"Welcome to the Quagmire. Here you will come to know sacrifice. Your armies will bog down in the muck and be devoured by the insects, oozes, and vermin of the swamp. Your lifeforce will be folded into our own, you will add to our strength" - Savra, Queen of the Golgari
Thanks to Numotflame96 for the amazing banner!
Vorthos - The Golgari believe strongly in the necessity of death as a part of life. The guild is home to Ravnica's topmost necromancers and consists of a myriad of undead creatures. The Golgari regularly annex abandoned regions of Ravnica, and their territorial expansion has been compared to the growth of a fungus.
Power through death and regrowth. The Golgari grow by folding the dead into the ranks, as well as through occasional minor incursions into new territory.
How does it play/win?
It plays as mainly a sac & recur deck, making lots of sac fodder and using them as a resource, and abusing etb/ltb abilities. Lots of ramp give it plenty of mana to drop fatties or a big Genesis Wave, and just for fun there is the Quillspike/Devoted Druid/Necrotic Ooze combo. It's strongest strategy is winning long wars of attrition (like most of my decks), and there are some hefty beaters and crazy synergies/mini-combos that make the deck capable of pulling out a win at any time.
All my decks try to adhere to these guidelines:
1) Be able to win.
2) Be mostly true to a flavor and a theme.
3) Be fun to pilot or to play against and interactive.
4) Have multiple paths to victory.
5) Have lots of cool interactions and synergy.
6) Play out differently every game to keep it fun over a long time.
7) Be streamlined and fast to play without excessive upkeep, time-consuming play or overcomplicated boardstates.
8) Integrate the Commanders abilities into the strategy at least a little, but be able to win without ever playing the commander.
A couple notes about included cards: Wurmcoil Engine - I don't like that he clashes a bit with the flavor of the deck, but he's so good in here that I just can't leave him out. Vines of Vastwood - I would usually advise someone that this is too small of an effect to warrant inclusion, but after trying it out, it's been very useful. That it can recur with Eternal Witness makes it a little better.
Combos/Synergies/Tricks:
Quillspike Shenanigans: Quillspike + Devoted Druid = Infibig Quillspike. Note that Necrotic Ooze can be either or both if they are in the graveyard.
Quillspike (or surrogate Necrotic Ooze) + Sac Outlet + Woodfall Primus = A whole lot of permanent destruction.
Quillspike ^^ + Sac Outlet + Puppeteer Clique = A whole lot of opponents dead creatures into play for you.
Mimic Vat and Nim Deathmantle Shenanigans - Prime targets are:
Acidic Slime
Woodfall Primus
Eternal Witness
Gleancrawler
Wurmcoil Engine
Grave Titan
Avenger of Zendikar
Primeval Titan
Fleshbag Marauder
Solemn Simulacrum
Genesis Shenanigans: Genesis in the graveyard plus any one of a number of creatures can be backbreaking. Add Grave Pact and a Sac Outlet to the mix and it's even worse. One of the more interesting ones is Spore Frog = Fog every turn.
I built savra stax deck before converting it into Nath death cloud. The problem boiled down to the consistency of the stax effects and how early they can take effect.
-small pox only worked well early game or post wrath
-Braids, Cabal Minion is too fragile (became removal magnet in early game) or lost reverence late game
-Smokestax (the more resilient one) had to pass around the table for a turn before taking effect, and people 2-3 turns to find an answer before it becomes crippling
-deathcloud is the only real winner here, but requires substantial ramping and anti-opponent's artifact rocks to setup
On another note regarding dredge,
-dredge effects are actually damaging as many of the stax effects + recursion cards are non-creature spells
-abusing dredge is difficult unless you have a consistent way of getting back non-creature utility stuff. e.g. soon to be new general karador + dredge find stuff like eternal witness, xiahou dun into say living death. or
Yeah, I've been disappointed with the consistency of the deck so far. I'll take a look at your Death Cloud 9 build and see if I want to change directions a bit. As is, she's nearing the chopping block.
