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Pauper Golgari Tortured Existence

Pauper BG (Golgari) Competitive Dredge Midrange Pauper Reanimator

yonyon2002

Upvote 7
7

Toolbox (17)

Lands (23)

Engine (13)

Diggers (7)

Sideboard

Other (15)

Hey! This is my very own Pauper Tortured Existence list. I built it after a lot of play-testing against a large verity of decks in the format and looking at lots of variations of the deck online. This is a very detailed description of the deck, and it is here to help you understand how to use it, and understand the role of each and every card in it and the special interactions all of them have with each other. I hope you'll enjoy reading this analysis and see why I made the card choices that I made to makes this deck the best I possibly could. So, let get started!

An Analysis to Golgari Existence

Golgari Tortex is a grindy midrange deck that looks to stall out the game and out-value the opponent by recasting a toolbox of creatures from the graveyard, utilizing and named after the powerful enchantment "Tortured Existence". This way, the deck can generate card advantage and board presence while hating out the opponent with efficient, recurable answers and taking a more controlling side that can beat even the most dedicated control decks.

The best match-up is against other midrange and most control decks. there are no unwinnable match-ups, though we can straggle against very fast aggro decks.

The deck has 4 types of cards: diggers, engine, toolbox and lands.
These cards are used to dig through the deck to find the important pieces and fill up your graveyard.

Vessel of Nascency - A super flexible card that is always relevant. Can find Tortured Existence early game and later dig for needed creatures or lands. Post Sideboard can be used to dig for Dead Weight, too.

Commune with the Gods - A bit less flexible than Vessel of Nascency, but gives you one more card to work with and costs less mana.

These cards are what makes the deck work. Without them the deck would just fall apart. When sideboarding, don't take out too many of them or else you'll hurt the core of the deck and its consistency. Don't be afraid to do so, but do it wisely. They are the beating heart of the deck!

Tortured Existence - The reason we are all here. This is the deck's most important card, which you want to play as early as possible. This card is how you get back the most important creatures from the graveyard and play them over and over again, making the graveyard a huge extension of your hand. This way you can get card advantage, board control and enable abilities like "Madness", which I wrote about it the section of Basking Rootwalla. You almost never want to board it out, especially if you are not familiar enough with this deck or the deck that you are playing against.

Stinkweed Imp - A very useful tool to get the deck going. Dredge 5 makes it easy to fill up the graveyard and a flying body with deathtouch makes it an excellent blocker.

Golgari Brownscale - Like Stinkweed, a dredger that helps us fuel the deck's engine. Dredge 2 isn't very impressive, but Brownscale gains us 2 life whenever it goes back to our hand from the graveyard - which means when dredging it back or using Tortured Existence to pull it. Very powerful against aggro, burn and some combo variants in the format. Two Brownscales can loop with one another plus Tortured Existence to read: pay black: gain 2 life (at instant speed).

Carrion Feeder - Carrion Feeder is a super synergistic card in the deck. Some lists run only one or two, but after play-testing I've seen the synergistic power of the card and I feel like three is the perfect number. Using Carrion Feeder, you can sacrifice your toolbox creatures, just to get them back and get their value again! It is especially good with Perilous Myr, because it lets you get its dying effect immediately. Another powerful interaction is with Crypt Rats. When activating Crypt Rats' ability, you can sacrifice all the creatures that are going to die anyways to its ability to Carrion Feeder, including Crypt Rats itself. Another reason why it's in the deck is that it lets you get creatures into the graveyard, and by that it starts the engine of Tortured Existence. And the last reason - It's a great finisher. Very easy, isn't it?

These cards are here to win you the game. Threats and resources - they are all here. Keep in mind that this part of the deck is build similarly to a Sideboard: This section of the deck contains the answers you have to the opponent, utility creatures that can be used over and over again using Tortured Existence to net card advantage, board presence and removal. Adjust it to your meta, so you can have the right answers at any time.

