At a glance
- Format: Brawl (100-card)
- Commander: Trystan, Callous Cultivator // Trystan, Penitent Culler
- Colors: Black / Green (BG)
- Archetype: Golgari graveyard value
- Power tier: mid
- Competitive Brawl: ✅ Legal
Strategy
Trystan mills three on enter and again on flip, so a 3-mana deathtouch body fills the yard and claws Elves back out. The shell self-mills (Crow of Dark Tidings, Paramecia Coloniex, Billowing Shriekmass, Daggerfang Duo, Dawnhand Eulogist, Undead Butler, Diresight) to bury fat threats, then reanimates with a deep suite (Zombify, Back on Track, Live or Die, Dose of Dawnglow, Scrounge for Eternity, Grave Researcher, Zuko’s Conviction) and grinds with cheap recursion (Reassembling Skeleton, Cult Conscript, Pull from the Grave, Unbury, Cauldron of Essence). New this pass: a green earthbend ramp/payoff package (Badgermole Cub as a 2-mana ramp engine, Dai Li Agents, Beifong’s Bounty Hunters) accelerates the heavy-black curve, turns spare lands into evasive +1/+1-counter bodies, and ties the dies-matter plan to a board-growing engine. Interaction is sharper: clean kill spells (Bitter Triumph, Infernal Grasp, Hero’s Downfall, Bake into a Pie, Black Sun’s Twilight) plus edicts and two wipes (Deadly Cover-Up, Zero Point Ballad), with Deadly Dispute converting dying creatures into cards + Treasure. Plan: stall early, dump value into the yard, earthbend out ahead on mana and board, then loop your best creatures faster than opponents can answer.
Upgrade path
LAND REVAMP 2026-07-11: manabase rebuilt to kill taplands (cut guildgates/temples/gainlands); now runs shock + verge (+painland in Brawl) untapped duals + basics. Land crafts this pass: Wastewood Verge. Crafted 1x Overgrown Tomb as the approved untapped BG shock (only non-owned card). Every rare/mythic in the 99 is already OWNED, so zero rare/mythic spell crafts were used. Owned rares retained or added: Temple of Malady, Dawnhand Dissident, Grave Researcher // Reanimate, Black Sun’s Twilight, Come Back Wrong, Deadly Cover-Up, Zero Point Ballad, Cauldron of Essence, Scavenger’s Talent, Avatar Destiny, and Beifong’s Bounty Hunters (owned rare earthbend-on-death engine added this pass). Refinement pass: cut 8 marginal cards (Compound Fracture, Join the Dead, Neutralize the Guards, Replicating Terror, Fight On!, Stargaze, Gran Pulse Ochu, Grim Bauble) for 8 owned upgrades the truncated-text build undervalued — a green earthbend ramp/payoff package (Badgermole Cub, Dai Li Agents, Beifong’s Bounty Hunters), premium owned removal (Bitter Triumph, Bake into a Pie), card advantage off dying creatures (Deadly Dispute), and recursive yard fuel (Reassembling Skeleton, Undead Butler). Count stays exactly 99. Manabase is owned tapped duals + fetches + basics by design (36 lands); no owned untapped BG dual exists in the pool, so Overgrown Tomb remains the lone untapped fixer.