Yea, I find there are two ways to make death-cloud work. The first one either ramps artifacts and use targeted artifact removal to clear the board before clouding. The second ramps lands and uses sweepers to clear the board before clouding. The former is much more speedy due to the nature of artifact ramp, but puts one at risk for a blow-out (although I can see a Glisa deathcloud deck doing this). The second is slower and much safer due to fewer decks packing mass LD, and can abuse landfall triggers to no end with the right creatures in play (thankfully very easy due to the numerous green creature tutors and black overall tutors).
For a true stax deck in GB, glisa artifact ramp + shennegains seems to be key as she protects recurs smokestax, artifact ramps deathcloud, recurs stuff for braids, and can run the real pox to hate on big green ramp decks.
EDIT:Plus, there're numerous mindslaver locks enabled with Glisa. That's stax for ya ;0
I just put together my own deck similar to this one (I went heavier aggro I think, 40 creatures total...). Here is a few things I would suggestion...
Something I built mine around that seems to help a lot: lots of land fetching, especially built-in to creatures! Seedguide Ash is awesome in this deck. He wants to go to the graveyard every turn if possible! He can also snag some duals, such as Bayou and Overgrown Tomb. Insane deck thinning as well!
Eldrazi Monument can offer some great advantage, keeping everybody from killing your creatures, but allowing you to sac them at will!
Diabolic Intent goes with the theme and can get those lands, or any card you need.
I also like running 3 Necromancers in here... Apprentice Necromancer (double sac, cheap), Doomed Necromancer (single sac), and Hell's Cartaker (sac any creature). They keep the cycle going and offer self-sustaining sac abilities to help rid of opponent creatures. Gotta make sure to get some creatures in your graveyard first, though. Even a Yavimaya Elder is worth it!
Lurking Predators and Wild Pairs can offer plenty of free creatures onto the battlefield. Lurk Preds is awesome in a 4+ multiplayer smack down! Sapling of Colfenor can also get your creatures to your hand.
[CARD]
Masked Admirers[/CARD] can give some card advantage and easily is put back into your hand, though, not the best creature in the world despite.
I like a lot of those suggestions... my apologies though, I've torn down the deck some time ago and forgot to update the op with that info (so I just did). Most of the cards are waiting on the next BGx commander to come along that really interests me.
I like a lot of those suggestions... my apologies though, I've torn down the deck some time ago and forgot to update the op with that info (so I just did). Most of the cards are waiting on the next BGx commander to come along that really interests me.
Cool man, I go through decks quick myself, too Having a lot of fun with this, got some suggestions for my own from yours
"Vines of Vastwood - I would usually advise someone that this is too small of an effect to warrant inclusion, but after trying it out, it's been very useful. That it can recur with Eternal Witness makes it a little better."
Can you explain the interaction with witness?? I'm confused
"Vines of Vastwood - I would usually advise someone that this is too small of an effect to warrant inclusion, but after trying it out, it's been very useful. That it can recur with Eternal Witness makes it a little better."
Can you explain the interaction with witness?? I'm confused
Not interaction, just that Eternal Witness can re-cur it to be re-used. Eternal Witness is one of my favorite cards to abuse with sacrifice & recursion and so everytime she hits the battlefield, I get another Vines. Knowing that it can be recurred just makes it a little more attractive to me than if it was a 1-time effect no matter what.
How are you liking your build so far? I built a Savra deck a while ago, but I ran into a few problems you seem to have (and other Savra decks seem to have in general):
1) A clear way to win. I don't particularly like beating with fatties in this deck, and I usually win (if I do) by a Cabal Coffer fueled Exsanguinate/Gelatinous Genesis. I feel like the fatties simply don't "get there" in this type of deck, because it's not as focused as much as doing damage as is it to play stax. I've tried changing it recently to not rely on those two cards, cause many times I will just wait til I have enough mana to tutor for it and try to win.
