19, Dec, 21

Best Starter Commander - Blex, Vexing Pest

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Don't be a pest. Well, be a pest, but in your deck, you know?
Article at a Glance

There are a lot of creatures that simply don’t have enough representation in MTG. Sure, we have loads of cool tribes to pick from, but what about the little guys?

We’re talking semi-literally here too, because we’re going to go all-in on some creepy-crawly, flappy, slithery tribal decks. Wait, no, just one deck. Sounds cool, right?

Meet your commander

Blex, Vexing Pest is a three-mana green 3/2 that gives you four life when it dies. Also, it reads, “Other Pests, Bats, Insects, Snakes, and Spiders you control get +1/+1.” That’s not all though, it’s an MDFC

The other side of Blex is Search for Blex, which is a four-mana black sorcery that reads, “Look at the top five cards of your library. You may put any number of them into your hand and the rest into your graveyard. You lose 3 life for each card you put into your hand this way.” We’re probably not going to use this, but it’s nice that it’s there.

We’re clearly going to be focussing on the fact that we can make a mishmash tribal deck here though, so let’s talk about the best odd creatures for Blex.

Read More: Best Starter Commander – Linden, the Steadfast Queen

The best pests, bats, insects, snakes, and spiders for Blex

Let’s talk about Spiders first. There are three that we want specifically here, starting with Arasta of the Endless Web, who makes Spider tokens whenever an opponent casts an instant or sorcery. You’ve then got Rotwidow Pack which can make Spider tokens, and also has each opponent losing life equal to the number of Spiders you control. Finally, you’ve got Ishkanah, Grafwidow, who also makes spiders, and can make a specific opponent lose life for each Spider you control.

Insects are incredibly potent. Living Hive makes loads of Insect tokens, as does Scute Swarm, as does [tooltips]Giant Adephage. Then you’ve got Hornet Queen, who leads nicely into a subtheme of deathtouch you can lean into if you want to thanks to Snakes like Hooded Blightfang.

Bats, on the other hand, are kind of rubbish, and we’re going to talk about pests in the next section.

Read More: How Good Is Food In Commander?

The best support cards for Blex

First up, obviously you should include Maskwood Nexus if you’ve got any other tribal bits going on in this deck. Wielding multiple tribes at once is tricky otherwise, but laughably easy with this card in play. We also really like Bolas’s Citadel here too, as you’re very likely going to be making a lot of tokens, which makes this basically a win condition on its own.

Onto Pests now. Pest Infestation creates Pest tokens that gain you life, but it also allows you to destroy a lot of artifacts and enchantments as you do so. It’s hard to overestimate this card, so make sure you include it in your list.

Finally, we’ve got Blight Mound, a two-mana enchantment that reads, “Attacking Pests you control get +1/+0 and have menace. Whenever a nontoken creature you control dies, create a 1/1 black and green Pest creature token with “When this creature dies, you gain 1 life.”” Both of these effects are incredibly good, and while Pests aren’t the core focus of the deck, it’s still worth including, especially with Maskwood Nexus.

Read More: You Should Try Unicorns In Commander

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