I've recently gone on a pauper craze and have been enjoying the deck brewing experience as well as watching content from other creators. I have tons of new ideas but I decided to revisit one of the first decks I played which was a Golgari Delve deck. The deck used Dredge cards to stock the graveyard, and was able to put out Delve threats like Gurmag Angler, Hooting Mandrills, and Sultai Scavenger. The deck could pump out a turn two Angler with Putrid Imp and Stinkweed Imp on turn one. It was a fun strategy but pauper has evolved quite a bit since 2017 so I have revigorated the old list with some of the new and very powerful additions to the format. So let's get our Dredge on as we Delve into the Golgari list and see if it can stand up to the current meta.
The core of the deck is centered around our Delve creatures to beat down the opponent and the Dredge cards to fuel them. Gurmag Angler has been a staple threat of Pauper for what feels like forever and is often only costing us one mana. Hooting Mandrills is also pretty thick as a 4/4 but has the upside of trample to stop the opponent from chump blocking. Sultai Scavenger is the modest option as just a 3/3, but flying gives us some extra evasion and can block opposing fliers. For the Dredge cards we Stinkweed Imp as our best option with Dredge 5. Imp can get very annoying for creature decks as a recursive deathtouch blocker and they can't fly over it. To round out the Dredge package we have Golgari Brownscale and Shambling Shell. Although they have low Dredge values, gaining life and putting +1/+1 counters over and over again adds up to some decent value and gives them some more worth in the deck. A single First-Sphere Gargantua is here as a stand-alone threat that replaces itself and can come back for a turn thanks to unearth.
To make sure we find our Delve threats and put Dredge cards in the yard we have some fantastic options. Cram Session is the newest addition from Strixhaven and this deck can actually make very good use out of the Learn mechanic. We are using some lessons in the sideboard in Pest Summoning to make some blockers, and Introduction to Prophecy for some card advantage. We also can use the discard a card to draw a card ability to pitch a Dredge card and then immediately Dredge instead of drawing a card. Gaining 4 life is also super relevant if Burn still seeing play in the meta and having the option of pitching a Dredger or fetching out a lesson seems super sweet. Grisly Salvage helps us fuel the graveyard while also finding our threats or helping us find land drops, and being instant speed is nice if we want to leave up mana for removal. Pulse of Murasa is still one of the grindiest cards in the format with the gain 6 life often being enough to stabilize you while also bringing back a threat.
The rest of the deck is interaction and Golgari has tons of great options. When the graveyard gets junk in there we have Ghastly Demise as basically a one mana Doom Blade. This effect is still solid at one mana and we also have a Disfigure to clean up small creatures. Chainer's Edict thrives on playing consecutive removal spells and it curves well with one mana removal. Later in the game we use the flashback to stifle opponents as they try to keep things on the board. Cast Down was a huge gain for the format and I look at it as an easier to cast Terminate if you don't care about stopping regenerate creatures. Cycling cards are fantastic in this deck as they can replace themselves if we don't need the effect and can trigger Dredge if we needed it. Wilt and Suffocating Fumes are powerful sideboard effects that we can easily squeeze into the main deck which helps make room for those Lessons. Having main deck Naturalize effects helps against enchantments from Boggles and can remove a Bonder's Ornament, and Suffocating Fumes gives us an answer to creature decks that go wide.
The sideboard is stacked with a little bit of everything. Nihil Spellbomb to interact with the graveyard, and Weather the Storm to further dunk on burn players. Duress and Faerie Macabre to rip apart control deck hands, and an extra Cast Down for more removal. Penumbra Spider is annoying for Delver of Secrets to get through and it replaces itself if they remove it. Lastly we have a Return to Nature for some more Wilt options, and we already spoke about the lessons.
That is gonna do it for the updates I made to the classic Golgari Delve archetype. I'm honestly curious to see if it can keep up with the value of modern day Pauper, or if a quick flurry of Delve creatures can still smash their way to victory. Let me know what you think of the deck and feel free to browse our other articles, and check the home page for links to our Instagram, Twitch, YouTube Channel, and Discord. Thanks so much for reading and joining the Fellowship! Enjoy your day and see you in the next article.
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