How to Build Golgari Without Being Golboring

<p style="text-align: right;"><em><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Jenova, Ancient Calamity" href="#" target="_blank">Jenova, Ancient Calamity</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> Art by <a href="https://www.artstation.com/b03di" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ignatius Budi</a></em></p>
<p>Well <em>Magic</em> players, it's time to introduce you all to <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Jenova, Ancient Calamity" href="#" target="_blank">Jenova, Ancient Calamity</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, one of the biggest villains in <em>Final Fantasy VII.</em> For those of you that don’t know: Jenova, is an ancient Alien creature that's central to the plot of the story. It infects lifeforms like a virus, turning them into monsters, which is captured perfectly with this new card. Modifying a creature and then drawing cards when it dies is a powerful ability to build around.</p>
<p>So, join me, Tyler ‘Savesya’ Bucks, as I highlight 14 cards for under $14 that can get you started on a new deck! With this list, we'll look at a few creatures that are naturally Mutants, which makes it even easier to draw cards off of when they die, as well as show off some synergistic sacrifice outlets that will give you more control over when your creatures leave the board.</p>
<h2>What Does Jenova, Ancient Calamity Do?</h2>
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<p>Let’s kick things off by taking a look at the commander, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Jenova, Ancient Calamity" href="#" target="_blank">Jenova, Ancient Calamity</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, a four-mana 1/5 that hands out +1/+1 counter equal to their power to one of your creatures at the start of your combat. When that happens, that creature becomes a Mutant in addition to its other types.</p>
<p>But that’s not all. Whenever a Mutant you control dies during your turn, you draw cards equal to its power.</p>
<h2>Budget Mutant Cards for Jenova, Ancient Calamity</h2>
<p>Of course, throwing something like a <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Yargle and Multani" href="#" target="_blank">Yargle and Multani</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> into this deck would be great, but I wanted to first show off some creatures that are already Mutants.</p>
<h3>Rampaging Yao Guai</h3>
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<p>The first Mutant we’re showcasing today comes with some counters of its own, as well as removal stapled to it. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Rampaging Yao Guai" href="#" target="_blank">Rampaging Yao Guai</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> can be strong in the early game as well as the late game, allowing you to clear the board of pesky artifacts and enchantments while getting you a big body on the board.</p>
<p>It's also a great blocker and attacker that you won’t care about dying during combat, since you’ll be drawing all those cards with your commander.</p>
<h3>Lily Bowen, Raging Grandma</h3>
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<p>Another card that comes with its own counters is <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Lily Bowen, Raging Grandma" href="#" target="_blank">Lily Bowen, Raging Grandma</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. Even though she already has a way to grow her counters, throwing an additional one on with Jenova could be beneficial, since it'll only grow your Granny faster.</p>
<p>Now all but one of those counters will go away once Lily gets more than sixteen of them, which just means you should be attacking as much as possible or looking for one of the sacrifice outlets we'll talk about later to cash her in when she's at her most powerful.</p>
<h3>Watchful Radstag</h3>
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<p>We'll be talking about a lot of big creatures on this list, but let’s take a look at a way to go a bit wider with our board. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Watchful Radstag" href="#" target="_blank">Watchful Radstag</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> creates a token of itself whenever it evolves, which means that as you simply play out your game plan, you could be getting a bigger board of Elk.</p>
<p>Since Jenova doesn’t care about how your Mutants die, you can recklessly use those tokens for attacking, all while drawing cards in the process.</p>
<h3>Lumbering Megasloth</h3>
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<p>If you already have plenty of counters building up on your board, well then <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Lumbering Megasloth" href="#" target="_blank">Lumbering Megasloth</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is here to come down for as little as two mana. It's naturally an 8/8, which is great for getting into the red zone, or just straight up sacrificing to draw an obscene number of cards.</p>
<p>Do yourself a favor and hold off on casting this Sloth until you’re ready to get full value out of it, because let’s be honest, 12 mana is just too high. Also, don’t overlook the fact that the mana reduction takes into account all counters on the board, not just yours.</p>
<h3>Ursine Monstrosity</h3>
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<p>Let's step away from <a href="https://edhrec.com/sets/pip" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>Fall Out</em></a> Mutants for a second with <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Ursine Monstrosity" href="#" target="_blank">Ursine Monstrosity</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. This creature has trample as well as a way to grow when you move to combat, milling you a card and then getting +1/+1 for each card type in your graveyard. Since it also gains indestructible, this will be a great target for the counters Jenova passes along, making it a constant threat on each of your turns for one random unlucky opponent.</p>
<p>As another bonus, since the Monstrosity only costs three mana, you can get it down the turn before your commander, and start the pain train as early as possible.</p>
<h3>Feral Ghoul</h3>
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<p>In this deck a lot of cards will be going to your graveyard, whether it's from milling or sacrificing; the latter of the two is something that <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Feral Ghoul" href="#" target="_blank">Feral Ghoul</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> loves to see. Gaining +1/+1 counters whenever another creature you control dies means that you could get this down early, then continue your game plan of sacrificing bigger creatures to draw cards, all while the Ghoul gets bigger and bigger, setting you up to cash it in for value later in the game. Then you draw a bunch of cards and throw a whole lot of rad counters onto your opponents in the process.</p>
<h3>Evolution Witness</h3>
