Atwa
08-02-2007, 05:29 PM
Here is a primer of the deck I’ve played during the ‘The Source Tournament’, to a top 4 finish (Here is the report (http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6541)).
I. Introduction
I’ve developed this deck a couple of weeks ago, while I was working at a very boring congress for Microsoft. I simply pulled out my laptop and started to tinker a little bit on MWS. At first I tried to build a Quirion Dryad deck with a little extra power from Tarmogoyf, but even as I was only halfway, I could see it wasn’t going to work. I changed the deck idea to a pure Tarmogoyf instead, and after thinking of all color combinations (even 5 colors), I settled at a black list, with a green and white splash.
I posted it on our team boards and found out one of my fellow members had build an almost exact deck, except he went for a more aggroish approach. After tooling with it a bit and testing a lot, I feel the most comfortable with the list I’ve used at the tournament.
Let’s start with the deck list and I’ll explain some things after that.
II. Deck list:
IcBE Goyf Control v1.10
Lands:
4 Bayou
4 Scrubland
3 Windswept Heath
3 Wasteland
2 Savannah
2 Polluted Delta
2 Swamp
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Bloodstained Mire
Creatures:
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Dark Confidant
2 Mystic Enforcer
Instants:
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Darkblast
1 Funeral Charm
1 Orim’s Chant
1 Krosan Grip
Sorceries:
3 Duress
3 Reanimate
3 Vindicate
Enchantments:
3 Pernicious Deed
2 Seal of Primordium
Artifacts:
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Pithing Needle
Sideboard:
4 Engineered Plague
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Orim’s Chant
2 Krosan Grip
1 Duress
1 Pithing Needle
III: Fast explanations:
The whole deck is made to abuse Tarmogoyf to the fullest. Some card choises are a little odd, but there is logic behind every choice. The idea was to have a deck with as many broad usable cards as possible. Almost every card can be used for multiple tasks, depending on the matchup.
Most people will notice the lack of 4-offs. The most important thing to remember about this deck is that it isn’t build for consistency, but to be able to adapt in every match. What good will 4x Pithing Needle do for you when your opponent has no real targets for it? Although it can be a killer in some matchups, against some decks you can only use it to shut down fetchland. I’d rather cut one or two to the sideboard so I can have some in game 1, and I can add more from the side.
I also changed 2 Krosan Grips to Seal of Primordium. While the Grip is strictly better, it can be a dead card sometimes. Seal will never be a dead card, since you can always sacrifice it with no target (when there are non on the table) to fuel both Mystic Enforcer and Tarmogoyf. The fact that it is an enchantment also helps in this decision.
IV: Card explanations:
Tarmogoyf: This is the sole reason to play this deck. Anyone still not convinced of this card’s power has no business in legacy (or even magic). In my opinion, this is the best green card since Life from the Loam and the best green creature since Troll Ascetic. This whole deck has been build to use this creature to the fullest.
I’ve made a card breakdown of all card types used in this deck:
23 Land: 38.33%
10 Creatures: 16.67%
9 Instants: 15%
9 Sorceries: 15%
5 Enchantments: 8.33%
4 Artifacts: 6.67%
Almost every card puts either itself or another type (sometimes both) into a graveyard. Having a Goyf on the field at 6/7 on turn 4 is no exception.
Mystic Enforcer: Since we are already playing a deck based on abusing the graveyard, I figured this card could be used as a late game finisher. Most of the time, you will have no trouble of filling your grave. I also see less and less Tormod Crypts in sideboards, since Threshold (the main reason to play Crypt) is also packing Goyf, making other cards better against it. Most people are packing cards like Leyline, Withered Wretch and Engineered Explosives to deal with graveyard decks, and I have both maindeck and sideboard answers to all those cards.
Dark Confidant: When playing a (aggro)control deck, it might look weird to rely only on a creature for some extra card draw, but since I’m not playing blue, I’m almost bound to Confidant. A big plus is that almost everyone tries to kill it ASAP, so they almost work like a lightning rod for creature removal. I really can’t care if you play Ghastly Demise on my Confidant, if I can follow up with a 4/5 Goyf. Every removal spell directed at Confidant is one which won’t be cast on Goyf or Enforcer. The damage isn’t that much most of the time, and when it gets too dangerous to keep him on the board, I have 15 cards maindeck to get rid of him. Due to the average manacosts of my cards, this isn’t often needed though:
16x 1 mana
10x 2 mana
07x 3 mana
02x 4 mana
Total average casting cost, including land: 1.08.
