Best Orzhov Commanders in 2025
If you like turning death into profit, draining your opponents slowly but surely, or locking down the board with well-timed disruption – Orzhov might be your perfect Commander pairing. A blend of white’s resilience and black’s recursion, Orzhov offers powerful tools for grindy value, life-based engines, and inevitable endgames.
Whether you’re gaining life, draining opponents, sacrificing creatures, or taxing the table into submission, the best Orzhov commanders help you outlast and outmaneuver even the most explosive decks.
This list highlights some of the most effective, fun, and flavorful options in white-black – ideal for mid-power tables, resilient brews, and anyone who enjoys turning small edges into big wins.
What Makes Orzhov Commanders Unique?
Orzhov plays the long game. It’s a color identity that excels at staying alive, sacrificing strategically, and draining life slowly but surely. With access to board wipes, recursion, removal, and taxing effects, Orzhov EDH decks can be both grindy and oppressive, but also surprisingly flexible.
Strengths
- Strong removal and board wipes
- Access to life gain, recursion, and graveyard synergy
- Great at aristocrats, stax, and pillowfort strategies
- Often plays well in multiplayer due to incremental advantage
Weaknesses
- Often lacks ramp or explosive speed
- Can rely on incremental engines rather than fast finishers
- May struggle against decks that go over the top (like Simic or big combo)
Common Archetypes
- Lifegain / drain decks
- Aristocrats and death triggers
- Control, stax, and taxes
- Reanimator or recursion loops
Lifegain & Drain Strategies – Turning Life into Power, and Opponents into Victims
Orzhov decks love the life total – yours and your opponents’. These commanders specialize in gaining life, draining life, and turning those triggers into a cascade of value. Whether you’re building a tall lifegain engine or spreading damage across the table, this is where Orzhov thrives.
If you enjoy resilience, incremental value, and synergistic loops, these orzhov commanders are some of the best places to start.
Amalia Benavides Aguirre
Amalia triggers whenever you gain life, exploring (and growing) every time. Combine her with repeatable lifegain like Soul Warden or Trelasarra, and she quickly turns into an explore engine or even a combo finish.
Great for lifegain brewers who want explosive growth and synergistic loops.
Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim
Elas drains opponents when your creatures die and gains you life when they enter – the perfect balance for aristocrats, token decks, or even flicker builds. His low cost makes him efficient and impactful in budget and high-powered lists alike.
Ideal for fans of recursive value and flexible builds.
Astarion, the Decadent
At the beginning of your end step, Astarion lets you choose between doubling the life you gained or draining each opponent for life lost that turn. That flexibility makes him great for group drain, combat-focused life swings, or drain-and-sustain strategies.
Perfect for players who like flexible lifegain decks with bite.
Eriette of the Charmed Apple
Eriette turns every Aura you control into a defensive shield – creatures enchanted by them can’t attack you or your planeswalkers. Then, at your end step, she drains each opponent for the number of Auras you control and gains you that much life. It’s a perfect blend of pillow-fort defense and steady lifedrain, rewarding you for going deep on enchantments.
Ideal for players who enjoy enchantment-heavy control with a built-in win condition.
Zoraline, Cosmos Caller
Zoraline brings flying and vigilance, making her a reliable aerial attacker and blocker. Whenever a Bat you control attacks, you gain 1 life – a small but steady buffer that adds up quickly. More importantly, whenever she enters or attacks, you can pay and 2 life to return a nonland permanent with mana value 3 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield with a finality counter. This lets you repeatedly recur your best low-cost permanents while keeping the skies full of Bat support.
A great choice for Bat tribal fans or recursion-heavy lifegain decks.
Kambal, Profiteering Mayor
Kambal turns token-heavy games into your personal economy. Once each turn, whenever an opponent creates tokens, you make tapped copies of them – Treasure, Food, creatures, anything. Then, whenever tokens enter under your control, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1. This means your own token production fuels steady lifedrain, while opponents’ tokens feed your board.
Perfect for players who enjoy political value engines and punishing greedy token decks.
Karlov of the Ghost Council
Karlov gets two +1/+1 counters every time you gain life. With just , you can remove six counters to exile any creature, giving him built-in spot removal. He grows fast in lifegain shells and dominates both the board and combat.
Excellent for efficient Voltron builds, lifegain tempo, or removal-heavy decks.
