$0.41 Insect Typal Planeswalker Turns Self-Mill into Infinite Tokens

In Commander, there’s a huge variety of typal strategies to build, each with its own unique charm. While some creature types are undoubtedly less abundant than others, a strong payoff in the command zone makes the deckbuilding restrictions worthwhile. Grist, the Hunger Tide is a great example of a unique powerhouse, taking Insect Typal to new heights.

MTG Grist, the Hunger Tide

Much of Grist’s value comes from its first activated ability. While milling a single card and making one Insect token might not seem amazing, it adds up quickly and helps enable Grist’s -2 ability when necessary. Plus, if you hit a string of Insects in a row, you’ll get a lot more bang for your buck, giving you a payoff to focus on the creature type.

Plenty of Insects are decent standalone creatures worth casting, including interactive tools like Caustic Caterpillar Caustic Caterpillar {1}{G}, Sacrifice this creature: Destroy target artifact or enchantment. and Haywire Mite Haywire Mite When this creature dies, you gain 2 life.
{G}, Sacrifice this creature: Exile target noncreature artifact or noncreature enchantment. . To help match Grist’s potential to go wide, token makers like Scute Swarm Scute Swarm Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, create a 1/1 green Insect creature token. If you control six or more lands, create a token that's a copy of this creature instead. and Hornet Queen Hornet Queen Flying, deathtouch
When this creature enters, create four 1/1 green Insect creature tokens with flying and deathtouch. also play an important role. The more Insects you add to the board over time, the more you get to take advantage of Typal payoffs like Fumulus, the Infestation Fumulus, the Infestation Flying, deathtouch
Whenever a player sacrifices a nontoken creature, create a 1/1 black Insect creature token with flying.
Whenever an Insect, Leech, Slug, or Worm you control attacks, defending player loses 1 life and you gain 1 life. , and Zask, Skittering Swarmlord Zask, Skittering Swarmlord You may play lands and cast Insect spells from your graveyard.
Whenever another Insect you control dies, put it on the bottom of its owner's library, then mill two cards. (Put the top two cards of your library into your graveyard.)
{1}{B/G}: Target Insect gets +1/+0 and gains deathtouch until end of turn. ({B/G} can be paid with either {B} or {G}.) .

With a flooded board, Insidious Roots Insidious Roots Creature tokens you control have "{T}: Add one mana of any color."
Whenever one or more creature cards leave your graveyard, create a 0/1 green Plant creature token, then put a +1/+1 counter on each Plant you control. and Cryptolith Rite Cryptolith Rite Creatures you control have "{T}: Add one mana of any color." become super appealing as mana engines, allowing you to cast even more Insects from your hand. Add a card advantage engine like Skullclamp Skullclamp Equipped creature gets +1/-1.
Whenever equipped creature dies, draw two cards.
Equip {1} , and you should have no problem using the excess mana. All the while, Grave Pact Grave Pact Whenever a creature you control dies, each other player sacrifices a creature of their choice. can turn your Insect tokens into removal, and Parallel Lives Parallel Lives If an effect would create one or more tokens under your control, it creates twice that many of those tokens instead. can help flood the board further.

Interestingly, as powerful as Grist is as a token-spewing engine, it’s important to remember how valuable the self-Mill package is as well. The more Insects you Mill over, the more impactful mass reanimation effects like Patriarch’s Bidding Patriarch’s Bidding Each player chooses a creature type. Each player returns all creature cards of a type chosen this way from their graveyard to the battlefield. and Living Death Living Death Each player exiles all creature cards from their graveyard, then sacrifices all creatures they control, then puts all cards they exiled this way onto the battlefield. become. You can also abuse Icetill Explorer Icetill Explorer You may play an additional land on each of your turns.
You may play lands from your graveyard.
Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, mill a card. and Splendid Reclamation Splendid Reclamation Return all land cards from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped. to take advantage of all the lands that get milled in the process.

If you focus more on Grist’s self-mill, other self-mill effects, such as Altar of Dementia Altar of Dementia Sacrifice a creature: Target player mills cards equal to the sacrificed creature's power. or Ripples of Undeath Ripples of Undeath At the beginning of your first main phase, mill three cards. Then you may pay {1} and 3 life. If you do, put a card from among those cards into your hand. , can accelerate your game plan immensely. After filling your graveyard, you can even use Gravepurge Gravepurge Put any number of target creature cards from your graveyard on top of your library.
Draw a card. and Footbottom Feast Footbottom Feast Put any number of target creature cards from your graveyard on top of your library.
Draw a card. to stack the top of your deck with Insects and make Grist’s +1 ability go ballistic.

Eventually, after stacking your graveyard, Grist’s ultimate potentially threatens to end the game in one shot. This makes Doubling Season Doubling Season If an effect would create one or more tokens under your control, it creates twice that many of those tokens instead.
If an effect would put one or more counters on a permanent you control, it puts twice that many of those counters on that permanent instead. particularly valuable with the Commander, doubling your token production and letting Grist use its ultimate right after entering play.

Infinite Tokens and Self-Mill

If Grist’s general utility weren’t enough, the Planeswalker also enables some infinite combos with Agatha’s Soul Cauldron Agatha’s Soul Cauldron You may spend mana as though it were mana of any color to activate abilities of creatures you control.
Creatures you control with +1/+1 counters on them have all activated abilities of all creature cards exiled with Agatha's Soul Cauldron.
{T}: Exile target card from a graveyard. When a creature card is exiled this way, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control. . Because Grist counts as a creature when in other zones, if you manage to exile it from your graveyard with Cauldron, your other creatures with counters gain Grist’s abilities.

To start an infinite chain, pair these tools with an effect that lets your other Insects enter with +1/+1 counters, like Arwen, Weaver of Hope Arwen, Weaver of Hope Each other creature you control enters with a number of additional +1/+1 counters on it equal to Arwen's toughness. . From there, simply use another creature with a counter already on it to activate Grist’s +1 ability, making a token and milling a card. This token enters with a counter on it, so you can activate the same ability again. By repeating this process, you’ll mill yourself out and make infinite tokens, making any Haste enabler lethal.

Notably, because this combo line sends Grist into exile rather than back to the command zone, it is risky, so protecting your Cauldron is crucial. The good news, though, is that many cards can fill Arwen’s role, such as Thunderous Velocipede Thunderous Velocipede Trample
Each other Vehicle and creature you control enters with an additional +1/+1 counter on it if its mana value is 4 or less. Otherwise, it enters with three additional +1/+1 counters on it.
Crew 3 or Railway Brawler Railway Brawler Reach, trample
Whenever another creature you control enters, put X +1/+1 counters on it, where X is its power.
Plot {3}{G} (You may pay {3}{G} and exile this card from your hand. Cast it as a sorcery on a later turn without paying its mana cost. Plot only as a sorcery.) .

Efficient and Cheap

Between its unique game plan and combo potential, Grist is a worthy Commander, especially for just three mana. Despite having barely 8,000 decks according to EDHREC, players that put in the work and go down the Insect Typal route won’t be disappointed.

Plus, this Planeswalker even has a low $0.41 price tag, thanks to multiple recent precon printings. This makes Grist a low-risk, high-upside purchase, so consider picking up a copy and taking it for a spin at your next Commander Night.

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