Battlefield Scrounger - A great overall finisher and blocker. Its main utility is to stop us from decking ourselves, and also comes in handy against mill decks like Creatureless Control and Turbo Fog.

Horror of the Broken Lands - This new toy from Amonkhet is a super powerful addition to the deck that brings a lot of utility to the table. First of all, it is our best finisher by far. A 4/4 body that grow at instant speed each time we cycle or discard a card, which we do a ton with this deck, is busted for 5 mana and easily outclasses most of the creatures in the format. Combine that with the fact that it can be cycled to draw cards, enable dredge and get a creature into the graveyard for Tortured Existence makes this card the perfect bomb for our deck.

Grave Scrabbler - This card is a must in any Tortured Existence deck. You almost always want to cast it for its madness cost, unless you are very desperate. Grave Scrabbler can give a huge card advantage, especially with a Carrion Feeder on the board - this way you can sacrifice and recast it over and over again. The way to use Grave Scrabbler is to discard it to Tortured Existence and then cast it with madness, netting you two cards for one.

Mesmeric Fiend - A great Mainboard answer to cards that we can't deal with once they are in play. The downside: you have to keep it alive. This is where Carrion Feeder comes in handy: When Mesmeric Fiend's enter the battlefield ability is on the stack, sacrifice it to Carrion Feeder - And the chosen target is now gone forever! In addition, Mesmeric Fiend will usually draw out counters and removal, which helps us resolve Tortured Existence and protect key creatures.

Faceless Butcher - My newest addition to the deck in response to the current meta. Can fight against bigger creatures like Gurmag Angler, big Eldrazi and Heroic threats. Like Mesmeric Fiend, can be sacrificed to Carrion Feeder with the trigger on the stack for a permanent exile effect. Note: If Butcher isn't used in combination with Feeder, it can still be helpful to remove auras and counters from creatures, and against decks that lack removal to answer it. Also, if the exiled creature has an ETB effect (Mulldrifter etc.) make sure that you can protect Butcher to prevent the opponent from getting extra value out of the exchange.

Fume Spitter - Fume Spitter is here as our form of removal. Just keep sacrificing and recasting it, sniping down pesky faeries and elves or slowly taking down a bigger threat. Also great with the one of Wickerbough Elder in the Sideboard, making it into a reusable removal.

Perilous Myr - Like Fume Spitter, Perilous Myr is used as a form of removal, or to deal the last points of damage. Has a great synergy with Carrion Feeder, which I wrote about in its section.

Crypt Rats - One of the best utility creatures in the deck. Can wipe the board and get read of the opponent's creatures. Don't worry about yours, you can easily get them back. Late game it can even take care of a Gurmag Angler... these are some scary rats. If you read closely, it is written that it also deals damage to both players in the process. This can be an up-side, as a way to deal the last points of damage, but this also means that you need to keep track of your life total. Another important thing is that Crypt Rats can be used as a win condition when there's a board stall: use Golgari Brownscale to get to a higher life total then your opponent and then us Crypt Rats as a Fireball to finish them off.

Spore Frog - Spore Frog is here to by as some time against creature based deck. Just keep recasting it and you'll be able to stall the game. Remember, it can't prevent direct damage so board it out when playing against non-creature based decks like burn or vine storm. Another nice thing about Spore Frog is that it can give us a creature in the graveyard to start discarding cards to Tortured Existence.

Tilling Treefolk - Tilling Treefolk can net some great value. Because the deck makes the player dump so many cards into the graveyard, you're probably going to have some lands in there too. This Treefolk is not only a nice blocker, but it also gets back up to two lands from your graveyard. This means that you're less likely to miss on land drops, especially if you have Carrion Feeder to keep recasting it. Dredging usually makes it hard for us to get enough lands, a problem that Treefolk solves easily.

Satyr Wayfinder - Like Tilling Treefolk, it helps you get lands and has a great synergy with Carrion Feeder. One hard decision you have to make when playing the deck is whether you want to dredge and fill your graveyard or rather draw and try to hit a land. Satyr Wayfinder lets you do both: it fills up the graveyard and finds us lands.

