Golgari Wilds Continued

CDW

Channeling his inner Goku

        Welcome back to our journey through the Golgari Wilds.  Today we'll be discussing the non-creature options available to the black and green color spectrum.  Let's get right into showing our contenders

Give Green card draw?  Yes!

"Caller of Beats"

Instants:
Abrupt Decay
Doom blade
Golgari Charm
Putrefy
Hero's downfall

Sorcery:
Thoughtseize 
Duress

Enchantments:
Underworld Connections
Primeval Bounty

     



        These are our mainstream choices.  Each has seen competitive play, at some point.  Yes, even Primeval bounty has found a sideboard.  What benefits, do these cards offer Golgari Wilds?  We have to go back to the core concept in the last article to answer this inquiry.  Goglari wilds wants to play big and hard to remove threats, backed by flexible removal.  However, one key factor I should have added into a deck like this is the need for card draw.  This will supply the gas needed to keep dropping threats and have the removal when we require it.  So let's make some choices.

Instants:3                                      Sorcery:0                               Enchantments:5
Abrupt Decay x3                                                                        Underworld Connections x3
                                                                                                  Primeval bounty x2

Planeswalkers:3
Garruk, Caller of Beasts x3

        Hmm ok.  So all those options and we only end up with three actual removal spells, five enchantments and three Garruks.  Why this initial set up?  Remember we want  to pressure the opponent with our creatures!  Therefore, we want the green version of Sphinx's Revelation, Garruk, Caller of Beasts.  However, Garruk is quite a bit more narrow than Sphinx's Revelation as his first ability only hits creatures.  This means any deck with the Caller of Beasts has to build around his abilities.  Thankfully our colors supply wonderful creature targets.  But, this means our non-creature spell count has to be quite low in order to ensure value from our Garruks.

       What is the explanation for the rest of our choices?   Abrupt Decay kills problematic Boros Reckoners dead.  Underworld connections is a workhorse.  It let's us sift through the deck faster and continue playing threats.  Primeval Bounty is just plain value.  Similar to Garruk, it's a card we want to ramp into it early or mid-game and then pull value from its abilities.  Playing a late game elf and having it enter play with its own 3/3 beast token pet sure sounds pleasing to the ear.  Put plainly, Primeval Bounty rewards our deck for following its big creature game plan.

        Hope all you wonderful aggro players enjoyed your evening of Friday Night Magic.  Theros is just around the corner and we need to be ready, to pounce upon an unprepared and vulnerable meta game.  Sort of like....

Yep, a Cheetah

Golgari Brew with a side of Theros

CDW

Proof that ugly can be awe inspiring!

        I'm excited.  I can't lie. I'm loving the process of brewing this deck.  This is not just because the Golgari Guild (green/black) is my favorite guild from the Ravnica set.  It's my own personal brew, inspired by several new cards from the coming Theros set.  Similar to a father's loves for his child, I'm fond of my original ideas.  However, there is no evidence the deck idea is effective in competitive play.  Matter of fact the deck was just conceived today.  Following the parent and child metaphor, this deck needs to learn to crawl before it can walk. So let's build this love child from the ground up.  This post will start with the deck concept, discuss the creatures available and analyze the benefits they bring.

        Before we begin, some may be wondering why you should care about my personal deck that isn't even play tested nor used in a competitive setting.  Here's a quick list as to why you should care.

1. We love the Golgari Guild's exotic background and the flavor of its creatures and want to see a potentially good creature deck based around these its colors.  
2. You enjoy brewing decks and originality as much as I do.
3. We want a competitive beater deck, similar to big mono-green decks.  But, has access to more flexibility.  
4. New cards from Theros will be featured in this deck and their potential will be discussed.  
5. You too love decks with graveyard interactions.  

Brewing: Golgari Wilds (Post-Theros Rotation)

Concept:  Bring resilient creatures, the ability to recycle them and flexible removal as only the green/black color combination can.

Step One: This blog is called Creature Deck Wins and we need a solid core, featuring the best green/black  has to offer.

