Hello awesome folks! Happy day to you and yours! It's time to knock out my eighth deck from the legendary cards that debuted from Battle for Baldur's Gate and my first around the Commander decks that debuted with it. You can check out the rest in my Appendix below.

Who am I building around?

Durnan is a Green, 4-drop, 3/3 that, when he swings, will dig four and let you exile and cast a dork from your library with undaunted, and choose a background. Nice card advantage in your swinging machine. Agent of the Shadow Thieves is a 2-drop background that will let my attacking Durnan get a +1/+1 counter and deathtouch and indestructible until the end of the turn. As you can see, this will only work under certain conditions, but I'll always attack that person. What I want to do is to build up a nice Commander kill with my background, it's +1/+1 counters, and then equipment, and then in my post-combat phase, cast a mass sweeper to keep Durnan alive, and then later the creature. There are only 59 decks in Golgari for Voltron on EDHREC.com, so it's pretty untapped as well. Ready?

The good thing about this build is that I cannot find it on EDHREC.com so I am going in a new direction. All of these cards choices are mine and mine alone!

Let's get started!

The problem with Golgari going wide is it has no answers to mass or targeted removal that hit my equipment (Akroma's Vengeance, Vandalblast), exiles (Swords to Plowshares, Utter End), or targets my key stuff (Cyclonic Rift). Since I cannot use it with Teferi's Protection or use counters, do not overplay to the board. Lean into your free creatures instead and hold the other things until they are needed. Note that if you have 25 dorks in your deck, you should usually get 1 in your dig of four, so that's what I am aiming for.

Creatures That Support the Theme

Check out equipment dorks. We have six in our color combo, and we are running three of them. They count as dorks for purposes of Durnan, and if they are equipped, then they won't be swept. The Green one is a 4-drop, "equip" that will let your equipped Durnan make mana equal to its power, which helps cast the creature you just exiled. The Black one is a 2/2 for 2 that gives our leader lifelink, which feels pretty strong here with deathtouch, indestructible, and other things. Lifelink can keep you alive while you swing aggressively. We'll be adding it in other places as well.

The Blade is the final one, an on-curve menace 3/1 2-drop that will count as +2/+2 when equipped onto your base 3/3 Durnan, as well as giving him menace, both of which are pretty nice. Trample is broken with deathtouch, since you can deal just one damage to each creature that blocked it and overflow damage to a player, so I have a few ways to grant it. Rhonas is a three-mana 5/5 in Green with deathtouch, indestructible, and the ability to target your leader for three mana and then pump it +2/+0 and give it trample. Note that it will survive the sweeping removal in this brew, as well as attacking with any 4-powered dork, like a Durnan with a +1/+1 counter on it. Nice!

Check out this Incarnation duo. The former will give our entire team trample as long as it's in the graveyard and you control a Forest, and it's also an on curve 3/3 with trample. Good card for giving trample from a creature source. The latter will give your team evasion with Swampwalk when you control a Swamp and it's in your graveyard. I pulled basic lands for Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth to make these more likely. The Urborg will give your team unblockable as they'll have Swamps.

Voltron-y Things

Given how important trample is here, how could I not run this first aura? This 1-drop (printed as a common) aura gives +2 to power, trample, and is pretty synergetic with the deck, and when it dies, it goes back to your hand for another casting. The second aura is a 3-drop rare in Black that gives evasion with flying, +3/+1 and like Blade will make it a Demon, just in case you care. You can cast it from your graveyard by discarding a card and paying three life, which works here. I like them both as recursive evasive auras.

Again, you need lifelink to keep up with the tapped state of your board on your turn and trample to punish, and considering you can also use a power boost, enter this Hammer. It arrives for three mana, equips for three, and gives a solid 3 power boost plus the two key abilities needed. It's fun here.

Other Creatures of Note

These are both support dorks. The Demon is a 3-drop 2/3 with deathtouch to play keep away and when it swings, you can get one Demonic Tutor off from its boast. I like this a lot with repeatable Tutor effects like key lands like Urborg, or key Voltron spells. You can use the same infrastructure to go unblocked with Durnan on the Demon, and then get it that Tutor. This is the only Tutor effect in the brew. The Beast is a 7-drop 5/5 with indestructible that can give 5-power dorks indestructible for the turn. It can survive with the mass removal spells you lean into as well as giving indestructible to others to survive as well.

