Well I've tried White Weenie, Esper Control, Izzet Counter Burn, GW Tokens and Abzan Midrange. This Golgari midrange has my best win %. Thoughts?

3 x Merfolk Branchwalker
4 x Seekers' Squire
4 x Wildgrowth Walker

4 x Jadelight Ranger
1 x Plaguecrafter

4 x Ravenous Chupacabra
2 x Golgari Findbroker

3 x Find // Finality
2 x Assassin's Trophy
3 x Vraska's Contempt

1 x Vraska, Golgari Queen
1 x Vivien Reid
1 x Vraska, Relic Seeker

2 x Journey to Eternity

4 x Swamp
10 x Forest
3 x Memorial to Folly
4 x Overgrown Tomb
4 x Woodland Cemetery

I'd check out how useful the Assassin's Trophy really is and replace at least one of them with Ioni (can't remember the name, but Overgrowth makes a 1/1 insect when it comes into play) and maybe the replace the second one with The Eldest Reborn. Solid looking list.

I had Izoni in the original list I started from, but it always seemed winmore or useless because I didn't have enough board presence. I was running 2 Eldest Reborn and I see the value, but I'm not sold on it yet.

I agree from taking Trophy from a 4 of to a 2 of, but eliminating it all together? I don't know. There's so many targets for Vraska's Contempt. Almost want a 4 of for Contempt. But saving Trophy for PWs has been working. By then, giving them the extra mana doesn't hurt as bad.

I miss Maelstrom Pulse

I only mentioned removing Trophy since I rarely hear it being played while listening to people play at work. And I think most of the popular Golgari list I have heard are using Eldest Reborn as a 1-of since you can get into an infinite loop with the Findbroker late-game to shut your opponent down.

Didn't think of the infinite loop. It's just not a for sure option to clear a PW. Opponents usually have 2-3 creatures all game long against me.

How do you guys feel about Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar as a single? Nice recursion if you're flooding. Reach, Trample, keeps coming back unless exiled.

I thought he was a Maro Sorcerer and not an Elemental Avatar.

That was 20 years ago, now he's an avatar :-)

Ok so I went another direction and I'm loving this list. Much quicker and doesn't stall out like previous lists. Very strong on T4/5 with Llanowar on the board too. Nothing like having Izoni in hand and Doom Whisperer on the board. Drop 3-6 creatures in the grave real quick. And Doom and Carnage are not Legendary, so you can have multiple copies down.

4 x Llanowar Elves

4 x Merfolk Branchwalker
4 x Seekers' Squire

2 x Midnight Reaper
4 x Jadelight Ranger

4 x Ravenous Chupacabra
2 x Golgari Findbroker


3 x Doom Whisperer
1 x Izoni, Thousand-Eyed
2 x Carnage Tyrant

1 x Journey to Eternity

2 x Find // Finality
2 x Assassin's Trophy

2 x The Immortal Sun


8 x Forest
5 x Swamp
2 x Memorial to Folly
4 x Overgrown Tomb
4 x Woodland Cemetery

I think midrange Golgari is a very strong archetype. I've been aiming for the best possible configuration since open beta started. This is what I am currently playing in Arena Bo3:

Main:
4 Merfolk Branchwalker (XLN) 197
4 Wildgrowth Walker (XLN) 216
2 Assassin's Trophy (GRN) 152
3 Find // Finality (GRN) 225
4 Midnight Reaper (GRN) 77
4 Jadelight Ranger (RIX) 136
3 Ravenous Chupacabra (RIX) 82
3 Golgari Findbroker (GRN) 175
3 Vraska's Contempt (XLN) 129
2 The Eldest Reborn (DAR) 90
2 Carnage Tyrant (XLN) 179
2 The Immortal Sun (RIX) 180
4 Swamp (RIX) 194
9 Forest (RIX) 196
4 Overgrown Tomb (GRN) 253
4 Woodland Cemetery (DAR) 248
3 Memorial to Folly (DAR) 242

