One of the most enjoyable aspects of the Commander format is that there are so many different themes to build around. Whether you’re a fan of +1/+1 Counters strategies, Typal decks, or Lifegain archetypes and beyond, there’s something fun for everyone.
Some Commanders even encourage you to mix and match themes in unique ways, keeping the deckbuilding experience as fresh as possible. The newly spoiled Blech, Loafing Pest from Secrets of Strixhaven is a perfect example of a Commander that blends a variety of ideas together, and this card is quite powerful to boot.
MTG Blech, Loafing Pest
To get the most out of Blech, Loafing Pest, your first course of action is to flood the board with Pests, Bats, Insects, Snakes, and Spiders. Mass token producers like Pest Infestation, Scute Swarm, and Arachnogenesis make it trivial to go wide. With the help of Parallel Lives and other token doublers, you’ll quickly build a big enough board to make each Blech trigger quite threatening.
With this in mind, the next step is unsurprisingly to add cards to the mix that can repeatedly gain you life. Essence Warden and Virulent Emissary are top-tier options, pairing well with token makers. Blood Artist effects can pair well with classic Strixhaven Pest tokens, doubling up on lifegain triggers for Blech. From there, on-theme +1/+1 counter payoffs like Winding Constrictor and Iridescent Hornbeetle can grow your team out of control.
Combos
While Blech’s basic gameplan is pretty straightforward, this cuddly Commander also packs a fair few infinite combos. The simplest among these involves Spike Feeder, who can remove a counter from itself to gain you two life.
Obviously, because Spike Feeder’s only creature type is Spike, it won’t pick up a +1/+1 counter from Blech without some help. Sticking Maskwood Nexus or equipping Spike Feeder with Spider-Suit, however, changes this dynamic. Once Spike Feeder is an honorary Pest, you can activate its final ability as many times as you wish, gaining infinite life and infinitely buffing Blech and other appropriately typed creatures in the process.
While this combo requires the fewest number of cards to set up, there are a bunch of other four-card combo lines as well. For example, with Blech, Essence Warden, and Maskwood Nexus in play, resolving Scurry Oak or Basking Broodscale will net you infinite tokens and infinite life. In the case of Broodscale, you can even gain infinite colorless mana, easily setting up a wide range of kills.
As a whole, despite Blech’s trigger being rather restrictive, there are tons of ways to take advantage of it. It’s not every day you see a Commander that emphasizes Lifegain, Counters, and Typal themes all in one, but Blech does so seamlessly.
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