Commander blueprint · Secrets of Strixhaven

How to build Witherbloom, the Balancer

Witherbloom, the Balancer takes one mana off every instant and sorcery for each creature you control, and only ever generic mana. So this build puts bodies down first, then casts the Golgari spells whose cost is mostly generic, and with seven creatures out the nine mana In Garruk's Wake costs two black.

Art by Chris Rahn

What the deck is doing. Witherbloom, the Balancer is an eight mana 5/5 with flying and deathtouch, and both of its discounts count the same thing. Affinity for creatures takes off its own cost for each creature you control, and its last line gives every instant and sorcery you cast that same affinity while the dragon is on the battlefield. A discount like that can only remove generic mana, so a spell's coloured pips are the part you always pay. The whole list is built on that one fact. It runs 24 creatures counting the dragon, three other permanents that make more of them, and 35 instants and sorceries whose mana values add up to 159, only 64 of that in coloured pips. Seven of those spells have X in the cost and three of them cost . The early turns put bodies on the table, the dragon lands for four or five mana, and after that a nine mana sorcery is a two mana play.

Only generic mana comes off, so a spell here costs its coloured pips

In Garruk's Wake, Plague Wind and Rise of the Dark Realms each cost . With seven creatures out, each one costs . Army of the Damned is for thirteen 2/2 Zombies, so five creatures bring it down to , and its flashback of costs the same three black afterwards, because the thirteen Zombies it made are still on the table. Reshape the Earth puts ten lands onto the battlefield for once six creatures are out. Tooth and Nail with its entwine paid is , which seven creatures turn into for two creatures searched up and two put straight onto the battlefield.

The rule cuts the other way too. Assassin's Trophy costs , so the dragon has nothing to take off it, and Casualties of War loses two of its six. Those two are in the list as removal on their own merits, not because the commander helps them. And the 3.94 average mana value printed above counts every spell at full price, so it describes the deck before the dragon arrives far better than after.

X counts as generic mana, so the X spells grow with the board for the same two pips

You choose X as you cast the spell, and the discount comes off the total cost after that, X included. Exsanguinate with nine creatures out and X of 9 costs : each opponent loses 9, and at a four player table you gain 27. Torment of Hailfire scales the same way. Finale of Devastation at X of 10 costs with ten creatures, puts any creature with mana value 10 or less from your library or graveyard onto the battlefield, and then gives your whole board +10/+10 and haste. Genesis Wave reveals X cards for , and Green Sun's Zenith finds any green creature for . Pest Infestation counts its X twice, so eight creatures pay for X of 4: up to four artifacts or enchantments destroyed and eight Pests made, which makes the next spell eight cheaper still.

Stensian Sanguinist carries its own copy of Exsanguinate. Whenever you attack, it gives a creature deathtouch, and if that creature deals combat damage to a player, the Sanguinist becomes prepared and you may cast the copy. That copy is a sorcery you cast, so the dragon discounts its X exactly as it does the real card's. Witherbloom already flies and has deathtouch, which makes it the natural creature to point the trigger at, and a dragon that connects in combat means an Exsanguinate in the main phase after.

Nothing gets cheaper until the dragon is on the battlefield, so the first turns make bodies

Only the affinity on Witherbloom's own cost works from the command zone. The line that discounts your spells is an ability of the creature, so nothing in your hand gets cheaper until it is out. With four creatures it costs , and with six it costs . Turns one to four exist to get there. Eight of the cheap creatures make mana or find a land: Llanowar Elves, Elvish Mystic, Fyndhorn Elves, Birds of Paradise, Elves of Deep Shadow, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Wood Elves and Studious First-Year. Wood Elves can fetch Dryad Arbor, which is a land and a creature at once, so one card adds two to the count.

Other cards add a body at every upkeep. Tendershoot Dryad and Beledros Witherbloom do it in each player's upkeep, not only yours, so at a four player table each one is four creatures a round. Awakening Zone and Bitterblossom do it in your own upkeep. Esika's Chariot arrives with two Cats and copies a token each time it attacks. Every token is off every spell for as long as it survives, and the count is fixed before you pay, so an Eldrazi Spawn from Awakening Zone can take its off a spell and then be sacrificed for toward any generic mana still left to pay.

