Choosing Your Commander - Golgari

Last, but definitely not least, of the enemey color pairing color combinations is black/green.  Both are the colors of regrowth and graveyard recursion, board control effects, and the traditional colors of mid-range "Rock" strategies.  Golgari decks seek to do a lot of what some Commander format traditionalists see as the heart of the format; play fair, accumulate resources, and throw haymakers.  There are definitely several commanders available in these colors that will allow for that type of game if you choose it, and of all the enemy two-color pairings black/green has the most options with ten.

Glissa, the Traitor:  Glissa is not an easy commander to utilize, but she is definitely one of the more fun options to try and build around.  First off, you must ensure that you can trigger her ability in the first place, meaning that a)your opponents must have creatures and b) you must have a way to kill htem at opportune times.  Normally in multi-player games, your opponents having creatures ready to be killed is not a problem, but there are ways to give your opponent creatures to help along the cause.  After that, playing black's many ways of offing critters can help trigger her when you need it.  After that, its up to you to make sure her triggers don't go for naught, as you can recur things as ugly as Mindslaver to something benign such as an Urza's Bauble.  Once you get that recursion engine going, you just need to make sure its worth your while to jump through the necessary hoops to keep it going.

Iname as One:  Pretty cool card that is prohibitively expensive for something whose first trigger doesn't even count when you cast it from the command zone.  Unfortunately, this all but makes it unplayable.

Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord:  Jarad is one of the better recently released commander options from Return to Ravnica, and it plays right into what a lot of people are already trying to do with their black/green decks.  With built-in recusrion, a built-in sac outlet, a pump ability that feeds off of your rapidly-filling graveyard, and a damage ability that affects all opponents all wrapped up into one compact package, its hard to go wrong with Jarad. 











Nath of the Gilt-Leaf:  If you are looking for a commander who combos well with discard effects, Nath might be the best out there.  You aren't getting a huge payoff for your troubles, but even a modest theme can net you just enough benefits to make it worthwhile.  Combine him with something like Memory Jar and you potentially have seven new 1/1 Elf tokens for each opponent you have. 

Rhys the Exiled:  Due to Rhys having a black mana symbol in its activation cost, he is a black/green card as far as color identity go.  I am not relly a fan of Rhys the Exiled and much prefer his GW Redeemed version.

Sapling of Colfenor:  I think this is a great support card for a different deck to take advantage of, namely something like Doran, the Siege Tower. 

Savra, Queen of the Golgari:  Savra is decent at what she does, but if you just want to gain life or control creatures then there are better options.

Sisters of Stone Death:  Again, if its just for creature control you have better options, but at least the Sisters give you the option of stealign the creature outright.  If casting this and activating its abilities didn't cost so much, then this might be a worthwhile thing to consider.  As it is, its not very good.

Skullbriar, the Walking Grave:  Skullbriar interests me in the fact that his ability is truly unique in the game and that it violates one of the basic rules of the game.  I'm not sure that I would use him as my commander, but he seems to be tailor-made to do so since he will maintain his +1/+1 counters while bouncing to and from the command zone.  It's unfortunate that bounce effects and tuck effects are plentiful in the format and that those reset his counters, but I guess every card has its weaknesses.

Vhati il-Dal: Nice when combined with a pinger or other effect that deals with X/1's efficiently, but as I've said before its not good enough if it only helps with creature control (and even then, if it only does part of the job).