Graveyard Grist

Commander / EDH BG (Golgari) Competitive

Bonniebon

Land (28)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Bayou
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Blooming Marsh
• 1x Cabal Pit
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dryad Arbor
• 1x Forbidden Orchard
• 1x Gaea's Cradle
• 1x Gemstone Caverns
• 1x Gemstone Mine
• 1x Llanowar Wastes
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Nurturing Peatland
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Peat Bog
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Twilight Mire
• 1x Undergrowth Stadium
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills
• 1x Woodland Cemetery

Enchantment (9)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Carpet of Flowers
• 1x Dance of the Dead
• 1x Necromancy
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Survival of the Fittest
• 1x Sylvan Library
• 1x Utopia Sprawl
• 1x Wild Growth

Creature (21)

• 1x Apprentice Necromancer
• 1x Arbor Elf
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Bloodghast
• 1x Body Snatcher
• 1x Boreal Druid
• 1x Caustic Caterpillar
• 1x Dark Confidant
• 1x Deathrite Shaman
• 1x Elves of Deep Shadow
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Elvish Spirit Guide
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Fyndhorn Elves
• 1x Hermit Druid
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Protean Hulk
• 1x Sylvan Safekeeper
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Walking Ballista

Sorcery (17)

• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Cabal Therapy
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Dread Return
• 1x Final Parting
• 1x Finale of Devastation
• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Imperial Seal
• 1x Jarad's Orders
• 1x Life / Death
• 1x Natural Order
• 1x Persist
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Thoughtseize
• 1x Unmarked Grave
• 1x Yawgmoth's Will

Commander (1)

Instant (17)

• 1x Abrupt Decay
• 1x Ad Nauseam
• 1x Assassin's Trophy
• 1x Autumn's Veil
• 1x Cabal Ritual
• 1x Crop Rotation
• 1x Culling the Weak
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Nature's Claim
• 1x Noxious Revival
• 1x Rain of Filth
• 1x Slaughter Pact
• 1x Summoner's Pact
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Veil of Summer
• 1x Worldly Tutor

Artifact (7)

• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Jeweled Lotus
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Sol Ring

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PRIMER

This is a proactive deck that tries to win as fast as possible.

The deck mainly revolves around these three cards:

• Protean Hulk
• Hermit Druid
• Ad Nauseam

Although all three of these cards require different lines of play, they all end up winning the same way. The goal of this deck is to get these two cards on the field, together with a repeatable, free sacrifice outlet like Viscera Seer .

• Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• Walking Ballista

This will result in an infinite combo which you can use to ping everyone to death.

The Game Plan

The deck is designed to win on either turn 2 or 3. If your starting hand does not allow you to win on turn 3, the right play is often to mulligan your hand away.

Although the deck doesn't hold out that well in the later stages of the game, it isn't entirely helpless either due to the amount of recursion present in the deck. Our commander also provides a very reliable way to deal with creature based threats and stax.

Case: Winning Via Protean Hulk

You can use the death trigger of the hulk to fetch your combo pieces and go infinite from there. Sacrificing your own Protean Hulk can be done reliably with the -2 ability of our commander Grist, the Hunger Tide .

This is the preferred way of winning, since it's very resistant to interaction and doesn't force you into a "win or die" situation like the other win conditions do.

Although you can fetch both Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Walking Ballista immediately from the hulk, it's best to fetch some other cards first.

You should fetch these cards instead:

• Dryad Arbor
• Sylvan Safekeeper
• Viscera Seer
• Body Snatcher

This has multiple benefits:

• You can use Sylvan Safekeeper to protect the combo pieces.
• It fetches a free, repeatable sacrifice outlet in the form of Viscera Seer .

You can then use Body Snatcher to get the hulk back and sacrifice it again to get the actual combo pieces.

Some alternative cards to fetch are, depending on your situation:

• Hermit Druid
• Caustic Caterpillar
• Eternal Witness

Case: Winning Via Hermit Druid

While the druid is often the easiest and fastest combo to go for, it is extremely dangerous. You will literally lose the game on the spot if you get countered during the combo. That being said, this is how you can combo using the druid:

• Use hermit's ability to mill your entire deck.
• Cast Dread Return for it's flashback cost, sacrificing three creatures. Dryad Arbor and Bloodghast can be fetched via lands to get to three creatures somewhat reliably.
• Target Eternal Witness with Dread Return .
• Target Yawgmoth's Will with Eternal Witness .
• Cast Yawgmoth's Will and play your combo.

Do take note that you should wait with sacrificing Walking Ballista until the start of your next opponent's turn, since everything that enters your graveyard will be exiled during your turn.

Although it's not the most mana efficient version of the Hermit Druid combo, I've chosen this over the usual Necrotic Ooze variant because this variant only has one dead card: Bloodghast . Cards like Eternal Witness and Yawgmoth's Will are already very good in this deck on their own.

Having Noxious Revival in hand will enable you to try again next turn with Yawgmoth's Will if something gets countered. At times you can also use the -5 ability of Grist, the Hunger Tide to finish the game after activating Hermit Druid .

Case: Winning Via Ad Nauseam

• Cast Ad Nauseam and draw a bunch of cards.
• Hopefully win from there.

Why Grist, the Hunger Tide over Varolz, the Scar-Striped ?

Both Grist and Varolz serve the same purpose as a commander: to kill off your own Protean Hulk and get the required combo pieces. I personally prefer Grist over Varolz, but I think both are very viable.

Advantages of Grist:

• Can reliably kill off problematic creatures.
• Can change a Vampiric Tutor into a Entomb , making the graveyard strategy more reliable.
• Contrary to Varolz, Grist is still useful outside of the Protean Hulk combo.

Disadvantages of Grist:

• The sacrifice ability of grist is at sorcery speed, and can only be used once a turn.
• Due to this, Grist is unable to effectively run Pattern of Rebirth .
• Has the chance to mill combo cards with the +1 ability.
• Can be killed by combat.

I can't stress enough how good the -2 of Grist is. You can kill off any nasty creature based stax cards like Opposition Agent , or you can completely cripple an opponent by going for their commander. It gives the ability to interact with your opponents in a way that Varolz, the Scar-Striped simply can't.

Date added	3 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	14 - 0 Mythic Rares 49 - 0 Rares 20 - 0 Uncommons 17 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	1.76
Tokens	Insect 1/1 BG, Spirit 1/1 C