Swords to Plowshares:This is a legacy deck which uses white mana. No explanations needed, you will think. Normally not, except that this card contradicts the whole philosophy of this deck. The sole purpose of the deck is to get cards into the graveyard, and this card removes them. However, it’s really nice to gain some extra life, and it’s vital to have some cheap targeted removal in some matchups, but most of the time I’d wish it was something else.
Duress: Being for the most part a board-control deck, we almost automatically have a poor matchup against most fast combo. Duress is what can give you at least a chance to win the first game.
Vindicate: This deck really wants to able to destroy everything which it faces. Vindicate is the perfect card for this. Most of the time you’d want to have instants for this work, but I was already low on sorceries for this deck. Playing with the deck has proven me that this card really deserves its slots.
Pernicious Deed: Deed is maybe the best board sweeper in our format. Most of the time, you'll clear the whole board with it, and follow with a very big Goyf or Enforcer. Also, affinity is still being played in the format, and this card slaughters it (free Armageddons ftw!).
Reanimate: Maybe Reanimate is the second best card in the whole deck. Our creatures are bound to get killed, discarded or dredged into our graveyard. Seeing we play both Deed and Explosives, we are bound to kill our own creatures. Reanimate really helps you out. Reanimate is also functioning as creature 11-13. Who doesn’t want a 5/6 creature for 1 mana and 2 life? Stealing the creatures in your opponent’s graveyard is almost always a really cool thing to do, and you always surprise people with it, since Reanimate is way underrated in this format. Ask White-ghost how he feels about it :) I really wonder why decks like Pox and Suicide don’t play it.
Darkblast:[i] Although I already have lots of ways to get rid of little creatures, most of the time you want to save those cards until some big creatures show up. Darkblast is ideal at killing Lackey, Welder, Werebear, Goblin Tokens, Dark Confidant and lots of other small creatures. It is also very good when you are playing against another deck with Tarmogoyf. Attack into theirs and after they declare theirs as a blocker (which they’ll most likely do), make theirs smaller. Dredging helps a lot to grow a Goyf or Enforcer fast.
[i]Seal of Primordium: At first I wanted to play Seal of Cleansing, but I decided I didn’t want my biggest win condition in the least played color. Either Seal is almost always strictly worse than Krosan Grip is, but for starters: in this deck you don’t want to keep your mana open and Grip can be a dead card (although almost every deck has at least one or two targets in their deck). Seals can be sacrificed when there are no targets on the board and they count as enchantment for Goyf. Less and less people are playing enchantments, so it’s good to have some of your own.
Pithing Needle: Almost every deck has targets for this card and a lot of people are playing them in their sideboard. I’ve found out they work out fine in the maindeck, as long as you don’t play too many. Two main and a third in the board fit’s ideal for this deck.
Engineered Explosives: Very useful to have in today’s metagame. Almost every deck has targets for this guy, even combo with Empty the Warrens. Too many clutter up in your hand, but a 3/2 configuration with Deed is just about right. I tried the numbers the other way around, but I never felt comfortable with it.
Krosan Grip: Shouldn’t need an extra explanation. I used to play 3 in the maindeck, but switched 2 for Seals and never looked back. Although, sometimes you just want to use the split-second mechanic, and it’s always nice to have it.
Orim’s Chant: I wanted to have a 4th anti-combo card in the maindeck, which wasn’t discard. I’ve decided on Orim’s Chant. Although it saved my ass many times against combo, I’ve used it more often to make sure my opponent doesn’t play any blockers or sorcery speed removal. A couple of times it even won me the game like this.
Funeral Charm: When I originally build the deck, I got stuck at 59 cards (first time ever). I really wanted to play no more than 23 land, so adding an extra Swamp wouldn’t have worked. The puzzle came together after I scrolled through the card list and found the Charm. Since I didn’t want to play 4 Duress or 3 Darkblast, this card fits the hole perfectly, Funeral Charm is both! I know the choices you get, are strictly worse than the originals, but having the choice which card you want to use is really good in this deck. I might add more, but I really don’t want to cut anything from the list yet.
Lands:
6 Fetches are really needed to get your mana right, as well as get lands into the graveyard. Wasteland is a real bomb, since you can attack their manabase together with Vindicate and it keeps a land in their grave even if they use Tormod’s Crypt on you. 4 basic lands are needed to make yourself a little wasteland-proof and the 10 Duals work out fine to get every color you need.