SB
4 Ritual of Soot (GRN) 84
1 Assassin's Trophy (GRN) 152
1 Carnage Tyrant (XLN) 179
4 Duress (M19) 94
1 Vraska's Contempt (XLN) 129
4 Deathgorge Scavenger (XLN) 184

Main decking Carnage Tyrant is very good against control (which is a large portion of the matchups, and I think will only be more prevalent in the coming time), but also against any Golgari based mirror. I opt to play 2x Immortal Sun instead of the many Planeswalkers, but that may change (but it's crazy when you drop it, very little artifact hate in current meta). The best 3-drop besides Jadelight Ranger certainly has to be Midnight Reaper, it's just a very good creature and rarely something you don't want to see in a match (and the life you lose is easily compensated by Wildgrowth Walker most of the time). I've had a few wipes against Jeskai control playing Cleansing Nova, but the Reaper just lets you draw yourself right back into the match. The sideboard is geared against aggro (Ritual of Soot), Control (Duress) and Izzet Phoenix (Deathgorge Scavenger, still have to test and see if this works).

I just ended a competitive constructed run with it in 5-1, I'll keep playing and fine tuning it some more coming weeks. Any comments are welcome!

My list is still evolving; atm it looks like this:

4 x Llanowar Elves

2 x Seeker's Squire
4 x Merfolk Branchwalker
2 x Wildgrowth Walker
1 x Cast Down
1 x Assassin's Trophy

2 x Midnight Reaper
1 x District Guide
3 x Jadelight Ranger

3 x Ravenous Chupacabra
2 x Golgari Findbroker
2 x Vraska's Contempt
1 x Vraska, Golgari Queen

2 x Vivien Reid

2 x Carnage Tyrant
2 x Vraska, Relic Seeker
3 x Find // Finality

1 x Memorial to Folly
6 x Swamp
8 x Forest
2 x Golgari Guildgate
3 x Overgrown Tomb
3 x Woodland Cemetery

Sideboard:
4 x Duress
2 x Wildgrowth Walker
1 x Assassin's Trophy
1 x Plaguecrafter
1 x Golden Demise
1 x Ritual of Soot
1 x Vraska, Golgari Queen
2 x Doom Whisperer
1 x The Eldest Reborn
1 x Izoni, Thousand-Eyed


The guildgates will be replaced with the better duals once I have them; not 100% sure whether I want the fourth Jadelight over the District Guide yet (District makes absolutely sure to hit not only a landdrop, but also the colour you need).
Currently I'm seeing very few Immortal Suns; if I end up seeing more I might include a Thrashing Brontodon (maybe 1 should be in the sideboard anyway).
Vraska, Golgari Queen has been good to me; killing anything CMC 3 or lower has value as has saccing lands (or 2/1s) for life and cards. She's not as powerful as the other Walkers, but it's much easier to get her with a Findbroker and play her the same turn, and it's much less awkward than drawing multiples of the same Walker that you can't really use. Also, the deck by nature supports a silver-bullet-approach very well.
Doom Whisperer is sideboard-only; he dies too quickly in too many matchups. When he's good, he's very good, though.
Same for The Eldest Reborn, which I found amazing in some matchups and WAY too slow in others.

Sideboard needs some more work (Izoni should be another Carnage Tyrant, maybe one Golgari Queen has to go for Thrashing Brontodon).

What about Golden Demise over Ritual of Soot? I see all the goldfish lists with both or just Demise. Soot kills half our creatures too. Granted we can bring them back.

I still wonder if Abzan is better. Gives us more SB options and mainboarding Knight of Autumn over Reaper.

And I love Wildgrowth Walker, but he never sticks around. Any other life gain creatures?

Golden Demise to me feels too situational. It may be better vs. token decks for sure. But I like how soot also catches Tempest Djin and Steel Leaf Champion, for example. There's also just too many weeny decks that run +1+1 effects. Also, many of our own creatures are (often) stuck at max. toughness 2, so it would make little difference, unless we got the cities blessing, which is quite rare I suppose.

