Scavengerator (B/G Delirium/Scavenge Obliterator Rock)

[CaptainTwiddle]

The introduction of Eldritch Moon and the expansion of the Delirium mechanic got me thinking about an old archetype I had been experimenting with. B/G Obliterator Rock is, or at least was, a known deck type. Adrian Sullivan was perhaps the most notable player championing the strategy at times. The deck was somewhat well positioned during the Treasure Cruise era, as it played Chalice of the Void to good effect, eschewing 1-drops.

Here's my current decklist:

Scavengerator
CREATURES
1 Courser of Kruphix
2 Death's Shadow
4 Grim Flayer
1 Hangarback Walker
3 Phyrexian Obliterator
1 Spellskite
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Varolz, the Scar-Striped
SPELLS
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Collective Brutality
1 Dismember
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Liliana of the Veil
2 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Mishra's Bauble
1 Moldervine Cloak
1 Nameless Inversion
1 Setessan Tactics
1 Sinister Concoction
2 Traverse the Ulvenwald
1 Victim of Night
LAND
1 Forest
2 Marsh Flats
2 Overgrown Tomb
4 Swamp
4 Treetop Village
4 Twilight Mire
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Woodland Cemetary

Sideboard Considerations
Bile Blight
Deadly Allure
Death's Shadow
Engineered Explosives
Golgari Charm
Grafdigger's Cage
Illness in the Ranks
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Maelstrom Pulse
Nihil Spellbomb
Phyrexian Revoker
Scavenging Ooze
Surgical Extraction
Thoughtseize

In revisiting the deck, I began with Chalice of the Void in the list. I liked that it provided artifacts to the deck to fuel Delirium, but I found it problematic in that the deck really wanted to be sticking a threat on turn 2 much of the time and I feel like Chalice is a much higher variance card at the moment (i.e. great in some matchups, poor in others). As such, I removed the Chalices from the maindeck and instead added some 1-drop spells to provide disruption. The real guts of the deck though, are Grim Flayer, Phyrexian Obliterator, and to a lesser extent, Treetop Village. These creatures all have trample, which is incredibly powerful when combined with the Scavenge mechanic provided by Varolz, the Scar-Striped. Death's Shadow makes an appearance, as it's the most powerful creature to scavenge, providing a permanent +13/+13 at the low cost of B. Rather than jam the list full of multiple copies of Varolz and Shadow, I've included a 2/1 split, which is facilitated by Traverse the Ulvenwald.

The deck currently contains a 2/2 split between Liliana of the Veil and Liliana, the Last Hope. I think the latter is actually better suited to the deck, fueling Delirium, growing Tarmogoyf, digging for your powerful/combo creatures, and setting up Scavenge, and her ultimate is game winning. Her +1 ability is highly variable in its relevance, which is the only strike against her. LotV, on the other hand, is more powerful in certain matchups, as the edict effect really punishes single threat strategies (e.g. Bogles). Her symmetrical discard can set up Delirium/Scavenge as well.

As for many of the other card choices, the main theme is providing some amount of redundancy through different card types to facilitate Delirium; the deck contains all possible card types. Setessan Tactics is a game winning combo with Phyrexian Obliterator, allows your Goyfs to trump your opponent's, and is a much better card in more fair applications than you'd initially expect. Moldervine Cloak will probably raise some eyebrows, but the +3/+3 is really good on the trample creatures and the Dredge can fuel Delirium. Hangarback Walker is a nice inclusion, primarily because it's an Artifact Creature that you can cast for 0 to add 2 card types to your graveyard, but it's also provides a powerful combo with Varolz scavenging things onto it and providing a sacrifice outlet to avoid an untimely Path to Exile; turning a 14/14 flyer into 14 1/1 flyers is a pretty nice way to go wide. The other Artifact Creature in the list is Spellskite, which plays defense, protects your big threats from Paths, and gives you a way to lose life at will to pump up Death's Shadow.

Initial thoughts/questions:

I like the deck so far. It feels like a legitimate midrange deck, but has a powerful combo element and a bit of "engine" feel to it. The point where I'm most hung up is on the Scavenge package. Varolz is kind of clunky, despite the cool and potentially powerful abilities he provides. Death's Shadow is a powerful card, but this deck simply is not as good of a "Death's Shadow Deck" as the current Death's Shadow Aggro list. This presents the question of "Why play this over Death's Shadow Aggro or a more traditional midrange deck, like Jund?" I think the surprise element is one reason, but that's not the best defense of the strategy, as it's very temporal. I also feel like the current insurgence of Dredge has resulted in an increased amount of graveyard hate, to which this deck suffers collateral damage.

[Ricardio]

You might be too cute with all the one ofs.

I believe I am going to modern tonight and trying a run at BG Obliterator.

Current List:

2 Scooz
4 goyf
3 kitchen finks
2 kalitas
4 Phyrexian Obliterator
1 Tasigur

4 Veil
1 Garruk Relentless

4 Inquisition
2 Seize
2 decay
2 pulse
2 victim
1 slaughter pact
2 Collective brutality

4 verdant
4 bloodstained
3 overgrown
3 swamp
1 forest
2 urborg
2 ghost quarter
2 hissing quagmire
2 treetop
1 woodland cemetery

SB is whatever

[CaptainTwiddle]

You might be too cute with all the one ofs.

That is entirely possible. Although, many of the 1-ofs are essentially redundant and just there to provide card type diversification. One change I've made for the time being is adding 3 copies of Oath of Nissa in place of 1 Traverse the Ulvenwald, 1 Liliana of the Veil, and the Moldervine Cloak (while I liked the effect of the Cloak, 3 mana was a bit much to pay for an aura).

[Phoenix Ignition]

The reliance on filling your graveyard to make it even slightly better than any other GBx strategy is worrisome, especially now that graveyard hate is just so good against so many decks. The cute combo aspect of Varolz is significantly difficult to get off (I've tried in decks focused on it), and running such few copies of all of these things makes it worse. Even when I was able to try to +13/+13 something it was either chump blocked or the creature died in response.

Accidentally making your Goyfs huge is a plus, but I think just running a GBx deck with Bob and Goyf+Flayer would be enough to get that boost while also doing good all around stuff.

[Ricardio]

I ran that list: -1 tasigur, -1 s pact, -1 garruk and moved the 2nd kalitas to the board for 3 grim flayer and 1 setessan tactics.
I went 2-1: Beat Grixis delver 2-0, lost to naya burn 1-2(lost both on the draw games where he curved 3 creatures into burn) and beat RG tron 2-0.
I got to setessan tactics the delver players zombie fish to wipe his board. I got to cast all 4 oblits against burn g2 and win because of it.
Deck is fun. SB is meh.