Well, I'm done for the weekend so I can't jinx anything anymore

I don't like text-based lists for Singleton for they are hard to read, so here are pictures:

for fun, some Selesnya tokens:

This is great fun when it works and not too bad either. I had a lot of success on friday and saturday with it and I'd give you stats, but the tracker doesn't work. Started yesterday with a 9-0 run and never lost more than 2 in a row. Overall somewhere between 60-70% wins. Today it failed me, though, so it was time for more power.. I mean, moar powah!


Not really fancy, but - unsurprisingly - this simply doesn't lose a regular game. I've only lost to mana (twice in the first four games actually, which made me correct the land count from 23 to 25) and to one super-nutty Mythic draw (Resplendent - Shalai - Lyra - Trostani ). Technically one loss doesn't fit either description, but there's always an exception
Record 12-6. Not technically higher than for Selesnya but 5 of those losses were pretty much non-games whereas Selesnya loses many games without cheap excuses like that. Once Golgari is set up for mana, the value feels unstoppable.

Wondering why your aren't running your Tendershoot in the Golgari build?
That card is a monster in Singleton, especially with Slimefoot which I noticed you didn't have either so I'm assuming you are shying away completely from tokens in that one.

Beast:
Because it is. Versatile little sob here. I do enjoy the longer games with token shenanigans I admit. Adding Demon of Catastrophes was a great idea that someone gave me earlier. Thanks.

1 x Llanowar Elves
12 x Forest
1 x Enter the Unknown
1 x Kraul Harpooner
1 x Saproling Migration
1 x Sporecrown Thallid
1 x Untamed Kavu
1 x Yavimaya Sapherd
1 x Beast Whisperer
1 x Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma
1 x Path of Discovery
1 x Spore Swarm
1 x Vine Mare
1 x Tendershoot Dryad
1 x Aggressive Mammoth
1 x Carnage Tyrant
1 x Pelakka Wurm
1 x Dead Weight
11 x Swamp
1 x Fungal Infection
1 x Vicious Offering
1 x Deathbloom Thallid
1 x Murder
1 x Skymarch Bloodletter
1 x Ravenous Chupacabra
1 x Rite of Belzenlok
1 x Vraska's Contempt
1 x Twilight Prophet
1 x Doom Whisperer
1 x Verdant Force
1 x Slimefoot, the Stowaway
1 x Poison-Tip Archer
1 x Vraska, Relic Seeker
1 x Woodland Cemetery
1 x Vona's Hunger
1 x Vivien Reid
1 x Plaguecrafter
1 x Demon of Catastrophes
1 x Rise from the Grave

Oh, you're right
The Tendershoot Dryad should be in and I didn't know it wasn't when I played. My experience is like yours in that it is the decisive factor in many games.

Slimefoot, well, I thought about his omission post-play already and he might be more relevant than Plague Mare or Dire Fleet Poisoner. But Golgari can do better than Slimefoot shenanigans imo. There's more power in the individual cards. He'd be good in the synergistic Selesnya deck. It's certainly not a lack of copies after DOM Draft The cards I lack are Vivien, Izoni and Trophy.

You kind of try what I do in Selesnya: synergistic swarm approach. But like I said, I think Golgari doesn't need to rely on cute synergies, which is good for the inherent lack of consistency in Singleton. Cards like Spore Swarm are rather sad on their own. I removed it from my Selesnya deck for that reason.

And you seem to lack a lot of cards from DOM and GRN. Do you not draft? I understand all the mediocre Saproling cards, but what I don't understand at all is Skymarch Bloodletter. What about lands? 23 basics? Do you feel them coming untapped into play is that relevant in this slow format? I run every version of duals, the Memorials and Arch of Orazca.

Yah I'm not doing much drafting at all. As for Skymarch... what can I say? I like the flying and I like the ping both ways. I do run out saprolings very often so Slimefoot and even Spore Swarm tend to come in really handy. Last thing I guess is that I have a real high win rate and really enjoy playing the deck and that's all you can really ask of a deck right?

Whats singleton "Tier 1" decks?

