Locations
1. Rite of the Moth
The first card I want to talk about is Rite of the Moth.
This card was an exciting potential centerpiece early in the days of Duskmourn: House of Horror Standard. Literally all of my favorite [Magic] YouTube personalities attempted Rite of the Moth-Reanimator decks.
The "why" should be pretty obvious. Not only does Rite of the Moth offer the Zombify effect for less mana than we've seen in Standard for the last few years, it does so with Flashback. The card offers the ability to go big - because the ceiling on what you can get is something like a 7/7 lifelinking draw-ten - but also grind... Because your vehicle to get there has a built-in two-for-one if you miss the first time.
Discount lifelink! More grind than Golgari! 7/7s in a world where 6/6s rule the sky! Surely Orzhov Reanimator is The Deck to Beat, right?
If you've been paying attention to Standard since (say at the recent World Championships) you know that Orzhov Reanimator has not exactly defined the format.
But I'm kind of wondering why not?
You can customize a Rite of the Moth deck in any number of ways. All of the principles that make for a good Mono-White Control deck can kind of be applied to Orzhov; except you have that higher ceiling.
The presence of cards like Beseech the Mirror or The Cruelty of Gix give you the ability to play just one or two Sunfalls for instance... But find them at a higher clip than White Control players who choose to run all four copies.
Hate giving the opponent Maps with Get Lost?
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I think that Bitter Triumph is, generally speaking, overplayed and overrated in Standard. But in a Reanimator deck, it can actually be quite good. You can discard your Atraxa, Grand Unifier to set up Rite of the Moth or The Cruelty of Gix, while defending your life total instead of giving a beatdown opponent three free points.
Liliana of the Veil, on the other hand, is a conditionally backbreaking card... That gains new context here. Reanimator decks don't mind pitching even their most powerful cards. Win-win for Liliana! Notably it's not just about dropping big creatures; you can even discard Rite of the Moth while tearing up the opponent's hand... and profit.
If you're going to experiment with Orzhov Reanimator (and try it with Beseech the Mirror) make sure you know this cool play pattern:
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You can cast Overlord of the Balemurk or Overlord of the Mistmoors with Impending, and then sacrifice whichever to Beseech the Mirror, as they are enchantments. This puts the Overlord into the graveyard and lets you fetch Rite of the Moth from your library and cast it. Good way to cheat on mana; and while an Overlord is unlikely to be the most powerful creature in any of these builds, it's nice that you can set up your first Rite of the Moth (of a potential eight) without having to separately set up Atraxa, Valgavoth, whoever.
2. Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber
It's easy to see in hindsight (now that it's won the World Championships and everything) how effective a card Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber is.
There are lots of reasons of course.
One of them is that the potential downside of Unholy Annex (that you can lose two life if you don't control any Demons) can be solved by the other half of the card itself; Ritual Chamber makes a 6/6 flyer (with no drawbacks!) for five mana. I mean that would not be a bad rate even if it were not attached to a card drawing machine.
One of the cool things that I like about this card is that sometimes you draw multiple copies. When this happens, a single Demon - just one Demon - will flip all your Unholy Annexes from liabilities into Drain mode. It's asymmetries like this that can really make for some high incentive Magic.
None of that is what made me want to write about Unholy Annex, though.
Phyrexian Arena is legal in Standard right now. I have lost to this card in the last week!
Compare Unholy Annex to Phyrexian Arena. Sure, you lose twice as much life... Sometimes. But other times (and, again, often solved by the other half of the card itself) you don't lose any life at all. In fact, it's the opponent who loses life.
The other cool thing about Unholy Annex relative to Phyrexian Arena is when you draw the card. Because you draw it on your end step, Unholy Annex makes for a more impactful mid-game topdeck. You can use the card right away if it's an instant (and Black decks in Standard tend to have lots of instant speed point removal), versus having to wait until the following turn to get your first freebie.
While it might seem like a small thing all other things considered, B2 is easier to cast than BB1... which is probably one of the reasons that multicolored Golgari and Dimir decks have made such welcome homes for this most Demonic of Rooms.
3. Render Inert
Right now you might be saying to yourself What a weird combination of cards you're talking about this week, MichaelJ.
