Best Golgari Commanders – Top Picks for 2025

Golgari is all about life, death, and everything in between. Black brings the sacrifice and graveyard tricks, while green fuels growth and renewal. Together, they create decks that recycle resources, bring back key pieces, and grind out long-term value.

You might lean into a sacrifice engine, flood the board with tokens, or build a graveyard-focused control list – either way, Golgari has plenty of tools to keep your game plan going.

In this article, we’ll highlight some of the best Golgari commanders for 2025, focusing on fun, flexibility, and power across a range of strategies. From tribal Elf lords to Food-flinging spiders, these commanders offer something for every kind of green-black player.

What Makes Golgari Commanders Unique?

Golgari decks embody cyclical gameplay – where creatures die, return, multiply, or leave behind resources. This color pair is at its best when it’s playing the long game, controlling the graveyard, and finding ways to turn death into strength.

Strengths

• Elite access to graveyard recursion and death triggers
• Huge potential for token generation and sacrifice-based value
• Great creatures at all points on the mana curve
• Efficient removal and grindy board presence

Weaknesses

• Can be reliant on the graveyard – vulnerable to grave hate
• Sometimes slower to develop if engines are disrupted
• Often struggles with flying threats or spell-heavy decks

Common Archetypes

• Graveyard & Recursion Engines
• Tokens, Go-Wide, and Tribal Swarm
• Aristocrats & Sacrifice
• Big-Stompy Midrange
• Wither, Infect, and Counter-based Decks

Graveyard Recursion & Death Triggers – Turning the Dead into Value Engines

Golgari is famous for treating the graveyard like a second hand – and sometimes a second battlefield. These commanders shine when creatures are dying, returning, or being milled into the graveyard on purpose. With each death, these decks grow stronger, more threatening, and harder to stop.

If you love resilient decks that grind value over time, loop threats, or drain the table through attrition, these are your go-to Golgari commanders.

Meren of Clan Nel Toth – Best for Long-Game Value and Creature Recursion

A true classic, and still one of the best.

Meren gains experience counters whenever your creatures die. At each end step, you return a creature from your graveyard to your hand – or directly to the battlefield if your experience total is high enough. That means Meren decks never run out of threats and love to sacrifice creatures for profit.

Fleshbag Marauder, Sakura-Tribe Elder, and Viscera Seer all slot right in – each one helping you sacrifice, recur, and keep the value rolling. A must-play for fans of grindy, resource-rich recursion decks.

Ygra, Eater of All – Best for Food Aristocrats & Board Pressure

Turns every creature into a potential snack.

Ygra makes all other creatures Foods with the ability to be sacrificed for life, and punishes opponents trying to remove her by forcing them to sacrifice a Food — often one of their own creatures. She grows with +1/+1 counters whenever any Food is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, making her an ever-expanding threat in the right deck.

Perfect for players who enjoy artifact sacrifice synergies and scaling threats that can dominate combat as the game progresses.

Shelob, Child of Ungoliant – Best for Graveyard Denial and Token Engines

Crawl through webs and come out with treasure.

Shelob exiles creatures that spiders you control kill and turns them into Food tokens with activated abilities of the exiled creature – essentially giving you a token version of what it devoured. Combined with deathtouch and ward, Shelob is a powerful removal commander that denies recursion while gaining you advantage.

She’s especially nasty in metas with graveyard recursion and value creatures – a flavorful and deadly pick for control-oriented players.

The Mycotyrant – Best for Descend & Fungus/Saproling Swarm

Rot brings growth in this fungal empire.

The Mycotyrant’s power and toughness match your total number of Fungi and/or Saprolings, and at your end step you create X 1/1 Fungus tokens (that can’t block), where X is the number of times you descended that turn. Tokens don’t count for descend, so you’ll want self-mill, fetchlands, and sacrifice effects to fill your graveyard with permanents.

Great for players who love overwhelming the board with tokens and turning a well-stocked graveyard into a game-ending swarm.

The Gitrog Monster – Best for Lands-in-Graveyard Combos

A hungry frog with a taste for lands.

The Gitrog Monster lets you draw cards when lands hit the graveyard – and forces you to sacrifice one every upkeep. Combined with cycling lands, fetchlands, and self-mill effects, Gitrog quickly becomes a card-drawing machine with scary combo potential.

