Strength from the Fallen is a broken card.
IMPORTANTCurrently I'm doing some experimenting with running fewer lands, the scuttling doom engines, and a few other changes. So far playtesting is really positive, these big scary artifacts may have some merit here after all.
This deck aims to be a cheap tempo golgari constellation deck, and generally performs very well. The overarching goal of the deck is to self-mill as many creatures as it can, to ramp the strength of creatures up with Strength from the Fallen. With some thought as to the stack to decide how to play the many enchantments in here, you can buff your creatures to an absurd degree. In it's tournament debut, I was able to swing with a 52/51 Lotleth Troll with lifelink to end the game at 121 hp against a tournament-winning g/w elspeth deck, with full sets of basically all of the expensive lands. Come at me.
Overall, the strongest counters to this deck are very fast aggro and Stain the Mind. If the opposing deck can hit a turn 4 kill, and you don't have any blockers early (satyr way finder chumps and [lotleth troll] regen blocks]]) then Strength from the Ballin' really doesn't have much to retaliate. Past that, making a comeback is pretty easy. Stain the Mind should be pretty obvious. I haven't bothered with a sideboard yet because that is honestly more personal choice than anything, and side boarding can really hurt the functionality of this deck, but the general sideboard I'd use is cheap black removal like Hero's Downfall and Doom Blade to handle things like scavenging ooze and other graveyard "fucker-uppers" and
hornet's nest
to prevent too much early aggro. Scuttling Doom Engine has quite good potential, because Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
+
Scuttling Doom Engine
will double an unbuffed sacrifice's efficacy, and make a buffed one stronger, and being able to slip through chump blockers is nice, but overall the card just doesn't fit well enough. Yisan, the Wanderer Bard seems to have some really strong potential, but with the cheap costs of this deck, can only be used a few times before just being a dead 2/3. I haven't experimented enough with him for anything conclusive.
-1 Drops-
Gnarled Scarhide is a great early game card to get in a little bit of damage and snowball, it procs Strength from the Fallen for only one mana, and can be used late game as a good way to sneak damage into opponents by bestowing to their shit.
-2 Drops-
Lotleth Troll is quite possibly the strongest creature in the deck. The power of a one black mana regenerate is insane, the ability to burn your hand for early aggro and to fill the yard is fantastic, and trample is so good for a deck that primarily just gets huge creatures. This card is insane. I would generally recommend playing it turn 3, to leave one black mana free to regen it and leaving turn two for a Brain Maggot or Satyr Wayfinder.
Strength from the Fallen is the centerpiece of this deck. Giving a creature power and toughness additions equal to the number of creature cards in your graveyard adds up when you do it 17 times with 9 cards in the graveyard in a turn. If you play more than one of them in a turn they benefit a lot by proccing three times, for some early aggro, and their ability can be activated at instant speed with the Pharika, God of Affliction death touch tokens, allowing sneaky damage. This card is absurd.
Brain Maggot is there to eliminate threats (Scavenging Ooze is the devil), and can be a very strong form of control. If you get a necessary card for their deck, they will also burn removal on it, which can be very beneficial in the long run. Also, it's a 2 cost enchantment, which is handy for the procs.
Satyr Wayfinder is here to sculpt your mana, since I'm too poor for pain lands or shock lands, and fill your graveyard with more creatures. Very very handy.
-3 Drops-
Nighthowler is a massive creature for cheap, the bestow is great (a permanent strength proc!). Despite the turn 3 howler being generally only strong if you can pitch some (keep in mind, that's instant speed!) to the [lotleth troll] or get a lucky 3-4 creature [satyr wayfinder] to fill the yard, this game makes up for early game unreliability by being an absolute monster later. Nighthowlers are fearsome.
Nyx Weavers are a fantastic card for this deck, as they mill very consistently, are easy to get rid of if they become problematic, are good blockers for early game flying aggro, and allow fetching for the key cards that get milled that aren't creatures or enchantments (Vraska the Unseen, Kruphix's Insight, Whip of Erebos). I'm a big big fan of this card.
Pharika, God of Affliction was initially not in this deck, because I thought the graveyard removal sucked, but once I updated it to focus more on constellation, I realized how fucking insane it can really be. I generally find it to be best as a last ditch surprise hit, because once you use it once they won't be too keen to allow you to do it again, so save mana in advance for it. With a few separate copies of strength out, it can deal massive damage from a 1/1. Having indestructible is handy, and meeting devotion is pretty easy.
Kruphix's Insight is great card draw. it's almost guaranteed to fill your hand with enchantments that also proc constellation Kruphix's Insight
+
Whip of Erebos
is EVIL) and still leave creatures for the yard. There are so many available plays for this card.
-4 Drops-
Erebos, God of the Dead was just added on a whim, but, like Pharika, astonished me. Preventing healing helps deal with coursers, and keeps this deck's massive potential for damage and huge life swings from being healed through with another tempo deck. The card draw is SO helpful, especially when you get a huge life advantage from the whip, and really helps to keep the damage from strength of the fallen up with more enchantments being played.
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord is pretty sweet. He was the focus of the first iteration of this deck, and is just way too good to pass up. His graveyard scaling is quite nice, the fact that you can happily kill him if you know it's going to be a long game due to his third ability is helpful, and the tap three to sac and deal damage equal to power ability is just insane. It's absolutely game changing, because with an enchantment proc, you can beef up a shitty creature like a satyr, which is a dead card after being played, and make it a huge nuke at virtually no cost of your own! Jarad doesn't even tap! It can be used multiple times! Jarad is a supreme burn creature.
Whip of Erebos the heal is stupid. Absolutely broken. When you're consistently swinging with creatures in the 20's, you can become an incredibly high hp monster. Being able to whip back creatures helps (Strength from the Fallen
+
Whip of Erebos
) because if an enchantment creature is whipped, it procs strength again for four. It's a bit pricey and weakens the graveyard, but is very very useful.
-5 Drops-
Vraska the Unseen is just for late game board clearing and control. She can destroy basically anything, and can do it multiple times. She is a bit pricey, at 5, and she can be hard to acquire since she isn't an enchantment, but she has strong killing potential.
