Golgari Graveyard Games (GGG)

You need to go back to the drawing board a little bit.  I'm not sure what you mean by "tuned" but your deck looks really inconsistent.

Here's some issues right off the top.

Land - way too few, even the most aggressive decks don't run less than 20 lands. You're deck tops out at 4 and has serious activated abilities to invest in.  You need a minimum of 23-24 lands.

8 Forest - 3
4 Overgrown Tomb
5 Swamp +4
+2 Golgari Guildgate
+4 Mutavault

Creatures - Deathrite shaman is not a standard card.  I know it's standard legal, but it's performance in the format is very lack luster.  You're counting on grisly/commune to get stuff in your yard to exile, but you also want to scavenge? these strategies are kind of counter productive.

I think this deck is more of an aggro deck.  You should really be looking at things like Experiment one and lotleth troll. A set of elvish mystics is okay to ramp to a 3 drop on turn 2, if you're playing dregmangler or something, or even corpse jack on turn 3.

Despite how it looks Jarad doesn't play well with scavenge and other exile mechanics from the yard.  You basically make him weaker every time you scavenge something unless you scavenge on to him.  You're better off just making bigger creatures with lotleth/exp 1/varolz. 

Slitherhead is just too weak.  The only reason you want it is to scavenge it and that means it does nothing for you on the board. 

You may or may not have enough devotion to turn on nylea. I don't know if the buff she provides enough reason to play her even at a 1 of.

Desecration demon.  Not really the right deck for desecration demon, he belongs in a control/midrange deck.

Honestly I think I'd cut all the ramp, unless you go big golgari aggro, kalonian, mystcutter.  Then maybe something like reaper of the wilds or desecration demon would also make more sense.  I thin your one drops want to be some combination of exp 1, tormented hero, rakdos cackler.

4 Deathrite Shaman
2 Elvish Mystic
4 Slitherhead
4 Scavenging Ooze
2 Sylvan Caryatid
3 Varolz, the Scar-Striped
4 Corpsejack Menace
2 Desecration Demon
2 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
1 Nylea, God of the Hunt

Spells - run grisly or commune not both.  (hint, grisly is the right answer in this deck). Drown in filth isn't what you  need here.

Abrupt decay hero's downfall, those are the cards you need to be running for removal.

The bow is unnecessary.  It's very flexible, but does a lot more work in a control or devotion shell.

4 Grisly Salvage
1 Bow of Nylea
4 Commune with the Gods
3 Doom Blade
3 Drown in Filth

Please try to keep in mind that I'm pointing these things out to help keep the deck consistent and on a plan. Like it or not you're on an aggro plan.  You're trying to kill people with aggressively costed creatures that can get in damage early but have enough resilience to stay in for the long game.  Scavenging ooze, varolze, corpse jack, are all aggro cards.  You could go "big" with these cards and do something like mystcutter hydra or kalonian hydra.  That chagnes the curve of the deck a little. But these counter doubling interactions are just cute and generally not considered consistent enough for really well rounded decks.

Last edited by elpablo (2013-11-07 19:11:06)

Please check back at that same link, I made a lot of changes.

Whoops, I guess I didn't remember which link i posted.

Anyway, here's the new one: http://deckbox.org/sets/532368#

I'm not sure you completely understand this deck, it's meant to build up to take one or two big shots. I use the Communes and Salvages to get into my deck and retrieve the nighthowlers/jarads/lotleths/land I need, then erect a big stick to hit someone with.

The ramp cards provide more creature bulk to feed those 3 and all the other creatures have abilities that could be useful in a pinch. If not? Oh well, every creature sent to the graveyard can make multiple things more powerful.

It powers up very quickly with a decent draw. Here: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/its-necromancy-nancy/ playtest it a bit.

Just dump things with gusto, it's a really fun deck.

I see now that I am a Johnny among Spikes here.

