This week, all five Secrets of Strixhaven Precon decklists were revealed in their entirety. This caused 45 never-before-seen Commander legal cards to hit the internet at the same time. There was a lot to get excited about, and just as much to miss.
In all this action, a promising Commander from the Witherbloom Pestilence Precon may have been overlooked a bit. Dubbed Gorma, the Gullet, this Frog Pest perfectly blends Sacrifice and +1/+1 counter themes together. Plus, there’s a variety of game-ending combos that can be pulled off quite early in the game with Gorma in the command zone.
MTG Gorma, the Gullet
Your first step to making Gorma, the Gullet as threatening as possible is to fill your deck with go-wide elements and simple sacrifice outlets. Token makers like Deep Forest Hermit and Pest Infestation ensure that you have plenty of sacrifice fodder, while free sacrifice outlets like Ashnod’s Altar guarantee you can grow your Commander at will.
Then, after setting up a big sacrifice-fueled turn, any nontoken creatures will enter with a boatload of +1/+1 counters on it. Creatures that reward you for growing them, such as Marionette Master and Crystalline Crawler, will easily cement your advantage. Hangarback Walker and Iridescent Hornbeetle are especially powerful payoffs, since they flood the board with more tokens to keep your sacrifice synergies rolling.
Notably, Gorma’s final ability doesn’t just impact creatures that are cast. If you can resolve a mass reanimation spell like Rise of the Dark Realms, or play cards from your deck with Michelangelo’s Technique, you could get some massive creatures.
Soon enough, Gorma will be large enough to one-shot your opponents via Commander damage. All the while, the life gain from Gorma and other Aristocrat effects help keep your head above water. Throw in Sanguine Bond or Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose, and you should have no difficulty closing games even if you fail to connect in combat.
Persisting for the Win
Interestingly, as strong as Gorma is as a Sacrifice and Counters-themed hybrid Commander, it becomes even more powerful as a Combo Commander. Thanks to creatures entering play with a +1/+1 counter, Gorma can easily break the Persist mechanic. This creates all kinds of loops, using cards like Putrid Goblin, a free sacrifice outlet, and Gorma.
With these cards in play, simply sacrifice the Persist creature, triggering its return to play. Thanks to Gorma’s final ability, the Persist creature would enter with a -1/-1 counter and a +1/+1 counter, which cancel each other out. This sets you up to sacrifice the Persist creature again and again as many times as you wish.
By itself, this combo already enables a lethal attack with Gorma. Throw in a death trigger, like Blood Artist, and you’ll be able to kill the entire table. Additionally, all nontoken creatures you play post-combo will enter with an arbitrarily large number of +1/+1 counters. As such, even without a Blood Artist effect, following up with Walking Ballista and similar payoffs should end the game as well.
Given that there are 10 Persist creatures within Golgari colors that combo with Gorma, along with a bunch of sacrifice outlets, this combo line has no shortage of redundancy. Gorma’ is also quite an efficient Commander, making it easy to combo off early or replay the Commander in the event your opponent breaks up the combo with removal. Gorma’s cheap mana value helps here, allowing you to reset the combo multiple times if needed.
Ultimately, whether you want to go all-in on combo shenanigans or just construct a unique Sacrifice deck, Gorma is a great choice to command your army.
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