2) Savra herself. Her gravepact ability is very nice, and her lifegain is somewhat relevant when I go suicide-tempo mode, but I keep finding less and less urgency to cast her other than to have a body to chump block. With Nath, at least I can tutor up Sadistic Hypnotist and blow some hands up easily and Glissa gets a heavier artifact theme powerup. Really, the only reason Savra is still general is because she is anti-Thrax, who one of my friends runs.
I really like the overwhelming synergy and interactions that this deck has, but it leads to really long drawn out games, hoping to find a few wincons. That may be the point of stax, but it gets boring for other players and eventually myself as well.
Also, some card suggestions: Black Market - can get huge with so much death happening Perilous Forays - if you're running Bloodghast, this can ramp you up easily Gutter Grime - can't wait for this card to be released, possibly another wincon for the deck Geth, Lord of the Vault - with all the destruction, you'll have plenty of targets to fish out of opponents' graveyards
I don't play it much anymore. I usually end up reaching for another deck, and when I do feel like playing Golgari, I've got a Glissa deck now that usually gets played instead. I agree completely with your take on the "Savra Experience", the deck really needs a few more wincons.
I also really like the card recommendations. If I don't retire the deck, I'll be using them. The new Ooze enchantment looks fun.
I've been recommended to run Melira in my Savra build as well, just to run that combo. Here's the problem with Melira in any Savra build: what is it going to do aside from being a combo piece? And a very fragile one at that? If you get it out early, it's useless; or draws spot removal in anticipation of your combo, and it serves almost no purpose at all in this deck. Worse still, it destroys an existing combo in the deck (Devoted Druid+ Quillspike) while even being harder to assemble.
Besides, he can still run those two cards with Nim Deathmantle and Ashnod's Altar for essentially the same effect, and those two cards have great synergy with the other cards in his deck as well.
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I've been recommended to run Melira in my Savra build as well, just to run that combo. Here's the problem with Melira in any Savra build: what is it going to do aside from being a combo piece? And a very fragile one at that? If you get it out early, it's useless; or draws spot removal in anticipation of your combo, and it serves almost no purpose at all in this deck. Worse still, it destroys an existing combo in the deck (Devoted Druid+ Quillspike) while even being harder to assemble.
Besides, he can still run those two cards with Nim Deathmantle and Ashnod's Altar for essentially the same effect, and those two cards have great synergy with the other cards in his deck as well.
To answer your question about value outside of the combo, Melira is also Fleshbag Marauder, Innocent Blood, Smallpox, and Deathcloud fodder, a Grave Pact trigger, a Skullclamp target, protection against wither/infect, and more fodder in other Savra decks that run Attrition, Braids, Stax..
I do think Quillspike sufficiently fills that slot though. With a large mana pool, quill still gives Woodfall enough neutering power to prompt a table scoop.
To answer your question about value outside of the combo, Melira is also Fleshbag Marauder, Innocent Blood, Smallpox, and Deathcloud fodder, a Grave Pact trigger, a Skullclamp target, protection against wither/infect, and more fodder in other Savra decks that run Attrition, Braids, Stax..
In other words, you're saying that she's a vanilla creature with one toughness?
Only the protection from infect/wither is useful, and still not enough reason to main deck it.
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In other words, you're saying that she's a vanilla creature with one toughness?
Only the protection from infect/wither is useful, and still not enough reason to main deck it.
Hence why I said I said I think Quillspike is better
But yeah, sometimes a combo piece doesn't do much on it's own. The fact that there are 7 other spells in this build that potentially give her at least some sort of value is a lot better than what most combo pieces usually do.
I'm thinking of building a Nath deck, I like him as a general and have some ideas for what to put in but I am still new at building EDH decks. I think I have a good idea of what some staples are (Grave pact, hypnotist, specters) but I'm not entirely sure what a good deck list would be. Also I have a neat little Dross Scorpion, Myr Turbine, sac for effect (Blasting Station, Krark-clan Iron works) combo that I would like to work into a deck but I'm not sure what. I would love some advice!
