Heya,

Undying Evil doesn't quite fit into the deck. i would have to remove something more important.

i have been considering Mikaeus, the Unhallowed but he is quite mana expensive and will cycle out in 2-3 month so it's a "no-no" too.

Do you already have an idea if you would change anything in this deck as soon as M14 becomes standard legal?

I am thinking about trying the following cards: Doom Blade , Enlarge, Scavenging Ooze , Shadowborn Demon . As far as I see, none of them is really impressive in this deck. But I'll try at least :)

Heya laccol

I haven't really seen any card in M14 that I would use right now, because everything I have will still be valid.

Once the old block cycles out tho, I will certainly use some M14 stuff, but I want to see first what will come with the next expansion

As for now... Putrefy and Abrupt Decay are better than Doom Blade and I will still be able to use those in october. I need a new card to substitute Tragic Slip tho

Scavenging Ooze is cool, but doesn't fit into the deck right now. But I think it will substitute my Strangleroot Geist when it cycles

same with Shadowborn Demon as long as I have Desecration Demon I don't really see it in my deck.

Solid deck! Personally, I'd run Golgari Guildgate over Evolving Wilds and Devour Flesh over Glaring Spotlight . Golgari Guildgate still comes into play tapped, but it makes getting that double-colored mana easier (vs. a basic land). Devour Flesh deals with Bant Hexproof, but is more versatile and can be used against several different decks, such as Aristocrats.

sylvannos thx for your comments.

• Evolving Wilds is there to be re-used with Deathrite Shaman and also helps to get another swamp to Mutilate . Golgari Guildgate is useless to me.

• Devour Flesh is a good card, but I don't want the bant hexproof guy to win 10+ life, besides he will probably have another creature in play which he will sacc instead that one creature I actually wanted to get rid off. Glaring Spotlight allows me to select the exact target. Besides, I already have Liliana of the Veil which does the same as Devour Flesh without him gaining life. Bant hexproof is a real hard matchup, specially if they ramp to a T2 Geist of Saint Traft .

• Mutilate for three or four is enough to wipe out most boards in Standard right now. Naya Blitz rolls over dead to Mutilate for three, while Junk Aristocrats dies to two. Ramping with Deathrite Shaman is always a nice thing to have, but then again you can run into the problem of not having enough green or not enough black to activate Deathrite Shaman and cast spells. Having a more consistent mana base, especially with the Ghost Quarter s in your deck is just more important IMO.

• If they turn two Geist of Saint Traft off of Avacyn's Pilgrim , then they sacrifice Avacyn's Pilgrim . If you follow up Devour Flesh with Liliana of the Veil , you're now in a really good spot. Devour Flesh also functions as additional removal vs. their non-hexproof creatures, such as Fencing Ace and Voice of Resurgence . If they end up gaining 10 life, they probably just lost from that Devour Flesh since it means they got 3-for-1'd or worse. Devour Flesh is also amazing vs. Midrange, since they play few small creatures, and more big stuff like Thundermaw Hellkite . Nuking their 5/5 for two mana puts them so far behind. If they play another creature that turn, you just hit them with Tragic Slip .

We'll just have to agree to disagree.

• I still prefer to search for a precise mana I need (either a forest to cast my planeswalker or a swamp for a Mutilate ) and be able to reuse Evolving Wilds in the end, both the searched land or a Golgari Guildgate enter tapped. besides, many many times I trick the opponent into thinking I don't have a possible response for something and then BAM suddenly I have one more mana for any of my combat tricks/removals thx to the shaman. MTG is not a simple card game, strategy and "mind tricks" are important too.

• i'd rather follow up a Tragic Slip with Liliana of the Veil . as said, the problem is not the Bant hexproof deck per-se, the problem is a damn Geist and angel token hitting for 6 in T3 which if the opponent started, is nearly impossible to counter until 1-2 turns later and by that time I am almost dead. And generally speaking, in T3-T4 they're hitting you with a 12/12 trample lifelink double strike... i'd rather kill it WITHOUT him gaining 12hp

• i'm probably gonna use Devour Flesh when Liliana of the Veil cycles out tho.

Changed some stuff around, as mentioned in my last report.

