Golos - Field of the Dead

[ISBPathfinder]

A few notes for those interested:

• This is a landfall deck, but beyond that this is a Field of the Dead deck. Most of the concept of this deck is in tutoring and copying the hell out of Field of the Dead.
• I am primarily excluding using ABU duels. I made exactly one exception and that was for Tropical Island because I feel that green is my most important color here and Simic has only two fetchable dual lands. Golgari was also in situation but I didn't feel black was as key to this build and I have urborg in my list which made me feel it was less necessary. I am omitting them because of the added cost to the deck. While I do own these I start feeling a little leery of taking so much money in one deck out of my house. This deck is going to be heavily a green deck and my commander can be cast off of any color mana.
• It is probably optimal to run extra turns with this. I think I am at the point where I am kind of done jamming extra turns though so I am going to pass on them.

Decklist

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

COMMANDER (1)

1 Golos, Tireless Pilgrim

CREATURES (23)

1 Thrasios, Triton Hero

1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking

1 Grazing Gladehart

1 Kefnet the Mindful

1 Ramunap Excavator

1 Soulherder

1 Tireless Tracker

1 Wayward Swordtooth

1 Dread Presence

1 Emeria Angel

1 Mina and Denn, Wildborn

1 Oracle of Mul Daya

1 Cavalier of Thorns

1 Tatyova, Benthic Druid

1 The Gitrog Monster

1 The Scarab God

1 Titania, Protector of Argoth

1 Yarok, the Desecrated

1 Rampaging Baloths

1 Sun Titan

1 Ulvenwald Hydra

1 Avenger of Zendikar

1 Omnath, Locus of Rage

ARTIFACT (6)

1 Sensei's Divining Top

1 Sol Ring

1 Scroll Rack

1 Crucible of Worlds

1 Oblivion Stone

1 Horn of Greed

ENCHANTMENT (5)

1 Exploration

1 Sylvan Library

1 Retreat to Kazandu

1 Path of Discovery

1 Retreat to Emeria

INSTANT (8)

1 Ephemerate

1 Cyclonic Rift

1 Growth Spiral

1 Mana Drain

1 Teferi's Response

1 Anguished Unmaking

1 Disallow

1 Teferi's Protection

SORCERY (9)

1 Green Sun's Zenith

1 Demonic Tutor

1 Explore

1 Finale of Devastation

1 Life from the Loam

1 Sevinne's Reclamation

1 Wargate

1 Austere Command

1 Merciless Eviction

PLANESWALKER (1)

1 Tezzeret the Seeker

LAND (47)

1 Academy Ruins

1 Alchemist's Refuge

1 Arid Mesa

1 Blood Crypt

1 Bloodstained Mire

1 Bojuka Bog

1 Breeding Pool

1 Canopy Vista

1 Canyon Slough

1 Cinder Glade

1 Command Tower

1 Fetid Pools

1 Field of the Dead

1 Flooded Strand

2 Forest

1 Gaea's Cradle

1 Godless Shrine

1 Hallowed Fountain

1 Irrigated Farmland

1 Kor Haven

1 Marsh Flats

1 Misty Rainforest

1 Overgrown Tomb

1 Polluted Delta

1 Prairie Stream

1 Sacred Foundry

1 Scalding Tarn

1 Scattered Groves

1 Sheltered Thicket

1 Smoldering Marsh

1 Snow-Covered Forest

1 Steam Vents

1 Strip Mine

1 Stomping Ground

1 Sunken Hollow

1 Temple Garden

1 Thespian's Stage

1 Tropical Island

1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

1 Verdant Catacombs

1 Vesuva

1 Volrath's Stronghold

1 Watery Grave

1 Westvale Abbey

1 Windswept Heath

1 Wooded Foothills

Approximate Total Cost:

[Sharpened]

Scroll Rack seems loose without anything that has real synergy with it.

I kept looking for Risen Reef with all the flickering and elementals.

I was also wondering if you had considered Burgeoning and there was a reason you weren't running it.

[ISBPathfinder]

Scroll Rack seems loose without anything that has real synergy with it.

I kept looking for Risen Reef with all the flickering and elementals.

I was also wondering if you had considered Burgeoning and there was a reason you weren't running it.

Scroll Rack - The idea was that I could ditch things I don't want and then shuffle, I can also set up Oracle of Mul Daya with lands, but MOST important I could stack three things I want to cast on top of my library and then activate my commander. I am not overly sure if its something I need to do but I knew I wanted a few things like Sylvan Library and Top and the next step was questioning if I should go to this.

Risen Reef - Honestly, I didn't think I had really other elementals. I thought about it briefly after adding Yarock but I guess its a bit of a surprise to me that I have two token generators that make elemental tokens. Originally I just added Coiling Oracle thinking it was saving me a mana but I guess I do have more elementals than I thought. I suppose I should give it a shot.

