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Golgari midrange was a formidable deck prior to the release of the Bloomburrow set and the rotation of four sets that came along with it. Miraculously, the rotation of these sets took virtually nothing from the pre-rotation deck. In addition, Bloomburrow added a handful of cards that have taken the deck’s power to the next level.
Though the newMagic: The GatheringStandard format is still in its fledgling days, Golgari Midrange has emerged as a frontrunner in the post-rotation metagame. This is thanks in no small part to a sneaky combo that allows the deck to win games out of nowhere. Introductions aside, let’s take a closer look at the midrange deck turning players' heads.
4 Sentinel of the Nameless City
1 Gix’s Command
Key Cards
The core strategy of Golgari Midrange is tooutvalue the opponent’s deck and bury them with your card advantage. Thanks to discard spells, value centric creatures, endless counters, and a powerful planeswalker at the top of your curve, it will be difficult for all but the most controlling of decks to keep up with the amount of resources Golgari Midrange generates.
Deep-Cavern Bat / Thought-Stalker Warlock
These are the deck’s answers to any problem card you might encounter. Forcing your opponent to discard their most powerful cards or synergistic cards they are trying to set up is not only excruciatingly annoying for the opponent. It’s a great way to make winning the game as easy as stealing candy from a baby.
If you draw multiples of these cardsit can be good totake the removal out of an opponent’s handso that they can’t get the card you steal with Deep-Cavern Bat back until they top deck more removal. Furthermore, keep in mind that the Thought-Stalker Warlock is much better after the opponent has lost life the turn you play it.
Deep-Cavern Bat usually only plays as temporary removalfor the card it steals. Consequently, make sure touse Thought-Stalker on cards you really don’t want your opponent to playwhenever possible.
Mosswood Dreadknight / Sentinel Of The Nameless City
Your bread and butter threats. The nice thing about each of these cards is thatboth creatures represent card advantagein one form or another.Dreadknight can draw you a cardusing its adventure side, andSentinel removes landsfrom the top of your deck with its map tokens.
The map token counters can be especially good on your Dreadknight thanks to its trample keyword.Map tokenscan also beuseful in enhancing your other legendary creature cardsGlissa Sunslayer and Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal. Depending on the matchup, either of these creatures with a few map token counters can be pivotal to ensuring your victory.
Innkeeper’s Talent
This is the Bloomburrow addition that is taking Golgari Midrange to the next level.Additional counters, ward 1, and a mana sink for even more counters make every creature in this decka potentially game-winning threat.
On top of these amazing benefits,Innkeeper’s Talent alsoprovides a combo winthrough Vraska.If Innkeeper’s Talent is at level 3 when you play Vraska, she enters with 12 loyalty counters: enough to ultimate her immediately and put 18 poison counters on the opponent, which wins you the game.
The way this works is thepoison counters Vraska puts on the opponent are also doubled by Innkeeper’s Talent. Instead of receiving the typical nine poison counters, your opponent gets eighteen, which is many more than the ten poison counters required to kill an opponent.
Vraska, Betrayal’s Sting
Aside from the cheeky combo win, Vraska works well with this deck becauseher proliferate loyalty abilitywill hit the counters your creatures already havefrom map tokens and Innkeeper’s Talent. She also provides up tothree instances of removalwith her -2 ability, which should be more than enough to churn through whatever creature threats your opponent presents.
Planeswalkers are always at their best when every loyalty ability they have is potentially useful. Thanks to Innkeeper’s Talent, Vraska checks this box.
While arguably the best card in the deck, Vraskacan also be the most difficult to properly use. Sometimes, it will be better touse her proliferate ability to draw additional cards, even when an opponent has a threatening creature on the board.
Other times, you’ll want tohold onto your Vraska to try and go for a combo win. Identifying how to use your Vraska depending on the game state will separate the best Golgari Midrange players from the rest.
