+1 from me, really great deck and congratulations on the 1st place for game day.

Could you offer me some suggestions on my deck; struggling with what to add in/take out and SB, your input would really be appreciated. Golgari Post Rotation

Also why Underworld Connections over Read the Bones - repetitive draw right??

Have you played with replacing Gray Merchant of Asphodel with Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord ? Seems like a beefy Desecration Demon would be nice to sack to it.

I have seen several different variations of Golgari. I am unsure as to the difference in Golgari Control, Golgari Combo (reanimator), and Golgari Midrange. There are some interesting concepts here. I want to put together a creature deck and these mechanics are similar to a deck I played years ago.

Any thoughts on the differences between Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord Golgari and Vraska the Unseen Golgari?

I like combo and control. But I wouldn't mind playing Golgari for Midrange.

Any thoughts would be nice.

@ Wainwright Partly because of the repetitive draw. But the major point is: 2 Devotion to black. Believe me or not, but the Gray Merchant hurts and wins games.

@ DimirPlagueLord Nah. I usually have 4-6 Devotion on board before playing a Gray Merchant, so the drain is already huge. The thing with Jarad is: He weakens my board position, whereas the Gray Merchant has the same effect but adds a beefy chump blocker, that I'm more than willing to trade.

I don't quite understand what you mean with Jarad Golgari and Vraska Golgari. But I like how my deck controls the board and finishes the opponent off with a DD or Reaper or Gray Merchant hitting the board. In the last season I tried a Golgari Scavenge deck and it wasn't nearly as powerful as this one.

The thing with Vraska is: If you play against decks that don't run Hero's Downfall or Dreadbore she has to be answered. I can remove annoying permanents like an opponent planeswalker or a creature if I don't have the right removal in my hand. And if the opponent has no board I +1 her. And then she has already 6 counters on her. I more than once have killed my opponent with her ultimate! Before playing her, I never thought she could have that much impact on the board.

I have Vraska in my deck, a question for you: Would it be better to run the Mutavault or Rogue's Passage to help with Vraska's ultimate??

I don't use Vraska ultimate as a primer win-con. So I'd say Mutavault > Rogue's Passage . I think I will add another Mutavault and play 3. They are very useful against other control decks (especially U/W)

how does this fare against esper or azorius control? u dont seem to have much in the way of dealing with that, save maybe thoughtseize and a T6 reaper of the wilds and abrupt decay for d-spheres....

I played UW-Control on friday (I won 1-0, 2nd game time was called). My deck is better against it than one might think. The Boon Satyr s are really nice and definitely come in. Esper might be even weaker due to them running Doom Blade which doesn't achieve anything against my deck. The Whip is awesome at recovering from a Supreme Verdict .

Wow, your deck has progressed by quite a lot since I last saw it! I like it.

But I have a couple questions. What made you run the full set of Lifebane Zombie ? Is it that your meta is G/W creatures heavy, or just that the lifebane has a good body on its own?

What made you SB your Thoughtseize s and Boon Satyr s? Seize is really only dead against aggro, and you can even then take something from them; and Satyr is a really good board trick, and is very good bestowed upon a Reaper of the Wilds (of which I noticed you cut down to 3x - why?)

I also see you have a 3-2 split of Hero's Downfall /Putrefy . Is there any reason for that? I feel like downfall is stronger due to the abundance of PW's and less regenerating creatures this standard.

Lastly, what do you SB Erebos in for? Is it VS control?

Congrats on your game day win, you've really got a solid deck here. Keep it up!

@ Krayhaft

I run the Lifebane Zombie for three reasons:

1. I get to look at the opponent's hand and adapt my game accordingly. If they run g/w I can exile something ugly like Obzedat or Trostani.
2. It has intimidate and therefore is a nice beater, even against decks that don't run g/w creatures.
3. He gives 2 devotion to black.

Tbh I'm sick and tired of the neverending Thoughtseize discussion. I more than once said why I don't maindeck it and I don't feel it is useful mainboard.

As for the Boon Satyr s: They come in against decks that run BBV or control decks, as you can flash them after Verdict and swing for 4 the next turn. They had to leave the maindeck, as they don't give any devotion to black.

The Reaper got cut down to 3 and DD upped to 4 because of devotion to black.

I like how you can kill off the god-artifacts with Putrefy .

As for Erebos: That's what I had in mind. If I have a UC out, I only need another Zombie, Whip or DD and Erebos is online. Also, I mainly lose against control because they stabilize with Revelation or Helix and that get's denied perfectly.

Thank you :)

Hmm, I must have missed that part of the discussion about the Thoughtseize ...it looks like it got erased in the comment wipe.

How happy are you with the 3x Whip of Erebos ? It seems like a dead draw when you have one already on the field.

In PT Dublin, the mono-black devotion deck that made top 8 also ran Pack Rat , to pitch extra lands and dead cards to. Would you consider that for here?

I'm thinking about going Mono B. But as the deck stands right now I don't feel Pack Rat has a place here.

I'm pretty happy! I always want to see at least 1 Whip of Erebos . If they happen to destroy one, I like to have one extra in my hand. The Whip is just so good!

