Finally, another person sees the benefit of A) running DRS in standard. (DRS is not a life gain card!) and B) Uses Grisly Salvage //Commune with the Gods to fuel the deck. +1 just for that.

U should check out my build. 50 #'s of Grade A Beef -Golgari- Standard

It has way more synergy than this deck xD Same kind of synergy, but different. I think u'll like it. ...also I run the missing piece that shuts this deck down. Scavenging Ooze

Personally I feel 19 lands is too little for this kind of deck. If ur opponent nails your mana dorks early game, your late game plan falls flat on it's face. "This Shadowborn Demon could turn things around if I ever draw 3 more lands to cast it" Personally I would also run Liliana of the Dark Realms instead of Nighthowler It's essentially Nighthowler (...okay more Nightmare but accomplishes the same goal) + Removal (hits Gods!) + Draw, allowing u to pull an Overgrown Tomb in a pinch or just make 19 lands as a whole less painful. + The ultimate (not that u would ever use it) fits the mana ramp theme.

i would run the playset of Golgari Charm . It regenerates all of your creatures, kills a ton of small creatures, and destroys god's weapons and Detention Sphere . 3 Lifebane Zombie s, they wreck many decks (g/w in particular), and would be a good to have. 3 Pithing Needle destroys gods, planeswalkers, and creatures with abilities. 1 Gaze of Granite just to have it. I don't know what it is used for, but it is good so i would just stick it in there. 2 Hero's Downfall and 2 Fade into Antiquity for more removal

Hi APPLE01DOJ,

thanks for the +1.

I've checked your build but it has a completely different focus than my deck. You barely use the GY as heavily as I do. I know that Scooze kind of breaks my back, but I have Shadowborn Demon to answer the Ooze. (Coincidentally last week my buddy played the dredge list and I played against it with my Golgari Aggro deck - featuring 4 Scooze. Still I lost 2-1 and I had a T2 Ooze every game of the match and never ran low on mana.)

Yeah let's not get in a childish fight about which deck has more synergy... But if I were you, I'd cut the Kalonian Hydra and add some Varolz, the Scar-Striped . Fit's your curve and purpose much better.

For your suggestions: I have basically 12 Manadork, and 4 are nigh untouchable, unless you run wipes (and currently there isn't a deck that really utilizes Anger of the Gods so I only have to care about Supreme Verdict . Against decks with Verdict I side the demons out anyways and Nemesis of Mortals can be cast for 2G). My only fear is that I keep a one-lander with DRS, Caryatid and Salvage without seeing a 2nd land from the first 2 draws.

As for Liliana of the Dark Realms , sounds like a good idea if you first read it. But the more thought you put into it: - Okay I get one pump, whereas Nighthowler leaves me with the option of: Creature or Pump (permanently!!), and if I pump and the target dies I get a beefy creature. - Nice I can fetch Swamps, awesome so I can avoid mana-screw with my low mana-base of 19 Lands. But wait Lily has CMC 4. Dang. If I'm able to play Lily I can play 95% of my deck, the final land or mana-producer will show up eventually and until then I can hold the fort. - As I have no real mana-sinks her ultimate is just useless. - And the final reason: Nighthowler is a creature.

Liliana of the Dark Realms is just a really bad card. Sure you might be able to steal one or two games with her -3. But else? What does fetching Swamps accomplish if you draw 2 cards each turn because you run Underworld Connections ? Is the low impact she has really justified? To be honest the turn she hits the board she doesn't do much. Gives you a Swamp, or you cash her in for a mediocre pump that rarely wins you the game. Look at the other Planeswalkers that see play right now. Everyone of them has more immediate impact, and that's why they see play and Lily does not.

Hi Snowstorm,

thanks for your suggestion. I know that running 19 lands is pretty aggressive. However if I upp the landcount to 21-23 I need to take out something in return. What might that be?

Hi Droxium,

thanks for taking a look at my sideboard. I was pondering quite heavily over Pithing Needle . It's maybe one of the strongest sideboard options right now. But running 3 seems a bit much to me. I have tournament tomorrow in my LGS. Usually it's 5 rounds. If I don't face many RDW I may replace the Nylea's Disciple s with Needles. Right now I simply count on my Thoughtseize hitting the troublemakers and for Planeswalkers I can side in Hero's Downfall . So thank you for pointing that out.

Also I never felt Fade into Antiquity was worth a slot. I ran 2 Fade in my early version of Rock Lobster Party but it never had the desired effect. I don't know if there is a God that requires to be answered right now. Thassa is a bitch but trading my turn 3 for theirs doesn't help me develop my board.

As for Gaze of Granite : I already explained why it's there :P.

