“I’m icing my swollen fist.”
Art:Winter, Cynical Opportunist
by Andrey Kuzinskiy
The Death Toll Precon is one that I like a lot, and I think the deck is quite good out of the box. I do think this deck benefits heavily from some upgrades, and luckily, these upgrades don’t need to break the bank! As someone who played Meren of Clan Nel Toth
when they came out, I was instantly interested in Winter for their very cool effect, and who doesn’t love some good clean Golgari Fun! There are so many awesome Green and Black cards for under ten bucks that can improve this deck quite a bit. Without further ado, let’s get it!
Please note: This list is in no particular order and is five under ten dollar upgrades that will help the deck.
Table of Contents
#5:
I cut Obsessive Skinner
for Aftermath Analyst
Copies of this card typically range from 3-4 dollars.
In my opinion, Obsessive Skinner doesn’t do enough, and with only one hundred slots, you have to cut cards that don’t provide a ton of benefit; while we do have Delirium quite often, I don’t think the counter really matters that much, and I don’t think Skinner helps with the overall gameplan as much as Aftermath Analyst does.
Aftermath Analyst not only furthers the overall gameplan by giving us some additional mill and helping us get Delierum, but its second ability can be a huge mana swing for the game and if we have milled a decent amount of cards early, which is quite easy in this deck, we can easily get a ton of mana back and be at a huge advantage. I like this card a lot and am shocked it wasn’t included in the precon.
#4:
I cut Deathcap Cultivator
for Skull Prophet
Copies of this card typically range from 2 to 3 dollars.
Deathcap Cultivator is a good card, don’t get me wrong, but I think that Skull Prophet is better for this deck in every way; by the time we have Delirium, Deathcap Cultivators mana typically doesn’t matter that much; while they are easier to cast, I don’t think Deathcap is worth a slot in this deck.
Skull Prophet is an awesome mana-dork for the deck and fits very well within the overall gameplan; while it is technically harder to cast in most of my games, I found that to not be that relevant, and the benefit of this card to strongly outweigh the downsides, being able to have a turn two mana dork just like Deathcap but have the mill advantage is perfect for the gameplan of the deck and can help us fill up our graveyard with ease. Since Skull Prophet furthers the overall gameplan much more, I think it’s way better than Deathcap, and Deathcap is a perfect cut for this card.
#3:
I cut Inscription of Abundance
for Living Death
Copies of this card typically range from 3 to 4 dollars.
In a color combination such as Golgari that already has a ton of amazing removal, I don’t think fighting an opponent’s creature is the best way to go about removing a creature; I also am not a huge fan of the other abilities of Inscipriton within this deck. This card is a miss for me, and I think Living Death instantly improves this deck. It will have a huge impact if you get it in a game.
Im not sure what the designers were thinking! In a deck filled to the brim with mill and cheating creatures onto the field, I can’t believe they didn’t include Living Death, which is a very strong card and often used as a finisher for most mill/graveyard decks. There isn’t much to say here besides this card is awesome; whether we use it to recur a huge board or slow down our opponents, this card is a slam-dunk and can easily change the game and give us a ton of momentum if we fall behind.
#2:
Click or Tap to Flip me!
I cut Giant Adephage
for Grist, Voracious Larva // Grist, the Plague Swarm
Copies of this card typically range from 3 to 4 dollars.
Giant Adephage, even when cheated into play, is very slow and not a great finisher for the deck, in my opinion. I much prefer Demolisher Spawn
which is an amazing and strong finisher for the deck. I love the card and think the flavors are cool, but I feel like Grist makes more of an impact throughout the game. I don’t think it’s that great within the deck, and if drawn and not milled, Giant Adephage is very slow and is kind of bad.
Grist is a great card that can be flipped extremely easily; while they are cheap and small, before they flip don’t underestimate an early-game deathtouch creature, which can be quite good against aggressive strategies, but truthfully, we try to flip this more often than blocking with it, but when we flip it we get mill, creature production which is perfect for chump blocking as well as artifact/enchantment removal or if we are able to get to the ult which in my experience is quite tough we can fill our board up a ton, perfect for cards like Demolisher Spawn.
#1:
I cut Haywire Mite
for Golgari Grave-Troll
Copies of this card typically range from 1 to 2 dollars. (Oh, how the mighty have fallen!)
Haywire Mite is a nice piece of utility but doesn’t do a ton for the deck overall, which is why I exchanged it out for Grave-Troll, which can be a strong creature at any stage of the game and is quite hard to kill.
The boogeyman of multiple formats is back and absolutely needs to be in Winter; this card is pretty much a no-brainer for this deck, being able to be quite big at pretty much any stage of the game and is a great finisher for the deck overall, they are also pretty hard to kill, and even if we cant regenerate them we can safely let them die because that dredge 6 is beautiful for our deck.
Conclusion:
Well, I hope you all enjoyed this list; the Death Toll precon is a very fun deck that I have been having a blast piloting, and being able to add budget upgrades allows you to make the deck so much better for so little! Thanks for reading to the end and for all of your support!