We now know that Worm Harvest is getting bumped down to uncommon and that has a lot of peasant cube managers excited to try and make a Golgari graveyard value archetype more prominent in their cubes. I have some doubts that we have the critical mass of cards needed to make it work, but no experiment can guaranteed to be a success.
I want to start a card list we can work from similar to the one I put together for the sweeper archetype thread. Would you prefer that it's organized by general category (enabler, bomb, synergy) or by specific mechanic (dredge, threshold, scavenge, unearth)?
(For now I'm just going to start listing some cards. It's easy enough to move them around later. Please add your own suggestions as I work through magiccards.info to build the list.)
This.... I want it. So bad. It's funny seeing how one single card made this appear viable, but it's true.
What I like about the list you made is that most of these cards want to be in the graveyard, as opposed to wanting other cards in the graveyard. That makes the deck a whole lot easier to draft. Obvious overlap with looting strategies, reanimation etc.
Problem: How do I fill my graveyard? Wild Mongrel? Legit. Mulch? Meh. Greenseeker? Not really. A quick magiccards.info search also yields Deepwood Drummer, Edge of Autumn, Llanowar Mentor, (oh hey Monstrify!), Narcissism, Rites of Spring, (oh hey Savage Conception), Silverglade Pathfinder as discard outlets, Tracker's Instincts as a "miller". Meh. I guess that's where black and blue step in. I'm not really willing to give up too much multicolor space for narrow cards. One card per combo, maybe (if it's not Grisly Salvage).
Well actually, why not? Design your multicolor sections to (at least partially) specifically cater to an archetype exclusive to the color combination. UR cards cater to bounce/burn/counter decks, BG are all the good cards for graveyard decks, like Grisly Salvage, Rot Farm Skeleton, Shambling Shell etc.
As a sidenote, Greenseeker's family and Narcissism's family harmonize with Worm Harvest quite a lot.
Specialities about the cube: U tempo, B aggro, R slow-ish are supported. G aggro is not.
Currently trying to support tokens in all colors but blue, in different ways: W pumps them, B sacrifices them, R suicides them, G has decent-sized ones.
cube list outdated
*literal C/U definition according to gatherer
**some cards are banned. Library of Alexandria, Land Tax, Sol Ring.
I feel like the cycling lands might be decent in terms of charging up Worm Harvest and reaching threshold.
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As I'm putting this list together, it really seems like you don't have to run "bad" cards to make this archetype work. Just a few simple substitutions like Moldervine Cloak for Elephant Guide/Boar Umbra and Edge of Autumn for Rampant Growth can go a long way.
Yeah, I wish there was an enemy cycle of the Mirage fetchlands, because I would run the Golgari one for sure. I'm not sure the off-color ones are worth playing in a B/G deck.
I'm not sure it's strong enough to compete in a general goodstuff cube, but it seems at least a few of us are moving toward pushing archetypes over raw power. I wouldn't expect everyone to follow suit, but I'd probably be okay with "banning" a few cards here and there if it made some oddball archetypes more viable to draft and play. Obviously this method won't work for every archetype (I don't see a goat tribal theme working, even if I wanted it to), but I doubt I'd have to cripple my cube to make this Golgari thing work.
As I'm putting this list together, it really seems like you don't have to run "bad" cards to make this archetype work. Just a few simple substitutions like Edge of Autumn for Rampant Growth can go a long way.
Green four-drop. Nuff said, especially with Masked Admirers coming. Obvious reminder: Admirers is another card that likes to be in the graveyard. A lot.
Specialities about the cube: U tempo, B aggro, R slow-ish are supported. G aggro is not.
Currently trying to support tokens in all colors but blue, in different ways: W pumps them, B sacrifices them, R suicides them, G has decent-sized ones.
cube list outdated
*literal C/U definition according to gatherer
**some cards are banned. Library of Alexandria, Land Tax, Sol Ring.
From my Senor Stompy days: Rogue Elephant/Scythe Tiger and Fallow Wurm get land into your 'yard. Wurm is certainly the best of these. Hidden Horror dumps a creature in the yard. Brawn is happy to be in the yard, but is likely to be outclassed as a green 4-drop.
Finally, Smallpox is an amazing enabler, possibly getting 3 cards in your graveyard at once while also doing the same to your opponent.
i think sticking to strictly golgari is the best way to go, since i don't want to force this too hard. i think making my golgari section dreg mangler / spider spawning / grisly salvage / worm harvest is an easy move, but then i have to find cuts for the two cycling lands, stinkweed imp, grixis slavedriver, and viscera dragger (which is one op missed, and it's great). i already run a decent amount of support for this archetype which is good, because finding cuts is going to be the hardest part.
btw for those of you considering blue, dreamscape artist might be something to keep in mind.