Carmen, Cruel Skymarcher
Carmen doesn’t just punish opponents for sacrificing – she profits when you do it, too. Every time any player sacrifices a permanent, Carmen grows stronger with a +1/+1 counter and you gain 1 life. This scaling power directly fuels her attack trigger, letting you recur a permanent from your graveyard with mana value equal to or less than her current strength.
That means she rewards a game plan packed with cheap sacrifice outlets and repeatable fodder. Use treasures, fetch lands, and sacrifice creatures to grow Carmen quickly, then swing to bring back key utility pieces or threats. She’s at her best in midrange attrition decks that weaponise both your own and your opponents’ sacrifices..
Kambal, Consul of Allocation
Kambal drains opponents for 2 and gains you 2 life whenever they cast a noncreature spell. He’s a soft stax piece that slows down decks relying on instants, sorceries, and combos, while giving you a steady stream of life.
Ideal for control metas, slower pods, or players who like passive disruption.
Elenda, Saint of Dusk
Elenda thrives when you’re ahead on life. With lifelink and hexproof from instants, she’s already a pain to remove mid-combat, but her power grows significantly once your life total exceeds your starting amount. Cross that line and she gets bigger and gains menace, making her harder to block. Push it even further – at least 10 above starting life – and she gets an additional +5/+5, turning into a serious one-shot threat.
This makes her ideal for lifegain-focused builds that can pad life totals quickly with creatures, spells, and incidental drains. Once online, she forces awkward blocking decisions and can finish games out of nowhere, especially if you support her with evasion or double strike.
Death Triggers & Aristocrats – Where Every Sacrifice Is a Step Toward Victory
No color pair does death-based value better than Orzhov. With plenty of ways to sacrifice creatures, bring them back, and punish opponents along the way, these commanders turn the graveyard into a second hand and the battlefield into a revolving door.
If you love grindy games, combo potential, or recursive resource engines, these aristocrats-style commanders are a fantastic foundation for your next brew.
Clavileño, First of the Blessed
Clavileño turns every attack into a gamble with high reward. Each combat, you can bless an attacking Vampire that isn’t already a Demon – when it dies, you draw a card and get a 4/3 flying Vampire Demon token. This naturally encourages a relentless combat style, throwing smaller Vampires into risky attacks knowing they’ll replace themselves and then some.
He’s especially potent in token-heavy Vampire builds or alongside sacrifice outlets that can cash in your blessed attacker for guaranteed value. The steady card draw and evasive token production give him reach in grindy games while keeping the pressure up.
Athreos, God of Passage
Athreos returns your creatures to your hand unless an opponent pays 3 life. That means every death becomes a resource loop, and opponents must constantly weigh the cost of keeping your threats away. With indestructibility and devotion scaling, he sticks around for the long game.
Great for grindy control decks, death loops, and political players.
Shilgengar, Sire of Famine
Shilgengar’s game plan is all about resource conversion. You can sacrifice any creature to make a Blood token, but sacrificing a Vampire produces Blood equal to its toughness – a huge boost for token strategies. Stockpile six Blood, and you can turn them into a mass reanimation spell, returning every creature from your graveyard with a finality counter and turning them all into Vampires.
This makes him a natural fit for Vampire aristocrats decks or any build that can pump out tokens and feed the Blood engine. The reanimation ability doubles as both a recovery plan and a win condition, especially if the creatures you bring back have ETB damage or drain effects.
Elenda, the Dusk Rose
Elenda grows whenever another creature dies and gives you 1/1 Vampire tokens when she herself dies, equal to her power. In a deck full of sacrifice outlets, she snowballs quickly and often leaves behind a small army after a board wipe.
Ideal for token aristocrats and decks that love value on death.
Ratadrabik of Urborg
Ratadrabik gives your other Zombies vigilance, but his real power comes from creating nonlegendary token copies of your legendary creatures when they die. That makes him perfect for legend-heavy aristocrats, reanimator loops, or Zombies with utility effects.
Great for grindy recursion engines and flavorful synergy builds.
Ketramose, the New Dawn
Ketramose is a fortress on legs – menace, lifelink, indestructible – but can’t attack or block until there are seven or more cards in exile. This creates a unique challenge: you need to fuel exile zones before Ketramose comes online as a threat. Aswell as this, he rewards you with a draw and a life loss to yourself whenever cards are exiled from graveyards or the battlefield during your turn.
