The SkitterTide 4.5 (Breakdown Inc.) (EDH / Commander)

This deck has been refined thoroughly to give it a competitive edge. At the current status my play group has found it will answer every situation. Here is my comprehensive breakdown for particular strategies in the deck. I will add and remove them as they become more prominent within the main strategy, or less Please leave a like and/or a comment to let me know I'm doing something right or wrong.

• Overview

  • Grist and her swarm are an unfeeling mass of insects born to wipe the world of all sustenance before she leaves in a white flash to do the same to another unsuspecting plane, I love her character and the way the played her lore, She is an enigma as much as she is a Fearsome presence. I tried my hardest to reflect that attitude on tabletop. Grist being a Golgari commander works super well for a Grave-play Combo deck, using insects and other creatures with Undergrowth abilities or the like you use your graveyard and the devoured sustenance as fuel for your ever growing swarm of chittering wings, throwing them at your opponents in a number of ways. She will do excel at always having fuel, Board control and creature generation while you focus on how you really want to use your graveyard whether it be to throw the swarm with Grist's powerful -5 or using a Splintefright to crush out any issues, maybe nether of those suit your issues and you want to overwhelm with things like Giant Adephage.... However you want to helm the mass of monstrosities, I will give you my best explanation on how to Jailbreak this Queen after YEARS of playing my favourite card ever printed!

• Grist Loyalty

  • Use Grist's -5 then Cast Gravepurge or Forever Young to put 10 plus Creatures back on top of your library to get 10 more loyalty just to -5 the damage again..... Work smarter. Not harder. Things like Maskwood Nexus and Conspiracy also help to make others fit the bill!

• Main Idea

  • The idea behind this deck is using Grist and her very powerful ability set to help control board presence with things like the -2 while also committing to self mill for your win-con. The insects all boost mill speed and shockingly enough do synergize together quite well on board, I was impressed. the deck being filled with Heavy threats and multiple other ways to get combat damage through while supporting those with removal can make this deck quite painfully aggressive.

• Threat Presence

  • Using removal spells to both control the board as much as potentially fueling your own yard in dire need of 1-2 more creatures to deal that game winning damage with Grist's extremely powerful -5. As it doesn't exile your yard at all. You have cards like Life From the Loam and Creeping Renaissance to bring back a ridiculous board presence and keep fueling yourself with what you mill. Lets say Grist won't do the job? Then use your board presence to close the gap with Deathrite Shaman, Splinterfright, either form of scute, or things like the Giant Adephage and Old Stickfingers. Things like Pretender can also do huge damage while sac outlets like Nantuko Husk are also wildly threatening. - Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider shuts down super-friends as much as doubling your output on Grist herself. Additionally stopping things like replicating ring from being of any use. along with things that have scavenge you may do some crazy things.... Scute mob loves this card as much as the beast (my nickname for Swarm of Bloodflies as I chant Feed The Beast) using things like Crypt of Agadeem you may also generate a dumb amount of mana easily to do these things easier. While others like Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest can help you boost your entire board state at once while you are just doing what your deck does!

• Grave Play

  • Using Treasured Find (Lost my copy) and Regrowth or even Noxious Revival, you may pull useful things back from the grave or recur threats to the board easily. Regrowth can be reused though! Gleancrawler will let things like Grist's +1 give you free things to play with, or let you Gravepurge/Forever Young will also both supply you with tons of free things to play with as they all were "put into the Graveyard this turn". Also lets you re-use sacrificed goods for the next turn. Creeping Renaissance as mentioned prior can be an incredible tool for games where Grist just won't cut it, for a relatively expensive cost you can return EVERY creature of that type... Combo with RealmWalker and Maskwood Nexus for maximum benefit! As much as it comes with Flashback for a no shenanigans double tap on the ability! Hermit Druid and Altar of Dementia also really help the deck mill itself to keep that graveyard nice and full! with light help and extreme synergy off of Splinterfright! Journey to Eternity is also an incredible tool for pulling back those little nitty gritty monstrosities to annoy your enemy! Crucible of worlds and Life from the loam hit largely the same slot! Yet I find life better as you get the consistent mill off the card! Crypt of Agadeem also requires you to use your graveyard to actually be viable in this deck. Couldn't help but add in Buried Ruin specifically to find and use Elixir of Immortality in a dire situation. By using buried ruin you can either Dredge it back with Life From the Loam or use Crucible of Worlds to bring it out of the grave and then fling it into Elixir, essentially making it as close to guaranteed as I can a pull back without tweaking the overall flow. Liliana's Talent is an incredible grave play threat as well, amassing swaths of creatures from all graveyards for a relatively low price considering the Grist counters, with the additional ability of Deathtouch on your walker?! Incredible. Team that up with Mortal Combat and you end up putting the whole board under a tremendous amount of pressure.

• Sacrifice

  • Now with Viscera seer and Altar of dementia to sacrifice your stuff last second to Grist's -5. Grist does count in graveyard even if you move it to command zone on suicide as it momentarily hits the grave...This giving you a potentially huge buff to the damage output last second! (idea taken from rulings on Wizards of The Coast website talking about how it interacts with things) as well as Nantuko Husk being an outlet to use as a grave filler on -5 and you may use them to deal LOTS of damage quickly in annoyingly hard to answer ways. Woe Strider and Altar of Dementia also happen to be in there to make this all that much more common. You may also use Ashnod's Altar to sacrifice anything you want to cast other things, great with things like Old Stickfingers.

• Board Control

  • Using a lot of the attributes in this deck we can essentially shut down the board. Using things Like Grist's -2 to force a problem creature or walker off the board. Using this with Dictate of Erebos forces your opponents to start dwindling the board as you do what your deck does... Works exceptionally well as we have a large amount of Sacrifice outlets anyways to help our grave stay full and active! While also using the few Destroy Pemanent spells I put in this deck like Abrupt Decay or Maelstrom Pulse! Believe it or not I find BlightBeetle to be one of the BEST board state controllers as well. When dealing with any sort of Army or Token Or Monster Deck You can use this to stop anyone other than you from being Privy to counters at all... Makes Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider even more terrifying. Nice little touch he has protection from Green as well! Small creature you would typically never notice shut down half my play group more then once locking them to a hunt for removal! Svogthos, The Restless Tomb is something everyone forgets about, creating an incredible deterrent or last second blocker to make people groan at a 17/17 While Bane of the living is your one and ONLY board wipe. Sucks that the Bane of the Living kills your stuff and potentially itself in the process! But regardless many a time have I mid Block step wiped the board to the dismay of my friends!

• Other

  • You may find yourself in a situation where you need card's Like a Mazirek, Kraul Deathpriest or a Hermit Druid to solve certain issues or help supercharge your combo, using bug's you've already thrown out like a Token can get you to a Hermit Druid with card's like Eldritch Evolution! As much as Endless Cockroaches and Deadbridge Goliath finally have some more synergy and usage. Keeping in mind you will HAVE to learn the deck and the creature's you are using before you FULLY take advantage of such a card. But it can be endlessly Viable.

Please enjoy, leave comments and criticism. Make your own little unique twists to it! This is my ground up brain baby EDH I want to take to CEDH. used no prebuilds or any sort of blueprints. ALL of this came out of MY own ass. Breakdown Is a word in progress!! I add and remove as I grow and change with my pet deck!