The commander tax is generic mana as well. The second cast of Witherbloom is before the discount, so with eight creatures still out it costs , the same as the first cast did with six. Removal on the dragon costs you a turn of discounts, not the plan.

Both sweepers spare your side, and Rise of the Dark Realms takes back what they killed

A sweeper that kills your own creatures also takes away the discount. Toxic Deluge or Damnation would leave the dragon, if it even survived, charging nearly full price for everything left in your hand. So the only two here are one sided. In Garruk's Wake destroys every creature and planeswalker you don't control, Plague Wind every creature you don't control, and with seven creatures out both cost . Rise of the Dark Realms is the follow up. It puts every creature card from every graveyard onto the battlefield under your control, so a turn after a one sided sweep the creatures your opponents lost come back as yours, and each of them takes another off the next spell.

Heroic Intervention covers the other direction. When someone else sweeps the board, it gives your permanents hexproof and indestructible until end of turn, and with the dragon out it costs . Second Harvest makes a copy of every token you control at instant speed, for once two creatures are out, which rebuilds a board that took a smaller hit.

The two biggest draw spells count your creatures twice

Collective Unconscious and Shamanic Revelation each draw a card for every creature you control, and each costs less for every creature you control. With eight out, Collective Unconscious costs and draws eight, and Shamanic Revelation costs , draws eight and gains 4 life for each creature with power 4 or more, the dragon among them. Stinging Study draws as many cards as your commander's mana value, and Witherbloom's mana value is 8 however little you paid for it, so once four creatures are out it is eight cards at instant speed for , at a cost of 8 life.

Rishkar's Expertise and Return of the Wildspeaker draw by the greatest power you control, usually the dragon's 5 or Grave Titan's 6, and Rishkar's Expertise then lets you cast a spell with mana value 5 or less from your hand for nothing. Skullclamp turns any 1/1 token into two cards, and this list makes more 1/1s than anything else.

A prepared creature is a body now and a discounted spell later

Secrets of Strixhaven's prepare creatures each carry a spell. While one is prepared you may cast a copy of that spell, and doing so unprepares it. The copy is an instant or sorcery you cast, so the dragon discounts it like any other. Studious First-Year is a one mana 1/1 that enters prepared with Rampant Growth, which costs once Witherbloom is out. Emeritus of Abundance enters prepared with Regrowth and prepares again when it attacks while you control eight or more lands. Vastlands Scavenger enters prepared with Bind to Life, a instant that mills seven and puts a creature from among them onto the battlefield, so four creatures make it .

Emeritus of Woe enters prepared with Demonic Tutor at , which is here, and it prepares again at your end step if two or more creatures died that turn, anyone's creatures. A Spawn sacrificed for mana, a token under Skullclamp and a creature fed to Woe Strider all count, so the next tutor is often one decision away. Murderous Rider runs the other way round. Swift End is an instant you cast first, for with only the dragon out, and the Rider comes back from exile as a creature later.

Convoke pays the pips the discount leaves behind

Chord of Calling and Scatter the Seeds have convoke as well. The discount is applied first, when the total cost is worked out, and convoke then pays what remains by tapping your creatures, with a green creature paying for . Creatures that arrived this turn can tap for convoke, because it is not a tap ability. Scatter the Seeds is , so with three creatures out it costs , two green creatures tap for it, and it is cast for no mana at all. Its three Saprolings make the next spell three cheaper. Chord of Calling with six creatures and X of 6 costs , three green creatures pay for it, and it puts any creature with mana value 6 or less onto the battlefield at instant speed, Grave Titan included. Raise X to 7 with seven creatures out and the same three taps fetch Hornet Queen or Avenger of Zendikar instead, and either one brings several more creatures with it for the spell after.

