If you manage to get hulk to go to yard without a sac out you can fetch phyrexian delver and a viscera seer/carrion feeder to hulk off

He doesn't need phyrexian delver - he has body snatcher in there already for that line.

hey cool deck - finally a i find a golgari hulk list that looks tight at all cards.

regardless that i wouldn't know what to replace those with - but have you thought aboutPeat Bog or Blood Pet ?

they are not particular better than other cards but could add more overall ramp or be faster than maybe priest of titania or wall of roots.bog's strenght imo is being compact ramp. the more aggressive a deck needs to mulligan the more i like them as it can be like a land and a dork turn 1 in one card.pet's strength is in the niche scenario that you need to fetch mana in your hulk lines like caustic caterpillar.

another thing to consider is Abrupt Decay:

uncounterable and cmc2 but

Beast Within hits leyline of the void, linvala, elesh norn and maybe others that might disrupt you.

Hey elfric, thanks for the feedback! On the subject of Peat Bog, I have considered adding in the charge lands (Hickory Woodlot as well), but recently, I have been running into numerous Blood Moon decks, and in those games, an extra swamp or forest makes all the difference. If your meta is different, I would suggest testing them out and seeing how they work for you. On Blood Pet, it has been itching for a spot for a while now, but there's just no card I would take out for it, you really need a critical mass of green creatures for Natural Order, and the deck is sitting just above that threshold. as for Beast Within, it is a great card, yes, but with access to black, there is cheaper creature removal such as Vendetta and Slaughter Pact to deal with Linvala, and due to how tight you will usually be running on mana, it just costs too much to make the cut.

damn quick answer sickrobot.

the detail about Abrupt Decayimo is you pay the more to not make it not be a Natural State but more flexible. so i just thought beast is even more flex.

i see you are 100% spot on about the deck. cheers

Have you considered running Xantid Swarm for extra protection?

Hey artichoker! I actually haven't really done much theorywork with Xantid Swarm or Hope of Ghirapur, althought I do have a reason for that. Generally, you are going to go turn 1 dork, turn 2 Varolz, turn 3 attempt a win. Trying to fit a 1 mana creature in on turns 1-2 can really hurt, and there's no way to give either haste in the deck, so they end up feeling very slow. Generally, the same spot that is filled by those can be filled by Autumn's Veil instead, which, while not a creature, has effective haste, as well as flash, so you can surprise blue players better. Thanks for the suggestion! They are definitely great cards, and have a spot in testing, they just don't make it into the deck right now.

Hey, this deck looks really cool. I had a struggle on choosing either Jarad or Gitrog as my Golgari commander but this deck changed my choice. Also, do you have any budget recommendations for more expensive cards as I don't have the biggest wallet?

Hey The_Llanowar_Elf, I've done a bit of playing around with budget versions of this deck, this is what I can recommend; For stuff like Bayou and any other expensive lands, I would replace them with Peat Bog and Hickory Woodlot first, then any after that with basics. For tutors, I would suggest trying to fit in more mana dorks that are not in the deck currently, such as Devoted Druid or Bloom Tender. Hope I could help.

Thanks for the response, I appreciate it, it's always cool see new things in cedh scene.

Heartless Summoning?

Works as your sac outlet for the ballista, makes hard casting hulk/mike a reality as well.

+1! The deck is beautiful!

Some suggestions:

• High Market, Phyrexian Tower - extra sacrifice outlets, the Tower especially good, because it provides speed. I understand that you already have a decent sacrifice outlet in commander zone, but it always good to have another one in reserve.
• Reflecting Pool
• I guess you avoid using Sensei's Divining Top because you have Library in the deck? I would recommend to use it even if that's the reason.
• Night's Whisper, Sign in Blood- decent draw spells for not running out of gas.

Hope it was helpful! I wish you good luck in making Varolz even more dangerous! :)

Hey Matrixxx999, great to see someone taking interest in card choices! I'll run over my reasonings for my exclusion of those card choices real quick, and I'll add them to the notable exclusions as well.