The Sideboard:
- Engineered Plague: Against Goblins, Empty the Warrens, Elves and even some builds of Survival
- Chalice of the Void: Mainly for Combo and Threshold.
- Orim’s Chant: Combo
- Duress: Combo and (Aggro)Control
- Pithing Needle: Belcher, Survival and other random decks/cards
- Krosan Grip: Survival, Staxs, Pox, Belcher
Note that I made this sideboard for a unknown metagame. Adjust as needed.
V: Matchups:
I won’t give percentages, since these depend on both players involved, and I haven’t tested the deck enough to make them reasonable.
Goblins:[/u]
(about even)
This matchup totally depends on both begin hands. Make sure to have at least a 1 mana removal spell ready for Goblin Lackey, and ideally have a Pernicious Deed ready to sweep the board. Vindicates and Wastelands should be primary used to destroy their mana base (in which I also include Goblin Warchief) and try to get rid of Vials as fast as possible.
Sideboard plan:
+4 Engineered Plague
-1 Orim’s Chant
-3 Duress (or -1 Duress -2 Seal, really depends on how they sideboard)
[i]Threshold[/u]
(slightly favourable)
The most important thing to do is make sure you play around Daze. Force of Will can’t really be helped, and Swords to Plowshares aimed at a Tarmogoyf really sucks. Even though they can draw through their deck very fast, and have a slightly better creature base, we have way better (and more) removal.
Sideboard plan:
+4 Chalice of the Void (hurts us as well, but it shuts down almost their whole deck)
+1 Duress
-2 Pithing Needle
-2 Seal of Primordium
-1 Krosan Grip
[i]The Epic Storm:[/u]
(slightly unfavourable)
This game is all about luck. If your opponent gets a first turn kill on the play, there is nothing you can do. If it takes longer, you have all sorts of nasty things you can do against them. Duress is nice against them, Funeral Charm can also be nice, but not as effective. Almost always use Orim’s Chant in response to their Burning Wishes. Explosives, Deed and Engineered Plague help against their Empty the Warrens after boarding.
Sideboard plan:
+4 Chalice of the Void
+4 Engineered Plague
+3 Orim’s Chant
+1 Duress
-4 Swords to Plowshares
-3 Vindicate
-2 Seal of Primordium
-2 Pithing Needle
-1 Pernicious Deed
[i]Belcher:
(slightly favourable)
Better to play against than TES is, since Belcher is way more fragile. We play maindeck Krosan Grip, Seal, Pithing Needle and discard to punish them for not comboing on turn 1. Again, use Orim’s Chants in response to their wishes, this alone can win you the game.
Sideboard plan:
+4 Engineered Plague
+3 Orim’s Chant
+1 Pithing Needle
+1 Duress
-4 Swords to Plowshares
-3 Reanimate
-2 Seal of Primordium
Deadguy’s Ale
(favourable)
Even if both discard an land destruction can be troublesome, this deck can deal with it, as long as it isn’t coming all at once. You really need only 2 mana to operate 75 % of the deck. Their creatures are weak and can all be dealt with by a single Darkblast (using dredge). As soon as you get a big Tarmogoyf or an Enforcer on the board, they basically lose. Charm’s effect which grants swampwalk can also be useful here.
Sideboard plan:
+1 Duress
+1 Pithing Needle
-1 Orim’s Chant
-1 Seal of Primordium
Pox
(very unfavourable)
This deck can deal with destruction when it is directed at one point, but pox attacks all directions all in once. I don’t really have a strategy other than kill all their win conditions (almost all artefacts) and try to deliver some punches with your creatures before they die. One or two hit with a big creature are enough most of the time, but you are unlikely to deliver them.
Sideboard plan:
+2 Krosan Grip
+1 Duress
-2 Darkblast
-1 Orim’s Chant
VI: Conclusions:
All in all, this is a deck which I have enjoyed playing during the online tournament and I have already bought and traded the cards I didn’t have yet to build it in real life.
I’m not a (aggro)control player at all, but building this deck was challenging and a lot of fun. After sharing this list, I hope more people can enjoy playing it or at least help them building their own Tarmogoyf decks. I am pretty sure this isn’t the best list possible, and somewhere I hope we’ll never find it. Tarmogoyf is a wet dream for deck builders, since there are so many possible configurations and so many tweakings possible.
As far as any changes to be made, is that this deck really needs some hate against recurring strategies. Maze of Ith with Life from the Loam is almost unbeatable. Adding Extirpate will really help.
