An Analysis of Orzhov Draft Archetypes
The Orzhov Draft Archetypes
Welcome back! This is the sixth installment of the Current History of Draft Archetypes. The impetus for this series is that I was interested in how often certain archetypes really show up and what kind of variance there tends to be, so I dug in, looked up old draft formats, and crunched some numbers.
I think looking over the archetypes reveals interesting patterns, telling us what tools are most useful in a designer's belt and letting us predict what could be around the corner. It's also a great way to highlight some interesting evolutions and developments over the years.
Summary of caveats:
- I include all premier sets from Return to Ravnica through Bloomburrow.
- I included most, but not all, supplemental sets released during that time.
- I only included sets with a two-color archetype in the analysis of that color pair. No three-color/five-color draft themes included.
- My research on determining an archetype was either a direct statement about the color pair's theme, looking at the gold card in the set, or occasionally looking at some articles talking about the set if it couldn't otherwise be determined.
- Sometimes a theme is part of two categories (Artifact Sacrifice)-- I make the final call on a case-by-case basis which it's more representative of, but also try to address that in the notes.
With that out of the way, let's break into the second half!
The Color Pair
I've talked about all of the colors twice now, but it bears repeating the strengths and weaknesses of each color before diving into the archetypes. Understanding what each color does makes it easier to understand why certain archetypes get repeated so often or why the color pair is the speed it is.
For instance, both white and black are flexible colors, being easily capable of going fast or slow with the presence of the right tools. Both have resilient aggro creatures, efficient pinpoint removal, and a few big, evasive threats lying around. White is a little faster, but it also has a few of the better board wipes as a control strategy, while black has some graveyard recursion and "general use" card draw that helps it go long. Combined, they stay versatile, able to either focus on putting down weenies to turn sideways, control the board with removal while a threat kills the opponent quickly, or even use lifegain to survive into the midgame where they turn things around using the graveyard.
Their shared creature keywords are lifelink, flying, flash, and indestructible, with lifelink being their "primary" creature keyword. Lifegain is a strategy that works better as the game goes long, pushing the color combination more towards the midrange and controlling strategies. However, thanks to the "temporary indestructibility" and similar effects, it can have a strong aggro plan.
White and black are very versatile in what they can care about. White is primary in being friendly to artifacts, enchantments, legendary permanents, and planeswalkers, while being the color to have the highest as-fan of creatures. Black has no "friendly" aspects in their primary slot, so they don't lean into any particular card type or strategy.
With that background established, let's begin
Wildcard Archetypes
With every color pair, there have been one (sometimes two) archetypes that don't fit cleanly into the other categories, something unique to their capabilities. In the case of Orzhov, they have two: lifegain and aristocrats. Lifegain is the most straightforward, although I did include the more recent variant "life change", which cares about gaining or losing life. Aristocrats is a bit muddier and harder to quantify. It has some amount of tokens, sacrifice, and can even play around with lifegain or graveyard strategies some; this is generally due to how mono-color cards are designed to be playable in at least two draft archetypes, but its effect is pronounced with a more "open" strategy like aristocrats.
As for the straightforward Lifegain strategy, it has appeared in the following seven sets in the last twelve years.
Theros
Journey into Nyx
Magic 2015
Battle for Zendikar
Oath of the Gatewatch
Core Set 2019
Core Set 2021
Crimson Vow
Bloomburrow
That's not to say lifegain hasn't been an ongoing part of this archetype, but in various cases it isn't the central focus or else there isn't a payoff driven by lifegain because lifegain is actually the reward provided to you for doing a different thing. There is an argument to be made that Gatecrash's extort mechanic is lifegain driven, but there's once again no reward for doing it beyond itself.
I must say that this surprised me, as I had gone into this thinking that white-black lifegain was its ubiquitous, dare I say over-used, archetype. Aristocrats, however, has been used much more often. I believe that aristocrats' ability to pull more in different directions makes it easier to use without feeling repetitive. The following sets lean into one or more aspects of the aristocrats package.
Shadows Over Innistrad
Eldritch Moon
War of the Spark
Commander Legends
Core Set 2020
Midnight Hunt
Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate
Dominaria United
The Brothers' War
Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth
Lost Caverns of Ixalan
Outlaws of Thunder Junction
Funnily enough, there is kind of a split here. The first five sets focus more on the token-making, while the second half focus more on sacrificing. Not a constant, but a trend. Commander Legends: Battle For Baldur's Gate had a particularly unique twist on the archetype by triggering based on a creature leaving the battlefield, allowing it to be open to not just black's sacrifice but white's flicker effects. I don't know if they'll continue to use this design tech in the future, but I hope to see it again.
Very cool alternate, honestly, but moving on...
Set Mechanic Archetypes
Set mechanics come around from time to time to settle in on a color pair (if they do some kind of effect which lines up with their slices of the color pie) and shake things up a little. Sometimes, the mechanic is something the color pair has more or less done in the past, just with a unique coat of paint. Other times, it's an innovation set in their archetype for a truly unique way to play. Orzhov has only had seven set mechanics specific to them, which is currently the lowest seen. These sets are:
Gatecrash: Extort
Aether Revolt: Revolt
Ravnica Allegiance: Afterlife
Adventures in the Forgotten Realms: Dungeon
Phyrexia: All Will Be One: Corrupted
March of the Machine: Incubate
Modern Horizons 3: Modified
Notable that, aside from faction planes, like Ravnica, Orzhov hasn't gotten much in the way of set mechanics the last few years of this twelve-year period. This is my first opportunity to talk about Strixhaven: School of Mages, by the by, so I want to mention that the Magecraft mechanic was found in all five colors and was used differently by each enemy color pair. I chose to focus on how they used Magecraft than choose that as the archetype theme.