High Market, Phyrexian Tower: These look good at first glance, but there are some major downsides; first, for high market, it doesn't produce coloured mana, which you really want in this deck, and it's not actually that great of a sac outlet, only being a once-per-turn and giving nothing in return, I'd much rather be playing a coloured source in it's place. Second, for tower, I would totally run the card, if only it produced coloured mana without having to sacrifice a creature. Again, you really want coloured mana, and typically, you're only going to have 1 non-Varolz creature at a time, which you need to bank for pattern of rebirth and natural order, otherwise they become dead cards.

Reflecting Pool: I don't really need this in a 2-c deck, I'd rather play a basic, and have more resilience against blood moon

Sensei's Divining Top: Actually a bit slow for the deck, if you're going turn 1 dork -> turn 2 varolz, it doesn't afford you much time or mana to actually use it efficiently, it does smooth out every turn after those, but those are going to be the key turns when you're looking to have action in your mulligans

Night's Whisper, Sign in Blood: I actually highly suggest both of these for potential budget builds or more midrange builds, but because this is a budgetless build, I'd much rather be playing higher-powered draw like ad naus or necropotence, or just be playing tutors instead. You are also looking to win before running out of gas becomes an issue generally, so they're not as good here as they are in a Doomsday deck, because they can't serve the dual-purpose of cracking a pile.

Hope I cleared up those card decisions a bit!

You explained everything very clearly, I got you're point. Your opinion was useful for me too, so thanks.

Hey, great primer; Thank you for putting this together! I was thinking, for an even more budget version you could use Blood Artist + Melira, Sylvok Outcast + Rendclaw Trow for the combo package. Also, what do you think about Apprentice Necromancer?Thanks again

what do you do if we were to draw mickey? just discard and reanimate?

Hey Wurmlover, if Mikaeus is in your hand when you start the hulk combo, the following line will solve that problem;

Protean Hulk Trigger Resolves -> Get Body Snatcher and Golgari Thug -> Body Snatcher triggers, discard Mikaeus to pay for it -> Sacrifice Golgari Thug -> Golgari Thug Triggers, putting Mikaeus on top of the deck -> Sacrifice Body Snatcher to reanimate Protean Hulk -> Sacrifice Protean Hulk -> Protean Hulk Trigger Resolves -> Get Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Walking Ballista -> Win

Keep in mind, this information can be found in the primer under the Hulk Lines->Hulk Piles section, hope that helps!

oh ok. that makes sense. I looked under the hill lines section and didn't find it, so thats the only reason I asked

Ever thought of Summoner's Pact

Phyrexian_plague_rider459, unfortunately, in this build of the deck, summoner's pact doesn't actually grab any combo pieces, because you have no consistent or cheap way to cheat protean hulk into play from your hand, so summoner's pact is more often than not, just a dead slot.

Phyrexian_plague_rider459, due to recent changes to the philosophy of the deck, in an effort to solve long-standing problems, pact has been readded due to the increased number of live discard effects to use it well

Hey, I love the deck and have been trying out a more budget friendly version with my local playgroup. I regularly face a stax (Tana and Tymna player) and sometimes a dedicated counter spell deck (Ertai). I was thinking about adding phyrexian dreadnought and death's shadow as a way to pressure these players when im locked out of my combo. What do you think?

admack4242, generally, if you're locked out of the combo, it's going to be through grave hate anyway, which turns off both of those options, and even if they aren't turned off, you're still using slots that could be used to just play answers to whatever is locking you out of comboing.

Nantuko Tracer as budget alternative for Golgari Thug? For Mikaeus / Ballista stuck on hand scenario.

Ashriel

Unfortunately, Tracer needs to target as its trigger goes on the stack, so you have to target a card before you even get to discard for Body Snatcher, so it doesn't let you put the Mikaeus/Ballista back into the library.