Golgari Midrange Primer

By: Thyne of Boars and Kevin "KoDiamonds"

Golgari Midrange is a powerful attrition deck that has arisen in Pioneer, mainly in response to the Izzet Prowess strategy. It has many strong answers to the problematic permanent proliferating play patterns of prowess in Culling Ritual, as a way to sweep up almost every card in the deck and use the excess mana to play out a powerful top-end threat.

If Mono-Red is pure aggro and Azorius is pure control, this list sits closer to control than aggro, as it often is an answer deck rather than a proactive deck. You do have proactive draws, but your goal in the format is to slow down your opponent’s fast game. You will be able to get more advantage from the turns with an Unholy Annex in play or to sit behind your large wall-like creatures and gain value/advantage before you make your game-winning plays, then go for the win.  

The Main Staple Cards

Badgermole Cub: This is a mandatory 4 in this version of the Pioneer deck. The card is a must-answer mana-generating threat that can add more mana than you can spend, especially when paired with Llanowar Elves. This allows you to get much further ahead of opponents and empty out your hand first.

Culling Ritual: The card is quite possibly your most important card in the current meta. The rise in prowess decks has made this quite possibly the best mass sweeper in the format. Being able to set prowess back so far and get ahead after you make 3–7 mana on average can be backbreaking for the fast-tempo style decks. Following up a good culling ritual with a Sheoldred or a Ritual Room can be one of the most powerful tempo swings in the format.

Unholy Annex and Mutavault Package: This is your attrition package in Pioneer and how you get ahead on cards, life totals, and on board. The ability to make a demon for a turn for a single mana while also winning the life total and card advantage race is very powerful in the format as of the time of writing.

Thoughtseize and Fatal Push: Pioneer’s best hand hate spell is a mainstay of Black decks: simple, clean, and effective. The same can be said for Fatal Push. As removal spells go, this is a very clean way to answer threats that are more expensive than the mana you put into it.

Abrupt Decay, Maelstrom Pulse, and Go for the Throat: These three cards are your secondary answers. Decay is great at answering most of the top aggro and combo decks—and if you have any problem permanents that decay cannot hit, Maelstrom Pulse will clean them up very nicely. Just beware, it isn't one-sided. If you destroy a Badgermole Cub your opponent is playing, yours will also be destroyed. Go for the Throat is the doomblade of choice for the current format, as it has very few misses in the format. (Esika's Chariot is the only real card that you need to worry about.)

The deck has a bevy of customization options in its top-end threats and sideboard hate.

Flex slots are in your top-end threats and in your removal suite. You have a bit of wiggle room when playing this deck when it comes to your 3 drops. Sentinel of the Nameless City is a powerful threat that can turn on the Fatal Pushes revolt feature, while Preacher of the Schism is a great threat that can be really useful in midrange and aggro matches.

Your very top-end threats are usually some combination of Ouroboroid and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse. Both cards are strong in their own right, but it is my opinion that this deck often does not make a large board, making Sheoldred much stronger as a standalone threat in Pioneer.

Deck Issues

One issue this specific deck can have is dead draws, where you have a lot of air in the deck; if you are not careful, you can end up way behind, as the deck has up to 16 dead nonland draws late games—or in a top decking war, the deck has no real digging power aside from Unholy Annex. If you are feeling like you specifically need more drawing power, Glissa Sunslayer, Mosswood Dreadknight, and Tireless Tracker can be good options to draw more cards. 

Another issue is the painful mana base, with a lot of painlands, shock lands, and Mutavaults, which can make colors hard to find. This can make your life total often lower than many are comfortable with, especially in such a quick aggro format.  

Going along with the painful mana base, the list often can and will lose to Sunspine Lynx, especially if you are in the late game. The deck plays on average 3 basics, so you will probably only see 1 per game, and can take 4-5 damage per Sunspine Lynx.

General Sideboard Cards to Consider

Just remember: these are all suggestions. If you are losing a lot, it may be smart to adjust the numbers or try out new cards entirely to see if they work better for you. 

Culling Ritual is a must in a meta with prowess being as powerful as it is. I recommend 3 copies at the very least between the main and the sideboard. 

If you chose a build that does not contain any duress mainboard, I recommend having at least 2 somewhere in your list. Hand hate is a very powerful tool in some matches, and Duress is second only to Thoughtseize.  

The card is a great hand disruption and graveyard hate, all in one.

A very effective form of graveyard hate, and it serves as a good late game threat. 

Here, you have a strong catch-all, especially for threats that need to be exiled. 

This card is a hard to remove threat that is good vs. board interaction and counter magic. 

Shadows Verdict is a good card to serve as a Mirror breaker, while also a good answer to Selesnya Company that provides aggro. 

A card that is a good board wipe against Selesnya Company, the mirror, and midrange decks in general, and aggro.  

A strong choice to clean board wipe vs Selesnya Company and Mono Green Devotion. 

When playing against a Prowess Deck that makes Cori-Steel Cutter and other tokens, Virulent Plague can be a strong answer in response.

If you need extra removal for bigger threats, this card can come in handy. 

This is a good hate card for Phoenix and Scapeshift combo. 

In instances where there are hate vs combo decks and combo decks exclusively, Necromentia will prove to be helpful. 

Good vs Food

This card is a powerful planeswalker option for leaner builds of the deck.

A value option card that can be tricky to cast, but if you can manage it, you will be rewarded handsomely in your midrange and control matches 

A colorless way to draw out of boardstalls, and if the board calls for it, a decent-sized blocker and attacker. 

How to sideboard 

Probably your two most important matches in the meta, Greasefang and Red-aggro variants, will be around 50% of the meta, according to MTGGoldfish meta breakdowns. Knowing those matchups in and out will make or break your runs with the deck. 

Abzan Greasefang

When I play vs Greasefang, I often like to leave in Thoughtsize as my main way to fight back, turn one against their hand hate/spells that remove my anti-Greasefang cards. I would not recommend leaving in Duress, as this can lead to you being forced to bin a parhelion for them if they only have creatures. 

In: Hearse, Go for the Throat, and Go Blank, basically any yard hate you have. Tear asunder is also good, as it can snipe a parhelion that has been reanimated before it attacks 

Out: duress, culling ritual, fatal push. 

Izzet Prowess

The goal of this match is to delay till you can nuke the world with a culling ritual. That is what you should be mulling towards; it will make your game much better if you can get it off ASAP. 

In: Culling ritual, duress, board wipes, single target removal of your choice. 

Out: Thoughtsize, some copies of annex. 

Mono-Red Aggro

Less relevant to have Culling Ritual than prowess. The name of this game is to use your powerful one for 1 removal and profitable trades till they run out of gas, and you can get ahead. Cards to dig for are Sheoldred. I like Abrupt Decay a lot in the match; it hits almost all the important targets. 

Out: all your life loss cards. Thoughtseize, several copies of Unholy Annex. 

In: board wipes, single-target removal, if you have powerful lifegain, go for it. 

Mirror

Value is the priority; your goal is to get the most out of each card and get way ahead of your opponent in terms of card advantage and value 

In: Hard to remove cards, extra removal, card draw engines. 

Out: Duress, some copies of Thoughtsieze. Culling Ritual 

Closing 

The deck does a lot, and as far as Black-based midrange decks go, this one is currently the most powerful in Pioneer. The key to success is to take your time, learn the lines, practice your matches against top decks in the format, and review your games afterward to see what you could have done better, or find communities that can help you analyze the lines you have made. Doing these things can help make you a stronger midrange player, or just in general. Happy hunting, good luck beating MTGO or the ladder!