The 33 Best Golgari Cards in Magic Ranked

Last updated on February 28, 2024

Yargle and Multani | Illustration by Slawomir Maniak

Splashing colors together in Magic decks is like making witch’s brew. Cue in Tempting Witch with her “delicious” looking apple giving off Evil Queen vibes when she turned into an old lady to tempt Snow White with the poisoned apple.

However, Tempting Witch only encompasses half of the color identity of Golgari () cards, which are black and green. Let’s rank some of the best Golgari cards in Magic, discover their thematic synergies, and generate gruesome deck building ideas with their wicked ways of reaching win conditions. Put down those poisoned apples and get ready for a great Golgari treat!

What Are Golgari Cards in MTG?

Revival Experiment | Illustration by Jeremy Wilson

Golgari cards have a green and black color identity and encompass the Golgari guild from Ravnica: City of Guilds. Many Golgari creatures have evergreen abilities like regeneration, reach, deathtouch, and aristocratic effects of losing and gaining life.

Golgari instant and sorcery cards destroy permanents, gain you life, and make opponents lose life. Some even return cards from your graveyard to your hand or the battlefield. The best themes for Golgari based decks are a mix of lifegain, sacrifice, and even sometimes Voltron, depending on a Golgari creature’s abilities.

#33. Destined // Lead

Destined // Lead is one of the Magic cards with the aftermath mechanic that can get you out of a bind and protect your best creature from targeted removal with the Destined side.

The Lead portion is best for a Golgari Voltron themed deck where you can kill your opponent’s creatures in one shot by making them all block this large creature. Skullbriar, the Walking Grave and Yargle and Multani can make great Golgari Voltron commanders.

#32. Greta, Sweettooth Scourge

Greta, Sweettooth Scourge is best run as a Food token themed Golgari sacrifice deck with staples including Peregrin Took, Gilded Goose, and Savvy Hunter, and Experimental Confectioner. Integrate other Food token generating staples from Throne of Eldraine and Wilds of Eldraine for the most synergy. Drain opponent’s life with Mirkwood Bats as you create Food tokens or sacrifice them to Greta’s mana ability.

#31. Casualties of War

Casualties of War isn’t a complete board wipe, but this 6-drop sorcery originally from War of the Spark can potentially take your opponent’s best permanents. Are you tired of an opponent’s card draw engine with Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim, Rhystic Study, Reliquary Tower, Laboratory Maniac, and Midnight Clock? Cast Casualties of War to destroy them all. Don’t worry, blue players. We still love you and your milling shenanigans!

#30. Revival Experiment

Revival Experiment helps you utilize your life points as a resource to get your best deck staples back from your graveyard to the battlefield. You have the potential of returning one each of an artifact, creature, land, and enchantment spell since these are valid permanents that you can revive.

Send your commander to the graveyard if you can’t save it from removal. Cast Revival Experiment to return your commander without having to pay commander tax and a land, enchantment, and artifact without having to pay mana cost from the graveyard to the battlefield.

#29. Abrupt Decay

Are you looking for a Golgari spell that can’t be countered? Enter Abrupt Decay that can destroy a 3 or less mana value card. Hinder an opponent’s ramp by removing their Sol Ring or Jeweled Lotus early in the game. Especially if your opponent has a 3- to 4-drop commander, you can set them back a few turns by casting Abrupt Decay at instant speed before they get their commander out.

#28. Mortality Spear

It’s easy to gain life in a Golgari deck, so you can more than likely cast Mortality Spear for a black and green mana rather than paying 4 total mana. Have Doomgape out and enough creatures to sacrifice on your every upkeep to guarantee lifegain. Being able to cast this at instant speed is great for interaction when an opponent attacks with a problem creature or activates the ability of an artifact or enchantment that’s causing too many shenanigans on their side of the field.

#27. Garruk Relentless / Garruk, the Veil-Cursed

Build your board with Wolf tokens to get enough blockers up when you cast Garruk Relentless. When you’re ready for the planeswalker to transform to Garruk, the Veil-Cursed, its ability to self-inflict damage to itself after throwing 3 damage at a creature triggers the transformation.

