Deck of the Day – Golgari Midrange by Ben Dugan (21st at SCG Nashville Standard Open on Feb. 8 2014)

It all starts out with the decks ramp in the form of Elvish Mystic, and while not a necessity for the deck is certainly welcome to speed it up. While it is the decks two drop you can hold back from playing your Scavenging Ooze until you have some free mana open and targets in the grave to boost him especially against burn spells from red. The deck is capable of pushing a powerful assault right out of the gate with the hasty Dreg Mangler especially if you’re lucky with Mystic first turn. The other three drops in the deck really double as fives with the Bestow creatures Boon Satyr and BNG newcomer Herald of Torment either fortifying your other creatures on the board but also easily dropping unbestowed to pound the assault.  We find the true powerhouse in four drop Reaper of the Wilds which at 4/5 is already a force to be reckoned as is but tack on incidental Deathtouch to kill high toughness creatures or Hexproof to protect itself from spot removal as a bonus. But the real value from Reaper is the Scry 1 which trigger whenever ANY creature dies. So it effectively throws a Scry onto each of your removal spell or even any chump blocks.

Speaking of removal spells is chock full of them with Hero’s Downfall, Abrupt Decay and another BNG newcomer Bile Blight able to take down a variety of different problems. There is also Golgari charm with the versatility to either sweep away token armies, rid the board of pesky enchantments like Underworld Connections or Bident of Thassa and perhaps most importantly save your troops from sweepers like Supreme Verdict. We wrap up the package with a full set of Thoughtseize which not only provide invaluable information about the opponents game plan but also as a way to deal with otherwise difficult to deal with threats like an Indestructible god.

Eric J Seltzer

@ejseltzer on Twitter

ejseltzer@hotmail.com‎