I am very excited about how Theros is shaping up. We’re in the shallow end of spoilers so far, but we’re sinking deeper into Greek mythology every day. I was a fan of mythology as a kid, especially of the shows Hercules and Xena: Warrior Princess, but I never went too far along those lines. I was more of a superhero fan.

So, when Theros was announced, I was no more excited than I might have been for any other set. However, I am a huge fan of enchantments and Auras, of specialized card frames (colored artifacts, Future Sight, miracles, and the like), of awesome gods, and of cool stories, so Theros is really looking good for me.

Another thing I’m a huge fan of is the graveyard, and there’s a previewed card that hits several of those points on my list. The Game Day Top 8 promo has been revealed to be Nighthowler, and while we haven’t seen what it’ll look like out of booster packs, the foily, Nyxified, Game Day–framed edition looks pretty sweet. I plan to drop a copy of this guy right into my Karador, Ghost Chieftain Commander deck, giving me access to a massive power-pumping Aura out of my graveyard.

However, for today, I’m going to look at Nighthowler in the opposite side of the format spectrum from Commander—with a casual Standard list. I like to explore Standard every once in a while, despite this being a casual column, for the sake of players who may have started more recently and have smaller card pools full, of cards from just the last couple years—or even months. In addition, I’d like to think some of my ideas can serve as springboards for Friday Night Magic decks—or even make straight-up appearances at FNM.

Anyway, the other reason I’m sticking with Standard today is that the card I want to combo Nighthowler with is Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord, and since he’s in Standard, why not just keep the whole list Standard-specific?

So, What’s the Combo?

Incidentally, also playing quite well with the graveyard, we have Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord. He has the ability to sacrifice a creature and drain our opponents equal to the creature’s power—and if that creature was enchanted with Nighthowler and we have a souped-up graveyard, that power could be quite a lot. And when that creature dies, the Nighthowler will still be there, almost as large as the sacrificed creature was. Jarad can then sacrifice that creature to drain our opponents for almost as much life. If we had nine creatures in our graveyard, for example, and the initial creature had at least 2 power, that’s the full 20.

Golgari

In playing with the graveyard, sticking with Standard, and starting off with the current guild leader of Ravnica’s B/G guild, it makes sense to run a bunch of Golgari cards.

Deadbridge Chant – This is one of my favorite cards from the last several years, and it would be silly to ignore it for this deck. With Theros’s enchantment theme and Deadbridge Chant’s status as an enchantment, it will fit well here, especially with one of the cards we’ll hit later in the Theros section. This is also a great card for dumping stuff to the graveyard, hitting ten all at once. The card and mana advantage it provides later is quite significant if not totally synergistic.

Sluiceway Scorpion – Scavenge is far from my favorite graveyard mechanic. In my mind, thinking of scavenge, flashback, or unearth as a graveyard mechanic is actually pretty counterintuitive. While it’s true these abilities work from the grave, the act of using them actually decreases the power of my graveyard, which dissuades me from their usage. However, the Scorpion does have deathtouch, and it can make our Jarad sacrificees more potent in a pinch. That said, I might actual prefer the green Doom Blade Deadly Recluse for this spot.

Korozda Guildmage – I almost skipped her in my first pass, but I felt the deck needed a bit of a lower curve, and she fits that. In addition, her superpowers are very relevant. Without Jarad for sacrifice shenanigans, she can grant intimidate to a Nighthowler or Nighthowler-enchanted creature so we can just smash in and ignore the necessity to move a creature from the battlefield to the graveyard. And her other power lets us transform a Nighthowler or Nighthowler-enchanted creature into a whole bunch of Saprolings. If our sacrificed creature was enchanted, we’ll still have a Nighthowler to stick around—and perhaps generate more Saprolings.

Jarad's Orders – I initially had two copies of this before cutting it down to one in favor of a flavor hit from Theros, but finding a key combo piece is always something important for combo decks, and this card can find two. They both have to be creatures, and it’s not always easy returning something from the ’yard with this deck, but if we the creature we pitch is Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord, he does have the ability to Regrow himself.

Theros

Commune with the Gods – This is Theros’s Grisly Salvage, helping us pitch a bunch of cards to the graveyard early to make large Nighthowlers. It drops the black requirement, but we also lose the ability to grab lands. However, we gain the ability to grab enchantments, which will occasionally be relevant with our Deadbridge Chants.

Nylea, God of the Hunt – Honestly, this one’s just for fun. I think the Gods look pretty cool so far, even if they’re not eminently combo-enabling (though they are combo-abusable). Without having yet seen Erebos, God of the Dead, I can’t be sure he’d fit, but Nylea is certainly passable enough to hold a spot in a casual list. Her trample-granting means Nighthowlers can punch through, extra mana lets us pump whatever we need, and with Jarad—and the in his cost—around, we might even garner enough green devotion to swing in with a deity.

Sylvan Caryatid – I’m not sure exactly where I stand on this card so far, but with few 3-drops in the deck and a lot of 4-drops, this is among the best Standard accelerants for the list. Hexproof is nice, as it means we can’t be Stone Rain’d by a Doom Blade, and it can make for us black mana. Having acceleration that’s a creature is also good for a deck that wants a lot of creature cards.

Rescue from the Underworld – A lot of people have been excited about this card since its reveal at the Magic PAX party. It has great flavor, telling a whole story with a few lines of rules text and an evocative name. This acts as a Rise from the Grave, but it can also reset creatures with Pacifism, Claustrophobia, or the like. Ideally, it’d be used in conjunction with creatures that have enters-the-battlefield abilities, of which this deck has none, but nonetheless, it’s a good reanimation spell, and it will allow us to reliably return things we dump with Grisly Salvage, Commune with the Gods, and Deadbridge Chant.

"Golgari Gods"

• Graveyard Filling (11)
• 4 Grisly Salvage
• 4 Commune with the Gods
• 2 Deadbridge Chant
• 1 Jarad's Orders

• Creatures (22)
• 3 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
• 4 Nighthowler
• 1 Nylea, God of the Hunt
• 4 Sylvan Caryatid
• 4 Sluiceway Scorpion
• 2 Daggerdrome Imp
• 4 Korozda Guildmage

• Graveyard Extraction (3)
• 2 Rescue from the Underworld
• 1 Rise of the Dark Realms

• Lands (24)
• 4 Golgari Guildgate
• 4 Overgrown Tomb
• 8 Forest
• 8 Swamp

Buy This Deck

I threw in one Rise of the Dark Realms right there at the end—how could I resist? I’d love to include more recursion for noncreatures, but cards such as Treasured Find would start bringing our noncreature count way too high if we want big Nighthowlers. Also, when there’s no combo potential around, remember that Jarad is even larger than a lone Nighthowler, so sometimes, you’ll just have to attack with him—especially is Nylea is there to grant him trample.

Andrew Wilson

@Silent7Seven

fissionessence at hotmail dot com