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"Welcome to the Quagmire. Here you will come to know sacrifice. Your armies will bog down in the muck and be devoured by the insects, oozes, and vermin of the swamp. Your lifeforce will be folded into our own, you will add to our strength" - Savra, Queen of the Golgari
Thanks to Numotflame96 for the amazing banner!
Vorthos - The Golgari believe strongly in the necessity of death as a part of life. The guild is home to Ravnica's topmost necromancers and consists of a myriad of undead creatures. The Golgari regularly annex abandoned regions of Ravnica, and their territorial expansion has been compared to the growth of a fungus.
Power through death and regrowth. The Golgari grow by folding the dead into the ranks, as well as through occasional minor incursions into new territory.
How does it play/win?
It plays as mainly a sac & recur deck, making lots of sac fodder and using them as a resource, and abusing etb/ltb abilities. Lots of ramp give it plenty of mana to drop fatties or a big Genesis Wave, and just for fun there is the Quillspike/Devoted Druid/Necrotic Ooze combo. It's strongest strategy is winning long wars of attrition (like most of my decks), and there are some hefty beaters and crazy synergies/mini-combos that make the deck capable of pulling out a win at any time.
All my decks try to adhere to these guidelines:
1) Be able to win.
2) Be mostly true to a flavor and a theme.
3) Be fun to pilot or to play against and interactive.
4) Have multiple paths to victory.
5) Have lots of cool interactions and synergy.
6) Play out differently every game to keep it fun over a long time.
7) Be streamlined and fast to play without excessive upkeep, time-consuming play or overcomplicated boardstates.
8) Integrate the Commanders abilities into the strategy at least a little, but be able to win without ever playing the commander.
Approx:
Deckstats Value = $256
Average CMC = 3.52
1 Savra, Queen of the Golgari
Mana Lands (27):
11 Forest
9 Swamp
1 Command Tower
1 Gilt-Leaf Palace
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Vivid Grove
1 Twilight Mire
Utility Lands (13):
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Dust Bowl
1 Swarmyard
1 Khalni Garden (just an extra sac token)
1 Strip Mine
1 Homeward Path
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Slippery Karst
1 Barren Moor
1 Polluted Mire
1 Blasted Landscape
Mana Help (9):
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Devoted Druid (combo piece)
1 Expedition Map
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Cultivate
1 Sol Ring
1 Primeval Titan (+beater)
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Solemn Simulacrum (+draw)
1 Garruk Wildspeaker (psuedo-ramp, tokens, pump)
1 Sorin Markov (Lifegain/drain, removal)
Removal:
1 Terastodon (beater)
1 Woodfall Primus (beater)
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Innocent Blood
1 Death Cloud
1 Smallpox
1 Acidic Slime
1 Putrefy
1 Grave Pact
1 Beast Within
Tokens/Sac Fodder:
1 Bloodghast
1 Marsh Flitter
1 Mitotic Slime
1 Ant Queen
1 Grave Titan (beater)
1 Wurmcoil Engine (beater, lifegain)
1 Hornet Queen (rattlesnakes)
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Creakwood Liege (+pump)
1 Nether Traitor
1 Bitterblossom
Recursion:
1 Genesis
1 Eternal Witness
1 Gleancrawler
1 Regrowth
1 Life from the Loam (plus dredge)
1 Profane Command (+Removal, Evasion, Lifedrain)
1 Nim Deathmantle
1 Mimic Vat
1 Puppeteer Clique
1 Victimize
1 Skullclamp
1 Harmonize
1 Phyrexian Arena
Tutoring:
1 Buried Alive
1 Chord of Calling
1 Natural Order
1 Demonic Tutor
Other Creatures:
1 Glissa, the Traitor
1 Algae Gharial (beater)
1 Quillspike (Combo)
1 Vulturous Zombie (beater)
1 Spore Frog (Dmg prevention/Genesis Combo)
1 Necrotic Ooze (Combo Piece)
Other Non-Creatures
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Genesis Wave
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Vines of Vastwood (protection)
.