I've made up a list of cards that haven't been mentioned and that are in my graveyard-focused cube, including some choices from red and white if anyone's interested. Even if you don't support red/white gy interaction as a main choice, some of the better cards (faithless looting,embolden) would gain value as splashes in gy-focused decks.
A couple of cards that have been mentioned are intriguing, but I'm having trouble evaluating them. How good is Gnaw to the Bone? What about Deranged Assistant?
Quote from whydirt »
Yeah, I wish there was an enemy cycle of the Mirage fetchlands, because I would run the Golgari one for sure. I'm not sure the off-color ones are worth playing in a B/G deck.
gnaw to the bone should be gaining you at least 8 life per casting, which may or may not be better than moment's peace (though i would run both). 14-20 life isn't out of the question at all, so it has a pretty good best case.
Yeah just hold gnaw to the bone until you're about to die. Gain 8-10 life. Do it again the next time you're about to die. Gain 8-16 life off it this time. We're talking like maybe 20 life if your deck has creatures in it.
We now know that Worm Harvest is getting bumped down to uncommon and that has a lot of peasant cube managers excited to try and make a Golgari graveyard value archetype more prominent in their cubes. I have some doubts that we have the critical mass of cards needed to make it work, but no experiment can guaranteed to be a success.
I want to start a card list we can work from similar to the one I put together for the sweeper archetype thread. Would you prefer that it's organized by general category (enabler, bomb, synergy) or by specific mechanic (dredge, threshold, scavenge, unearth)?
(For now I'm just going to start listing some cards. It's easy enough to move them around later. Please add your own suggestions as I work through magiccards.info to build the list.)
1 Barren Moor
1 Blasted Landscape
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Unearth
6 Twisted Abomination
2 Edge of Autumn
7 Krosan Tusker
7 Jungle Weaver
Dredge
1 Dakmor Salvage
1 Darkblast
3 Stinkweed Imp
3 Moldervine Cloak
Flashback
2 Chainer's Edict
3 Crippling Fatigue
4 Moan of the Unhallowed
4 Dread Return
5 Spider Spawning
5 Beast Attack
6 Roar of the Wurm
Retrace
1 Raven's Crime
Scavenge
3 Dreg Mangler
Threshold
1 Putrid Imp
5 Treacherous Vampire
2 Werebear
4 Centaur Chieftan
5 Grizzly Fate
Unearth
2 Dregscape Zombie
5 Corpse Connoisseur
6 Grixis Slavedriver
Recursive Creatures
2 Reassembling Skeleton
5 Veilborn Ghoul
4 Masked Admirers
4 Rot Farm Skeleton
Decent Enablers
3 Buried Alive
2 Wild Mongrel
3 Harrow
2 Grisly Salvage
1 Codex Shredder
5 Mirage Fetchlands
1 Reanimate
2 Animate Dead
2 Dance of the Dead
3 Necromancy
3 Victimize
4 Makeshift Mannequin
4 Diabolic Servitude
5 Unburial Rites
2 Life/Death
Regrowth/Raise Dead
1 Phyrexian Reclamation
2 Grim Harvest
2 Death Denied
4 Entomber Exarch
2 Regrowth
2 Evolution Charm
3 Eternal Witness
Narrow Enablers
2 Undertaker
1 Greenseeker
1 Llanowar Mentor
2 Silverglade Pathfinder
2 Mulch
2 Tracker's Instincts
What I like about the list you made is that most of these cards want to be in the graveyard, as opposed to wanting other cards in the graveyard. That makes the deck a whole lot easier to draft. Obvious overlap with looting strategies, reanimation etc.
Problem: How do I fill my graveyard? Wild Mongrel? Legit. Mulch? Meh. Greenseeker? Not really. A quick magiccards.info search also yields Deepwood Drummer, Edge of Autumn, Llanowar Mentor, (oh hey Monstrify!), Narcissism, Rites of Spring, (oh hey Savage Conception), Silverglade Pathfinder as discard outlets, Tracker's Instincts as a "miller". Meh. I guess that's where black and blue step in. I'm not really willing to give up too much multicolor space for narrow cards. One card per combo, maybe (if it's not Grisly Salvage).
Well actually, why not? Design your multicolor sections to (at least partially) specifically cater to an archetype exclusive to the color combination. UR cards cater to bounce/burn/counter decks, BG are all the good cards for graveyard decks, like Grisly Salvage, Rot Farm Skeleton, Shambling Shell etc.
As a sidenote, Greenseeker's family and Narcissism's family harmonize with Worm Harvest quite a lot.
