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Pest Control Problem

Every creature that enters gains you life, every point of life gained grows your Pests, and Witherbloom, the Balancer comes down for a song once the board is full.

Standard · by @evilBOD · 2026-07-28

Key cards

Witherbloom, the Balancer Witherbloom, the Balancer Pest Mascot Pest Mascot Bogwater Lumaret Bogwater Lumaret

$18.51 total value · €11.81 · prices as of 2026-09-15

Value over the last 8 price days: $19.28 → $18.51 (-0.77)
Most expensive cards
  • Witherbloom, the Balancer$3.89
  • Deathcap Glade$2.70
  • Moseo, Vein's New Dean$0.80
  • Arnyn, Deathbloom Botanist$0.35
  • Pest Mascot$0.29
  • Teacher's Pest$0.28
  • Bogwater Lumaret$0.27
  • Terramorphic Expanse$0.27
  • Essenceknit Scholar$0.24
  • Dissection Practice$0.23
60 cards 36 spells 24 lands avg CMC 3.08 B34G23

Mana curve

0
0
2
1
6
2
21
3
4
4
2
5
0
6
1
7+

mana value · lands excluded

Card types

  • Creature 26
  • Instant 6
  • Sorcery 4
  • Land 24

Colors

  • B 60% (34)
  • G 40% (23)

🎴 Goldfish (test draw) 🖨 Proxy sheet

Strategy

A Golgari (B/G) lifegain-and-counters midrange deck. Bogwater Lumaret turns every creature you play into a life trigger, and Pest Mascot converts every point of life gained straight into a +1/+1 counter, so the deck's engine runs itself just by curving out creatures. Once the board fills up, Witherbloom, the Balancer gets cheap off Affinity for creatures and closes the game as a flying deathtouch dragon that makes your instants and sorceries hit even harder.

Roles

  • Threat: Sneering Shadewriter, Ulna Alley Shopkeep, Shopkeeper's Bane, Witherbloom, the Balancer
  • Removal: Wander Off, Grapple with Death, Poisoner's Apprentice, Dissection Practice
  • Ramp: Grapple with Death (fixes via basics indirectly), Terramorphic Expanse, Deathcap Glade
  • Card draw: Essenceknit Scholar, Moseo, Vein's New Dean
  • Protection: Deathtouch/menace bodies discourage bad blocks (Poisoner's Apprentice, Ulna Alley Shopkeep)
  • Lands: 24 total — Titan's Grave ×4, Deathcap Glade, 2 Terramorphic Expanse, 9 Swamp, 8 Forest

Synergies & curve

The core loop is simple: Bogwater Lumaret and creature ETBs gain you life → Pest Mascot and Blech-style counter payoffs turn that life into permanent stat growth → bigger creatures gain more life on attack via Shopkeeper's Bane and Teacher's Pest, feeding the loop again. Essenceknit Scholar and Moseo, Vein's New Dean both spit out 1/1 Pest tokens that immediately benefit from the lifegain-counter engine, while Arnyn, Deathbloom Botanist turns your small dying Pests into direct damage and extra life. The curve is low and steady — two- and three-drops carry most of the game — with Witherbloom, the Balancer as the rare top-end payoff that gets discounted by your wide board of creatures.

Play Bogwater Lumaret, gain 1 life, put a counter on your Pest Mascot in play, then swing with a menacing Ulna Alley Shopkeep that's already +2/+0 for the turn — snowballing life and counters before the opponent can stabilize.

Weak spots

The deck has almost no reach outside combat and no board wipe, so it can struggle against wide token strategies or fast aggro that gets under its lifegain engine before it turns on. It's also light on card draw beyond Essenceknit Scholar and Moseo, meaning flooding on lands or getting stuck without a Bogwater Lumaret/Pest Mascot on the board can leave the deck grinding on raw stats alone.

Decklist (60 cards)

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📦 Find in your boxes — by set

SOS · Secrets of Strixhaven · 60 cards

⚫ Black · 15
1× Arnyn, Deathbloom Botanist #74
2× Dissection Practice #79
1× Moseo, Vein's New Dean #91
2× Poisoner's Apprentice #92
2× Sneering Shadewriter #101
3× Ulna Alley Shopkeep #103
4× Wander Off #104
🟢 Green · 4
4× Shopkeeper's Bane #159
🎨 Multicolor · 17
4× Bogwater Lumaret #177
2× Essenceknit Scholar #187
4× Grapple with Death #192
4× Pest Mascot #209
2× Teacher's Pest #238
1× Witherbloom, the Balancer #245
🏞 Lands · 24
1× Deathcap Glade #253
2× Terramorphic Expanse #265
4× Titan's Grave #266
8× Forest #271 · only 3 here
9× Swamp #277 · only 2 here

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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