Stepping up from being a backup commander in the 2021 Witherbloom Witchcraft precon, Dina, Essence Brewer leads the Witherbloom Pestilence precon. Dina’s unique set of abilities builds upon well-established aristocrats and lifegain strategies by asking you to care about big powers, bursts of lifegain, and a steady supply of sacrifice fodder for card draw. While having the lowest overall reprint value of the 5 Strixhaven precons, this deck provides an excellent starting point for a wide variety of 
decks and has exciting new card designs destined to see play in existing commander decks.
Face Commanders
Dina, Essence Brewer
Compared to Dina, Soul Steeper, Dina, Essence Brewer still deals with sacrifice and lifegain, but her effects are stronger, they last longer, and are more difficult to use. This version of Dina makes for a very interesting build around, because these effects together are not that common, and trying to build around Dina’s new passive makes you build a deck that would work potentially better with the old Dina.
Dina will draw you one card per turn the first time you sacrifice a creature. Pay 
, tap her, and sacrifice a creature to gain life and put +1/+1 counters on another creature equal to the sacrificed creature’s power.
Sacrificing one creature a turn to turbo charge your card draw is extremely Golgari and relatively easy to accomplish. Burst token generation with something like Ribtruss Roaster or cards like Ophiomancer plus a sac outlet mean you’re getting 4 cards a turn cycle. Combine this with Zulaport Cutthroat effects and we’re draining the table slowly.
But wait, multiple gain/drain triggers is exactly what Dina, Soul Steeper wants to do! How do we make use of the new Dina’s abilities?
We can look at sacrificing cheap but high power creatures – get bursts of lifegain and put those +1/+1 counters on evasive creatures.
Cards like Kalakscion, Hunger Tyrant or Hunted Horror come down for 2 or 3 mana with 7+ power to offer. As a sub-theme, we could make use of these creatures before they’re sacrificed to Station valuable planets or spacecraft like Susur Secundi, Void Altar or Sledge-Class Seedship.
Then we can place the +1/+1 counters on evasive creatures like Tormented Soul or Silhana Ledgewalker to start dealing damage.
Burst life gain payoffs skew towards higher-budget combo pieces like Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose or Sanguine Bond. There are some other options, like Blossoming Bogbeast, but not too many.
Out of the box, this precon has many of the strong support pieces for lifegain-matters and aristocrats archetypes and challenges you to optimize the deck to realize its full potential.
Gorma, the Gullet
As the backup commander, Gorma’s a bit more straightforward to build around. He has two abilities that care about creatures dying but don’t really care about each other. His first ability makes him bigger when your creatures die, tokens or not. The big deal with Gorma is that your nontoken creatures enter with +1/+1 counters on them equal to the number of your creatures that died this turn.
Sacrificing a number of tokens before casting evasive creatures is a natural payoff. But repeatable reanimation spells like Hell’s Caretaker, Vat of Rebirth or Altar of Bhaal combined with power-based token generators like Ribtruss Roaster can make you an exponentially growing army of tokens. Combined with your Blood Artist style sacrifice payoffs, you could feast on your opponent’s life totals with little effort.
Not to bury the lead, but it should be noted that Gorma also goes infinite with a sacrifice outlet and any Persist card like Woodfall Primus. That type of deck more or less builds itself, and if your sacrifice outlet is Altar of Dementia you could mill out the table as soon as turn 4 with no ramp.
Deck Gameplay
Deck’s Strengths
Witherbloom Pestilence comes with a many staple Golgari Aristocrats cards, giving you the flexibility to upgrade this deck in a number of different directions without having to do a complete overhaul. There’s plenty of sacrifice outlets, a plethora of token generators, a wide variety of card draw and more. The deck is a puzzle that comes together into a powerful value engine.
Deck’s Weaknesses
Of the 5 precons, this deck is the one that’s most likely to have its pilot maneuvering which value play to make next, but never truly finding a way to win the game. Dina’s activated ability to give you a burst of life and put +1/+1 counters on another creature just doesn’t mesh that well with wanting to generate and a sacrifice a bunch of tokens. That said, there are some conditional game enders in this deck, like Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest and Blossoming Bogbeast, that can win you by giving your board +1/+1 counters or a large static buff and trample, respectively.
You can of course just outlast the table and with through standard drain and gain as well.
However, when looking for upgrades, it’s best to decide which of the subthemes you want to hone in on so you can focus your upgrades on that strategy.
Brand New Cards
Creatures
Pest Rescuer
One of the most welcome new cards in this deck, Pest Rescuer is an Ophiomancer look-alike that, combined with a sac outlet and Dina, will net you 4 cards per turn cycle. Ophiomancer was expensive before multiple reprints, so watch this one’s price over time!
