Welcome Мagic lovers!
Ah, Golgari midrange, the deck known in years past as the 'Rock' for its plodding, grindy yet inexorable gameplay, has floated in and out of Tier 1 in Standard for months now. Its latest reincarnation began with the printing of Mosswood Dreadknight in Wilds of Eldraine, followed by Deep-Cavern Bat in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, which suddenly gave the deck the foundation it lacked, creating space for other, powerful black and green midrange creatures that weren't seeing any play, like Glissa Sunslayer, to thrive.
However, it was a tumultuous ride for Golgari Midrange during the last Standard Regional Qualifier Championship season earlier this year, when its archnemesis, Domain Ramp, made up nearly 20% of the metagame. Golgari's poor matchup against Domain meant that, despite having a solid matchup against the aggressive decks and an acceptable win rate against control, Glissa and company languished in Tier 2, struggling to keep up with the 5-color ramp menace. Only 2.4% of the field at Pro Tour Outlaws of Thunder Junction opted to sleeve up Golgari, despite new tools like Caustic Bronco being great additions to the deck, and now with Bloomburrow and the Standard rotation having changed the landscape yet again, the Rock deck is well-positioned once again.
The Tech
This is due in no small part to one of the new, powerhouse enchantments in Bloomburrow, Innkeeper's Talent.
This insanely potent level-up card is injecting new life into Golgari, as it's a difficult-to-interact-with engine that fills so many roles in the deck that it almost seems like it was designed specifically for this shell.
For only two mana, it sits on the battlefield and passively provides a steady stream of +1/+1 counters for all of the small creatures in the deck, of which there are many. Caustic Bronco can suddenly attack into larger and larger creatures with impunity, in order to keep the gas flowing. Deep-Cavern Bat having lifelink means the steady drip of increasing power and toughness makes it impossible to race, as it will be padding its controller's life while taking larger and larger chunks out of the opponent's. Mosswood Dreadknight is already a creature that one doesn't mind throwing into combat so that it can die and be recast from the graveyard, which incentivizes opposing players to not kill it. However, having trample means that if it gets continually pumped by Innkeeper's Talent, it can't be effectively chump-blocked with small creatures and therefore must be dealt with via cards in the opposing player's hand, forcing them to spend resources while the Dreadknight keeps drawing more action for its controller.
The second stage of Innkeeper's Talent is only one mana to activate, but don't let its mana cost fool you. This seemingly subtle effect is extremely effective at keeping the Golgari deck's threats alive. When removal spells end up costing more than the creature they're trading with, they become much less potent, as the Golgari player can spend their mana more effectively than the opponent who is trying to kill their creatures. When opposing players are not able to kill more than one creature in a turn cycle because each one costs an additional mana to target, it quickly snowballs into an insurmount mana advantage for the Golgari deck. Setting up this cascading mana advantage for the low cost of just one green pip is criminally cheap.
However, it's the third and final level of this incredible enchantment that really brings the hammer down on unsuspecting opponents. For four mana, the Golgari pilot can level up the Innkeeper's Talent to provide an effect that many Magic players fondly refer to as the 'Doubling Season' ability, which allows one to effectively double the number of counters on a permanent or player. It doesn't care about what type of counters they may be, or what kind of permanent they are being placed on. This opens up some very interesting, and incredibly powerful, lines of play to simply steal the game outright.
Naturally, the +1/+1 counters that the Innkeeper's Talent is already providing get doubled, making every creature terrifyingly large in short order. However, that's just the tip of the iceberg.
A single copy of Bristly Bill, Spine Sower is a cute addition that is now seeing play in Golg to really capitalize on the extra +1/+1 counters, while also providing a ton of counters itself when making land drops. Ramping into a Liliana of the Veil ultimate has never been easier, as she enters the battlefield with six loyalty counters if a fully leveled-up Innkeeper's Talent is in play.
That said, the biggest haymaker the deck can muster is by running a copy or two of the forgotten Phyrexian planeswalker, Vraska, Betrayal's Sting. While Vraska hasn't seen any play in the top echelons of Standard since it was printed, it now has a very compelling reason to earn its spot in the list it can instantly win the game if it comes down with a fully upgraded Innkeeper's Talent on the board. This is because it will enter with a full twelve loyalty, allowing its pilot to immediately use Vraska's -9 ability to give the opponent nine poison counters, which the Innkeeper's Talent will double to eighteen, instantly killing them.
The Deck
This powerful 'oops, I win' button that the deck now has access to has really given Golgari a boost, enabling it to perform a lethal strike almost out of nowhere. Once an Innkeeper's Talent that's been upgraded to level three is on the battlefield, opponents must be extremely cautious about tapping out if they have counter magic. In fact, for any deck not running counterspells or Duress effects, removing the Innkeeper's Talent becomes priority number one as soon as it reaches maximum level, otherwise any top-decked Vraska becomes instantly lethal.
Now opponents have to play cautiously throughout the game by actively managing any Innkeeper's Talent that the Golgari player draws, as letting it sit in play is a slowly ticking time bomb that will inevitably end in victory for the green-black deck.
Is the printing of this one, powerful enchantment enough to keep Golgari Midrange in Standard Tier 1 going forward? Many believe that it is, so make sure to pack plenty of sideboard, or even main-deck, enchantment destruction in any Standard decks you build!