Other Considerations:
Tooth and Nail
Pernicious Deed
Maelstrom Pulse
Green Sun's Zenith
Fauna Shaman
Black Sun's Zenith
Promise of Power
Praetor's Grasp
Butcher of Malakir
A couple notes about included cards:
Wurmcoil Engine - I don't like that he clashes a bit with the flavor of the deck, but he's so good in here that I just can't leave him out.
Vines of Vastwood - I would usually advise someone that this is too small of an effect to warrant inclusion, but after trying it out, it's been very useful. That it can recur with Eternal Witness makes it a little better.
Combos/Synergies/Tricks:
Quillspike Shenanigans:
Quillspike + Devoted Druid = Infibig Quillspike. Note that Necrotic Ooze can be either or both if they are in the graveyard.
Quillspike (or surrogate Necrotic Ooze) + Sac Outlet + Woodfall Primus = A whole lot of permanent destruction.
Quillspike ^^ + Sac Outlet + Puppeteer Clique = A whole lot of opponents dead creatures into play for you.
Mimic Vat and Nim Deathmantle Shenanigans - Prime targets are:
Acidic Slime
Woodfall Primus
Eternal Witness
Gleancrawler
Wurmcoil Engine
Grave Titan
Avenger of Zendikar
Primeval Titan
Fleshbag Marauder
Solemn Simulacrum
Ashnod's Deathmantle Tricks:
Ashnod's Altar + Nim Deathmantle +:
Wurmcoil Engine or Grave Titan or Marsh Flitter or Avenger of Zendikar or Hornet Queen or Mitotic Slime = Infi tokens and mana
Puppeteer Clique = Infi reanimation of enemy creatures
Woodfall Primus = Wipe all non-creature permanents you don't own.
Genesis Shenanigans:
Genesis in the graveyard plus any one of a number of creatures can be backbreaking. Add Grave Pact and a Sac Outlet to the mix and it's even worse. One of the more interesting ones is Spore Frog = Fog every turn.
Life from the Loam:
Land destruction with Smallpox/Death Cloud, Strip Mine, and Dust Bowl teamed with Life from the Loam can be devastating.
Loam also makes the 5 cycling lands very re-useable.
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EDH Math
EDH Decks:
Ghost Council: The Magic Mafia of Orzhova
BB Drana: Down with the Sickness
Rasputin: Reality is Broken
Vish Kal Bleeder: Bloody Kisses
Teysa, Orzhov Dominatrix
Stonebrow: Breaking Things
BWR Kaalia Punisher: Heaven's on Fire
Grimgrin: Dead Reckoning
I came across this little gem: Jinxed Idol.
Maybe it's what you're looking for, maybe it's not....
Thought I'd offer the idea though...
Cheers
| B Erebos, God of VampiresB | GYeva SmashG | RBosh ArtifactsR | GURAnimar +1 BeatsGUR | RBVial's Secret Hot SauceRB | UBRNekusar, Draw if you DareUBR | RGBDarigaaz'z DragonsRGB | GBSlimeFEETGB | UBOn-Hit LazavUB | URBrudiclad's Artificer InventionsUR | GUBMuldrotha's ElementalsGUB | WUGKestia's EnchantmentsWUG | GUTatyova - Draw, Land, Go!GU | WGArahbo's EquipmentWG | BUWVarina's ZOMBIE HORDESBUW | WLyra's Angelic SalvationW | WBChurch of TeysaWB | UAzami...WizardsU
Thanks.... I kinda like it, and it seems to fit the gameplan pretty well. I'll give it a test run.
Banner by Nakamura, Thanks!
