Sorrow's Path Golos - another stupid deck by DirkGently (Decklist up!)

[WolfWhoWanders]

Have you still been playing this deck? Is it still as fun as I think it can be, Golos shenanigans aside? I thought of some fun, old jank for it. You can use Martyrdom to either save yourself from damage or pile all of your damage from some Sorrow's Path activations onto your choice of Stuffy Doll variant for a killing stroke. Especially effective when wide and you can activate path multiple times. The most excellent part of this card is that it lasts until EOT and is a may effect, so you can still get the enrage triggers you want.

[WolfWhoWanders]

Martyrdom is also super stupid with Blasphemous Act and a Stuffy Doll variant. Basically win on the spot with Brash Taunter. Just take all the damage dealt to opponents creatures and redirect it to their faces.

[DirkGently]

I haven't played it for a few weeks, but I still have it mostly together. As the new set is coming out, there's a lot of stuff I want to try, so I've been more preoccupied with new commanders and/or removing old commanders from my box that aren't as much fun so I can reuse those cards. Idk if I'll actually get the chance to play it more, though - there's a lot of gold in strixhaven I want to try out. Luckily outside of the manabase it's not bogarting too many cards.

Golos is definitely within the small pool of commanders I'd consider making a standalone deck for, though. It's probably between him and Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded for my favorite decks in the past few years. It'd obviously have to be way more budget than this version is, but as long as I've got a Sorrow's Path, a World Tree, and a Golos, the rest is pretty optional. And I know I've got a vesuva from drafting TSR.

Martyrdom is hilarious, though I've generally eschewed any activators besides sorrow's path to maximize the meme potential. Blasphemous Act might be something I want to cut if I build this as a standalone for that reason. Martyrdom is funny because it's a pretty bad card (homelands OP), but anything that detracts from Sorrow's Path - especially when that's its only goal, it doesn't also wipe the board or whatever - is probably a non-starter for my personal ethos with this deck.

[WolfWhoWanders]

That's cool, I'll still probably build it one day as an aside. It's not the first time I've put thought into Sorrow's Path and Golos. When Golos was spoiled, so was Field of the Dead... a card I've had a longer affair with, I smashed the two together immediately. After how gross that first Golos deck was I was just turned off from him. Then he started showing up everywhere and being obnoxious to deal with, so I never did revisit that Sorrow's Path idea. I loved seeing this though. As it is, my current deck conceptions might be lucky to see the light of twilight (preferred magic hour) so I've had to throw deck building creativity to the curb mostly. Not very exciting I know, but whatever. My collection is very organized and some of my other projects have flourished. Can't say I've even paid much attention to this new set, what commander excites you the most?

[DirkGently]

Can't say I've even paid much attention to this new set, what commander excites you the most?

Plargg, Dean of Chaos for sure. But I like most of the deans, and the mythic MDFCs are cool too. The elder dragons are probably the least interesting to me, but they're still fine.

[Chromaticus]

It came! It came!

Sleeved this up for the first time tonight to my absolute delight.

Got in three games with my budget list last night -

The first was a bit of a pub stomp- five man game, but the only spells I played were High Priest of Penance and Wilderness Reclamation before another player started playing extra turns.dec and durdling for two turns before resolving an additional three turns - aaaand scoop.

The next two games were glorious.

The first was a game against a voltron ardenn and Akiri deck and what was likely an upgraded witherbloom precon.

Listen - there's no point in spending your budget on fixing for this deck. You just get The World Tree and go ham every game. I'm sure at some point I'm going to be wastelanded and feel sad, but I'll save the $400 and feel good instead!

No one recognized Sorrow's Path as the meme, worst card in the game, but everyone had to read it

The enablers I drew in the first game were Ranging Raptors , Body of Knowledge Blazing Sunsteel , and Stuffy Doll. The card draw from Body of Knowledge was actually insane - and getting Blazing Sunsteel equipped to it enabled me to ping down a Sram that was problematic. I eventually unwittingly suicided it into a 5 power creature that had been granted deathtouch, but even on the way out, it fueled me for the rest of the game. From that, I drew into a lifelink granter and even though I had a small board, it was awesome to tap my land and gain 4 life.

Meanwhile Ranging Raptors was giving me more and more ramp to enable more shenanigans - including the play of the game! I played a Stuffy Doll naming the non-voltron player to incentivize him to attack me. He played a shadow spear and swung in with an 11 power creature. I played generous gift on the spear, momentary blinked the stuffy doll, and sent 10 back at his face.

