Commander blueprint · Lorwyn Eclipsed

How to build Grub, Storied Matriarch // Grub, Notorious Auntie

Each attack from Grub's back face copies one of your creatures and puts a -1/-1 counter on the original, and the front face hands a Goblin card back from your graveyard. This build is made of Goblins that leave something behind when that counter kills them, so the card an attack costs you is the card the next flip returns.

Art by Jesper Ejsing

One mana a turn picks the face, and the graveyard decides which

Both of Grub's transform triggers go off as your first main phase begins, and each asks for one mana: to turn the front face into the back, to turn it back again. So Grub changes at most once a turn, and only when you pay. An extra main phase from Relentless Assault or Seize the Day is not a first main phase, so neither of them buys a second flip.

Only the back face does anything in combat, which makes it the face to sit on while the board holds a creature worth copying. Flip to the front on the turn after something you want back has died. For you get a Goblin card into your hand, cheaper than any spell that does the same, and on the next turn puts the back face up again. Casting Grub counts too, because the front face triggers on entering as well as on transforming, so a Grub that dies costs you the commander tax and pays you one more Goblin card when it returns.

Grub does not have to survive its attack. The copy is made when Grub is declared as an attacker, before blocks, so a 2/1 that trades with a blocker has already done its work. Menace makes the trade less likely, and Swiftfoot Boots stop a removal spell from taking Grub out before combat.

A 1/1 still gets copied when the counter kills it

The -1/-1 counter goes on during the attack trigger, the copy is created by that same trigger, and a 1/1 with a counter on it only dies after the trigger has finished. So the best creature to point the counter at is one with a single point of toughness and a death trigger. Mogg War Marshal makes a 1/1 Goblin when it enters and another when it dies. Copy it and the copy makes one as it enters, the Marshal dies to the counter and makes a second, and the copy is sacrificed in your end step and makes a third. That is three Goblins from one attack, and the Marshal ends up in the graveyard where the front face can hand it back.

The rest of that group work the same way. Mudbutton Cursetosser destroys an opponent’s creature with power 2 or less when it dies, so one attack is two of those, one from the original and one from the copy. Fearsome Goblin Pair amasses Goblins 4 on each death, which leaves an Army with eight +1/+1 counters by the end of the turn. Impulsive Pilferer leaves two Treasures, and Bile-Vial Boggart puts two -1/-1 counters on your opponents’ creatures. Goblin Matron is the one that costs you something: the copy finds a Goblin and the original dies, so the tutor is paid for with the Matron, and she waits in the graveyard for the next flip.

Grub is not the only way to put the counter down. Sting-Slinger blights for 2 damage to each opponent, Gristle Glutton blights to loot, Scuzzback Scrounger blights for a Treasure as your first main phase begins, and Shadow Urchin blights every time it attacks. Each of them kills a Marshal or a Cursetosser on your schedule. The Scorpion God draws a card whenever a creature with a -1/-1 counter dies, Shadow Urchin exiles a card you may play for each counter the dying creature carried, and Nest of Scarabs makes a 1/1 Insect for every counter you put down. With all three out, one blight that kills a 1/1 is a card, a second card to play, and an Insect.

The bigger enter triggers go on bodies that can carry three counters

The other kind of target shrugs the counter off. Goblin Dark-Dwellers is a 4/4 and survives three copies, and each copy lets you cast an instant or sorcery with mana value 3 or less from your graveyard for free. In this list that is Terminate, Bedevil, Infernal Grasp, Kolaghan’s Command or Tarfire, a different one each time, since the spell is exiled after it resolves. Village Pillagers is a 5/5 whose enter trigger deals 1 damage to each creature your opponents control, and because it has wither, that damage arrives as -1/-1 counters. Every creature of theirs with 1 toughness dies, The Scorpion God draws a card for each, the Pillagers and its copy each make a tapped Treasure for each, and Nest of Scarabs counts every one of those counters as yours.

Sourbread Auntie’s enter trigger lets you blight 2 for two 1/1 Goblins, and the copy can take both counters itself, since it is leaving in your end step anyway. Siege-Gang Commander’s copy makes three Goblins and can then sacrifice itself to its own ability for 2 damage. Muxus, Goblin Grandee is legendary, so the copy and the original share a name and the legend rule sends one of them to the graveyard. Its enter ability triggers before the legend rule applies, so it still reveals six cards and puts every Goblin creature with mana value 5 or less among them onto the battlefield, and the Muxus that goes counts as a Goblin dying.