Oh, now i read about Gaze of Granite . Also, how good would Vraska the Unseen be in here? i would only use her for her -2, since the other ones aren't relevant. She is a planeswalker that can be hard to kill and does destroy stuff.

Actually there is a pretty scary Jund deck running around that only runs Stormbreath Dragon and Reaper of the Wilds Anger of the Gods is that deck's removal of choice and Golgari Charm is it's swiss tool knife giving regeneration to make it even worst.

Varolz & Kalonian serve two way different purposes. Not really swappable at all. Umm my whole deck feeds off the graveyard. hell the only reason I run Mutavault instead of Encroaching Wastes is because it can hit the grave earlier than the wastes. Only real differences is that your deck builds your grave and mine eats it. Grisly Salvage puts mana in the grave to ramp with & DRS eats the spells. ScOoze eats creatures. Lotleth feeds on bodies before they're corpses Dessi Deem keeps the boys happy late game forcing opponents to make sacramental offerings Kalonian Hydra is an 8/8 Trampling beast who doubles the size of my board for free. Pretty much my "I Win" card. lol Varolz is a useless mana sink on a crap body.

Both feed our own graveyards for boosts while finding the missing pieces we need to win. Both get a 2-1 every time u or an opponent uses any removal card. Both ramp out game winning fatties.

Well u make some good arguments against Lilly and my only real counter argument doesn't even apply to your deck. ...but the benefit of Lilly is that she can survive a Supreme Verdict and then boost a Mutavault (which also survives) to do some pretty brutal follow up damage.

Actually you could benefit from that with a Golgari Charm in hand or Lotleth Troll in place of Mutavault .

Honestly, I REALLY like this deck. I keep switching out DRS for other cards. He is a great card, but I feel that he just doesn't have the synergy mine does. My deck started out scarily similar to this one when I first was experimenting with it.

No real criticisms with this deck other than you should run 20 lands. I know you have plenty of mana dorks, but it still helps run the deck, and in long-lasting matches like Esper and U/W control, it just allows you to keep your deck flowing with creatures.

Regardless, this deck is well done :). +1 from me! I'm not sure if it will help, but you can check out my Burn the Dead golgari deck. The sideboard is all but finished for those extra ideas :).

I'm really mad at you for not playing Whip of Erebos . Play Shadowborn Demon , then sacrifice him to Jarad, then whip him back, and swing 5 in the air lifelink?

@Droxium

The thing about Vraska that bugs me the most is that she doesn't do enough for 5 CMC. There's only a handful of permanents she can destroy that I cannot with the cards I consider right now: artifacts. For everything else I have Hero's Downfall for 3CMC and instant speed as well as Golgari Charm at 2CMC and instant speed. Vraska kinda comes down 2 turns too late. Also her two other abilities are pretty lackluster. Stealing a game with her -7 is cool and feels satisfying but it happens in 1 game out of 30 (?). It's cute but too cheesy imho.

@ APPLE01DOJ

Well yeah, but I cannot afford running Mutavault in this deck. Also I haven't come across the above mentioned Jund-list. After the tournament today I'm pretty much convinced that 19 Lands is enough - super aggressive but I never got screwed.

Thanks for pointing out how your deck works. I still think that you would benefit from Varolz (you even can use him as a sac-outlet to pump your ScOoze further or make dead-dorks pumps for your lol-troll) more than from the Kalonian Hydra (dies to almost every common removal: Mizzium Mortars , Ultimate Price , Doom Blade , Hero's Downfall , Putrefy , did I miss one?) - but you seem to be happy with your deck and that's what counts :)

@ eXDonut

thanks for the kind words. I will definitely check out your list.

@ Antosa

Yeah you might be right. I will try one copy of Whip in the Sideboard. What I don't exactly like is that you exile the creature EOT. It's kind of a non-bo with Jarad and Nighthowler...

How did u do at the tourney? Give us some details!

@ APPLE01DOJ

Look above, I've made an update.

Sorry on my phone at work. Missed it, checking out now.

Good stuff, I brewed this a month ago but I think your build is more consistent/has Shaman (great idea!)

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/dead-man-walking-1/

Ever considered Scavenging Ooze or Varolz, the Scar-Striped to get counters out of the extra creatures in your graveyard?

@ Matthewb155

I don't want to seem rude or anything... but by suggesting these 2 cards you clearly haven't understood the aim of this deck. I'm actually pretty happy with having creatures in my gy. The aim of my deck is filling my gy with creatures to pump Jarad and make Nighthowler a huge-ass pump-spell. ScOoze is basically the counter-card against my deck (as well as Rest in Peace ). So: No, I have never ever considered ScOoze or Varolz for my deck.

