Secrets of Strixhaven saw the return of the five powerful Elder Dragons who see over the different schools of the college: Silverquill, Quandrix, Prismari, Lorehold, and Witherbloom. Each of their new cards offer strong interactions with Instant and Sorcery spells, which feels very fitting for the leaders of a Magic-based college. Of these 5 new cards, Witherbloom, the Balancer has definitely stood out so far as one of the most interesting Commander due to his simple yet effective synergies between a wide board state and game-ending spells. After all, "Affinity" has always been a pretty terrifying keyword. Let's take a look at how we can build around this Black / Green Elder Dragon to maximize our synergies!
Going Wide
To make this deck start to feel scary we're going to need two things: a lot of creatures, and some big instants & sorceries. Let's start out by going over how we're going to build up our board with creatures.
Creatures that make more creatures are going to provide a ton of potential Affinity for us in the long term. While none of these cards can really take over a game all on their own, they're all perfectly situated to help us build into some massive late game finishers, while also creating some pressure and blockers along the way.
For non-creature permanents, these all offer us some token generation as well as some additional utility. Garruk and Tevesh Szat each make two tokens a turn, while also providing potential removal and card draw respectively. Awakening Zone and Black Market Connections can both help us ramp if we're interested, and Parallel Lives basically lets our deck play in double-time.
Now we're starting to get into some real synergies. These spells all scale up to be pretty powerful when given affinity for creatures, while also proving more creatures to buff up future spells. Empty the Pits, For the Common Good, and Gelatinous Genesis can close out games fast if X is big enough, while also offering as some mid-game tempo if you need it. Army of the Damned can both end games and help to power out even more devastating spells later on. Hunting Pack, Second Harvest, and Szat's Will can provide a huge burst of tokens out of nowhere to help power out some big finishers, or turn the tides in your favor on an opponent's turn. Sprout Swarm actually goes infinite with our Commander here, allowing us to cast and buyback the spell for one green mana, which we can then pay by convoking each green Saproling token that is created by the previous casting. While creating an infinite amount of tapped 1/1s might be enough to end some games, the true value comes from combining them with some real finishing spells.
Ending the Game
Now that we've got a good amount of creatures and tokens in play, let's start working towards closing out the game. Since we already have a ton of creatures in play, why not try attacking?
These spells will likely end up being some of our most common ways to close out games. Finale of Devastation, Vitalizing Wind, and Preposterous Proportions all become incredibly easy to cast with a large board state thanks to Witherbloom, while Avenger of Zendikar, Craterhoof Behemoth, and Concordant Crossroads help us send our mass of tokens into our opponents quite aggressively.
Stensian Sanguinist and Mirkwood Bats are both creatures that help us end the game without needing combat. A repeatable Exsanguinate feels almost like overkill, and while we won't necessarily be sacrificing our tokens to trigger Mirkwood Bats, we will absolutely be making enough to dish out some serious damage across the table.
Damnable Pact, Torment of Hailfire, and Exsanguinate can kill our opponents outright without needing combat at all. Damnable Pact may only be able to kill one opponent, but it does offer us some card draw if we decide to target ourselves for a less-lethal X cost. Torment of Hailfire and Exsanguinate are classic game-enders, and with the size of our ideal board state they should be able to end games pretty much instantly.
Card Advantage & Removal
While our main goal may be to overwhelm our opponents with a variety of tokens and game ending spells, we'll need some utility to help us along the way.
These cards will all help us keep our gameplan running smoothly, with cards like Collective Unconscious, Shamanic Revelation, Rishkar's Expertise and Stinging Study offering mostly card draw, cards like Chord of Calling and Eternal Witness give us some utility and recursion, Growing Rites of Itlimoc draws one card usually and offers ramp later, and Return of the Wildspeaker can both draw some cards or help us buff up our team to close out a game.
Our removal suit here is fairly standard, with the exception of Ezuri's Predation, In Garruk's Wake, Necrotic Hex, Pest Infestation, and Plague Wind. Since we can make all these big spells cost potentially 2-3 mana, we might as well take advantage of it. Ezuri's Predation and Pest Infestation also have the potential to leave us with some tokens left over, which we're always going to be happy about.
Protection & Ramp
Heroic Intervention is a staple protection spell that's always great to have access to. Tyvar's Stand can both protect Witherbloom, while also offering as a potential game-ending threat on any unblocked creature if our affinity for creatures is high enough. Arachnogenesis can save us from a big attack while also adding to our growing token count, and Fresh Meat can turn any opposing wrath into a big mess of new beasts for our opponents to deal with.
As we've surely noticed by now, any big sorcery with X in the cost is going to be great in this deck, and Awaken the Woods is no exception. This not only helps ramp us in the early portions of the game, but can also help contribute to a huge amass of tokens to finish our opponents once the game goes long enough. Circle of Dreams Druid will reward us for our token army with a ton of Green mana. Enduring Vitality and Springleaf Parade will both allow our tokens to tap for mana, which mean we'll be able to double the X cost on some of our giant game-enders. These will also just help us power into our end game even faster.
Final Decklist
Now that we've gone over all the different things our deck is trying to do, let's take a look at our final decklist.
Commander
Witherbloom, the Balancer
Planeswalkers (2)
Garruk, Cursed Huntsman
Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools
Creatures (14)
Arasta of the Endless Web
Avenger of Zendikar
Beledros Witherbloom
Chatterfang, Squirrel General
Circle of Dreams Druid
Craterhoof Behemoth
Creakwood Liege
Enduring Vitality
Eternal Witness
Mirkwood Bats
Scute Swarm
Sedgemoor Witch
Stensian Sanguinist
Tendershoot Dryad
Sorceries (22)
Army of the Damned
Awaken the Woods
Collective Unconscious
Cultivate
Damnable Pact
Exsanguinate
Ezuri's Predation
Farseek
Finale of Devastation
For the Common Good
Gelatinous Genesis
In Garruk's Wake
Kodama's Reach
Nature's Lore
Necrotic Hex
Pest Infestation
Plague Wind
Preposterous Proportions
Rishkar's Expertise
Shamanic Revelation
Skyshroud Claim
Torment of Hailfire
Instants (17)
Arachnogenesis
Assassin's Trophy
Beast Within
Chord of Calling
Empty the Pits
Fresh Meat
Heroic Intervention
Hunting Pack
Putrefy
Return of the Wildspeaker
Second Harvest
Sprout Swarm
Stinging Study
Szat's Will
Tyvar's Stand
Vitalizing Wind
Windgrace's Judgment
Artifacts (2)
Arcane Signet
Sol Ring
Enchantments (6)
Awakening Zone
Black Market Connections
Concordant Crossroads
Growing Rites of Itlimoc
Parallel Lives
Springleaf Parade
Lands (36)
Bojuka Bog
Command Tower
Deathcap Glade
Dryad Arbor
Evendo, Waking Haven
Fabled Passage
Forest
Grim Backwoods
Llanowar Wastes
Overgrown Tomb
Phyrexian Tower
Reliquary Tower
Shifting Woodland
Swamp
Tainted Wood
Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
Temple of Malady
Turbulent Fen
Twilight Mire
Underground Mortuary
Undergrowth Stadium
Verdant Catacombs
Vernal Fen
Viridescent Bog
Wastewood Verge
Westvale Abbey
Woodland Cemetery
And with that we're ready to join the fields of battle alongside Witherbloom, the Balancer! I'd love to hear your thoughts on the build in the comments below, till next time!
