Mean Green Dean on the Scene

Commander / EDH BG (Golgari) Counters Deathtouch Lifelink

jove014

Life Gain (32)

• 1x Bontu's Monument
• 1x Bow of Nylea
• 1x Chalice of Life  ^Flip
• 1x Erebos's Intervention
• 1x Essence Warden
• 1x Fountain of Renewal
• 1x Gala Greeters
• 1x Glimmerpost
• 1x Graveyard Trespasser  ^Flip
• 1x Haywire Mite
• 1x Hooded Blightfang
• 1x Inscription of Abundance
• 1x Jungle Hollow
• 1x March of Wretched Sorrow
• 1x Mine Worker
• 1x Mire Triton
• 1x Momentous Fall
• 1x Prism Ring
• 1x Pristine Talisman
• 1x Prosperous Innkeeper
• 1x Radiant Fountain
• 1x Retreat to Hagra
• 1x Sapseep Forest
• 1x Scavenging Ooze
• 1x Seraph Sanctuary
• 1x Shamanic Revelation
• 1x Spike Feeder
• 1x Tamiyo's Safekeeping
• 1x The Great Henge
• 1x Twilight Prophet
• 1x Urborg Repossession
• 1x Vraska's Contempt

Card Draw (13)

• 1x Ambition's Cost
• 1x Chevill, Bane of Monsters
• 1x Fountain of Renewal
• 1x Glissa Sunslayer
• 1x Harmonize
• 1x Hunter's Insight
• 1x Momentous Fall
• 1x Ohran Frostfang
• 1x Shamanic Revelation
• 1x The Great Henge
• 1x Toski, Bearer of Secrets
• 1x Twilight Prophet
• 1x Urborg Repossession

Protection (3)

• 1x Reyhan, Last of the Abzan *f-etch*
• 1x Saryth, the Viper's Fang
• 1x Tamiyo's Safekeeping

Tutor (1)

• 1x Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire

Deathtouch (20)

• 1x Bow of Nylea
• 1x Chevill, Bane of Monsters
• 1x Deathcap Cultivator
• 1x Fynn, the Fangbearer
• 1x Gifted Aetherborn
• 1x Glissa Sunslayer
• 1x Glissa, the Traitor
• 1x God-Eternal Rhonas
• 1x Hooded Blightfang
• 1x Leyline Prowler
• 1x Mer-Ek Nightblade
• 1x Mire Triton
• 1x Nighthawk Scavenger
• 1x Nightshade Peddler
• 1x Ohran Frostfang
• 1x Retreat to Hagra
• 1x Saryth, the Viper's Fang
• 1x Vampire Nighthawk
• 1x Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire
• 1x Virtus the Veiled

Ramp (16)

• 1x Bontu's Monument
• 1x Cryptic Trilobite
• 1x Deathcap Cultivator
• 1x Gala Greeters
• 1x Gyre Sage
• 1x Incubation Druid
• 1x Kodama of the West Tree
• 1x Leyline Prowler
• 1x Nature's Lore
• 1x Pristine Talisman
• 1x Prosperous Innkeeper
• 1x Rishkar, Peema Renegade
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x The Great Henge
• 1x Three Visits
• 1x Wild Growth

Removal (10)

• 1x Erebos's Intervention
• 1x Glissa Sunslayer
• 1x Haywire Mite
• 1x Infernal Grasp
• 1x Inscription of Abundance
• 1x Khalni Ambush  ^Flip
• 1x March of Wretched Sorrow
• 1x Polukranos, Unchained
• 1x Ram Through
• 1x Vraska's Contempt

Win Con (2)

• 1x Fynn, the Fangbearer
• 1x God-Eternal Rhonas

Commander (1)

 ^Flip

Land (36)

• 1x Blooming Marsh
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 10x Forest
• 1x Glimmerpost
• 1x Golgari Rot Farm
• 1x Jungle Hollow
• 1x Karn's Bastion
• 1x Khalni Ambush  ^Flip
• 1x Llanowar Wastes
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Radiant Fountain
• 1x Sapseep Forest
• 1x Seraph Sanctuary
• 8x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Wood
• 1x Temple of Malady
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Twilight Mire

Counters (14)

• 1x Cryptic Trilobite
• 1x Gyre Sage
• 1x Hardened Scales
• 1x Incubation Druid
• 1x Inscription of Abundance
• 1x Karn's Bastion
• 1x Ozolith, the Shattered Spire
• 1x Polukranos, Unchained
• 1x Reyhan, Last of the Abzan *f-etch*
• 1x Rishkar, Peema Renegade
• 1x Scavenging Ooze
• 1x Spike Feeder
• 1x The Great Henge
• 1x Winding Constrictor

Combo (2)

