Golgari Grave Pact

I know I promised a Horde of Notions EDH update next, but I'm still fiddling with it. The Conflux + Show and Tell plan didn't work as expected. Primarily because I didn't read the f***ing card and got Show and Tell mixed up with Eureka. Oops!

So for now, I'm going to keep working on Horde and just get back to you when I have it sorted out.

In the meantime, here's a deck:

4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
3 Fauna Shaman
2 Bloodthrone Vampire
2 Nether Traitor
2 Fleshbag Marauder
2 Savra, Queen of the Golgari
2 Creakwood Leige
1 Mitotic Slime
1 Acidic Slime
2 Deranged Hermit
2 Phyrexian Plaguelord
2 Grave Titan
1 Doomgape

3 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
3 Recurring Nightmare
3 Grave Pact

5 Swamp
5 Forest
1 Barren Moor
1 Tranquil Thicket
3 Savage Land
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
1 Overgrown Tomb
3 Twilight Mire


So yeah, this is an attempt at a multiplayer-viable Golgari deck, largely built around Grave Pact effects + the old Nightmare/Survival combo to tutor up whatever creature you need at any given time. I use Fauna Shamans instead of Survival of the Fittest because I have the Shamans, but I don't have any Survivals. Meh, I kinda like the Shaman, though, and even if I had the old Enchantment version, I'd probably just run two of each.

Anywho, the weakness of the deck is that it's a bit slow to get going, but sometimes that can be an advantage. It often doesn't look too threatening early on, so my opponents will likely not rush to kill me right off the bat. However, once I get an active Shaman and 5 or 6 mana, I start drawing some hate. Fortunately I should be able to handle the hate by that point.

Eternal Witness and Sword of Light and Shadow add some redundancy. Acidic Slime is a catch-all utility card for any pesky Enchantments or Artifacts (or land if you feel like being a dick). I use Nether Traitor as the default throw-away for the Fauna Shamans, because with all the Sac effects they come back from the Graveyard really easily any time you need them, and with a Bloodthrone, two Traitors and a Grave Pact, your Opponents will likely never have creatures on the board ever again.

Maelstrom Pulse is in there because one of the best defenses against Grave Pact decks is to pump out a hoard of tokens. Pulse takes care of that. Additionally, THIS deck can pump out hoards of tokens (Zombies, Squirrels and Wurns) and in a pinch you can Pulse your own tokens with a Grave Pact on the board to clear away an overly-cluttered board.

Mitotic Slime can randomly show up to enable a Bloodthrone Vampire to swing for 15 out of nowhere, and Gain you 14 life if you have Savra out. And of course, the old Plaguelord/Hermit combo is great, but it's even better if you have a Grave Pact in play too.

Doomgape is just fun and funny, and it might work in this deck. I can cheat it out quickly and cheaply with Recurring Nightmare, and feed it endlessly with the various token-makers. It might prove too unwieldy even here, but I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt for now.

In interest of full disclosure I haven't battle-tested this build yet. However this is a much-revised version of a list I had tested and the first build did okay. This build already feels much stronger so I'm confident enough to post it now. I will warn you though that sticking a Grave Pact and/or Savra is KEY. If you fail to do so, winning will prove very, very difficult. That's why you have Witness. If you find your Grave Pacts being Naturalized too often, you might increase the count of Witnesses to two or three (two is probably plenty because you can tutor her up, and recur her over and over).

Also, please ignore the wonky mana base. Most of my B/G duals are tied up in various EDH decks, so I just made do with what I had available.

Enjoy.