Dragon’s Maze: Playing to your Weaknesses – Golgari and Izzet

I’d like to start off by apologizing for not putting out all of my articles about DGM limited before the pre-release. The coming articles should still be useful for future reference if you plan on doing a PTQ, Grand Prix, or other sealed/draft event in the future, so be sure to remember them if you end up doing one of those events. Finishing up the remaining colors should be easy now that I’ve seen the cards played and their various uses. There is still another article after this one, so lets get Izzet and Golgari out of way.

Golgari

The majority of Golgari’s good cards are in RTR, but there are still some decent ones in limited. I played Golgari at the midnight pre-release and they were amazing with Simic. By themselves they might not be strong, but when they are teamed up with other guilds they are amazing. Golgari gives you both power and removal, and they are also incredibly resilient thanks to scavenge giving them a second life as counters on another creature.

Korozda Gorgon

The first card I chose for limited was Korozda Gorgon. It’s not great, but it serves as a 2/5 wall that can kill any creature it touches which will make your opponent think twice about attacking. It also works well if you’re playing with Simic since you can keep taking off counters to kill others. This turns her ability into a reusable Tragic Slip for two man, especially if you can keep the counters on your creatures. She works best in a Simic deck, but if you have a lot of scavenge cards she’d be good too. Even if you don’t have those colors, I’d still recommend her to fill out your top 23 cards in a sealed draft. Not too sure about taking her in a booster draft. It would probably depend on how many creatures with tokens you can make.

Putrefy

Pretty sweet card. It’s a GB Murder (M13) that can also target artifacts. You probably won’t be using the first ability, but being able to kill a creature and stopping it’s regeneration is amazing. First pick in a draft, and definitely one of the first cards in a sealed deck. I can not recommend this card enough.

Thrashing Mossdog

I got a chance to play with this card a lot at the pre-release and it’s pretty solid. A 3/3 with reach was incredibly useful. It stopped most of my opponent’s fliers and early drops, and I had a chance to use his scavenge quite a few times as well. He’s not what you’d pick first in draft or sealed, but he’s what you’d call a backbone card. He fits in just about everything and gets the work done while not shining brighter than any other card. Definitely a solid pick in draft, and probably a top 15 card in sealed too.

Izzet

I got stuck with Izzet/Gruul during my second pre-release and it was an absolute nightmare. Izzet has great spells, and some good burn, but they just aren’t that good in sealed. Their creatures get easily outclassed and they tend to be few and far between. I had to splash black just to have decent removal in my RUG deck. I’d steer clear of Izzet in the future, but if you’re splashing their colors in a deck, here are a few suggestions.

Turn//Burn

Like I was saying up above, Izzet has great spells. Turn//Burn can play some unpleasant tricks on people. Blocking and thinking their 4/6  will kill yours, then having it turn into a 0/1 and die is frustrating. I should know, it happened to me. The blue spell is probably the most useful of the effects in limited, but if you have the mana you can take the creature out with one card. It’s decent in limited, but in draft I’d expect this to be better because you can supplement it with a more balanced attack and other spells. Yes to both draft and sealed, but I don’t think it would be a high choice.

Blast of Genius

This is a pretty slick card too. It draws you two cards and also acts as a burn spell that can be as small or as large as you want (depending on the casting cost of the card you discard). It won’t help you out early, but later in the game it’s just as good as an Urban Evolution except you can burn instead of play a land. I’m not sure about using this in draft (maybe as choice 14 or so), but I’d use it in sealed for sure. It would work well in a Izzet/Rakdos deck and in Izzet/Simic as well. It really depends on what cards you get I think.

Fluxcharger

Fluxcharger seems like a fun card. Most of the time he’ll be a 1/5 flying wall in sealed due to the high number of creatures in limited decks, but every once in a while you should be able to sneak in an extra 4 damage in the air. I think he’s a solid sealed card and if you can choose a good mix of instants and sorceries in draft he should do you proud as well.

Nivix Cyclops

Nivix Cyclops is like Fluxmage’s little brother. He has defender, and costs one less mana, but he has the ability to explode with power if you save your instants and sorceries for the right time. He works well on both offense and defense, but like Fluxmage’s drawback, if you’re playing a creature heavy deck he won’t be more than a 1/4 creature for you most of the time. The Cyclops will work best in a drafted deck with a good amount of burn and kill spells. Grixis (BRU- Izzet/Dimir) is probably the best colors for both him and Fluxmage because it gives you access to plenty of tempo cards like Far//Away, Grisly Salvage, and Devour Flesh. However, in sealed, he’s probably better left out of your 23, or in that last spot. 

Honorable Mentions:

• Rot Farm Skeleton – it’s great that you can bring him back from the dead by milling yourself 4 cards each time, but not being able to block keeps him from being great. Top 20 card, good in sealed, better in draft. 

Next time on PTYW:

Seems like there were slim pickings for both Izzet and Golgari. If you think there were other commons/uncommons that should have gotten some airtime, please leave a comment down below. Next time I’ll be covering the last two colors, Orzhov and Selesnya. Both are pretty good guilds and have some great cards, so I wanted to save them for last. As soon as PTYW finishes I’ll be jumping on my “Bang for your Buck” investment articles to talk about which cards I think will see an increase/decrease in value due to the new set. It will be interesting to see if I made any good choices, as well as to learn from any mistakes I made. I think I’ve learned a lot about value since I last wrote those articles, so you can expect a lot better information this time. Thanks for reading today and check back tomorrow for the last one!