What I do against decks heavy in creatures cc 1-3 is, board in Ritual of Soot, then try to play a bit sneaky. Start casting some explore creatures as needed to get the right lands and some early blocks. Then let them over extend for a bit, then Soot. This works best of course in the 1st round after sideboarding. As you said, we have many ways to bring our creatures back, also Midnight Reaper just allows us to draw a card for any creature that might die, which is also very good. Not just to recover from a Soot we may cast ourselves, but also against control if we can get it on the board, because they play with sweepers in their main board. I've won some matches partly thanks to that (and Carnage Tyrant, of course).

I am also testing out an Abzan version of this deck, with Knight of Autumn in the sideboard. The Knight is quite good, but best brought in when you know it's really needed. Against Djin it's nice (to destroy that Curious Obsession which cant be hexproofed!), also it is useful to gain life and block vs fast weeny decks. But in general, match 1, when we don't know yet what we face, the Reaper is just better in my opinion.

I have been playing on and off with a play set of Wildgrowth Walker, and I have to say the deck feels a lot more solid with them included, so for me it definitely sticks for now. To me it feels more important to run a set of those than, for example, a set of Llanowar Elves (which I have cut). Against very aggressive decks (like mono red) it rarely sticks, but if it eats a Lightnig Strike that's one less to the face, and again we can return it to our hand later. And if it does stick, its usually game over for them. All in all it increases the likelihood of beating aggro a lot.

I didn't see any reason to go Abzan. Autumn Knight isn't that good, because you have other ways of dealing with enchantments, gain life and a 4/3 for 3 isn't anything spectacular. On the other hand Sultai really transformed my GB deck into a real grinder that just out-values the opponents with recursion.

//Creatures (26):
3 Carnage Tyrant
2 Golgari Findbroker
4 Jadelight Ranger
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Merfolk Branchwalker
2 Midnight Reaper
2 Ravenous Chupacabra
2 Seekers' Squire
2 Wildgrowth Walker
1 District Guide

//Planeswalkers (4):
3 Vivien Reid
1 Karn, Scion of Urza

//Non-creature Spells (7):
3 Find // Finality
1 Cast Down
2 Vraska's Contempt
1 Assassin's Trophy

//Lands (23):
2 Memorial to Folly
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Woodland Cemetery
5 Swamp
8 Forest

//Sideboard (15):
1 Midnight Reaper
2 Wildgrowth Walker
2 Deathgorge Scavenger
4 Duress
2 Golden Demise
1 The Eldest Reborn
2 Necrotic Wound
1 Ravenous Chupacabra

My generic list, i think main deck +-settled for now(all lists looks pretty similar). Sideboard seems more fuzzy.

How do you handle monoU and UR Drakes with such scarce removal?

In last 20 matches in CC only 1 mono blue and 2 drakes for me 1-1 vs drakes, 1 loss to mono blue. I dont know, is it worth it to add more cheap removal main. Finished 3 leages 4-2 in a row. Not quite there. Losses (WR Angels, UR drakes, GW tokens, mono blue and 2 mono red.

I meet them more often, so I'm playing 1 or 2x cast down, 3x trophy, 2x contempt and 3x find//finality. I skip the Llanowars. On top of that 6 walkers. I'm not a fan of llanowars. Just my playstyle maybe, but I don't feel like I need the acceleration and topdecking hem late game...

I thought the same until I started playing them after seeing some Twitch coverage of GP Lille. A T5 Carny, or T4 Vivian, T3 karn and even a T2 3-drop is just very good tempo. It's how I beat other tempo decks without sideboard 1/2 of the time. I'm not 100% sure its the best way to go, but it certainly has it's merit! I'm playing something close to this now: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1431787#arena ... it just feels very solid.

I know, I play them in my stomp. A t2 steel leaf on play is gg pretty much, then t3 ferox