I don't know that I'd go that far.  I actually fall as more of a Johnny/Timmy mix than a Spike.  Hell, I tried to run elf-ball into Worldspine Wurm one week...  But, that being said, I have played around super competitive players (hardcore Spikes) long enough to recognize what is and isn't viable.  It's fun to come up with something different and have fun with it, but it's also no fun to just lose EVERY game.

I don't think you're too far off from a moderately competitive build, but here are some thoughts (on the correct build this time).

1) I think you would be MUCH better served trying to make this a mid-range deck as opposed to going an aggro plan.  That being said, Slitherhead really does you no good here.  You can afford to drop him.

2) I have to second El Pablo on the Undercity Informers as you aren't really wanting to mill yourself too much.  At current you can already dig pretty well with Grisly Salvage and similar spells.  So why waste a spot on something that requires you to sack a creature to even take advantage of?

3) Jarad is a REALLY underrated card that can get quite disgusting really quickly.  The issue; however, is that he does not possess trample.  Before rotation this was easy with Rancor (through which I had many a fun time against Tier 1 decks that didn't know how to deal with a threat that kept growing AND had trample).  His sack ability is also quite relevant... more on that in a moment.

4) On the one hand Nemesis of Mortals strikes me as a neat card to work with, but it's rather fragile.  Let's be honest, a lot of the time it will still be a 4 or 5 drop and even if you make it monstrous, it has no evasion, nor does it even have trample .  A 10/10 is cool, but if it can get chumped all day long, well, that's just no fun.

5) I'm of the belief that Nighthowler might have a build somewhere (he's in my build as a 3x).  The real strength to him will be to treat him as an aura and always bestow him before you go trying to cast him as a creature.  Keep that in mind when it comes to trying to decide whether or not to mulligan or not.

5) El Pablo is RIGHT ON about the removal.  You're sitting at the intersection of black and green, giving you access to perhaps the best suite of removal in the format - Abrupt Decay, Doom Blade, Ultimate Price, Devour Flesh, Putrefy, Hero's Downfall - and that's just to name a few.  At least a smattering of this stuff NEEDS to be in here in order for you to be competitive.

6) I'm also not sold that you need three different spells to dig.  Grisly Salvage should be sufficient as a 4x.  The issue with the other two is that they're actually working counter to one another.  Commune with the Gods is essentially mill yourself four and grab a land.  But Drown in Filth actually wants you to have lands in your yard.  Nevermind that you're still sitting at only 21 lands... so if you're grabbing all your lands with Salvage and Commune, where will the lands in the yard be for Drown to even do anything?

So some suggestions on where to go from here:

1) You have ramp creatures, but nothing to really ramp into.  You can either a) drop them for more independently useful creatures that fit your plan, or b) keep them and move to a more mid-range strategy - which means REALLY stocking up on big threat creatures like Reaper, Desecration Demon, Polukranos, etc.

2) Given the way the deck works and you're putting stuff in the yard, Whip of Erebos is pretty much a MUST to some degree.  While it removes things from the yard via its reanimation (somewhat counter to your strategy) but it can actually work with Jarad pretty well, pending you get to seven mana.  You can easily have Jarad lose one of his pumps to reanimate a sizable creature, swing, and then sack it before it exiles.  The lifelink for your entire team is also pretty good I hear.

3) You probably want some means of card draw.  The way that mid-range decks really shine is by generating more card advantage than the opponent, allowing them to simply do more and, in turn, winning the game.  Look at the mono-black devotion deck, for all the love given to Gray Merchant and whatnot, it is Underworld Connections that really makes that deck go.  Without it, well, they end up top-decking all day long and relying on luck that they don't just keep drawing lands like their opponents.  So to that end, Read the Bones or, if you have it, Underworld Connections are GREAT options here.  Sure, they cost life, but if you have the Whip, then you will easily gain more than you lose in the long run.  Garruk, Caller of Beasts could also be an option, although he might whiff a fair amount and might not work as much as you'd like (he's also pricey and costs six to play).

4) I talked about giving stuff trample to really help you get there.  The issue is that there isn't Rancor to help us here anymore... however, we do have an alternative - Nylea, God of the Hunt.  I'd say to run 2x of her - giving you a decent shot of getting one to give trample but she also doesn't have a bad shot at coming online care of most of the creatures giving at least one devotion to green.

