Commander blueprint · Secrets of Strixhaven

How to build Blech, Loafing Pest

Blech puts a counter on every Pest, Bat, Insect, Snake and Spider you control each time you gain life, whatever the amount. This list fills the deck with those five types and with ways to gain life a point at a time, and fourteen of its creatures do both.

Art by Ilse Gort

A dying Pest token is the cheapest trigger in the deck

A Witherbloom Pest token is a 1/1 that gains you 1 when it dies, and to Blech that single point is a whole trigger, worth exactly what a gain of 10 from one source would be. Eight cards here make Pests: Pest Infestation, Beledros Witherbloom, Blight Mound, Pest Rescuer, Tend the Pests, Eccentric Pestfinder, Moseo, Vein's New Dean and Valentin, Dean of the Vein. Each token is a body of the right type while it lives and a trigger when it dies, so it is paid for twice. Moseo's token is the exception, and gains its point by attacking instead. Blood Artist, Skullclamp, Deadly Dispute and High Market give the others somewhere to die when you choose.

The rest of the small gains come from lands and from other people's creatures. Kazandu Nectarpot and Eumidian Terrabotanist gain 1 for each land you put onto the battlefield, so Fabled Passage and Evolving Wilds feed them twice and Myriad Landscape three times. Essence Warden gains 1 whenever any creature enters, an opponent's included, and Blood Artist gains 1 whenever any creature dies, theirs too. None of these gains is bigger than 1, and none needs to be.

Fourteen creatures here are both the counter and the reason for it

The five types are not a tribe. Pests come almost entirely from Strixhaven, every Bat in this list is black, and the Insects, Snakes and Spiders lean green. The one other card in Magic that names all five is Blex, Vexing Pest, and the flavour text on Blech's card explains the link: Blech is Blex's son. Blex is in the core list as the anthem. While he is out, every other creature of the five types gets +1/+1, and he gains 4 when he dies.

That spread means taking the best few cards of each type rather than going deep on one. The 33 are 11 Insects, 10 Snakes, 5 Bats, 4 Spiders and 3 Pests besides Blech. The fourteen that also gain life are the cards worth the most to him, because each one raises both numbers at once: Teacher's Pest, Gorma, the Gullet, Blex, Vexing Pest, Deep-Cavern Bat, Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal, Kazandu Nectarpot, Eumidian Terrabotanist, Haywire Mite, Circuit Mender, Fumulus, the Infestation, Hooded Blightfang, South Wind Avatar, Gwenom, Remorseless and Skyfisher Spider.

A creature that happens to be two of the five types at once still takes one counter per trigger, so there is nothing to gain from doubling up. Everything else that gains life is a compromise. Essence Warden, Blood Artist, Scavenging Ooze and Pest Rescuer feed the counters without ever wearing one, and they keep their slots only because they go off more often than any typed card could.

Half the ramp is a Snake or a Spider, and two pieces tap for more once fed

Ten cards ramp, and five of them are typed creatures: Sakura-Tribe Elder, Lotus Cobra, Fanatic of Rhonas and Orochi Merge-Keeper are Snakes, and Twitching Doll is a Spider. Two of those make more mana after a trigger. Orochi Merge-Keeper taps for as soon as it has any counter on it. Fanatic of Rhonas taps for four green while you control a creature with 4 power, and Blech is that creature after a single trigger, as a 4/5. Three counters on the Fanatic itself, a 1/4, make it the creature it needs and free it from depending on him.

Ohran Frostfang gives every attacker deathtouch, and Hooded Blightfang pays for each one

Hooded Blightfang makes each opponent lose 1 and gains you 1 whenever a creature you control with deathtouch attacks. Alone, that covers the Blightfang, Gwenom, Remorseless, Hornet Queen and the four Insects she brings with her. With Ohran Frostfang out, every attacking creature has deathtouch, so every attacker is a trigger. Attack with five creatures and you gain life five separate times as they are declared, which puts five counters on every creature of the five types, the attackers included, before anyone chooses a blocker. Blocks are chosen against creatures that have already grown, deathtouch kills whatever they touch, and Frostfang draws a card for each one that gets through.

The drain half adds up just as fast. Each of those five Blightfang triggers also takes 1 from every opponent, so the attack has cost the table fifteen life before a single blocker is chosen, and each of the five gains is a separate trigger for Starscape Cleric, Dina, Soul Steeper, Marauding Blight-Priest and South Wind Avatar as well.

Fumulus, the Infestation does a smaller version for Insects only: each one that attacks drains 1 and gains 1. Teacher's Pest gains 1 when it attacks, and so does the Pest token Moseo, Vein's New Dean makes.

