This is a full 100 card version of my Grist Oathbreaker Combo rebuilt for EDH. (because Oathbreaker is a dead format apparently ;_;) I have copied/edited the original combo description from there, it works exactly the same here just with 30 bugs instead of 17, and there are some more flexible lines possible involving Lion's Eye Diamond (banned in OB) and Skullclamp (I think I excluded clamp from the OB deck because 'free' draw effects like Conjurer's Bauble are favored in that version, digging is not as important with both combo cards in the command zone, and that 60 card list was extremely tight).
- Cast Grist, the Hunger Tide
- Tutor/Cast Recross the Paths, Goblin Charbelcher, or Abundance ((((after this, you can win on the spot if you are able to make OR , or with mana using the free draw from Abundant Growth or Street Wraith. You can also win with Sensei's Divining Top and . Having a combo piece in hand can make it even easier, or it might be more difficult and slower with certain pieces in hand or grave. Winning on the next turn is also very viable and the safest way to multi-turn is usually to cast Grist (or Recross first if you expect Grist to die), pass, then cast Recross and combo same turn. If you Recross first you get a free tutor because you can put any card on top and draw it for turn, but this reveals way more of your plan vs. leading on Grist.))))
- Stack your deck. Because the deck has 'no lands,' the whole library will get revealed. As Recross the Paths says to bottom the revealed cards in ANY order, now reorder your deck with all remaining insects on top, followed by Dread Return, Songs of the Damned, Yawgmoth's Will, and then Exsanguinate. This is the most basic form of the combo. If going for the No-draw line, which seems to be the most common line, your pile will begin with BUGS--Dread Return--Corrupted Conviction--Lion's Eye Diamond--Street Wraith--Skullclamp, followed by the core combo cards. For the + draw line, the pile could look like BUGS--Dread Return--Lion's Eye Diamond--Skullclamp--Lotus Petal--Songs of the Damned, then the rest of the core combo / whatever you want really. You might have to get a little creative if certain cards end up in your graveyard, generally you can fix this with Bala Ged Recovery
or Yawgmoth's Will. You can win without clamp at all by stacking BUGS--Dread Return--Corrupted Conviction--Songs of the Damned--Yawgmoth's Will--Exsanguinate but you need . Just keep in mind your pile may need to change based on the circumstances. I also like to put in extra rits and Phyrexian Altar in there, Bala Ged and Goblin Charbelcher just below the combo to serve as a backup plan. Veil of Summer is also important to have in hand early but the only ways to draw it before casting Skullclamp are to pass and draw for turn, buy it with a free draw, or to stack Corrupted Conviction--Veil of Summer--Skullclamp which will require to win with veil up.
- Activate Grist +1, milling all your bugs and also Dread Return as the last card, making 26 or so insect tokens
- Cast Dread Return using the Grist tokens, targeting Grave-Shell Scarab
- For the line use Grave-Shell Scarab to draw Corrupted Conviction, then cast to draw into LED and Street Wraith, rsp the Wraith with the LED, draw clamp and get , cast clamp and equip an insect to draw Songs of the Damned + Yawgmoth's Will with left in pool. ---OR--- 6b. For the line, use your free draw from Unbridled Growth or Street Wraith to draw Lion's Eye Diamond. Then use Diamond to pay for Grave-Shell Scarab with floating, draw Skullclamp, cast+equip, then draw Lotus Petal+Songs of the Damned
- Use your single to cast Songs of the Damned. You need give or take 25 creatures in your yard OR additional fast mana cards you can recast off Will. We'll use 25 creatures to illustrate mana in pool going forward
- Make 25 from songs. Draw into Yawgmoth's Will per one of the above lines.
- Cast the Yawgmoth's Will. Down to 21 mana
- Recast Songs from graveyard, -1+25 up to 45
- Even without clamp, at this point you can cast Stirge from graveyard, and activate to draw Exsanguinate. Stirge draw costs 3 so 42 mana left
- Cast Exsanguinate for lethal!
And that's the combo. You can jam this on turn 3-4 o̶c̶c̶a̶i̶s̶i̶o̶n̶a̶l̶l̶y̶... quite often. Whenever you get 3 mana and a tutor, it's go time. If you get stopped after recrossing, you are backed up fairly well by a board of insect tokens, grist ult for ~30 life, and the ability to cast Recross the Paths again because usually you win the clash with Turntimber Symbiosis
. Goblin Charbelcher can also gib players as a backup. The deck's weaknesses of course are getting the combo countered, getting your graveyard removed, Skullclamp getting removed, not finding Recross, and most of all the manabase barely being held together by meme dreams and multiple mulligans. And if anything goes wrong you're stuck durdling out 1/1 insects for the rest of the game and then dying, so I would definitely put this deck in the "glass cannon" archetype. Though it is oddly resilient in some ways, mostly because of the alt-wincons and recursion. This deck has won in multiple cEDH pods where the table was able to interact and stop the combo but then still died to the token swarm or belcher. The fact that the deck works along multiple angles, as well as having multiple '1-card-wins' with tons of tutors, giving you repeated tries at going off even after being interacted with, these are the deck's biggest strengths in my opinion (besides being a fast instant-kill combo).
Couple of EDITS I am currently testing: Added Corrupted Conviction to enable the clamp line with with just . Switched in Universal Automaton and Giant Adephage as new insects. Added Phyrexian Altar. Added Scheming Symmetry Dimir Machinations Cruel Tutor to max tutors. Took out the chromatics/baubles. Took out Pentad Prism. Took out Blessed Respite. Took out our mascot Deadly Insect so we can live the dream of Blister Beetleing ragavans and birds.
EDIT 2: Changed up some mana rocks after the Mana Crypt ban. Mostly trying out a Lotus Blossom. Moonsilver Key or Pentad Prism are the other main contenders for that slot I think. Dowsing Dagger
was considered as well but I think it's mostly just too slow and clunky to get online, even with so many 1 drop creatures (partly because so much of our mana enters tapped). Also swapped in Coldsteel Heart (totally forgot about this classic), taking out Helm of Awakening because Helm just gives your opponents too much of an advantage and helps them interact against you, so it's a rather risky card in such a fragile shell. I could also see swapping in more 1 mana dorks like Llanowar Elves or Forsworn Paladin, I may experiment with this as well. I changed up parts of the combo description because I realized some more efficient lines I had overlooked. I also wanted to try and make things clearer and provide more info around decision making while stacking the deck, as that is the crux of the entire combo and most important aspect of the deck.
This deck is an utter abomination against nature. Don't play it