The next turn, I equipped Blazing Sunsteel to the Doll, and Earthquaked for 10 - dealing a combined 40 to my opponents and knocked them out.

The next game we had a 4th player join the pod with Rayami, First of the Fallen and the voltron guy swapped out his partners for Anowon, the Ruin Thief and the Valentin, Dean of the Vein // Lisette, Dean of the Root player ran it back.

This game I got to live the dream very early as all 4 players took my tempting offer with Tempt with Discovery, getting me all the set up lands.

I landed an early Sporeweb Weaver , Golos, and Grimdancer which moved the lifelink counter - but a killing wave for 8 led me to sacrifice all 3. The Anowon player kept both his Notion Thief and True-Name Nemesis (not naming me) and the Rayami player kept his commander, swinging at me.

I was super nervous to play a Ripjaw Raptor into the Notion Thief, but I was glad that I did - the next turn cycle I ripped Pestilence and moved my lifelink counter onto it.

I pinged the board for 4 and gained 35 life after it was all said and done, drawing 4 cards including an Urban Burgeoning and Rite of Passage which I played.

The next turn, no one was finding answers to the Pestilence with open mana - so I played out Silverclad Ferocidons [/card] and went for the annihilation kill with Pestilence .

Unfortunately, I shortcutted, and the Rayami, First of the Fallen player asked if all the triggers were on the stack. I reluctantly admitted yes, and he tapped 11 mana to flash in Decree of Pain. So no card draw and no sacrifice triggers, but 18 life higher, I passed the turn, tapped out.

Thankfully, Rayami, First of the Fallen was only able to deal the 20th point of commander damage to me, and I untapped and Rolling Earthquaked for the win.

It was insanely fun to cobble these synergies together for the wins - all with Sorrow's Path as the most expensive card in the deck at a total budget of $97. I actually had cut all fixing except The World Tree and a couple rainbow lands and grabbed 30 basics to fill out the deck.

I really look forwards to an anthem game with one of the token generators, and I would probably add Kessig Wolf Run to go tall with some of the growing creatures - cutting back on some of the generic ramp.

[DirkGently]

Just found a golos buried in one of my trade boxes - seems like fate. Screw it, I'll throw a budget build together and make him my 4th perm deck.

[Chromaticus]

Dumping a few more ideas for enrager's / enablers:

Decklist

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

1 Broodhatch Nantuko

1 Coalhauler Swine

1 Druid's Call

1 Darien, king of Kjeldor

1 Overgrown Armisaur

1 congregation at dawn

1 polyraptor

1 Castle

1 Mirari's Wake

1 Cathar's Crusade

1 Death Pit Offering

1 Aetherflux Reservoir

1 mortuary mire

1 Bojuka bog

1 scavenger grounds

1 inventor's fair

1 mirrorpool

1 mistveil plains

1 Selesnya sanctuary

1 Boros garrison

1 gruul turf

1 pyrohemia

1 urban Daggertooth

1 yavimaya, cradle of growth

1 Martyrdom

1 Kessig wolf run

1 Mythros of Iluna

1 Moritte of the frost

1 Urza's Saga

Approximate Total Cost:

Geez there's not too many +2 anthems, huh?

Edit: made this my dumping ground for a maybeboard / potential buys

[materpillar]

Just found a golos buried in one of my trade boxes - seems like fate. Screw it, I'll throw a budget build together and make him my 4th perm deck.

Le Gasp! Golos as a perm deck.

[DirkGently]

@Chromaticus - it does occur to me that we could use stuff like Citadel Siege to buff specific creatures out of range of SP damage. Doesn't work as well for stuff like Sporeweb Weaver or big Cacophodon chains, but it's great for High Priest of Penance.

Le Gasp! Golos as a perm deck.

I know, never would have guessed I'd have such a popular and powerful commander in my perm collection.

[DirkGently]

Working on my budget version - lftl is a tricky bit because its power is contingent upon fetches and intuition, which are probably beyond the scope of this project. But without it we lack protection. So I'm thinking instead I'll throw in Petrified Field since it's tutorable with golos, and add tempt and pirs whim for more land tutor. It's only single-shot but wygd. Could put in Mistveil Plains as an extra layer maybe? Anything non-land-based seems unreliable.

