High Risk, High Reward

This deck started as a meme. I wanted to make a "chaos" deck in orzhov because it seemed unique and there are a lot of fun cards that never see much play. But then the wincons actually seemed consistently viable, so I've been refining it to try and get it running more smoothly (unfortunately many meme cards were sideboarded in this process).

The name of the game is to get as close to losing as possible in order to win. There are two lines to do this.

Line One - Too Close to the Sun

This is the easiest line in the deck, and it's all about having a [[Near-Death Experience]]. Get it on the board however you can; [[Academy Rector]] gives you a shortcut. Flash abilities like [[Vedalken Orrery]] and [[Emergence Zone]] let you be a bit sneakier (just make sure to do it before your upkeep, or you won't get the trigger). Instant-speed ways to drain yourself to 1 include [[Plunge into Darkness]] and [[Hatred]], or [[Necropotence]]/[[Wall of Blood]] if you already have then on board. Opponent trying to burn you for 1 in response? [[Comeuppance]], [[Luminesce]], and [[Prismatic Strands]] have you covered.

If you wanna go for a real Big Dick Energy play, rather than drain yourself, let your opponent to it for you. Hold back [[Angel's Grace]], [[Dramatic Reversal]], or [[Angel of Grace]] and let someone whack you for lethal.

You may be asking yourself, hold up, we're taking ourselves down to a single point of life here - why the hell is [[Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff]] our commander? Valid question. Everything this deck aims to do needs a good bit of mana, and Lotho is the best way to get there. We've got ways to off him once he's no longer of use to us - see [[High Market]], [[Diabolic Intent]], [[Angelic Purge]]. The only other commander that seems to fit this playstyle is [[Breena, the Demagogue]]; feel free to swap her in if you want to focus card draw and deflection over ramp.

Line Two - Goodbye Cruel World

Though a bit more difficult to pull off, this line is definitely more fun. Here we've got the classic [[Lethal Vapors]] combo, with some twists to create redundancy and make it more likely. There's the standard [[Teferi's Protection]] + [[Grand Abolisher]] (or, now, [[Myrel, Shield of Argive]]) method, where you'll hold priority to activate the Vapors ability a million times and then peace out with Teferi's. But there are other ways to get there. If [[Tithe Taker]] is in play, just activate Vapors more than your opponents will be able to. Likewise, you can swap Teferi's Protection for [[The Stasis Coffin]], or [[Noble Heritage]] if you've managed to tempt your opponents. Note that with the latter two you're still vulnerable to loss of life. And no matter what you do, there's no way to stop opponents from proliferating poison counters already on you.

Bonus

I threw in a [[Barren Glory]] + [[Kaervek's Spite]] combo because it'd be a hilarious way to win. Best case you play Barren Glory at instant speed on the last end step before your turn, hold priority and respond with Kaervek's Spite, and just hope there isn't any instant speed enchantment removal. Or you could roll the dice and do it on your main phase, hoping no one has an answer for one rotation.