Included Gaze of Granite against tokens or Bant Hexproof (instead of Glaring Spotlight and I am fooling around on Cockatrice with Scavenging Ooze a bit, tho I am already seeing I could use more green mana and more selfmill to feed it properly. But I won't use selfmill mechanics until Theros comes out (and maybe not even then).

The Ooze only costs 2 mana but it's actually much better when cast in mid game, so you can inmediately feed it and get rid of some stuff from opponents GY.

Love you keep it updated how the deck worked in FNM and so on. Very inspirational.

thx mate ;) I'll keep doing it.

Have you considered 1x Pithing Needle in place of Witchbane Orb ? It's VERY rare for me to run across a deck where pithing needle does nothing at all, and I'm considering running it mainboard, but that's just a down-the-road maybe.

The reason I say this is that pithing needle can completely stop the gate draw from Maze's End , it can stop planeswalkers, it stops special lands like Nephalia Drownyard Gavony Township and others, as well as a large number of game-winning creatures such as Olivia Voldaren , Pack Rat , AEtherling , and many others.

Hi, I already had Pithing Needle in the past, but turns out my deck can already handle all the things you listed with all the removal I have and in case of planeswalkers I have lots of creatures + Rancor and/or flying.

Ofc if you play this deck, feel free to modify it for your local meta, but around here, the needle became useless to me (and too easy to remove with a Abrupt Decay

I have been re-considering the needle for maze end decks, but i am currently working on a better solution against decks with massive damage prevention ;)

If it's just the damage prevention that you're worried about, what about 1-2 sideboard Duress ? They're great against control decks, and if they have any damage prevention, you can trash one for 1 black. Also works on planeswalkers, enchantments, etc...

Pithing Needle cannot prevent using Nephalia Drownyard or Maze's End or any that you listed - as they ARE mana abilities?

@beetall

thing is 1-2 or even 1-4 Duress is not enough against Fog decks that have around 12 damage prevention cards

@vejiita

the second abilities of those lands are not considered mana ability, thus can be prevented with Pithing Needle

Wow, I run an alarmingly similar Golgari deck. What are your plans for replacing Strangleroot Geist and Vampire Nighthawk when they rotate out? I see you've already worked in Scavenging Ooze . Perhaps Kalonian Tusker ? Unfortunately it doesn't have haste, but it is a 3/3 straight up for GG. Unsure what I'm going to do about my own Nighthawks once they're out.

Hi trope

I am still waiting to see ehat Theros will have to offer to replace all parts of my deck that cycle out. I am not so much worried about creature replacement TBH, but more concerned about stuff like Tragic Slip and Rancor which are center pieces of my deck.

Chances are I will change the deck drastically (I already have some propotypes running) and include Lotleth Troll again and probably something around Corpsejack Menace and Kalonian Hydra

@zandadoumI don't think so - they need mana to be activated... or you can point me any official rule ?

vejiita trust me, it is like I said. I played the needle for a long time...

a "mana ability" is an ability that PRODUCE mana, not one that USES mana, because if it was that way, EVERYTHING would be a mana ability.

here some links:

• http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/twtw/212

• quote: "Naming a card such as Tomb of Urami doesn't prevent players from playing its mana ability, but it does keep players from using the Demon-Spirit-creating ability."

• http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75842/29420343/?pg=last

• http://mtgtutorials.tumblr.com/post/47648777762/can-you-explain-how-pithing-needle-works

• http://tappedout.net/mtg-questions/can-i-pithing-needle-a-pithing-needle/

• quote: "Kessig Wolf Run (You can't stop it producing mana, but you can stop its second ability)"

15000+ views and 50+ votes. awesome! thx guys.

replace Ghost Quarter with Cavern of Souls . its worth it. more dual lands looks necesary too

+1

colors** not duals. need more colors. kuz wilds

whaletaint666 tried Cavern of Souls long ago, didn't work. I don't care if one creature get's countered. But caverns screwed me many times when I needed a specific mana for a Abrupt Decay or whatever kill spell/combat trick and the caverns doesn't help me there.

notheless, my deck is currently undergoing some changes on cockatrice, stay tuned ;)

cool =D