Ribtruss Roaster
Ribtruss Roaster is one of the few cards in this deck that really wants Dina’s +1/+1 counters on him. Unlike Pest Rescuer or Ophiomancer, he only triggers on your end step, but can generate so many tokens that you may have enough to sacrifice one per turn for Dina’s draw and still have tokens left over.
Merchant of Venom
Merchant of Venom is a Fleshbag Marauder that says, “If you don’t sacrifice me, I will get very big!” and he’s not lying. Any time anyone sacs a permanent, he will get an additional +1/+1 counter – just entering, if all players in a 4 player game sacrifice a creature, he would be a 5/5. With Menace!
Worth 4 mana? Depends on the deck.
Stensian Sanguinist // Exsanguinate
Stensian Sanguinist’s best use case is blocker removal – send your death-touching 1/1 at the player with blockers they don’t want dead. Force them to make the choice – do you want to lose a blocker or do you want me to drain the table with an Exsanguinate?
Being a 2 mana vampire, I’m sure to slot this directly in my Clavileno deck.
Teacher’s Pest
Teacher’s Pest is decent sacrifice fodder in this deck, especially because it’s a non-token so it’ll trigger things like Blight Mound and Pawn of Ulamog. If you like this type of effect, check out Reassembling Skeleton and Oathsworn Vampire.
Defiling Daemogoth
Defiling Daemogoth is pricey at 
but has one of the best payoffs for burst lifegain the deck has to offer, nuking the table for the total amount of life you gained on your turn on your end step.
Eccentric Pestfinder // Turn Stones
Eccentric Pestfinder can generate you 3 Pests a turn cycle with Turn Stones, provided you jump through hoops to set him up. He only prepares his spells on any end step where you’ve gained life, and Turn Stones is a sorcery. So you won’t be able to use the spell the turn you cast him, which might be OK since he’s a whopping to cast. But to keep the Pests coming, since they gain you life when they die, make sure to sacrifice one on an opponent’s turn to make sure he’s prepared again by the time your turn rolls around. Dina will give you a card, to boot!
Instants, Sorceries & Enchantments
Feral Appetite
Instant speed graveyard hate is always appreciated, but this is going to cost you a grand total of for your first pest. The passive buff of +1/+0 and deathtouch on attacking pests is also fine, I guess.
Despite the pest token production, this deck is hardly a go-wide combat deck, as Dina wants to get something real big and evasive to put counters on while using pests as sacrifice fodder for card draw. There is a soft subtheme of giving attackers deathtouch with cards like Ohran Frostfang but I really don’t know why. This is a bit of a confused card that I expect to be cut from a lot of people’s final lists.
Witherbloom Charm
It’s ok. Gaining 5 life is meh but if you have more burst lifegain payoffs, maybe worth it. Overall the flexibility is nice. I’d probably play Golgari Charm given the choice.
Ominous Harvest
One of the better new cards in the deck, Ominous Harvest uses a highly underutilized keyword, Gravestorm. You get to copy this spell for each permanent put into the yard from the battlefield this turn – regardless of who owned that permanent and whether or not it was a token. The payoff is large card draw and life loss, 1 of each per copy.
Being that this is sorcery speed, it really requires you to be proactive in how you use it. Either after a cheaper board wipe like Blasphemous Edict or after sacrificing a bunch of your tokens for some nefarious purpose, follow it up with Ominous Harvest to either kill someone with the repeated lifeloss from this spell’s copies or draw a bunch of cards yourself.
I think I still like Plumb the Forbidden more as an aristocrats burst-sac-draw effect, but we’ll see how this one lands.
Immoral Bargain
Definitely a contender for the best card in the deck, Immoral Bargain turns your fodder into removal that awkward cards like Feral Appetite couldn’t quite manage. Really like this card and expect it to find a home in many Golgari piles.
Lands
Turbulent Fen is the version of the Turbulent (octopus) lands, sure to be a commander hit. Titan’s grave will be replaced quickly for many folks looking to upgrade their deck.
Notable Reprints
Gyome, Master Chef
Having been printed in the previous Witherbloom Witchcraft precon, Gyome is a welcome reprint in a new era of food-based strategies. His ability to turn each food into Withstand Death means the Master Chef is doling out indestructible with nothing but a hearty meal.
Not super synergistic with the deck, but a nice reprint nonetheless.
Nether Traitor
Nether Traitor and Bloodghast are both premier sac fodder for many aristocrats strategies, as they come back from the yard very easily. Being non-token creatures, they trigger cards like Pawn of Ulamog or Blight Mound easily, doubling up on the value of creatures dying and coming back for more.