Burgeoning - so, my issue is that its a great card in opening hands but without having a LOT of card draw its something I don't really see much value in. If I draw a bunch of cards then I would also need to push for no max hand size to have lands to play on other players turns. So, I didn't include it because extra land play effects have synergy with my commander's activated ability as well as the play land from grave effects. I have often omitted it because it plays poorly alongside extra land play effects.

DECK CHANGES:
Oops I forgot to add tutors. I guess I should add some of the better ones for now.

• Eldrazi Displacer → Demonic Tutor I was just thinking how in a lot of cases where I would want flickers that I would prefer the other options from my deck. The Displacer can work but its a lot more mana intensive getting better much later in the game. I figured I would prefer a tutor instead.
• Elvish Rejuvenator → Green Sun's Zenith I needed to make some room for tutors and it seemed like I could live without Rejuvenator.
• Nesting Dragon → Finale of Devastation I needed more tutors and while I like Nesting the fact that the tokens need to die before they become relivant bodies seemed like maybe I could make room here.
• Chromatic Lantern → Risen Reef The reef sounded better after looking at how many elemental / elemental tokens I have here. Lantern is good but realistically its something that if I don't find it early in the game it seems like it loses a lot of its power. Sure, maybe I could trigger to activate my commander more but I want to see how the deck plays first before I worry too much on that front.

[Stapler]

My Golos deck runs Warp World as it's main win condition, and your deck seems like it could potentially take advantage of it the same way my deck can. Build a big board of zombies and then Warp them into actual cards, all while disrupting your opponents. It also gives you a bunch more landfall triggers and if you get an E-Wit or something similar, you can do it again. Your spell count is probably a little high for it, so you could consider subbing in permanent based replacements for them if you go this route (Glen Elendra Archmage for counterspells, Oblivion Stone/Perilous Vault/Pernicious Deed for removal, Sidisi, Undead Vizier/Rune-Scarred Demon/Razaketh, the Foulblooded for tutors).

Outside of Finale of Devastation, I'm not seeing any ways to push your Zombies and other tokens in for the kill. Obviously if you make enough of them it won't matter, but if you're disrupted and you can only make 10 or so, those 10 by themselves likely won't be able to go the distance. Have you considered running Purphoros, God of the Forge, Zulaport Cutthroat, Cavalier of Flame, Pathbreaker Ibex, or some other additional stall-breaker/overrun effect?

Actually, a good (though slow) overrun for this deck might be Gavony Township. Since one of the strengths of your deck seems to be the difficulty most opponents will have interacting with your main wincon, Field of the Dead (a land), compared to other landfall token effects (which are mostly easily-killed creatures), having a land that makes those tokens better lets you double down on that strength.

Sporemound, Zendikar's Roil, and Tireless Tracker are some additional landfall cards worth considering. Roil in particular is neat since it makes elementals for Risen Reef. EDIT: Oh actually I don't see Tatyova, Benthic Druid in here either. My deck can't run it since Tatyova + Yarok, the Desecrated off a Warp World usually kills me, but if you aren't doing that plan Tatyova should be great for you.

Lotus Cobra is easily the most busted card in my Golos deck and you have the full suite of fetches and more exploration effects than me, so it should be even better in yours. Unless you're trying to power the deck down I would run it.

[ISBPathfinder]

My Golos deck runs Warp World as it's main win condition, and your deck seems like it could potentially take advantage of it the same way my deck can. Build a big board of zombies and then Warp them into actual cards, all while disrupting your opponents. It also gives you a bunch more landfall triggers and if you get an E-Wit or something similar, you can do it again. Your spell count is probably a little high for it, so you could consider subbing in permanent based replacements for them if you go this route (Glen Elendra Archmage for counterspells, Oblivion Stone/Perilous Vault/Pernicious Deed for removal, Sidisi, Undead Vizier/Rune-Scarred Demon/Razaketh, the Foulblooded for tutors).

Outside of Finale of Devastation, I'm not seeing any ways to push your Zombies and other tokens in for the kill. Obviously if you make enough of them it won't matter, but if you're disrupted and you can only make 10 or so, those 10 by themselves likely won't be able to go the distance. Have you considered running Purphoros, God of the Forge, Zulaport Cutthroat, Cavalier of Flame, Pathbreaker Ibex, or some other additional stall-breaker/overrun effect?

Actually, a good (though slow) overrun for this deck might be Gavony Township. Since one of the strengths of your deck seems to be the difficulty most opponents will have interacting with your main wincon, Field of the Dead (a land), compared to other landfall token effects (which are mostly easily-killed creatures), having a land that makes those tokens better lets you double down on that strength.

