Building Golgari Battlecruiser in Commander

Posted on March 30, 2022

Hello awesome readers! I hope that your day is as awesome as you are! Today I wanted to do something truly epic. I have never built a Battlecruiser Commander deck for you, and they are going out of style as Commander slims costs from things like Cultivate to Rampant Growth and removing former expensive powerhouses like Insurrection for cheaper cards. That's the modern Commander and there is no getting away from the modern metagame.

So...what I am going to do instead is to push back against that with today's deck. Today I am building a deck around the Golgari colors that pushes that mana development to the upper limit and then runs a bunch of expensive haymakers to close out the game as well as ways to interact and draw cards.

I am choosing Golgari for Green's ramp and Black's Cabal Coffers suite which can be tutored for with Green. I am also running answers, protection, recursion in case your stuff gets answered and more. I also will lean into creature problems that are hard to answer or have strong ETB triggers that push your game so they already provided value in case of removal or answering.

Who will lead?

The Sisters of Stone Death will! They have a few activated abilities. The first is a minor Lure ability that forces some creature to block - nice. The second is an activated ability that will exile what blocked or is blocking your dork, so for three mana you can force a block and then exile it. Then you can take something it exiled and drop it onto your battlefield. For a total of six mana you can force a block and exile it and steal it in one combat which is doable since you spent more than that for your Sisters. Love them!

Ready to do a deep dive?

Let's start with these two 6/6 flyers. I am not running any Demonic Tutor effects save for the Demon. This thing used to be played all over Commander, and it's still in 21,315 decks over at EDHREC.com, but I haven't seen one in years in actual play.

The Archon is a mana more and offers the same evasive size. On arrival (or when it swings) this fun threat will force a foe to Diabolic Edict a dork or planeswalker, discard a card, lose 3 life while you draw a card and gain 3 life! Even if it's answered prior to swinging it still was a 3 for 1 in card advantage, and it will quickly add up.

Let's turn to some more removal in Black. The Gorgon costs 6 mana for a 4/6 deathtouch, a bit on the small side of life. For 8 mana you can monstrous it to kill everything else save for the Sisters. You can do it at instant speed, so folks won't attack you if they are about to get mass blown out, and then you can swing on a naked board with your now 7/9 deathtouch and 7/5 Commander. This Demon will, on arrival, Murder something. Then when your foe's creatures die, you churn out a 2/2 Black Zombie token tapped. Good stuff for the deck as you could use those tokens to block attacks on your 4 key planeswalkers as well as good synergy with the killing in this brew like the Gorgon we just looked at.

Check out these dorks that each cost three colored mana. These mana costs are more doable with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth and ramping for basics and don't sleep on Chromatic Lantern. The Primus is an 8 drop 6/6 trample, a bit underwhelming, and on arrival to the battlefield can destroy anything that doesn't have "creature" in its type line. That's a lot. Then it has persist so it can come back once as a 5/5 trampler after it dies. Like Rune-Scarred Demon this used to get play everywhere, but I haven't seen it in years. EDHREC.com has it in 7,560 brews. The Wurm is a 6/5 without evasion that, on arrival, will Infest your foes. When your foes' creatures die, they lose two life each, which is a big life hit over time and synergizes with itself and the stuff above.

Next up, hello Sheoldred, Whispering One fans! This 6/6 swampwalking Praetor costs 7 mana, a bit high. On your upkeep you can reanimate a dork for free, so that's a free Zombify from your graveyard. Nice! And then during your foes' upkeeps, they sacrifice a dork, which is The Abyss for them. Also nice! In this brew our Whispering One is an easy drop and very synergetic with all of the things. I really like this with Krosan Tusker since you can cycle for a land and card and then bring it back right for free.

Okay, now let's turn to some Eldrazi!

Check out Kozilek and its Artisan! The Butcher is nice card flow and it's a cast trigger so it works even if countered, but it won't work with reanimation. It also gets shuffled after heading to your graveyard and cannot be targeted for animation. Your 10 mana nets you a powerful 12/12 with Annihilator 4. Nice! Its Artisan is a 10/9 for 9 mana with Annihilator 2. It's cast trigger is to Zombify for free, which fts what we are looking to do here!

Let's turn now to Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger! This 10 mana 10/10 with indestructible exiles two permanents on being cast. It's does not shuffle, so a 10/10 indestructible might be something you want to target with your reanimation even without the cast trigger. Nice!

Goodbye Eldrazi!

This is our last battlecruiser dork we'll look at. This 9/5 trampler is a bit small on the butt but can be played for free from your library while searching it. Draw a Cultivate after your mana is set? Cast it and grab the Wurm! I love it in ramp decks that are looking for options to win even when mana flooded.

Look at this fun Golem! This is the only Golem in the brew. This will let you cast your Sisters for free from the Command Zone. Given their cost, that's pretty nice, especially after they've been answered a few times and have a high Commander Tax.

