Commander Deck Tech: Greta, Sweettooth Scourge

Normally, my relationship with Magic's artwork is somewhat indifferent. There are indeed those cards that I find beautiful, but I rarely care to pick them up, or when I do, it's because some of them are in stock for a minimal price at the store where I am placing my order at the moment. At the end of the day, I prefer cards that do cool and fun things rather than cards that only have beautiful art.

That being said, there's something about Greta, Sweettooth Scourge that intrigues me. All the food-themed art around the character just looks delicious, like no other illustration from the candy land has managed to seem to me. Especially the gummy worm she's holding.

So, guided entirely by my stomach, I decided to go ahead and build a Commander deck around this legendary creature.

Golgari is probably the best color combination to deal with the food token strategy since its creation in Throne of Eldraine, the 2019 set. I myself had a Sultai T2 deck with this mechanic, which just mentioning its components would result in an investigation for war crimes, thanks to the use of a certain planeswalker from that set, a black cat and its oven, and many times telling stories that began with Once Upon a Time.

Greta, Sweettooth Scourge takes full advantage of the mechanic, offering different possibilities for what to do with these artifacts, turning them into card draw or +1/+1 counters, depending on what you need and the available mana.

The deck is a fairly standard Golgari Food list but with some additions from Eldraine and even Universes Beyond - Doctor Who.

So, the deck list we'll explore in today's deck tech is as follows:

Let's start by discussing the infinite combo present in this deck. It's the synergy between Peregrin Took and Experimental Confectioner. Once three food tokens and these two creatures are on the battlefield, we can start the combo.

Sacrificing three foods to draw a card with Peregrin Took will trigger the effect of Experimental Confectioner, generating Rat tokens for each food sacrificed. However, Peregrin Took has a replacement effect that will ensure that for each Rat token, a Food token is created as well, totaling three Foods again.

Using this synergy makes it very easy to draw multiple cards and create a veritable army of rats. Moreover, this can be done at instant speed, even during the opponent's turn, allowing you to attack right away to close the game, dodging the main threats in the game, which are usually at sorcery speed.

This is a simple but effective combo, capable of resulting in many victories with this deck.

As mentioned, both Peregrin Took and Experimental Confectioner can create food tokens in specific situations, but to achieve excellence in this deck, more cards capable of this feat will be targeted. Cards like Lembas, Three Bowls of Porridge, and Eriette’s Tempting Apple are perfect for this, as they are not only Food artifacts but also have different utilities in the game. Rapacious Guest, one of my favorites in this deck, creates Food tokens whenever combat damage connects.

Cards like Pippin, Warden of Isengard, Witch’s Oven, Gyome, Master Chef, and Tireless Provisioner can create food tokens recursively, increasing your stock of tokens enough to feed a battalion of warriors, also known as your deck.

Eating the Food!

Now that the stage is set, we'll look for methods to use these resources. We're talking about effects that allow us to sacrifice these artifacts indiscriminately to use them in other ways. A good example is Cauldron Familiar, which allows us to sacrifice a Food token to bring it back from the graveyard, combining well with Witch’s Oven, as many are well aware.

When it comes to this, once again, we give a gold medal to Peregrin Took and to the extremely similar Savvy Hunter. They allow the sacrifice of a large number of Food tokens as a cost for an extremely beneficial ability. But other cards like Wicked Wolf, Gyome, Master Chef, Ace, Fearless Rebel, and also Gilded Goose allow some recursion when sacrificing your Food tokens to pay costs and trigger different abilities.

I personally really like Ace, Fearless Rebel; I recently used her as a partner to The Seventh Doctor and got some very enjoyable results, with the Doctor providing Clue tokens that she could sacrifice for her effect. Thus, it is conceivable that a deck that produces enough Food tokens to feed a Snorlax could satisfy the artifact cravings that our friend Ace has.

The Nutritional Benefits of Food Tokens

Just like in real-life nutrition, with this deck, we have benefits when consuming food that go far beyond just filling the stomach or, in this case, gaining two life points. In other words, many cards in this deck benefit from sacrificing Food tokens, either through the token's own ability, paying two mana, or through effects like that of the commander Greta, Sweettooth Scourge that allows the consumption of this token.

Right away, this deck reminded me of Disciple of the Vault. You see, folks; despite not occupying a space in the graveyard, tokens still go to that specific zone of the game before disappearing forever, allowing effects like this to be triggered. Vat of Rebirth also makes use of this type of effect, through oil counters that will be reused later.

Syr Ginger, the Meal Ender, our favorite little cookie, also grows and stores counters according to the number of artifacts that go to the graveyard. As a super novelty, we also have, from Lost Caverns of Ixalan, Tarrian’s Soulcleaver, a card that gives +1/+1 counters to the equipped creature when artifacts and creatures go to the graveyard.

From this, we'll also have other cards that will take advantage of this idea, such as the famous Trail of Crumbs, an enchantment that provides a great card selection for the deck, allowing us to choose a card from the top of the deck and put it into our hand. Rapacious Guest, which grows when Food tokens are sacrificed and deals significant damage when leaving the battlefield, not to mention Bloodbriar, which grows with any permanent sacrifice, even a simple Evolving Wilds.

Storing food also has its merits; Night of the Sweets’ Revenge and Welcome to Sweettooth take advantage of the total number of Food tokens on the battlefield by giving buffs to our creatures. Meanwhile, Sarinth Steelseeker helps to select cards from the top of the deck and speeds up land acquisition, removing them from the top.

Improving Even More

There are cards in this deck, such as Academy Manufactor and Jaheira, Friend of the Forest, that serve to further enhance your game, even if not entirely related to Food tokens. Academy Manufactor gives you treasures and clues whenever a Food is crafted, and Jaheira, Friend of the Forest makes all your tokens generate green mana.

Hardened Scales and Ozolith, the Shattered Spire increase the number of +1/+1 counters placed on our creatures, like Syr Ginger the Meal Ender or through the ability of our commander Greta, Sweettooth Scourge. Various other cards like Master Chef are also there to help with the distribution of counters, improving our creatures.

Utopia Sprawl and Wild Growth can help accelerate mana, bringing more tangible threats early in the game. Moreover, thanks to the super accessible reprints from Wilds of Eldraine, Utopia Sprawl has finally dropped significantly in price, making this the best time in years to acquire it for your collection.

Vraska, Golgari Queen also fits well into this deck, being a great Planeswalker overall and allowing us another means to sacrifice Food tokens to trigger various of our effects, not to mention that she gives us card draw and destroys opponents' permanents.

We also have here Laser Screwdriver, a card with various functions ranging from generating mana to even annoying opponent creatures. Not to mention that it allows us to give Surveil and even fill our graveyard, for example.

Like all the deck techs we publish here, we also focus on creating a more affordable version of this deck to perpetuate the fun while minimizing expenses. The final list would be like this:

Wilds of Eldraine was a super fun set. With a lot to offer and great cards, such as our commander Greta, Sweettooth Scourge.

The stunning art and card quality also contributed to making this set truly unforgettable, with both new characters and places from the story being well designed and represented. Certainly, Wilds of Eldraine will leave a lot of nostalgia.

Until next time!