Tireless Tracker
Amazing card advantage that doubles as a threat with little to no work. Functioning as part Dark Confidant and part Goyf means it's a must answer threat anytime it's on the board. This is the reason I would hold fetchlands in my hand over playing them early if given the option.
Liliana of the Veil
A staple in any BGx deck and with good reason, the flexibility she offers in practically any matchup with the potential to lock up an opposing deck on her own. Untapping with this card on our side of the field puts us as a huge favorite to win.
Thoughtseize
Inquisition of Kozilek
Still the best hand disruption spells in the format. The bread and butter of B/G rock, this is how we win against most faster decks, which is almost every deck. This is our best turn one and often turn two.
Fatal Push
The most efficient removal spell BG has, although with the recent printing of card:Assassination Trophy, I am strongly considering running fewer of these in favor of more threats as I've seen fewer creature based decks over the past month. Still warrants testing and hopefully I'll figure it out by next week.
Collective Brutality
One of the single most efficient cards in the whole deck, this is probably the strongest tempo play you'll have. Modular cards have historically always been very strong and this has 3 very relevant effects. Playing one of these against burn will generally mean you're going to win that matchup. Something I've been struggling with is figuring out the right number of Brutalities between the main and the side. You generally don't want to draw more than one, but playing it once does a lot of work in most matchups.
Scavenging Ooze
Great 2-mana threat that also acts as disruption against graveyard decks with the potential of growing very large. Also awesome in mirrors and gets big very fast with the surge of creature-based match-ups. Currently running 2, but might go up to 3 in lieu of one of the Flayers.
Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Another large threat that can potentially come down very early against aggro matches and offer some welcome grind in midrange/control.
Grim Flayer
This is great and I think makes the deck run very smoothly. The ability to filter through the top of your deck to find what you need is great, especially in a deck like this where a lot of games will come down to who has the better top deck, this card will put you in a significantly better spot to close out the game. And the deck itself has a non-zero amount of use for it's graveyard, from recurring with
Tasigur, the Golden Fang
, to getting fodder for a bigger
Scavenging Ooze
. Even against GY hate though, this card remains relevant due to it's' filtering. I plan on running a split of this and Goyfs in the future when I eventually get those. However, I do stand by the fact that this card has more than earned it's keep in this deck and might be trimmed but not cut to accommodate Goyf.
Update: Upon further experimentation, I think 2
Grim Flayer
and 4
Tarmogoyf
has been doing some good work. But if there is a new 2 drop that warrants testing, these would be the first slot to look for cuts.
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Fantastic top-end that works great in grindy matchups, and mirrors. The Lifelink is actually relevant text and the card itself synergizes with the heavy removal package the deck runs. I used to have both in the mainboard, but Nissa has just been significantly better in just about every scenario. If you're worried about graveyard decks, you need to interact a lot earlier than turn 4, so you have to lean into your sideboard. But Nissa ends the game at a blistering pace while Kalitas drags it out.
SIDEBOARD
The sideboard for this deck is highly customizable and I find myself switching around any number of these for maybe-board cards often. Here's what I'm running right now anyway.
Damping Sphere
Great and cost efficient answer to Storm and Tron, which are pretty bad matchups for this deck. Recently with the rise of Phoenix (hah), this becomes even better.
Nissa, Vital Force
Wow is this card a beating. This comes down as a very high loyalty threat that ends games ridiculously fast. While not maindeck worthy after testing, Post sideboard against non-linear decks, this card will singlehandedly win you the game. I cannot stress how amazing each and every aspect of this card is. Recursion when you need it and reality smasher otherwise.
Duress
To side in against burn to keep the hand disruption in the deck abundant enough as we would side out Thoughtseize. May have been pushed out of relevance recently as that matchup really comes down to if you cast a
Collective Brutality
during the game. Still can do work against U/W control and tron, but I don't think that's enough to warrant an already strained sideboard.
Liliana, the Last Hope
Side this into matchups that are grindy/token decks
Lingering Souls
and have targets for this Lili but not the other. Great value and a powerful emblem means she can win games all by herself.
Nihil Spellbomb
Cheap and efficient Graveyard removal that can potentially cantrip. Basically everything a sideboard card wants to be.
Surgical Extraction
Card is pretty self explanatory. Comes in against spell-based combo decks and graveyard decks.
Creeping Corrosion
Something I've been testing out cause I've been seeing a lot of Hardened Scales around me recently. It might be some nonsense.
I'll be updating this work in progress over time.