Ohhh! Lol sorry. I'm not very smart

+1. Great looking deck. Looks like a lot of fun. I run Green Devotion right now, which I feel like is the only devotion deck that has any synergy at all, but still not as much as people say.

The only money cards are DRS, Overgrown, Thoughtseize, and Caryatid. Everything else is 4 dollars or less I think. So that's always a plus.

I'll probably find room for 22 land, Cutting a commune, and two Shadowborn. Those cards kind of conflict a bit. Commune is good in the deck but 4 seems a bit crazy. You really don't want to be drawing this more then twice. Shadowborn is a great clock, but at 19 lands it's CMC is just too high. Any smart player will kill your mana ramp, and the rest of your threats don't rely on the ramp nearly as much. One will do fine.

lol so I finally decided to play test this deck vs my deck. funny thing, Vraska the Unseen was the MVP in quite a few of the matches. 8/8 Nighthowler s are useless against regenerating Lotleth Troll s. Vraska comes down, and solves the board stalls. People talk so bad about Vraska, but she is so good. Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord was your game winner, and I love the way he naturally counters Desecration Demon late game.

G1: U sac'd ur whole board thru Jarad to deliver double digit lethal damage.G2: Desecration Demon backed by Vraska the Unseen and Kalonian Hydra were way too much for ur board.G3: Rogue's Passage + Kalonian Hydra secured the win.G4: 2x Desecration Demon + a Kalonian Hydra closes things quickly.G5: Deathrite Shaman + Lotleth Troll and a little bit of removal is all it takes to win, Kalonian Hydra again closed the game with overkill.

I know u would have sided in some removal after the first match, I think the games would have played out the same as my SB is well equipped to make the match even more unwinnable. Pithing Needle s for Jarad, more removal, Gaze of Granite and Ratchet Bomb for mana dorks. I noticed that a lot of your creatures are totally useless early game even if u have the mana to cast them if there is no creatures in your graveyard. Nighthowler for example. However I like how your deck gets stronger the longer the game goes on and also because it lacks removal it's pretty fun to play against.

Also, I would drop Elvish Mystic . In constant need of double black, but he can only ramp green. :/ You could use the the spot to mainboard 4x Abrupt Decay which answers most of your problems. Scavenging Ooze Chained to the Rocks Rest in Piece opponents Lotleth Troll Pack Rat Lifebane Zombie most of Mono-Blue Devotion.

Nemesis of Mortals is kind of an interesting card. More than once, it would be in the opening hand, and then I would draw another one as the game went on and they would both just sit in hand. Not enough creatures in the grave, not enough mana on the board. However in other games they would hit the field after a Salvage/Commune or 2 but never did anything. By that time, a 5/5 is fairly underwhelming.

DRS and ScOoze clearly shut your deck down, but just about every game u landed a Thoughtseize and were able to rip ScOoze from my opening hand. Seize is so worth it's weight in gold.

I'm surprised there's no Abrupt Decay going on in here.

@ APPLE01DOJ

Thanks for taking the time and playtesting a bit. I'm amazed how often your 2-of Kalonian Hydra shows up despite having no digg (and how often I miss my Shadowborn Demon ). What I want to say: it's all about the draws. I know ScOoze is a trouble card against my deck, but it rarely sees play these days in Standard. Also as you've mentioned I can hit it with a timely Thoughtseize .

Cutting the Elvish Mystic s is not open for discussion. I already am very low on my lands so cutting these is just dumb (think of them as lands, that can feed the grave once they are no longer of use). Also with 19 sources of black I rarely find myself in a position where I miss my 2nd black.

I partly agree with you on the Nemesis of Mortals . But having a possible T3 5/5 wall that can turn into a 10/10 eventually is nothing to be laughed at. Jarad and Nemesis can close out the game very quickly. (a nice example would be my first game against the Junk-Midrange deck I've played against yesterday. He was able to gain himself loads of life with Obzedat, Ghost Council and I was forced to eat creatures with my DRS to survive. In the end I was able to drag him down from 36 to 2 in two turns - still not enough but I was impressed, that it's possible for my deck to be very far behind and still having a realistic way of winning the game).

I am considering Abrupt Decay already for my sideboard in place of the Nylea's Disciple . But thanks anyways for the suggestion asasinater13.

Durring the games I play tested u hit shadow born demon like 4 out of 5 games but never once did it stick. It was answered by Vraska more times than anything else. It's would always take something good but quite inn affective vs desecration demon. Run the games back would love input on ur side. And I use grisly salvage to find the hydra. Same way u do.

Ever consider Golgari Keyrune as a ramp? I know it's not the best but has multi uses and only requires colorless to cast