At a glance
- Format: Brawl (100-card)
- Commander: Winter, Cursed Rider
- Colors: Blue / Black (UB)
- Archetype: UB artifact/Food aristocrats-midrange: removal + Cauldron/aristocrat drain that closes by animating warded artifacts and Supper-stolen Food into evasive beaters
- Power tier: mid-high
- Competitive Brawl: ✅ Legal
Strategy
A UB Food/aristocrats midrange under Winter, Cursed Rider that grinds first and swings for lethal second. Plan A is attrition: a dense spot-removal + edict suite trades one-for-one into the opponent while the A-Cauldron Familiar + Witch’s Oven loop turns every upkeep into a death trigger and a drain (Oven sacs the Cat → Food; sac the Food → Cat returns and each opponent loses 1, you gain 1). Aristocrat payoffs (Zulaport Cutthroat, A-Blood Artist, Bastion of Remembrance, Vengeful Bloodwitch, Vraan, Syr Konrad) convert every death into reach, and Marauding Blight-Priest turns all the incidental lifegain into extra life-loss; Academy Manufactor triples the Cauldron/Food output into Clues + Treasures for card + mana. Winter gives EVERY artifact you control (rocks, Food, animated bodies) Ward-Pay 2, so the whole engine taxes interaction, and Winter’s Exhaust ({2}{U}{B}, exile artifacts from GY: -X/-X to each OTHER nonartifact creature) is a one-sided-ish wipe that clears blockers while your artifact-creatures live. Plan B closes the game: fixed-P/T animators (Ensoul Artifact 5/5, Case of the Filched Falcon 4/4 flyer, The Blackstaff of Waterdeep repeatable warded 4/4, Skilled Animator 5/5, I Am Iron Man 4/4 flyer, Tezzeret the Schemer, and Cyberdrive Awakener as the mass 4/4 + flying-anthem finisher) turn 0-MV Food tokens and mana rocks into evasive threats that are sticky behind ward. Supper for Spiders is the opportunistic glue between the two plans: after your removal or a sweeper kills the opponent’s creatures THIS turn, Supper steals the corpses as Food artifacts you own, which then feed the sac/aristocrat engine OR get animated and swung back. Card advantage (Phyrexian Arena, Night’s Whisper, Read the Bones, Midnight Reaper, plus sac-draw off Deadly Dispute / Village Rites / Vampiric Rites / Corrupted Conviction / Scavenger’s Talent) keeps the grind fueled, and a resilient top end (Sheoldred, the Apocalypse; The Scarab God; Kaito, Bane of Nightmares) plus the Sanguine Bond + Exquisite Blood drain-loop provide inevitable finishers the deck does not depend on.
Upgrade path
11 non-owned crafts flagged below. Supper for Spiders is the namesake and IS Arena-legal (HOB ‘The Hobbit’, released 2026-08-14; Scryfall games include arena + brawl:legal). In data/mtga.db it currently shows arena_id=NULL and arena_rarity=NULL, a stale-2026-08-26-snapshot false-negative that the next Scryfall bulk refresh corrects; legal_brawl=1 already so the gate accepts it. Listed as an approved craft (owned_qty=0). A-Cauldron Familiar is the Arena rebalanced Cat (legal_brawl=1); plain Cauldron Familiar is legal_brawl=0 on Arena and is NOT used. Commander Winter, Cursed Rider (rare) is also unowned but mandated. Crafts by rarity: mythic x2 (Cyberdrive Awakener, Tezzeret the Schemer); rare x3 (The Blackstaff of Waterdeep, Academy Manufactor, Toxic Deluge) + rare commander (Winter, Cursed Rider) + Supper for Spiders (rare in HOB, DB-lag NULL); uncommon x5 (A-Cauldron Familiar, Witch’s Oven, Ensoul Artifact, Case of the Filched Falcon, Skilled Animator). All other 88 nonland/spell cards + the 8 nonbasic lands are owned; basics are free.
Cards
Decklist
Paste straight into MTG Arena (or Moxfield/Archidekt):
Commander
1 Winter, Cursed Rider
Deck
1 I Am Iron Man
1 Ensoul Artifact
1 Case of the Filched Falcon
1 The Blackstaff of Waterdeep
1 Skilled Animator
1 Cyberdrive Awakener
1 Tezzeret the Schemer
1 Supper for Spiders
1 A-Cauldron Familiar
1 Witch's Oven
1 Academy Manufactor
1 Zulaport Cutthroat
1 A-Blood Artist
1 Bastion of Remembrance
1 Vengeful Bloodwitch
1 Marauding Blight-Priest
1 Vraan, Executioner Thane
1 Syr Konrad, the Grim
1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Deadly Dispute
1 Village Rites
1 Vampiric Rites
1 Vampire Gourmand
1 Etched Familiar
1 Scavenger's Talent
1 Midnight Snack
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Night's Whisper
1 Read the Bones
1 Midnight Reaper
1 Arcane Signet
1 Mind Stone
1 Dimir Locket
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Guardian Idol
1 Fatal Push
1 Bloodchief's Thirst
1 Cut Down
1 Go for the Throat
1 Infernal Grasp
1 Heartless Act
1 Sheoldred's Edict
1 Bake into a Pie
1 Hero's Downfall
1 Bitter Triumph
1 Dubious Delicacy
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Languish
1 Drown in the Loch
1 An Offer You Can't Refuse
1 Duress
1 Sanguine Bond
1 Exquisite Blood
1 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
1 The Scarab God
1 Kaito, Bane of Nightmares
1 Sidisi, Regent of the Mire
1 Preordain
1 Consider
1 Deep-Cavern Bat
1 Ponder
1 Corrupted Conviction
1 Feed the Swarm
1 Command Tower
1 Watery Grave
1 Gloomlake Verge
1 Underground River
1 Undercity Sewers
1 Restless Reef
1 Temple of Deceit
1 Rogue's Passage
11 Island
17 Swamp
Card images & data via Scryfall.