Best Room Card in Standard? Exploring Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber
As with most gimmicky new cards with very uncertain performance metrics, Room cards became a bit of a hit or miss with the MTG Standard meta. To be fair, having a more robust identity as a card made it significantly better than battle cards. But most of the rotated out cards were already effectively replaced by available counterparts. There wasn't really any technical need to force them into decks that already had the same effects or advantages.
Nonetheless, I still express my gratitude to the creation of Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber. For it is a card that truly gave way to my demonic (pun intended) passions. Of course, even with the best of the best of effects and value among room cards used in MTG Standard, it still fell mostly into jankier builds.
As per my analysis of the card, my current view of it after seeing it in play hasn't changed much from my cursory assessment:
- Good (enough) card value
- Curves nicely with a couple of thematically-relevant four-drops
- Just two of them become a ticking time bomb with an easy-to-drop demon
- Snowballs in two turns... provided you are not dead yet by turn two.
The result of its design is that it fits best in a mono-black build, where all of its themes can be exploited to their full potential. We have seen a couple of Orzhov, and some other wildcard combinations like Dimir or Esper. But for the most part, at least in popularity, mono black is where it thrived the most for the last two weeks.
Pick your poison. Why not both, you say?
I have previously commented on the nice curve it provides with Bloodletter of Aclazotz. Turns out... we don't even really need this nifty double damage move to let the card shine. Other cards prove to be just as useful, such as Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin
, or Archfiend of the Dross
. And much like with Phyrexian Arena
, a nicely placed Shelly can be a drawback negation proxy as well.
The other thing that is good about this card is that it does not really need a build-around at all. Slap two copies of it in your favorite black-splashed midrange blend with a few lifegain upsides, and it keeps its function just as well, with a 6/6 flyin' swingin' beatsick to boot! Of course, you can add more as needed. But even with a full set, the deck can just simply take advantage of its plus sides without ever really considering the downsides. If you even consider its self-life-loss effect a real downside nowadays.
Admittedly, interest in the card didn't really rise with the official release of Duskmourn. But there is always a significant amount of players willing to experiment with these types of cards, especially if it is a new type of card. There's probably still some hidden potential to its use. But for now, most of its important usage data has already been collected in the first two weeks of the set's release.
More than meets the 'unholy' eye.
Finally, it is notable to consider that though most of the trending MTG decks featuring this card are mono-black, the themes and compositions can actually vary quite widely. I mean, wide in the sense of midrange interactions, starting from the bread and butter removal spree to the more invest and win payoff styles that are somehow not classified as 'control.'
Here are some of the niftiest Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber decks created in MTG Arena over the last two weeks:
(click the deck links for the gameplay video and other sources)
Vanilla Demons
(deck via PhantasmsPlayground)
The archetypal mono-black Unholy Annex is the bread and butter build, filled with everything that you would ever need within its color identity. For this build, Archfiend of the Dross and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse creates a potent life drain engine while negating your own, plus adding efficient removal and discard effects to control the board. Typical meta additions like Liliana of the Veil
provide obligatory board presence control options, able to operate independently while still being somewhat synergistic-ish to the deck's main theme.
Mono Black Demons & Unholy Annex
Main 60 cards (13 distinct)
Lands - 25
Main 60 cards (13 distinct)
Lands - 25
Unholy Golgari
(deck via SlothMTG)
This Golgari deck compensates for Unholy Annex's life loss through Ancient Cornucopia and other life gain effects, allowing consistent card draws without the need for demon tribal synergies. As a control build, it has a strong removal suite, along with typical green value generators like Glissa Sunslayer
and Up the Beanstalk to control the early game. By balancing life gain, card advantage, and powerful threats, the deck showcases Unholy Annex's versatility as both a card draw engine and a potential win condition via its Ritual Chamber side (unlike Phyrexian Arena that only functions as a draw engine).
[Top #81 Mythic] Unholy Golgari Control
Main 60 cards (22 distinct)
Lands - 26
Main 60 cards (22 distinct)
Lands - 26
Main 60 cards (22 distinct)
| Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (28) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| $2.84€1.280.02 | |||
| $0.500.19 | |||
| $0.20€0.150.03 | |||
| $6.940.63 | |||
| $1.22€0.900.03 | |||
|
1
Duress
|
$0.39€0.350.04 | ||
|
3
Cut Down
|
|||
| $2.42€1.80 | |||
| $0.890.02 | |||
| $7.75€7.46 | |||
| $3.50€2.39 | |||
| $1.000.14 | |||
| Creature (6) | |||
| $8.10€5.880.26 | |||
| Land (26) | |||
|
5
Forest
|
$0.56€0.170.04 | ||
|
5
Swamp
|
$0.99€0.450.04 | ||
| $5.11 | |||
| $5.31 | |||
| $4.610.99 | |||
| $20.313.69 | |||
| $10.49 | |||
| $0.80€0.920.03 | |||
Mirror Demons
(deck va Jay Villain)
This Dimir flavored deck focus more on Room enchantments in a gain-and-drain strategy centered around demons and card draw synergies. Unholy Annex's end-step trigger synergize well with creatures like Gixian Puppeteer and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse to amplify life drain effects whenever cards are drawn. By utilizing Mirror Room // Fractured Realm to duplicate key creatures and its other half to double triggered abilities, the deck can create devastating loops of life gain, life loss, and card draw. The Ritual Chamber half then provides an additional avenue to ensure demon presence on the board, fully unlocking the potential of this Room-centric strategy.
MAKE THEM HURT DIMIR DRAW
Main 61 cards (18 distinct)
Lands - 25
Side 7 cards (6 distinct)
Main 61 cards (18 distinct)
Lands - 25
Side 7 cards (6 distinct)
Main 61 cards (18 distinct)
| Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (17) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| $3.70€2.86 | |||
| $7.75€7.46 | |||
| $0.15€0.090.02 | |||
| $2.42€1.80 | |||
|
3
Cut Down
|
|||
| Creature (19) | |||
| $1.06 | |||
| $34.89 | |||
| $2.08€1.44 | |||
| $1.82€1.46 | |||
| $15.35 | |||
| Land (25) | |||
|
5
Island
|
$0.40€0.400.03 | ||
|
5
Swamp
|
$0.99€0.450.04 | ||
| $4.18 | |||
| $11.25€9.34 | |||
| $8.60€5.150.27 | |||
| $5.460.52 | |||
| $39.59 | |||
About ChrisCee:
A witness since the time the benevolent silver planeswalker first left Dominaria, ChrisCee has since went back and forth on a number of plane-shattering incidents to oversee the current state of the Multiverse.
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