Equip Skullclamp to the copy after combat

The copy stays until your end step, which leaves the whole second main phase to use it. Equip Skullclamp to it there for and it dies at end of turn as planned, drawing two cards on the way out. A copy of a 1/1 dies on the spot instead, which is the same two cards sooner. Goblin Bombardment and Skirk Prospector can sacrifice it early for 1 damage or if the turn needs either more than the copy’s body.

The clamp falls off when the creature wearing it dies, so one main phase can use it several times at an equip. Put it on a copy of a 1/1 first, where it kills at once, then on a 1/1 Goblin token, and save the copy that lives until the end step for last. Mogg War Marshal leaves three of those tokens each time it is copied, so the clamp seldom runs out of something to kill.

Each of those deaths is a Goblin dying, and four cards in the list are paid for exactly that. Boggart Cursecrafter deals 1 damage to each opponent, Boggart Mischief drains each of them for 1, Pashalik Mons deals 1 damage to any target and Boggart Shenanigans 1 to a player. A copied Marshal gives them two deaths to count, the original and the copy, and Morbid Opportunist draws a card off the first death each turn.

A Goblin card does not have to be a creature

The front face returns a Goblin card, and both Lorwyn sets print the creature type on cards that are not creatures. Tarfire is a Goblin instant, Warren Weirding and Grub’s Command are Goblin sorceries, and Boggart Mischief and Boggart Shenanigans are Goblin enchantments. Nameless Inversion and Firdoch Core have changeling, which makes each of them every creature type in every zone, Goblin included. So a flip back to the front face can return a removal spell, a mana rock or a payoff as easily as a creature, and Goblin Dark-Dwellers can cast Tarfire, Nameless Inversion and Warren Weirding from the graveyard as well.

Boggart Trawler is a Goblin on its front and a land called Boggart Bog on its back, so in a hand short of lands a flip can return a land drop. Grub’s Command makes a token copy of a Goblin you control that does not go away at end of turn, and its last mode mills five and puts every Goblin card milled into your hand. Two of the lands read the type too. Auntie’s Hovel enters untapped when you reveal a Goblin card from your hand, and Secluded Courtyard should name Goblin, though its coloured mana only pays for creature spells, so the Kindred spells are cast the usual way.

Akki Battle Squad counts a -1/-1 counter as a modification

Akki Battle Squad gives you an extra combat once a turn when modified creatures of yours attack, and untaps all of them. Counters make a creature modified whatever kind they are, so anything Grub has blighted qualifies. Swiftfoot Boots on Grub does both jobs at once: it makes Grub a modified creature, so its own attack sets the Squad off, and Grub then untaps for the second combat and attacks again for a second copy. Relentless Assault and Seize the Day give one more combat each, cast in a main phase after the first. None of the three gives you another first main phase, so Grub keeps whichever face it had.

No main phase sits between the two combats, so anything cast or equipped at sorcery speed waits until both are over. Both copies are still on the battlefield then, since neither is sacrificed before your end step, and that is the moment to move Skullclamp from one to the other. The untap also reaches every creature of yours that carries a counter, so a blighted Goblin that attacked in the first combat can attack again beside Grub. Akki Battle Squad is a Goblin itself, so Goblin Matron can fetch it, and a removal spell only sends it into the graveyard that the front face draws from.

The core list

Ninety-nine cards behind Grub, 38 of them Goblin cards the front face can return. Point at a name to see the card. Each row carries the lowest paper price for that card on the date in the box above.

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Thirty red sources and twenty-nine black, because the flip asks for each in turn

The list runs 35 lands, 19 of them basic, 11 Mountains and 8 Swamps, for 30 red sources and 29 black. Red is ahead because Siege-Gang Commander, Beetleback Chief, Krenko, Mob Boss, Muxus, Goblin Grandee, Goblin Dark-Dwellers, Sourbread Auntie, Village Pillagers and Relentless Assault all want two red, against Phyrexian Arena and Bedevil on the black side. A first red source by turn two comes 95.1% of the time and a first black one 94.5%, and two red by turn three 82.2%. Murderous Redcap and Eclipsed Boggart pay their hybrid pips with either colour, so they ask for less than their costs look. Grub’s own flips want one red and one black on alternate turns, which almost any opening of this list covers.

None of the lands always enters tapped. Nine have a condition, and Auntie’s Hovel’s is one this deck meets most turns with 38 Goblin cards to reveal. Castle Locthwain draws cards late, and Takenuma, Abandoned Mire can be discarded to mill three and return a creature card, a slower road to the same place the front face goes. The seven rocks are Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Rakdos Signet, Talisman of Indulgence, Fellwar Stone, Mind Stone and Firdoch Core, the last a Goblin card in its own right.