• 1x Cryptic Trilobite
• 1x Spike Feeder

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Sideboard

Other (12)

• 1x Curse of Leeches  ^Flip
• 1x Herbology Instructor  ^Flip
• 1x Heronblade Elite
• 1x Kurbis, Harvest Celebrant
• 1x Living Artifact
• 1x Mirkwood Spider
• 1x Parasitic Impetus
• 1x Seed of Hope
• 1x Shelob's Ambush
• 1x Tainted Adversary
• 1x Triskaidekaphobia
• 1x Turn the Earth

Counters (1)

• 1x Corpsejack Menace

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Maybeboard

Other (68)

• 1x Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1x Archetype of Finality
• 1x Armorcraft Judge
• 1x Binding the Old Gods
• 1x Blossoming Bogbeast
• 1x Courser of Kruphix
• 1x Cruel Sadist
• 1x Crystalline Crawler
• 1x Diamond Valley
• 1x Dire Fleet Ravager
• 1x Diregraf Scavenger
• 1x Disciple of Bolas
• 1x Dormant Grove  ^Flip
• 1x Driven / Despair
• 1x Druid Class
• 1x Essence Harvest
• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Fain, the Broker
• 1x Farseek
• 1x Garruk, Apex Predator
• 1x Grimdancer
• 1x Grisly Sigil
• 1x Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons
• 1x Harrow
• 1x High Market
• 1x Isareth the Awakener
• 1x Kalonian Hydra
• 1x Khalni Heart Expedition
• 1x Knight of the Ebon Legion
• 1x Moss-Pit Skeleton
• 1x Nested Shambler
• 1x Noosegraf Mob
• 1x Oathsworn Knight
• 1x Ophiomancer
• 1x Overrun
• 1x Overwhelming Stampede
• 1x Palace Siege
• 1x Pernicious Deed
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Primal Command
• 1x Putrefy
• 1x Questing Beast
• 1x Quiet Disrepair
• 1x Reckoner's Bargain
• 1x Retribution of the Ancients
• 1x Sanctum Seeker
• 1x Sarulf, Realm Eater
• 1x Scurry Oak
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x Skullwinder
• 1x Social Climber
• 1x Staff of the Wild Magus
• 1x Steelbane Hydra
• 1x Sun Droplet
• 1x Sword of Truth and Justice
• 1x Sylvan Library
• 1x Syphon Mind
• 1x Tetzimoc, Primal Death
• 1x The Immortal Sun
• 1x Turn the Earth
• 1x Undercity Uprising
• 1x Vampire of the Dire Moon
• 1x Vastwood Surge
• 1x Vraska, Swarm's Eminence
• 1x Wasteland Viper
• 1x Well of Lost Dreams
• 1x Witch of the Moors
• 1x Workhorse

Counters (4)

• 1x Evolution Sage
• 1x Fertilid
• 1x Herd Baloth
• 1x Scale the Heights

Ramp (3)

• 1x Fertilid
• 1x Glorious Sunrise
• 1x Rampant Growth

Deathtouch (1)

• 1x Soulblade Corrupter

Life Gain (4)

• 1x Eternity Vessel
• 1x Glorious Sunrise
• 1x Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath
• 1x Scale the Heights

Card Draw (2)

• 1x Glorious Sunrise
• 1x Scale the Heights

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The Dean of Deathtouch Damage

Trying to break the new Golgari Dean card from Strixhaven by abusing the ability of Lisette, Dean of the Root   to give buffed up deathtouchers trample and attack for multitudes of near-unblockable damage.

Deck plan

Get an early start by playing small deathtouch creatures (or value creatures) interchangeably with your ramp spells. Cards like Gyre Sage and Incubation Druid will synergize well with the +1/+1 counters produced by Lisette   and work as both great ramp spells and late game attackers.

Casting Lisette   should signal the start of the mid game. Sometimes we can get an activation off right away by playing cards like Radiant Fountain or Glimmerpost immediately after cast or by having an extra mana open with Pristine Talisman. Now it's time to start buffing up your team. Spend the rest of the mid game playing inexpensive creatures ahead of cheap life gain abilities and activating Lisette  's ability.

When your creatures start to reach power stats of about 7-8 it's time to start getting aggressive. Cards like Ohran Frostfang and Bow of Nylea provide deathtouch to your whole team (while providing card draw and life gain respectively) and Lisette   provides trample. Go to combat and swing in with your team. Even if a 4/4 blocks your 7/7 Virtus the Veiled, one damage from a deathtouchy Virtus will kill the 4/4 and 6 damage will trample over.

All-Stars of the Deck

Essence Warden is so valuable. Comes down early and guarantees lifegain to enable Lisette   on creature ETB. Works for creature tokens from Ob Nixilis and is far superior to lifegain on cast since it will include the creature you are casting when you are distributing counters.