Cards
Decklist
Paste straight into MTG Arena (or Moxfield/Archidekt):
Commander
1 Trystan, Callous Cultivator
Deck
1 Cult Conscript
1 Ichor Drinker
1 Dawnhand Dissident
1 Clattering Augur
1 Paramecia Coloniex
1 Daggerfang Duo
1 Crow of Dark Tidings
1 Stinging Cave Crawler
1 Dreg Mangler
1 Corpseberry Cultivator
1 Curious Forager
1 Grave Researcher
1 Billowing Shriekmass
1 Dawnhand Eulogist
1 Graveshifter
1 Broodrage Mycoid
1 Cheerful Osteomancer
1 Boneyard Aberration
1 Feral Deathgorger
1 Zuko's Conviction
1 Black Sun's Twilight
1 Unbury
1 Come Back Wrong
1 Pull from the Grave
1 Scrounge for Eternity
1 Crypt Incursion
1 Overwhelming Remorse
1 Live or Die
1 Dose of Dawnglow
1 Zombify
1 Back on Track
1 Deadly Cover-Up
1 Zero Point Ballad
1 Diresight
1 Cauldron of Essence
1 Broodheart Engine
1 Scavenger's Talent
1 Defiled Crypt // Cadaver Lab
1 Midnight Tilling
1 Infernal Grasp
1 Hero's Downfall
1 Badgermole Cub
1 Beifong's Bounty Hunters
1 Dai Li Agents
1 Bitter Triumph
1 Bake into a Pie
1 Deadly Dispute
1 Reassembling Skeleton
1 Undead Butler
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Midnight Reaper
1 Vraan, Executioner Thane
1 Vein Ripper
1 Massacre Wurm
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Dismember
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Command Tower
1 Eden, Seat of the Sanctum
1 Wastewood Verge
28 Swamp
6 Forest
1 Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor
1 Preacher of the Schism
1 Sidisi, Regent of the Mire
1 Junji, the Midnight Sky
1 Revenge of the Rats
Ideal build (upgrade target)
Ideal keeps Trystan’s Golgari self-mill/reanimation value core but replaces low-impact common creatures (Cult Conscript, Clattering Augur, Clay Revenant, Daggerfang Duo, Broodrage Mycoid) with the format’s best black/green cards. Adds elite standalone threats Sheoldred, the Apocalypse and Ygra, plus graveyard engines Grist, Fiend Artisan, Nethergoyf/Tarmogoyf, Old Rutstein and Deathrite Shaman; premium removal/attrition in Liliana of the Veil, The Meathook Massacre and Glissa Sunslayer; and unbeatable card advantage from Necropotence, Braids and Insatiable Avarice. Endurance/Cemetery Prowler add graveyard interaction. Top craft priorities: Sheoldred, the Apocalypse; Liliana of the Veil; The Meathook Massacre; Grist, Voracious Larva; Necropotence.
Crafts to reach the ideal: 16 (10 mythic, 6 rare)
- Mythic: Bontu the Glorified, Cemetery Prowler, Endurance, Fiend Artisan, Grist, Voracious Larva // Grist, the Plague Swarm, Liliana of the Veil, Nethergoyf, Tarmogoyf, The Meathook Massacre, Ygra, Eater of All
- Rare: Braids, Arisen Nightmare, Deathrite Shaman, Glissa Sunslayer, Insatiable Avarice, Old Rutstein, Sauron, the Necromancer
Full ideal list (paste into Arena):
Commander
1 Trystan, Callous Cultivator
Deck
1 Crow of Dark Tidings
1 Dreg Mangler
1 Corpseberry Cultivator
1 Curious Forager
1 Grave Researcher
1 Graveshifter
1 Cheerful Osteomancer
1 Feral Deathgorger
1 Zuko's Conviction
1 Black Sun's Twilight
1 Unbury
1 Come Back Wrong
1 Pull from the Grave
1 Scrounge for Eternity
1 Crypt Incursion
1 Overwhelming Remorse
1 Live or Die
1 Zombify
1 Back on Track
1 Deadly Cover-Up
1 Zero Point Ballad
1 Diresight
1 Broodheart Engine
1 Scavenger's Talent
1 Defiled Crypt // Cadaver Lab
1 Revenge of the Rats
1 Avatar Destiny
1 Infernal Grasp
1 Hero's Downfall
1 Badgermole Cub
1 Beifong's Bounty Hunters
1 Dai Li Agents
1 Bitter Triumph
1 Bake into a Pie
1 Deadly Dispute
1 Reassembling Skeleton
1 Undead Butler
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Midnight Reaper
1 Vraan, Executioner Thane
1 Vein Ripper
1 Massacre Wurm
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Dismember
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Command Tower
1 Eden, Seat of the Sanctum
1 Wastewood Verge
27 Swamp
6 Forest
1 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
1 Grist, Voracious Larva
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 The Meathook Massacre
1 Necropotence
1 Fiend Artisan
1 Tarmogoyf
1 Nethergoyf
1 Ygra, Eater of All
1 Glissa Sunslayer
1 Old Rutstein
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Braids, Arisen Nightmare
1 Sauron, the Necromancer
1 Bontu the Glorified
1 Endurance
1 Insatiable Avarice
1 Cemetery Prowler
Card images & data via Scryfall.