Iridescent Hornbeetle turns every counter Blech places into an Insect

Iridescent Hornbeetle makes a 1/1 Insect at your end step for each +1/+1 counter you put on your creatures that turn. Blech places one on every typed creature per trigger, so a single gain with six of them out is six Insects, and Insects are one of the five types, so the next gain feeds the new ones too. Winding Constrictor and Hardened Scales each add a counter to every placement, and the Hornbeetle counts those as well. Winding Constrictor is a Snake, so it grows from the same trigger it is improving.

Two more cards read the counters rather than add to them. Duskshell Crawler gives trample to each creature you control with a +1/+1 counter, which after a few gains is the whole typed board. Meltstrider Eulogist draws a card whenever one of your creatures with a +1/+1 counter dies, so a fed Pest token that dies is a card as well as a point of life.

Clamp the Pests before the gain, and make Insects while it waits

Skullclamp is the cleanest way to cash a 1/1 Pest token. The token becomes a 2/0 and dies, you draw two and gain 1, and the gain is a trigger. The catch is Blech. A Pest that has taken one counter is a 2/2, Skullclamp makes it a 3/1, and it lives. Equipping is sorcery speed, so the order of a turn matters: clamp the new tokens while they are still 1/1, and set off the life gain afterwards. Pest Rescuer helps, because it makes a fresh token in each upkeep that starts without one, and that token has had no chance to grow.

The trigger counts the creatures you control when it resolves, not when it goes on the stack. Ant Queen makes a 1/1 Insect for at instant speed, so with a gain waiting to resolve, every Insect made in response arrives in time to grow. Tend the Pests is an instant that sacrifices a creature and makes Pests equal to its power. Sacrifice a fed creature that is about to die anyway and a 6 power Snake becomes six Pests, each of which gains 1 when it dies later.

Toxic Deluge turns the Skullclamp arithmetic round in your favour. The life it costs is a payment, not a gain, so Blech never sees it, and after a few turns of counters you can choose a number that clears the other boards and leaves your fed creatures standing.

Four drain cards charge every opponent per gain, not per point

Starscape Cleric, Dina, Soul Steeper, Marauding Blight-Priest and South Wind Avatar each make every opponent lose 1 whenever you gain life. With three opponents that is three life per trigger from each of them, and a Pest dying for a single point costs the table the same as a big gain would. Paying the extra for Starscape Cleric's offspring makes a second Bat with the same text. Enduring Tenacity reads the other way: one opponent loses exactly what you gained, so it is the card that rewards the bigger gains, like Blex's 4 or the 2 from Haywire Mite and Circuit Mender. Mirkwood Bats charges for a different event, every token you create or sacrifice, and this list makes and spends tokens about as often as it gains life.

The core list

Ninety nine cards and Blech, built for a bracket 3 table and priced at the lowest paper copy of each. Hover over any card name to see the exact printing behind its price.

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Four cards want two black early, and the black sources fall short

The mana is 36 lands, 19 of them basic, under a low curve: 27 of the 63 spells have a mana value of two, and the average is 2.76. Black has 29 sources and green 31, which is plenty for single pips. The strain is double black. Enduring Tenacity, Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal and Gwenom, Remorseless want two black by turn four, and 29 sources get there about 85 games in 100, a little under the 90 I want. Green's double pips start at four mana with Lisette, Dean of the Root, the back face of Valentin, Dean of the Vein, and the rest cost five or more: Ohran Frostfang, Ant Queen and Hornet Queen, plus Hooded Hydra at whatever X you can pay.

Four lands always enter tapped, and Jungle Hollow is the one that pays its way: the 1 life it gains on entering is a trigger. High Market does the same job from the other end, sacrificing a creature for 1 life, which makes it the only sacrifice outlet in the list that is also a land.

The cheap list keeps every Pest maker, and the dear one adds Exquisite Blood

The budget rung costs $63 against $179 for the core list, and none of its fourteen swaps touches a Pest maker, Blex, Skullclamp, Hooded Blightfang or Iridescent Hornbeetle. More than half of the saving is five cards: Verdant Catacombs, Enduring Tenacity, Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal, Scute Swarm and Essence Warden. What the rung really gives up is Ohran Frostfang. Without it, Hooded Blightfang pays only for attackers with deathtouch of their own, so the attack that grows the whole board needs Hornet Queen on the battlefield first. Ohran Viper takes the slot as the Snake that draws when it connects. Prosperous Innkeeper replaces Essence Warden and counts only your own creatures entering, so the opponents' boards stop feeding Blech. Lotus Cobra and Fanatic of Rhonas leave as well, two of the five typed ramp creatures, and Nantuko Elder keeps one more on the list as an Insect that taps for two.

