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Grave Tithe

A grindy Golgari lifegain-midrange deck that turns every point of life gained into pressure, removal, and inevitability, capped off by Massacre Wurm sweeping the board on its way in.

Standard · by @evilBOD · 2026-07-28

Key cards

Massacre Wurm Massacre Wurm Poisoner's Apprentice Poisoner's Apprentice Vengeful Bloodwitch Vengeful Bloodwitch

$16.34 total value · €10.68 · prices as of 2026-09-15

Value over the last 8 price days: $16.11 → $16.34 (+0.23)
Most expensive cards
  • Deathcap Glade$2.70
  • Massacre Wurm$1.70
  • Feed the Swarm$0.37
  • Vengeful Bloodwitch$0.30
  • Pest Mascot$0.29
  • Bogwater Lumaret$0.27
  • Terramorphic Expanse$0.27
  • Vampire Nighthawk$0.26
  • Jungle Hollow$0.24
  • Burrog Banemaker$0.22
60 cards 37 spells 23 lands avg CMC 2.81 B38G14

Mana curve

0
0
4
1
9
2
18
3
3
4
2
5
1
6
0
7+

mana value · lands excluded

Card types

  • Creature 25
  • Instant 3
  • Sorcery 9
  • Land 23

Colors

  • B 73% (38)
  • G 27% (14)

🎴 Goldfish (test draw) 🖨 Proxy sheet

Strategy

A Golgari (B/G) midrange deck that wins the long game through steady lifegain, efficient removal, and grinding card advantage. Nearly every creature either gains you life or punishes life gained, so the deck accumulates small edges every turn — a point of life here, a -4/-4 there — until Massacre Wurm closes the game with a one-sided sweep and a drain trigger for every creature it kills.

Roles

  • Threat: Vampire Nighthawk, Sneering Shadewriter, Massacre Wurm, Ulna Alley Shopkeep
  • Removal: Grapple with Death, Wander Off, Feed the Swarm, Poisoner's Apprentice
  • Ramp: Terramorphic Expanse, Deathcap Glade fix colors early
  • Card draw: Pull from the Grave, Vengeful Bloodwitch (grinds value off every creature death)
  • Protection: Burrog Banemaker's deathtouch discourages bad attacks and blocks up efficiently
  • Lands: 23 total — 4 Titan's Grave, 2 Jungle Hollow, 1 Deathcap Glade, 2 Terramorphic Expanse, 9 Swamp, 5 Forest

Synergies & curve

Bogwater Lumaret turns every creature you play into a lifegain trigger, which immediately powers up Pest Mascot (grows a counter every time you gain life) and unlocks Poisoner's Apprentice and Ulna Alley Shopkeep's Infusion abilities for extra removal and stats on the turn they enter. Vengeful Bloodwitch and Grapple with Death turn combat trades and removal spells into extra drain and lifegain, keeping you ahead on the race while your removal suite clears the way. The curve is smooth and low — four 1-drops, a dense wall of 2- and 3-mana plays, and a controlled top end of Sneering Shadewriter and Massacre Wurm to close games once the board has been ground down.

Cast Bogwater Lumaret, gain 1 life to power up a Pest Mascot already in play, then land Poisoner's Apprentice for a free -4/-4 on their best blocker before swinging in with a growing board.

Weak spots

The deck is light on hard counterplay to fast aggro before turn 3-4, since most of the interaction is creature-based removal rather than instant-speed answers. It also leans on singleton bombs — Vampire Nighthawk and Massacre Wurm are both one-of — so games where you don't draw them can feel like a slower grind without a clean finisher. The mana base is entirely two-color with no splash support, which is a strength for consistency but leaves no access to white or red removal and sweepers that might round out the deck's answers.

Decklist (60 cards)

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📦 Find in your boxes — by set

SOS · Secrets of Strixhaven · 37 cards

⚫ Black · 16
4× Burrog Banemaker #75
2× Poisoner's Apprentice #92
3× Pull from the Grave #95
2× Sneering Shadewriter #101
2× Ulna Alley Shopkeep #103
3× Wander Off #104
🟢 Green · 2
2× Shopkeeper's Bane #159
🎨 Multicolor · 12
4× Bogwater Lumaret #177
4× Grapple with Death #192
4× Pest Mascot #209
🏞 Lands · 7
1× Deathcap Glade #253
2× Terramorphic Expanse #265
4× Titan's Grave #266

FDN · Foundations · 21 cards

⚫ Black · 5
3× Vengeful Bloodwitch #76
1× Vampire Nighthawk #186
1× Massacre Wurm #754
🏞 Lands · 16
2× Jungle Hollow #263
9× Swamp #277 · only 8 here · also in SOS
5× Forest #281 · also in SOS

SOA · Secrets of Strixhaven Mystical Archive · 2 cards

⚫ Black · 2
2× Feed the Swarm #29 · only 1 here · also in TDC

Grouped by the set of the copies in this deck's build-pool lists, then by color the way a sorted box is — # is the collector number inside the set.

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