EDH Math
EDH Decks:
Ghost Council: The Magic Mafia of Orzhova
BB Drana: Down with the Sickness
Rasputin: Reality is Broken
Vish Kal Bleeder: Bloody Kisses
Teysa, Orzhov Dominatrix
Stonebrow: Breaking Things
BWR Kaalia Punisher: Heaven's on Fire
Grimgrin: Dead Reckoning
R Citizen Cane (Feldon of the Third Path)
Yes, he should, thanks for pointing him out. Not sure how I managed to overlook him in the spoilers.
- Grim Feast
- Creakwood Liege
- Beacon of Unrest
+ Green Suns Zenith
+ Viridian Emissary
+ Glissa, the Traitor
Banner by Nakamura, Thanks!
EDH Math
EDH Decks:
Ghost Council: The Magic Mafia of Orzhova
BB Drana: Down with the Sickness
Rasputin: Reality is Broken
Vish Kal Bleeder: Bloody Kisses
Teysa, Orzhov Dominatrix
Stonebrow: Breaking Things
BWR Kaalia Punisher: Heaven's on Fire
Grimgrin: Dead Reckoning
-small pox only worked well early game or post wrath
-Braids, Cabal Minion is too fragile (became removal magnet in early game) or lost reverence late game
-Smokestax (the more resilient one) had to pass around the table for a turn before taking effect, and people 2-3 turns to find an answer before it becomes crippling
-deathcloud is the only real winner here, but requires substantial ramping and anti-opponent's artifact rocks to setup
On another note regarding dredge,
-dredge effects are actually damaging as many of the stax effects + recursion cards are non-creature spells
-abusing dredge is difficult unless you have a consistent way of getting back non-creature utility stuff. e.g. soon to be new general karador + dredge find stuff like eternal witness, xiahou dun into say living death. or
Banner by Nakamura, Thanks!
EDH Math
EDH Decks:
Ghost Council: The Magic Mafia of Orzhova
BB Drana: Down with the Sickness
Rasputin: Reality is Broken
Vish Kal Bleeder: Bloody Kisses
Teysa, Orzhov Dominatrix
Stonebrow: Breaking Things
BWR Kaalia Punisher: Heaven's on Fire
Grimgrin: Dead Reckoning
For a true stax deck in GB, glisa artifact ramp + shennegains seems to be key as she protects recurs smokestax, artifact ramps deathcloud, recurs stuff for braids, and can run the real pox to hate on big green ramp decks.
EDIT:Plus, there're numerous mindslaver locks enabled with Glisa. That's stax for ya ;0
Something I built mine around that seems to help a lot: lots of land fetching, especially built-in to creatures! Seedguide Ash is awesome in this deck. He wants to go to the graveyard every turn if possible! He can also snag some duals, such as Bayou and Overgrown Tomb. Insane deck thinning as well!
Green offers a lot of great ways to fetch lands, such as Primeval Titan, Sylvan Scrying, and Reap and Sow. This should let you get Cabal Coffers, Urborg, Vesuva, and Deserted Temple with ease. Expedition Map can easily fit in there, too, if you want plenty of land fetch.
Yavimaya Granger is OK, but nothing to brag about. Primal Growth also fits the theme well.
Eldrazi Monument can offer some great advantage, keeping everybody from killing your creatures, but allowing you to sac them at will!
Diabolic Intent goes with the theme and can get those lands, or any card you need.
I also like running 3 Necromancers in here... Apprentice Necromancer (double sac, cheap), Doomed Necromancer (single sac), and Hell's Cartaker (sac any creature). They keep the cycle going and offer self-sustaining sac abilities to help rid of opponent creatures. Gotta make sure to get some creatures in your graveyard first, though. Even a Yavimaya Elder is worth it!
Lurking Predators and Wild Pairs can offer plenty of free creatures onto the battlefield. Lurk Preds is awesome in a 4+ multiplayer smack down! Sapling of Colfenor can also get your creatures to your hand.