5) This might just be me, but having seen how Pack Rat just takes over a lot of games for mono-black devotion, it might be worth it to put 2-3x of them in the build.

6) I'm not really sure I'm following much of your sideboard.  This will depend a lot on how competitive your FNMs are (I hope they're not as hardcore as El Pablo's), but you probably need to have a few cards for specific matchups.  How do you battle Mono-black devotion?  What about Mono-blue?  Mono-green devotion?  How about Esper Control?  Do you have cards to slide in against aggro matchups?  You need to build the sideboard thinking about what you might face from your opponents.  As it currently stands, it's essentially just a few cards you were thinking might make it into the MB but that didn't make the cut (which is fine, I used to make that mistake like many others).

Anywhom, it's better than it was and certainly would be more competitive, but I still don't think it's quite there for a competitive matchup.  Keep on tweaking, think up some combos, have a good time with it.  If you're okay with losing more than winning, go big and pull out some weird combos, but if you'd like to be competitive while also having some fun, you might want to stick a bit more to some of the format staples and such.

As a final note, how competitive is your FNM?

Good luck!

I think ty is right with the whip if you're feeding stuff into the yard. 

After thinking about it a bit, I think your issue here is your laser like focus on one plan.  You don't need to go all in on any given plan a better way to play is a well rounded strategy.  In a general sense this makes your deck as favored as possible in any given matchup while not laying down and taking it from the less favored matches. 

You're all in on the yard plan, the problem here is you'll run out of gas at some point and your creatures need to be able to stand on their own and you need to be able to top deck meaningful cards to add to your board or affect your opponents board.  A turn 5 informer on an empty board/hand doesn't do much, but a turn 5 varolz with a scavenging ooze or troll in the yard is suddenly a 4/4.  That's beefy threat even on turn 5.  and if you have a whip in play from the previous turn, 4/4 lifelink can get you back in the game.

I would caution you though.  things like whip and scavenge etc, will likely only be able to be used a couple times a game, and in general you won't be able to feed both.  So you should decide if you want to go aggro or big aggro.  Lotleth can feed things like scavenging ooze or varolz, where as with whip you'll want bigger creatures like kalonian hydra or abhorrent overlord.

Trust me when I say that Whip is an epic card.  I actually ran a home-brewed version of Mono-black devotion on Theros gameday that ran 4x Pack Rat, 2x Abhorrent Overlord, and 3x Whip of Erebos and I can say that the whip EASILY won three games for me alone and kept me in the Esper Control matchup for far longer than I should've been able to.  Even after he cleared out my threats, I was able to keep reanimating Desecration Demons and other pieces for lifegain.  Sure, they're one shot pieces, but a 6/6 flying lifelink for four?  If that's not Ball Lightning on steroids...  Being able to reanimate Abhorrent Overlord for some 10 odd harpies that stick around wasn't half bad either.

But all this is beside the point.  The input you're getting from all of us is good.  Don't think that we're piling on or tearing your ideas apart, it's just that we've all been there already.  I can't speak for the other guys but I haven't won any Grand Prix or Pro-Tour events (hell... I haven't even been to one), but when it comes to FNM, you do have to bring your A game if you hope to win.  The desire to build something different isn't a bad thing, if anything, it's part of what makes the game fun.  To me, deckbuilding is often more fun than actually playing the decks... When I first got back into the game (after a 15 year break), I had this strange notion that a deck centered around Slumbering Dragon would work... well... it didn't... by a long shot.  I don't think I won but a single game that entire FNM - and winning isn't everything, but it sure makes the deck more fun when you actually have a fighting chance.

It's looking a lot better.  I would still drop one Nighthowler and two copies of Commune with the Gods for three more lands, but otherwise it looks workable.  Give it a go.  There's no telling how it will perform until you playtest with it.

Took it to FNM: 0-4

Don't bother replying to this thread, I won't read it.