Can you see why the Intervention of Nylea is here? You can cast this fun sorcery for the first option which grabs any land from your deck. Just two in the X will get both Urborg and Cabal Coffers and with an Exploration effect you can drop them both that turn. You can grab Cabal Stronghold as well as things like Temple of the False God. Need a way to drop them? Enter this 1-drop enchantment hat will let you drop a land from your hand as each foe does. Nice mana ramping duo! Also don't sleep on the Intervention as a Hurricane since we only have a few flyers.

Boundless Realms is your expensive battlecruiser ramp spell! 7 mana, and then for that massive amount you get to double your land count with tapped basics. Nasty stuff! To make this stuff work I included way more basics than I normally would in a Golgari build, I only have 14 non-basics in 40 slots. Enjoy!

Let's turn to sort of removal that also plays into the theme. The former instant is a 4-mana Murder that will also Rampant Growth. I count it my 20-card ramp section, which counts as ramp rather than my removal section, so it's free removal. However, most ramps are sorceries and this is an instant, so don't sleep on it.

The latter card is another instant. The instant is great if you bring in a bunch of blocks with your Sisters but don't have the mana to exile them or gain control of them. The 4-cost instant is a nice removal spell that can destroy a creature, an artifact or an enchantment - nice range. I included this in my removal suite of cards. Both work nicely here!

Now let's turn to some card drawing. The Study is a must play here. And yet its only in 10% of Sisters of Stone Death decks over at EDHREC.com which seems wrong. Eight-mana Commander? That means you will draw 8 cards and lose 8 life, that's a new instant hand. You don't even have to control your Sisters of Stone Death to make this work! The Return is also a 5-drop instant and if you control your Sisters, you'll draw 7 cards, another brand new hand. This is more situational but also free of life and your bigger creatures in here can easily substitute for your bigger cards!

Let's look at some more massive card drawing: Greater Good! Once your big fat dork has done their nasty ETB trigger, you can sacrifice it to this to draw cards equal to its power and then discard three, like, if you are set, lands. With a Rune-Scarred Demon that's 6 drawn and 3 discarded and none of that requires the use of mana. Awesome. Use this in response to targeted and mass removal to draw a ton of cards.

Now let's turn to some reanimation!

I don't have that many creatures in my deck, just 23 that aren't my Commander. But most of those are either Battlecruiser cards or ones with key ETB triggers like Wood Elves and Eternal Witness that you will want to get back.

These two Black sorceries will mass recur all graveyards. The first one will swap in play stuff with all graveyard stuff which, if you set up, will turn you from losing to winning in one card. It's the only other major mass sweeping effect besides Hythonia.

The Call costs another mana and can be used only to recur everything for 6 mana. You can cast it as an instant for two more mana which you will always want to do if you have the mana. Do it at the end of your foe's turn, bring everything back, and then untap and attack with your giant stuff first. Nice pair!

The Rebirth will return one dork from your graveyard to the battlefield and can be flashed back for two more mana to get another dork for card advantage. It has a generic mana cost reduction for each dork that died this turn, and that could be a lot. The After costs one more mana initially, lacks flashback, but returns two cards from your graveyard right now and they are Black Zombies. Note that this reads "up to" so if you only have one target you can just bring it back if it'll win the game for you. Good stuff!

Let's turn to our planeswalkers.

I have four planeswalkers, three of which are battlecruisers and one of which is just here for card flow and creature removal (Ob Nixilis). The Apex Predator version of Garruk is the most powerful in Commander and other kitchen table play. For seven mana you get 5 loyalty and 4 abilities. He can +1 to destroy a fellow planeswalker. He can +1 to churn out a 3/3 deathtouch black Beast to block attacks or swing. -3 to destroy a dork and gain some life is pretty nice as well. You'll want to run it on an open board with all your interaction and tokens to block to really keep this dominant force around.

This is also the best version of Karn, 7 mana, 6 loyalty, here for that -3 to exile a permanent, even a land like a foe's Academy Ruins in their artifact brew. It can also force your foes to discard/exile and gain more card advantage and loads of loyalty that way.

Check out Ugin! For 8 mana you get a nasty good 7 starting loyalty. You can +2 it to Lightning Bolt a target and that's pretty useful here and if you are on a naked board you can target a foe to gain that loyalty. You can also -X it to exile a bunch of colored things that cost that mana, so you can exile smaller things and leave your bigger things out there. It's nice emergency removal. Good stuff.

Alright let's finish things off with a Myojin. Eight mana for an 8/8 with indestructible is on curve. You can, at instant speed, swap that counter for 8 +1/+1 counters on things as well trample for the turn, so this can be a 16/16 forever with trample for the turn for 8 mana instead of an 8/8 indestructible. Nice final card for us to end on!

And there we go! Let's look at the deck!