Ultimate Golgari Guild Deck Challenge - Part 2

Deck Challenges

Dallie

25 June 2013

2661 views

Match-ups!

Hello TappedOut, Dallie here, with exciting news! The first Ultimate Guild Challenge, has gone on to the internal power struggle, with the first rounds of match-ups coming out as follows.

In order to have this move forward at a somewhat appropriate speed, I've decided that the first round, is played as a BO1 (this is due to the amazing turnout, and the days on end it would take for me to do BO3's for 18 matches).

The matches and brief summaries are below. I have probably made a few play errors somewhere, but all in all I think I played each deck to their fullest.

Round 1, matches!

GureiSeion (1) (UGC: Golgari Hunting) v Mstancea (0) (StinkWEED Imp Has DREADS)

The game started off evenly, with GureiSeion sticking a Birds of Paradise and mstancea finding a way to put a Deathrite Shaman on the board.

mstancea found a second Deathrite Shaman but some very unfortunate Dredges of a Darkblast, left him with no mana to spare.

Meanwhile GureiSeion had no mana issues, and he kept the pressure up with a Hunted Horror, then cast Crime / Punishment for 0, clearing the tokens off mstancea's board.

mstancea managed to stabilize the board with a recurring Stinkweed Imp, and applied pressure with one of his Shamans sweeping the graveyards of instants and sorceries.

However when GureiSeion topdecked a Desecration Demon on one turn, followed by a topdecked Putrefy the next, it was game over for Stinkweed Imp and friends.

LittleBlueHero (1) (Golgari Infestation) v MTG_Player (0) (Golgari-Challenge-Submission)

Both decks got off to an extremely slow start (seeing 4 Guildgates in a row on LittleBlueHero's side and 3 on MTG_Player's)

MTG_Player led of with a couple of Indrik Stomphowler followed by a Vulturous Zombie, and scavenged an Deadbridge Goliath onto the Bird, however LittleBlueHero had the Putrefy ready, and with a Varolz, the Scar-Striped on the board, he tricked one of the Indrik's with a Scavenge from Deadbridge Goliath onto a Lotleth Troll.

He then played a Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord, and scavenged ANOTHER Deathbridge Goliath onto the Lotleth Troll (now a 14/13), trampled over all the defenses of MTG_Player and sacrificed it for the game.

APPLE01DOJ (1) (golgari-build-vere-budget) v Narwek (0) (Golgari scavenger)

Narwek started with a good amount of threats, several Slitherheads and a T4 Desecration Demon; APPLE01DOJ sat on limited resources, but drew into a Vraska the Unseen to destroy the Demon. The pressure however, had already been put on, and APPLE01DOJ was down to 4 life.

A combined attack from a Lotleth Troll (with a counter from a scavenged Slitherhead) and a live Slitherhead finished off Vraska, and Narwek stuck another Desecration Demon, however this time, APPLE01DOJ sat on a Vulturous Zombie and was able to finish off the Demon the next turn with a Grisly Spectacle, adding 7 counters to the Bird.

With no other removal than Crime / Punishment and Drown in Filth (a particularly bad removal tool card against Vulturous Zombie), Narwek found no help in his deck, but 2 of his own copies of Vulturous Zombie.

After drawing a Putrefy, and the next turn, a Grisly Spectacle, and using them to remove the opposing Vulturous Zombies, the skies were wide open for APPLE01DOJ to swing for lethal.

JHermy (1) (guild-deck-challenge-golgari-by-jhermy v ninjadude159 (0) (Golgari Swarm)

ninjadude159 kept throwing cards into his graveyard, however his deck was not working with him (5 lands on one Stinkweed Imp, 4 on a Grisly Salvage). It wasn't until the mid-lategame that he was able to get some creatures in there for the dredging to begin.

However during this time, JHermy had been building up a single Lotleth Troll through his Varolz, the Scar-Striped, and whatever fattie ninjadude159 would throw down, would lose to JHermy discarding a creature to Lotleth Troll and scavenging it onto him.

With a seemlessly unrelenting stream of +1/+1 counters (The Troll grew to 17/16), even a pair of huge Golgari Grave-Trolls (12/12, and 8/8 respectively) wasn't enough to keep the regenerating trampling beast at bay for long.

It seemed as if tides would turn, when ninjadude159 topdecked the last copy of his Golgari Grave-Troll with 12 creatures in his graveyard, and a Corpsejack Menace on board, but a timely Crypt Incursion ended those shennanigans and ninjadude159 stared down lethal the next turn.

