Following a quick romp in the sewers with some radical turtles, Magic the Gathering is headed back to school with Secrets of Strixhaven. Ahead of the set’s April 24 release date, Wizards of the Coast offered GameSpot an exclusive interview with senior game designer Daniel Holt, as well as the full deck list for Witherbloom Pestilence.
Helmed by a new commander (Dina, Essence Brewer), Witherbloom Pestilence is a Golgari deck that is primarily concerned with victory through sacrifice and lifegain–the later of which should sound familiar if you’re a Dina, Soul Steeper fan. However, this deck is packed with some powerful new cards that make enabling sacrifice easier than ever, as well as plenty of pests, token generators, and strong creatures. Older favorites, like Gyome, Master Chef, make for exciting and unexpected inclusions, while fantastic new cards, like Stensian Sanguinist, are sure to be instant staples.
GameSpot: Dina, Soul Steeper is an extremely popular and beloved commander. What challenges did you face when creating Dina, Essence Brewer, and how did you balance implementing her in a new way while retaining the qualities that define her?
Holt: Each of the commander preconstructed decks are helmed by a returning legendary character from Strixhaven: School of Mages. When starting these decks and figuring out their design and creative direction, I asked, “What does the uncommon card from the original set look like now as the face of this deck?” It’s been a couple years. There was a whole Phyrexian invasion, and these returning students are now much more powerful.
Dina has been mostly absent from the spotlight during that time, unlike some of the other students such as Quintorius and Zimone, so this was only going to be her second standalone card–not counting Dina’s team-up card with Zimone in March of the Machine.
Her previous card cared about gaining life, draining life, and sacrificing creatures to activate her ability. All very Witherbloom things, which set her up perfectly here. I decided to let powering up your other creatures be the way you can start closing out games, as opposed to directly draining life, although there is some of that in the 99 of the deck as well. I did keep the sacrifice and life gain aspects to help synergize with the other Witherbloom cards in the deck.
Aside from Dina, what cards do you find most central to the deck? What were some of the first cards you considered when fleshing it out?
Holt: Like any good sacrifice deck, you need things to sacrifice. Getting an engine going that outputs lots of tokens is going to give you the fuel to get started.
The new card, Ribtruss Roaster, is a sac outlet itself, but if you use Devour or add counters using Dina, he will start releasing a swarm of pests at the end of each of your turns. Ophiomancer is a popular card that gives you a Snake token every turn if you don’t already have one. You can get around that restriction every turn if you just sacrifice that token as well! I created a riff on this card with Pest Rescuer in green doing similarly but with Pest tokens. Not only are you getting fodder every turn, but you’re gaining life while you’re at it!
Ways to close out the game are also important for any commander deck, especially those building engines like this one. The tried-and-true options such as Blood Artist and Zulaport Cutthroat were natural inclusions, but new cards like Defiling Daemogoth will drain your opponents based on the life you’re gaining along the way. And then when your opponents are all fairly low, you can claim the win with Exsanguinate cast off the new prepare creature card, Stensian Sanguinist.
Victory through sacrifice is obviously an extremely popular strategy in Magic. What sets Witherbloom Pestilence apart from previous sacrifice-focused decks?
Holt: Players love a good sacrifice engine theme in commander, and I wanted to deliver on that here. Unlike normal sacrifice decks though, this precon also has a lifegain subtheme. Not only are you staying alive to remain in the battle, but the life gains are important to trigger all your Witherbloom effects such as Trudge Garden and Blossoming Bogbeast to create a beatdown army on your opponents.
In true Witherbloom fashion, one of the best creatures to sacrifice for value are pest tokens found in the college. Not only are they perfect sac fodder, but they gain you one life upon death, paying you off for all your other cards.
Gyome is a fantastic card and I see how it works in this deck, but it still feels a bit out of place comparatively and thematically. Why choose to include him in Witherbloom Pestilence?
Holt: With these decks, I wanted to include as many cards flavored to be in Strixhaven as possible so that players felt more immersed right out of the box. This meant using reprints from the original Strixhaven main set and commander decks, as well as assorted cards throughout Magic. I also obviously had the new cards found in this deck and Secrets of Strixhaven main set.
Gyome was a perfect fit because he is great on his own, has great flavor for the deck, and does help support the secondary lifegain theme the precon is going for with its new and returning cards that look for lifegain.
What past cards do you think will synergize well in Witherbloom Pestilence?
Holt: You’ll find a lot of past cards already reprinted in the deck that work well with both sacrifice and lifegain themes. Players can take this deck and lean a little more in either direction to build the deck more to their preferred playstyle. In terms of new cards though, players will find the new “Infusion” mechanic works great in any Witherbloom deck with lifegain triggers.