[CARD]
Masked Admirers[/CARD] can give some card advantage and easily is put back into your hand, though, not the best creature in the world despite.
Banner by Nakamura, Thanks!
EDH Math
EDH Decks:
Ghost Council: The Magic Mafia of Orzhova
BB Drana: Down with the Sickness
Rasputin: Reality is Broken
Vish Kal Bleeder: Bloody Kisses
Teysa, Orzhov Dominatrix
Stonebrow: Breaking Things
BWR Kaalia Punisher: Heaven's on Fire
Grimgrin: Dead Reckoning
Cool man, I go through decks quick myself, too Having a lot of fun with this, got some suggestions for my own from yours
Putting Savra back in charge and re-assigning Glissa to command a Zombie Tribal deck.
Banner by Nakamura, Thanks!
EDH Math
EDH Decks:
Ghost Council: The Magic Mafia of Orzhova
BB Drana: Down with the Sickness
Rasputin: Reality is Broken
Vish Kal Bleeder: Bloody Kisses
Teysa, Orzhov Dominatrix
Stonebrow: Breaking Things
BWR Kaalia Punisher: Heaven's on Fire
Grimgrin: Dead Reckoning
Can you explain the interaction with witness?? I'm confused
EDH
WB Teysa, Orzhov Scion
Not interaction, just that Eternal Witness can re-cur it to be re-used. Eternal Witness is one of my favorite cards to abuse with sacrifice & recursion and so everytime she hits the battlefield, I get another Vines. Knowing that it can be recurred just makes it a little more attractive to me than if it was a 1-time effect no matter what.
Banner by Nakamura, Thanks!
EDH Math
EDH Decks:
Ghost Council: The Magic Mafia of Orzhova
BB Drana: Down with the Sickness
Rasputin: Reality is Broken
Vish Kal Bleeder: Bloody Kisses
Teysa, Orzhov Dominatrix
Stonebrow: Breaking Things
BWR Kaalia Punisher: Heaven's on Fire
Grimgrin: Dead Reckoning
1) A clear way to win. I don't particularly like beating with fatties in this deck, and I usually win (if I do) by a Cabal Coffer fueled Exsanguinate/Gelatinous Genesis. I feel like the fatties simply don't "get there" in this type of deck, because it's not as focused as much as doing damage as is it to play stax. I've tried changing it recently to not rely on those two cards, cause many times I will just wait til I have enough mana to tutor for it and try to win.
2) Savra herself. Her gravepact ability is very nice, and her lifegain is somewhat relevant when I go suicide-tempo mode, but I keep finding less and less urgency to cast her other than to have a body to chump block. With Nath, at least I can tutor up Sadistic Hypnotist and blow some hands up easily and Glissa gets a heavier artifact theme powerup. Really, the only reason Savra is still general is because she is anti-Thrax, who one of my friends runs.
I really like the overwhelming synergy and interactions that this deck has, but it leads to really long drawn out games, hoping to find a few wincons. That may be the point of stax, but it gets boring for other players and eventually myself as well.
Also, some card suggestions:
Black Market - can get huge with so much death happening
Perilous Forays - if you're running Bloodghast, this can ramp you up easily
Gutter Grime - can't wait for this card to be released, possibly another wincon for the deck
Geth, Lord of the Vault - with all the destruction, you'll have plenty of targets to fish out of opponents' graveyards
RGodo, Bandit WarlordR
GSeton, Krosan ProtectorG
BGJarad, Golgari Lich LordGB
I don't play it much anymore. I usually end up reaching for another deck, and when I do feel like playing Golgari, I've got a Glissa deck now that usually gets played instead. I agree completely with your take on the "Savra Experience", the deck really needs a few more wincons.
I also really like the card recommendations. If I don't retire the deck, I'll be using them. The new Ooze enchantment looks fun.
Banner by Nakamura, Thanks!