450, Peasant*, unpowered**
Specialities about the cube:
U tempo, B aggro, R slow-ish are supported. G aggro is not.
Currently trying to support tokens in all colors but blue, in different ways: W pumps them, B sacrifices them, R suicides them, G has decent-sized ones.
cube list outdated
*literal C/U definition according to gatherer
**some cards are banned. Library of Alexandria, Land Tax, Sol Ring.
-----
As I'm putting this list together, it really seems like you don't have to run "bad" cards to make this archetype work. Just a few simple substitutions like Moldervine Cloak for Elephant Guide/Boar Umbra and Edge of Autumn for Rampant Growth can go a long way.
I'm not sure it's strong enough to compete in a general goodstuff cube, but it seems at least a few of us are moving toward pushing archetypes over raw power. I wouldn't expect everyone to follow suit, but I'd probably be okay with "banning" a few cards here and there if it made some oddball archetypes more viable to draft and play. Obviously this method won't work for every archetype (I don't see a goat tribal theme working, even if I wanted it to), but I doubt I'd have to cripple my cube to make this Golgari thing work.
The reanimation spells:
The recursion spells:
- Eternal Witness
- Regrowth
- Evolution Charm
- Phyrexian Reclamation
- Grim Harvest
- Death Denied
- Entomber Exarch
and other Gravediggersbtw it's Reassembling Skeleton
Well, you should have been doing this anyway.
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
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Wizards was super conservative with their scavenge costs. It's a shame that Dreg Mangler is basically the only playable one.
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
Even manlands kind of fit: Mishra's Factory, Treetop Village, and even Zoetic Caverns might hit your graveyard.
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/peasantsnowcube
-- Updated with Outlaws of Thunder Junction
The PioneWer Peasant CUbe
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/pionewer
-- Updated with Murders at Karlov Manor
Green four-drop. Nuff said, especially with Masked Admirers coming. Obvious reminder: Admirers is another card that likes to be in the graveyard. A lot.
450, Peasant*, unpowered**
Specialities about the cube:
U tempo, B aggro, R slow-ish are supported. G aggro is not.
Currently trying to support tokens in all colors but blue, in different ways: W pumps them, B sacrifices them, R suicides them, G has decent-sized ones.
cube list outdated
*literal C/U definition according to gatherer
**some cards are banned. Library of Alexandria, Land Tax, Sol Ring.
Hidden Horror dumps a creature in the yard.
Brawn is happy to be in the yard, but is likely to be outclassed as a green 4-drop.
Finally, Smallpox is an amazing enabler, possibly getting 3 cards in your graveyard at once while also doing the same to your opponent.
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/peasantsnowcube
-- Updated with Outlaws of Thunder Junction
The PioneWer Peasant CUbe
https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/pionewer
-- Updated with Murders at Karlov Manor
on color worm harvest synergies:
constant mists and sunstone
zuran orb
constant mists is crazy good to begin with
EDIT: Rakdos Guildmage is a decent discard outlet.
Tortured Existence
Drekavac
Rotting Rats
Gloomdrifter
Street Wraith (maybe)
Boneyard Wurm
Gnaw to the Bone
Golgari Brownscale
Tilling Treefolk
Greater Mossdog (maybe)
Savage Conception
Drown in Filth
Necrogenesis
Polluted Mire
Slippery Karst
Svogthos, the Restless Tomb
There is also something to be said for including blue cards in this discussion.
My Type 4 stack (Cube Tutor link)
Good idea for a blue support section since looting, Fact or Fiction, and some other goodies play well with the deck.
Careful Study
Enclave Cryptologist
Mental Note
Silent Departure
Thought Scour
Aquamoeba
Cephalid Illusionist
Deranged Assistant
Looter il-Kor
Merfolk Looter
Narcomoeba (maybe)
Screeching Skaab
Thought Courier
Compulsion
Think Twice
Armored Skaab
Bonded Fetch
Chill of Foreboding
Civilized Scholar
Compulsive Research
Forbid
Frantic Search
Headless Skaab
Oona's Grace
Rushing River
Secrets of the Dead
Stitched Drake
Thalakos Scout
Thirst for Knowledge
Archaeomancer
Careful Consideration
Deep Analysis
Fact or Fiction
Wonder
Mnemonic Wall
Murder of Crows
Relentless Skaabs
Skaab Goliath
Breakthrough
I included a bunch of cards that are pretty much staples already.
My Type 4 stack (Cube Tutor link)
btw for those of you considering blue, dreamscape artist might be something to keep in mind.
A couple of cards that have been mentioned are intriguing, but I'm having trouble evaluating them. How good is Gnaw to the Bone? What about Deranged Assistant?
Another excellent reason to Return to Mirage.
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article