The Creature Core:              
Elvish Mystic
Kalonian Tusker
Lolteth Troll
Varolz, the Scar-Striped
Witchstalker
Reaper of the Wilds
Nylea, god of the hunt or Desecration Demon

        Let's start with the one mana cost creatures and work our way up.  Our first candidate is the Elvish Mystic, an excellent addition for the early game ramp into our quality three and four drops.  For the two drop slot we have Kalonian Tusker, an effecient beater and excellent scavenge target.  His fellow two drop, Lolteth Troll is a resilient beater that turns irrelevant creature draws into counters for him and sets up future scavenging targets for Varolz, the Scar-Striped. Varolz turns our graveyard into a resource.  His ability grants scavenge to our dead creatures.  Allowing even the smallest elf to become a threat and turning our bigger beaters into overwhelming threats.  Witchstalker may seem like a sideboard card, but a hexproof 3/3 with the ability to take advantage of opponents playing black or blue spells on our turn is very strong.  He works well with Varolz as a powerful creature to scavenge on to.

        Ah the four drops, our first contestant hails from the plane of Theros and was a key player for inspiring this brew.  let's begin with the Reaper of the Wilds.  I scry whenever a creature dies?  Seems good.  Oh she has death touch?  How thematic.  And hexproof? Seriously? Wow, 3 solid abilities, and a sexy 4/5 body on top of that? For four mana! I think Varolz just found his girl.  Let's summarize what this new gorgon brings to the deck.

1.  Less dead draw steps with her scry ability.

2. difficult to block and attack into, thanks to her tough body and death touch.

3. Hard to remove with hexproof.  She's a great late game draw, when six mana is available.

        Our final two card options for the creature core.  She-Hulk...I mean Nylea, god of the Hunt and the blasphemous Desecration Demon.  Both bring viable tools to Golgai Wilds.  let's compare the two.

Nylea's Pros:

• An indestructible and 6/6 body?  Appropriate for the Magic She-Hulk.  
• Grants our creatures a way to get damage though with trample.  
• Has a nice bonus ability to buff our other creatures. 
• She's a steal at four mana for what she gives us.
• A great creature to scavenge onto or from.      

Nylea's Cons:

• Reliant on devotion to become a creature.
• Done!  (Well I could for hexproof, but that would be extremely greedy.)

Desecration Demon's Pros:

• He works out at the same gym as Nylea coming in with a huge 6/6 body of his own.  
• Possesses evasion in the form of flying.  
• Great attrition creature with his sacrifice ability.
• Great cost to power ratio at four mana.
• Another great creature to scavenge from.  

Desecration Demon's Cons:

• His sacrifice ability can be to our detriment.  
• He's vulnerable to "destroy target creature spells."

Verdict?  

       WOW!  These two creatures are value with a capital "V" a majority of the time.  Making the decision of choosing between the two incredibly difficult.  Nylea is a great team player with the deck and relies on us having a good board, so her devotion activates.  Her ability to grant a +2/+2 buff to a creature is a reasonable mana sink and fits with her role as a beater and team player.  Desecration Demon is strong as an independent card.  An scenario where he is potentially stronger than Nylea is when the opponent plays a destroy all creatures spell to wreck our board.  Making him a significantly better follow up than Nylea.   Reaper of the Wilds has a small crush on him as his sacrifice ability synergises well with her scrying activation.  He's more vulnerable to removal than Nylea though.   Honestly the choice between the two will be meta and deck build dependent.   So I'm going to test the deck with only Nylea or the demon.  Then try out both in the deck.  I have some misgivings about putting the demon into the same deck, because he doesn't add to her devotion count.  Play testing is a necessity for this decision.

Here's a list of other creatures we could or will see added to the final decklist.

Creature Possibilities:
Deathrite Shaman
Gladecover Scout
Gyre Sage
Scavenging Ooze
Lifebane Zombie
Dreg Mangler
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Polukranos, World Eater
Erebos, god of the Dead
Kalonian Hydra

      Look for the next post, where we'll discuss the deck's instant, sorcery and enchantment/artifact choices.   Once its finished a look at the current deck list will be taken next week, after testing.  And remember boys/girls to smile whenever a control player rages.