Sporemound, Zendikar's Roil, and Tireless Tracker are some additional landfall cards worth considering. Roil in particular is neat since it makes elementals for Risen Reef. EDIT: Oh actually I don't see Tatyova, Benthic Druid in here either. My deck can't run it since Tatyova + Yarok, the Desecrated off a Warp World usually kills me, but if you aren't doing that plan Tatyova should be great for you.

Lotus Cobra is easily the most busted card in my Golos deck and you have the full suite of fetches and more exploration effects than me, so it should be even better in yours. Unless you're trying to power the deck down I would run it.

Warp World - I considered it and yea, it would probably be a bunch of stuffs everywhere. Right now though I want to set up specific utility lands. I could build towards this but I felt like it didn't quite fit what I was going for offhand. I have played this card plenty in the past but it wasn't quite what I was going for here.

Finishers - Right now, the plan is Field of the Dead. I also have several others that can make tokens on landfall but right now I am seeing if I can set up 3x Field of the Dead and then drop multiple fetchlands. 2x fetchlands with 3x Field of the Dead puts 24 power into play. Given I could also crack those fetchlands after my opponents turns it can be wather wrath proof. I always aim for making decks run smoother rather than pushing more on finishing opponents. If a deck runs well and I lose I don't mind nearly as much as if I draw a bunch of finishers at the wrong time.

Gavony Township - Maybe, I think the zombies will add up kind of quickly though and its a lot of mana to do this. Right now I am fighting with how many utility lands I have and what makes the cut.

Sporemound - Its fine...... its just kind of worse than most of the current landfall token makers. The question for me is why run this over a tutor for a better card?

Zendikar's Roil - I don't dislike it, but I am also not sure that I like it more than some of the other token producers. It is cute with Risen Reef but..... I am about to cut it unfortunately for another one of your suggestions.

Tireless Tracker - Good suggestion, the fact that its trigger isn't keyed as landfall I looked right past it in my search.

Tatyova, Benthic Druid - Another good suggestion. Man, I hate when they don't keyword.

Lotus Cobra - I like it as a card, but I like it a lot more upfront and early. Later in the game, I don't know. Maybe with some testing once I see how the deck performs I might come back to it.

DECK CHANGES:

• Conjurer's Closet → Wargate I figured I could tutor Soulherder with Wargate at a very similar mana but it opens the deck up a bit to have another tutor instead.
• Coiling Oracle → Grazing Gladehart I like coiling but I felt like I needed other ways to gain life in here. Having more ways to gain life and on a creature opens up tutor plays.
• Divine Visitation → Oblivion Stone I like Divine Visitation but maybe its a little winmore. I want more sweepers in here given the lands focus of the deck and diversifying and having an artifact that can be recurred a few different ways could be nice.
• Voidslime → Teferi's Protection voidslime is probably more diverse but its very color intensive too. In a lot of cases I brought these counters in specifically to combat strip mine and grave hate effects but being versatile in that they are still counterspells and not just stifles.
• Scavenger Grounds → Academy Ruins So, I also have Bojuka Bog so having a second while useful probably doesn't have to be top priority. With adding Oblivion Stone and some more tutors I felt like Academy Ruins got a little more reasonable.
• Urban Evolution → Sun Titan I like that Sun Titan has a good size, can ramp, and recover a bunch of different things for me. I like Urban Evolution but it doesn't come with a nice body so I trade off like a draw 2 for a 6/6 and more versatile value than just a land from hand.
• Roil Elemental → Tatyova, Benthic Druid I forgot that Roil Elemental returned things when it dies. So, I guess the value is some
• Risen Reef → Tezzeret the Seeker I know the reef can be good, and maybe I will try to find some space for it to return but for now I felt like without hitting additional elementals it wasn't really that impressive. Tezzeret gets me access to several things with O Stone, Crucible, and Horn of Greed all seeming REALLY nice.
• Seer's Sundial → Tireless Tracker I felt that these two were very similar but the tracker opened up tutors a little more where as I felt like if I had an artifact tutor I would get Horn of Greed over the sundial most of the time. Maybe at some point depending on how things test I could run both but I felt like Tireless opened things up a bit more. There is also the upside that tracker doesn't have to draw immediately and can store the draws away for later.
• Prismatic Vista → Sevinne's Reclamation I put Vista in very early then Tryno pointed out to me via PM that I am running 3 basics all being forests lol. Early on I had thought maybe I would have more basics so I started with fetchlands and filled the deck in from lands.

Sorry to drop so many changes at once. Tryno and I had a discord call and we talked about the contents and shored things up a bit. There are a LOT of things high on my list to test and a number of things that might come in but I really need to do some testing to really know how things go.

[SaintRumpterfrabble]

Hallo! Much like gilrad, I've been very interested in finding something unique and fun to do with Golos. How has this deck been performing for you? Have you had any more opportunity to play/update?