Mill enough cards into your graveyard with Nyx Weaver and Kagha, Shadow Archdruid to use Garruk, the Veil-Cursed’s ability to swing in for the win.

#26. Deathrite Shaman

Deathrite Shaman offers so much utility for a variety of Golgari-themed decks. Landfall decks benefit from its exile land ability to generate a mana of any color into the mana pool. Sacrifice decks benefit from the exile instant or sorcery ability to make opponents lose life, or the exile target creature ability to make you gain life.

Activate Deathrite Shaman’s lifegain ability with Dina, Soul Steeper for your opponents to lose life. Lich's Mastery can offer more card draw utility as you activate Deathrite Shaman’s lifegain ability.

#25. Pharika, God of Affliction

It’s easy to get enough devotion to black and green to be sure that Pharika, God of Affliction is considered a creature when running a Golgari deck. Since it generates Snake tokens with its mana ability after exiling a creature card from a graveyard, you can include Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons for flavor. Pump these Snake tokens with Blex, Vexing Pest.

#24. Gyome, Master Chef

Gyome, Master Chef is the master, for lack of a better term, of generating Food. Have synergistic low-mana creatures of 3 or less enter the battlefield each turn as much as possible to get more Food tokens. Gilded Goose, Tireless Provisioner, and Intrepid Trufflesnout gives you more Food tokens.

Academy Manufactor can help with card draw and ramp by creating a Clue and Treasure token for every Food token you create with Gyome, Master Chef. Get a guaranteed Food token from Gyome with Virtue of Persistence’s ability of returning a creature from graveyard to battlefield on every upkeep. Protect your best creatures from targeted removal with Gyome’s mana ability so that they’re temporarily indestructible.

#23. Garruk, Apex Predator

Garruk, Apex Predator is one of the best Garruk planeswalkers because it outright destroys another planeswalker with one of its plus abilities. Plus, you get more utility by creating Beast tokens and destroying permanents to get lifegain.

Be sure you have larger creatures if you decide to give an opponent’s creature a buff and trample with Garruk, Apex Predator’s ultimate ability. If your opponent thinks they’re swinging for the win towards you after activating Garruk’s ultimate ability, cast Return of the Wildspeaker then Heroic Intervention so that more of their creatures die than yours.

#22. Garruk, Cursed Huntsman

Garruk, Cursed Huntsman rewards you for controlling a horde of Garruk planeswalkers. As the Wolf creature tokens that it creates dies, it increases the loyalty counters by 1 on all of the Garruk planeswalkers you control, which can be up to 9 in a Golgari deck.

Increase Wolf token output with the green token doublers, Parallel Lives and Doubling Season. You have the potential getting 4 to 8 Wolf tokens per activation of Garruk, Cursed Huntsman depending on how many token doublers you control. As you increase your wolf pack as opponents keep blocking and killing them, you’ll get to the ultimate ability of all Garruk planeswalkers you control faster.

#21. Old Rutstein

Old Rutstein rewards you with a different token based on the card type that you mill on every upkeep. The potential of getting a Blood, Insect, or a Treasure token offers synergy for an all-around token deck that can take on different themes.

Take it the all-around creature token route with Chatterfang, Squirrel General and Beledros Witherbloom in the 99 of an Old Rutstein deck. Go the Treasure token route with Revel in Riches as the win condition with other Treasure token generators including Pitiless Plunderer, Old Gnawbone, and Bootleggers' Stash.

If you want more of a Blood token theme for better card draw utility, have Blood token-generating vampires like Voldaren Bloodcaster and Falkenrath Forebear in the 99.

#20. Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest

Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest is almost like Ravenous Squirrel, which pumps itself when sacrificing creatures or artifacts. However, this card is even better in that it pumps itself and other creatures you control on the battlefield no matter what permanent is sacrificed. Opponents sacrificing permanents benefit your creatures, too.

