Golgari Demons Sideboard Guide - 12/04/2024
Hi there! Welcome to one of my first Sideboard guides! In the past, a few of my Twitch and YouTube viewers have asked me to make guides for them. I'm finally working on this! The first few guides I'll be writing will be free and eventually will turn into paid content.
About me: If you’re new here! I’m Jaffer! A full-time content creator who streams to Twitch about 5-6 days a week while doing some YouTube content. (I put A LOT of time into this game.) My favorite format is Pioneer and I do enjoy Standard a bit! I play competitively for content and on paper. My favorite color combo is Golgari but I main Jund Sac in Pioneer.
I will go over the matchups briefly, show what to sideboard, and then provide a link to the simplified guide on Flexslot.gg.
Let’s talk about Golgari Demons - my favorite Standard deck right now! I’ve been grinding the Magic Arena ladder with this deck for the past few months, and it’s been an absolute blast. Golgari Demons is a midrange deck that capitalizes on value and synergy, built around the powerful enchantment Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber, which helps fuel your hand by drawing cards. It pairs exceptionally well with Demons like Archfiend of the Dross, Demon tokens, and Soulstone Sanctuary to pressure opponents and drain their life total.
The deck also features creatures with incredible utility, such as Mosswood Dreadknight, Glissa Sunslayer, and Preacher of the Schism, all providing card draw, removal for problematic permanents, or token generation. Depending on the matchup, the deck can play as either a grindy, value-driven strategy or an aggressive powerhouse.
Below is my current version of Golgari Demons, which I’m testing for RCQs and Store Championships.
An exportable list can be found in the flexslot.gg link at the end of the article.
Before diving into the guide, remember that it’s just that, a guide! Feel free to adjust as needed. Not every suggestion I provide will apply to every match you play. You are welcome to adapt based on the specific circumstances you encounter.
On to the matchups!
Dimir Midrange: This matchup can be a grindy battle where resource management and card advantage are key. UB has a strong removal and counterspell package to disrupt our game plan, but our threats such as Mosswood Dreadknight, Glissa Sunslayer, and Sheoldred help immensely. Dreadknight just coming back over and over again can be a pain, while Glissa gives us cards, blows up enchantments, or removes counters from Kaito, and Shelly helps punish the UB player’s drawing cards. Usually in this match, Dimir is going to be favored over us so we have to make sure we are ready for a grindy game and sideboard correctly.
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Domain: Domain leverages multicolor synergies with powerful cards like Atraxa, Grand Unifier, Leyline Binding, and Herd Migration, building an unstoppable late game through efficient mana fixing. Lately, more versions also run Zur, Eternal Schemer to turn early impending Overlords into aggressive threats with attack triggers for added value.
Golgari Demons can hold its own by shifting into an aggressive game plan with resilient threats like Mosswood Dreadknight and Glissa, Sunslayer, forcing Domain players to deal with your board before they can assemble their engine. Key tools like enchantment removal and discard effects are crucial for disrupting their setup and slowing their momentum.
This matchup is all about pacing—Golgari needs to keep the pressure on to avoid getting overwhelmed by Domain’s late-game bombs. Post-sideboard, packing extra enchantment removal, and hand hate is a great way to deal with their early threats and answers.
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Golgari Demons - The Mirror: The Golgari Demons mirror is all about managing resources and maximizing value. Key threats like Glissa, Sunslayer, and Mosswood Dreadknight dominate in combat and generate card advantage, while Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber keeps your hand full in longer games.
The matchup often hinges on well-timed removal. Cards like Tear Asunder, Go for the Throat, and Tranquil Frillback are essential for dealing with their big threats before they snowball. Sideboarding should focus on flexible answers for enchantments and prioritizing resilient threats.
Planeswalkers can be game-changing in the mirror. Liliana of the Veil is particularly strong on the play, applying hand pressure while generating value. Nissa and Vivien shine as versatile tools for enchantment removal and board presence, with Vivien’s ability to deal with fliers being especially useful.
In the end, this is a grindy, value-focused battle where good decision-making and patience will get you ahead.