How To Play Golgari Midrange
You’ll start the game bygetting on the board with your Dreadknights and Batsorremoving your opponent’s initial threatswith Cut Down or Go For The Throat if you find yourself against an aggressive deck.
Ideally, you’ll onlyplay Innkeeper’s Talent once you already have a creatureon the board so that you can immediately get value out of the counter it provides when you go to combat.
In the mid-game, you’ll continue to develop your board with Sentinels, Glissa, and Innkeeper’s Talent triggers while deciding between using your map tokens and Dreadknight adventures forcard advantageor removing creatures important to your opponent’s strategy.This is also where you’ll typicallyfind out whether you are the aggressor or defenderin the matchup.
One of the hardest elements of playing a midrange deck is correctly calling what role your deck fulfills in the matchup. Sometimes, you’ll need to aggro the opponent down before their more powerful cards can take over the game.
Other times, you’ll need to stem the tide against aggressive decks so that your own cards can overwhelm them. Pay attention to who is the beatdown.
If you find yourself against an aggressive deck, keep in mind that Aclazotz is here to help with its lifelink keyword.Always attack with Aclazotz if you canto ensure you are gaining life when you are against an aggressive opponent. In the case that you’re defending, Vraska can easily put you ahead on cards and the board using her 0 and -2 loyalty abilities.
In the late game, you’ll eithertry to pull ahead in cards using a combination of Vraska, map tokens from Sentinel, the adventure side of Dreadknight, and Aclazotz’s discard triggers, or look for an opportunity to combo by playing Vraska with a level 3 Innkeeper’s Talent on board and ultimate her to instantly win the game.
Yourlands are also a crucial resourcein games of attrition. Restless Cottage can serve as an extra attacker that exiles important cards from the opponent’s graveyard. Demolition Field can color starve decks like Domain Ramp.
Finally, Fountainport serves as an extra draw engine as it allows you to sacrifice map tokens, or tokens it has generated itself, to draw cards
Sideboarding
Like most greatly synergistic decks, Golgari Midrange only has so many cards you may sideboard out of the deck.If you take the wrong cards out, the synergy of your deck becomes too inconsistent. All of the key cards mentioned above are cards that you’ll generally want to avoid sideboarding out against just about any opponent.
When playing againstaggressive decks,you’ll want to bring in your copies ofChoking Miasmaas well asGix’s Commandthanks to its lifelink mode.
In most cases, you’ll want to take out one copy ofDuressand threeThought-Stalker Warlocksas they are poor blockers. You also need your creatures on defense, so it’s unlikely you will trigger Thought-Stalker’s choose clause.
If you’re up against anopposingmidrange deck,Liliana of the Veilwill diversify your threats and provide a method by which you’re able to win the card advantage war. Your one copy ofDuressand yourCut Downsare typically good cards to trade out for her. Removal usually ends up costing more than it’s worth in these matchups as most cards provide more value than a single trade.
As far ascontrol decksare concerned,bring in the rest of yourDuresscopies as well asBlot Out.Take outCut Downas well as a couple of yourDeep-Cavern Bats.
While Bat is still good against control, these games go so long that it’s likely the Bats you play will eventually be removed. Consequently, they are less powerful.
Finally,Tranquil Frillbackacts as a silver bullet in themirror(against other Golgari Midrange deck) as well as against hyper aggressive decks, decks withpowerful artifactsor enchantments, and graveyard recursion decks. You will find yourself bringing in this card less frequently, however, it will be very good when you do.
Final Thoughts
Golgari Midrange is the first of what will likely be many midrange decks to come in the post-rotation Standard metagame.Its hybrid identity as both a midrange deck and a combo deckallows it to attack from multiple angles that make it difficult for many decks to defend from.
Furthermore, the excessive number of hand removal spells it has access to allow you to sculpt the game in the direction of your choosing. All of that being said, this is far from an easy deck to pilot,as you will make many important decisions throughout a match. It’s best to get your repetitions in now, as it’s hard to see Golgari Midrange going anywhere any time soon.
