Sméagol by gungho

Format: Commander

Commander: Sméagol, Helpful Guide

Bracket: 3

Deck overview

This is a Golgari aristocrats deck built around Smeagol, Helpful Guide, using creature death as its primary engine. The commander's end-step trigger both ramps an extra land and mills an opponent, while a dense suite of payoffs - Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat, Bastion of Remembrance, and Syr Konrad, the Grim - turn each death into life drain. The deck draws heavily from death triggers (Midnight Reaper, Moldervine Reclamation, Morbid Opportunist) and recurs creatures via Animate Dead, Victimize, Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler, and the Nim Deathmantle loop. The primary win condition is an infinite sacrifice combo involving Ashnod's Altar, Nim Deathmantle, Pawn of Ulamog, and a recursive creature, which is then fed into a drain effect. Exsanguinate provides a direct mana-sink finisher if infinite mana is generated.

Decklist (100 cards)

  • 1 Accursed Marauder
  • 1 Animate Dead
  • 1 Arcane Signet
  • 1 Ashnod's Altar
  • 1 Bastion of Remembrance
  • 1 Beast Within
  • 1 Blood Artist
  • 1 Bloodghast
  • 1 Bloodsoaked Champion
  • 1 Buried Alive
  • 1 Carrion Feeder
  • 1 Corrupted Conviction
  • 1 Costly Plunder
  • 1 Culling the Weak
  • 1 Dark Ritual
  • 1 Deadly Brew
  • 1 Deadly Dispute
  • 1 Elves of Deep Shadow
  • 1 Elvish Mystic
  • 1 Eternal Witness
  • 1 Evolutionary Leap
  • 1 Exsanguinate
  • 1 Fatal Push
  • 1 Fecundity
  • 1 Final Parting
  • 1 Fleshbag Marauder
  • 16 Forest
  • 1 Golgari Signet
  • 1 Grim Haruspex
  • 1 Jarad's Orders
  • 1 Krosan Grip
  • 1 Llanowar Elves
  • 1 Llanowar Wastes
  • 1 Malicious Affliction
  • 1 Mausoleum Secrets
  • 1 Midnight Reaper
  • 1 Moldervine Reclamation
  • 1 Morbid Opportunist
  • 1 Nature's Claim
  • 1 Nim Deathmantle
  • 1 Pawn of Ulamog
  • 1 Pitiless Plunderer
  • 1 Plaguecrafter
  • 1 Poison-Tip Archer
  • 1 Primal Growth
  • 1 Putrefy
  • 1 Rampant Growth
  • 1 Read the Bones
  • 1 Reassembling Skeleton
  • 1 Reckoner's Bargain
  • 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
  • 1 Sign in Blood
  • 1 Skullclamp
  • 1 Skyshroud Claim
  • 1 Sméagol, Helpful Guide
  • 1 Sol Ring
  • 20 Swamp
  • 1 Syr Konrad, the Grim
  • 1 Tragic Slip
  • 1 Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler
  • 1 Vampiric Rites
  • 1 Victimize
  • 1 Village Rites
  • 1 Viscera Seer
  • 1 Woe Strider
  • 1 Zulaport Cutthroat