Golgari Grave-Troll

Creature — Skeleton Troll

Golgari Grave-Troll enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it for each creature card in your graveyard.

{1}, Remove a +1/+1 counter from Golgari Grave-Troll: Regenerate Golgari Grave-Troll.

Dredge 6 (If you would draw a card, instead you may put exactly six cards from the top of your library into your graveyard. If you do, return this card form your graveyard to your hand. Otherwise draw a card.)

Combos

• Gitaxian Probe + Golgari Grave-Troll + Underworld Breach
• Golgari Grave-Troll + Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord + Splinterfright

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

koylucumert on dredging your own connive?

3 months ago

lets say I have a Golgari Grave-Troll on the battlefield with 3 black creatures. I cast Lethal Scheme by convoking with my 4 creatures, and targetting the troll. when it dies, can I replace its own connive with it dredging itself?

legendofa on Preordain in Modern

8 months ago

Turns out reinforcing Murktide is a stated goal of the unban.

"This is also part of a goal to give something back to Blue-Red Murktide, which was one of the most popular decks in the Modern metagame between the release of Modern Horizons 2 and The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth but has since fallen out of favor in part due to the release of Orcish Bowmasters."

https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/announcements/august-7-2023-banned-and-restricted-announcement

There are several other cards on the ban list that would support Izzet Murktide more, but I suspect they're being cautious. I'm getting the sense that this is a trial run for a large(r)-scale unbanning. I don't have anything to back that up, it just wouldn't surprise me if they start unbanning some of the less offensive cards more regularly going forward. (Rest well, Golgari Grave-Troll, Deathrite Shaman, Dread Return, and Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis. Your new life will come eventually.)

legendofa on Pattern Recognition #291 - Some …

8 months ago

Golgari Grave-Troll deserves a mention as the only card, as far as I know, to be banned twice in a format. It started on the preemptive Modern banlist, got unbanned in January 2015, and re-banned in January 2017 after Dredge, and graveyard decks in general, spiked.

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/deck-evolutions-modern-dredge is from November 2016, the height of Modern Dredge, and shows off just what a high enough Dredge number can do to a meta.

Another highlight is Lurrus of the Dream-Den being banned in Vintage on grounds of overuse, the first and only card to be banned like that. Since decks would only ever use one copy, restricting it would be pointless, but it immediately and dramatically took over the format, so it needed a response. That response was a completely calm and not at all panicky emergency ban one month after the card's release, followed by a complete rewrite of the Companion mechanic.

onlyjoking on Weak Sauce Graveyard

9 months ago

Consistency and Card Draw: Consider adding more ways to draw cards and increase the consistency of your deck. Cards like Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, or Read the Bones can help you dig through your deck and find the pieces you need.

Graveyard Interaction: Since you're interested in utilizing the graveyard, consider including cards that interact with the graveyard directly. Cards like Grisly Salvage or Mulch can help fill your graveyard and provide additional resources.

Removal and Interaction: It's important to have ways to interact with your opponent's creatures and disrupt their strategy. Cards like Murderous Rider, Fatal Push, or Eliminate can help you remove threats from the board.

Mana Base: Ensure that your mana base is consistent and allows you to cast your spells on time. Consider adding dual lands like Overgrown Tomb, Woodland Cemetery, or Blooming Marsh if they are within your budget.

Synergistic Cards: Look for cards that synergize well with your strategy. Cards like Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord or Golgari Grave-Troll can help you further utilize your graveyard and provide additional threats.

Deck Size and Card Choices: Consider reducing your deck size to 60 cards for increased consistency. This will help you draw your key cards more frequently. Evaluate each card in your deck and ensure that it directly contributes to your strategy.

Flarhoon13 on Dredgefall Windgrace (Land reanimation)

1 year ago

Lord Windgrace victory yesterday: Torment of Hailfire, x=21 copied with Wild Ricochet, so total x=42.

Turn 4 Stone-Seeder Hierophant, who untapped my lands from turn 5 Boundless Realms to cast World Shaper, making lots of clues via Tireless Tracker.

Turn sixish,God-Eternal Bontu sacrificed my lands, my clues and World Shaper (who immediately resurrected all my lands) and drew a buttload of cards. Stone-Seeder Hierophant untaps allowed me to meant also cast  In Garruk's Wake plus have mana leftover to sac clues and Constant Mists.

Rich used Selvala's Stampede to steal my World Shaper via Sepulchral Primordial after casting my In Garruk's Wake via Diluvian Primordial.