As for this build, please leave any comments, since I’m certain this will be my pet deck for a long time, and tips are always welcome.
I. Introduction
I’ve developed this deck a couple of weeks ago, while I was working at a very boring congress for Microsoft. I simply pulled out my laptop and started to tinker a little bit on MWS. At first I tried to build a Quirion Dryad deck with a little extra power from Tarmogoyf, but even as I was only halfway, I could see it wasn’t going to work. I changed the deck idea to a pure Tarmogoyf instead, and after thinking of all color combinations (even 5 colors), I settled at a black list, with a green and white splash.
I posted it on our team boards and found out one of my fellow members had build an almost exact deck, except he went for a more aggroish approach. After tooling with it a bit and testing a lot, I feel the most comfortable with the list I’ve used at the tournament.
Let’s start with the deck list and I’ll explain some things after that.
II. Deck list:
IcBE Goyf Control v1.10
Lands:
4 Bayou
4 Scrubland
3 Windswept Heath
3 Wasteland
2 Savannah
2 Polluted Delta
2 Swamp
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Bloodstained Mire
Creatures:
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Dark Confidant
2 Mystic Enforcer
Instants:
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Darkblast
1 Funeral Charm
1 Orim’s Chant
1 Krosan Grip
Sorceries:
3 Duress
3 Reanimate
3 Vindicate
Enchantments:
3 Pernicious Deed
2 Seal of Primordium
Artifacts:
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Pithing Needle
Sideboard:
4 Engineered Plague
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Orim’s Chant
2 Krosan Grip
1 Duress
1 Pithing Needle
III: Fast explanations:
The whole deck is made to abuse Tarmogoyf to the fullest. Some card choises are a little odd, but there is logic behind every choice. The idea was to have a deck with as many broad usable cards as possible. Almost every card can be used for multiple tasks, depending on the matchup.
Most people will notice the lack of 4-offs. The most important thing to remember about this deck is that it isn’t build for consistency, but to be able to adapt in every match. What good will 4x Pithing Needle do for you when your opponent has no real targets for it? Although it can be a killer in some matchups, against some decks you can only use it to shut down fetchland. I’d rather cut one or two to the sideboard so I can have some in game 1, and I can add more from the side.
I also changed 2 Krosan Grips to Seal of Primordium. While the Grip is strictly better, it can be a dead card sometimes. Seal will never be a dead card, since you can always sacrifice it with no target (when there are non on the table) to fuel both Mystic Enforcer and Tarmogoyf. The fact that it is an enchantment also helps in this decision.
IV: Card explanations:
Tarmogoyf: This is the sole reason to play this deck. Anyone still not convinced of this card’s power has no business in legacy (or even magic). In my opinion, this is the best green card since Life from the Loam and the best green creature since Troll Ascetic. This whole deck has been build to use this creature to the fullest.
I’ve made a card breakdown of all card types used in this deck:
23 Land: 38.33%
10 Creatures: 16.67%
9 Instants: 15%
9 Sorceries: 15%
5 Enchantments: 8.33%
4 Artifacts: 6.67%
Almost every card puts either itself or another type (sometimes both) into a graveyard. Having a Goyf on the field at 6/7 on turn 4 is no exception.
Mystic Enforcer: Since we are already playing a deck based on abusing the graveyard, I figured this card could be used as a late game finisher. Most of the time, you will have no trouble of filling your grave. I also see less and less Tormod Crypts in sideboards, since Threshold (the main reason to play Crypt) is also packing Goyf, making other cards better against it. Most people are packing cards like Leyline, Withered Wretch and Engineered Explosives to deal with graveyard decks, and I have both maindeck and sideboard answers to all those cards.
Dark Confidant: When playing a (aggro)control deck, it might look weird to rely only on a creature for some extra card draw, but since I’m not playing blue, I’m almost bound to Confidant. A big plus is that almost everyone tries to kill it ASAP, so they almost work like a lightning rod for creature removal. I really can’t care if you play Ghastly Demise on my Confidant, if I can follow up with a 4/5 Goyf. Every removal spell directed at Confidant is one which won’t be cast on Goyf or Enforcer. The damage isn’t that much most of the time, and when it gets too dangerous to keep him on the board, I have 15 cards maindeck to get rid of him. Due to the average manacosts of my cards, this isn’t often needed though:
16x 1 mana
10x 2 mana
07x 3 mana
02x 4 mana
Total average casting cost, including land: 1.08.