Win-Cons

Your leader is a win-con in a Voltron brew, but I tossed in this Golgari pair of equipment to really win the game. The Sword is a 1-drop two Black to equip and gives it +2/+0 and deathtouch permanently. It's nice on an attacker and then an untapped blocker to play keep away. The Sword can be activated for a massive eight-mana to kill the player that takes combat damage from the equipped Sword. It provides some nice player kill along all of these unblockable things. The Scepter is a 3-drop three equip dork that gives a nice +2/+0 and trample, so it likes deathtouch as well. When it smashes a player in combat damage it makes that many 1/1 tokens, and that's a passel of game winning potential. That can easily win the game by adding a going wide option in addition to going tall.

Answers

I am running every feasible mass removal spell in Black that does cost too much mana, and the best one is this 4-drop color-shifted Wrath of God. It can easily be cast after combat and before dropping your free exiled creature, and then keeping up with the powerhouses. It's the only four cost Black removal spell, so it's a key card here. Then I have three ways to save my stuff en masse, the obvious Heroic Intervention and then two "regenerate your team" options like the Charm. It's a 2-cost instant that can give all stuff -1/-1 (unlikely here), destroy an enchantment (possible), or save your team (probable). That's pretty flexible and adds another enchantment removal spell to my spots as well as playing save the team. See also Wrap in Vigor.

I am running a few Adventure spells here and there since their default is to be a creature for exiling. Swift End is a Hero's Downfall that loses you 2 life, easily done. Then later you can drop it as a three-mana 2/3 with lifelink that reloads when it dies to the bottom of your library. Nice here, right?

Recursion

Since we are in the colors of recursion, let's push that theme. Living Death is a five-cost sorcery that swaps all creatures in play with those in graveyards. In the early game it's just a five-mana Damnation, and in the mid-game it's an okay sweeper with a few dorks, later you can play around it and really push the board your direction. Note that this will sweep away indestructible stuff, so be ready. Diregraf Rebirth is a five cost spell that recurs one dork from your graveyard to your battlefield and can be flashed back for another go around the bin. I really like it with the lowered cost it gets after things die this turn as it could be quite the cheap option.

The final Incarnation in this brew is a 5-drop 4/4 that will let you spend three mana in your upkeep to bring back any creature from the graveyard to your hand as long as it's in your graveyard as well. It's a nice thing to kill to your mass removal and provides nice value over time.

Card Flow and Draw

I am running a bunch of cantripping creatures that draw cards on arrival. The Admirers is a 3/2 Elf that costs four mana and draws a card, and as you cast creatures (likely here with your exile trigger) you can spend to return it to your hand from your graveyard, so trade freely. The Owlbear is a 5-drop 4/4 with trample that draws a card, it's here as a backup Durnan since it has that valuable trample evasion and can be equipped and Aura'd if you cannot bring back Durnan with your Commander Tax.

I have a few other bigger card drawers like Harmonize and Shamanic Revelation, and then some card damage triggers like Rogue's Gloves and Sword of Fire and Ice as well as the card flow. But, check out Toski! This is a 4-drop creature (nice for Durnan to exile and cast), 1/1 with indestructible (nice for mass removal), uncounterable (nice to ensure it arrives), and has to swing each turn, funny. As your creatures deal combat damage to your foes, you draw cards, nice card flow, and synergy with the mass trample giving Brawn or Filth with Urborg or against folks with Swamps naturally. Like it loads here!

Mana and Lands

The mana in this is weird. We have a 4-drop and a 2-drop. Normally for a 4-drop I'd take a second turn to ramp with rocks like Golgari Signet and Rampant Growths and then drop it on the third turn, but here I may want to spend that turn casting Agent. On the other hand, getting a third turn Durnan and then swinging with a fourth turn pre-combat Agent isn't that bad either, right? I am also adding some fetch bodies here to add mana from with Durnan. Like this pair! I love Solemn Simulacrum here as a 1-drop with undaunted to exile and the death trigger to draw cards from my mass removal.