Happy for you for game day! I play Jund Aggro and at game day I was in 9th place :(. I won a pack and got a Temple of Deceit . I really like your idea for golgari midrange! I never thought of midrange, I played Golgari aggro and that didn't do anything really. Totally +1 :)

So I tweaked the numbers a bit again. I cut the Whips to 2 and added another UC. Also I'll try running 4 Mutavault as they provide so much value.

Maybe I'll add 2 Pack Rat a 25th land and another removal-spell and drop the Caryatids. But that's to be seen. Pretty happy with my deck as it is right now.

@Putrefy

Thanks for the information. I saw the scavenge build and wasn't impressed. I like Vraska and thought the same as you. I was seeing there are two major approaches to Golgari from what I can tell. One uses Jarad and the other Vraska. I generally don't see them in the same decks. Was trying to get info as I haven't played against many Golgari decks.
I ran a Corrupter deck a long time ago deck that has similar mechanics to this using Corpse Dance and Volrath's Stronghold .
Thanks for the input, looking to go with a Golgari Control type deck and this has really helped me understand the build concepts.

I think if we do end up facing each other, you will have the better MB matchup, much for the reasons you said.

I've actually not had time to update my deck, but the physical deck I pilot and what I have listed aren't exactly the same anymore. I was actually thinking about taking out the BBV's and steering more towards something that resembles your deck and the mono-black deck that made top 8 in PT Dublin.

Either way, good luck in your games!

upvote #50

A nice refreshing Golgari deck

much appreciated :)

Great deck! +1

I have a couple of questions:1. If ever you will remove caryatids to make way for pack rats and a land, are you considering nykthos? Why do you have the caryatids in the first place?

2.why not run night veil spectre?

3.how do you handle mirror match ups? Or the one that uses whip.

4.why boon satyr? Golgari charm can protect your guys from supreme verdict right?

@ Vellond:

1. I'm definitely considering Nykthos. But Nykthos compared with 4 Mutavaults makes my mana base a bit inconsistent. And I need BB on T3! I run the Caryatids, because they are awesome earlygame and help me dump out a T3 DD or Reaper. Against Aggro decks a T3 4/5 or 6/6 is huge!

2. Why would I run nightveil spectre? This is not mono B devotion! Lifebane provides much more utility and is more likely able to be cast on T3!

3. Destroy the whip, get better draws.

4. It's always better to have more than one game winning plan against control.

What do you think about Abhorrent Overlord somewhere in the 75, as a 1-2 of against control or other midrange? With the easy devotion you're able to attain, you can easily be dropping 4+ harpies with the ETB trigger, and it synergises with whip.

Putrefy if I may, I'd like to ask a slightly different question regarding your deck;

When you play (ignoring God starting hands) what do you typically look for in your opening hand that's worth keeping, and when do you make the decision to take a mulligan?? i.e No. of lands, creatures you want to see, other spells you would like?

I ask this as one of your matches you said you got stuck on lands; and secondly for me as a relatively new player, it's useful to know when I should really be taking a mulligan.

Abhorrent Overlord drops way too late and also only gives 2 devotion. Another downside is, that it has no immediate board effect. Sure I get some 1/1 tokens and have a 6/6 flier out. But if I drop a Gary I immediately swing for 6-8 maybe 10 life. Also he falls way behind DD. The shennanigans with sacking Gary to the Overlord and bringing him back with whip may sound nice. However, I've learned, that 3-card-combos are cheesy but inconsistent at best.

@ WainwrightI played a huge game-marathon with a good friend of mine yesterday. We played, I think 16 or 18 games. He played a g/w midrange deck. I tweaked the deck a bit here and there. My point is: I've played without Caryatids and 2 Pack Rat, an additional Downfall and an additional Swamp. So I have to look at two different options and therefore two different "good" starting hands.

With Caryatids a "go(o)d" opening hand would be: 1 Dual Land (doesn't matter which, as I have no one-drop), 1 other Land (doesn't matter if Mutavault, Forest or Swamp), 1 Caryatid, 1 DD/Reaper and three removals, maybe two removals and a UC. If I have a Caryatid in my opening hand I'd keep it with 2 lands +x spells. Never a hand with 4 or more lands if I have a Caryatid.

Without Caryatids a "good" opening hand would be: 3 Lands (of which one is a dual), Lifebane/Pack Rat, 2-3 Removals and 1 DD/Reaper, maybe a UC. I've kept various hands, like 4 Lands, 2 Lifebane and a Reaper. Or 3 Lands, 2 UC and 2 removals. I'd never keep a hand with more than 4 lands. And only a few hands with less than 3. 3-4 lands is the "best"

Thanks Putrefy, sorry to get you to write such a long comment, but it was really helpful - i'd give you another +1 just for that if I could. Thanks for taking the time to explain...

How about mono blue devotion, how do you deal with that deck and how do you sideboard against them? Why gaze over Ratchet bomb?

@ Vellond Reading my Game-Day review should tell you how I handle fish :)

Gaze cannot be removed, Gaze kills everything at X and below.