Nether Traitor can be used in infinite combos with something like Pitiless Plunderer and Pawn of Ulamog, the former giving you treasures when creatures die and the latter giving you creatures when Nether Traitor dies. Combine this with a sac outlet and Blood Artist effect to drain the table!
Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia
Jadar’s been creeping up in price since his most recent printing. Being only 
and generating sacrifice fodder on your end step, he’s a solid value piece that can come down early and add gas to many game plans.
Toxic Deluge
Toxic Deluge is and will continue to be a premier Black board wipe in the format. It’ll be a welcome reprint any time it’s over $2.
Blossoming Bogbeast
Like his friend Gyome, Blossoming Bogbeast was only printed in Commander 2021’s Witherbloom Witchcraft. Being a repeatable way to weaponize lifegain, and one of the few ways to make use of it without one of the well known black combo pieces, makes him a welcome reprint. Just wish we had more non-combo burst lifegain payoffs in commander!
Pawn of Ulamog
Pawn of Ulamog’s claim to fame is to give you another self-sacrificing body each time a nontoken creature you control dies. These Eldrazi Spawn also generate mana, making the Pawn a great value piece that can both double up on your death effects and simultaneously generate you mana.
Ohran Frostfang
Ohran Frostfang is a great card, I’m just not totally sure why he’s in this deck. It’s nice that if you have a bunch of Pests you can throw them at someone for some card draw, I suppose. But with a sac outlet, Dina will do that for you! This is a nice reprint, but it’s likely to get cut in favor of something more suited to this deck.
Upgrade Recommendations
Big Lifegain & Payoffs
Big Lifegain payoffs are a relatively unexplored space in , with the primary option being the various versions of Sanguine Bond like Vito, Defiant Bloodlord, or the new Professor Dellian Fel. These effects combo with Exquisite Blood or Bloodthirsty Conqueror to drain out your table. This is a well known combo that people see coming a mile away, so be prepared for the attention.
Moseo and Dina work very well together, as Moseo will reanimate creatures based on the life you gained on your end step.
Aetherflux Reservoir and Aettir and Priwen both are cards that pay off when you have a high life total. If you are running evasive creatures, Aettir and Priwen could just 1 shot someone.
+1/+1 Counters & Payoffs
Madame Null, Power Broker is such a slam dunk include in this deck. She gives you the option to pay life equal to a creature’s power when they enter to put that many +1/+1 counters on it. You don’t need to take her up on her offer, but if you’re planning on sacrificing the creature to Dina anyways, you’re getting all that life back and more, and doubling the amount of counters you’re putting on the next creature.
Jenova can be a good target for your +1/+1 counters, as she then puts more counters on another creature on combat, and draws you a boatload of cards when that creature dies.
Iridescent Hornbeetle doesn’t need counters put on it, it just cares that counters are being put on something. Then it rewards you with sacrifice fodder!
Bloodtracker both wants counters and wants to die, making him a synergistic fit in the deck’s overall gameplan.
While Gyre Sage specifically cares about +1/+1 counters, any mana dork that gives you mana equal to its power will fit nicely here. Kami of Whispered Hopes, Marwyn, the Nurturer for example.
Both Reyhan and the Ozolith let you keep the counters you’d otherwise lose when having creatures sacrificed or removed. Reyhan isn’t as resilient to board wipes, but does synergize well with Dina’s sacrifices.
Low Mana, High Power Creatures
Unlike burst lifegain payoffs, there are actually a number of options for low mana, high power creatures you can use to sacrifice to Dina for big power swings. Special shout-out to Rot-Curse Rakshasa, who can then be Renewed from your graveyard to give problematic creatures your opponents control Decayed. Decayed makes them unable to block and will be sacrificed at the end of combat in which they attack.
Low Mana, High Power Creatures Synergies
If you’re going with this strategy, I really want to highlight Varolz, who, on top of being a free sac outlet, can effectively double down on the value you get from any low mana, high power creature. This pairs exceedingly well with Madame Null. Imagine – for Slumbering Trudge – take up Madame Null on her offer – the trudge is a 12/12. Sacrifice it with Dina, put the 12 counters on Tormented Soul. Then Scavenge the Trudge with Varolz for for another 6 counters on Tormented Soul. 19/19 unblockable for over 3 installments – what’s not to like?
Consider using the power of creatures about to be sacrificed to station Planets or Spacecraft. Evendo becomes a “Gaea’s Cradle at home” at 12 counters. Susur Secundi lets you sacrifice creatures to draw cards equal to their power. Exploration Broodship lets you play extra lands and cast permanents from your yard. The Seedship lets you cheat in creatures from your hand.
