Upgrading Commander Precon: Blight Curse (Auntie Ool, Cursewretch)

The multiverse is full of strange planes, but many of them are also incredibly popular. Lorwyn–Shadowmoor, the plane with two distinct aspects, is one of them.

In the past, each aspect would take over for hundreds of years at a time, creating either endless night or endless day, but now its strange duality became normal for its people. Lorwyn and Shadowmoor now share the plane, and the night and day fauna, flora, and its people live side by side. Night and day are together.

Though a lot has changed, a lot hasn't. For instance, Boggarts still get more powerful as they get older.

As a result, Auntie Ool, Cursewretch, the original commander in the Blight Curse precon, is unsurprisingly powerful, fun, and scary, all at the same time.

In this article, we'll show you how you can upgrade this deck and introduce a few new cards that only come in this product.

As we mentioned before, our commander will be Auntie Ool, Cursewretch.

This friendly Boggart (or Goblin) has Ward-Blight 2. This means if any opponent targets her with an ability or spell, like a Swords to Plowshares, they'll also have to put two -1/-1 counters on one of their creatures. If they don't do this, Ool counters it automatically.

Furthermore, this 4/4 commander also has a passive ability. Whenever a creature you control gets a -1/-1 counter, you draw a card. If a creature you don't control gets a -1/-1 counter, its controller loses 1 life.

As I always say: we should never underestimate commanders that draw cards in a precon.

Our sub-commander is The Reaper, King No More, a Scarecrow that also interacts with -1/-1 counters, but very differently from Auntie Ool.

While our official commander relies on other cards to put negative counters in play, The Reaper, King No More comes into play and puts negative counters on up to two target creatures.

Then, once per turn, when an enemy creature with -1/-1 dies, you can bring it back into play under your control.

Original Cards

Besides the commanders, this deck plays artifacts, creatures, and enchantments.

As you can tell, this deck interacts a lot with counters.

As soon as you open the box, you'll find the following cards:

Straight away, this deck stands out because it comes with two combos.

More experienced players will look at the list above and instantly recognize them, but let's briefly go through their synergy so that newer players can understand how they work in this precon.

You can skip directly to our upgrades if you're already familiar with them.

Combos

Pre-Requisites:

1. Have two cards in play and control at least two other creatures with toughness equal to one.

2. Have a way to put a -1/-1 counter on a creature (which is quite easy in this deck).

Combo:

1. Put the -1/-1 counter on another creature you control with toughness equal to one.

2. This creature will die because then it will have 0 toughness.

3. This will trigger Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons and Blowfly Infestation.

4. First, resolve Hapatra's ability and create a 1/1 Snake creature token.

5. Then, resolve Blowfly's ability and put a -1/-1 counter on any creature you control with toughness equal to one.

6. Repeat from step 2 onward.

Like so, you'll kill creatures infinitely and activate ETB effects infinitely. You can then draw cards with Auntie Ool, Cursewretch or The Scorpion God, play lands from your hand or graveyard with Dread Tiller, or fill Wickersmith's Tools with charge counters and create several 2/2 Scarecrow creatures when you sacrifice it.

This combo is a variation of the first one. You'll replace Hapatra for Flourishing Defenses and create 1/1 Elf Warrior tokens.

In both of these combos, Grave Venerations is a way to finish opponents by making them lose life and gaining infinite life yourself in the process.

You can also interrupt the cycle at any point to make sure you don't lose by deckout.

Counters

-1/-1 Counters are this deck's bread and butter. You can use them to remove enemy creatures, or use them on your own creatures to trigger several effects.

The original list plays many cards that put these negative counters or interact with them:

Out of these, Black Sun's Zenith is very popular in the MTG community and interacts really well with this deck. You can use it as a board wipe or to force your opponents to lose life with Auntie Ool, Cursewretch's effect.

Dread Tiller is one of the coolest exclusive cards in this deck, along with the two commander options. When it comes in, it puts a -1/-1 counter on a target creature. When a creature with a -1/-1 counter dies, this card lets you play a land from your hand or your graveyard on the battlefield, tapped.