The ideal shell runs graveyard hate that exiles, adventure creatures, foretell cards, or effects like flicker/blink that exile and return permanents. Once set up, Ketramose becomes both a win condition and a card draw engine that’s nearly impossible to remove.
Greasefang, Okiba Boss
Greasefang brings a Vehicle back from your graveyard at the beginning of combat – with haste. Though not a traditional aristocrats piece, he shines in builds that sacrifice Vehicles, recur them, or use cheap fodder creatures to crew u
Perfect for brewers who want a Vehicle-aristocrats hybrid with a twist.
Teysa, Orzhov Scion
Teysa lets you sacrifice three white creatures to exile any creature, and whenever another black creature you control dies, you create a 1/1 white Spirit. In a deck full of tokens and death triggers, she becomes a machine of removal and recursion.
Excellent for combo players, token swarms, and sacrifice loops.
Orah, Skyclave Hierophant
Orah reanimates Clerics from your graveyard whenever he or another Cleric dies. If you’re running a Cleric-heavy shell with sac outlets and ETB effects, this becomes a graveyard value engine with real staying power.
Great for players who enjoy tribal synergy with recursive gameplay.
Nalia de’Arnise
Nalia lets you look at the top card of your library and cast party creatures (Cleric, Rogue, Warrior, Wizard). If you have a full party, your creatures get +1/+1 and deathtouch. She rewards aggressive, party-focused decks that also lean into death and recursion.
Ideal for tempo aristocrat builds that blend tribal pressure with grindy value.
Squall, SeeD Mercenary
Squall thrives in a strategy that sends one creature – often himself – into battle at a time. His Rough Divide ability grants that lone attacker double strike, dramatically increasing combat damage and on-hit triggers. If Squall connects, you get to return a small permanent (mana value 3 or less) from your graveyard straight to the battlefield.
This naturally suits Voltron-style builds or decks with high-impact cheap permanents worth reusing, like utility creatures or key artifacts. With the right support, Squall can loop aggressive attacks while steadily rebuilding your board.
Liesa, Forgotten Archangel
Liesa exiles opponents’ creatures when they die and returns your nontoken creatures to your hand at end step. That makes her a graveyard hate engine and a resilient recursion outlet, especially with ETB-heavy creature builds.
Ideal for death-focused decks that want to maintain board presence and shut down recursion-heavy opponents.
Teysa, Opulent Oligarch
Teysa turns small life loss into long-term board advantage. At each end step, she investigates once for every opponent who lost life that turn, giving you a steady supply of Clues. Then, when a Clue hits the graveyard from the battlefield, she creates a 4/1 flying Spirit – though only once per turn.
This opens up multiple lines: chip damage each turn to maximise Clue creation, and clever timing when cracking or sacrificing Clues to trigger Spirit production. In longer games, she becomes a value machine, drawing cards and making evasive threats turn after turn.
Lurrus of the Dream-Den
Lurrus lets you cast one permanent spell with mana value 2 or less from your graveyard each turn – which synergizes beautifully with cheap sac outlets, mana dorks, and death triggers. He’s also lifelinked, adding value in grindy games.
Perfect for efficient aristocrats and graveyard recursion loops.
Felisa, Fang of Silverquill
Felisa has mentor and, whenever a nontoken creature you control dies, creates a number of 2/1 inkling tokens equal to the number of counters on the creature that died. That makes her great in decks with +1/+1 counters, exploit or sacrifice mechanics, and go-wide token strategies.
Excellent for counter-based aristocrats or aggressive swarm decks with staying power.
Taxes, Control & Stax – Slow the Game, Drain the Fun (For Everyone Else)
Orzhov is a master of grindy, controlling gameplay, and these commanders know how to make your opponents work for every action. Whether it’s taxing their spells, locking down creatures, or punishing greedy plays, these legends are built to take control and win the long game.
If you’re the kind of player who likes to say “Not so fast” – this section is for you.
Teysa Karlov
Teysa doubles any dies-based triggers, including sacrifice loops, ETBs that rely on death, and aristocrat effects. While not a traditional stax piece, she’s devastating in grindy, trigger-heavy builds – and makes death-heavy decks even more oppressive.
Perfect for players who want to grind value and disrupt at the same time.
Liesa, Shroud of Dusk
Liesa taxes every spell for 2 life instead of mana, meaning aggressive combo decks and value engines get punished for casting too many spells. Meanwhile, her flying lifelink body pressures life totals and sustains yours.
