GB Vengevine [Hogaak Placeholder Thread]

[Mr. Safety]

Wow, excellent post. Many thanks. I have been trying to figure out how to accelerate correctly and now I've been debating Birds of Paradise instead of Dark Ritual. DR means I can do two things: t1 setups with Buried Alive or some combination of discard/Imps, or feed the bigger cost creatures in the mid-game. Birds of Paradise means I am offering up a Bolt target and at the earliest t2 Buried Alive/combos. However, Birds trigger Vengevine and work with Lotleth Troll. The biggest reason for avoiding Lotleth Troll so far is that it can only discard creatures for value whereas Imp and Brutality can discard any dead cards to enable Hollow Ones. Wild Mongrel is easier to cast and can also discard anything for value. Dark Ritual was also there to enable a smaller land count (18) while allowing me to hard-cast Street Wraiths/Hollow Ones in the mid-game even though I didn't have a discard outlet. Street Wraiths also help me dig for lands.

I like the zombie engine, it's very powerful, especially with the grow creatures of Carrion Feeder/Troll. I'm a little wary of conditional threats beyond fast VV's and HO's, just because the investment can be undone so easily. I just want to spam a bunch of 4 power dudes out and get attacking.

What I really like, easily the most informative part of your post, is the templating that you laid out. That is exactly what I needed to really start evaluating card choices and ratios. Awesome.

Interesting point about Scavenging Ooze (which I am really leaning towards out of the board): it can fizzle a Surgical Extraction while growing. I think of all the super-gro creatures you have listed this is easily the best, with Carrion Feeder being 2nd due to efficiency. I don't want Tarmogoyf's out of the board, they will already be gunning for the graveyard. Scavenging Ooze allows my cycling creatures to do double duty (Wraiths and Hollows) by drawing me cards and making a big Scooze.

Confidant I've already addressed: it's pretty risky given Hollow Ones, Street Wraiths, and Vengevines potentially digging my own life total hard. Hollow One is what is really driving me to build this so I think for now Dark Confidant needs to be on the back burner for card testing.

As for splashes, these are the two I'm considering: red for Looting + PFire/Grove engine and white for StP + Lingering Souls. Both of those have value cards that can be discarded to enable Hollow Ones. Both offer some decent sideboard options as well, something Bg might struggle with.

Again, super big thanks.