Dross Golem

Artifact Creature — Golem

Affinity for Swamps (This spell costs (1) less to play for each Swamp you control.)

Fear

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
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (12)

Henchman31 on Notorious B: Ready to Die [Remastered]

2 years ago

Gattison: Thanks again for the tips on updating the decks. To celebrate getting out of quarantine, last night I took this deck to my LGS to test it out with the other Pauper players. I made some minor changes beforehand:

Lands: +2 Mortuary Mire, +2 Barren Moor Instants: +4 Deadly Dispute

Sideboard: 2 Nihil Spellbomb, 2 Sylvok Lifestaff, 3 Tragic Slip, 4 Dash Hopes, 2 Feed the Swarm, 2 Shrivel

We're normally a small group but that night we were only 4: myself, another Pauper regular, and two others who are very active in the competitive Modern league. We settled into 3 rounds and... oof: 5 losses, 1 win, and one undecided due to overtime. Here's how it went down:

Round 1: vs. BG Dredge/ Tortured Existence 0-2-0 Not a good matchup at all, I'm afraid. Spore Frog made the combat step irrelevant, Thoughtpicker Witch kept me drawing lands and exiling my answers, and saccing his chump blockers to the deck's namesake kept me from activating any beneficial death triggers. All my card-draw got shuffled to the bottom in both rounds and there wasn't much I could do until he got a couple Gurmag Angler out to end my misery. On a side note: I hate playing against Dredge almost as much as Blink or Tron--all of which are beloved in this local meta. Maybe it's just ze Germans -_-. I'm always on the lookout for answers against these.

Round 2: vs. UB Looting/Control 0-2-0 Things were looking hopeful while I was developing my board and he was just casting different versions of Preordain for the first few turns. His main beater turned out to be Shipwreck Sifters, which got uncomfortably swole thanks to repeatable looting. Dross Golem was a star in this round and almost killed him in the first match. However after sideboarding, his removal became much more aggressive and I wasn't even left with blockers. Missing answers and sigh card draw, he took it home with some beefy spirits.

Round 3: vs. Temur Cascade or Gruul Walls + Mulldrifter -_-' 1-1-1 This was a weird one: aggressively defending and ramping with Tinder Wall, Overgrown Battlement, and Tuktuk Rubblefort until he could cascade into Boarding Party and other beaters. By turn 3 he had at least 6 walls out, each with at least 3 toughness that brushed off anything I could turn sideways. We were both surprised when my card draw engine started working in match 2 and I could slap out my own beaters with multiple rituals and disputes in a single turn. While he was missing his {R} and Winding Way, I managed a Soulcage Fiend and Mortis Dogs by turn 2. After taking the 5-life hit from Dash Hopes twice, I had him on turn 5; clinching it with Howl from Beyond. Although the last round was undecided and he was prepared to kill me with hasty Pirates again, I was still pleased to pull off the primary wincon at least once.

Overall thoughts: This was my first outing with the deck so I still need to play it more to see the clear differences between the inherent weaknesses and my own misplays. I like aggressive decks and when this got going, I was down to clown. All-stars of the night were Mortis Dogs, Dross Golem, and especially Deadly Dispute. So much value. Add a dash or two of Dark Ritual and Sign in Blood in a single turn? chef's kiss That being said, I still think some adjustments are in order: First, that Mortuary Mire got to go. It slowed down the deployment of creatures and messed with my draws. Silly me. Unearth is much better recursion hands down. Second, sadly the goblins and newts must make room for another 1 or 2 Festering Mummy and a full set of Shambling Ghast. The latter does the same thing as the others but gives the option to ramp--which is especially relevant in my meta where creature decks are scarce. Third, better quicker removal? I left out Innocent Blood this time but either that or the asymmetrical Geth's Verdict could work. Fourth, mass removal or damage-dealing ala Crypt Rats or Pestilence? Sure, it would kill our forces but isn't that the point?

After looking at some other Suicide Black lists, I've seen what makes this deck unique and I'm still interested in making it work. I like the focus on death triggers and I'd love to find more ways to exploit them. Other creature-based lists use beaters like Guul Draz Vampire, Dauthi Slayer, and Carnophage to drop that life total to the floor. Pumping beaters like these and/or giving them lifelink seems appealing, but I'd like to stay true to the spirit of this deck as much as I can.

