Double Down Commander

By Conley Woods

Commander has continued to grown in popularity over the past few months, and more and more local game stores have begun running Commander circuits of all varieties. The spirit of the format remains on the more casual side of Magic, but just about anything and everything can be done with it. In fact, a new variant of the format seems to be one in which a player can utilize two Commanders so long as they remain the same color(s). Recently, Devon Rule wrote about a Commander list taking advantage of this variant for GatheringMagic.com.


Both are interchangeable commanders in Devon's deck!

He decided to delve into the variant using the Golgari guild and its themes of duality: Life and Death. The original guild champion, Savra, Queen of the Golgari, has met her heir to the throne from Return to Ravnica in Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord, and together, they set up some pretty nice situations. Jarad gets to throw away your excess guys for chunks of the opponent's life total while Savra makes that trade even more worthwhile, gaining you some life and adding a little board control to the whole process.

There are plenty of Yins to the Yangs in the deck beyond just the duo of Commanders, though. For every Soul of the Harvest, there is a Harvester of Souls.For every Creakwood Ghoul, there is a Sewer Nemesis. The list is all about the graveyard, though, remaining true to both the scavenge and dredge mechanics that Golgari has offered us. Of course, if you want to play this as a traditional Commander decklist, you could just choose one of the two commanders! To read more about the decklist or this variant on Commander, check out Devon's article.

Devon Rule's Golgari Duality

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Planeswalker (1)

1 Vraska the Unseen

Creature (25)

1 Doomgape 1 Ghoultree 1 Soul of the Harvest 1 Harvester of Souls 1 Gleancrawler 1 Corpse Harvester 1 Creakwood Ghoul 1 Golgari Grave-Troll 1 Acidic Slime 1 Mitotic Slime 1 Necrotic Ooze 1 Sewer Nemesis 1 Creakwood Liege 1 Deadbridge Goliath 1 Corpsejack Menace 1 Graveborn Muse 1 Lord of the Undead 1 Fleshbag Marauder 1 Stinkweed Imp 1 Golgari Guildmage 1 Korozda Guildmage 1 Scavenging Ooze 1 Gatecreeper Vine 1 Gravecrawler 1 Wall of Roots

Sorcery (10)

1 Worm Harvest 1 Living Death 1 Jarad's Orders 1 Vigor Mortis 1 Life // Death 1 Life from the Loam 1 Grim Flowering 1 Life's Finale 1 Plague Wind 1 Cultivate

Instant (10)

1 Grisly Salvage 1 Reclaim 1 Cruel Revival 1 Feast or Famine 1 Golgari Charm 1 Rending Vines 1 Crushing Vines 1 Putrefy 1 Abrupt Decay 1 Sprouting Vines

Artifact (4)

1 Birthing Pod 1 Plague Boiler 1 Golgari Keyrune 1 Golgari Signet

Enchantment (12)

1 Gutter Grime 1 Ooze Garden 1 Golgari Germination 1 Necrogenesis 1 Greater Good 1 Foster 1 Fecundity 1 Call to the Grave 1 Grave Pact 1 Attrition 1 Perilous Forays 1 Carpet of Flowers

Land (36)

1 Golgari Guildgate 1 Golgari Rot Farm 1 Overgrown Tomb 1 Verdant Catacombs 1 Woodland Cemetery 1 Twilight Mire 1 Tainted Wood 1 Mosswort Bridge 1 Bojuka Bog 1 Dakmor Salvage 1 Spawning Pool 1 Crypt of Agadeem 1 Grim Backwoods 1 Svogthos, the Restless Tomb 1 Unholy Grotto 1 City of Shadows 1 Barren Moor 1 Polluted Mire 1 Tranquil Thicket 1 Slippery Karst 8 Forest 8 Swamp

98 Cards