Swords to Plowshares:This is a legacy deck which uses white mana. No explanations needed, you will think. Normally not, except that this card contradicts the whole philosophy of this deck. The sole purpose of the deck is to get cards into the graveyard, and this card removes them. However, it’s really nice to gain some extra life, and it’s vital to have some cheap targeted removal in some matchups, but most of the time I’d wish it was something else.
Duress: Being for the most part a board-control deck, we almost automatically have a poor matchup against most fast combo. Duress is what can give you at least a chance to win the first game.
Vindicate: This deck really wants to able to destroy everything which it faces. Vindicate is the perfect card for this. Most of the time you’d want to have instants for this work, but I was already low on sorceries for this deck. Playing with the deck has proven me that this card really deserves its slots.
Pernicious Deed: Deed is maybe the best board sweeper in our format. Most of the time, you'll clear the whole board with it, and follow with a very big Goyf or Enforcer. Also, affinity is still being played in the format, and this card slaughters it (free Armageddons ftw!).
Reanimate: Maybe Reanimate is the second best card in the whole deck. Our creatures are bound to get killed, discarded or dredged into our graveyard. Seeing we play both Deed and Explosives, we are bound to kill our own creatures. Reanimate really helps you out. Reanimate is also functioning as creature 11-13. Who doesn’t want a 5/6 creature for 1 mana and 2 life? Stealing the creatures in your opponent’s graveyard is almost always a really cool thing to do, and you always surprise people with it, since Reanimate is way underrated in this format. Ask White-ghost how he feels about it :) I really wonder why decks like Pox and Suicide don’t play it.
Darkblast:[i] Although I already have lots of ways to get rid of little creatures, most of the time you want to save those cards until some big creatures show up. Darkblast is ideal at killing Lackey, Welder, Werebear, Goblin Tokens, Dark Confidant and lots of other small creatures. It is also very good when you are playing against another deck with Tarmogoyf. Attack into theirs and after they declare theirs as a blocker (which they’ll most likely do), make theirs smaller. Dredging helps a lot to grow a Goyf or Enforcer fast.
[i]Seal of Primordium: At first I wanted to play Seal of Cleansing, but I decided I didn’t want my biggest win condition in the least played color. Either Seal is almost always strictly worse than Krosan Grip is, but for starters: in this deck you don’t want to keep your mana open and Grip can be a dead card (although almost every deck has at least one or two targets in their deck). Seals can be sacrificed when there are no targets on the board and they count as enchantment for Goyf. Less and less people are playing enchantments, so it’s good to have some of your own.
Pithing Needle: Almost every deck has targets for this card and a lot of people are playing them in their sideboard. I’ve found out they work out fine in the maindeck, as long as you don’t play too many. Two main and a third in the board fit’s ideal for this deck.
Engineered Explosives: Very useful to have in today’s metagame. Almost every deck has targets for this guy, even combo with Empty the Warrens. Too many clutter up in your hand, but a 3/2 configuration with Deed is just about right. I tried the numbers the other way around, but I never felt comfortable with it.
Krosan Grip: Shouldn’t need an extra explanation. I used to play 3 in the maindeck, but switched 2 for Seals and never looked back. Although, sometimes you just want to use the split-second mechanic, and it’s always nice to have it.
Orim’s Chant: I wanted to have a 4th anti-combo card in the maindeck, which wasn’t discard. I’ve decided on Orim’s Chant. Although it saved my ass many times against combo, I’ve used it more often to make sure my opponent doesn’t play any blockers or sorcery speed removal. A couple of times it even won me the game like this.
Funeral Charm: When I originally build the deck, I got stuck at 59 cards (first time ever). I really wanted to play no more than 23 land, so adding an extra Swamp wouldn’t have worked. The puzzle came together after I scrolled through the card list and found the Charm. Since I didn’t want to play 4 Duress or 3 Darkblast, this card fits the hole perfectly, Funeral Charm is both! I know the choices you get, are strictly worse than the originals, but having the choice which card you want to use is really good in this deck. I might add more, but I really don’t want to cut anything from the list yet.
Lands:
6 Fetches are really needed to get your mana right, as well as get lands into the graveyard. Wasteland is a real bomb, since you can attack their manabase together with Vindicate and it keeps a land in their grave even if they use Tormod’s Crypt on you. 4 basic lands are needed to make yourself a little wasteland-proof and the 10 Duals work out fine to get every color you need.
The Sideboard:
- Engineered Plague: Against Goblins, Empty the Warrens, Elves and even some builds of Survival
- Chalice of the Void: Mainly for Combo and Threshold.