While not a planet or spacecraft, Mosswort Bridge is a power-matters card that can be used to cheat in whatever you hid away.
Lastly, consider evasive creatures to put counters on to ensure the damage gets dealt. There’s a number of shadow and unblockable options in black, and green has a few creatures with various landwalks and creatures that can only be blocked by flyers.
Generally Good Golgari Aristocrat Cards
Anytime sacrificing creatures is a gameplan, the Grave Pact-style cards should be considered. They’re extremely effective and very high salt, so if you’re looking to keep it casual, avoid these cards.
Given that most of the creatures you’re sacrificing are green and black pests, Savra, Queen of the Golgari thrives in this deck and can synergize with your other lifegain strategies.
Rise of the Witch King combines a Zombify effect with a Fleshbag Marauder effect – particularly useful here.
Dread Return is one of my all time favorite cards for this archetype, especially if you initially use it to reanimate a token generator, sacrifice the token generator, then sacrifice the tokens to flashback Dread Return to bring the generator back. Combined with the death trigger payoffs, this card can be an explosive way to deal a lot of table damage.
Victimize is also a classic, allowing you to sacrifice a pest to bring back two other creatures. Decks that frequently have creatures die can also benefit from a Vat of Rebirth, and decks that have expendable tokens can use Altar of Bhaal – and we fit both archetypes.
If you’re looking for additional sacrifice outlets, Spawning Pit can generate more sacrifice fodder, and Carrion Feeder naturally gets bigger when eating creatures, eventually becoming a good target for Dina’s sacrifice later. Disciple of Griselbrand is a sacrifice outlet that costs mana, but can generate big bursts of life as well.
There are an abundance of cards that deal table damage when other creatures die, with various caveats. Arnyn is from this set and cares specifically about your creatures with power or toughness 1 or less dying, pinging a specific opponent for 2 and gaining you 2. Poison-Tip Archer cares about any creature, and Mirkwood Bats cares whenever you create or sacrifice tokens.
Cauldron of Essence merges those two themes beautifully – a Zulaport Cutthroat effect and a reanimate effect all on one efficient cauldron.
Recommended Cuts
Gyome, Master Chef
Gyome loosely synergizes with this deck, as food tokens can provide bursts of life, or be used as protection in a pinch. Being that he has Trample, he makes a good target for Dina’s counters, but overall, there are better options for your strategy.
Ohran Frostfang
Ohran Frostfang works better when you want to be attacking with your tokens instead of using them as sacrifice fodder. Dina can already use the tokens to draw cards, so the primary benefit of Ohran is getting a few points of extra damage in – you could just put in Cauldron of Essence instead.
Stensian Sanguinist // Exsanguinate
This one’s on the border – do some play testing and see if you ever get to Exsanguinate with this card. Realistically you aren’t generating big mana and don’t attack often, making this card seemingly limited to an end-game catch-up role. Why not play an early/mid game card and not fall behind to start with?
Gilded Goose
Why is this here? Did this start off as a food deck because of Gyome and then they abandoned it but forgot to remove the Goose?
Dina, Soul Steeper
You could legitimately transform this deck into a Dina, Soul Steeper deck instead. I’m only advocating to cut it so that you focus on trying to make use of Essence Brewer’s unique build-around.
Springbloom Druid
I do like creature-based ramp so you could sacrifice them later, but this is the same mana value as Dina, and Dina needs to tap. I’d rather go to a 1 or 2 mana ramp spell instead to avoid setting Dina back a turn.
Feral Appetite
Maybe it’s me, but Pests are fodder not fighters. The graveyard hate is nice, but fairly expensive, especially for a deck that doesn’t produce lots of mana.
Trudge Garden
Being that your primary source of lifegain will be Dina’s ability, this means you’re paying 
for a 4/4 beast, after paying for an enchantment. Just too much mana investment for a mediocre payoff.
Ominous Harvest
This can be a big burst card draw effect for you, but I don’t think cards will be your problem. Look for win conditions instead.
Witherbloom Command
Too situational to be useful, especially at sorcery speed.
End Step
Dina, Essence Brewer is a genuinely unique commander that asks interesting questions – questions that don’t always have easy answers. That tension between her two halves is what makes her compelling, and what will keep experienced pilots coming back to tune and refine.
Whether you want to build a ruthless low-mana high-power sacrifice engine, a lifegain combo deck, or just a solid Golgari aristocrats pile with great bones, this precon gives you a strong foundation to work from.
Just maybe cut the Gilded Goose first.
Check out our other Secrets of Strixhaven Precon Guides here: