Tempo-Priest

Modern BG (Golgari) Deathtouch Goodstuff Infect Phyrexian Tempo Toxic

Andramalech

Creature (18)

• 3x Bilious Skulldweller
• 2x Bloated Contaminator
• 2x Haywire Mite
• 2x Mosswood Dreadknight
• 3x Necrogen Rotpriest
• 2x Pestilent Syphoner
• 4x Venerated Rotpriest

Sorcery (6)

• 2x Drown in Ichor
• 4x Infectious Inquiry

Land (20)

• 4x Darkbore Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Forest
• 2x Mirrex
• 4x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Swamp
• 4x Verdant Catacombs
• 4x Woodland Cemetery

Instant (11)

• 2x Abrupt Decay
• 2x Assassin's Trophy
• 4x Infectious Bite
• 3x Tamiyo's Safekeeping

Enchantment (5)

• 2x Audacity
• 3x Necrogen Communion

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Sideboard

Instant (8)

• 2x Black Sun's Twilight
• 1x Force of Vigor
• 2x Noxious Revival
• 2x Surgical Extraction
• 1x Weather the Storm

Creature (3)

• 1x Collector Ouphe
• 1x Endurance
• 1x Melira, Sylvok Outcast

Sorcery (2)

• 2x Thoughtseize

Artifact (2)

• 1x Sword of Forge and Frontier
• 1x Sword of Truth and Justice

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Maybeboard

Creature (4)

• 2x Dune Mover
• 2x Myr Convert

Sorcery (2)

• 2x Explore

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A Golgari ({B}{G}) colored shell meant to revolve around the Infect and Toxic mechanics for victory.

Theme

A Self-Posed Challenge

This deck, alongside another I am building that also mainboards a playset of Venerated Rotpriest, is meant to be tested against it's partner in a best of three, to determine which playstyle is better suited in a competitive setting. Both decks are determined to win via their own individual tactics, and although they share some mentalities in regards to how-to-play, Tempo-Priest and Shadow Clone Jutsu are both very dynamic, unique concepts.

What the hell.. is Modern?

The state of modern has disintegrated and remolded itself like a tub of Play-Doh crammed into a Six-Year-Old's Easy Bake Oven; it has been recrafted, reshaped, and is damn near unrecognizable from what it was before.. but an uncanny resemblance still remains. I've watched Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis rise to fame and then fall, alongside beings like Oko, Thief of Crowns. I've watched several iterations of Colossus Hammer driven decks dubbed "Hammer-Time" take the cake at local events. A long time ago, when I had just started playing (2011), I was introduced to the format when at the time Splinter Twin was causing a lot of uproar with Deceiver Exarch, and my companion NoobNoob275 was running this combo.. in Grixis ({U}{B}{R}) colors. This was where I cut my teeth on what Modern's play-style should be modeled after. To put it simply, the more things change.. the more they stay the same. Modern is and has been for the longest time, a Win-Your-Game format by turn 4 at the latest.

Black-Green "Rocks" the House

The intention of this build is to universally address all the situational and nuanced plays I could potentially come across, and create the most big-tent roster for a mainboard that can handle pretty much anything that is opposing us.

Black-Green (known as Golgari for those of us aware of Ravnica) is a stapled Modern color-pie pick because of the absolute bombs of response options and general "rocks" you find within the color scheme. You have access to some really powerful tricks and response tactics but also have bodies that are simply.. better than other color combos. Take for example, Grim Flayer. For it's body, and mana value, quite a grand return on your investment.

Other key examples could include cards like Pernicious Deed, Abrupt Decay, Assassin's Trophy, etc.

The idea and namesake of the builds known as "Golgari Rocks" are just cards that are so valuable and confident that they won't be trifled with. Sparring some very oppressive counter-control or full leaned aggro/burn builds, most of the time you can keep pace with pretty much anything, hence, "Tempo".

Construction

Below I'll individually detail each card worth mentioning to the core functions of the deck, and why I may have chosen that particular card other than something else.

• Venerated Rotpriest is self-explanatory when you're speaking about contemporary infect decks; you're going to hold up the wag of a finger on anything targeting your side of the table, while prioritizing reinforcing your cast of bodies with other spells that further place more poison counters on your opponents.

• Necrogen Rotpriest is like the big brother of Venerated, and seeks to reinforce everything that came down prior to your turn 3/4 casting. I would like to take this moment to say a little bit of ramp, even in the form of Myr Convert or Explore would fit wonderfully into this deck's meta.

• Bilious Skulldweller is the exact menace to society it needs to be for our purposes. You hold up a creature early that has deathtouch and our favorite keyword, Toxic.

• Pestilent Syphoner provides us with something that has flying, and in any deck really you should have access to the abilities of Reach or Flying. In Modern, it can make or break your matchup since Jeskai Flyers is a particularly powerful archetype.

• Necrogen Communion might be the best enchantment from the Phyrexia: All Will Be One set purely for it's interaction with Venerated Rotpriest. I promise you, if I was at a local draft and saw that turn 1 priest that got hit with turn 2 communion, we were in for a bad matchup.

• Mirrex is a handy little way to hold up either color the first turn it comes down, while creating more body advantage in our late-game strategies.

• Bloated Contaminator is a strong, gorgeous boy in mono-green and is a featured cast member because of my infatuation with Mono-Green builds, and has seen plenty of contested and victorious matchups in my Arena Standard deck. It needs no further explanation than swing.. hit.. do it again.

• Drown in Ichor alongside our other circumstantial removal pieces is a beast, but not a enthusiastic inclusion; I feel as though one could be just as likely to use Unnatural Restoration in this spot if Proliferate was so important, but truthfully that's why we used Noxious Revival in the sideboard.

• Haywire Mite may not look like much but being able to net life gain while removing pesty enchantments or artifacts is a one-two-punch that screams "you're not gonna get me that easily". A good portion of our deck functions on a core element of the black mana pie; use your life total as a resource. So up against burn matchups and super strong aggro decks, you'll be grateful to have Haywire Mite and Tamiyo's Safekeeping in order to replenish what you've used.

• Mosswood Dreadknight is not only a flavorful reference to the King Arthur Tale of the Green Knight, but a perfect representation of what a Black-Green Rock should be doing. We are able to use our life total as a resource to fetch some card advantage, later able to recast that same advantage from graveyard after the Knight has been a chump blocker. We rinse-repeat our steps to net a body if absolutely necessary, but all around this guy was a bomb in limited, and worth mentioning in any black-green conversation.

• Audacity is a simple card that provides a simple advantage, much to the same play-timing as Necrogen Communion; you cast this on turn 2 on your Venerated Rotpriest and then swing with one more open mana to be spent on Tamiyo's Safekeeping. What a punch! In later instances, it's always great to have your resources refilled when your opponents do actually manage to remove the priest. On exit, we thank our enchantment because it gives us a draw.

Date added	1 year
Last updated	9 months
Exclude colors	WUR
Splash colors	BG
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	0 - 6 Mythic Rares 30 - 6 Rares 19 - 2 Uncommons 9 - 1 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	1.95
Tokens	On an Adventure, Phyrexian Mite 1/1 C