At a glance
- Format: Standard
- Colors: White / Black (WB)
- Archetype: Orzhov lifegain / sacrifice / midrange
- Power tier: mid
- Standard: ✅ Legal
Strategy
Orzhov aristocrats that wins by death triggers, not combat. Flood the board with cheap, expendable bodies, then feed them to sac outlets so each death drains the opponent. Vengeful Bloodwitch and Susurian Voidborn turn every creature/artifact death into a drain-and-gain; Ninja Teen is a board-wipe-proof enchantment that pings the opponent every time a creature leaves the battlefield (and its higher levels grant team menace and graveyard recursion). The fodder is self-replacing: Infestation Sage, Pretending Poxbearers, and Dwarven Castle Guard each leave a token behind on death, Bile-Vial Boggart turns into a -1/-1 removal ping, and Tolls of War (the deck’s namesake) opens on a Clue and makes a 1/1 Ally every turn you sacrifice. Vampiric Rites, Beetle-Headed Merchants, Buzzard-Wasp Colony, and High-Society Hunter convert fodder into cards and counters, while Hei Bai is a free recurring sac outlet that snowballs. Midnight Reaper refills off the dying, Sandbender Scavengers and Fiendish Panda reanimate the best body, and incidental lifegain grows Ajani’s Pridemate. A clean removal suite (Moment of Craving, Bake into a Pie, Tribute to Hunger) holds the board until the drain engines grind the opponent out.
Upgrade path
Refined in place against the now-untruncated owned pool. ADDED (all OWNED, on-theme): Bile-Vial Boggart x2 (own4 {B} 1-drop whose death is -1/-1 removal — ideal fodder), Tolls of War x1 (W/B uncommon own3 — Clue on ETB plus a 1/1 Ally every turn you sacrifice, the deck’s literal ‘tolls’ theme), Hei Bai, Spirit of Balance x1 (W/B uncommon own2 — free recurring sac outlet that grows), and a 2nd Beetle-Headed Merchants (own4). MANABASE: added Restless Fortress (own1 rare LAND — untapped W/B dual that becomes an uncounterable 1/4 with drain-on-attack) and Temple of Silence (own1 rare LAND, W/B scry tapland) replacing the strictly-worse Orzhov Guildgate; rare LANDS are owned and not spell crafts, so they’re clear under rare discipline. CUT: Outlaw Medic (vanilla 1-of). Rare discipline respected: ZERO rare/mythic SPELL crafts; only crafted card remains the approved Godless Shrine (1). All owned rares used are own>=1. Exactly 60 cards, commander null, Vengeful Bloodwitch held at 3 (= owned max), no 4-of/own-count violations. 21 lands. | Land audit 2026-08-23: +3 lands (cut Vein Ripper, Tolls of War, High-Society Hunter).
Cards
Decklist
Paste straight into MTG Arena (or Moxfield/Archidekt):
Deck
4 Infestation Sage
4 Pretending Poxbearers
4 Vengeful Bloodwitch
2 Dwarven Castle Guard
2 Sandbender Scavengers
1 Hei Bai, Spirit of Balance
2 Midnight Reaper
2 Fiendish Panda
2 Beetle-Headed Merchants
2 Vampiric Rites
2 Moment of Craving
2 Bake into a Pie
2 Tribute to Hunger
4 Godless Shrine
1 Bleachbone Verge
1 Restless Fortress
14 Swamp
4 Plains
2 Phyrexian Arena
1 Vein Ripper
1 Sidisi, Regent of the Mire
1 Massacre Wurm
Sideboard
A 15-card sideboard for best-of-three (Traditional) play — swap these in game 2/3 against the matchups below.
Core plan: the maindeck already grinds with drain + lifegain, so the board adds flexible exile answers, enchantment hate, and hand disruption rather than narrow silver bullets. Web Up is the workhorse — it exiles any nonland permanent, so it simultaneously answers Screaming Nemesis (exile beats its damage-punish clause), planeswalkers like Kaito, and the enchantment engines (Enduring Curiosity, Unholy Annex, Zur payoffs). Eaten Alive turns our own expendable fodder into exile removal (and a Bloodwitch drain trigger).
vs Mono-Red / Gruul / Boros Aggro: +2 Death in the Family, +2 Eaten Alive, +2 Vampire Nighthawk / -2 Phyrexian Arena (life loss races us out), -1 Sidisi, Regent of the Mire (too slow), -1 Tolls of War, -2 Sandbender Scavengers. Prioritize exiling Screaming Nemesis with Web Up/Death in the Family, never burn/damage it. vs Dimir Midrange: +3 Web Up, +2 Duress, +2 Mortify / -2 Moment of Craving, -1 Massacre Wurm (few targets), -2 Bake into a Pie, -2 Sandbender Scavengers. Duress strips their removal/counters before committing, Web Up/Mortify kill Enduring Curiosity. vs Golgari Midrange: +3 Web Up, +2 Mortify, +2 Duress / -2 Moment of Craving, -2 Sandbender Scavengers, -1 Massacre Wurm, -2 Bake into a Pie. Hit Unholy Annex and Glissa; grind with our recursion + drain. vs Azorius Oculus: +2 Raven Eagle, +2 Eaten Alive, +3 Web Up / -2 Moment of Craving, -2 Tribute to Hunger, -1 Sidisi, Regent of the Mire, -2 Sandbender Scavengers. Raven Eagle repeatedly exiles their graveyard to choke the reanimator. vs Zur Domain / Mono-White engines: +3 Web Up, +2 Duress, +2 Mortify / -2 Moment of Craving, -2 Massacre Wurm/slow removal, -3 clunky top-end. Exile the enchantment payoffs and clock them under the disruption.
Full deck with sideboard (paste into Arena for Bo3):
Deck
4 Infestation Sage
4 Pretending Poxbearers
4 Vengeful Bloodwitch
2 Dwarven Castle Guard
2 Sandbender Scavengers
1 Hei Bai, Spirit of Balance
2 Midnight Reaper
2 Fiendish Panda
2 Beetle-Headed Merchants
2 Vampiric Rites
2 Moment of Craving
2 Bake into a Pie
2 Tribute to Hunger
4 Godless Shrine
1 Bleachbone Verge
1 Restless Fortress
14 Swamp
4 Plains
2 Phyrexian Arena
1 Vein Ripper
1 Sidisi, Regent of the Mire
1 Massacre Wurm
Sideboard
3 Web Up
2 Mortify
2 Death in the Family
2 Eaten Alive
2 Duress
2 Vampire Nighthawk
2 Raven Eagle
Card images & data via Scryfall.