Cards We Added

If you want to upgrade this deck without spending much, you'll need Whisper of the Dross. Besides putting negative counters in play, this instant also Proliferates, so you'll be able to put more counters on creatures with just one black mana .

Spitting Dilophosaurus is a very welcome upgrade, as it puts counters in play when it comes in and when it attacks. As for Yawgmoth, Thran Physician is one of the most iconic Commander creatures that interact with these counters. Its activated ability Proliferates them.

Speaking of Proliferate, we also added Contagion Engine, an expensive artifact that makes a huge difference in this list. Finally, Persistent Constrictor could have come in the original list. It forces the opponents to put counters on their own creatures and also makes them lose life as a result.

Cards We Removed

Archfiend of Ifnir is incredible with Hashaton, Scarab's Fist or Olivia, Mobilized for War, but, in this list, it is a bit lost. You'll have to rely solely on cycling lands to trigger its ability.

For seven mana, Grim Poppet comes in as a 1/1 creature. After you move negative counters from it to other creatures, it will be a 4/4 that doesn't do anything else. It simply costs too much, so you can replace it with cards that cost less mana or that do something similar or even more useful.

Card Draw

Let's go through one of the most important tools in any Commander deck: card draw.

A card that really fits this deck but not many people expected to see in it is Vraska, Betrayal's Sting. This is definitely not an Infect/Poison list, but both her -0 ability and her -2 ability make a huge difference in this strategy.

If you manage to get to her -9 ability and can Proliferate, the game will end on the spot.

Cards We Added

These two cards constantly draw when they're in play. Generous Patron's Support 2 also makes your creatures tougher and more powerful. As such, you'll be able to put more negative counters on them to activate several effects, like Devoted Druid's and Channeler Initiate's mana effects.

Cards We Removed

These spells are quite decent and standard ways to draw cards in precons. However, as our goal is to upgrade this list, we decided to add card draw that is more consistent and interacts more with our main mechanic, like the aforementioned Yawgmoth, Thran Physician.

Life Gain

This deck doesn't care too much about gaining life, but Grave Venerations will do that anyway.

As many creatures will die throughout the game, either ours or other players', we added Blood Artist.

Creating Mana

Mana Rocks

Wickersmith's Tools stands out the most among these three cards. This mana rock creates all mana colors, and, when you don't need it anymore, you can sacrifice it to create several tapped 2/2 tokens. You can do this while you pass to create a small army that can attack on your turn.

Cards We Added

Let's create as much mana as the cards above for a bit less investment.

Cards We Removed

Ramp

This deck plays lots of lands, but not many spells to look for them and put them in play.

Cards We Added

Cards We Removed

Removals

For a precon list, this one plays lots of removals, even if we don't consider the many negative counters we'll put on enemy creatures removals.

Cards We Added

Beast Within is a staple in green decks that destroys any permanent. It also creates a 3/3 Beast token for the player that lost a card.

Cards We Removed

Lands

We upgraded the mana base a bit. Basically, we replaced lands that come into play tapped with a few that come into play untapped.

Cards We Added

Cards We Removed

Path of Ancestry creates mana for our commander and also Scries 1 when we play a creature that shares a creature type with them, but we don't play any of those.

Our upgraded list is:

Our alternative list is an upgrade for The Reaper, King No More.

The Reaper, King No More puts counters in play when it enters the board, so we added Conjurer's Closet. Your opponents will also focus a lot on this commander, but it can't protect itself like Auntie Ool, Cursewretch, so we added Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots.

Ideally, we want to see enemy creatures die fast, and Maha, Its Feathers Night will be great for that. As for Ygra, Eater of All, it gets a lot from each death, because these creatures become Food in addition to all their types. And, whenever they die, Ygra will become more powerful.

Blight Curse is very fun and efficient. It also includes two Jund commanders that interact with a mechanic many players enjoy.

Furthermore, it also includes reprints from previous Lorwyn-Shadowmoor sets, so it's very nostalgic for players.

As all precons, however, it isn't perfect. It comes with too many lands (many that come into play tapped), not enough ramp, and some weird cards that don't interact with the main mechanic.

Nonetheless, it is still a very interesting deck and definitely worth a try.

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

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!