[Chromaticus]

Believe you are right about this not being a mid-rangey cultivate kind of deck.

Played a 1v1 last night with my friend who came into town, borrowing my Varina, Lich Queen deck.

Realized pretty quickly that I should add Scavenger Grounds and Bojuka Bog.

He was running me over - I didn't have a drop until turn 4, and it was Tempt with Discovery. The next turn was Golos, Tireless Pilgrim with Ephemerate backup.

Meanwhile he had Cryptbreaker , Varina, Lich Queen and 4 tokens from From Under the Floorboards. He went for the spell side of Murderous Rider // Swift End on Golos, Tireless Pilgrim at the end of my turn and I got him with the blink. He swung in and looted five times - showing me a Living Death and some other stuff, which he promptly got back with Shadow of the Grave (sick card in Varina, Lich Queen )

Tamanoa to the rescue! I played it and a small Earthquake to clear up the board, following up with Hornet Nest At the end of my turn he played Epiphany at the Drownyard for 9!

He split the piles in such a way that he was either getting Noxious Ghoul or Archfiend of Ifnir into his hand and I elected to give him the ghoul + other goodies.

The next turn he played the telegraphed Living Death and passed, presenting way more than lethal.

Wargate into Pestilence was my follow up - nothing had more than 4 toughness, but I wanted to maximize lifegain so I pinged for 1 to gain 11 and passed the turn to let the Tamanoa reset on life.

Whoops. He played out Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and put Undead Augur on the stack. My hand forced I went for the 4 Pestilence triggers, going up to 75 life and wiping the board (I had killed my own creatures with double Sorrow's Path in the form of Thespian's Stage . Unfortunately because of the Nykthos my opponent was able to make 5 zombies off Varina, Lich Queen and Crush Contraband my Pestilence and completely unused mirage mirror.

At that point I was down to a couple spot removals and Golos spins. This is when I started to hit ramp spells. I decided to go for spins instead of the sure thing with Axgard Armory and hit 2 lands and a Search for Tomorrow . The next spin was a little better with a Grimdancer and High Priest of Penance

He recast Varina, Lich Queen, to which I responded with High Priest of Penance trigger on Undead Augur, Wrap in Vigor and another trigger on the resolved Varina. Vizier of the Scorpion and Phyrexian Arena, moved to combat and I played Despark on Varina, Lich Queen taking 8 from the tokens.

This turn I went for the sure thing, fetching Blazing Sunsteel and Urban Burgeoning playing and equipping the equipment to Golos. This combination forced him to play Death Baron before replaying Varina, Lich Queen. I activated other to deal 2 to the baron, and beast within'd Varina - he responded with Mirrorweave on Grimdancer (I had second path threatening if he went to mirrorweave the baron).

My next turn was pretty uneventful - got the Stormwild Capridor off a spin and ramp and lands off another spin.

He had a big turn that included swinging out and playing Nevinyrral, Urborg Tyrant post combat - but he had to tap out to make the mana work.

The next turn I spun twice - first was lands and ramp, but the second was Silverclad Ferocidons and Needletooth Raptor . I rejoiced and activated my path, but got the harsh reminder of hex proof from creatures when I tried to target the Tyrant with my damage. Oof.

The next turn he got Carrion Feeder and blew up the world, recovering afterwards himself with 3 medium size zombies.

Then I recast Golos, and spun into Eerie Ultimatum - effectively ending the game when he didn't draw an answer for 2 turns.

Wow! 2 and a half hour long game with plenty of haymakers and this deck stood up to it! The pestilence+tamanoa was clutch and likely my only out at the time.

The deck badly wants Volrath's Stronghold to set up strong Golos lines- and I still haven't drawn a dang anthem :p I think the place where I want to cut is the generic ramp spells, since the deck doesn't really seem to care about anything other than getting an enabler or two down and playing with them until they get blown up.

[illakunsaa]

I played few games on xmage. Some people complained how Sorrow's Path was not a casual card. Pretty fun list. I'm even tempted to build a paper version. It's a shame that cards like Volrath's Stronghold cost almost 100€. Even the real commander costs almost 20€

I think mvp is Tamanoa. Basically every game I had it I won. What do you guys think of Purity? What is the point of Grimdancer? Just to move the counters onto something better with Nesting Grounds?

[DirkGently]

Lol @ sorrow's path isn't a casual card. Sounds like mission accomplished to me.