I'll note that extort could have gone in the lifegain bucket, while Revolt and afterlife could have gone in the aristocrats bucket. This is one of those gray areas, especially as the mechanics didn't necessarily build off of each other (e.g., there wasn't something that doubled specifically Revolt triggers or gave bonuses to your creatures with afterlife). I'm curious what y'all think!
Of the themes, I expected to see "modified" again in the next five years. It's popular and easily clicks in with other set themes. The rest would require specific circumstances before I'd anticipate them coming back to Orzhov anytime soon.
Creature Type Archetypes
Creature type strategies are popular. White and black are in an interesting position for creatures, with them having a fair amount of low-curve creatures and some recursion effects to make sure you can keep them going. We are finally out of the ally-colored pairs which so often got their numbers bloated from the Innistrad sets, so it'll be interesting to see how it goes!
Khans of Tarkir: Warrior
Amonkhet: Zombie
Hour of Devastation: Zombie
Ixalan: Vampire
Rivals of Ixalan: Vampires
Modern Horizons: Changelings
Throne of Eldraine: Knights
Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths: Humans
Zendikar Rising: Clerics
There's an argument to be made that March of the Machines has a Phyrexian theme, but I believe incubate is the more important of the draft archetype. The one "cheat" here is the changeling archetype from Modern Horizons, where a lot of different kindred and "choose a type" effects were put in place with changelings to glue it all together. I'd mark it here because it still leaned into the strength of the type line, far more than some of the other archetypes included.
Of these, I could see Knights returning to Orzhov in the next five years. We are getting a return to Tarkir, but I believe the Warriors theme was merely meant to unite the draft archetypes of Abzan and Mardu, and the set will have other things to do in the meantime. Our most recent return to Ixalan found Vampires but not a Vampire draft archetype, slightly distinct. Vampires and Clerics, notably, have been increasingly tied into "life change" strategies and I expect them to continue going that way, with their creature type only mattering on occasion.
However, Knights are resonant and a recurring theme in Magic, so much so that March of the Machine had an associated Esper Commander deck to synchronize with the associated WU Knights theme (but relying heavily on the history of Knights in white and black). I see them coming back around, but in white-black in the future.
Card Type Archetypes
Card type archetypes occupy an unusual space. They usually encourage players to draft with a focus on some noncreature element (though they must find ways to put down creatures to win games). These noncreature elements can more easily slot into two draft archetypes, as the heavy lifting for one is just "being the thing". They remain fun and rewarding strategies all the same. Once again, it's notable that black's longtime lack of "friendly to X" means that draft strategies don't tend to use noncreature card types very often. I only have five here:
Magic Origins: Enchantment
Dominaria: Historic
Theros Beyond Death: Auras
Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty: Balance (Artifact and Enchantment)
Wilds of Eldraine: Enchantment
Notable that all of these draft archetypes do involve enchantments in some capacity, with artifacts only partially included due to a broader set theme being included. The Historic theme focused slightly more on legendary creatures, with Arvad the Cursed buffing those, but it plugged into the Esper Historic trio and worked with that.
Other Archetypes
Some things just don't go anywhere else. These are the archetypes which don't fall into the other categories for one reason or another. Much like the "set mechanic" category, Orzhov has the lowest number of "other" set mechanics seen so far, at just five. Those are:
Kaladesh: Recursion
Kaldheim: Second Spell
Strixhaven: School of Mages: Aggro
Modern Horizons 2: Reanimator
Murders at Karlov Manor: Power 2 or less
I'll note that "second spell" and "power 2 or less" were ways for the color pair to interact with other set mechanics (foretell and disguise) without directly calling it out, and both were essentially aggro with a specific deckbuilding direction. Recursion and reanimator both lean into white-black's affinity for the graveyard. (Notably, Duskmourn: House of Horror just released with another Orzhov reanimator draft archetype! I don't know if we'll see it become a regular pattern or just an occasional treat.)
Final Analysis
Alright, I've talked about some of the backgrounds for each archetype to give context, so now let's turn up the raw numbers and percentages.
Aristocrats: 12 (26.7%)
Creature Type: 9 (20.0%)
Lifegain: 9 (20.0%)
Set Mechanic: 7 (15.6%)
Card Type: 5 (11.1%)
Other: 5 (11.1%)
The number one archetype for white-black is aristocrats. Creature kindred and lifegain came in tied at second. Set mechanic ranks fourth while card type and other tied for fifth. Long-time readers may catch that creature type themes remained surprisingly high despite missing out on the "Innistrad bump" (most of the ally colors had at least four creature type themes from the four Innistrad sets that occurred since Return to Ravnica).
I think the aristocrats theme is definitely here to stay: players love tokens, and being encouraged to sacrifice them for value prevents boardstalls (it's why the bargain mechanic from Wilds of Eldraine was innovated). Lifegain has recently been given a twist in the "life change" which I think will become more permanent for the same reason.
Conclusion
An interesting start to the enemy color archetypes! I was a little caught off guard by aristocrats taking such a strong lead, really expected lifegain in the lead. Interesting!
I'm personally excited to see more enchantment matters in this color. (I was on board with White Black enchantments ever since Magic Origins and my time trying and failing to make Daxos the Returned a viable commander.)
What do you all think? Any shakeups to the color you're hoping for? Let me know in the comments below!
