I don't have a Golgari Commander deck.

There, I said it. I'm not proud of it, but it just never happened. Generally when I look to build a Commander deck, it is because a particular commander piqued my interest. It just always seemed that whenever a Golgari commander was something that I was interested in trying out, something else was stopping me.

At the time I had a lot of decks that were running either Black or Green, so I didn't want another one. For a while it seemed like I was adding Green to a lot of decks, so I was trying to get away from yet another Green deck.

The commander looks cool, but everyone has built it already. If you want to feel bad about yourself, try putting together a deck that someone else in your playgroup runs all the time. There are hundreds of commander options and you choose the same one as someone in your group?

I also have a ton of friends who love Golgari, so I was trying to bring more variety to the table. I try not to get labelled as someone who has a particular color preference, but for plenty of others, Golgari allows for a particular play style they enjoy. And besides, recursion is a powerful option in Commander, and Golgari does it better than virtually any other combination.

In spite of all that, I felt like it was time to change things up. I had pulled some decks apart and knowing Golgari was something I hadn't done before; I figured it would be a nice change of pace. I started looking through all the Golgari commanders to find something that caught my eye and wasn't something I had seen played many times before. My friend Joakim regularly beats me with Skullbriar, the Walking Grave, so that was out. Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons was an option, but I have several decks that run a lot of +1/+1 counter themes, so I thought I would save that for another day. Slimefoot, the Stowaway is fun, but I have two different friends who run it. I have a Meren of Clan Nel Toth 60-card deck, but building something with experience counters seems like a bad idea.

In the end it came down to three possibilities:

• Vhati il-Dal. I've owned this card since it came out. It runs on a very different axis than most players expect, and can be very different than many Golgari options. It also leaves a lot to be desired in the power category.
• The Gitrog Monster. I do love the idea of messing with lands in the graveyard, but the choices for this deck are somewhat limited and the deck was very popular for a while. I didn't want to just slap those same cards into a deck.
• Glissa, the Traitor. I have run Glissa in a 60-card version for a long time. I would know some of the basic cards I would want in the deck and have a head start running it. I don't know anyone else who was running the deck, and it would also give me an artifact theme that I don't have in any decks right now either.

Glissa's Stats

First off, a three-mana commander is always something to like. It is easy enough to recast her a couple of times before things get difficult. A 3/3 body isn't going to kill anyone with commander damage, but it isn't going to roll over and die constantly either. Combat is pretty much a nonstarter for anyone looking to come your way. With first strike and deathtouch, virtually any attack has to assume their biggest threat is going to die. That is a very effective deterrent!

The first strike and deathtouch combo also feed nicely into the next ability that lets you return an artifact from your graveyard to your hand whenever an opponent's creature dies. The deck looks to get plenty of artifacts out and into the graveyard, knowing that they'll be back in your hand and ready to recast again and again. Let's take a look at what I settled on!

Glissa | Commander| Bruce Richard

• Commander (1)
• 1 Glissa, the Traitor

• Creatures (26)
• 1 Acidic Slime
• 1 Beast Whisperer
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Etched Champion
• 1 Generous Patron
• 1 Grismold, the Dreadsower
• 1 Jhoira's Familiar
• 1 Junk Diver
• 1 Marionette Master
• 1 Massacre Wurm
• 1 Meteor Golem
• 1 Moriok Replica
• 1 Noxious Gearhulk
• 1 Reaper of the Wilds
• 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1 Scrap Trawler
• 1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1 Shimmer Myr
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Steel Hellkite
• 1 Sylvok Replica
• 1 The Haunt of Hightower
• 1 Underrealm Lich
• 1 Verdurous Gearhulk
• 1 Vulturous Zombie
• 1 Wurmcoil Engine

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Vraska the Unseen

• Instants (4)
• 1 Assassin's Trophy
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Golgari Charm
• 1 Windgrace's Judgment

• Enchantments (3)
• 1 Deadbridge Chant
• 1 Deathreap Ritual
• 1 Moldervine Reclamation

• Artifacts (24)
• 1 Ashnod's Altar
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Cultivator's Caravan
• 1 Darksteel Plate
• 1 Executioner's Capsule
• 1 Golgari Signet
• 1 Lifecrafter's Bestiary
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Lotus Petal
• 1 Mimic Vat
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Nihil Spellbomb
• 1 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Strionic Resonator
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1 Thornbite Staff
• 1 Triangle of War
• 1 Vedalken Orrery
• 1 Viridian Longbow
• 1 Wanderer's Twig
• 1 Wayfarer's Bauble
• 1 Whispersilk Cloak