Cdawg44 (0) (The Golgari Swarm) v paulmorphy44 (1) (Corpsejack's budget deck)

Both decks started off evenly with copies of Slitherhead, however when Cdawg44 missed his 3rd land drop (deying him Black), he couldn't Abrupt Decay the opposing Lotleth Troll, when paulmorphy44 had tapped out for it.

From then on, the beats came on, rather one-sided, whilst Cdawg struggled to find ground, and rebuild his mana base. Some land did come his way, but it also did so for paulmorphy44 who could regenerate the troll several times each turn, rendering the earlier failed Abrupt Decay useless in Cdawg44's hand.

Cdawg44 rebuilt his board, sticking a Corpsejack Menace, a Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord and a remaining Slitherhead, but scavenging from paulmorphy44's side gained the Lotleth Troll too much power.

When paulmorphy44 played a Corpsejack Menace of his own, discarding and scavenging a Dreg Mangler, there was nothing Cdawg44 could do, but block with everything and die to trample damage.

DukeNicky (1) The Rot Farm v piedok (0) (my-answer)

piedok had an excellent start ramping, throwing down creatures, and applying early pressure to put DukeNicky down to 9 life, however as the game went on, and DukeNicky kept amassing creatures, piedok wasn't drawing enough creatures to keep up the pressure.

On DukeNicky's board, a regenerating Trestle Troll held down the fort, whilst Lotleth Troll and Slitherhead attacked, relatively undisturbed. A Jarad's Order from DukeNicky retrieved a Varolz, the Scar-Striped, who cleaned of piedok's Varolz, and suddenly the board was in DukeNicky's favor.

piedok who then sat on a single Indrik Stomphowler, (buffed to 9/9 in response to DukeNicky's Varolz), couldn't do much, staring down a 3/2 Lotleth Troll, a 5/5 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord, a Sluiceway Scorpion and a Savra, Queen of the Golgari.

DukeNicky went for the kill, sacrificing the Scorpion to Jarad, paid 2 life (and gained 2 life), and had piedok sacrifice his only defense, then charged down the alley, with the rest of his creatures.

IPyro92 (0) (Golgari Mix) v psychoza (1) (Grave Danger Ahead)

psychoza and IPyro92 exchanged blows with respectively a Dreg Mangler and a Lotleth Troll. However the throwdown of a Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord from IPyro92 put a dampener on the aggro play.

Each tried to rebuild from the Putrefys being thrown around (hitting psychoza's newly summoned Desecration Demon, and IPyro92's Jarad, in response]]).

A single Golgari Brownscale from psychoza kept him in the game, but Gaze of Granite for 3 followed by a Grave-Shell Scarab from [[IPyro92]9 swiftly switched the tables.

psychoza managed to rebuild with a [[Lotleth Troll], but by then, both players had fallen into the redzone. psychoza sat on 2 life, and the single lifepoint that IPyro92 had, kept him from playing Blood Scrivener (ironically the only card in his hand).

With 8 mana available, psychoza scavenged his Dreg Mangler onto Lotleth Troll, and topdecked a Slitherhead to discard and scavenge onto the troll.

With only a Grave-Shell Scarab and two tokens from Korozda Guildmage (that could've ended the game in [[Ipyro92]'s favour) on the battlefield for IPyro92, the 1 trample damage from The troll finished him off.

IronHead (0) (The Swarm Controls) v Riceeman (1) (Golgari-mation)

With just 13 creatures in IronHead's deck, it never really took off against Riceeman's deck.

After a [[Deathrite Shaman] removed a Stinkweed Imp from Riceeman's graveyard, Abrupt Decay came down to kill it of, and IronHead was left with a single Gatecreeper Vine.

The Vine died to a buffed Lotleth Troll that had been finding it's way through IronHead's defense for a few turns, until he found a Putrefy to deal with it.

However, by then it was Turn 7, and Riceeman stuck a Deadbridge Chant milling enough creatures into his graveyard, that he could swing for lethal on the next turn with an animated Svogthos, the Restless Tomb.

Darkness1835 (1) (Golgari Guild Challenge) v sewellius (0) (Treasured Golgari)

sewellius started of with a good lead on the mana, killing of Deathrite Shamans, as it was obvious that Darkness1835 was getting screwed. As the game progressed however, with Darkness1835 starting to hit land, he began to apply pressure, to sewellius, who at the same time was being flooded.

sewellius's tactic was to sacrifice his own creatures and gain advantage through Savra, Queen of the Golgari, and Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord, however seing only the Savra, and a bare minimum of sacrifice outlets (a single Golgari Guildmage) meant, that there was nothing to keep Darkness1835 from hitting him hard and fast.

A Vraska the Unseen hit the board for sewellius, and immediately killed of a Dreg Mangler that was applying beats, however that was scavenged onto a Lotleth Troll with mana open for regeneration a few turns later.