Bracket 2 keeps every death trigger, and bracket 4 adds Kiki-Jiki and Combat Celebrant

Eleven swaps take the deck from $189.30 to $56.38, and without Orcish Bowmasters it holds no Game Changer and sets no bracket floor. Volley Veteran takes the Bowmasters’ place as an enter trigger worth copying, since it deals damage equal to your Goblin count to an opponent’s creature and its 4/2 body survives one counter. Night’s Whisper replaces Black Market Connections. Sling-Gang Lieutenant replaces Muxus, Goblin Grandee with two Goblins on entry and a sacrifice outlet that drains. Goblin Arsonist replaces Goblin Recruiter as one more 1/1 that does something when the counter kills it, and Seize the Day replaces Akki Battle Squad as the extra combat. Six lands that always enter tapped take the places of Bloodstained Mire, Takenuma, Abandoned Mire, Blazemire Verge, Auntie’s Hovel, Blood Crypt and Luxury Suite, and that is the swap you notice most, because a tapped land on turn three is a Grub that arrives a turn late.

Everything the attack trigger leans on stays. Mogg War Marshal, Mudbutton Cursetosser, Fearsome Goblin Pair, Goblin Dark-Dwellers, Village Pillagers, Skullclamp, The Scorpion God and Nest of Scarabs are all in the budget list, so it plays the same game with slower mana and one tutor fewer.

The bracket 4 rung costs $580.47. Necropotence, Ancient Tomb, Jeska’s Will, Vampiric Tutor and Demonic Tutor join Orcish Bowmasters for six Game Changers and a floor of 4. The change that matters is Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker beside Combat Celebrant. Kiki-Jiki copies the Celebrant with haste, the copy is exerted as it attacks, which untaps Kiki-Jiki and every other creature you control and adds a combat, and in that combat Kiki-Jiki copies the Celebrant again. The loop gives you as many combats as you want, and Grub is untapped to attack in every one, so each combat is a fresh copy of whatever you blight. Kiki-Jiki is a Goblin, so Goblin Matron and Goblin Recruiter find it and the front face returns it after a removal spell, and on its own it does the back face’s job with no counter at all.

Phyrexian Altar turns each copy into a mana on its way out, and Goblin Sharpshooter untaps whenever a creature dies, which here is several times a turn. Necropotence replaces Phyrexian Arena and Ancient Tomb a Swamp. The rest come out of the rocks and the smaller cards: Mind Stone, Fellwar Stone, Elder Auntie, Gristle Glutton, Stony-Voiced Goblins, Boggart Shenanigans, and Relentless Assault, whose job the Celebrant now does.

FAQ

How do you transform Grub, Storied Matriarch?

As your first main phase begins, Grub asks for one mana: one red to turn the Storied Matriarch into Grub, Notorious Auntie, or one black to turn it back. You choose each turn whether to pay, so it changes face once a turn at most. Turning back to the front face returns a Goblin card from your graveyard to your hand, exactly as casting it does.

Does Grub's copy still happen if the blighted creature dies?

Yes. The -1/-1 counter and the copy come from the same trigger, and a creature whose toughness drops to 0 only dies once that trigger has finished. So a 1/1 is copied first and dies after, and any death trigger it has fires next to the enter trigger of its copy.

Can Grub copy a legendary creature?

Yes, but the copy shares the original's name, so the legend rule makes you keep just one of them. The copy's enter ability has triggered by then and still resolves, and the one you let go dies, which counts for every card in the deck that cares about a Goblin dying. Muxus, Goblin Grandee is in the list for exactly that.

What counts as a Goblin card for Grub's return ability?

Any card with the Goblin type, which includes Kindred spells such as Tarfire, Warren Weirding and Grub's Command, and any card with changeling, such as Nameless Inversion and Firdoch Core. Boggart Trawler counts by its front face, which is a Goblin, so the ability can return it and you can play it as a land.

What bracket is a Grub deck?

It depends on the ninety-nine, and the three lists here land in three places. Orcish Bowmasters is the core list's lone Game Changer, so that list sits at bracket 3 or above. Take it out, as the budget list does, and nothing in the deck sets a floor. The bracket 4 list carries six Game Changers and the loop between Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Combat Celebrant.

How much does a Grub, Storied Matriarch deck cost?

$189.30 for the core list as printed here, at the lowest paper price of each card, and more than half of that is six lands and Orcish Bowmasters. Swapping those and a few more out makes the budget version $56.38. The bracket 4 version, with Ancient Tomb and two tutors, is $580.47.