• Lands (41)
• 6 Swamp
• 7 Forest
• 1 Barren Moor
• 1 Bayou
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Castle Locthwain
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Fabled Passage
• 1 Forbidden Orchard
• 1 Golgari Rot Farm
• 1 Grim Backwoods
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Opal Palace
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 1 Phyrexia's Core
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Tainted Wood
• 1 Temple of Malady
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Tranquil Thicket
• 1 Twilight Mire
• 1 Verdant Catacombs
• 1 Woodland Cemetery
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1 Tree of Tales
• 1 Vault of Whispers
• 1 Tombstone Stairwell

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What Isn't

There are three cards that aren't in this deck that you would probably expect. The first two are Kodama's Reach and Cultivate. When I guild a deck with Green cards in it, these start in the deck, then I decide if there is a reason to take them out. They are auto-includes and should be viewed that way for all Green decks. The reason not to include them here was the artifact theme. Artifacts that sacrifice to find a land are not something I tend to put in decks unless there is a way to get those cards back. With Glissa, I fully expect to be able to cast, sacrifice, and recast those cards constantly. This is all while Cultivate and Kodama's Reach will be used once, then sit in my graveyard, never to see use again. Wayfarer's Bauble and Burnished Hart are just two of the artifacts that made them expendable.

The other card is Mindslaver. It is a perfect fit for this deck. You sacrifice it and take an opponent's turn. During their turn you kill off one of that players' creatures. This lets you put Mindslaver back into your hand. On your turn you play it and sacrifice it again to take their turn again. Repeat until the opponent is dead.

This Mindslaver lock is miserable and I ought to know. I used to run Mindslaver in my 60-card Glissa deck. I would try to target different people all the time, so it wouldn't become miserable or oppressive. In one game, an opponent had a strong board state and I knew I would get destroyed if I didn't take control of his next turn, so I did. Unfortunately, there was little that I could do on his turn to hurt him. The other players in the game were not going to attack him since they knew it would only mean that I would put the lock on them. This continued for five consecutive turns until I finally found a way to finish him. This was not the way I ever wanted to play the game, and it was a miserable experience for him and I just felt terrible after. Mindslaver came out and was not going in here.

What Is

I'm not going to go through the list card by card, but I wanted to list a few favorites to share with you.

Tombstone Stairwell. The wall of text and the cumulative upkeep tends to send most people running but this card is an all-star. If each of your opponents have two creatures in their graveyard, they will each get two 2/2 zombies. Those zombies will die at the end of the turn and let you return six artifacts to your hand. Then on the next turn, it all happens again! You will never have an artifact in your graveyard with the Stairwell out.

Mimic Vat. The Vat is a bit of a nonbo with the deck. When you exile a creature, it doesn't go to the graveyard, so Glissa's ability doesn't work. However, getting to control opponents' creatures is great and using Glissa to get the Mimic Vat out of your graveyard creates a level of hopelessness in your opponents that makes them not bother to even try destroy the Vat.

Vedalken Orrery and Shimmer Myr. Giving my artifacts flash is crucial with this deck. Sacrifice Executioner's Capsule to kill an opponent's creature. When it dies, the Capsule returns to my hand. With Flash, I can play it on my opponent's end step as often as I have mana to cast it. This added flexibility can make this deck truly miserable to play against.

Forbidden Orchard. It isn't often that I'm eager to give an opponent a creature, but a 1/1 makes great fodder to get the deck churning. I love it when a deck takes an obvious downside on a card and turns it into all upside for you!

Grismold, the Dreadsower. This guy is a good time for all the same reasons Forbidden Orchard is fun. The deck has a ton of ways to destroy creatures, so all the tokens that die just make this 3/3 trampling Troll into a bigger and nastier threat.

Deadbridge Chant. I've tried this in other decks and it never seems to do what I want it to. In this deck, I just want it to pile a bunch of artifacts from my library into my graveyard so I can put them in my hand with Glissa. Everything else that happens with the Chant is just gravy!

The Haunt of Hightower. This vampire thrives in a deck that is excited to destroy opponents' creatures. While you need to take care, since it only grows if a card is put into the graveyard, not a token, it still absolutely crushes games. Picture this scenario. An opponent sacrifices an Evolving Wilds to get a land. The Haunt gets a +1/+1 counter. You swing with the Haunt, forcing the defending player to discard a card. The Haunt gets another +1/+1 counter. You hit for five damage and gain five life. A ten point life swing is significant and almost nothing actually happened. I'll leave you to decide if The Haunt of Hightower is any good when a Massacre Wurm enters the battlefield.

I want to thank everyone on Twitter who gave me great suggestions for the deck and encourage everyone to post other cards to consider for the deck. No one builds in a vacuum and I'd love to hear your comments and suggestions.

Bruce Richard

@manaburned