Ideal for control-heavy metas or anyone who enjoys soft locks and drain synergy.
Brimaz, Blight of Oreskos
Brimaz incubates whenever you cast a Phyrexian creature or artifact creature, then proliferates at each end step if a Phyrexian died under your control. This makes him perfect for token-based counter decks that can churn out and flip Incubators, then cash them in to grow your board.
Great for players who enjoy steady value and snowballing board states.
Minthara, Merciless Soul
Minthara gains indestructible ward scaling based on your experience counters – and you get an experience counter every turn a permanent you controlled left the battlefield. That rewards you for playing blink, sacrifice, or board-wipe protection.
Ideal for decks that want slow scaling defense with hard-to-remove threats.
King of the Oathbreakers
King of the Oathbreakers and your other Spirits phase out when targeted by spells, making them nearly impossible to remove. He also creates 1/1 Spirit tokens whenever a Spirit phases in. This is perfect for Spirit tribal, but also an excellent base for evasive aggro-control.
A sneaky option for players who like resilient boards and spell disruption.
Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff
Lotho creates a Treasure token whenever a player casts their second spell each turn, rewarding you for passive interaction and punishing opponents who get too greedy. He’s low to the ground and slots perfectly into low-curve stax decks or Treasure engines.
Perfect for players who want subtle disruption with value upside
Thalisse, Reverent Medium
Thalisse creates 1/1 Spirit tokens equal to the number of tokens you created each turn. In decks with Treasure, Food, Clues, or even lifelink triggers, she floods the board quickly and threatens to overwhelm. A sneaky option for value stax or go-wide drain builds.
Great for players who like synergy-based token decks with long-game potential.
Other Orzhov Commander Options – Flavorful Picks and Offbeat Builds
Not every Orzhov commander fits cleanly into lifegain, aristocrats, or stax. These legends bring unique mechanics, thematic flair, or off-meta strategies to the table – offering fresh ways to play white-black that go beyond the usual grind.
Whether you’re brewing around combat tricks, lore-rich flavor, or clever subthemes, these commanders are worth a look.
Breena, the Demagogue
Breena triggers when players attack someone else (not you), letting them draw and you place two +1/+1 counters on a creature. That makes her a powerful tool in political pods, counters decks, or combat-based Orzhov builds.
Perfect for players who want to incentivize aggression while scaling up quietly.
Frodo, Sauron’s Bane
Frodo upgrades with mana activations, eventually becoming a Rogue that can outright win the game if the Ring has tempted you four or more times. Lifegain offsets the early costs, while evasion and protection help him connect for the final blow.
Ideal for alt-win enthusiasts and flavourful Tolkien builds.
Killian, Ink Duelist
Killian has lifelink and menace, and makes spells that target creatures cost 2 less to cast. This discount on targeted spells opens the door for a deck packed with combat tricks, cheap removal, and Voltron-style buffs. He may be small, but with the right support, Killian can hit far harder than opponents expect.
A fun choice for low-to-the-ground aggro decks or budget brewers.
Shadrix Silverquill
Shadrix offers flying, double strike, and political flexibility. At combat, choose two modes targeting different players – from token creation to card draw to team buffs – letting you support allies or manipulate enemies while keeping pressure in the air.
A strong pick for political players and go-wide decks.
Ardbert, Warrior of Darkness
Casting white spells gives all your legends +1/+1 counters and vigilance; black spells give them menace instead. Cheap multicolour spells double-trigger, growing your legendary army while improving combat positioning.
Perfect for aggressive legends decks that thrive on constant pressure.
Conclusion – Why Orzhov Remains a Commander Staple
Few color pairs in Commander offer as much long-term value, resilience, and inevitability as Orzhov. Whether you’re gaining life, draining it from others, sacrificing creatures for value, or locking down the table with clever disruption, Orzhov excels at turning small advantages into game-winning engines.
It’s a color identity that rewards patience, synergy, and knowing when to hold back – but also lets you build around nearly any kind of strategy: tribal, control, combo, stax, or just plain weird. With the commanders on this list, you’ll find a wide range of viable and flavorful options that can match your meta, play style, or deckbuilding goals.
At its heart, Orzhov is about resource mastery – and once you get a taste for its mix of recursion, drain, and control, it’s hard to go back.
Happy brewing – and remember: in Orzhov, death is only the beginning.
