then what about Mortal's Resolve

Will-o'-the-Wisp might work as a replacement for Mire Boa.

Mortal's Resolve - +1/+1 and indestructible, Instant.

Blossoming Defense - +2/+2 and Hexproof, Instant.

They are both being used for two purposes.

• To prevent a burn or removal spell

• To provide a damage buff

What Mortal's Resolve cannot do, that Blossoming Defense can, is prevent the creature from being exiled by Path to Exile.

It also cost more to play and provides less of a buff.

In comparison, Vines of Vastwood costs and provides a +4/+4 buff with he proof.

Mortal's Resolve is not quite good enough to main board for me, but it is definitely a budget friendly card that could be considered for an even more budget friendly version of this deck strategy.

Thank you, you've helped a lot on my elves list as well (by the way, if you haven't noticed yet, I shifted the deck fully to black green).

Indestructible could be a good idea, and would work against most removal besides Dismember. Maybe in your sideboard? One of the only things indestructible protects you from is boardwipes (especially the ones that say can't be regenerated), and if you have such a spell, you can protect varaolz, then scavenge all other guys that died and swing for lethal.

I'm wondering if Bioshift is still at all important, as instead of spending 1 mana to move counters, you could just spend that 1 mana or 2 to be casting a creature instead.

Will-o'-the-Wisp is actually a pretty good card. Having Flying and regenerate would make it a pretty formidable threat in this deck.

Bioshift I am really only keeping around for heavy removal decks since my board will likely not have as many creatures on it compared to an opponents. 6 of my creatures are really only usable as graveyard scavenge material, so having the chance to transfer those counters to another creature may be important since I will likely only ever have 3 out.

I know you are slowly fixing your deck it seems now that you have very little cards left that are good scavenge. I recommend getting rid of Bioshift and add more strong low drops to scavenge.

With the 6 cards that are currently in the deck for Scavenge, the deck has actually playtested well. Especially with the addition of Birds of Paradise. It added the flying element that the deck needed while also becoming a mana fixer and ramp. If I add too many Scavenge cards, I risk losing utility outside of that. I'm trying to find a good balance. I may bump up to 8 creatures on the Scavenge list.

Regarding your forum post, these are my thoughts:

Removal and speed are my concerns. Fauna Shaman will need a turn to work, while Lotleth Troll works immediately. The trade off is that you need get to search for a creature, and dump one, but I still think having the ability to do it at instant speed is more beneficial (opens up for more tricks too).

As for the removal, Lotleth Troll can grow, is an additional creature, and regenerates. All positives. Fauna Shaman dies to all common removal, doesn't grow, and requires you to tap for it to work.

TL:DR, Lotleth Troll is king here.

However, I do think adding some amount of Traverse the Ulvenwald would be sick. It's a tutor, and I think would be easily activated. Just a thought.

Hope that helps!

GabeCubed - Awesome suggestion! Thanks.

I love this deck, +1!

Very cool deck. I have a couple ideas I would like to run by you. Is there a reason to run Bloodstained Mire and Wooded Foothills when you could be running 4x Verdant Catacombs instead? I'm thinking that you're trying to avoid dropping the $$$ on them since they're $40+ each. Someone suggested Traverse the Ulvenwald which I think would be a great addition, but you would have to adjust your mix of card types. I think not running 4x Lotleth Troll is kind of a mistake, since he's a great beater, and he throws creatures in the grave. I would probably take Satyr Wayfinder over Mulch, unless you're using Traverse the Ulvenwald, and you need to mix up your card types. I'm not sure that I like Become Immense, but I guess it makes use of all the non-creature cards chilling in your graveyard. Also, Dismember has some cool synergy with Death's Shadow, I would probably sideboard a few. Anyways, I like the deck. +1

Here's what I came up with:

Scavenger of Death

Modern GolgariGravedigger

1 VIEW

It isn't perfect but it playtested pretty well.

