Upgrading Commander Precon: Witherbloom Pestilence (Dina, Essence Brewer)

Let's explore everything this classic Aristocrat Golgari list can do.

The new set, Secrets of Strixhaven, brought us back to a curious place, Arcavios, where the iconic Strixhaven University and its five colleges can be found.

This set brought us one Commander precon centered around each college, with commanders that we met the first time we visited this plane.

In this article, let's see how you can upgrade Witherbloom Pestilence with Dina, Essence Brewer as the commander. This dedicated student wants to revive the glade where she lived as a child.

Besides our suggestions for Dina, we'll also show you how you can upgrade Gorma, the Gullet if you play it as a commander. In our main list, this card is just an alternative commander.

Dina is a dryad mage student at Witherbloom College.

When she was young, Dina saw the glade she was born in succumb to an incurable disease. She was saved by Dean Lisette before she was contaminated like all the other dryads.

She is known for her eccentricity and pretty peculiar sense of humor. Dina says what's on her mind without sparing any words and usually carries a salamander-like pest with her, using its essence to channel her magic.

This is not the first time WotC gives us a legendary Dina. In the first set she appeared, School of Mages, she came as Dina, Soul Steeper. March of the Machine gave us Zimone and Dina.

It's difficult to discuss Golgari lists without thinking of the first Dina. This new version is a strong competitor and could become the most popular commander among Golgari fans.

Once per turn, Dina draws a card for you when you sacrifice a creature.

Her activated ability also lets you sacrifice another creature. You'll gain life and +1/+1 counters according to the power of the creature you sacrificed if you do.

Then we have this alternative commander, Gorma, the Gullet, a Pest Frog that has lifelink.

Whenever another creature you control dies, Gorma gets a +1/+1 counter.

Gorma might be scary, but it's quite generous and will help you grow the rest of your deck. Its second ability gives your non-token creatures +1/+1 counters for each of your creatures that died that turn when they enter play.

Together, Dina and Gorma show that Golgari lists always put threats on the board.

When you get this precon, this is what you'll find:

We'll show you how you can upgrade this list with Dina as the main commander. We'll also show you the most important cards in it.

Let's start with sacrifice.

Sacrificing Cards

A good Aristocrat player knows that creatures are more than just permanents. They're precious resources that you'll use to take advantage of strong abilities, and these, in turn, will get you ahead.

The original list comes with the following cards:

A relevant piece in this group is Witherbloom Charm, a new card from this set. For , you may use this spell to either sacrifice a permanent and draw two cards, gain 5 life, or destroy a non-land permanent that costs 2 or less.

It's very cheap but incredibly versatile, so it will certainly find space in many Commander precons.

Another important new card is Immoral Bargain, a sorcery that lets you remove as many permanents as you want as long as you sacrifice that same number of creatures as well.

This spell interacts really well with other cards that this list already plays, like Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat, Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest, and Gorma, the Gullet. It also interacts really well with some cards we'll add to this upgraded Commander precon.

Cards We Added

When we discuss sacrifice strategies in Commander, there is a small group of standout cards that see play in almost every list.

We added four of them:

Skullclamp and Deadly Dispute will draw cards in this list, whereas Grave Pact will punish opponents whenever one of your creatures dies.

Depending on the game state, this enchantment can clear the enemy board by itself.

As for Phyrexian Tower, it's just a suggestion, a "bonus" for this list. Because it is a land, it's more difficult to remove, and it also lets us sacrifice something, just like High Market and Grim Backwoods, which this list also plays.

It's weird adding a Swiftfoot Boots to this list because this equipment card usually already sees play in these decks, and it is a staple in Commander.

For some reason, this incredibly iconic card isn't in the original precon.

As Golgari lists aren't known for cards that give haste to your creatures (something red lists are full of), we recommend you add Swiftfoot Boots so that you can lean more on Dina's effect and protect her.

Cards We Removed

Card Draw

The cards in this deck that will keep your hand full of resources are:

Cards We Added

We discussed most of the card draw we added to this list when we discussed sacrifice cards. The only card we left out was the lovely Toski, Bearer of Secrets.

Don't be fooled by the fact it is a 1/1. In this list, it is a powerful ally, as its triggered ability gives you lots of cards when one of your creatures deals combat damage to a player.

Cards We Removed

Tokens

Tokens are a big part of this list, particularly creature tokens.

Now we have to go a little deeper into this set's mechanics. If you're uncertain about any of them, check out this guide!

One of these new mechanics was Prepared. For instance, considering Eccentric Pestfinder, if you gained life that turn, at the beginning of the end step this card will be "prepared", and you will be able to use Turn Stones.

Like so, you'll create a 1/1 Pest creature for each opponent in play.

This is a pretty short explanation that centers mostly on this creature. If you'd like to explore this set further, we highly recommend you read the article we linked above.

Other new cards in this precon that do something related to tokens and stand out are Pest Rescuer and Ribtruss Roaster. The first one also gives you some HP, and the second is a young Troll that has Devour 1 and creates Pest tokens.

Cards We Added

Insidious Roots makes your creature tokens even more useful: with this card in play, they'll also give you mana.

Pitiless Plunderer will also give you more mana because it will give you treasure tokens. You'll be able to use Dina's ability as much as you want with these two cards in play.

This list gains a lot of life, which makes Warren Soultrader a great choice. It will turn the creatures you sacrifice into valuable treasures.

Cards We Removed

If you find yourself with some extra mana in a turn, you'll probably use it on your commander's ability, not on Gilded Goose to create food tokens.

As for Tendershoot Dryad, it is the only card in this list that cares about Saprolings. This card may create them and give them +2/+2, but it still costs five and attracts enemy removals.

Removals

Golgari lists can play great removals. Here are some that see play in this list:

Cards We Added

When building decks, we always look for powerful removals as well as removals that we can cast at any moment - instants, for instance.

Beast Within is one of the best Golgari removals, considering it destroys any permanent and creates a 3/3 Beast token for its controller.

Cards We Removed

In this list, losing 2 HP to play Infernal Grasp is not that bad. However, we decided to remove this card because it only destroys creatures.

In terms of removals, the more versatile, the better. Removing this card allowed us to add a spell that destroys any permanent in play, so it was a good decision.

Buffs

The more powerful the creatures you sacrifice are, the more HP and counters you'll get in return with Dina.

Some buffs in the original precon are:

Stensian Sanguinist also has Prepared, but, unlike the first card with Prepared we discussed, it also has Exsanguinate, one of the most popular tools in decks centered around lifegain.

Cards We Added

One of the most controversial cards from the Final Fantasy set, Jumbo Cactuar, gains +9999/+0 until the end of the turn when it attacks. So, you'll attack with it and sacrifice it with Dina to get 10.000 HP and that same number of +1/+1 counters.

No one will see this coming.

Cards We Removed

It's time to put Gorma, the Gullet under the spotlight and show all of its potential as our commander.

Just like Celes, Rune Knight, Gorma, the Gullet was also released in a precon deck and interacts with creatures with Persist.

When a creature with Persist dies, if it doesn't have -1/-1 counters, it returns into play with a -1/-1 counter.

As Gorma makes nontoken creatures enter play with +1/+1 counters for each creature that died that turn, it "counters" the negative counter Persist creatures would get when they return to the board.

This means we can finish the game with lifedrain effects, like Blood Artist, or get infinite counters and HP with Dina, Essence Brewer.

Other cards you can play with Gorma are:

Witherbloom Pestilence is an excellent precon and definitely represents the Strixhaven college that sees death as an opportunity to grow quite well.

What do you think? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!