Golgari aggro on a budget!
PENDING COMPLETION (Open to suggestions)
I will be taking this to my local FNM this Friday and seeing how it does against the decks there. Will update afterwards.
Basically the way that this deck works is you put creatures on the board and give them counters thus making them stronger than they are. There's only one creature in here that costs more than 4 mana and Vraska costs 5, so nothing costs too much. There are a few fun things you can do with the mechanics laid out here and did I also mention lifelink?
It's relatively fast, especailly if you draw Elvish Mystic early on and you can do something pretty much every turn.
CARD CHOICES:
MAINBOARD:
Vraska the Unseen: Many reasons for this card, I think. The main reason is the -3 ability. It kills a creature, or a planeswalker, or an artifact.. You get the point. Plus, with the +1 ability it is pretty great at helping you get rid of creatures, which helps you attack.
Putrefy Cheap murder. Costs more mana than a card such as Doom Blade but it isn't limited to creatures that are not black, and it can also take care of artifacts for you.
Doom Blade: Cheaper murder spell than Putrefy. Pretty great unless you're against a black deck.
Bow of Nylea : Nothing wrong with some deathtouch, plus the ability to deal 2 damage to flying creatures. And a +1/+1 counter for two mana. Doubled if you have Corpsejack Menace on the field.
Corpsejack Menace: We're going to be powering up creatures. May as well make that twice as potent. Also it's a 4/4 for 4 mana!
Elvish Mystic: A really great card to have with this deck. Most of your creatures use four mana. This helps you get there by turn 3 instead of turn 4. It's also a weak card, and if you're not having mana problems you can discard it for Lotleth Troll.Then if you have Varolz, the Scar-Striped on the field, you can still use Elvish mystic for a +1/+1 counter. See? This card doesn't even matter where it's at. It's on the field? Awesome, you have a mana and you can also sacrifice it to keep Varolz, the Scar-Striped alive. It's in the graveyard? Great. Now you can use scavenge on Elvish Mystic to power up a creature. Have Corpsejack Menace on the field? Even better. That one mana cost scavenge just gave a creature +2/+2.
Lotleth Troll: Good for discarding cards and powering him up, providing you with synergy between Varolz, the Scar-Striped and Corpsejack Menace. This card is also the reason that I put Bow of Nylea into the deck. With deathtouch, he only has to deal 1 damage to a creature, then the rest goes through because of trample. Oh, and did I mention regenerate? Yes, he also keeps the counters when you regenerate him. Just hope your opponent doesn't have a spell that sends him back to your hand.
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord A powerful card if you have some things in your graveyard, or even if you don't. If you've scavenged all of your creatures in the graveyard, you can sacrifice a creature and deal that creatures' damage to the player. Let's say you attack with a powered up Lotleth Troll for 10. Now after he deals damage, sacrifice him and deal 10 more damage to the opponent. Bam. You win. It's a shame he can't sacrifice himself though!
Reaper of the Wilds: A powerful 4 mana drop. This creature can have deathtouch, which will help with any high defense creatures if you don't have Bow of Nylea on the field. Plus this creature cannot be sent back to your hand like Lotleth Troll, provided you kept two mana available. If this is on the field, power it up and make sure you always keep 2 mana available. Also, if an opponent does get a creature on the field, you either kill or destroy it, then you get to scry 1. If only it had trample!
Varolz, the Scar-Striped: You're trying to power up creatures. This lets you do it with any creature that has died. Don't have any creatures in your graveyard yet and someone tries to kill your Varolz? You're in luck! Sacrifice one, such as Elvish Mystic, to regenerate Varolz. Now you can use one mana to Scavenge Elvish Mystic, and if you have Corpsejack Menace on the field you get +2/2 to a creature. Talk about synergy. Nice. Also, scavenge cannot be countered, so.. That's always nice.
Golgari Charm Regenerate against Mizzium Mortar or get rid of that pesky
Claustrophobia
that's causing you neck pain.
Whip of Erebos Lifelink! We're going to have high damage creatures. Might as well make them heal us. Plus you can use the creatures in your graveyard in more ways. What fun!
Giant Adephage Basically a win condition in this card alone. A high mana cost, but if you're really desperate you can cast it for 4 mana. How is this possible? Lotleth Troll and Whip of Erebos. Example: With the Whip and the Troll on the field, and Giant Adephage in your hand, just discard it. Then use the 4 mana cost ability of the Whip to put him onto the battlefield with haste, attack your opponent, hit him, and you put a copy of Adephage onto the field. You lose the first one, but what does that matter? If you cast him, you'd only have 1 on that turn anyway. This also cannot be countered.
Duress: Getting rid of those pesky counters, or Mizzium Mortars, or planeswalkers!
That's it for the maindeck. Pretty simple, but I think it works pretty good. The cards I chose I thought work together pretty well, and overall there's a lot of synergy between everything.
Of course, what deck is complete without some extra cards on the side?
SIDEBOARD:
Gaze of Granite: Fighting a deck with a lot of 1-2 mana cost creatures and you can't destroy them all? Now you can! Also good against tokens,
Herald of Torment: This deck doesn't have any hope against flying if you can't use Doom Blade or Ultimate Price. This hopefully fixes that problem. Either you have the creature on the field or bestow it onto a stronger creature.
Jarad's Orders Meant to get a winning card like Giant Adephage, either into your hand or into the graveyard to use Whip of Erebos
Ranger's Guile
Early game protection from Shock or Lightning Bolt, etc.. You get the picture. Also protects a strong creature from Cyclonic Rift (if used on the single creature..)
Savage Summoning
: Just can't get your creatures out due to counters or something else? Here's your solution. Best case scenario, you have 5 mana against a counter or destroy deck. You wait until their end step, cast this and Reaper of the Wilds. Then it becomes your turn and you can make sure you save 2 mana to be able to make Reaper of the Wilds Hexproof.
Trestle Troll More options for blocking air combat. Bit expensive on the regeneration, but what can you do?
Dark Betrayal
Helps you against those black decks you'll be facing. Replace the Doom's in the deck with these.
That's it for the sideboard. Just a few options if you're running into tough situations throughout your travels.
MAYBEBOARD:
Underworld Connections This would be nice to have in the deck, but I don't want to go below 21 creatures or 8 instants. Although it would probably make it up in card draw. Still considering it.
Abrupt Decay Want to make this less budget? Add this.
Sylvan Caryatid two of these to replace half of the Elvish Mystics if you want to make it a little less budget. Keep some of the Elvish mystics for discarding to Lotleth Troll and for cheap scavenges.
Hero's Downfall Another more expensive option if you have the cash. Replace the Doom Blades and Ultimate Price.
Thoughtseize Non-budget version of Duress.