The Giant is another Adventure I tossed in. It can Rampant Growth for another mana with Fertile Footsteps and then later arrives to the party with a 7-drop X/X equal to your land count, which count be quite a lot! It also can serve as a nice win con and is playable for three mana off a Durnan trigger.

I need evasion in this brew, enter this land. The obvious Access Tunnel and Rogue's Passage are here by default. Shizo will tap for without arriving tapped and can give fear to your Durnan so it cannot be blocked by anything save for artifact creatures and Black creatures. The Clinic is another way to give your leader lifelink to gain life in massive amounts as you dedicate yourself to the swinging. Nice pair, right?

Check out the Hollow! This Green color identity land taps with a to regenerate a dork. Since most of our sweeping effects allow regeneration, this can save a key creature from your mass removal sweepers or your Durnan on other turns when someone casts their own Day of Judgment or Blasphemous Act effect. It's also a good combat trick to trade or keep a key creature alive in combat while still bringing that heat. Love it lots here!

Let's finish our lands with this duo. The first land arrives tapped, taps for , and can give a +1/+1 counter on Durnan after he arrives to the battlefield once with that graft. Just one extra counter can speed up a Commander Kill by a few turns, and I love it here. Since Agent gives +1/+1 counters each time you attack the right person, you can really benefit from The Bastion of Karn, which can tap for four mana to proliferate and increase your counter count on your Commander. I also am running Oran-Rief, the Vastwood which will love the Bastion.

Three cards left!

Other Cards from Battle for Baldur's Gate

Blood Money is a key mass removal spell for this build since it destroys all dorks, for one more mana than I'd prefer, and makes a ton of tapped Treasures for future turns to use to cast your exiled dork while equipping, dropping removal, using Vorpal Sword, and loads more. The equipment is a key equipment for this brew that costs four to drop and a discard to equip, and then you cannot lose for having 0 or less life. Then when the dork swings you get a power boost equal to the top card of your library's mana cost, and you'll lose that life as well. Note that you draw the card as well, so that's nice card flow. This is my only life loss until draw effect, so the extra life lost should be fine.

The Slime is a 3-drop flash 2/2 that counters an ability from an artifact and enchantment source and destroys it, quite flexible here. I like it better than Reclamation Sage usually since it's an instant speed removal spell and has the flash synergies to block and trade as well as destroy on arrival, and it has a bigger butt. Plus, it can be foretold for future casts from your exile zone. Good stuff here, right?

Ready for my deck? I got cha!

Golgari Voltron with Durnan | Commander | Abe Sargent

• Commander (1)
• 1 Durnan of the Yawning Portal

• Background (1)
• 1 Agent of the Shadow Thieves

• Creatures (29)
• 1 Acidic Slime
• 1 Beanstalk Giant
• 1 Big Game Hunter
• 1 Blade of the Oni
• 1 Brawn
• 1 Elvish Visionary
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Farhaven Elf
• 1 Filth
• 1 Genesis
• 1 Green Slime
• 1 Kogla, the Titan Ape
• 1 Leech Gauntlet
• 1 Llanowar Visionary
• 1 Masked Admirers
• 1 Murderous Rider
• 1 Order of Midnight
• 1 Owlbear
• 1 Ravenous Chupacabra
• 1 Reclamation Sage
• 1 Rhonas the Indomitable
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Spearbreaker Behemoth
• 1 Tanuki Transplanter
• 1 Thornling
• 1 Timeless Witness
• 1 Toski, Bearer of Secrets
• 1 Wood Elves
• 1 Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire

• Instants (7)
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Golgari Charm
• 1 Hagra Mauling // Hagra Broodpit
• 1 Heroic Intervention
• 1 Malakir Rebirth // Malakir Mire
• 1 Vastwood Fortification // Vastwood Thicket
• 1 Wrap in Vigor

• Sorceries (15)
• 1 Agadeem's Awakening // Agadeem, the Undercrypt
• 1 Bala Ged Recovery // Bala Ged Sanctuary
• 1 Blood Money
• 1 Damnation
• 1 Diregraf Rebirth
• 1 Harmonize
• 1 Farseek
• 1 Life's Finale
• 1 Living Death
• 1 Nature's Lore
• 1 Necromantic Selection
• 1 Rampant Growth
• 1 Shamanic Revelation
• 1 Three Visits
• 1 Victimize