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Mono-White Tokens: Mono-White Tokens thrive on going wide with tokens while leveraging cards like Caretaker's Talent and Sunfall for card advantage and board control. With Fountainport as a token enabler and ways to disrupt opponents' removal strategies, this archetype pressures Golgari Demons to adapt quickly.
Mono-White Tokens excels at establishing an overwhelming board presence early, forcing Golgari to pivot aggressively or lose momentum. Caretaker's Talent enables Mono-White to generate card advantage with tokens and convert them into significant threats, backed by removal like Lay Down Arms and sweepers like Sunfall. These tools allow Mono-White to keep the battlefield in check while progressing its strategy.
Post-board, Golgari can reinforce its anti-enchantment tools and prioritize versatile removal like Tranquil Frillback. While staying proactive is key, avoiding overextending into a board vulnerable to Mono-White’s sweeper strategies will be vital.
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Oculus: UW Oculus Reanimator focuses on tempo and synergy, utilizing self-mill and discard mechanics to fuel reanimation of key threats like Abhorrent Oculus and Haughty Djinn. These threats are supported by interaction and card draw, ensuring consistency in their game plan. Reanimation spells like Recommission and Helping Hand provide efficient ways to recur threats for early pressure.
This matchup hinges on disrupting their graveyard-centric strategy. Early exile removal, such as Anoint with Affliction, is crucial to stopping their reanimation plans. Applying consistent pressure with resilient threats like Mosswood Dreadknight, Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, or Archfiend of the Dross forces them to play defensively and diverts their focus from their tempo game.
Post-board, lean into discard spells like Duress and graveyard hate such as Scavenging Ooze or Tranquil Frillback. These cards strip their reanimation pieces or targets, buying you time to establish board dominance.
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Red X Aggro: Personally I sideboard against most Red X aggro decks very similar. Sometimes I might treat burn match-ups a little differently. Red Aggro decks aim to win before Golgari can stabilize, so early interaction is critical. Removal, life gain, and board wipes are your best friends here, removing their key small creature threats that grow with Valiant or Prowess is a must. Gaining life is invaluable with cards like Frillback, Scooze, Shelly, and a few other cards. It might seem like a lot of cards moving around but it's needed.
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Simic/Sultai Terror: Simic/Sultai Terror decks are archetypes leveraging tempo strategies with Up the Beanstalk for card advantage and efficient threats like Tolarian Terror and Eddymurk Crab. They supplement their threats with synergistic spells such as This Town Ain't Big Enough and Stormchaser’s Talent, creating annoying loops, you'll see this more in the next match-up.
To counter these decks, Golgari needs to lean into aggression while employing precise answers to their problematic spells and enablers. Early interaction and graveyard hate are key, as these decks rely on filling the graveyard to reduce the cost of their threats. Duress can strip critical interaction or combo pieces from their hand, while enchantment removal like Tear Asunder can disrupt Up the Beanstalk.
If you ever Duress on turn one and see a single land hand and a single card to tutor for a land, TAKE IT! You can't play without lands and they have usually 17 in the whole deck with six ways to tutor for basics.
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Temur Otters: This is a match-up that I feel we are favored in. We are playing against a combo/midrange deck that happens to use similar strategies to Simic/Sultai Terror but can be more aggressive since they have more creatures and prowess-like effects on their creatures. In this match, we are going to want to graveyard hate, enchantment hate, and attack the hand.
It’s important to permanently remove Enduring Vitality since it generates more mana with their otter or rat tokens. Using Anoint with Affliction to exile it or the two modes of destroying target artifact or enhancement and then exiling target player’s graveyard is another way to deal with the problematic elk.
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That’s All!
That’s all for now! I hope this guide helps you with your Arena ladder, RCQs, or Store Champs! If it did let me know by tagging me on any socials you use! If you enjoyed this content, please let me know in the comments of this article too or if you’re a Twitch Sub in Discord feel free to mention it in the Twitch Sub chat! I am new to this kind of content so any feedback is appreciated!
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