I cast Decimate to get World Shaper back in my graveyard for an amazing Golgari Grave-Troll fueled Twilight's Call. It resurrected God-Eternal Bontu who sacrificed my tapped lands, my clues and World Shaper again. God-Eternal Bontu drew me 25 cards, leaving mana up for Constant Mists to protect my commander alongside Thespian's Stage / Dark Depths combo via Ulvenwald Hydra. I untapped and ... you know the rest.

BishopAtavist on Abzan Graveyard Recursion Help

1 year ago

Gidgetimer I very much appreciate the attention and in-depth feedback you and multimedia have been giving this deck. This is my first deck, I started building it back in June. I will eventually slot in non-tap duals, but I'm on a fairly restrictive budget and don't have a large personal card pool to pull from yet.

I 100% agree about Crop Rotation. In this stage of the deck, it's doing nothing for me. I'm not sure I agree about it not being a dredge deck (yet). It's hard to know right now, but when I do get my Fauna Shaman Golgari Grave-Troll engine running, it feels pretty good. Fauna Shaman can tutor for Eternal Witness and Shigeki, Jukai Visionary and allow me to pull cards back from the yard, it might be a little slower than a cantrip, but the number of cards I have my pick from is much better than just peeling off the top of the deck.

Back to budget, I probably can't swing for Mesmeric Orb right now. I also eventually plan to swap out Diabolic Tutor for Vampiric Tutor, but I'm building at the speed of cash. I like Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire though and might be able to find a spot for that! I like that it also has the option to be used diplomatically if someone else has an answer to a bigger threat at the table.

I see the potential for mana dorks and I'm particularly keen on Elves of Deep Shadow. As far as one land per turn, If I get my Fauna Shaman engine going, I can be playing two lands per turn as early as turn 4. Of course, it's nice to have backup since getting the ideal opening hand and first two draws is very low.

multimedia there's a lot of good information in your post as well. Sun Titan seems really promising and a flash enabler would be great here too. I'll keep working this over in my mind and see what make sense!

BishopAtavist on Abzan Graveyard Recursion Help

1 year ago

Gidgetimer that is a fair question about Crop Rotation. At this point, it's there more for future upgrades. I was possibly going to pop a Cabal Coffers in the deck, since with Dryad of the Ilysian Grove on the field, every land would be a swamp. Now I would essentially just use it to swap a basic land for a dual or tri-land. Not it's highest function, but not the worst thing.

bushido_man96 I actually find that Ramunap Excavator works really well when I'm Dredging cards into the graveyard and skipping a draw step. Pretty much guarantees I don't miss a land drop, which is pretty critical when I'm trying to cast my commander for 7 (mutating). If Fauna Shaman is in my opening hand, the first card I grab is Golgari Grave-Troll then Ramunap, then Dryad. Ramunap and dryad let me pull 2 cards from the graveyard per turn, and the Grave troll's Dredge ability statistically puts just over 2 land cards in there each turn.

World Shaper is a backup to getting lands back from my graveyard, and he also fills the graveyard by milling three each time he attacks. I don't think that is at cross purposes with my goal. Zuran Orb I can see getting cut if I end up cutting Sanguine Bond. It isn't in my paper deck yet, but I thought Zuran Orb, World Shaper, and Sanguine Bond could make a pretty funny combo.

BishopAtavist on Abzan Graveyard Recursion Help

1 year ago

I think I need some more experienced minds to point me in the right direction with my Nethroi deck: Things That Are Not.

I thought I was in a decent spot with it, but then I got my ass handed to me 4 games in a row playing with some more experienced friends. My deck was just too slow to get things off the ground.

I determined that I needed to add in some Dredge and Self-Milling to sped up filling the graveyard. My biggest worry with those mechanics and strategies (which is why I avoided them until now) is that I can only recur creatures with Nethroi, not artifacts, enchantments, sorceries, etc.

My current strategy is to use Fauna Shaman and Golgari Grave-Troll to empty my library into the graveyard each turn. This has seemed to be pretty effective in playtesting, but the potentially issue is that I'm never actually drawing any new, non-creature cards.

I can use Eternal Witness to grab a card from the Yard or Bala Ged Recovery  ^Flip and I've thought about fitting in Glissa, the Traitor to pull some of the artifacts back out. but what else might you suggest? Would Magus of the Will be a decent option for this? Maybe Creeping Renaissance for Enchantments at least?

What would you cut to add these?