With Darkness1835 still at 18 life, and sewellius on 5 (and nothing on the board), sewellius topdecked a Treassured Find, used it to retrieve a Putrefy and kill of the troublesome [[Lotleth Troll].

However seeing nothing but land for the next two turns, meant that Darkness1835's lone Korozda Guildmage could finish off sewellius.

dcarpntr (1) (dcarpntrs-ultimate-golgari) v shadowfoxxx (0) (Farming)

Neither side was mana-starved nor flooded, but, when racing, Golgari Rot Farm, is not the land you want to draw, and shadowfoxxx got two copies, as his 3rd and 4th land drop, which hindered his speed a lot.

On the other side of the table dcarpntr threw down a Varolz, the Scar-Striped followed by a Desecration Demon, however an Ultimate Price swiftly took out the latter. He then followed with a Vulturous Zombie which soaked up the dead Desecration Demon, making it a 9/9.

Even though shadowfoxxx got down a Desecration Demon, dcarpntr could sacrifice Varolz, to tap it down, and then the next turn sacrifice a newly summoned Vulturous Zombie to keep the opposing demon tapped down.

With shadowfoxxx at 2 life, it didn't matter much, that he was able to throw down a Helldozer on his turn. dcarpntr drew a Stinkweed Imp and sacrificed that to tap down the demon, then swung for the win.

8bitJesus (1) (ultimate-guild-challenge-golgari-1) v solnox (0) (Golgari Swarm)

8bitJesus was stuck on 4 mana sources (3 land) for a while, whilst solnox was beating him down with a Dreg Mangler and a Lotleth Troll, with a Deathrite Shaman on the side.

But 8bitJesus was not going to go easy, he stuck a Desecration Demon which halted all damage, but the Deathrite Shaman's second ability, then a pair of Pack Rats.

Patiently, over the course of a few turns (and his life getting dangerously low) he built up a board, looking for the right moment to strike. When solnox put a [[Deadbridge Goliath] on the field sitting next to his Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord, with only 2 mana open, 8bitJesus made a rat token in response, and got passed the turn. Then he created another rat token, played a Drainpipe Vermin for the extra buff and swung with six 7/7 rats. solnox had no choice but to block everything (that had increased 3 power and toughness since last turn), and lose everything, taking nothing with him.

Having no boardwipe such as Crime / Punishment or Gaze of Granite in his deck, meant that it was impossible for solnox to clear up the board before 8bitJesus could swing for the win on the following turn.

killroy726 (0) (Here today Golgari the next) v Supersun (1) (A typical Golgari Deck)

killroy726 led off with an Experiment One followed by a Dreg Mangler and a Lotleth Troll, whilst Supersun could do nothing but ramp with a pair of Golgari Signets and two Birds of Paradise

The birds were cleared off by a Golgari Charm and it became a steep hill to climb when killroy726 dropped a Crypt Incursion, wiping Supersun's graveyard, and gaining 15 life.

killroy726 then dropped a Desecration Demon which on the following turn was chump blocked by another Birds of Paradise that Supersun had just played. On his own turn, Supersun hard-cast a Protean Hulk, sacrificed it to tap down the Desecration Demon, and tutored a Gleancrawler, which in turn retrieved the Hulk. From then on, every turn Supersun would play a creature, and combo his Hulk with the Gleancrawler, getting two creatures per turn. By tutoring up Deadbridge Goliaths, and scavenging them onto his Gleancrawler he soon made it big enough, that he could swing for unblockable lethal, using a Rogue's Passage.

KingSorin (0) (The Golgari Guild Challenge) v TheGreatBooster (1) (ravnica-revisited-the-swarm)

KingSorin got off to a very decent start with a regenrating blocker in his Lotleth Troll and a T4 Jarad's Order into a T5 Sisters of Stone Death of a Vigor Mortis, the momentum was quickly ended with a Putrefy dealing with the Sisters. KingSorin had another Putrefy for a Deadbridge Goliath, and the game stabilized a little, as the early aggressing wore off.

TheGreatBooster managed to keep up a steady stream of dredging which allowed him to get down a Corpsejack Menace and immediately give a Lotleth Troll +6/+6 by discarding two creatures, one of which was a Slitherhead. After that he played a Dreg Mangler and attacked, but KingSorin had the Putrefy ready.

When KingSorin didn't draw into any removal, TheGreatBooster scavenged the Deadbridge Goliath onto Corpsejack Menace giving it +10/+10.

