Card/Deck The Golgari Swarm (BG)

[ravnic]

Golgari is a guild where I could find dozens of cards. I love graveyard themed decks and strategies, and the huge, resilent beaters green and black offer.

What are you running in your Golgari sections? What themes/archetypes do you support? Did you have some surprising successes? What do you want the Golgari Swarm to do?


________

My current choices are:


- Putrid Leech is a good 2-drop beater, but I could see me replacing it with something more exiting.
- Nyx Weaver is a neat little value card, that fuels a dredge theme without requiring support itself. I had Shambling Shell in there before, for it's combo pontential with the Savra, but the spider is simply better.
- Savra is really narrow, but she rewards you if you can build around her. I'm fine with having one narrow but great card in my section.
- Scarab is a resilent beater, that fills your graveyard and combos with Savra like a boss. Absolute staple.


Black loves this for sacrifice synergies, green loves it for being big and allowing fearless attacks, I love it for being Golgari's best true hybrid.



Which Golgari cards do live up to date in your cube? Which have been buried in the filth long ago?

 

[sigh]

Putrid Leech seems like a pretty boring Golgari card these days. Like I guess it can "synergize" with some sort of lifegain subtheme in GB, but it's this semi-vanilla beater tossed in among a rich and deep color combo. I like much more:

in the role of low-drop golgari beater, and it has a much more useful and synergistic ability for the color pair.

 

[ravnic]

I almost did this change before. But then I was worried, that a 2-drop that can become like a 4/3 trampler with ": Regenerate" could be a little too oppressive on many boards. But maybe I am undervaluing the (creature-)cards you have to pitch to make this actually better than something like Putrid Leech?

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

Yeah, Lotleth is great. It's a strong card, but not unbeatable. Every time you pitch to it you invest another card to it.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

It's easy to trigger this, potentially on your turn and your opponent's. You turn their removal and your removal into card draw, trading in combat becomes less attractive. There's so much this innocious looking card does.



Come on, how is this not in everybody's list? Card is super fun, and combines well with multiple themes.



If you are looking for a slightly less explosive Lothlet Trol, Varolz is the troll you are looking for! He's a great sac outlet as well, and gives creatures in your graveyard a new lease on life... as spores... or something?



Speaking of three drops, this is still one of my favorites.



Surprisingly solid for an expensive uncommon. Double raise dead on a relevant body is gas!

 

[inscho]

Gitrog is on my watchlist for being too good. As is:



this guy however...



Is my bro. I really dig this card. It's my crossover card bringing a little bit of Rakdos Hellbent and Gruul Berserkers to Golgari Aggro.

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

Baloth null and Lotleth troll as some cuty dorky synergy!

 

[Alfonzo Bonzo]

I'm currently recording some off colour activation cards in the gold sections, so my Golgari section is a little more monochrome than others. I've currently got:



I could relatively easily put Down and Ishkanah into the mono coloured sections but to be honest I often find some of the gold cards a bit boring. Thinking about changing how this is done though. Glissa is great, and helps support artifacts in black, and gives another interesting angle to the gold deck.

Golgari has a lot of fun cards.

 

[inscho]

Golgari is definitely one of the deepest guilds across all power bands.

Love the Glissa tech. I gotta remember to test her out.

 

[Chris Taylor]

Nulldrifter!

 

[ravnic]

I'm probably replacing Putrid Leech with Lotleth Troll. And in case that thing turns out too good, I'm considering this one too as a Dredge enabler/singnal:



This card seems pretty good to me

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

It is a sweet card, but it does something mono green cards do as well, so I don't feel like ot justificies it's gold slot.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Don't forget that Grisly Salvage can only return one of the five cards you reveal to your hand, then mills the rest. Grapple with the Past mills for less, but is much more flexible, since you can return any creature or land in your graveyard after it mills, giving you full access to your whole graveyard.

 

[sigh]

All that aside, you already have the Nyx Weaver, which is a great signal into a self-mill GB strategy besides being a decent card in it's own right.