Tapping for convoke has a cost of its own, because a creature tapped on your turn stays tapped through everyone else's and cannot block. Both cards are instants, so the usual moment is just before your own turn begins, in the last opponent's end step. The creatures you tap then untap a moment later in your own untap step, and they were never going to block in the meantime. The Saprolings or the creature that Chord of Calling finds arrive in time to attack, and to take their off whatever you cast in your main phase.

Yavimaya makes every land a Forest, and land drops feed two of the creatures

Howl of the Night Pack makes a 2/2 Wolf for each Forest you control. Twelve of the 35 lands are Forests by type: the nine basics, Overgrown Tomb, Underground Mortuary and Dryad Arbor. Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth makes every land a Forest, so with it out the Wolf count is your whole land count, and six creatures already make Howl cost . Lands matter to two creatures as well. Avenger of Zendikar makes a 0/1 Plant for each land you control and puts a +1/+1 counter on each Plant whenever a land enters, and Scute Swarm makes an Insect for each land, or a copy of itself once you have six. Reshape the Earth drops ten lands at once, which is ten counters on every Plant, or ten new copies of a lone Scute Swarm.

Black carries the doubles. Eleven cards here ask for two or more black, and the deck has 27 black sources against 30 green. Green has to be there on turn one for the Elves, while the double black spells are cards for turn five and later, after the dragon. Twilight Mire turns one mana of either colour into when the hand calls for it.

The core list

The 99 below are grouped by card type under the dragon. Hover a name and the card appears, in the list and anywhere in the prose above it.

Load into the deck builder Copy decklist

“Load into the deck builder” opens this list in your account, ready to edit or save. “Copy decklist” gives you plain text for Moxfield, Archidekt or Arena, with no account needed.

Buy this deck on TCGplayer Buy this deck on Card Kingdom

Both open all 100 cards in the store’s own deck tool, where you choose the printings. TCGplayer links are affiliate links, so we may earn a commission on purchases.

Sprout Swarm loops forever off four creatures, so it waits for the bracket 4 rung

Sprout Swarm is a instant with convoke and buyback that makes a 1/1 green Saproling. With buyback paid its total is . Four creatures take the four off, convoke pays the by tapping the Saproling the previous copy made, and buyback puts the card back in your hand to do it again. Nothing ever runs out. The dragon and three other creatures make as many Saprolings as you like at instant speed, and after that Exsanguinate for any X costs . Bracket 2 asks for no two-card infinite combos and bracket 3 for none that come together early, and this one is live on the turn the dragon lands. So it is in neither the core list nor the budget list, and it is the first card on the bracket 4 rung.

The loop needs four creatures at every cast, the dragon among them, and one untapped green creature to begin it, a part every Saproling it makes can then play. Each pass adds a body and takes none away, so the count only rises. Add a sacrifice outlet and it turns into whatever else you need. Phyrexian Altar, also on the bracket 4 rung, sacrifices a tapped Saproling for one mana of any colour, and since each copy of Sprout Swarm replaces the token it ate, that is as much coloured mana as you want while the count never drops below four. At a bracket 3 table, Scatter the Seeds in the core list is the version that stops after three Saprolings.

The budget rung keeps the spells the dragon makes cheap, because nobody else pays much for them

The cards this commander makes good are the ones other decks cannot cast, and cards nobody casts are cheap. Army of the Damned is $0.34, Exsanguinate $0.40, Genesis Wave $0.36, Howl of the Night Pack $0.13, In Garruk's Wake $2.21 and Plague Wind $2.61, and every one of them stays in the budget list. Its fourteen swaps take the money out instead: Verdant Catacombs, Overgrown Tomb, Underground Mortuary and Yavimaya, then Bitterblossom, Craterhoof Behemoth, Torment of Hailfire, Emeritus of Woe, Stinging Study, Reshape the Earth, Heroic Intervention, and the three tutors, Natural Order, Finale of Devastation and Green Sun's Zenith. The total falls from $372.74 to $110.99, and since Natural Order was the core list's only Game Changer, the budget version sets no bracket floor.