Enter Tergrid, God of Fright, which is like your secret commander for this deck. When you force your opponents to sacrifice their best creatures with spells like Clue and Clue, Tergrid, God of Fright snags them from their graveyard to place them on the battlefield under your control.

#19. Glissa, the Traitor

Glissa, the Traitor gives you benefits as you kill off your opponent’s creatures by returning an artifact from your graveyard to your hand. Run an artifact heavy deck with many destruction and mill spells to get the most triggers.

Acolyte of Affliction and Witherbloom Command gets artifacts into your graveyard. Deathsprout and Putrefy destroys your opponent’s creatures so that you can return one of those milled artifacts to your hand.

Cast Mortal Combat when enough artifact creature cards are in your graveyard to win the game. Flawless victory!

#18. Dina, Soul Steeper

Dina, Soul Steeper does well as the commander of a Golgari deck with themes of lifegain, sacrifice, and Voltron. Generate creature tokens to easily sacrifice and buff Dina, Soul Steeper with Chatterfang, Squirrel General, Beledros Witherbloom, and Skeletal Swarming to swing for the win. Give the creature trample with Loxodon Warhammer to guarantee combat damage.

Cast Gray Merchant of Asphodel with Dina, Soul Steeper on the field for your opponent to lose double the life equal to your devotion to black because they’ll lose additional life from Dina’s ability. Combo off with Exquisite Blood to gain infinite life as your opponent loses infinite life.

#17. Izoni, Thousand-Eyed

Izoni, Thousand-Eyed is the type of commander that you wait to cast later in the game to get more Insect creature tokens equivalent to the creature cards in your graveyard when cast. Have a creature heavy deck with synergistic cards like Skull Prophet, Fetch Quest, and Glowspore Shaman that help you to mill other creature cards into the graveyard.

#16. Grist, the Hunger Tide

Grist, the Hunger Tide thrives in an insect typal deck because it can increase its loyalty counters for every insect creature that’s milled into your graveyard with its +1 ability. Scute Swarm, Hornet Nest, and Scute Mob are auto-includes.

Because you’ll have many insect creature cards in your graveyard, you can dock your opponent’s life total for how many are there with the planeswalker’s ultimate ability. If you need any of these insect creatures back, you can return them all with the ultimate ability of Liliana, Death Wielder.

#15. Pernicious Deed

Pernicious Deed is a powerful Golgari card that board wipes creatures, artifacts, and enchantment equivalent to X or less. Especially with any decks that are heavy in any of these categories, you can hinder opponents from achieving deck synergy by having this board wipe in your arsenal.

Make sure it’s a one-sided board wipe to save your permanents. Cast Heroic Intervention on the stack after activating Pernicious Deed’s sacrifice ability.

#14. Ravenous Squirrel

In a Golgari sacrifice deck, Ravenous Squirrel gets large quickly as you build a larger sacrifice outlet engine. Chatterfang, Squirrel General’s squirrel sacrifice ability to remove opponent’s creatures pump Ravenous Squirrel by +1/+1 for each Squirrel token sacrificed.

#13. Treasured Find

Treasured Find from Return to Ravnica should be an auto-include for every Golgari deck because you can return any card from the graveyard to your hand. You aren’t limited to nonland cards, enchantments, or artifacts like other tutor cards in Magic’s history.

If you have this in your hand when your commander is removed, you can send it to the graveyard instead of the command zone. Then, cast Treasured Find to bypass commander tax.

#12. Assassin’s Trophy

Assassin's Trophy is a bit of a group hug type of Golgari removal card and is another card on this list that should go into any Golgari deck. You can destroy an opponent’s target permanent, and your opponent gets a land in return if they want to search for one. Even though you help to benefit a landfall player, this hinders them for a little bit if you at least kill off their Scute Swarm.

#11. Creakwood Liege

Creakwood Liege should go into every Golgari deck because it buffs green creatures and black creatures by +1/+1. If any of your creatures are green and black, they get a +2/+2 buff.
Whether you’re running a token deck or not, receiving a Worm token on every upkeep can ensure you always have a blocker up if you’re having trouble drawing more creature cards early in the game. The token generation on every upkeep can trigger Chatterfang, Squirrel General to also give you a Squirrel token on each upkeep, too.