Imo volrath's isn't that important. Nice to have but not critical or anything. Generally Golos gives you good things to do with your mana whether it's recasting or activating him, so utility lands aren't so important. I don't plan to acquire one for my budget build.

Hoo boy, you're in for a treat lol. The lifelink counter from grimdancer doesn't get moved onto just any old target - it's to go onto Sorrow's Path itself. Yes, the lifelink works and essentially gives you tamanoa except bonded to your land making it very hard to kill for most decks. I've been very impressed with the efficacy of this line and imo it's absolutely viable so long as you've got a decent number of land tutors (and obviously golos can work too).

The new enrager from MH2 will give us a way to duplicate these counters too, so we can shift the extras onto duplicate SPs (vesuva etc) so they can all have lifelink. In case the lifegain wasn't already insane enough. And ofc that lifegain stacks with tamanoa itself so...yeah. This deck gets over 100 pretty easily tbh.

Purity doesn't really do anything imo, it's a double-power Wall of Hope for six with a big body, meh. Better hit off of golos obviously, but I don't think paying that much just for lifegain is reasonable.

[illakunsaa]

I see. I thought I could only move counters to creatures not any permanent.

[DirkGently]

It's a really cool synergy imo - you could also move a deathtouch counter onto a land (probably not sorrow's path) and enchant it with Noxious Field. Wrath of god on a land isn't really synergistic with what we're doing, but it is hilarious.

I think it'd be fun to make a golos deck just around nesting grounds too tbh. Lots of silly shenanigans to be done.

[Chromaticus]

That Noxious Field synergy with Grimdancer actually came up for me the other day (tutored off of Axgard Armory no less). As dope as this deck is, there are definitely stronger creature decks out there that need dealing with - and a 3 card combo that gives you wrath on a stick, only one of which you need to draw, is a pretty sweet bonus to our lifelink line.

I do think I'm going to add a couple bouncelands in conjunction with Mortuary Mire for an el cheapo Volrath's Stronghold .

Agree on the price for Sorrow's Path — guess the meme costs money for bad card tribal :D

Still on the fence about getting a Polyraptor — didn't order it for the first round of the deck because dropping $20 on the path was hard enough!

[illakunsaa]

I like bounce lands. There is a ton of utility and they sneakily increase land count. You can use them reset vesuva or zendikar spell lands eg. Glasspool Mimic // Glasspool Shore. Sometimes you can use them untap a sorrow's path if you have a land drop.

I think polyraptor is kind of %$#%. It's a removal magnet that costs 8 mana. I feel like the deck needs more mana as it's really mana hungry. Maybe Mirari's Wake?

[Chromaticus]

Broodhatch Nantuko - needs an anthem to do anything, but once you have the +2, this and all iterations of it are pretty sweet.

Coalhauler Swine - this one is pretty lame, but does survive path activations, so it makes the discussion for completions sake. 2 damage pings aren't going to cut it.

Druid's Call - interesting one here- especially because it gets fetched as an enabler off Axgard Armory. Here's the problem - freaking squirrel tribal makes this a $13 card when if the tokens were, say, saprolings it would be $2. Probably not going to make my budget list for that reason, but I actually think it's very strong.

Darien, King of Kjeldor - proud to have found this one when you didn't Dirk! Eat it :p ahem. I like another top end enabler that lets me go wide, and punishes people for attacking us.

Overgrown Armasaur - go wide!

Congregation at Dawn - stack the deck for Golos, Tireless Pilgrim is pretty, pretty, good.

Polyraptor - more of a money concern for me than anything - I am imagining both the A+ scenario of it just going off, and the F case scenario of me tapping out for it and it just biting it. However, the fact that I can usually (9/10 times) activate path immediately in response to make a backup copy makes me want to spring for it.

Castle - this is one of only a handful of cards that do this in the whole game, and this one does it for the cheapest, most consistent way. Is that worth not granting any killing power? Eh, probably not.

Mirari's Wake - the anthem part of this doesn't really solve any of our problems by itself - everything makes 1/1's! But, this lets you spin and spin and spin for Golos, Tireless Pilgrim. $20 is probably a pass for me since this line of play tends to get remembered.

Cathars' Crusade - This anthem doesn't immediately enable previously cast enragers, but does quickly gets us into the range of keeping our small dudes around, and scales with the token makers the best of any of the anthems.

