Golgari - Constellation (Modern)

Summary

A grindy constellation themed deck, the gameplan is to play and reuse a number of cheap enchantments to draw a ton of cards (Setessan Champion), wipe the opponents board (Doomwake Giant) and ping them for damage (Grim Guardian). The deck contains lots of built-in value from opponents removal to keep the engine running if they try to disrupt our gameplan.

Card Breakdown

Enchantment payoff

• Hateful Eidolon - A cheap source of repeated card draw that rewards us for both killing the opponents creatures or when our own creatures die. Has a nice synergy with Rancor which is returned to the hand when enchanted creature dies, giving us the option to enchant our opponents creatures if we are going to kill them to draw extra cards without losing the Rancor, or we can just enchant our own creatures if we intend to sacrifice them to draw more cards. It also turns Mire's Grasp into a nice cantrip removal spell.

• Herald of the Pantheon - Given that 75% of our deck is enchantments, chances are good that we get some value from having this out, and it helps us cast our more expensive creatures. Also the incidental lifegain from our cheap and/or recursive enchantments will soon add up.

• Mire's Grasp - Our main source of single target removal, it acts as an upgrade Dead Weight if we already have Herald of the Pantheon out, and draws us a card with Hateful Eidolon. If we need to kill and bring back a creature with Nightmare Shepard for another constellation trigger, but don't have Woe Strider out to sacrifice, we can also use this to kill our own creatures. A potential 1 Mana, -3/-3, Draw a card doesn't seem too bad.

Value Engines

• Woe Strider - Plays a number of different roles. Firstly to give us a free sacrifice outlet to sacrifice our enchanted creatures (Plays well with Nightmare Shepard), to give us additional constellation trigger whilst also giving us some scrys to help make better use of potential card draw effects. It also gives us the free goat to act as a chump blocker, sacrifice target for a scry, or a good target for Screams from Within to give us another free constellation trigger when it dies.

• Nightmare Shepard - Best friends with Woe Strider. Gives us the option of reanimating any of our creatures which we either kill ourselves for value, or that the opponent kills, therefore giving us pseudo removal protection and board wipe resilience. Given that the creatures some back with all their abilities, it makes reanimating Setessan Champion or Herald of the Pantheon extra good as we have a another chance to get value from their abilities.

• Shapers Sanctuary - A cheap enchantment to play for constellation triggers early whilst also giving us resilience against removal from the opponent.

Recurring Enchantments

• Rancor - Pretty much the perfect enchantment for this deck. Its cheap so it doesn't slow us down to cast, it has inbuilt recursion so we don't lose it if our creatures die, and we may be able to play it multiple times in a single turn. It also gives our big creatures such as Setessan Champion, Doomwake Giant and Nightmare Shepard some increased evasion, turning them into potential game winning threats.

• Screams from Within - A potential "pop-off" card with the potential to give us some very big turns. It can not only remove some small creatures, but also comes back for more constellation trigger if we sacrifice our own creatures. Plays well with Woe Strider as it can kill the goat token and then come back, for an additional trigger.

Win Conditions

• Setessan Champion - The build around card for the deck, its only downside being that its not itself an enchantment creature. A cheap threat to play early with the potential to grow huge and draw a ton of cards. Extra effective when given Rancor to trample over an potential chump blockers.

• Doomwake Giant - The destroyer of creature decks. If we have a "pop-off" turn chaining procs of Screams from Within or Rancor or any other cheap enchantments, this can easily wipe the board, especially if we have more than 1, allowing us to easily push through for damage.

• Grim Guardian - Given that we can quite easily get 3-4 or more triggers per turn, this can end games pretty fast.

Non-Budget Alternatives

Improved Mana Base

+4 Overgrown Tomb +4 Blooming Marsh/Verdant Catacombs
-4 Llanowar Wastes -2 Forest -2 Swamp

Improved Card Draw

+2 Phyrexian Arena
-2 Shapers Sanctuary