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 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, 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). Cauldron Familiar (Arena rebalance reverted 09-22, paper text) is the 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 (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 Cauldron Familiar
1 Witch's Oven
1 Academy Manufactor
1 Zulaport Cutthroat
1 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.