Yep, for me Golgari is the best for singleton too

Finally I managed to have a run without the game freezing more than once, and I had time to reboot the client before losing too much time that only time:



First time I manage a clear 5-0, me thinks

Cards that I play and you don't are: Gift of Paradise, Golgari Locket and Chromatic Lantern, cause I hate to lack the double colors, and I have found that acceleration in Golgari always pay off...allows me to play 24 lands and still have plenty of mana

Ritual of Soot and Golden Demise, because fast agro, be it Boros, or monowhite/red, is one of the few shells that can beat me through pure speed...against any midrange I'm confident to win, except the most busted Jeskai/Izzet/Grixis draws with early Ral/Niv-Mizzet + counters or something like that

Ripjaw Raptor cause card advantage and a good blocker, survives a lot of things...Pilfering Imp has been key, no life-loss Thoughtseize + sometimes 1 key blocking in the air to protect PWs, I can't recommend the little chap enough...which is the reason I play Caligo Skin-Witch too, almost always for 6cc, it's beatiful to make opponents discard their bombs, lol

Price of Fame, good instant removal which half the time cost 2cc, and the surveil is way better than it seems when the name of the game is out-value the opponent...same reason why I play Open the Graves, which has been pretty awesome, to my surprise, makes me feel better about the sweepers too

Those are all the cards I play and that are absent from your lists

Build this mythic/rare golgari to practice before "singletone chalengle"
//Creatures (21):
1 Demonlord Belzenlok
1 Elfhame Druid
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Jadelight Ranger
1 Ravenous Chupacabra
1 Tendershoot Dryad
1 Tetzimoc, Primal Death
1 Thrashing Brontodon
1 Twilight Prophet
1 Merfolk Branchwalker
1 Carnage Tyrant
1 Isareth the Awakener
1 Plague Mare
1 Druid of the Cowl
1 Dryad Greenseeker
1 Doom Whisperer
1 Midnight Reaper
1 District Guide
1 Golgari Findbroker
1 Izoni, Thousand-Eyed
1 Underrealm Lich

//Planeswalkers (4):
1 Karn, Scion of Urza
1 Vraska, Relic Seeker
1 Vivien Reid
1 Vraska, Golgari Queen

//Non-creature Spells (11):
1 Cast Down
1 The Eldest Reborn
1 Azor's Gateway
1 The Immortal Sun
1 Treasure Map
1 Vraska's Contempt
1 Arguel's Blood Fast
1 Murder
1 Assassin's Trophy
1 Find // Finality
1 Status // Statue

//Lands (24):
1 Memorial to Folly
1 Memorial to Unity
1 Woodland Cemetery
8 Swamp
10 Forest
1 Foul Orchard
1 Golgari Guildgate
1 Overgrown Tomb

Any suggestion?

Maybe a bit lacky in early removal, just Cast Down and Thropy, which I don't like at all to kill cheap creatures...Adanto Vanguard can be a problem, that's why I have 4 ways to kill them for 1-3 CC...but looks good anyway, imho

This is my list, for some reason I can't see the 1CC column...sigh...:



As you can see, very removal heavy, arguabilty even too much, with 3 sweepers + 8 point removal + 4 more removal (the 3PWs plus the Eldest reborn) but that's what I have found gives me the best result

Also, Vine Mare is MPV, hexproof is huge in singleton and Tyrant too expensive half the time, I really recommend playing it

Thanks for your PoV, here are my thoughts on those choices.


I used to run Lockets in previous iterations, but ended up cutting it because it felt simply inferior to the remaining 3-drops. Also I don't necessarily want to ramp from 3 to 5 - you take a turn off and there's so much quality on 4 cmc anyway. I "solved" my mana issues by playing a safe amount of lands. The other two cards are just weaker versions of Locket in this context for they do the same and can't be cashed in for cards.



Haven't played Singleton for a while, but I never felt aggro to be a real threat. Sure in theory they can curve out just like in Standard, but in practice they usually lack gas to finish the job before the bigger deck takes over. They need consistency, their 2/1 on 1 and not some random 1/1 replacement - to give only one example. Singleton is the opposite of consistency. That's why I consider Golgari the best - strongest individual card quality. What was the meta during this week? Back when I posted these decks, it was mostly Golgari mirrors where those sweepers don't help.