#10. Chatterfang, Squirrel General

Chatterfang, Squirrel General is a mass producer of Squirrel tokens. Whether you make another creature token or a Food, Blood, or Clue token, you get an extra Squirrel with each token you make.

Double your Squirrel token output with Parallel Lives and Doubling Season. Glimmer Bairn can be a secret win condition as you generate double the tokens with these cards so you can sacrifice all of them to pump up Glimmer Bairn by +2/+2 for each one sacrificed.

If you sacrifice Squirrel tokens while Pitiless Plunderer is on the battlefield, you’ll replace them with Treasure tokens equivalent to the quantity of creatures dying.

Speaking of Treasure tokens, another secret win condition could be Revel in Riches. Generate enough of them with Tireless Provisioner and Bootleggers' Stash which also gives you extra Squirrels in the process.

Black Market Connections can also get you the Treasure tokens you need for this win condition. Plus, you have the option of generating 3/2 Shapeshifter tokens with changeling that also count as squirrels that can be sacrificed to Chatterfang’s mana ability.

#9. Chevill, Bane of Monsters

Chevill, Bane of Monsters can be the bane of an opponent’s existence as you place bounty counters on creatures and force them to sacrifice the creature for lifegain and card draw. Force opponents to destroy those creatures with bounty counters with spells like Maelstrom Pulse and Price of Fame. Harvester of Souls and Deathreap Ritual as these creatures with bounty counters die.

#8. Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons

Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons is the powerful distributor of -1/-1 counters on creatures as it deals combat damage. The more -1/-1 counters you place on creatures, the more Snake tokens with deathtouch that are produced.

Double the -1/-1 counters placed on a creature with Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider. Obelisk Spider allows opponents to lose 1 life as you gain 1 life whenever a negative counter is placed on a creature, which would synergize well with Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons.

#7. Beledros Witherbloom

Beledros Witherbloom from Strixhaven: School of Mages has everything that a Golgari token sacrifice deck wants: tokens on every upkeep and a pay life ability that can untap all your lands. Plus, the Pest tokens gain you a life point when they die if you need to use them as chump blockers.

Dina, Soul Steeper and Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose cause your opponents to lose life as you gain life from the Pest tokens dying. Hence, it’ll cause your opponents to think twice about attacking you.

#6. Fiend Artisan

Fiend Artisan may only be a 1/1 nightmare creature, but it packs a punch as more creature cards get into your graveyard. Increase your creature count in the graveyard quickly while utilizing your mana resources effectively by casting artifact creature cards with 0 to 2 mana costs.

Memnite, Shield Sphere, Myr Mindservant, and Cyberman Patrol are creature examples that can be quickly cast. Doing so saves mana for Fiend Artisan’s mana ability to search for higher mana-cost Golgari creatures like Underrealm Lich and The Gitrog Monster.

#5. Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord

Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord gets around commander tax because of its land sacrifice ability to return it from graveyard to hand if it’s removed. Have cards like Virtue of Persistence that can return your creatures from graveyard to battlefield constantly so you always have something to sacrifice to drain your opponent’s life total.

Increase Jarad’s power by 2 at least every turn with Skull Prophet on the field. For deck flavor and utility, don’t forget Jarad's Orders to fetch your best creatures and put them in your hand if you have been having trouble drawing them on your upkeep.

#4. The Gitrog Monster

The Gitrog Monster requires you to have many lands in your arsenal because you have to sacrifice it if you don’t have a land to sacrifice on every upkeep. Incorporate lots of ramp spells like Cultivate,  Harrow, and Three Visits.

Get your lands out fast with Azusa, Lost but Seeking. Don’t forget landfall cards like Kazandu Mammoth and Primeval Bounty for additional buffs, creature creation, and lifegain perks.

