Hey,
For my last column of the daily series I didn’t have a subject yet as I hoped something would pop up to me while I was busy doing the others. It didn’t, so I settled for another Limited article, this time about the Golgari guild. If I had to make a list of what decks I like to draft in this format, I suppose it would look something like this:
Dimir Aggro
Selesnya Convoke
Dimir Mill
Golgari Aggro
Boros Aggro
Today I’ll discuss the Golgari Aggro deck but I think it’s one of the weaker decks to draft. It’s quite a deep guild because of both colors also being in another guild, so there will usually be only one or two players at the table not picking cards that could go into your deck (the Boros drafters). The cards that are good in Golgari decks are a little bit different from what’s good in Selesnya or Dimir though; Golgari is all about mana acceleration into a cheap fattie and some removal for any flying creatures. In a Selesnya deck, all cheap creatures function as mana acceleration anyway, and the Dimir Aggro deck has many early drops they’d rather have than a Signet. This means that you’ll be able to pick up a lot of Signets and a Golgari deck usually splashes White or Blue with the help of those. Here’s a list of the important commons in the deck sorted by their function and general quality (not including White and Blue cards):
Removal
Last Gasp
Brainspoil
Disembowel
This card disappointed me a lot. It’s so expensive that you often have to use it early on, especially when you’re not playing first since you won’t be able to kill a creature “on-curve” then.
Clinging Darkness
In a Dimir deck this might be better than Disembowel because your opponent won’t be able to chump block your flyers with the left-over creature, but in a Golgari deck it often prevents 4-5 damage.
Acceleration
Elves of Deep Shadow
Golgari Signet
Farseek
Small Creatures
Stinkweed Imp
The biggest problem with Golgari decks is a Dimir Aggro deck with lots of flyers, so the Stinkweed Imp is one of my favorite cards to have against such a deck. It’s risky sometimes to dredge it too often though, as a lot of Dimir Aggro decks have some random millstone-cards in there as well.
Civic Wayfinder
You don’t want to miss land drops early on as that’s when your big guys are the most effective, and it also helps a lot when you want to splash a third color, which is quite often.
Shambling Shell
Dimir House Guard
Mortipede
Sometimes you have lots of big guys but you can’t get past your opponent’s defense because there are only two or three common tricks that help you in combat, this acts as a finisher in such cases. Just as Shinen of Life’s Roar in the previous format, apart from its function as a finisher it combos very well with Strands of Undeath and Gaze of Gorgon.
Golgari Brownscale – I always like to have this in the deck or in the sideboard because it’s really good against Boros decks. Most of their creatures can’t get past this one and it’s hard to remove while it gains you some life, which can be crucial when you want to play around a late-game Incite Hysteria or Rally the Righteous.
Elvish Skysweeper – This is another guy I always like to have at least one of in the deck because it usually doesn’t have enough against opposing flyers.
Fatties
Golgari Rotwurm
Bramble Elemental
Siege Wurm
Greater Mossdog
Tricks
Strands of Undeath
This card has been great in the deck every time I had it – it combos quite well with Bramble Elemental and Mortipede while it helps you get through their defense. You might say that it’s not so good against Boros, but in the mid to late-game after a good draw from the Boros player, they will probably have few cards left in hand but one of them might be a finisher. Once you’re in control against Boros, you’re always afraid of Rally and Incite Hysteria and this can make sure they will have to topdeck those and not still have it in hand.
Gather Courage
Gaze of the Gorgon
Scatter the Seeds
I don’t like this card at all in the deck since it only accelerates into a Siege Wurm if anything, but if you’re splashing White this suddenly becomes a lot better for obvious reasons.
It’s always safe to draft Golgari as it is the deepest guild, but you’re also sharing the best cards with about five players at the table. This is why you want to open a pack with a lot of Boros cards in it so hopefully a few players will pick up those and you can safely move into Green/Black. Golgari is an easy guild to draft; most important to keep in mind is having a good mana curve and you shouldn’t get greedy by picking good creatures over mana acceleration you need. If it’s later in the draft; your creatures just aren’t as impressive as they would be a turn earlier.
That’s it for my daily series, I hope it was of some use to you. If you have any questions, post them in the forums and if you have any suggestions, please share them with me, especially interesting article topics since that’s what I usually have trouble with finding. Until next week, at least that’s what I intend.
-Julien