Several swaps keep a type in the slot. Ghastly Gloomhunter is a lifelink Bat in the place of Aclazotz, and kicked it arrives with two counters already on it. Twin-Silk Spider and Broodspinner hold Spider slots where Scute Swarm and Fumulus were. Vengeful Bloodwitch replaces Enduring Tenacity and is a source rather than a payoff, gaining 1 whenever one of your creatures dies, but it is a Vampire and never grows.

The bracket 4 rung adds Exquisite Blood, and that one card changes what the deck is. It gains you life whenever an opponent loses life. Starscape Cleric, Dina, Soul Steeper, Marauding Blight-Priest, South Wind Avatar and Enduring Tenacity each make opponents lose life whenever you gain it, so with Exquisite Blood out any one of those five closes a loop that runs until the other players are dead, and Blech puts a counter on every typed creature each time round. The core list already holds five halves of that combo, which is why Exquisite Blood waits for this rung: bracket 3 allows a two-card combo only if it does not win early, and Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor are in the rung to find it early. They are also its two Game Changers.

The rest makes the engine faster rather than different. The Great Henge taps for and 2 life, a trigger every turn, and puts a counter on each nontoken creature that enters while drawing a card for it. Green Sun's Zenith finds Ohran Frostfang or Winding Constrictor, Sylvan Library turns spare life into cards, and Misty Rainforest and Polluted Delta replace Jungle Hollow and Evolving Wilds as fetches that enter untapped and still trigger Kazandu Nectarpot twice. The rung costs $499, and its Game Changers alone would leave it at bracket 3. A deck that can tutor up a two-card win belongs at a bracket 4 table all the same, and should be announced as one.

Every Snake here already grows on life gain, so the usual self-growers stay out

Ask for Golgari cards that say "whenever you gain life" and most of what comes back is creatures that grow themselves: Bloodthirsty Aerialist, Bloodbond Vampire, Ageless Entity, Pest Mascot. Under Blech every Pest, Bat, Insect, Snake and Spider in the deck already does that, so a self-grower earns a slot only by bringing something more. Bloodthirsty Aerialist and Bloodbond Vampire are Vampires that take one counter per gain, the same as Sakura-Tribe Elder takes here for two mana and a land. Ageless Entity takes a counter for each point gained, which on this deck's gains is still one at a time, and it costs five. Pest Mascot is the close call. It is a Pest, so it takes two counters per gain, its own and Blech's, on a trample body for three. It missed on the curve, where the three mana slots went to cards that are also a source of life.

FAQ

Does Blech trigger once for each Pest token that dies?

Yes. Every Pest token carries its own life gain ability, so three dying at once are three separate gains and three triggers, and each one puts a counter on every Pest, Bat, Insect, Snake and Spider still on the battlefield. The tokens that died get nothing, because they have left before the triggers resolve.

Does Blech put a counter on himself?

Yes, because Blech is a Pest. One trigger makes him a 4/5, which is already enough power to switch on Fanatic of Rhonas, and Blex, Vexing Pest gives him a further +1/+1 while it is out.

What bracket is a Blech deck?

Nothing in the main build is a Game Changer, a tutor or land denial, so no rule pushes it up a bracket, and the budget rung is built for bracket 2. I would still bring the main list to a bracket 3 table, because a board that grows on every point of life finishes games sooner than a precon does. The bracket 4 rung adds Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor and the Exquisite Blood loop, and belongs at bracket 4.

Which creature types does Blech, Loafing Pest count?

Pest, Bat, Insect, Snake and Spider. A creature that is two of them still gets one counter per trigger rather than two, and every other type gets nothing, so Dina, Soul Steeper and Marauding Blight-Priest never grow and earn their slots by draining the table instead.

Do lifelink creatures each trigger Blech in the same combat?

Yes. Each creature with lifelink that deals damage is its own life gain, so Deep-Cavern Bat, Gorma, the Gullet and Gwenom, Remorseless connecting in one combat give three triggers. Hooded Blightfang works earlier, as attackers are declared, and with Ohran Frostfang out it triggers once for every attacker.

Is Blech related to Blex, Vexing Pest?

Blech is Blex's son, according to the flavour text on Blech's card, and the two are the only cards that name Pests, Bats, Insects, Snakes and Spiders together. Blex gives every other creature of those types +1/+1, so it sits in this list as the anthem, and the 4 life it gains on dying is one more trigger.

How much does it cost to build Blech?

$179 for the list as printed here, with every card priced at its cheapest paper printing. The budget rung swaps fourteen cards to get that down to $63 without losing a Pest maker. The bracket 4 rung climbs to $499, and The Great Henge and the two tutors account for over half of that climb.