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I playtested multiple draw engines with a variety of styles to replace Dark Confidant. Surprisingly, Read the Bones pulled the best results - scrying to bottom helped 70-80% of the time and the immediate card draw (as opposed to on upkeep) won a few close games. A very underrated card, in my opinion.
A hell of a blocker and sometimes a great deck thinner, Courser of Kruphix is one of my first picks for most Gxx decks.
Scavenging Ooze acts as our Goyf and provides a bit of graveyard hate. Not the cheapest option, but still saves you $576.
Siege Rhino is a personal favorite and the only reason to play junk if you can't afford the higher end cards. Every time he comes out he causes problems for the opponent and each extra rhino that comes out subsequent to the first tends to be greeted with a groan. You won't regret a turn that you drop a rhino.
Qasali Pridemage is a bear with utility, what's not to like? It's not unheard of to use him as early game aggro in some patchups as well.
Duress and Funeral Charm aren't quite Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek but they save us $80 and $24 respectively and are arguably better in more specific situations. In a topdeck war, Funeral Charm can kill off Bob or force the opponent to discard at instant speed. Duress rarely grabs more than utility but it gives us intel which, really, is plenty for a one-drop. I'm yet to pull it off but I'm interested in the synergy between Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Funeral Charm's last ability.
Putrefy and Smother act as our budget Abrupt Decay saving us roughly $57. It can be rough versus enchantments and walkers but I'm never disappointed when I need some straight up creature removal.
Liliana of the Veil is a great walker but I absolutely will not be spending my money on her. That being said, I've taken a liking to both Garruk Relentless
and Sorin, Solemn Visitor. The versatility of each within a junk deck is impressive; I've never used the same walker for exactly the same thing in two games. We can kill mana dorks or utility creatures like
Prophet of Kruphix
, pump out some tokens, buff our creatures, or even just add some lifegain worth to some chumpblockers - namely Lingering Souls.
Path to Exile is just wonderful. Path's general intended goal is to remove a creature that maybe has indestructible, or dodges black/green, or whatever - but more often than not I find it making use of my own creatures targeted by spells that kill them or make them useless. At one point, I even used Path as a sort of manafixing mana-ramp into an army of Siege Rhino. Absolutely no complaints.