I also don't think Grave-shell Scarab is that good, but I guess if your power level allows it is passable. If GB is truly a dredge/self-mill theme, one of the coolest is:

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

Spider spawning is super cool. It also combos well with the flashback of dread return!

It's easy to trigger this, potentially on your turn and your opponent's. You turn their removal and your removal into card draw, trading in combat becomes less attractive. There's so much this innocious looking card does.

Did not realize that it works with your opponent killing your stuff too.. definitely gonna try this card out. Seems sweet in a grindy jund deck.

 

[ravnic]

I'm already running Grapple and the Wayfinder as well as Hermit Druid and Splinterfright. I'm probably fine without Grisly Salvage or another mono green variant though. Troll helps filling the graveyard too in some way, especially if you have a dredge guy to discard.

On the topic of Grave-Shell Scarab, I think this card is much better than Spider Spawning, as much as Im like that too. A 4/4 is a pretty big body, and this one is almost unkillable. It basically reads ", mill one: Return this card to your hand." and when another effects causes it to land in your graveyard via mill or discard, you can simply dredge it. And if you have any equipment laying around, even a small one like Sylvok Lifestaff, this bug becomes a challenge for every opponent for the whole game.

It is also much more flexible than Spider Spawning, since every non-aggro deck, that can cast it, will have a use for it. It's not the Gitrog Monster, but if that is too much for a cube's power level, Scarab might be the right call for a substitute.

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

I think they're very different cards. If you can mill yourself decently, and get the flashback, spider spawning can give a dozen plus spiders. That will stabilize you in a way scarab can't, and is super difficult to deal with. Both cards are good for the techy midrange we want, but they're trying to do different things.

 

[ravnic]

Spider Spawning IS a good card for sure, I loved this archetype in triple Innistrad. But I think it can be hard to get enough value out of it to be worth the trouble in cube.

Scarab helps filling the yard, works as apayoff-ish card too in dredge deck, because you can get it into the 'yard and into your hand from there easily. That's obviously less synergie, but much more flexibility. it also works with sacrifice/death triggers like Savra and Blood Artist.

Again, nothing against Spider Spawning, I just can't imagine cutting the Scarab for it.

 

[VincePendrell]

My GB section is mostly removal and some sacrifice/graveyard fun stuff. These ones weren't mentioned yet:

I hope to see Reyhan working in an Abzan humans deck at some point, but I'm not very hopeful.

I've been thinking of getting a Gitrog as well, and try a graveyard lands theme, but it was something that never got drafted when I had support for, so not so sure about it. These one goes really well with the lands-in-graveyard theme, though:


Also, there is also the all the really good removal spells and that one enchantment that no one mentioned yet, so I'll just mention that these cards exist

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Meren was completely overpowered in my previous cube when played alongside any additional recursion.

 

[Alfonzo Bonzo]

Vince is back!

 

[ahadabans]

Meren was completely overpowered in my previous cube when played alongside any additional recursion.

I concur. I wish Meren was just simply an EOT gravedigger with upgraded stats. It didn't need to be more than that. And she would have been the card perfect. Simple text box, yet still powerful and rewarding to build around. As is, there's too much text and the card is legitimately broken if not removed (unless the deck running it made no effort to have synergy with her).

 

[Peter LaCara]

I concur. I wish Meren was just simply an EOT gravedigger with upgraded stats. It didn't need to be more than that. And she would have been the card perfect. Simple text box, yet still powerful and rewarding to build around. As is, there's too much text and the card is legitimately broken if not removed (unless the deck running it made no effort to have synergy with her).

Yeah. I run a mid-high power list and Meren was just stupidly broken. If you're looking for a better gravedigger, there's always .

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

VS

In thread fight club. Which is the better gravedigger?

 

[safra]

Yeah. I run a mid-high power list and Meren was just stupidly broken. If you're looking for a better gravedigger, there's always .

I already feel self-conscious about Restoration Gearsmith. I know this is the thread but i think you have enough recursion in G and B separately, and enough competition for slots in , pharika's mender is a bit too awkward at 5 mana imo to take a guild slot.

e: baloth null is a sick gravedigger variant.