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<p>As I just mentioned, a lot of these value pieces we look at today will most likely end up in your bin - but that’s where <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Evolution Witness" href="#" target="_blank">Evolution Witness</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> comes in. Whenever you add a counter to it, you’ll return a permanent from your graveyard to your hand, which makes for a great combo with your commander, since you can have a repeatable way to regrow something each turn if you need to build your board back.</p>
<h2>Budget Sacrifice Outlets for Jenova</h2>
<p>In this next section, we'll highlight some great sacrifice outlets, which always feel even better to run when you have more ways to bring your cards back, like <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Evolution Witness" href="#" target="_blank">Evolution Witness</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>.</p>
<h3>Wight of the Reliquary</h3>
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<p>Let's kick off this section on sacrifice outlets with <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Wight of the Reliquary" href="#" target="_blank">Wight of the Reliquary</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. Not only is this a creature that grows in size, which Jenova would love to turn into a Mutant, but it also gives you the ability to grab any land from your deck.</p>
<p>If you’re drawing huge chunks of cards in this deck, the main thing that will hold you back is not having enough mana to cast those spells. Ramp like this that synergizes on multiple levels of your game plan makes it a slam dunk inclusion for this list.</p>
<h3>Illuminor Szeras</h3>
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<p>Up next we have the most expensive card on the list, but its worth it since it helps us with that mana problem I was just referring to. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Illuminor Szeras" href="#" target="_blank">Illuminor Szeras</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> can tap to sacrifice a creature, and gives you black mana equal to the creature’s mana value. Imagine using that ability with the <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Lumbering Megasloth" href="#" target="_blank">Lumbering Megasloth</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> we talked about earlier: drawing eight cards, and making twelve mana could just push you towards closing the game out faster than anyone is ready for.</p>
<h3>Flare of Cultivation</h3>
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<p>Keeping with the ramp theme, our next spell, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Flare of Cultivation" href="#" target="_blank">Flare of Cultivation</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, can feed into everything you need and cost you zero mana in the process. As you cast it, you can sacrifice a nontoken green creature, which makes it free. This card is flexible since at its base, it’s just a <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Cultivate" href="#" target="_blank">Cultivate</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. But when your game plan is humming, it can also refill your hand. Ramp and card draw for free sounds pretty nice to me!</p>
<h3>Cultist of the Absolute</h3>
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<p>Not many cards on this list help grow Jenova’s stats, which you do want since you put counters on something equal to its power, but <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Cultist of the Absolute" href="#" target="_blank">Cultist of the Absolute</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> was too good to pass up. Giving +3/+3, great keywords, and ward is amazing, but it's also a sacrifice outlet on your upkeep.</p>
<p>There's a chance that this card might put you in an awkward position where you don’t want to get rid of a member of your team, but if your commander gave four counters to a creature on your last turn, and then you cash it for cards, you'll likely be able to add a lot more fodder to the board from there.</p>
<h3>Deadly Brew</h3>
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<p>If you want your opponents to join in the fun of sacrificing their creatures, then <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Deadly Brew" href="#" target="_blank">Deadly Brew</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is here for you. Two mana to have each player get rid of a creature is a solid rate. When you add the fact that you want to be doing that with your creatures anyway, you’ll be sure to come out on top of this exchange. Plus, this sorcery allows you to then return something from your graveyard to your hand, which can help you get back a key piece you sacrificed earlier in the game for value.</p>
<h3>Daemogoth Titan</h3>
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<p>Alright, let’s not mess around anymore… <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Daemogoth Titan" href="#" target="_blank">Daemogoth Titan</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is a four mana 11/10. When you move to combat, Jenova can give it a counter, turning the Titan into a Mutant. Then you either sacrifice it to one of the effects we’ve mentioned before, or just attack with it on your turn. It’s a lose-lose situation for your opponents, since its sacrifice ability allows you to target itself.</p>
<h3>The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride</h3>
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<p>Closing things out this week, we have a little bit of redundancy for your commander with <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride" href="#" target="_blank">The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. When I first saw Jenova, my mind immediately went to <a href="https://edhrec.com/sets/otj" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>Thunder Junction’s</em></a> take on this Frog Horror, and they work perfectly together.</p>
<p>Here’s a little example: before combat, have that <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Daemogoth Titan" href="#" target="_blank">Daemogoth Titan</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> saddle The Gitrog. Then move to combat and place a counter on the Titan turning it into a Mutant. Then, when The Gitrog deals damage to someone, you’ll sacrifice the Titan, which will draw you 12 cards with Gitrog, and then you can put up to twelve lands into play. Jenova will also trigger, drawing you another 12 cards… At that point, you’ll be so far ahead that the best hope your foes will have to take you out is that you draw yourself to death.</p>
<h2>In Closing</h2>
<p>There you have it: 14 cards for under $14 to jump-start a new <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Jenova, Ancient Calamity" href="#" target="_blank">Jenova, Ancient Calamity</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> deck. This list was a lot of fun to put together and allows you to have a lot of big splashy moments during a game, while still getting a little tricky with it at some points. Let me know in the comments below what cards you would add to this list so we can help our fellow players find more great cards!</p>


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