#3. Lathril, Blade of the Elves

Lathril, Blade of the Elves is best run as a Voltron token-themed Commander deck because it can create more Elf tokens the stronger it gets.

It only takes a minimum of 4 activations in a Commander game to deplete an opponent’s life total with its second ability. Expedite how fast you can decrease an opponent’s life total with cards that can untap Lathril, Blade of the Elves for additional activations on each turn like Saryth, the Viper's Fang and Wirewood Symbiote.

However, you must incorporate lifegain elements to stay above water when utilizing this card’s second ability because your life points are affected when activating the ability, too. Golgari lifegain greats like Moldervine Reclamation and Swarm Guildmage can help you stay on top of your life total.

#2. Vraska, Golgari Queen

Vraska, Golgari Queen is one of the quintessential Golgari planeswalkers, allowing you benefits when you sacrifice a permanent and helping you to destroy opponent’s permanents. The planewalker’s ultimate ability can best be utilized in a Golgari Voltron and sacrifice deck alongside synergistic commanders like Dina, Soul Steeper and Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest.

#1. Yargle and Multani

Yargle and Multani take the cake for the best Golgari card in Magic.

A deck with this card as the commander can go many different ways like Golgari sacrifice, land, Voltron, and graveyard themes. Incorporate The Gitrog Monster and Lotus Cobra for a Golgari landfall theme. Gyome, Master Chef and Savvy Hunter can work great for a Food token sacrifice theme.

Old Stickfingers complements a Golgari graveyard theme alongside Yargle and Multani. If you want to take it down Voltron avenue, bulk the creature with artifacts like Swiftfoot Boots and Loxodon Warhammer and enchantment auras like Gift of the Deity and Ancestral Mask.

Best Golgari Card Payoffs

There are many Golgari card payoffs that can benefit your deck build. Creakwood Liege supports your deck substantially if all your creatures are black and green so that they are buffed by +2/+2.

Savra, Queen of the Golgari can reward you substantially as long as your creatures are both black and green. You gain 2 life (green) and pay 2 life (black) so another player sacrifices a creature. There won’t be any life loss for you because the lifegain from the creature also being green balances it out.

Baba Lysaga, Night Witch gets you the most Golgari-based benefits when sacrificing three permanents to gain you life, cause your opponents to lose life, and for you to get the card draw you need. While most Golgari cards allow you to gain 1 life as opponents lose 1 life, Baba Lysaga takes it to an elevated level with its abilities.

Scion of Draco can give your creatures lifelink if they’re black and trample if they’re green. Speaking of lifelink, Golgari decks utilizing Pest creature tokens that debuted in Strixhaven: School of Mages benefit from lifegain as they die on the battlefield whether by being chunk blockers or to a Golgari card’s sacrifice ability.

Golgari Charm can help you regenerate creatures that you sacrificed during that turn to get them back immediately for what you need. Filter your mana with Golgari Signet. As long as you sacrifice a nontoken creature, you get a Saproling off of Golgari Germination.

What Is Golgari Good at in MTG?

Golgari is good at sacrificing creatures for added benefits in your play strategy. For example, Chatterfang, Squirrel General sacrifices Squirrel tokens to help you do targeted removal on opponent’s creatures. Sacrificing creatures can also help you with life gain and card draw like with Izoni, Thousand-Eyed and Ravenous Squirrel’s ability.

Wrap Up

The Gitrog Monster | Illustration by Jason Kang

Golgari cards are all about the balance of lifegain and life loss for you and your opponents as you sacrifice creatures for added benefits to reach your win condition. Before you know it, your opponents are losing so much life as you gain it and continue to sacrifice permanents for those benefits.
Golgari cards are black and green cards in Magic with special effects as life gain, life loss, sacrifice abilities, and regeneration abilities.

Now that you know more about them, are you ready to build a Golgari deck? Check out deck guides on the Draftsim blog and watch out for more content updates on the Draftsim Facebook page.

Until next time, look around your collection and LGS for all the gruesome Golgari gifts that Magic has to offer!