SOS: Additions to Golgari Airship
New additions to Golgari Airship from Secrets of Strixhaven
Introduction
Secrets of Strixhaven is a set I’m particularly excited about, especially for the support it gives to Witherbloom. Although the theme of Witherbloom isn't necessarily sacrifice, a lot of the cards are generically powerful and work really well in Golgari Airship. While not as impactful as Mutagen Man, Living Ooze, both Professor Dellian Fel and Vicious Rivalry are cards I’ve wanted in the deck since its inception.
Professor Dellian Fel
Professor Dellian Fel is a strong addition to the maindeck as a tutor target. The card is also solid on its own, entering with high loyalty, which makes it difficult to pressure through creature combat. Here’s a quick rundown of its abilities:
+2: Gain 3 Life
At first, the uptick seems underwhelming, however this ability is really nice in the face of any aggro deck, as it effectively represents 5 points of lifegain when considering the opponent will want to remove the planeswalker first. Especially in a pursuit deck, this can be exactly what's necessary to stabilize.
-3: Destroy Target Creature
This is a key ability as it makes Dellian a reactive tutor target. There are many spots where you need to answer a must-kill threat like a Mossborn Hydra where beseeching for removal is correct, but is a significant opportunity cost, giving up the additional value it could have provided. Now, a powerful card advantage and lifegain engine will stay in play allowing the deck to gain initiative even when on the backfoot.
0: Draw a Card. Lose 1 Life
Card advantage is valuable, and it's really nice to have a card advantage engine to tutor for. I often tutored for Obsessive Pursuit as a hard to interact way to gain card advantage, especially against control. Dellian Fel is a much better option in these situations as it doesn't cost mana to sacrifice the clues.
-6: You get an emblem with "Whenever you gain life, target opponent loses that much life."
The emblem is easily accessible, but will mostly come up in niche situations. This deck gains life primarily through pursuit attacks, and the ultimate could be a way to get damage through a clogged up boardstate.
Professor Dellian also gives the deck a way to diversify threats against cards like Ultima or Sunderflock. Having this option allows you to press your advantage instead of having to play slowly to play around these effects.
Meta Considerations
Planeswalkers are traditionally hard to kill, especially for the Izzet decks, which is further exacerbated by how high Dellian's loyalty is. Upticking means that even Broadside Barrage won't be able to deal with Dellian.
That said, Erode is being printed into the format and I expect it to see quite a bit of play. Dellian likely won't be a silver bullet against control, but the Airship deck is usually able to take advantage of extra lands really well, so I'm not too worried. On the flip, Get Lost will probably be reduced in numbers, which means that Obsessive Pursuit will have fewer maindeck answers, so overall a net positive.
Vicious Rivalry
I've had a love-hate relationship with Day of Judgment as it feels so necessary in the cub matchup but drawing it can be so devastating. Drawing a Day of Judgment feels bad not only because it's uncastable, but because beseeches in your hand no longer present a boardwipe. This will no longer be the case.
Vicious Rivalry is a very castable boardwipe that can be beseeched for, giving this deck the ability to sideboard into the boardwipe plan without the significant downsides that Day of Judgment provided. It's also possible to play another copy without making it too much of a risk.
Vicious Rivalry does have two downsides. The first is that it requires you to pay life. Airship can sometimes be constrained on life due to pursuit, although Rivalry will typically only be cast for 3–4 life. There is an upside though, in that the life cost also allows the deck to set up one-sided boardwipes by not wiping creatures with higher mana value.
The other downside is that it destroys artifacts, which means that airships are no longer invulnerable to boardwipes. One of the main draws to playing airships is that they are immune to boardwipes, allowing you to easily set up asymmetrical clears. This downside is relevant if the opponent has a threat like an Ouroboroid with mana value four or greater. Vicious Rivalry also destroys Clue tokens, The Ooze, and Mutagen tokens.
That being said, the matchups where this could be relevant are usually won by outgrinding the opponent with pursuit and not airship. I think airship will still be an okay tool in the matchup but will be mostly sidelined.
Meta Considerations
The existence of this card is a little polarizing since it's also a really strong tool against us. Artifact boardwipes were basically nonexistent outside of Ultima, which made airships extremely potent in non-white control matchups. This will no longer be the case if Vicious Rivalry picks up in popularity.
Witherbloom Charm
Witherbloom Charm is a really nice tool with a strong primary mode and a buyout that makes this card have almost no opportunity cost.
The primary option of destroying a nonland permanent with mana value less than two is very desirable. This type of effect has a lot of coverage in current standard.
The sacrifice to draw 2 mode is effectively two mana draw two in most situations, just due to the sheer amount of tokens this deck makes. Having access to another card advantage option is really nice, especially in situations where you don't have an Obsessive Pursuit.
It also has additional utility. With Obsessive Pursuit, this mode provides a sacrifice trigger, and it can be used to sacrifice an Airship to play around a board wipe.
The gain 5 life mode is also really useful in a pinch, especially due to the constant life loss from pursuit. You're often playing on the margins and forced into low-agency plays due to lowered life totals. Witherbloom Charm will give more options in that regard.
Meta Considerations
Seam Rip sees heavy play in white decks, and is problematic because it answers Obsessive Pursuit. Having an answer to it is really nice.
The only issue I have with the card is that I really like The Witch's Vanity and it also only kills creatures with mana value less than or equal to 2. This might limit coverage against larger creatures and will be largely meta based.
Conclusion
Overall, SOS helps round out the deck and address some of its previous gaps. Cards like Witherbloom Charm and Professor Dellian Fel didn’t stand out at first, but the more I evaluate them, the more they seem to offer. It’s still theoretical for now, but I’ll be testing it on the ladder soon and expect these additions to perform well.
Here's a tentative decklist:
SOS Additions - Golgari Airship
If you have any questions or want to discuss the deck, feel free to join the Discord.