Sidenote: Would Embalmer's Tools affect Varolz, the Scar-Striped's scavenging ability?

Not really, it's only one colorless mana less and it would take the place of other cards that could better suit the deck structure.

The reason I'm running various dual lands is because of cost at this point. Since you can fetch any of the dual lands with them (that have a land type in the description), it doesn't particularly matter.

I was just wondering if Embalmer's Tools would actually do anything. But I don't really like it in this deck. Unless you're trying to grab a basic swamp, I guess the various fetch lands are okay. I think Lotleth Troll is a better fit in this deck than Mire Boa, but to each their own. It seems like the deck has to go out of its way to utilize Mire Boa's swampwalk, and that makes the draws a bit inconsistent.

I recommend adding 2 more lotleth troll, cutting 2 mire boa, and then swapping mire boa for fatal push (as mire boa is not that great mainboard, and although evil presence is good at ruining your opponents mana base, because of how modern works, its better to just use mire boa only when your opponent naturally gets swamps, instead of using up an entire card just to do that. cutting evil presence also means you have more room for, say, Sheltering Ancient, or even putting back in those Predator's Strike.

TD;DR mire boa should be in sideboard, evil presence should be cut, so that mire boa can just be used if your opponent plays swamps, and so you have more room.

Still think Will-o'-the-Wisp would be a better fit than Mire Boa, but if you do not like Will-o'-the-Wisp then I agree with everyone else in adding more Lotleth Troll in Mire Boa place.

That swampwalk though! My favorite is Silhana Ledgewalker. Scavenge onto her and you pretty much win.

PickleNutz is looking for something to regenerate though

GolgariGravedigger Yes, I think Embalmer's Tools would work on that, since Varolz, the Scar-Striped gives creatures in your GY an ability (the scavenge ability is not his).

Other than that, I also favor Lotleth Troll over Mire Boa. They do roughly the same thing, but

• Mire Boa is relying on either drawing another card or your opponents lands to be evasive.

• Lotleth Troll has an important utility ability (discard creatures), that Mire Boa doesn't have. It also grows bigger (with its own discard ability), which also gives some use to a late-game Birds of Paradise or redundant copies of varolz.

Suggestions

-1 Varolz, the Scar-Striped

-1 Mire Boa

+2 Lotleth Troll

The reason I think you can do with one less copy of varolz is that you have quite a few tutoring effects, and you get to choose creatures on all of them. So 3 should be enough. You also cannot have more than 1 in play.

Embalmers tool is only applying one less colorless mana, in this deck that doesn't help with casting the main combo. He requires one (Death's Shadow) mana to Scavenge. The entire mana cost of the deck itself is super cheap as it is, so I'm not entirely worried about the effect that Embalmers tool would have. It's a good card for a different deck strategy with higher cost creatures, but adding it would either take away from the spell arsenal here or take away from the creatures.

Mire Boa with swampwalk has been highly successful, and you'd be amazed at how often that combo is played when I have played this deck online and in paper with friends. I agree that Lotleth Troll has significant utility, but for right now I am really comfortable with the deck as a whole. I tried full Lotleth Troll playsets out in this, and they weren't effective at dealing damage. If I switch out for more of them I lose swampwalk, and have to compensate by adding instances that give the creatures trample again (the deck used to run on Lotleth Troll and Predator's Strike). With swampwalk, I can use the hexproof buffs to counter removal and strike with an unblockable creaturw.

The thing about Silhana Ledgewalker is that it's hexproof and in a format where targeted removal is everywhere you wouldn't need to regenerate it because the only things that are going to kill it are sweepers and it can only be blocked by flying. The current meta isn't really loaded with Flyers so I think it's a safe choice.

the thing about Silhana Ledgewalker is that it's hexproof and in a format where targeted removal is everywhere you wouldn't need to regenerate it because the only things that are going to kill it are sweepers and it can only be blocked by flying. The current meta isn't really loaded with Flyers so I think it's a safe choice.