The Gitrog's Dark Heart

Modern* BG (Golgari) Combo Jank Midrange Value Engine

hungry000

Creature (19)

• 1x Azusa, Lost but Seeking
• 1x Dread Presence
• 4x Dryad of the Ilysian Grove
• 2x Oracle of Mul Daya
• 4x Ramunap Excavator
• 3x The Gitrog Monster
• 2x Titania, Protector of Argoth
• 2x Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose

Artifact (1)

• 1x Zuran Orb

Land (25)

• 4x Forest
• 4x Ghost Quarter
• 2x Nurturing Peatland
• 4x Overgrown Tomb
• 4x Swamp
• 4x Verdant Catacombs
• 2x Windswept Heath
• 1x Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth

Enchantment (6)

• 2x Dark Heart of the Wood
• 4x Heartless Summoning

Instant (4)

• 1x Assassin's Trophy
• 3x Fatal Push

Sorcery (5)

• 3x Inquisition of Kozilek
• 2x Thoughtseize

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Sideboard

Instant (6)

• 1x Abrupt Decay
• 1x Fatal Push
• 1x Surgical Extraction
• 3x Veil of Summer

Creature (4)

• 1x Thragtusk
• 3x Tireless Tracker

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Thoughtseize

Artifact (4)

• 2x Grafdigger's Cage
• 2x Pithing Needle

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Maybeboard

Land (1)

• 1x Urza's Saga

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This is a deck I made with inspiration from Camberleaf's build of Dark Heart of the Wood combo that was featured on MTGgoldfish.

It plays like a normal Gitrog Valuetown deck, except it also has an epic combo to end the game with: Dryad of the Ilysian Grove + Dread Presence / Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose + Dark Heart of the Wood ! Dryad turns every land you play into both Swamps and Forests, which then lets you double trigger Dread Presence with fetchlands and turn all your Swamps/nonbasic lands into Forests that you can sac to Heart of the Dark Wood.

The Gitrog Monster , Dread Presence , and Tireless Tracker are your main card draw spells, Gitrog being the most potent of them because it can help extend a Vito/Dark Heart combo turn by drawing cards off of sacrificed Forests and fetchlands.

Dryad of the Ilysian Grove is this deck's WD40. Not only does it turn on all your nonbasics for Dread Presence and Dark Heart of the Wood, it also fixes mana so your lands are nearly painless, counters Blood Moon , and lets you save fetches to sac with a Gitrog in play or shuffle away a card on top later.

Oracle of Mul Daya is your next best ramp spell; it lets you play through land pockets off the top of your deck, ensuring you draw gas all the time, and the extra info it gives you lets you telegraph your turns really efficiently. With this and a Gitrog in play, all your fetchlands become mini Ponder s: Oracle lets you look at the top card of your library, which you can then judge to be worthy or unworthy. If the card is unworthy, you stack the search ability from the fetchland so that it resolves before the Gitrog draw trigger, shuffling away the bad card and drawing a random one. If the card is worthy, stack the triggers the other way so you draw before you search. This is a really handy trick to use when you're trying to find the combo or removal.

Finally, Ramunap Excavator lets you reuse fetchlands, Ghost Quarter s, and Nurturing Peatlands for near-infinite value. It's pretty similar to Oracle of Mul Daya in the sense that it allows you to chain together multiple land drops per turn, but it does it a lot more consistently. You always want to draw this card.

With the release of MH2, this deck got a bunch of great additions: first is Titania, Protector of Argoth . Titania gives us another big payoff for all the land sacrificing and is really good alongside another new modern card, Zuran Orb . In this deck, Zuran Orb serves as a free Dark Heart of the Wood effect that is less efficient with Vito, but has potential to make some very explosive early turns with Titania and Gitrog. Finally, Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth turns lands into Forests for Dark Heart of the Wood .

The earliest possible win with this deck is turn 3 with a very specific and unlikely sequence:

(Cards you need to draw in the first three turns: at least two lands, Heartless Summoning , Dryad of the Ilysian Grove , Oracle of Mul Daya , Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose , Dark Heart of the Wood , Azusa, Lost but Seeking .)

Turn 1: Land

Turn 2: Land, Heartless Summoning

Turn 3: Oracle of Mul Daya --> land from hand or top of library --> Dryad of the Ilysian Grove --> land off the top of library --> Azusa, Lost but Seeking --> 3 more lands off top of library --> play Vito + Dark Heart , sac 7 lands for 21 drain

But more often than not, you go off on turn 4-6 after playing some removal or discard spells to clear the way.

Top Ranked	Achieved #1 position overall 4 years ago
Date added	4 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	7 - 1 Mythic Rares 32 - 10 Rares 13 - 4 Uncommons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.63
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Clue, Elemental 5/3 G
Folders	Favorites, Interessanti, Other People's Decks I Like