One of the most popular and potent graveyard commanders in Golgari – especially for players who enjoy land loops, dredge, and deep synergy.

Tokens & Go-Wide Strategies – Swarming the Board with Creeping Armies

Golgari may be a graveyard powerhouse, but it also excels at creating massive token boards. Whether it’s through Elves, Squirrels, Insects, or -1/-1 counter synergies, these commanders go wide – and fast. With the right support, they overwhelm the table through sheer numbers, death triggers, and explosive payoffs.

If you enjoy building a board full of creatures, turning tokens into value, or winning with a horde, these commanders are your swarm squad.

Lathril, Blade of the Elves – Best for Elf Token Swarms

The queen of the Elfball.

Lathril creates 1/1 Elf tokens whenever she deals combat damage, and once you control ten or more Elves, you can tap them to make each opponent lose 10 life while you gain 10. That gives her a clear win condition and a highly synergistic token strategy.

She’s efficient, aggressive, and perfect for players who love tribal decks, go-wide payoffs, and life drain finishers.

Chatterfang, Squirrel General – Best for Token Multiplication Mayhem

Make a token? Make a Squirrel too.

Chatterfang gives you a 1/1 Squirrel token every time you create another token – turning treasures, clues, food, or creature tokens into an ever-growing squirrel army. Plus, he can sacrifice Squirrels to give creatures +X/-X, making him both aggressive and removal-ready.

Whether you’re building tokens for value or just want to watch your opponents get swarmed by rodents, Chatterfang is chaotic, powerful, and hilarious.

Hazel of the Rootbloom – Best for Token Ramp & Copy Engines

Your tokens now work double shifts.

Hazel can tap any number of untapped tokens to generate mana of any colours, even while keeping them around for other uses. At your end step, she also copies another target token you control – and if it’s a Squirrel, you get two instead. This makes her explosive in decks with Treasure, Food, or Clue production, and even more so with token doublers.

Ideal for players who want flexible mana engines and love scaling value from token production.

Rendmaw, Creaking Nest – Best for Forced Combat & Type-Matters

Rendmaw, Creaking Nest – Best for Forced Combat & Type-Matters

Rendmaw has menace and reach, and whenever it enters or you play a card with two or more types, each player creates a tapped 2/2 Bird token with flying that’s goaded for the rest of the game. These Birds will relentlessly attack your opponents, leaving you free to profit from the chaos.

Perfect for players who enjoy forcing aggressive board states and benefiting from type-matters synergies.

Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons – Best for -1/-1 Counter Swarms

Shrinking the competition, one counter at a time.

Hapatra creates 1/1 deathtouch Snakes whenever you put -1/-1 counters on a creature. She can place a counter herself by connecting in combat, but her true strength lies in pairing with cards that distribute counters en masse. Proliferate, sweepers, and repeatable counter sources turn her into a Snake-generating machine.

A great pick for players who enjoy grinding value, controlling the board, and flooding it with deathtouch blockers.

Aristocrats & Sacrifice Value – Draining Life and Feeding Engines

Few strategies are as Golgari as sacrificing your own board for value. These commanders excel at turning creatures, tokens, and even lands into resources – draining opponents, drawing cards, or triggering powerful effects. Whether it’s Food, treasure, or just flesh, everything is fuel in an aristocrats deck.

If you love resource loops, death triggers, and watching your board die for a good cause, these commanders are a perfect fit.

Dina, Soul Steeper – Best for Lifegain-Drain & Aristocrats

Every life you gain burns your opponents.

Whenever you gain life, Dina makes each opponent lose one life. She can also sacrifice another creature to give herself a power boost until end of turn, letting her become a surprise attacker. In decks with repeatable lifegain and plenty of fodder, she can steadily drain the table while threatening combat kills.

Best for players who want a low-cost commander that can close games through persistent incremental damage.

The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride – Best for Saddle-Sac Card Draw & Landfall

Big hits that turn into bigger boards.

This hasty, trampling Frog Horror can be saddled by a creature, and when it connects you may sacrifice that creature to draw cards equal to its power, then put that many lands from your hand onto the battlefield tapped. It’s a powerful way to refill your hand and accelerate your mana at the same time.

Great for players who love explosive land-based strategies and turning combat damage into massive resource swings.

Baba Lysaga, Night Witch – Best for Permanent-Type Sacrifice Payoffs

Old magic meets perfect sacrifice math.

