Back when Streets of New Capenna was about to release, we did an article and video about a pretty meme-y deck. I dubbed that deck “Golgari Big Boy” and it focused in on a pretty spicy card from New Capenna,
Fight Rigging
Fight Rigging
Hideaway 5 (When this enchantment enters, look at the top five cards of your library, exile one face down, then put the rest on the bottom in a random order.)
At the beginning of combat on your turn, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control. Then if you control a creature with power 7 or greater, you may play the exiled card without paying its mana cost.
. While it was a meme for Standard, the core of the deck wasn’t too far off, and it’s picked up some steam in Explorer!
We’ll talk the in’s and out’s of the deck and why it’s a solid contender for MTG Arena’s newest format! Obviously we have to start with the namesake card, Fight Rigging.
Fight Club
To understand the deck, we need to look at Fight Rigging. It’s a 3 mana enchantment, which lets us hideaway a card from the top 5 cards of our library. Then each combat, it puts a +1/+1 counter on a creature we control.
Then if we have a creature with 7 power in play, we can play the hidden card for free. Even after we play the card, this continues to pump up our creatures every combat so playing multiples is super powerful. Seems pretty great right? So there’s 2 segments of creatures we want in this deck. We want enablers, and hits. Let’s look at our enablers first.
The Coaches
To kick things off, we are playing 8 mana dorks in
Llanowar Elves
Llanowar Elves
{T}: Add {G}.
and
Gilded Goose
Gilded Goose
Flying
When this creature enters, create a Food token. (It's an artifact with "{2}, {T}, Sacrifice this token: You gain 3 life.")
{1}{G}, {T}: Create a Food token.
{T}, Sacrifice a Food: Add one mana of any color.
. We want these two because we want to power out Fight Rigging and our other Enablers quickly. Speaking of enablers, we’re playing a few creatures that are WAY above the curve for their cost.
Shakedown Heavy
Shakedown Heavy
Menace
Whenever this creature attacks, defending player may have you draw a card. If they do, untap this creature and remove it from combat.
and
Rotting Regisaur
Rotting Regisaur
At the beginning of your upkeep, discard a card.
turn on Fight Rigging right away.
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The Hits
With our enablers, let’s look at what cards we’re wanting to hit off Fight Rigging.
To preface this, there’s a couple standard hits you’ll find in nearly every version of this deck, and a couple that are a bit different.
Verdurous Gearhulk
Verdurous Gearhulk
Trample
When this creature enters, distribute four +1/+1 counters among any number of target creatures you control.
is one of those off beat choices, but it’s VERY good. It beefs up creatures, it has trample, what’s not to love.
Elder Gargaroth
Elder Gargaroth
Reach, vigilance, trample
Whenever this creature attacks or blocks, choose one —
• Create a 3/3 green Beast creature token.
• You gain 3 life.
• Draw a card.
is another creature that we really love hitting. It’s a big creature and very versatile. With this, we can start to build a wider board with it’s token, draw some cards, or stabilize our life total.
On the big end of the spectrum,
Titan of Industry
Titan of Industry
Reach, trample
When this creature enters, choose two —
• Destroy target artifact or enchantment.
• Target player gains 5 life.
• Create a 4/4 green Rhino Warrior creature token.
• Put a shield counter on a creature you control.
is a total house, literally and figuratively. Another insanely versatile creature, and a massive body to have out on turn 3 or 4. Lastly,
Turntimber Symbiosis
Turntimber Symbiosis
Look at the top seven cards of your library. You may put a creature card from among them onto the battlefield. If that card has mana value 3 or less, it enters with three additional +1/+1 counters on it. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
is almost like extra copies of Fight Rigging, as it’s going to cheat another creature into play from our library. Since we also have some big 3 cost creatures as well, they’re reasonable choices since they’ll get 3 +1/+1 counters as well.
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It Stands Alone!
Now the Fight Rigging game plan is one that can end the game very quickly. But we’re not always going to be allowed to solitaire our way into a free win. We’ll run into hand disruption and counter magic and what not. That’s not a problem for our deck at all! If we remove Fight Rigging from the equation, what we’re left with is an aggressive midrange deck that plays creatures that are WAY over the top of pretty much any other creature deck in the format.
We can apply some huge pressure to our opponent’s life total, and we have a few other cards to help close out the game.
Rhonas the Indomitable
Rhonas the Indomitable
Deathtouch, indestructible
Rhonas can't attack or block unless you control another creature with power 4 or greater.
{2}{G}: Another target creature gets +2/+0 and gains trample until end of turn.
is a fantastic creature to block with, as we’re usually going to have it online. Additionally, it gives other creatures trample, which can help us punch through blockers with ease. The other card that we haven’t mentioned up until now is
Obosh, the Preypiercer
Obosh, the Preypiercer
Companion — Your starting deck contains only cards with odd mana values and land cards. (If this card is your chosen companion, you may put it into your hand from outside the game for {3} as a sorcery.)
If a source you control with an odd mana value would deal damage to a permanent or player, it deals double that damage to that permanent or player instead.
! Yes we’re an Obosh deck and Obosh does work. The double damage provided by it lets us block favorably, punch through a TON of damage, and just makes combat math for our opponent a nightmare.
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Sideboard
Since we’re in the Golgari colors, we have access to play some of the best removal and disruption in the format.
Thoughtseize
Thoughtseize
Target player reveals their hand. You choose a nonland card from it. That player discards that card. You lose 2 life.
is a big way for us to stop our opponents from doing whatever they want. Since there are “combo” decks in this format, cutting off those resources are key.
Fatal Push
Fatal Push
Destroy target creature if it has mana value 2 or less.
Revolt — Destroy that creature if it has mana value 4 or less instead if a permanent left the battlefield under your control this turn.
deals with hyper aggro strategies like mono red, and can help clear the way of pesky blockers. Finally,
Go Blank
Go Blank
Target player discards two cards. Then exile that player's graveyard.
is a very important card to help deal with graveyard strategies. These come in the form of the different Greasefang decks, and can even hit on Rakdos a bit as well.
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The List
Here’s the list that we’ve been talking about.
—
I’ve been playing a bunch of this deck on the ladder, and it’s been doing incredibly well. We can fight against nearly every deck in the format, and if we fall behind, many of our draws are enough to put us right back in the fight, so to speak.
Definitely give this list a shot, as it’s a rising star.