I can get behind the Imp, stealing a card without blue mana that can also be a flying body. The Dino is a good card but I don't think it's too relevant for the same reasons the sweepers aren't: Aggro isn't (wasn't?) much of a factor. And other decks don't trigger Enrage, that's supposed to be your job and you can't. Caligo is one of my DOM Draft favorites, but I like every other 6-drop better and for 2 she's just not relevant.


Price of Fame is fine. Open the Graves on the other hand is too weak imo without some dedicated engine. Fueling it only via natural combat isn't supposed to provide many Zombies. To me it's a much weaker version of Divine Visitation. But unlike Selesnya, Golgari can make do without synergies.

Not saying your choices are wrong though, just what I think of them and why I didn't run them. If I were to run Singleton again, I would add some bombs that I acquired in the meantime or simply forgot to include. Like Vivien or Tendershoot Dryad.

edit: Thinking about it, we should make some crappy jank deck featuring Open the Graves, the one that makes bats and Divine Visitation

Orzhov is one of my fav guilds, I can't wait to brew it in next expansion

You are probably right with the ramp, is that I got sick of not being able to cast my double color spells, lol...tho our 5-6cc are so good in singleton that getting there a turn earlier is quite powerful...another factor for me is that I lack some of the best 3CC, like Midnight Reaper or Journey, both of which I'd certainly play, and I wanted a more smooth curve

The sweepers were a concesion to the amount of Boros and Monowhite I was facing, quite a lot, and the occasional Selesnya...but I admit I probably should cut Soot...Demise, on the other hand, allows you to kill Vanguards...and Mares and Nightveil Predators post-combat, all of them a pita

Raptor and Open the G look odd, yep...their inclusion came from playtesting, not from them making any sense, lol...I have found that Raptor totally stalls the board, which is something we really want, being our late game so strong...or eats prime removal, which makes our 5-6 CC bombs even better. OtG probably wouldn't pass the cut if I take out Soot. I love Findbroker, but again, a chain of games with mana issues made me cut it out of butthurt and overreact with the ramp/fixing haha

The Witch was an admitely poor answer to Niv-Miz, Tyrants and the other high CC spells that were giving me headaches...again, I lack some of the best 2 drops, namely Squire and Branchwalker

Nice analysis

Got me another 5-1 run last night. I've added an Overgrown Tomb to my deck and that has come in real handy. I'll tell you the play of the game every time. Saproling Migration t2. Yup. Getting two bodies out seems to be the winning move. It's a very rare loss in a game where I've got up on them with that. I kept a Rat Colony deck with removal in it busy with saps as blockers last night until Beast Master came out. It was out of their hands after that as I started landing Demons, Goreclaw and Aggressive Mammoth. Goreclaw has become an all-star if I can keep him on board enough to really abuse his ability with my bombs.
Dude even placed Helm on one of his Rats multiple times.

Nobody interested in Singleton Challenge? Default Singleton reward seems pretty bad to me. Challenge on other hand looks like good way to win some:
Rewards:
0 Wins: 500 Gold and 2 ICRs (Individual Card Rewards
1 Win: 750 Gold and 2 ICRs
2 Wins: 1000 Gold and 2 ICRs
3 Wins: 1500 Gold and 2 ICRs
4 Wins: 1900 Gold and 2 ICRs
5 Wins: 2100 Gold and 1 Dominaria Booster Pack
6 Wins: 2300 Gold and 2 Dominaria Booster Packs
7 Wins: 2500 Gold and 3 Dominaria Booster Packs

Challenge is bo3?

Yeah, its annoying that not stated in description. But i guess BO1, at least am preparing to BO1

I hate singleton, too much variance. It's good if you don't have a big collection though.

(tries to figure out how to sideboard a Singleton deck)

I stopped as well, can play regular Constructed now with Selesnya and Golgari. Payout structure for both Singleton events suck in comparison to plain CE imo.

I dunno, depends on how you value ICRs for developing a collection. The fact you are guaranteed a rare no matter what suggests the payout structure is actually pretty solid.

It is best of 1.

1-0 with Orzhov Legends.dek so far baby.