Secret Paths Through the Marshes

Commander / EDH Aristocrats BG (Golgari) Combo Infinite Combo Landfall Mill Reanimator Sacrifice

Urzas_Driving_Goggles

Creature (40)

• 1x Bloodghast
• 1x Bontu the Glorified
• 1x Butcher of Malakir
• 1x Dauthi Voidwalker
• 1x Dunedain Rangers
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Filth
• 1x Golgari Thug
• 1x Gollum, Patient Plotter
• 1x Harvester of Souls
• 1x Hermit Druid
• 1x Illuminor Szeras
• 1x Iridescent Vinelasher
• 1x Lotus Cobra
• 1x Mosswood Dreadknight
• 9x Nazgul
• 1x Pawn of Ulamog
• 1x Protean Hulk
• 1x Rampaging Baloths
• 1x Ramunap Excavator
• 1x Reito Sentinel
• 1x Sadistic Augermage
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Scute Swarm
• 1x Sylvan Safekeeper
• 1x Syr Konrad, the Grim
• 1x The Gitrog Monster
• 1x Tiller Engine
• 1x Undercity Informer
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Wight of the Reliquary
• 1x Witch-king of Angmar

Land (32)

• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Crypt of Agadeem
• 1x Dakmor Salvage
• 1x Demolition Field
• 1x Dryad Arbor
• 1x Field of Ruin
• 1x Field of the Dead
• 1x Forest
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 1x Haunted Fengraf
• 1x Haunted Mire
• 1x Llanowar Wastes
• 1x Memorial to Folly
• 1x Miren, the Moaning Well
• 1x Mortuary Mire
• 1x Necroblossom Snarl
• 1x Nurturing Peatland
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Riftstone Portal
• 3x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Wood
• 1x Temple of Malady
• 1x Tomb Fortress
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold
• 1x Woodland Cemetery
• 1x Woodland Chasm

Instant (3)

• 1x Collected Company
• 1x Constant Mists
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Commander (1)

Enchantment (9)

• 1x Blanket of Night
• 1x Bloodbond March
• 1x Call of the Ring
• 1x Grave Pact
• 1x Mind Slash
• 1x Necrogenesis
• 1x Night Soil
• 1x One Ring to Rule Them All
• 1x Tortured Existence

Sorcery (9)

• 1x Bitter Ordeal
• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Gaea's Blessing
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Rise of the Witch-king
• 1x Ritual of the Machine
• 1x Victimize
• 1x Yawgmoth's Will

Artifact (6)

• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Altar of the Brood
• 1x Amulet of Vigor
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Mindcrank
• 1x Phyrexian Altar

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Golgari deck running Smeagol, Helpful Guide as its commander.

It plays 5 major mechanics--four of them are facets on the commander:

1. "The Ring Tempts You"
2. Sacrificing creatures I control
3. Milling opponents
4. Landfall

The last mechanic is Reanimation spells/abilities (including some cards that like being in the graveyard).

The strategy is to mill as a preventative measure while seeking to do damage with creatures. The commander's triggered ability will further help by pulling lands out of opponent's libraries and putting them into your own mana pool. It is expected that the player will occasionally mill themselves as it is often advantageous to do so for reanimation targets and other effects.

There is an infinite combo as well that will mill out your opponents and steal all of their library lands. It is basically a 4 card combo requiring: 1) the commander Smeagol, Helpful Guide, 2) Dunedain Rangers, 3) a landfall triggered means to bring a creature into play, and 4) a creature sacrifice outlet to jettison the ring-bearer. The decklist currently has three cards that make creatures on landfall (others exist, but I don't really need them) as well as multiple creature sacrifice outlets. A full description on how the combo works can be found elsewhere on the internet.

Other Fun Combos-

Clear the board of the opponent's creatures and graveyards. Start with a sacrifice outlet for mana such as Ashnod's Altar or Phyrexian Altar. Those sacrifices will then trigger Grave Pact or Butcher of Malakir forcing opponenets to sacrifice their creatures. Then use Night Soil or Necrogenesis to turn those graveyard creatures into saprolings. Then sacrifice those saprolings to repeat the loop. There are many other cards that can plug into this loop for extra effect, but my favorites are- Altar of the Brood and Syr Konrad, the Grim (which can then link to Mindcrank).

Buried Alive is deceptively powerful in this deck. The best targets for insertion into the graveyard act as fertilizer for the deck's main strategies- Bloodghast, Gollum, Patient Plotter, Filth, and Golgari Thug (all of which want to be in the graveyard and don't need other reanimation cards). Then there are the best creatures to reanimate with other cards- Dunedain Rangers (combo piece), Lotus Cobra, Ramunap Excavator, or any creature with a cmc of 4 or higher. Buried Alive is so important that you'll likely want to tutor for it with Vampiric Tutor or Diabolic Intent.

Milling yourself is an option that often helps and as a result the deck needs a safety reset so things don't get out of hand- Gaea's Blessing. Towards the aim of milling and resetting there are cards such as- Hermit Druid, Undercity Informer, Golgari Thug, Dakmor Salvage, Altar of Dementia, and Reito Sentinel. Sometimes you'll need to manipulate the reset card, so there is Eternal Witness, Sadistic Augermage, Reito Sentinel, and even Vampiric Tutor.

Likely WinCon Combo--> Expanding on milling yourself, consider the awesome combo of Hermit Druid + Syr Konrad, the Grim for massive damage. If you mill into Gaea's Blessing then you reset the library and deal more damage from creatures being shuffled back into the deck. To aide in the combo use, Reito Sentinel to put Gaea's Blessing or a basic land on the bottom of your library. To help set up the creature combo, creatively use Protean Hulk and either a re-animator card or Eternal Witness.

I'm still making a few minor tweaks to the list, so if there are any "No Brainer" type spells that should be added, then feel free to suggest them. I'm probably not looking for mana-rocks though as the mana curve is already manageable.

Date added	1 year
Last updated	2 months
Key combos	Hermit Druid + Syr Konrad, the Grim
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 42 - 0 Rares 35 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.91
Tokens	Beast 4/4 G, Copy Clone, Eldrazi Spawn 0/1 C, Insect 1/1 G, Iridescent Vinelasher 1/1 B, On an Adventure, Saproling 1/1 G, The Ring, The Ring Tempts You, Zombie 2/2 B