Need some help working a golgari zombie deck, I feel like the idea is there using 7 lord effects, tons of deathtouch and trample but I'm just not sure where to go with my current list:



So a couple notes.

The deck focuses on pumping the hell out of a deathtouch creature/viscera dragger(optional deathtouch with paragon)via lord effects then toppling through enemy defences with one of our trample spells. I also wanted it to be capable of doing some stall too if necessary so there is a surprising amount of draw power (viscera dragger being most of it and a wincon at the same time) and plenty of creature removal via deathtouch. I don't feel like the deck is optimal yet so any input here would be great.

Quest of the Gravelord is an autoinclude in your deck. big guy wich is a zombie. gets pumped by all lord effects and additional card draw from the muse. I don't think you need the beastmaster ascension really ..

Definitely thought of adding him when I first made the deck but Quest tends to be a really hit or miss card in decks I've run it before. The beastmaster has been great for ending the eventual stall wars but otherwise always felt overkill.

Also just had a thought, viscera dragger might give counters to quest, that would be a nice little interaction

-2 Beastmaster Ascension
+2 Quest for the Gravelord

It only gives a counter, if it trades. Because it will be removed from game and does not die itself

That is a shame but ah well. Quest seems to be going pretty good at least every time it hits 3 counters you can get a pretty good idea if your opponent has removal or not on top of the already awesome 5/5 (which hit 14/14 with Deathtouch+trample last game). Pulling his weight much better than beastmaster, thanks mate

This is my zombie / golgari deck, not much for artifact or enchantment removal but it is very strong.

I guess theres only two green spells, but I like it that way. I just love cultivate, and hunters prowess is great on deathtouch

I can't see the special synergie there between hunters prowess and deathtouch. Care to elaborate? Because the way i see it:
- If your deathtouch creature get's pumped high enough to roll over the enemy creature(s), deathtouch has no value
- if it doesn't get high enough and IS blocked, the card draw get's no value

The mechanics don't benefit in an extraordinary way, as hunters prowess does with unblockable creatures or creatures with player hit effects.

Furthermore i'm not sure if your 9 forests are needed for a total of 6 green symbols in your deck. Seems excessive.

I think Dredge Skeletons would have more value here than Walking Corpses.

On deathtouch and trample: the creature assigns one point of damage to each blocker, the rest of the damage hits the opponent. Right?

Correct left4doner - You only need to assign lethal damage to the blocking creature, with deathtouch lethal damage is 1. This leaves the rest to trample over regardless of the size of the blocker. Then obviously you draw lots of cards.

I have 13 sources of green mana because I need to get a cultivate off if it's in my starting hand, and I have never have a problem needing black mana. I just cultivate for two swamps every time

As far as drudge skeletons, I prefer walking corpses as they are just more aggressive. If I don't drop a hall or baron on turn 3, I'll drop a paragon turn 4, making walking corpse a 3/3 most times

Any other opinions appreciated, the basic idea was just to have fun with golgari zombies after all

I would just ditch Death Baron, the paragon and the hall to get more removal and Suffer the Past for a mana sink. You're winning with your demons/prowess anyway

Hmm i didn't know that and i had only 2 encounter with a trample deathtouch against me. One was solved with instant removal, the other with a blocker+cloudshift. The more you know.

Also if you block a creature with trample then cloudshift your creature (or they kill it) all of the damage goes through.

I was scrolling through my decks yesterday while planning some upcoming YouTube content and got to thinking about this one. The only real hole in the deck is the lack of ways to interact with what the opponent is doing outside of the lone Shadowborn Demon. Then I got to thinking about Treasured Find and how it will basically always be grabbing a creature out of the graveyard because the only non-creature cards are lands, Spawnings, and the Finds themselves. Then I thought about my Dimir build that uses Dead Reckoning to take large dudes out of the graveyard and kill things.

I'm going to test subbing in three copies of Dead Reckoning over the Treasured Finds in order to be more interactive at the cost of getting the card I want a turn later. Thoughts?

This actually sounds like a superb idea here!

I thought so too.

Just imagine bouncing that shadow-born back to the top, dealing 5 damage, casting it next turn, removing a threat. Yummmm


EDIT: Just updated your Golgari build in my client with the 3 reckonings and I must say it has come in very helpful two of the three matches I have played just now. (All were wins)

I am sure I would have lost the last one as it was a U/R killin build that had the t2 killin and t3 attacks after casting quicken and shock. Probably would have knocked me off next turn but luckily I had a plekka in graveyard and reckoning in hand, allowing me to kill his fiend and stall out until playing two plekkas to stabalize life and take control of the game.

Yeah, I think it's almost strictly better in this particular deck. I haven't lost with it since the swap, probably in the 8-0 range.

The Dead Reckoning + Shadowborn Demon combo is definitely worth it.

Although I personally think that completely dropping Treasured Find is a bad idea.

My Abzan Seance deck runs similarly to this. With a stupid amount of recursion (3x Reckoning, 2x Treasured Find, 2x Seance, 1x Gravedigger).

I actually think Dead Reckoning really wants to have Treasured Find along side it in a deck like this. Yeah, most of the time you are bringing creatures back with Treasured Find, so Reckoning is doing the same thing for you (albeit slower) AND providing you with removal.

Decks like this though generally tend to be light on removal though (to make room for their value creatures/engine cards) and in this case Treasured Find fills that roll quite nicely. Treasured Find not only gives you another means of pulling those big ETB fatties out of the yard, but also gives you a reliable way to recycle Dead Reckoning itself. Treasured Find is recursion for your creatures when you need it to be (which will be most of the time), but will also allow you to do stuff like bring back Reckoning after you have used it and/or pull it back from the yard in those scenarios where your self-mill decides to fill the yard with all your removal cards.

I actually had a game once where I killed an opponents entire HAND worth of creatures with the single copy of Shadowborn Demon and all the recursions effects. Cast Shadowborn, kill opponents creature. Next turn sac Shadowborn to itself, Reckoning to kill another creature and put Shadowborn on the top of the deck. Next turn draw Shadowborn, cast it, killing another creature. Next turn sac Shadowborn to itself, cast Treasured Find to bring Reckoning Back, cast Reckoning to kill creature and put Shadowborn on the top. Next turn draw Shadowborn, cast Shadowborn killing opponents creature. Next turn sac Shadowborn to itself, cast Seance, at opponents untap bring Shadowborn back with Seance killing another one of their creatures.

^^This sort of thing happens more often than you might expect in my Abzan Seance deck, I could see it working in a deck like this as well.

I agree with you, but I don't want less than 30 creatures. This deck can be the beatdown against slow decks, it fights aggro well because it doesn't mind trades at all, and it owns slow midrange decks. Treasured Find to grab Reckoning to kill something would only happen if I'm way behind, which is what can happen if you dilute your deck's threat density by including too many non-creature spells.

Spiders are basically unbeatable, and this deck can play aggro or midrange in the absence of the Spider plan. It's a ridiculous deck.