But there's a cool crossover; or crossover of crossovers, even.
Unholy Annex creates incentives to play lots of Demons. Ritual Chamber makes a Demon; and if you're going to go combo-riffic (like our World Champion) you'll run some Doomsday Excruciators. But even midrange decks like Marcio Carvalho's will pair the Room with Archfiend of the Dross. In fact, Archfiend of the Dross is just an excellent card that saw play before Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber made its mark on Standard.
That said, Archfiend of the Dross is a near perfect card to pair with Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber because it can bridge the three and five-mana costs of the two sides of the card. You play your initially-worse-than-Phyrexian Arena; then it becomes quite a bit better than Phyrexian Arena (and no one will mess with your 6/6 on defense); and then you've drawn two or three extra and the sky's the limit.
... Which is where the opportunity comes from...
One of the cool things about Unholy Annex is that it doesn't have any drawbacks. Archfiend of the Dross is 6/6 for only four mana; has a cool special ability... But also a doozie of a potential drawback.
Almost all the Orzhov Reanimator decks that came out near the beginning of Duskmourn Standard played Overlord of the Balemurk, Overlord of the Mistmoors, or both. You can "cheat" with an Overlord and Beseech the Mirror... But you can also cheat even even more seamlessly with Render Inert.
How cool is it to Impend an Overlord, Render Inert, draw a card, and then have the full-body Overlord ready to rock?
It just so happens that simply playing Render Inert in your deck these days can make for hella free wins.
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On the one hand... You're probably not going to get much action out of the extra card you were promised. On the other hand, though?
4. Sheltered by Ghosts
So, Foundations is going to come in to upend one of the best Standard formats - one of the best formats - in years; for the next five years. I'm excited for Llanowar Elves. How savage is Bloodthirsty Conqueror? It's like a meaner, Black, Baneslayer Angel!
But up until then, I'm still [mostly] playing 
Auras.
Same seventy-five I cribbed from FIVES:
Boros Aggro | DSK Standard | fives, 5-0 MTGO Standard League
- Creatures (20)
- 2 Callous Sell-Sword
- 2 Manifold Mouse
- 4 Emberheart Challenger
- 4 Heartfire Hero
- 4 Monastery Swiftspear
- 4 Slickshot Show-Off
- Instants (4)
- 4 Monstrous Rage
- Enchantments (16)
- 4 Demonic Ruckus
- 4 Ethereal Armor
- 4 Shardmage's Rescue
- 4 Sheltered by Ghosts
- Lands (20)
- 6 Mountain
- 5 Plains
- 1 Rockface Village
- 4 Battlefield Forge
- 4 Inspiring Vantage
- Sideboard (15)
- 4 Get Lost
- 3 Lightning Helix
- 4 Torch the Tower
- 4 Urabrask's Forge
Export Arena
The online metagames have both shifted since not only Worlds, but the banning of Leyline of Resonance in Best of One. I tried the Azorius Oculus decks with Founding the Third Path (Kassis and Yasooka builds both)... But I have not found them to be consistent earners in Standard Events. Far from it, to be honest.
Boros, on the other hand, seems to have distinguished itself as the best beatdown deck in Standard. Yes, it has the potential fault point of just dying on a bed of its own basic Plains, but I'm constantly pleasantly surprised at how often I have the opportunity to out-play my opponents with one haste guy and a fist full of creature enchantments.
I said it near the top of the Duskmourn Standard format and I'll close the time window with the same thought: Sheltered by Ghosts is probably the best card in the set. It's cheaper than the regular style Oblivion Ring and it provides Ward to a creature and it can make racing impossible due to lifelink.
Sheltered by Ghosts single-handedly wins most aggro mirrors; including rewarding experience... Don't forget that even if you're a little light on mana (so you can't pay Ward) you can always Sheltered by Ghosts their Sheltered by Ghosts for a fun reversal!
Not for nothing, but the card can take out a key Atraxa, Grand Unifier on a critical turn... Or almost any other kind of permanent the dastardly opponent may try to put in front of you.
Good deck seems good. Great card even better than first impressions.
LOVE
MIKE
