After deciding to get back into Magic the Gathering in 2018 after nearly an 18 year gap meant I missed quite a lot. One of the many, many things I missed was the introduction and dominance of the guilds. Something I came face to face with when Guilds of Ravnica was announced. It was high time to jump in and go for a guild, the guild in question was………GOLGARI.
Not really having much of an idea about which guild I wanted to try out, I had to base my decision on my taste in decks that I’ve used before and since getting back into MTG that had been 2 mono coloured decks, a Mono green Big Stompy deck and a mono black burn or rather life drain deck. With this in mind it felt pretty much the simplest option to put the two colours together and go with Golgari. It helped that some of the cards I already had would become useful in the new deck build. Where to begin though. I did do a little bit of research and did see a few deck lists going round from some of the GP events and they did appeal to me but I also had reservations about copying and pasting someone else’s deck. I also wanted to use this deck and be more competitive at Friday Night Magic and Standard Showdown events so I decided that the only way to get to grips with the style and speed of the game was to dive in and build as close to one of the deck lists as I could.
So, onto the cards, I was missing quite a few so I hit up the friends at my local game store and on trading/buying sites to grab what I needed. Price was somewhat of an issue and at the time the cards used in the ‘Explore’ mechanic were pretty pricey. A set of Jadelight Rangers was quite a bit and to be honest, being pretty new to all the new mechanics and the way the game is played now, I didn’t fully appreciate the importance of that amount of card knowledge. Oh how I learnt quick! Without utilizing the ‘Explore’ package to its advantage and instead just putting bodies on the battlefield out of sequence just lead to many defeats. It took a while to realize that choosing what hit the battlefield in what order was far more important. The deck played very differently to my mono green stompy deck where you just threw the biggest threat in your hand at the battlefield and hopped it stuck before sending it in for all the damage you could do as quick as you could. Now as I said, Jadelight Rangers were out for a while due to price but the cheaper options of Merfolk Branchwalker and Seeker’s Squire helped fill the gap and proved pretty effective.
Another card to learn the importance of was ‘Midnight Reaper’. The old me just didn’t like the idea of having a creature on the battlefield that would do me damage. It felt too much like I was just helping the opponent win. Playing against friends showed me that although I had to be careful not to use too many and certainly not use them all on the battlefield at once, the card draw advantage far outweighed the small amount of damage. It is probably one of the most important lessons I’ve learnt in Magic the Gathering since coming back. The game has become so much faster than my old days that any kind of card draw or card advantage is essential to get an edge on your opponent. You can’t just sit and wait 5-6 turns until a usable card draws off the top in your upkeep. You sometimes have to force that draw and my god does it speed up your chances of winning. It’s now one of the most important aspects of a deck when considering what cards to use.
One good opportunity I got to exploit with the build of this deck was the chance to use a few different Planeswalkers. In the end I managed to slot in 5 cards from 3 different Planeswalkers. Vraska was an obvious add in a deck like this and in fact she makes 3 appearances, 2 copies of Vraska, Golgari Queen and 1 copy of Vraska, Relic Seeker. The first was obvious or at least it was to me. A way of drawing cards, a way of gaining (a small amount of) life and if by some miracle she was left to hit her maximum then a great way to close out the game with a win. Relic Seeker was a choice that although I liked, I didn’t want to bet the farm with so I only included 1 copy. The card has helped me win games on enough occasions that she has stayed in the main board. Each of her abilities is perfect for the deck and gives me lots of opportunities as long as it’s left on the board. The final Planeswalker was a must have, Vivien Reid was a necessary answer to aerial attack threats as well as artifact and enchantments, a great way to get card draw that you actually want in the way of finding the creatures you need when you need them and the third ability pretty much guarantees the win. 2 copies of her was a good fit although damned expensive compared to the other Planeswalkers included in the deck.
Lands were the next on the list to get right and again, another lesson was on the cards (pun somewhat intended). Getting the mix of lands right was really tricky and there’s far more to it than throwing in the same amount of forests and swamps. Getting the mana base takes some skill and when you add shock lands and guildgates etc. The same with Midnight Reaper, paying to use a land on turn one felt very odd as you are starting from a disadvantage. The realization that you are in fact giving yourself more options both in early and late game situations is another lesson that makes a big difference. It took a lot of time to get my mana base right and also the options of dealing with issues by using lands with different abilities like ‘Detection Tower’ and ‘Field of Ruin’. Both of these have spent time in both the main board and the sideboard depending on the likelihood of potential threats. Its quite a feeling you get when your mana base works perfectly, it takes a fair bit of work but I think I got there with this Golgari build.
On the subject of lands, I found an avenue to really indulge myself and the deck with the inclusion of some upgraded land cards. I had seen cards from the ‘Battle of Zendikar’ expansion that looked really good so I managed to pick up a load of those for next to nothing and they did make the deck look great but that wasn’t to be the end of the upgrading. Soon after buying those cards and sleeving them up, I was fortunate to come across the opportunity to buy a good few Jon Avon lands that blow all other land cards out of the water. They just seem to be the ultimate way to upgrade your basic lands and make the deck in play look so damn good. They might be a bit pricey but think of it this way, land cards are the only cards that don’t rotate out so no matter how long you play for, you can use them for as long as you like. I’m still in the process of picking more up for other deck builds so I can make them look as good as this Golgari deck feels to me now.
So after spending time putting this deck together and testing it, tweaking it, rebuilding it and questioning if the investment in certain cards was worth it, I finally got the whole deck together and got a chance to play it. I used this deck in multiple games at the local game store for FNM and a few Standard Showdown events and it fared pretty well. Considering the competition I was up against I felt that it really did well and helped me learn a lot about card interaction and how to spend time building a deck. It managed to place pretty well most of the time, there were some odd exceptions due to bad luck and bad card draw but that’s just the way it goes sometimes. Playing against friends it absolutely decimated the competition they put up for quite a while until the rebuild decks to directly deal with most of the threats that this deck was producing.
When Ravnica Allegiance arrived I looked through the cards available with the intention of using anything I could to make this deck stronger and competitive. I looked long and hard and to be honest there wasn’t much that I felt suited the deck, to be honest there was only one card which I thought would have any positive effect. Spawn of Mayhem was a card that I thought would fill in a much needed gap in the deck, the aerial assault side. The deck I was using had no aerial attacking creatures and depended on removal to deal with any aerial threats. Slotting 3 Spawn of Mayhem into the deck took some work but once in, they felt like a good fit and proved their worth straight away. It was a card and a creature that opponents weren’t expecting in the deck and therefore caused them some hassle in dealing with. Did it turn the Golgari build into an unstoppable force? Well no but it didn’t hurt it any so I kept them in. I like the card and it does have its uses. After all, a deck with no personal flavor or fun is not a deck I want to use.
Building and using this deck did exactly what I wanted it to. It taught me more about the game as well as keeping a fun play element that is needed in the game, something that some players loose sight of in their quest to be the best player in their groups. With this deck now in my collection, I feel I have something that can keep me competitive to a certain level until rotation happens in October, I can have fun with, tweaking here and there and generally have as a usable deck while I concentrate on building other new and different decks.
ManaTapped 