This is one of the most important parts of every Magic deck - the mana base. In this case, a two-colored Golgari one, in the Pauper format. So let's start with the basics (no pun intended):

3 Forest

9 Swamp

Now, if you look at the deck's stats, you see that there are, according to Tappedout.net, more green mana symboles than black mana symbols. So why more swamps? the answer is simple, but long:

This is a an example of the problem in TappedOut's color pie: take a look at the cards Tortured Existence and Crypt Rats. Both are vital to the deck and both require lots of black mana to activate. If you think about it, you want to activate Tortured Existence many times each turn and in the late game Crypt Rats for at list four, usually on the same turn you cast it to avoid creature removal that will kill Rats. And if you take a look at the cards Arrogant Wurm and Golgari Brownscale, both have two green mana symbols in their mana cost, when in reality you're almost never going to cast Brownscale, and almost always going to cast Wurm for its madness cost. So when the color pie says that there are 22 green symbols, its an effective 15 symbols - there are 3 Brownscales and 1 wurm, so its minus 6 + minus 1 symbols.

Let's move on to the non-basic lands. We've got 11:

Jungle Hollow - The Dragons of Tarkir block's common land cycle was a gift for Pauper players. These lands give you two needed colors, and you gain 1 life, a much needed up side for a land that enters the battlefield tapped. A full play set, our best land hands down.

Golgari Rot Farm - Produces both of our colors, and provides two lands in one, which means that effectively we have 25 lands in the deck. A slow way of getting card advantage and makes a 2 lander a much better keep. 3 copies, we don't want more then 1 in our opening hand.

Evolving Wilds - Here for color fixing and thinning the deck. Synergies with Tilling Treefolk.

Barren Moor and Tranquil Thicket - Can be cycled late game for cards, and enable dredge earlier. This is important to save dredgers from graveyard hate, so leave up mana in post Sideboard games or when playing against a black deck, these usually run Bojuka Bog Mainboard. These three also combo nicely with Tilling Treefolk, since they can be brought back from the grave for more card draw and dredging. Another option in this spot is Evolving Wilds.

Bojuka Bog - A popular inclusion nowadays. Being able to fight U/B Control, the mirror match, and other graveyard shenanigans Mainboard is well worth the spot in the deck, even with the downside of coming into play tapped.

I made this Sideboard with the current meta in mind, so adjust it to your own meta. Keep in mind that in this deck, creatures are better than any other spell. This is why, for example, Caustic Caterpillar is better here than Gleeful Sabotage, because it can be reused with the assistance of Tortured Existance

Spore Frog - Fog on a stick, great against decks that attack in for a lot of damage at one turn and go-wide strategies: Bogles, Heroic, Elves, Stompy, White Weenie, Izzet Blitz, Goblins, Burning Bush Zoo, Orzhov Extort, etc.

Gnaw to the Bone - Here against aggressive go-wide strategies: White Weenie, Goblins, Mono Blue Delver, Boros Monarch, Zombies, Stompy, Burning Bush Zoo, Orzhov Extort, etc. Flashback is great if we accidentally mill it.

Faerie Macabre - Uncounterable and recurable graveyard hate. Good against U/B control shells, the mirror match, other graveyard brews like BUG Morbid, etc. Also a flying blocker against Mono Blue Delver and Acid Trip.

Mesmeric Fiend - Great hand disruption against control, combo, and voltron builds, and against direct damage: Any control shell, Tron, Burn, Delver, Acid Trip, the mirror, Vinestorm, etc.

Caustic Caterpillar - Artifact and enchantment removal, also good against hate cards like Relic of Progenitus. Bring against: Affinity, Creatureless Control, Bogles, Heroic, the mirror, Turbo Fog, Acid Trip, Dimir Longbow, etc.

Wickerbough Elder - Great in all of the matches where Caustic Caterpillar shines, and a sizable blocker on the ground. Combos with Fume Spitter to create repetitive artifact and enchantment removal. Bring in against: All of the decks that Caustic Caterpillar is good against, and go-wide ground attackers like Goblins and Zoo.

