Card/Deck The Golgari Swarm (BG)
- Thread starter ravnic
- Start date
I've been lurking for a while here and not cubing at all in real life. Hopefully I'll be able to participate in threads more often than I did in the past 4 years or so
OK, so I signaled these, but no one bit the bait, so let's talk removal:
I play the first three here, and I don't want to have more than that in my BG section (8 cards, plus lands).
Removal spells in BG have been historically very good, and even outside the best ones, there is some interesting spells that can also fit some themes (like Boiler and proliferate, Death Mutation in high-mana environments, the three planeswalkers in everything that has a late game). What removal do you all play?
I like Pernicious Deed but I've tried to steer away from cards that are just "kill a permanent" in multicolour sections, as I think you can find that effect elsewhere and make room for some of the more interesting mulitcolour options.
I will add that I absolutely hate Abrupt Decay. "Can't be countered" is one of my least favourite lines of text, and it's on a cheap catch-all removal spell. This really stems from constructed where I feel the presence of Abrupt Decay pushes out interesting build-around cards in eternal formats that might otherwise be hard to remove, but my distaste carries over so that I refuse to run it in cube.
I will add that I absolutely hate Abrupt Decay. "Can't be countered" is one of my least favourite lines of text, and it's on a cheap catch-all removal spell. This really stems from constructed where I feel the presence of Abrupt Decay pushes out interesting build-around cards in eternal formats that might otherwise be hard to remove, but my distaste carries over so that I refuse to run it in cube.
I really like this guy
Powerful on-board combat trick and great combo with pingers, darkblast, grim poppet, any -1/-1 counters, etc.
Powerful on-board combat trick and great combo with pingers, darkblast, grim poppet, any -1/-1 counters, etc.
Pernicious Dead I think is an important card because it's Golgari's only real 2+ for 1 control card. Abrupt Decay, pulse, etc are all strong removal cards but they never net you advantage. Dead was an important component of old school rock decks and I think it's a really valuable include if that's an archetype you want thriving. It's tad slow in the fastest most powerful cubes, but lower powered this card is good enough to pull people into the color combination. I really don't think it's an oppressive card.
Deed is great, and can be very one-sided with the high cmc delve creatures like gurmag angler and all of the recursive spuds golgari has access to.
Hey, guys I'm looking for a nice, 3rd Golgari card for my guild section. For my main archetype dredge, I have these 2 as sign posts:
Now I would like something, that doesn't promote dredge, but some alternative route for/x decks. According to what I have in my cube, it should be something that either encourages Lifegain, Tokens, Sacrifice or Ramp.
Any recommendations?
Now I would like something, that doesn't promote dredge, but some alternative route for
/x decks. According to what I have in my cube, it should be something that either encourages Lifegain, Tokens, Sacrifice or Ramp.Any recommendations?
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
I don't cube with anymore, but how many boxes does this one tick?
Obviously need some support, which I don't know if you can fit in.
anymore, but how many boxes does this one tick?Obviously need some support, which I don't know if you can fit in.
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Oh, this one's really sweet as well!
Yep, that triggers on both players' turns
Yep, that triggers on both players' turns
Is this too close to Spider Spawning? Because it has tokens, sacrifice, life gain, has synergy with dredge and is a ramp payoff.
Ramp, tokens and sacrifice all in one could be an option as well.
Otherwise I agree with Onder, Deathreap Ritual is great.
I don't cube with
Obviously need some support, which I don't know if you can fit in.
Wow, it kinda ticks all 4 boxes. And it fits my token suite. Remember, I'm the guy playing Thelonite Hermit and Sprout Swarm
If that guy somehow doesn't work out I will try Deathreap Ritual, which seems really really powerful. If too powerful, I'd try sifter as a slightly weaker version. On Izoni you're right, Nano, it's too close to just be Spider Spawning number 2.
Thanks, guys!
I guess you can say that there's Fungus Among us now...
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Yeah, he grows on you, doesn't he?
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Just yesterday my kids were merrily playing, enjoying the windy weather. You could say it was a fun gust!
...
Ok, I'll see myself out.
...
Ok, I'll see myself out.
been playing around with this guild in my new cube design and i wanted to make it distinct from, say, UB or WB graveyard decks. so i focused on specifically exiling things from graveyards for value, where WB does recursion and UB does graveyard cheats. it’s amazing how deep BG is!
He's pretty deece but not a slam dunk in the Arena cube. Makes me want to consider him since I opened him at the last paper prerelease.
How about compared to Polukranos 1?
Onderzeeboot
Ecstatic Orb
Poly1 is better because it's monocolored. Ignoring mana costs, the lack of trample hurts Poly2, as it can slowly be chumped to death, but if you can get to the late game and escape it at least once, it starts machine gunning their board, and that is rather good. It's potentially better than Poly1 in that scenario.
But if you hypothetically had a format that could run any number of GB cards...
Alright, sounds a little scary. It's such a weird card. I'd also hate to see it equipped to keep toughness on it.
The only cards I think I'm going to run forever in my Golgari section are Pernicious Deed and The Gitrog Monster. Deed is just a valuable roleplayer and unique effect, while Gitrog is just so much fun to play and slots into just about everything I want to be doing in those colors. I think the most Golgari card I can think of is actually Meren of Clan Nel Toth as the poster child for BG grindy midrange strategies, but I despise experience counters. Way too clunky and uninteractable, just not a fun mechanic to play against or keep track of. If Meren just had a Gravedigger trigger on each of your endsteps it would be perfect to me.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
it doesn't have the old phantom prevention clause, so if it's got 0 counters an a moldervine cloak on it, it's just a regular old 3/3 that can fight. It'll die if it fights another 3/3
I think if you've got enough stats on equipment/auras on this thing to keep gunning down your opponents creatures with zero help from the card's natural stats, you might deserve the win