EDH Math
EDH Decks:
Ghost Council: The Magic Mafia of Orzhova
BB Drana: Down with the Sickness
Rasputin: Reality is Broken
Vish Kal Bleeder: Bloody Kisses
Teysa, Orzhov Dominatrix
Stonebrow: Breaking Things
BWR Kaalia Punisher: Heaven's on Fire
Grimgrin: Dead Reckoning
Woodfall Primus and Puppeteer Clique. Melira, Sylvok Outcast
Woah, necro-post.
I've been recommended to run Melira in my Savra build as well, just to run that combo. Here's the problem with Melira in any Savra build: what is it going to do aside from being a combo piece? And a very fragile one at that? If you get it out early, it's useless; or draws spot removal in anticipation of your combo, and it serves almost no purpose at all in this deck. Worse still, it destroys an existing combo in the deck (Devoted Druid+ Quillspike) while even being harder to assemble.
Besides, he can still run those two cards with Nim Deathmantle and Ashnod's Altar for essentially the same effect, and those two cards have great synergy with the other cards in his deck as well.
BG Jumpin' JaradsGB
BB Furry Rat Lady: The Deck BB
UU I Don't Ever Want To Explain How Knowledge Pool Works Ever Again UU
RR This Is My Suika Cosplay Lightning Bolt Deck RR
WW Mangara exiles both permanents and friends
RWG Marath Sunforger RWG
WUBRG Cromat and Friends WUBRG
--
BG Savra, Rocking Attrition (retired) GB
BB">Shauku, Envoy of the End (retired) BB
BU Wrexial, the Tentacled H beast(retired)UB
BB Endrek Sahr, Master Commander (retired )BB
UU [PRIMER] Talrand's Terrible Tempo Terror Teatime (retired) UU
UBW Senator Trio - Three Heads Are Better Than One (retired) UBW
BB MONSTRUAL BLEEDING EREBOS SADISM (retired) BB
To answer your question about value outside of the combo, Melira is also Fleshbag Marauder, Innocent Blood, Smallpox, and Deathcloud fodder, a Grave Pact trigger, a Skullclamp target, protection against wither/infect, and more fodder in other Savra decks that run Attrition, Braids, Stax..
I do think Quillspike sufficiently fills that slot though. With a large mana pool, quill still gives Woodfall enough neutering power to prompt a table scoop.
Modern
RBig RedR
GMean GreenG
WWW AlliesW
BGScavengeBG
WUVenser SilenceWU
EDH
RWAurelia 1 vs 1RW
GWURoonGWU
GWSaffiGW
In other words, you're saying that she's a vanilla creature with one toughness?
Only the protection from infect/wither is useful, and still not enough reason to main deck it.
BG Jumpin' JaradsGB
BB Furry Rat Lady: The Deck BB
UU I Don't Ever Want To Explain How Knowledge Pool Works Ever Again UU
RR This Is My Suika Cosplay Lightning Bolt Deck RR
WW Mangara exiles both permanents and friends
RWG Marath Sunforger RWG
WUBRG Cromat and Friends WUBRG
--
BG Savra, Rocking Attrition (retired) GB
BB">Shauku, Envoy of the End (retired) BB
BU Wrexial, the Tentacled H beast(retired)UB
BB Endrek Sahr, Master Commander (retired )BB
UU [PRIMER] Talrand's Terrible Tempo Terror Teatime (retired) UU
UBW Senator Trio - Three Heads Are Better Than One (retired) UBW
BB MONSTRUAL BLEEDING EREBOS SADISM (retired) BB
Hence why I said I said I think Quillspike is better
But yeah, sometimes a combo piece doesn't do much on it's own. The fact that there are 7 other spells in this build that potentially give her at least some sort of value is a lot better than what most combo pieces usually do.
This is always the bane of combo..
Modern
RBig RedR
GMean GreenG
WWW AlliesW
BGScavengeBG
WUVenser SilenceWU
EDH
RWAurelia 1 vs 1RW
GWURoonGWU
GWSaffiGW