Abyssal Gatekeeper - Another piece of removal against bigger creatures. Very handy against Tron, Bogles, Heroic etc.

Crypt Rats - Our trump card against swarm: Elves, Mono Blue Delver, Zombies, Goblins, Zoo, Boros Monarch, White Weenie, Stompy, Izzet Delver, Mono Black Control, Rebels, etc.

Entourage of Trest - Here against the Monarch strategies like Boros Monarch and Dimir Longbow, and also against grindy midrange match-ups and control for card advantage.

So that's it for the deck! Now before you go, let me give you a very important tip: when playing this deck, always keep at least one creature card in your hand, unless you have a dredger in your graveyard and you have the ability to dredge it. This lets you bring back an important creature in a pinch with Tortured Existance. Make sure to keep this in mind when playing!

I hope you enjoyed reading this analysis, and that now you know how to play the deck better and why I built the deck the way I did. I suggest you read the comments below for some more helpful information! Comments and suggestions are always welcome, thanks for reading, and enjoy playing this awesome, complex deck! See you next time!

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franjimen421 says... Edit Remove Edit Delete #1

Great deck! Although, there are few things which are important:

1) You may want to add the deck's hubs, so people looking for similar decks will be able to find it more easily. This can be done in the deck editing section, so look for it.

2) Personally, I feel that the fact that the deck is missing instants is really important. Are there any instants good enough for the deck to use (even in the sideboard)? I suggest you search for them, 'Cause as you know, being able to do things in your opponent's turn is critical, and is some of the best reasons why MTG is an evershifting game.

3) If you look at the deck's colour pie down below, you can see that you have a little more black mana sources than you need. Did it ever bothered you? If so, I suggest that you try finding the balance between the colors and the lands.

A very solid build. Congratulations! A +1 from me.

July 19, 2017 4:30 p.m.

yonyon2002 says... Edit Remove Edit Delete #2

Thank you very much franjimen421! I really hope that you will see my answer to your comment.

  1. I didn't know about the deck's hubs, so thanks a lot for telling me about it! After reading your comment I went and added a few things in that section.

  2. When I built this deck, I really wanted to add instants - things like combat tricks and removals. When I tried I came across a problem: considering the fact that once you can you want to start dredging, non-creature card that get into the graveyard this way can't be used, the deck doesn't have a way to get these cards back into your hand. I know, I can use cards with Flashback, but I preferred the cards that I have right now. If you want, it is possible to add cards like Chainer's Edict as additional instants. By the way, the activation of Tortured Existence and Madness can be done during the opponent's turn - a great way to get a dredger into your graveyard on their end step, or to madness in a creature like Arrogant Wurm during combat, before blockers for example.

  3. I know, there are more black sources on purpose. This is a an example of the problem in TappedOut's color pie: take a look at the cards Tortured Existence and Crypt Rats. Both cards are super important to the deck and both require lots of black mana to activate. If you think about it, you want to activate Tortured Existence many times each turn and in the late game Crypt Rats for at list four, usually on the same turn you cast it to avoid creature removal that will kill Rats. And if you take a look at the cards Arrogant Wurm and Golgari Brownscale, both have two green mana symbols in their mana cost, when in reality you're almost never going to cast Brownscale, and almost always going to cast Wurm for its madness cost. So when the color pie says that there are 22 green symbols, its an effective 15 symbols - there are 3 Brownscales and 1 wurm, so its minus 6 + minus 1 symbols.

I really appreciate your comment and upvote! it helps a lot, and I'm always happy to learn more and improve this precious deck. Thank you!

July 19, 2017 11:06 p.m.

franjimen421 says... Edit Remove Edit Delete #3

Thank you! Your explanation had my eyes clear. Didn't really thought a bought the colour pie like that, or about the madness.

You are more than invited to take a look at my decks, comment and such forth.

July 22, 2017 4:55 p.m.

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