A recurring Stinkweed Imp held KingSorin's attempts at aggression at bay, and each turn, one of KingSorin's creatures would be designated chump blocker against the Menace. The second copy of Putrefy from TheGreatBooster's deck eventually came to light and picked off the last regenerating Lotleth Troll standing between Corpsejack Menace and victory for TheGreatBooster.

AzrielBarakiel (0) (golgari-challenge-idea) v TheLameSauce (1) (Chant of the Necrosage)

AzrielBarakiel got the beats on Golgari style with an ever growing Lotleth Troll that TheLameSauce couldn't seem to get rid of, running only 2 Putrefy's didn't help him in this case.

He then dropped a Deathrite Shaman which kept clearing out instants for extra damage to TheLameSauce. When TheLameSauce dropped a Deadbridge Chant, AzrielBarakiel responded by throwing down a Loaming Shaman putting TheLameSauce's cards back into his library.

With the mana dorks that TheLameSauce had set up earlier (and not chumped the Lotleth Troll with), he was able to get down an Undercity Informer and a Gleancrawler, which began to clear out AzrielBarakiel's library. One of the first cards to go into the graveyard was Azriel's second copy of Loaming Shaman.

TheLameSauce's own Deathrite Shaman cleared out many creatures from Azriel Barakiel's graveyard, keeping TheLameSauce afloat whilst he sacrificed 4 creatures (one of which was a Balustrade Spy) per turn to mill Azriel..

The Lotleth Troll was stared down by a 6/6 Gleancrawler and it wasn't until AzrielBarakiel played an Empty the Catacombs gaining 5 creatures back, that he could start doing some damage. However by this time, AzrielBarakiel was down to a single card in his library.

The now 12/11 Lotleth Troll was blocked by 4 of TheLameSauce's creatures, leaving just the Undercity Informer, leaving TheLameSauce at 3 life. He sac'ed the Undercity Informer to itself, and passed the turn for the match.

KnightLife (1) (Golgari's Dark Ritual v TristanTaylorsVoice (0) (kill-all-the-things-ugc-2013)

TristanTaylorsVoice killed or had KnightLife himself sacrifice any early threat that came down, at Turn 3 he stuck an Underworld Connections onto a Swamp, and used it to gain further card advantage.

TristanTaylorsVoice drew 3 of his 4 Grave-Shell Scarab, and had them all down, just in time to protect against the ultimate from Vraske the Unseen, which KnightLife had been building up, taking advantage of the low creature count of TristanTaylorsVoice's deck. The tokens died, running two of them ran into a Grave-Shell Scarab and TristanTaylorsVoice drew a Devour Flesh off Underworld Connections to finish the 3rd one.

As his kill spells ran out, and drawing mostly land, even with the added draw from his - now - utility land, he used a Cremate to stop KnightLife from getting back a Varolz, the Scar-Striped through a Golgari Thug of a Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord.

KnightLife stuck two Corpsejack Menaces and scavenged a Deadbridge Goliath (put there by a Grisly Salvage), onto one of them Corpsejack Menace, gaining 20 counters. He then sacrificed it to the Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord for game.

Blakkhand (1) (Blakk's Golgari Challenge) v vault9 (0) (guild-war-golgari-bomb)

Blakkhand went first with a T1, Experiment One, a T2 Deathrite Shaman, and a T3Vinelasher Kudzu, which immediately grew to a 2/2 with his land drop.

This was beatdown was halted somewhat by a Putrefy and a T4 Corpsejack Menace, but Blakkhand kept spewing out creatures, and with no cheap roadblocks in vault9's deck, he fell behind.

After having removed a Putrefy with Deathrite Shaman at the end of vault9's turn, and a Dreg Mangler + a Bloodthirsted Skarrgan Pit-Skulk, Blakkhand sneaked just enough damage past vault9's defenses to win the game.

CaveShinobi (1) (Golgari Kounterfest) v zaddos (0) (GOlgari-Rottland)

CaveShinobi had an explosive start, and even with zaddos holding on to Golgari Charm and a [last gasp]], he couldn't keep CaveShinobi at bay.

CaveShinobi's first Lotleth Troll, survived an attempt to kill it with a Golgari Charm from zaddos by discarding another Lotleth Troll and a Hunted Horror.

It proceeded to bash in for 4 damage that turn, and he followed it up with a Dreg Mangler on T3, and T4, and T5. zaddos did use Last Gasp on the Lotleth Troll, but with no creatures to play, apart from a Hunted Troll, which would not have helped; zaddos soon fell to the trio of Dreg Manglers.

That is it for round 1 of the Ultimate Guild Challenge: Golgari!##

Congratulations to everyone who survived the first round, and good luck in the next rounds! These will be played BO3, and I will post the match type-ups as soon as possible.

Until then, take care, eat well, excersize, and play lots of magic!