- Orim’s Chant: Combo
- Duress: Combo and (Aggro)Control
- Pithing Needle: Belcher, Survival and other random decks/cards
- Krosan Grip: Survival, Staxs, Pox, Belcher
Note that I made this sideboard for a unknown metagame. Adjust as needed.
V: Matchups:
I won’t give percentages, since these depend on both players involved, and I haven’t tested the deck enough to make them reasonable.
Goblins:[/u]
(about even)
This matchup totally depends on both begin hands. Make sure to have at least a 1 mana removal spell ready for Goblin Lackey, and ideally have a Pernicious Deed ready to sweep the board. Vindicates and Wastelands should be primary used to destroy their mana base (in which I also include Goblin Warchief) and try to get rid of Vials as fast as possible.
Sideboard plan:
+4 Engineered Plague
-1 Orim’s Chant
-3 Duress (or -1 Duress -2 Seal, really depends on how they sideboard)
[i]Threshold[/u]
(slightly favourable)
The most important thing to do is make sure you play around Daze. Force of Will can’t really be helped, and Swords to Plowshares aimed at a Tarmogoyf really sucks. Even though they can draw through their deck very fast, and have a slightly better creature base, we have way better (and more) removal.
Sideboard plan:
+4 Chalice of the Void (hurts us as well, but it shuts down almost their whole deck)
+1 Duress
-2 Pithing Needle
-2 Seal of Primordium
-1 Krosan Grip
[i]The Epic Storm:[/u]
(slightly unfavourable)
This game is all about luck. If your opponent gets a first turn kill on the play, there is nothing you can do. If it takes longer, you have all sorts of nasty things you can do against them. Duress is nice against them, Funeral Charm can also be nice, but not as effective. Almost always use Orim’s Chant in response to their Burning Wishes. Explosives, Deed and Engineered Plague help against their Empty the Warrens after boarding.
Sideboard plan:
+4 Chalice of the Void
+4 Engineered Plague
+3 Orim’s Chant
+1 Duress
-4 Swords to Plowshares
-3 Vindicate
-2 Seal of Primordium
-2 Pithing Needle
-1 Pernicious Deed
[i]Belcher:
(slightly favourable)
Better to play against than TES is, since Belcher is way more fragile. We play maindeck Krosan Grip, Seal, Pithing Needle and discard to punish them for not comboing on turn 1. Again, use Orim’s Chants in response to their wishes, this alone can win you the game.
Sideboard plan:
+4 Engineered Plague
+3 Orim’s Chant
+1 Pithing Needle
+1 Duress
-4 Swords to Plowshares
-3 Reanimate
-2 Seal of Primordium
Deadguy’s Ale
(favourable)
Even if both discard an land destruction can be troublesome, this deck can deal with it, as long as it isn’t coming all at once. You really need only 2 mana to operate 75 % of the deck. Their creatures are weak and can all be dealt with by a single Darkblast (using dredge). As soon as you get a big Tarmogoyf or an Enforcer on the board, they basically lose. Charm’s effect which grants swampwalk can also be useful here.
Sideboard plan:
+1 Duress
+1 Pithing Needle
-1 Orim’s Chant
-1 Seal of Primordium
Pox
(very unfavourable)
This deck can deal with destruction when it is directed at one point, but pox attacks all directions all in once. I don’t really have a strategy other than kill all their win conditions (almost all artefacts) and try to deliver some punches with your creatures before they die. One or two hit with a big creature are enough most of the time, but you are unlikely to deliver them.
Sideboard plan:
+2 Krosan Grip
+1 Duress
-2 Darkblast
-1 Orim’s Chant
VI: Conclusions:
All in all, this is a deck which I have enjoyed playing during the online tournament and I have already bought and traded the cards I didn’t have yet to build it in real life.
I’m not a (aggro)control player at all, but building this deck was challenging and a lot of fun. After sharing this list, I hope more people can enjoy playing it or at least help them building their own Tarmogoyf decks. I am pretty sure this isn’t the best list possible, and somewhere I hope we’ll never find it. Tarmogoyf is a wet dream for deck builders, since there are so many possible configurations and so many tweakings possible.
As far as any changes to be made, is that this deck really needs some hate against recurring strategies. Maze of Ith with Life from the Loam is almost unbeatable. Adding Extirpate will really help.
As for this build, please leave any comments, since I’m certain this will be my pet deck for a long time, and tips are always welcome.