The replacements keep the X and the flashback that the dragon pays for. Finale of Eternity destroys up to three creatures with toughness X or less and, at X of 10 or more, returns every creature card from your graveyard, for with ten creatures out. Crush of Wurms makes three 6/6 Wurms for once six creatures are out, and its flashback costs the same once nine are. Profane Command takes the place of Torment of Hailfire as an X spell that drains one player and returns a creature, and Overrun stands in for Craterhoof Behemoth. What the rung really gives up is finding things. With no creature tutors it draws into its finishers rather than fetching them, so games run longer. Wrap in Vigor replaces Heroic Intervention and only regenerates, which does nothing against exile or a -X/-X sweeper. Both one sided sweepers are still in it, and at a bracket 2 table a two mana In Garruk's Wake is worth mentioning before the game starts.

Eight swaps take the list to bracket 4 and $648.04, with four Game Changers. Sprout Swarm is the point of the rung, and three of the adds exist to find it: Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor and Grim Tutor, with the copy on Emeritus of Woe as a fourth. Phyrexian Altar turns a Saproling into one mana of any colour, and coloured mana is the only kind this deck runs short of once the dragon is down, which is why the rung has no Mana Vault or Ancient Tomb in it. Biorhythm sets each player's life total to the number of creatures they control, so cast after In Garruk's Wake it puts every opponent on 0, and with seven creatures out the pair costs and . Polluted Delta and Misty Rainforest replace the two lands that always enter tapped, and Misty Rainforest can find Dryad Arbor at instant speed. To make room, the rung cuts Plague Wind, Howl of the Night Pack, Cultivate, Harmonize, Soul's Majesty and Deep Forest Hermit. This is the version for a table that expects combos, and only for one.

FAQ

Does Witherbloom, the Balancer lower the X in an X spell?

Yes. You choose X as you cast the spell, and the discount comes off the total cost after that, so it pays for X as readily as for any generic mana printed on the card. With nine creatures out, Exsanguinate with X of 9 costs . It never touches coloured mana, so the pips are always yours to pay.

Do tokens count for Witherbloom's affinity for creatures?

Every creature you control counts, tokens included, and so do the dragon itself and Dryad Arbor, which is a land and a creature at once. Your opponents' creatures do not. The count is fixed before you pay, so a creature you sacrifice for mana while paying, such as an Eldrazi Spawn, has already taken its off.

Does affinity make Witherbloom's commander tax cheaper?

Yes. The tax is of generic mana for each earlier cast from the command zone, and affinity takes generic mana off, so the tax comes off with the rest. The first cast costs with six creatures out, and the second costs with eight.

Is Witherbloom, the Balancer a combo commander?

Not in this core list, but it is one card away from being one. Sprout Swarm with buyback costs , so with the dragon and three other creatures out it costs , and convoke pays that by tapping the Saproling the last copy made. The card returns to your hand each time, so it makes Saprolings without limit at instant speed. That is a two-card infinite combo, so here it appears only on the bracket 4 rung.

Which bracket does this Witherbloom build belong in?

Bracket 3 as built. Natural Order is the only card in it on the Game Changers list, and no two of its cards make an infinite combo. The budget version swaps Natural Order out, has no floor and suits bracket 2. The bracket 4 version adds Biorhythm, Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor and Sprout Swarm.

How much does it cost to build Witherbloom, the Balancer?

$372.74 for the core list, $110.99 for the budget version and $648.04 for the bracket 4 version, with every card bought at the lowest price any paper printing of it sold for on 24 October 2026. Torment of Hailfire is the dearest card in the core list at $34.64, while the nine mana sweepers the dragon makes cheap cost $2.21 and $2.61.

Is Witherbloom, the Balancer in the Witherbloom Pestilence precon?

No. Witherbloom Pestilence, the Secrets of Strixhaven Commander deck for that college, is led by Dina, Essence Brewer, and the dragon is a main set card. The Witherbloom Pestilence upgrade guide works from that box, while this page builds all 99 cards around the dragon.