• Enchantments (2)
• 1 Demonic Embrace
• 1 Rancor

• Artifacts (13)
• 1 Key to the City
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Loxodon Warhammer
• 1 Pact Weapon
• 1 Prowler's Helm
• 1 Rogue's Gloves
• 1 Scepter of Celebration
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Sword of Fire and Ice
• 1 Trailblazer's Boots
• 1 Vorpal Sword
• 1 Whispersilk Cloak

• Lands (33)
• 8 Forest
• 7 Swamp
• 1 Access Tunnel
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Boseiju, Who Endures
• 1 Cathedral of War
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Karn's Bastion
• 1 Llanowar Reborn
• 1 Llanowar Wastes
• 1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
• 1 Overgrown Forest
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 1 Undergrowth Stadium
• 1 Witch's Clinic
• 1 Woodland Chasm
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1 Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth
• 1 Yavimaya Hollow

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And there we go! I am running 62 non-lands, and then a few modal spell/lands to up my spell options while not hurting my various things I am focusing on. Hope you enjoyed my take on Durnan! What did you think? Anything missing that I forgot to toss in? Anything that inspires your own building? Just let me know in the comments below!!!!!!!

Appendix

1. My first deck was built around Alora, Merry Thief and Far Traveler. The goal was to self-bounce and recast your things to trigger ETB things (Mulldrifter), self-bounce things (Azorius Aethermage), leaves play things (Circuit Mender), cast things (Equilibrium) and tapping the dork for something valuable (Opposition), with a bounce of self-bounce (Erratic Portal) and a flicker backup theme (Far Traveler proper) in order to lean into the non-cast stuff. Love it loads and it was inspired by my Equilibrium self-bounce Bant Commander deck. Check it here.
2. My second deck is a Gruul deck built around the planeswalker Minsc and Boo, Timeless Heroes, which you can find here. That deck enables and is built around fun hasters (Froghemoth), tramplers (Giant Ankheg), and changelings with Hamster (Chameleon Colossus). Fun stuff and many of these cards are not on the EDHREC.com page of him either.
3. My third deck is a Pinger deck that uses Prodigal Sorcerer and Prodigal Pyromancer to tap and kill small stuff, and then combines with deathtouch equipment like Basilisk Collar, and pinging synergies like card draw (Curiosity) and creature stealing and bounce (Sigil of Sleep). It's run by the haste-giving to tapper Dynaheir, Invoker Adept, which you can find here.
4. My next deck a Tribal Rakdos build around Raphael, Fiendish Savior, and his love of Tribal and loving creature that went to the graveyard from anywhere. I tossed in tribal synergies, Aristocrats in the Tribe like Mayhem Devil, self-recurring dorks (Bloodghast), cycling cards (Archfiend of Ifnir), discard card flow (Big Score) and recursion (Living Death). It's fun!
5. Myrkul, Lord of Bones (Check it out here) was built as the leader of a Midrange and Constellation deck that ran a bunch of dorks with ETB abilities for value (like Liliana's Specter and Archon of Cruelty), sacrificed them for value (High Market and Dockside Chef), netted a return as an enchantment to trigger another ETB for it and constellation dorks (like Underworld Coinsmith and Eidolon of Blossoms) and then added in some ramp, answers, card flow, and called it a deck! I hope you enjoy this weird thing!
6. My next deck was an Aristocrats-style artifact heavy brew around Jan Jansen, Chaos Crafter, which you can find here. It's built around Black Aristocrat triggers (Disciple of the Vault) and Rakdos sacrificing (Goblin Welder, Dockside Chef) and red ETB triggers (Reckless Fireweaver) and White recursion (Open the Vaults).
7. My next deck was built around giving and trading away dorks to foes (Donate, Switcheroo) and then goading them (Bloodthirsty Blade, Psychic Impetus) and then drawing cards with Jon Irenicus, Shattered One. (Check it out here!) The deck also has ETB dorks to give away after they've done their thing (Mulldrifter, Ravenous Chupacabra) as well as bad dorks you don't want (Rotting Regisaur, Ebon Drake). Enjoy!