Legacy Golgari Hogaak: 28 creatures built around Dark Matter Manipulator
An official Japanese Magic column showcases a black-green Legacy Hogaak list with 4 Dark Matter Manipulator, 4 Moonshadow, and a Wasteland and fetchland mana base.
An official Japanese Magic column has put a Legacy Golgari (black-green) Hogaak deck on display, and it uses Dark Matter Manipulator from Reality Fracture as a core piece. The list appears in Iwa-SHOW's 'Cool Deck of the Week' series.
The card at the center
Dark Matter Manipulator is a 1-mana 1/2 creature that mills 3 cards when it enters the battlefield. It gets +2 power for every 7 cards in its controller's graveyard.
The card debuted in tournaments on the release weekend of Reality Fracture and has produced results in Modern. This column moves it into Legacy.
The 60-card list
The deck plays 28 creatures: 4 Moonshadow, 4 Dark Matter Manipulator, 3 Stitcher's Supplier, 3 Elvish Reclaimer, and 3 Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis. Several others are given by their Japanese names in the column. They include 4 copies of a creature called 'Oku no Yumitsukai' and 4 of 'Seiibutsu no Wight', plus 2 of 'Ōkamaneko no Ko' and 1 of 'Mori wo Mamoru Mono'.
The spell suite is 10 cards: 4 Thoughtseize, 3 Cabal Therapy, and 3 Once Upon a Time.
The 22-land mana base includes 4 Verdant Catacombs, 1 Polluted Delta, 1 Misty Rainforest, 3 Bayou, 1 Undercity Sewers, and 4 Wasteland. It also has 1 Bojuka Bog, 1 Dryad Arbor, 1 Yavimaya Hatchery, 1 Swamp, and 1 Forest.
The 15-card sideboard has 3 Abrupt Decay, 3 Duress, and a removal spell listed as 'Koroshi' (3 copies). It also holds 2 copies of a creature called 'Tamekomiya no Auf' and 4 copies of a card called 'Ninntai'.
How the pieces work
Moonshadow grows as permanent cards enter the graveyard, with a -1/-1 counter removed each time. It reaches at most a 7/7 for 1 mana with menace. The deck pairs it with milling creatures and with sacrifice lands such as Verdant Catacombs and Wasteland.
Hogaak cannot be cast by paying mana. It has convoke and delve, and paying both lets it enter as an 8/8 trampler without mana. It can also be cast from the graveyard.
The column describes the plan as synergy-focused, built on light creatures that mill and can tap for convoke. The 'Seiibutsu no Wight' creature gets stronger with the number of creatures in the graveyard and can sacrifice creatures to search for lands.
The 'Ōkamaneko no Ko' is a 2-mana 2/2 with a landfall ability that places +1/+1 counters, doubling the number on the second trigger each turn.
Context
Reality Fracture is also driving Standard decks, as in TCGKing's report on a Jeskai control list built on its planeswalkers.
What it means for players
- Legacy players can look at this list as a starting point for testing Dark Matter Manipulator.
- The mill-and-graveyard plan relies on Moonshadow, Hogaak, and sacrifice lands working together.
- Several cards are given by Japanese name in the column, so check card lists before building.
What is still unknown
An exact Reality Fracture release date is not announced in the sources.
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