Sorry for the wall of text, I just wanted to get this all out now while it was still fresh. I hope this proves interesting to you or any others looking to try this deck out.

ThassaUpYo@ssa on Belzo, Demon Warlord

3 years ago

1. Pay 4{C}2{B} to cast Demonlord Belzenlok .

2. Exile any black card not necessary to the combo to cast Unmask on yourself discarding Phantasmagorian .

3. Discard Skirge Familiar , Dread Return , and any other non-combo card to return Phantasmagorian hand.

4. Cast Deepwood Legate for free. If none of your opponents control a Forest , you will need: one extra {B} and two additional activations of Phantasmagorian 's ability (discarding 6 non-combo cards) to be able to fully delve into Sibsig Muckdraggers . Sibsig Muckdraggers ’s trigger requires an additional creature be present in your graveyard in order to avoid returning Skirge Familiar to your hand. Dross Golem can also be used here in place of Deepwood Legate .

5. Cast Hollow One for free.

6. Flashback Dread Return by sacrificing Demonlord Belzenlok , Hollow One and Deepwood Legate to return Skirge Familiar to the battlefield.

7. Use Skirge Familiar 's ability to discard Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon , Lotus Guardian , Endling , Cinderhaze Wretch , and Dread to add 5{B}. -- Skirge Familiar can generate mana to cast Meteor Golem to deal with direct threats to the win condition.

8. Pay to cast Necrotic Ooze . If Necrotic Ooze gets countered, return it using Makeshift Mannequin or Sibsig Muckdraggers .

9. Pay to give Necrotic Ooze haste (courtesy of Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon ).

10. Tap Necrotic Ooze to add {B} (courtesy of Lotus Guardian ).

11. Pay to give Necrotic Ooze undying (courtesy of Endling ).

12. Alternate between Lotus Guardian 's and Cinderhaze Wretch 's abilities until Necrotic Ooze dies to add 2{B}. Once Necrotic Ooze comes back with a +1/+1 counter via undying, pay to give it haste and undying (again) then continue to alternate between Lotus Guardian 's and Cinderhaze Wretch 's abilities until Necrotic Ooze dies to add 4{B}. Repeat this process until you have infinite {B}.

--- Optional: Give Necrotic Ooze infinite +1/+1, haste, undying, menace, and deathtouch from Deepwood Legate , Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon , and Endling . Then use both of Cinderhaze Wretch 's abilities to make all your opponents discard their hands.

Finally, use the infinite {B} mana to cast Syr Konrad, the Grim , continue generating infinite mana with Necrotic Ooze , Cinderhaze Wretch , and Lotus Guardian , and bleed out all of your opponents from the infinite undying triggers. Syr Konrad, the Grim 's ability can also be used to mill everybody else at the table. Dread hitting the graveyard and immediately leaving will also trigger damage.

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Triskelion can also be discarded with Skirge Familiar and then reanimated using Living Death for an alternate win condition.

Caerwyn on Oblivion Engine

3 years ago

I agree that this card is trying to do too much. The last ability is absurdly broken, and way too easy to cause shenanigans with.

It is hard to evaluate its Affinity ability without seeing how good the other machines are; so you’d have to balance the entire creature type around affinity to be careful.

(Also, VampDemigod - Affinity can be for subtypes, such as with Dross Golem.)

CyborgAeon on Belzenlok, Godo's Ugly Cousin

5 years ago

I like to think of nether void as the old "somebody else's problem". While you build up your own game plan, you put great pressure on most other decks by dropping this. But you make a convincing argument- it's too parallel.

A list of all cards I know you could run: Avatar of Woe Curtains' Call Dross Golem Infernal Darkness

These are uhh... suboptimal. But avatar at least offers decent removal. I have to ask, what meta do you play this in?

mal099 on Bow to The Lich God (Budget Voltron+Infect)

5 years ago

I feel like most ways of making this deck faster would also make it riskier, but the additional risk could be worth it. A lot of decks don't run that much artifact hate, so Darksteel Relic might not do too much for you. Even if you removed it, you'd still have 8 indestructible artifacts, which is more than most other pieces of the combo, so it could be better in the side board to switch in in games with some serious artifact hate. If your opponent doesn't run any artifact removal, it's essentially a dead card. Instead, you could either have more Phyresis , or more artifacts that make a creature unblockable, or maybe Dross Golem - it has fear, is cheap for you to cast, and in a pinch, it's still an artifact (but a bit too easy to remove). You could also switch out some of the creature removal spells or the discard spells for more pieces of the combo.

