At a glance
- Format: Standard Brawl
- Commander: Long Feng, Grand Secretariat
- Colors: Black / Green (BG)
- Archetype: Golgari graveyard/sacrifice
- Power tier: mid-high
- Standard Brawl: ✅ Legal
Strategy
Long Feng turns every death and sacrifice into permanent power — each creature OR land you control that hits your graveyard grows a +1/+1 counter, so even sacking a fetch land or chump fodder snowballs your board. This refined build leans harder into the overlooked earthbend package, which is secretly the best engine these colors have: Dai Li Agents double-earthbends on entry AND drains the table for X life every attack (X = your counter-laden creatures), Badgermole ramps a land into a body and hands every counter-creature trample, and Earth Village Ruffians is BG-fixing fodder that earthbends 2 when it dies — ideal Long Feng food. Beifong’s Bounty Hunters earthbends X = power whenever a nonland creature dies, so the sacrifice loop simultaneously drains, ramps, and grows an evasive army of land-creatures. The aristocrats core stays intact: flood cheap self-replacing fodder (Infestation Sage, Undercity Dire Rat, Mintstrosity, Adorned Crocodile, Infernal Vessel), feed it to outlets (Vampiric Rites, Buzzard-Wasp Colony, Corrupted Conviction, Worthy Cost, Tribute to Hunger), and let the drains (Vengeful Bloodwitch, Susurian Voidborn, Cauldron of Essence, Sneering Shadewriter, Vein Ripper) bleed the table. Card flow comes from High-Society Hunter and Midnight Reaper turning every death into draws; clean removal (Hero’s Downfall, Bitter Triumph, Bake into a Pie) and the Massacre Wurm/Sothera finishers close anything Long Feng can’t out-value.
Upgrade path
LAND REVAMP 2026-07-11: manabase rebuilt to kill taplands (cut guildgates/temples/gainlands); now runs shock + verge untapped duals + basics. Land crafts this pass: Wastewood Verge. Verified clean. Only one crafted card: the approved Overgrown Tomb shock (1 copy). Every other card is owned (own>=1). Rare/mythic cards in the 99 — Sidisi, Cauldron of Essence, Midnight Reaper, Beifong’s Bounty Hunters, High-Society Hunter (rares), Sothera, Massacre Wurm, Vein Ripper (mythics) — are all OWNED, so no rare/mythic spell craft was used. Temple of Malady is an owned rare land. This refinement cut six underperformers (Sporogenic Infection, Fatal Fissure, Cornered by Black Mages, Hungry Ghoul, Pirate Peddlers, Crow of Dark Tidings) for six owned upgrades, all commons/uncommons: Dai Li Agents, Badgermole, Earth Village Ruffians, Hero’s Downfall, Bitter Triumph, Sneering Shadewriter. Net unchanged at 59 + commander.
Cards
Decklist
Paste straight into MTG Arena (or Moxfield/Archidekt):
Commander
1 Long Feng, Grand Secretariat
Deck
1 Infestation Sage
1 Vampiric Rites
1 Corrupted Conviction
1 Worthy Cost
1 Vengeful Bloodwitch
1 Witherbloom Charm
1 Bitter Triumph
1 Sidisi, Regent of the Mire
1 Undercity Dire Rat
1 Earth Village Ruffians
1 Badgermole
1 Hero's Downfall
1 Susurian Voidborn
1 Cauldron of Essence
1 Midnight Reaper
1 Dai Li Agents
1 Tribute to Hunger
1 Infernal Vessel
1 Beifong's Bounty Hunters
1 Bake into a Pie
1 Buzzard-Wasp Colony
1 Sothera, the Supervoid
1 High-Society Hunter
1 Massacre Wurm
1 Vein Ripper
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Bloodghast
1 Ouroboroid
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Qarsi Revenant
1 Preacher of the Schism
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Command Tower
1 Capital City
1 Conduit Pylons
1 Wastewood Verge
15 Swamp
4 Forest
1 The Earth King
1 Madame Null, Power Broker
1 Innkeeper's Talent
1 Evolving Wilds
Ideal build (upgrade target)
Ideal leans into Long Feng’s death/land-to-graveyard counter engine: Fabled Passage and Evolving Wilds sacrifice themselves for free counters, Innkeeper’s Talent doubles those counters, and Insidious Roots + Ygra + The Gitrog turn the sacrifice-and-earthbend loop into a snowballing, evasive board. The aristocrats core keeps its drains (Vengeful Bloodwitch, Bloodletter of Aclazotz, Vein Ripper) and card flow (Midnight Reaper, High-Society Hunter, Overlord of the Balemurk), backed by clean removal (Hero’s Downfall, Nowhere to Run, Deep-Cavern Bat). Standard rotation blocks Sheoldred/Go for the Throat, so this is the strongest legal shell. Top craft priorities: Bloodletter of Aclazotz (mythic), The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride (mythic), Ygra, Eater of All (mythic), Innkeeper’s Talent (rare), Overlord of the Balemurk (mythic).
Crafts to reach the ideal: 7 (2 mythic, 3 rare, 2 uncommon)
- Mythic: The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride, Ygra, Eater of All
- Rare: Blooming Marsh, Restless Cottage, Underground Mortuary
- Uncommon: Insidious Roots, Nowhere to Run
Full ideal list (paste into Arena):
Commander
1 Long Feng, Grand Secretariat
Deck
1 Infestation Sage
1 Undercity Dire Rat
1 Adorned Crocodile
1 Bloodghast
1 Earth Village Ruffians
1 Badgermole
1 Dai Li Agents
1 Beifong's Bounty Hunters
1 Innkeeper's Talent
1 Insidious Roots
1 Vengeful Bloodwitch
1 Susurian Voidborn
1 Bloodletter of Aclazotz
1 Vein Ripper
1 Cauldron of Essence
1 Vampiric Rites
1 Corrupted Conviction
1 Buzzard-Wasp Colony
1 Midnight Reaper
1 High-Society Hunter
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Preacher of the Schism
1 Overlord of the Balemurk
1 Sidisi, Regent of the Mire
1 The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride
1 Ygra, Eater of All
1 Massacre Wurm
1 Sothera, the Supervoid
1 Hero's Downfall
1 Bitter Triumph
1 Bake into a Pie
1 Nowhere to Run
1 Tribute to Hunger
1 Deep-Cavern Bat
1 Command Tower
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Underground Mortuary
1 Blooming Marsh
1 Restless Cottage
1 Wastewood Verge
1 Conduit Pylons
1 Fabled Passage
1 Evolving Wilds
12 Swamp
4 Forest
Card images & data via Scryfall.