[pokken]

Not to bag on the general because I love me some golos, but I can't help but think Yarok is a much better field general. Finding field in green is easy. And doubling it from the zone is pretty powerful.

If you're using golos I think your manabase needs work. City, confluence, cataracts and even crystal quarry are really very good at fixing and I don't see the current base getting multiple activations very easily.

I have found experimental Frenzy and future sight effects to be exceptional with extra land drops. And frenzy particularly synergizes with golos quite a bit.

Looks like an interesting concept all things considered

[ISBPathfinder]

Hallo! Much like gilrad, I've been very interested in finding something unique and fun to do with Golos. How has this deck been performing for you? Have you had any more opportunity to play/update?

I haven't played it much. People were very upset with what I was doing and often I end up having to play 6 player games because the people in my shop would prefer that over two threes for some unknown reason I still can't figure out. I think this deck is very strong in a normal sized group but moving to 5-6+ people it gets unwieldly as most decks utilizing combat to win tend to.

Its still together, I just haven't really put much priority into it lately combined with the fact that I haven't showed up as much to play of late.

Not to bag on the general because I love me some golos, but I can't help but think Yarok is a much better field general. Finding field in green is easy. And doubling it from the zone is pretty powerful.

If you're using golos I think your manabase needs work. City, confluence, cataracts and even crystal quarry are really very good at fixing and I don't see the current base getting multiple activations very easily.

I have found experimental Frenzy and future sight effects to be exceptional with extra land drops. And frenzy particularly synergizes with golos quite a bit.

Looks like an interesting concept all things considered

Given its not just getting a single copy of Field of the Dead that is my objective I still sort of like Golos more. The activated ability on him is a very real thing for this deck and having Golos as the commander gives me an extra copy of field on him entering. Assuming you can max out the field copies fast then I think sure Yarok is fine but I find that Golos gets me the first copy of field consistently and if you already have that then he sort of acts like Yarok in that he gives a second.

Both commanders are clearly viable for these tactics, I just like the consistency and mana sink that Golos gives. Yarok would give more incentive to run more ETB effects as a whole which is fine I just felt like given what my aim was that I got it a little bit better from Golos.

[pokken]

Given its not just getting a single copy of Field of the Dead that is my objective I still sort of like Golos more. The activated ability on him is a very real thing for this deck and having Golos as the commander gives me an extra copy of field on him entering. Assuming you can max out the field copies fast then I think sure Yarok is fine but I find that Golos gets me the first copy of field consistently and if you already have that then he sort of acts like Yarok in that he gives a second.

Both commanders are clearly viable for these tactics, I just like the consistency and mana sink that Golos gives. Yarok would give more incentive to run more ETB effects as a whole which is fine I just felt like given what my aim was that I got it a little bit better from Golos.

Yeah, it's definitely nice having a mana sink on your commander when you're playing ~50 lands. Seriously make one of them into cascading cataracts tho, it's very convenient

I like that with an ETB creature focus (You can play 10+ creatures that ETB and find lands) Yarok counts as a quadrupler; Wood elves gets two forests which becomes 4 zombies from just one field. With two fields and yarok wood elves becomes 8 zombies, so it gets exponential pretty fast. What I find with Golos is that people are really reluctant to kill him so you have to spend all this energy blinking/recurring him.

A few other random comments on the list:
courser of kruphix is going to play a lot better than glazing gladeheart in any event you do not have another topdeck player.

Despite its mana cost, summary dismissal is usually better than Disallow in EDH in my opinion in a deck with few counterspells. Lots of weird corner cases where it has an edge over Disallow (supreme verdict being the most notorious most likely).

Phyrexian Tower and high market are very efficient with getting multiple golos activations, combined with volrath's stronghold either one can generate an engine for repeatedly casting Golos. In my mono black build I will often fetch tower then sac him and recast for stronghold if I am settling in for a longer game. Since you are able to play academy ruins as well, I think this is a really good idea to have a land sac outlet. I'd probably sub for Kor Haven.

With Loam and a high land count, sakura-tribue scout creatures are usually exceptional. They can act as a poor exploration and the scout in particular can enable pretty strong combat tricks. I would consider one of these over growth spiral.

In general I prefer assassin's trophy as a single catchall over Unmaking because of its ability to hit opposing lands. That's a meta call though. Often, venser, shaper's savant is safer for your kind of deck that is likely going to just need to buy a turn to kill the problem player (and also may randomly benefit from soulherder, yarok, etc.) -- although it can't beat torpor orb forever.

horn of greed is almost always going to be worse than intuition in this deck. Intuition for Loam + cycling land + whatever is probably the go to card advantage engine, and it's bonus of not being symmetrical and having quite a bit more flexibility.

All around good stuff.