MrCuddlefish on monob aggro

5 years ago

Also instead of two [Gurmag Angler] and two Relic of Progenitus in the side I would put two Nihil Spellbomb and one Dross Golem or Wall of Tanglecord (For blocking your opponents Gurmag Anglers or other big things) or Gravepurge or another piece of hate such as Doom Blade, Disfigure, Terror or Murder.

Darth_Savage on aetherborn-artifact deck

6 years ago

Hi hedgehog_henry,

Your deck is drawing almost exclusively from the standard card pool, but with the modern pool there are some cards which are direct upgrades. For example you have Workshop Assistant but Myr Retriever does the same thing and costs less to play. Another example would be Foundry Assembler, in a mono black deck with just swamps, why not play Dross Golem instead?

Your deck also seems to want to do two things, be Aetherborn tribal and be an artifact deck, that sort of schism tends to result in a less optimal deck. Which brings me to my next point, you aren't running 4x of any of your cards, not even an all star like Gifted Aetherborn, this means your deck will have little or no consistency over several games.

If you were wanting to go the black artifact route then; Vault Skirge, Phylactery Lich and possibly Scrapheap Scrounger, Glaze Fiend or Painsmith alongside Chief of the Foundry Ornithopter and Foundry Inspector this would give a reasonable artifact based aggro structure.

If on the other-hand you really want to do Aetherborn tribal then; Midnight Entourage, Adaptive Automaton, Weaponcraft Enthusiast and possibly Defiant Salvager and Flayer Husk alongside Aetherborn Marauder and Gifted Aetherborn, this is probably more mid-range than aggro, but it would be a start.

My last point is on removal, if a removal spell costs more than it isn't really viable. In mono-black on a budget use Victim of Night, Smother or Grasp of Darkness and if your not on a budget Fatal Push.

I hope that is of some help, have fun brewing your deck.

lachrymal on BG Ramp and +1/+1 Counters

6 years ago

Against Mono-Black Affinity (Budget)

Won Dice Roll

Draw Eternal Witness, Forest, Birds of Paradise, Birds of Paradise, Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord, Deadbridge Goliath, Slitherhead

Turn 1:Play Forest, Cast Birds of Paradise, pass

Play Swamp, Cast Memnite, Cast Vault Skirge (20 vs 18), pass

Turn 2:

Draw Primordial Hydra, Cast Birds of Paradise, Cast Slitherhead, pass

Play Swamp, Cast Duress, Could not discard, Attack with Vault Skirge and Memnite, Block Memnite (19 vs 19), pass

Turn 3:

Draw Overgrown Tomb, Play Overgrown Tomb, (16 vs 19), Cast Primordial Hydra, X=2, Scavenge Slitherhead to Primordial Hydra, pass

Play Swamp, Attack with Vault Skirge (18 vs 20), Cast Signal Pest, Cast Go for the Throat targeting Primordial Hydra, pass

Turn 4:

Draw Blessings of Nature, Cast Eternal Witness, Retrieve Primordial Hydra, Cast Blessings of Nature on Eternal Witness, pass

Attack with Vault Skirge and Signal Pest (16 vs 22), Cast Dross Golem, Play Darksteel Citadel, pass

Turn 5:

Draw Slitherhead, Cast Primordial Hydra X=2, Attack with Eternal Witness, Opponent does not block (16 vs 16), pass

Attack with Vault Skirge, Signal Pest and Dross Golem (10 vs 18), Cast Frogmite, Cast Bone Splinters, Sacrifices Frogmite, Targets Primordial Hydra, pass

Turn 6:Draw Corpsejack Menace, Cast Deadbridge Goliath, Attack with Eternal Witness (10 vs 12), pass

Attack with Vault Skirge, Signal Pest and Dross Golem (4 vs 12), Cast Salvage Slasher, pass

Turn 7:

Draw Putrefy, Cast Putrefy on Salvage Slasher (4 vs 1), I concede.

Thoughts: It performed a lot better that time. I didnt draw enough lands and my opponent had answers to my threats and hit hard.