Death Pit Offering - To what lengths will I go to make my dorky enrager's survive? Probably not this far, but it does give +2/+2 and I'm interested in other opinions.

Aetherflux Reservoir - this deck pretty easily gets its life into the stratosphere with the lifelink counter shenanigans. This will just kill the table with a lifelink counter and 51 life.

Mortuary Mire - sets up a Golos spin the turn that you re-cast it, which happens a good deal in this deck.

Bojuka Bog - easy grave hate.

Scavenger Grounds - part 2, on demand.

Inventors' Fair - Golos counts as one, so fetching this up potentially enables the Aetherflux Reservoir kill pretty easily.

Mirrorpool - double up on a key enrager or kill spell. Honestly, lands are so free in this deck with The World Tree that I don't mind jamming any decent utility land in.

Mistveil Plains - are there enough white permanents to rely on this getting back out key cards? Maybe, maybe not - but it at least gives my deck an out if The World Tree gets knocked out.

Selesnya Sanctuary, Boros Garrison, and Gruul Turf resets our enters the battlefield lands and adds to our effective land count.

Pyrohemia - sorry Dirk, no slave to flavor here! Pestilence has been such an outrageous beating that I can't imagine not running its plane-shifted cousin.

Urban Daggertooth - newcomer to the scene and basically an auto-include as it lives through path, and proliferates our lifelink counter and any +1/+1 counters that have made their way onto our stuff.

Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth - more The World Tree backup that is, at least temporarily, more affordable than Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. Better color for this deck too.

Martyrdom - solid mention from WolfWhoWanders to be a player killer with Stuffy Doll or Brash Taunter .

Kessig Wolf Run - more utility on a land that can fireball people out of the game, or grant one already big guy trample.

Mythos of Illuna - already in your list, but I neglected it on my first pass. Love the fight trigger if we do go for an enrager, (especially Body of Knowledge) or more likely, path number two or world tree number two. Vesuva here too, but missing from my list so far for budget.

Moritte of the Frost - 5 is a lot for a clone, but it's a rare effect.

Urza's Saga - thought this bore mentioning for the fact that you can use Nesting Grounds to keep this on saga 2 mode and keep making dudes. Is it great? No, but if you've got a 0-1 drop you're interested in, it's not the worst thing to have in your back pocket. Also enables Inventors' Fair pretty easily.

[DirkGently]

Darien, King of Kjeldor - proud to have found this one when you didn't Dirk! Eat it :p ahem. I like another top end enabler that lets me go wide, and punishes people for attacking us.

Ha, hate to burst your bubble, but I did have it pulled out when building the deck and ended up cutting it. Same for the armasaur - the fact that, sans anthem those cards only give us chumpers that will die naturally from SP makes them a tough sell at that high cmc imo (and even with an anthem, all it takes is a disenchant and they're all dead). There are other critters with more reliable effects at that cost imo. Mind you, if I had an extra one lying around right now to fill in the last few spots for my budget version, I'd probably do it just to get the deck into a playable state.

There were a few others you mentioned that I think I forgot, though. Mostly stuff that's not in my collection - I never thought Castle would merit consideration lol. But for a token-heavy version it's probably worth it for redundancy.

Kinda disappointed we only got the one enrager, but I'll still take it. I'm not sure it's really reliable enough to be great, but it probably merits testing. The land is real nice though. Urborg is clunky AF in a deck that has so few black cards. Yavimaya is actually a viable alternative for the world tree.

[illakunsaa]

I think Coalhauler Swine is pretty decent. It's the only stuffy doll variant that hits all players not just one. Stuffy Doll honestly seems kinda bad in comparison because you are forced to choose one opponent.

What you guys think about Pariah and Pariah's Shield?

Tyrite Sanctum gives an indestructibility counter to put on a creature.

[illakunsaa]

New card

[Chromaticus]

Damn. That card is actually totally rad. Can you imagine attacking the guy with Flumph if you HAVEN'T made a deal? And on the flip side, so many people will make the deal to swing in with their dork if you want an extra card. Wow. Talk about made for this deck!

[illakunsaa]

[DirkGently]

Somehow I didn't notice the enrager in the spoiler lol. Thanks for pointing that out.

Not super enthused about him, though - a 5 drop with an enrage ability to maybe get draw value eventually? He's certainly no Swans of Bryn Argoll or Body of Knowledge. And the final payoff for the best dungeon is significantly weaker than Golos' activated lol.

Still excited for flumph though.