Baba Lysaga lets you tap and sacrifice up to three permanents – one of each type (creature, enchantment, artifact) – to drain opponents and draw cards. She shines in decks that can feed her a mix of permanent types, turning every sacrifice into card draw and life drain.

If you like piecing together engines and getting value from every part of your board, Baba Lysaga is a great fit.

Savra, Queen of the Golgari – Best for Classic Aristocrats Fans

A throwback – but still relevant.

Savra rewards you for sacrificing black and green creatures by letting you gain life or force a sacrifice, depending on the color of the sacrificed creature. She shines in token decks, graveyard recursion builds, and any shell with lots of things to feed to the altar.

A budget-friendly and effective pick for traditional aristocrats decks.

Big Creatures & Midrange Stompy – Crushing the Table with Raw Power

Not every Golgari deck needs to play the long game. Sometimes, you just want to slam a giant creature, swing with trample, and let your threats speak for themselves. These kinds of decks still love graveyard value, but they lean more into raw stats and combat dominance.

If you prefer smashing face over subtlety, this one’s for you.

Agent Frank Horrigan – Best for Indestructible Stompy Aggro

Eight power. Six toughness. Trample. Indestructible. Ready to brawl.

Agent Frank Horrigan is a massive 8/6 with trample and conditional indestructibility – it only gains this keyword if it has attacked this turn. That means in most cases, he’s swinging freely and smashing through defenses. As well as this, anytime he enters the battlefield or attacks, you proliferate twice, feeding into counter-based strategies nicely. With green’s ramp and black’s removal, Frank can hit the battlefield early and stay there.

He’s a flavorful choice for Fallout fans, and a simple yet effective option for anyone who wants to win with beaters, not tricks.

Other Golgari Commander Options – Unique Builds and Underrated Oddities

While Golgari is known for graveyard loops and sacrifice engines, some of its commanders march to their own strange beat. These legends bring unusual mechanics, offbeat strategies, or simply strong standalone design – perfect for brewers looking to try something different in black-green.

If you enjoy exploring corners of the color pie or surprising your table with something unexpected, these commanders offer fresh and flavorful takes.

Skullbriar, the Walking Grave – Best for Aggro & Counter-Preservation

He’s fast, persistent, and impossible to keep down.

Skullbriar is a 1/1 with haste that gets +1/+1 counters whenever it deals combat damage to a player – but here’s the twist: its counters stay on even if it changes zones (including being killed or blinked). That makes it a natural fit for aggressive counter decks with plenty of recursion, +1/+1 synergies, and evasion support.

An excellent pick for players who want a voltron-style threat with recursion resilience.

Glissa Sunslayer – Best for Death-Touch Control & Modal Combat Triggers

Deadly in combat, and even deadlier in post-combat value.

Glissa has first strike and deathtouch – which makes her incredibly difficult to block profitably. When she connects with a player, you get to pick from three options – blow up an enchantment, draw a card, or strip three counters off a permanent. This makes her an excellent control piece in a value-driven Golgari shell.

Best for midrange players who love consistent incremental advantage and combat-based disruption.

The Most Dangerous Gamer – Best for Attractions & Prize Removal

The midway master who plays for keeps.

Whenever The Most Dangerous Gamer enters or attacks, you open an Attraction. Each Attraction opened gives him a +1/+1 counter, and claiming a prize lets you destroy any permanent. With consistent Attraction triggers, he grows into a serious combat threat while picking off key enemy pieces.

Ideal for players who want a quirky, high-reward build that blends Un-set fun with real removal power.

Conclusion – Why Golgari Remains a Graveyard Powerhouse in Commander

Golgari decks are all about reclaiming value from the dead – whether that’s creatures, tokens, lands, or even your opponent’s graveyard. This color pair rewards patience, synergy, and timing, offering engines that can dominate the long game or explode in moments of overwhelming advantage.

Whether you’re a fan of tokens and sacrifice, graveyard recursion, or just love turning trash into treasure, the best Golgari commanders in 2025 are as flexible as they are flavorful. From powerful staples like Meren and Gitrog, to oddballs like Chatterfang and Skullbriar, there’s no shortage of creativity in black-green.

So find your favorite, dig into your graveyard, and start brewing – because in Golgari, nothing stays dead for long.