G/B Rock

Modern BG (Golgari) Midrange Rock

BlackShadowWolf

Land (24)

• 1x Blast Zone
• 4x Blooming Marsh
• 3x Field of Ruin
• 2x Forest
• 2x Nurturing Peatland
• 2x Overgrown Tomb
• 4x Swamp
• 2x Treetop Village
• 4x Verdant Catacombs

Removal (8)

• 2x Abrupt Decay
• 2x Assassin's Trophy
• 4x Fatal Push

Discard (6)

• 4x Inquisition of Kozilek
• 2x Thoughtseize

Value (4)

• 3x Dark Confidant
• 1x Shadowspear

Threats (9)

• 3x Hexdrinker
• 4x Tarmogoyf
• 2x Tireless Tracker

GraveHate (4)

• 1x Nihil Spellbomb
• 3x Scavenging Ooze

Walkers (5)

• 4x Liliana of the Veil
• 1x Vivien, Champion of the Wilds

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Sideboard

Other (15)

• 1x Ashiok, Dream Render
• 1x Choke
• 1x Collective Brutality
• 2x Collector Ouphe
• 1x Damping Sphere
• 3x Fulminator Mage
• 1x Kitchen Finks
• 1x Maelstrom Pulse
• 1x Nihil Spellbomb
• 2x Plague Engineer
• 1x Vraska, Golgari Queen

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Maybeboard

Other (1)

• 1x Force of Vigor

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G/B Rock Metadata

Threats

Rock runs a fairly standard, and simple, threat package. Tarmogoyf and Tireless Tracker headline our threat board. That said, they are not the only threats we run. It just so happens that our other threats fit better into other categories. As far as numbers go, Goyf consumes 4 slots for itself, as it must. Any less, and it feels off. Tracker, however, has a reason for only holding 2 slots, and that is primarily because of Dark Confidant, which I will discuss further down.

Grave-Hate

Rock is one of the few lists that can actively mainboard grave-hate to fight decks like Dredge, Phoenix, and GDS. The obvious addition is Scavenging Ooze, which is all but a format staple in anyway. However, most Rock players choose to main some commbination of Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet and/or Nihil Spellbomb. This is because both cards provide some sort of value when used. That said, Kalitas is slightly more favoured as it is simply a value engine outside of being grave-hate, turning removal-based 1-for-1s into 2-for-1s with the token generation. As a result, where most lists would relegate Kalitas to the side, we make a place for her in the main.

Hand Hate

Between Inquisition of Kozilek and Thoughtseize, Rock has a pretty standard discard suite in comparison to most decks. There is definitely room to split Collective Brutality between the main and side, which enough Rock players do. However, this primarily applies to players who deal with Control and Burn heavy metas. If this isn't you, it's likely a 1 or 2-of in the side.

Value

Dark Confidant is the big value engine for the list. Thanks to a hypergeometric calculator, I can confirm that Bob has a 60.3% chance of flipping a land off the trigger, and a 68.3% chance of flipping a or cost. This equates to a fairly painless card advantage engine with a body. Given these numbers, I'm sure you can see why Bob has been considered an auto-include in Rock, despite the feels-bad of flipping a Tracker or Kalitas.

Removal

Rock runs an extensive removal suite, more so that most other decks in the format. We begin with a playset of Fatal Push, and 3 Assassin's Trophy. Between these two, we have some fairly versatile removal to deal with creatures and permanents in general. However, it doesn't hurt to have a little bit more, so most lists will add on an Abrupt Decay or something similar to cap off at 8 removal spells.

I have opted to go a little higher, and bring Maelstrom Pulse, and Liliana's Triumph into the list. Pulse is intended as a mainboard sweeper to deal with lists that go wide while Triumph is another attempt to squeeze in a potential 2-for-1.

Planeswalkers

Liliana of the Veil is the prime Planeswalker in the list, as a complete disruption engine to herself. The backbone of our list, you absolutely want to protect her as best you can, especially since her Triumph gains an added bonus with her on the board. Liliana, the Last Hope is another strong Planeswalker, acting as another value engine. Between her uptick and downtick, she is versatile enough to help you stick a threat on board, while keeping your opponent off the board.

Finally, Vivien, Champion of the Wilds is to provide utility, between adding powerful keywords to your existing threats, and digging for more threats. The most enticing point for me was her static ability, which allows us to circumvent the choice between playing a threat or holding up mana for removal.

Lands

Rock has a fairless painless manabase, with 7 of our 24 lands pinging us in one way or another. This means that we can definitely make room for Nurturing Peatland, which should theoretically prove powerful, as an almost costless draw.

Of course, Blast Zone is likely the card you're wondering about most, and I don't blame you. I found myself wanting to put my faith in it, less as a budget Engineered Explosives, and more as another opportunity to run a form of mainboard insurance. So far, it has proven it's worth, though it's not fun to have it sitting on , when the vast majority of your creatures cost .

The Sideboard

As we are already equipped with tools to tackle a myriad of match ups within our mainboard, our sideboard can focus on shoring up those match ups with pinpoint accuracy. I'll break down the non-standard choice I've made.

Ashiok, Dream Render is a pet choice that is intended to cover grindy graveyard games, as well as Amulet, Scapeshift, and Druid Combo to a certain degree.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	16 - 1 Mythic Rares 24 - 9 Rares 13 - 4 Uncommons 1 - 1 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	1.78
Tokens	Clue, Emblem Vraska, Golgari Queen