 Vault of the Archangel
• 1 Vault of Champions
• 1 War Room
• 12 Plains
• 12 Swamp

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And there we go! So...what did you think of my decklist? Am I missing anything? Just let me know, and have an awesome day!