Saving the most interesting for last Tortured Existence is a powerhouse of a deck. A fringe player during the time of Frantic Storm mostly because it takes some time to get going this style of deck based around the one-mana enchantment is set up for long-game dominance. That being said the Golgari version has access to one of the best two-drops in Putrid Leech blunting attacks or going on the offense.

Tortured Existence decks revolve around the eponymous enchantment. With TE in play the graveyard becomes a tool box. This makes cards with Dredge like Stinkweed Imp and Golgari Brownscale incredibly valuable as they are fuel for tutoring and also provide more options in the bin—a TE with two Brownscales in the yard will also render it very difficult for an aggressive deck to punch through tapping a Swamp to gain two life.

Basking Rootwalla and Grave Scrabbler allow TE to get a creature back without actually losing one. In the case of Scrabbler paying 1BB gets a Morbid Plunder and a 2/2. Wild Mongrel and Vampire Hounds provide a way to fill the yard with creatures (or in the case of Mongrel extraneous Tortured Existences) and win through damage. Vampire Hounds can get especially nasty when combined with Grave Scrabbler and can sometimes win the game from nowhere.

Any Tortured Existence deck has to begin with four copies of the key enchantment—while the deck above can function without the namesake it does a poor impression of the Rock when operating without a full tank. After this the deck wants at least six Dredge cards four of which are Stinkweed Imp—in more aggressive metas a fourth Brownscale also makes sense. These are vital as they can help fill the yard while blunting assaults.

Grave Scrabbler is a must as it can provide such a huge swing in card advantage and tempo. While the above deck runs three I personally advocate four as chaining multiples together can prove quite annoying for anyone staring at the grinning Zombie. The only other mandatory creature is Vampire Hounds both as a win condition and discard outlet.

Every other slot in the deck is either mana protection or more likely a creature. The creatures are wholly dependent on what the expected field is which lends power to the deck. Aside from Mystical Teachings and Trinket Mage there are no great ways to tutor in Pauper. Tortured Existence breaks this rule provided you want to tutor for creatures. The only other key component is a way to consistently discard cards above and beyond the Hounds and TE.

Golgari is a logical guild for such a deck as both Wild Mongrel and Basking Rootwalla fit the theme well. That being said green lacks in taking creatures off the board and looking at the decks from the recent Premier Event creatures are all the rage. With that in mind here is a different take on Tortured Existence I have been testing: