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Grothama, The Girthy One

Commander / EDH Aggro Combo Jank Mono-Green Ramp

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Creature (30)

Instant (14)

Land (29)

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Commander (1)

Commander: Grothama, All-Devouring

Sorcery (12)

Artifact (6)

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Creature (9)

Enchantment (5)

Land (1)

Instant (3)

Sorcery (2)

Primer is WIP.

Premise

Grothama, All-Devouring is a silly card, so let's abuse it and take advantage of the fact that it's a 5-drop commander that swings for 10, can act as a single-use sac outlet, and can draw you (or a brave fool) tons of cards!

This is a deck with a lot of flexibility that provides immense pressure fairly early through our 10/8 face-beating commander. Depending on your opponents and their decks, you can also push for a combo win around turn 4-5 on average, sometimes earlier if things work out well.

This deck is not 100% competitive. It can win in some competitive pods if the wind is out of the north and you are holding your mouth right, but I wouldn't count on it. This deck is in the 75%-90% range and is looking to play against well-tuned decks. It is an adaptive hybrid combo deck that has numerous ways to either win outright or otherwise significantly advance your board state and leave your opponents in the dust.

There are so many ways to win with this deck that you are almost guaranteed to find a new one every time you play. The longer the game goes, the more likely you are to find some weird janky interaction that will make you go "Oh crap... I think I can just win right now."

Here are some of the more common lines of play:

This is the default strategy that we use when we aren't sure what other decks are at the table.

Ramp hard, swing early.

A commander swinging for 10 is a huge threat. The fact that Grothama does NOT have trample can actually be good because it encourages opponents to block. If it had trample, they could just tell themselves "Well I'm going to get hit regardless, might as well keep my creature." and then they wouldn't want to block with their creatures. In this way, Grothama can act as removal for pesky critters like Linvala, Keeper of Silence , which shuts down our mana dorks.

So, get a few lands in hand, at least one mana dork, maybe a mana rock. If you're in a high-power pod, plan on casting Grothama on turn 2 or 3, turn 4 at the latest. Also, try to have some form of a tutor in your opening hand.

If you're not in a high-power pod, then just play Grothama as mana allows and swing at the people that have blockers.

Vigor

The most fun and silly way to win (and also pretty reliable) is to have Grothama in play with a few mana dorks and then cast Vigor before going to combat. Then swing at someone with your mana dorks and Grothama, but MAKE YOUR MANA DORKS FIGHT GROTHAMA!!! Vigor prevents the damage that they would take and gives them 10+ +1/+1 counters! Suddenly Grothama and 2 mana dorks are coming in REALLY hard!

  1. Dork #1 fights Grothama: Dork #1 (was 1/1) gets 10x counters (now 11/11) and Grothama (was 10/8) gets 1x counter (now 11/9).
  2. Dork #2 fights Grothama: Dork #2 (was 1/1) gets 11x counters (now 12/12) and Grothama (was 11/9) gets 1x counter (now 12/10).
  3. Keep going with more dorks (or... as fate allows, tons of insect/squirrel tokens from cards like Broodhatch Nantuko or Druid's Call ...)

This can eliminate opponents on the spot. Depending on your dork/token count, you can straight up win the game right there.

If you've already hit your opponent with Grothama once, Grothama is now lethal via commander damage. Either way, 2 dorks and Grothama will swing for 35 (11 + 12 + 12) total damage, at least. If you get around to another combat with this on the field, the numbers go up a LOT.

  1. Dork #1 (was 11/11) gets 12x counters (now 23/23) and Grothama (was 12/10) gets 11x counters (now 23/21).
  2. Dork #2 (was 12/12) gets 23x counters (now 35/35) and Grothama (was 23/21) gets 12x counters (now 35/33).

This second swing comes out to 93 (23 + 35 + 35) total damage.

Needless to say, this is fun. Just stick Vigor onto the field and try to keep it there.

Keep in mind that, once Vigor is on the battlefield, you can't generate any more tokens with Broodhatch Nantuko or Druid's Call effects. Vigor prevents the damage entirely, so you never get the triggers. The same goes for Stuffy Doll . If Vigor is out and Stuffy Doll gets hit, it doesn't take any damage, so it can't reflect any damage.

Traditional Stompy

The deck runs several creature pumps and trample enablers like Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma and Pathbreaker Ibex . In addition, you have things like Ghalta, Primal Hunger , which you can easily drop for a measly once your battlefield is considerably... girthy.

Get 'em on the battlefield and turn 'em sideways. When you need to refill your hand, use your own attacks to fight/kill Grothama.

If you don't feel like pushing for a combo (infinite or otherwise) then just cast your critters as you get them. Use card draw tools and ramp to start goin' the way of the good ole mono-green.

Oh boy... So, for this section, I'm not going to list every single combo because there are too many layers and flexible cards. I'd end up writing a book. Instead, I'll just mention the main combos.

If you want to see a more in-depth description of the various Layered combo lines (like the 18-step combo revolving around Selvala, Tooth and Nail 12 mana, and 2 forests... or the 12-step combo with Selvala, Summoner's Pact , 14 Mana, and an 8-power-or-better creature in play...), look up the Selvala Brostorm deck.

This deck uses several of those Selvala-style combos while also slotting in some jank for fun. Again, if we were trying to actually be competitive, Selvala would be the commander and the deck would be leaner and meaner.

I'll start off by clarifying that the use of the word "infinite" is slightly inaccurate due to the requirements of MTG rules. Only a handful of things are actually "infinite". The rest of them are just "arbitrarily large". The combos in this deck fall into the second category. Thus, your stuff won't be infinite, just arbitrarily... thicc.

These are the primary combos that you will want to assemble. Depending on the game, you may need to push for a different combo/synergy, but in an unknown meta or a fresh start, these are the targets.

In general, you will be able to win the game by the time you assemble one of these. By that, I mean you will have either an outlet (like Staff of Domination , card:Duskwatch Recuiter, Greater Good , etc.) or a tutor (to go get an outlet) for your infinite mana. Depending on the combo, you can also get infinite creature ETB triggers. With Eternal Witness and Temur Sabertooth , things get really easy.

Umbral Mantle / Staff of Domination

These are the easiest combos to assemble. All you need is a mana dork that taps for at a good chunk of mana and (net, including activation costs) and either Umbral Mantle or Staff of Domination . The only real drawback for these two combos is that you don't have great ways to tutor for them. The deck only contains creature tutors, so you have to rely on card draw if you want to go for these. They are sort of the "well, I've got the piece, let's try for it" combos but they are very simple and only require two cards, one of those being the mana dork and the other being the artifact.

  1. Tap the creature for 4+ mana (net, meaning Selvala would actually have to generate 5+ because it costs to activate her).
  2. Pay to activate Umbral Mantle and untap.
  3. Go to Step 1.

This nets you infinite mana as well as a mana dork with infinite power and toughness. If you have other mana dorks that don't have summoning sickness, you can move Umbral Mantle over to them and use your infinite mana to pump them infinitely. Then just turn them sideways and punch someone really hard. Also, at that point, Ulvenwald Tracker can kill your opponent's boards, using Umbral Mantle to keep untapping him. Then the battlefield is clear to smash face.

With Staff of Domination , you need a creature that taps for at least 5 mana, net.

  1. Tap the creature for 5+ mana.
  2. Pay to activate Staff of Domination to untap the creature.
  3. Pay to untap Staff of Domination .
  4. Go to Step 1.

Obviously, at this point you have the game in hand. Just draw most of the deck and proceed with one of the kill combos discussed later.

Sabertooth Combo

This is a creature-only combo, and it can be assembled piece by piece or even all at once, depending on what you have available.

The combo assumes you have the following in play:

The combo steps are:

  1. Tap the mana dork for 5+ mana.
  2. Bounce the 1-drop elf to your hand with Wirewood Symbiote to untap your mana dork.
  3. Pay to activate Temur Sabertooth and bounce Wirewood Symbiote to your hand.
  4. Recast the 1-drop elf and Wirewood Symbiote for a total of .
  5. Go to Step 1.

You can activate Wirewood Symbiote more than once per turn because you are never actually activating the same creature more than once per turn. Each time you cast Wirewood Symbiote , the resulting creature is a new instance that has not yet been activated.

The combo is as simple as that. Once you have infinite mana and Temur Sabertooth , you can effectively have infinite ETB effects due to just casting and bouncing a creature.

Most of the time, when you get infinite mana and/or infinite creature ETB, the ways to win the game are obvious. More often than not, you can just turn a few creatures sideways with a trample enabler and beat face.

The following loops with either win the game without combat or they will render your opponents' boards effectively useless until you get the opportunity to swing on your next turn.

We will also assume that you have achieved infinite mana, the ability to draw the deck (all cards are available), and nothing has been exiled/stolen.

This is one of the only ways to guarantee a kill the turn you go off without just swinging for lethal.

Given the text on Stuffy Doll , the method for killing should be pretty obvious.

  1. Get Stuffy Doll onto the field and name an opponent.
  2. Give it haste via Swiftfoot Boots .
  3. Give it a way to untap ( Wirewood Symbiote , Umbral Mantle , bouncing Great Oak Guardian , etc.)
  4. Tap it do make it damage itself (and therefore the named player).
  5. Untap it.
  6. Repeat Steps 4 and 5 until one opponent is dead.
  7. Bounce and recast Stuffy Doll , then repeat for the next opponent.

If you can't find a way to give Stuffy Doll haste, then use Ulvenwald Tracker or Predatory Urge to have other creatures fight it.

One thing to watch out for is that you cannot have Vigor in play if you want Stuffy Doll to kill anyone. Vigor prevents the damage, so nothing gets reflected to your opponents.

So Shaman of Forgotten Ways card was a sleeper in the first few games I played with this deck. My opponents just thought I was trying to play a slightly worse Somberwald Sage , but they were wrong.

Basically, just generate 11 mana as fast as possible with 10 power on the board (i.e. a creature with sufficient girth) and then activate the Formidable ability and see what happens. I've managed to get this to go off on turn 3 before with the fancier lands and a mana rock or two, Grothama, and a good mana dork, but you shouldn't expect to be able to activate this before turn 4. Depending on your opponents' boards, this may still kill them outright. It will definitely make the game... interesting, so use it with caution.

Regarding how to guarantee a win, just make sure you destroy your opponents' boards with Beast Within loops and then fight loops via Ulvenwald Tracker , Predatory Urge , or Somberwald Stag to clear the creature tokens. Then activate Shaman of Forgotten Ways .

Bouncing and recasting Eternal Witness with Temur Sabertooth can return anything you cast from your graveyard to your hand.

Another method (if Eternal Witness or Temur Sabertooth aren't available) is to use Primal Command to shuffle your graveyard into your library after casting the spell you want to loop. Then start drawing the deck again until you get the spell, then cast it. Draw more as needed to get Primal Command again and then repeat.

Looping Primal Command itself isn't as straightforward, but it's not overly complicated. After using Primal Command to shuffle your graveyard into your library, it will be in your graveyard by itself. You can potentially use Eternal Witness to get it back, but you can also use Noxious Revival or Regrowth since you have infinite mana by now.

With Finale of Devastation being a tutor, pump, and haste enabler, winning with this card via infinite mana and a recursion loop (or even just a single cast depending on your board state) should be fairly intuitive.

Since we don't have access to Assassin's Trophy in this deck due to color restrictions, we have to settle for Beast Within , Duplicant , Somberwald Stag , or Primal Command to clear the board. The only trick is figuring out how to cast the card over and over again.

If your opponents have hexproof creatures/permanents, then you can use Bane of Progress as-needed. No guarantees that it will really help much, but the option is there.

If Beast Within isn't available, or if you can't deal with the subsequent tokens, then you can use Duplicant (or an infinite fight combo) on the creatures and Primal Command on everything else.

If you still can't clear everything on the board for whatever reason, then you will just have to figure out how to deal with it. Like I've said before, this deck is supposed to be good, but not top-tier. Top-tier decks will also have mill combos, boardwipes, or global haste enablers to help close out the game.

This is a silly way to kill someone with Grothama's card draw ability. If they have an indestructible creature (maybe on their own, or maybe because you cast Withstand Death on their creature) and if you are able to regenerate Grothama (or if it is also indestructible or if you can just recast it with infinite mana), you can use an infinite fight combo (via untap effects and Predatory Urge , Ulvenwald Tracker , etc.) to make their creature fight Grothama over and over again. Once they have done a ton of damage to The Girthy One, just bounce it back to your hand with Temur Sabertooth or kill/sac it with something like Natural Order or Greater Good . When Grothama leaves the battlefield, there will be a trigger on the stack for each player to draw a number of cards equal to the amount of damage their sources dealt to Grothama this turn. This will probably kill them.

Just make sure your own sources didn't do too much damage to Grothama or you might also die.

Why not play Selvala or Yisan?

These two decks are extremely strong, and, when built competitively, far out-class this one. I'm not holding onto some secret formula or something. As you continue to improve speed and/or consistency in mono-green EDH, and as you continue to trim the fat and get more cutthroat with your card choices and your game strategy, you will arrive at either Selvala or Yisan.

Selvala is a fast combo deck that is focused on landing Selvala and winning the following turn. The deck often kills on turn 3 or 4 if there is nothing out to stop it and its primary telegraphed action is just casting Selvala.

It doesn't rely on building too much of a board state and tends to win out of nowhere (if you consider an untapped Selvala without summoning sickness "nowhere") in a single turn.

The deck is commonly referred to as "Bro-Storm" because it's a storm of powerful frat-bro/jock/meathead creatures that Selvala unleashes from her harem in order to use them and abuse them for mana.

From there, she uses her jock-bro fatties to tutor and draw the deck and wipe the opponents' boards of all permanents before generating her own army and then passing the turn and waiting to untap with a gorillion beasties before turning sideways for the win.

I love Selvala as a competitive commander. The deck is a blast and the skill cap is quite high, giving you a sense of progression as you unlock more and more secrets. The problem is that I want a deck that I can play at a casual table that won't get focused down just because someone knows what Selvala CAN do, even if the deck isn't built that way. I want a bit more jank, more "battlecruiser" commander feel, and a less linear strategy.

Also, Selvala isn't as thicc as The Girthy One.

Yisan is probably the most competitive mono-green commander in the format. He is adaptive, resilient, consistent, and can play through several flavors of stax that shut down other combo decks. He doesn't rely on casting tons of spells (at first) and can cheat in creatures at instant speed. With cards like Seedborn Muse , he just gets out of hand super quickly.

One drawback is that he gets trounced by decks that require interaction in order to keep from winning. Yisan tries to apply tempo pieces to the board to slow everyone else down while he starts ramping big mana creature combos onto the field. He also gets neutered by cards like Linvala, Keeper of Silence and Aven Mindcensor , not to mention everyone's favorite 1-drop BS graveyard/library hate card, Grafdigger's Cage .

That being said, Yisan is an extremely versatile toolbox commander that can adapt lines of play to fit almost any meta, dropping silver-bullet stax effects and finding the creatures needed to fit the situation.

The reason I choose Grothama over Yisan comes down to the stax. In a casual pod, even a moderately-tuned Yisan deck can annihilate the playgroup in a few turns if it focuses on just playing out the non-stax cards. If it goes the stax route, people tend to get a little salty. Stax is perfectly fine with me in CEDH (my CEDH deck is Derevi *evil face*), but casual players tend to not have fun when they have to deal with stax. Grothama is just weird enough to be tolerable.

Also, Yisan's largess can't hold a candle to that of The Girthy One.

Opponents Fighting Grothama

So what if you've got an opponent that comes up with a clever way to kill Grothama and draw cards?

Well, good for them! We are playing pseudo-casual commander here. From a playgroup perspective, it is good to avoid stomping their faces every single game. People get tired of losing to combo very quickly in casual pods, especially if they feel that there's almost nothing they can do to stop the deck that's doing it. Believe me, Grothama has sowed some salt and started to gain a reputation at my LGS.

So if your opponents can kill Grothama, draw tons of cards, and then win the game from that, that's awesome. Let them reap the rewards of their risks. It really helps the table morale when a player can demonstrate to the group that Grothama can be taken advantage of by players other than its pilot.

One of my favorite games was getting down to the wire between myself and a Slimefoot, the Stowaway combo deck. I had just cast Grothama and was waiting until my next turn to do something silly with commander damage. The game had gone on for a while, so we each had plenty of lands. My opponent had no boardstate other than lands, so I felt safe. I had a Beast Within in hand if he played a blocker, but I didn't have the mana due to recasting Grothama. So what does my opponent do? He plays Lightning Greaves , then he hard-casts a Protean Hulk like a madman. I see it coming in slow motion as he equips Greaves to Hulk, swings, and fights Grothama. I about died laughing as he tutored out his combo pieces and shot me in the face with Walking Ballista .

Of course, if you don't want them to win, you can probably do some instant-speed shenanigans...

Update: 7 June 2019

Out:

Protean Hulk

In:

Finale of Devastation

Update: 19 June 2019

Out:

Genesis Wave

Utopia Sprawl

In:

Regrowth

Withstand Death

Update: 18 July 2019

Out:

Pathbreaker Ibex

Boreal Druid

In:

Veil of Summer

Emergence Zone

Veil of Summer is just too good to not play. It even cantrips if you're doing it to protect yourself from a counterspell, which is rare for green. I swapped it in for Pathbreaker Ibex because I found myself never actually playing ibex and wishing it was a different card. This could just be a function of my meta's power level and we play very interactive games. Having extra protection is very useful for me. Emergence Zone lets us combo on other people's turns or continue one of the several combos at instant speed if needed. It's basically an Alchemist's Refuge that we can actually play. Coupled with Crop Rotation , this is a very powerful card.

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Top Ranked
Date added 5 years
Last updated 4 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

8 - 0 Mythic Rares

33 - 0 Rares

29 - 0 Uncommons

9 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.11
Tokens Beast 3/3 G, Elephant 3-3 G, Insect 1/1 G, Morph 2/2 C
Folders Cool Decks, EDH, EDH Brews, Deck Ideas, EDH, deck ideeën, Deck Templates to Pull From
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