Hooded Blightfang can rack up multiple triggers right before combat if you have 2 or 3 deathtouch creatures turning your 3/3s into 6/6s. Just pay 1 per trigger for some surprise additional power. Notably, this will not work with the effects from Ohran Frostfang and Bow of Nylea since the creatures do not have deathtouch when they are declared as attackers.

Hardened Scales and Corpsejack Menace get you to your big attack twice as fast. So does the aforementioned Winding Constrictor

And of course The Great Henge continues to overperform everywhere.

Infinite Combo

Cryptic Trilobite + Lisette, Dean of the Root + Spike Feeder . Remove a counter from Spike Feeder to gain 2 life. Remove a counter from Cryptic Trilobite to add 2 mana. Use the mana to pay for Lisette  's ability and replenish the counters while netting mana and putting counters on the rest of your team. Just make sure Spike Feeder and Cryptic Trilobite each have at least 2 counters to start with. Rinse and repeat.

Sample Playthrough

Here is an example of a playtest I actually did with this list. Assuming no interaction this is probably about as good as it gets: Turn 1: Sapseep Forest tapped

Turn 2: Forest + Deathcap Cultivator

Turn 3: Forest + Pristine Talisman + Incubation Druid

Turn 4: Lisette   by tapping Deathcap Cultivator and the forests. Activate Pristine Talisman and Lisette to put a counter on everyone. Play Temple of Malady then tap Incubation Druid for 3 black and cast Nighthawk Scavenger

Turn 5: Play a Swamp and cast Ambition's Cost. Tap Incubation Druid for 3 black and cast Gifted Aetherborn floating one. Activate Sapseep Forest tapping Temple of Malady and use the one floating to activate Lisette  . Activate Pristine Talisman for another Lisette   trigger. Lisette   is now 7/7, Deathcap Cultivator is 5/4, Gifted Aetherborn is 4/5 and Nighthawk Scavenger is 3/5 plus whatever is in graveyards.

Turn 6: Play a Swamp and cast Mer-Ek Nightblade. Activate Sapseep Forest and Pristine Talisman for 2 more counters. Attack with Lisette   9/9, Nighthawk Scavenger 5/7 and Gifted Aetherborn 6/7. Activate Lisette   2 more times when I gain life from lifelink. Damage Dealt: 20, Life Gained: 11. At end of turn Lisette   is 11/11, Nighthawk Scavenger is 7/9, Gifted Aetherborn is 8/9, Deathcap Cultivator is 9/8 and Mer-Ek Nightblade is 6/7.

Turn 7: Pray for no board wipe, play a swamp and cast Bow of Nylea. Get 3 Lisette   activations from Bow of Nylea, Pristine Talisman and Sapseep Forest tapping only Incubation Druid and lands. Move to combat and attack with Lisette   14/14, Nighthawk Scavenger 10/12, Gifted Aetherborn 11/12, Deathcap Cultivator 12/11 and Mer-Ek Nightblade 9/10. Total damage dealt (Turns 6 and 7): 76, Total Life Gained: 32. In my hand are Skullwinder and Momentous Fall.

At this point hopefully you are far enough ahead to close out the game with the resources you have.

Final Thoughts

This is definitely not the most powerful deck you can build but I still had a lot of fun putting it together. The game plan is straightforward but the mechanics of getting there are fairly convoluted and you end up juggling deathtouch synergies, +1/+1 counter synergies and lifegain synergies all at once. If you get it all together though, you can swing in for big damage around turn 8 or 9 fairly reliably and this damage isn't always telegraphed. If you trigger Lisette   3 or 4 times before your big attack and then cast God-Eternal Rhonas the damage can really come out of nowhere.

The biggest struggle is drawing your lifegain cards reliably. Without lifegain the deck does a whole lot of nothing just staring at the wall. At least deathtouch is a solid deterrent for anyone attacking you too often. This deck can't get enough cards like Momentous Fall, Inscription of Abundance, Erebos's Intervention, Shamanic Revelation, Twilight Prophet and Disciple of Bolas. The depth of versatile, lifegaining cards starts to bottom out around Sanctum Seeker and although the Seeker feels clunky and I don't have a lot of vampires I haven't been able to find a better card to replace it. Creatures with Lifelink are a useful option but ideally the deck will be gaining life before combat.

Date added	3 years
Last updated	4 months
Key combos	Cryptic Trilobite + Lisette, Dean of the Root + Spike Feeder
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	7 - 1 Mythic Rares 35 - 5 Rares 23 - 3 Uncommons 17 - 4 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.68
Tokens	City's Blessing, Day, Food, Night, Pest 1/1 BG, Treasure, Zombie 2/2 B w/ Decayed
Folders	Gr/Bk