Since its release back in 2011, Innistrad has remained a fan-favorite set among MTG players. The set featured a wide range of unique designs and themes that resonated with players in a big way. Even still, there are some cards that don’t get the respect they deserve. Gutter Grime, for instance, is an underrated card that can flood the board with Ooze tokens and generate infinite combos.
MTG Gutter Grime
While five mana is a lot to pay for an enchantment that doesn’t provide an immediate impact, Gutter Grime makes up for this by generating lots of value in the long run. Each time one of your nontoken creatures dies, you get an Ooze token for your troubles. Additionally, your Ooze tokens get bigger and bigger as more creatures die since more Slime counters end up on this enchantment.
With this in mind, the simplest way to maximize Gutter Grime is to feature it in an Aristocrats shell. Commanders like Henry Wu, InGen Geneticist and Meren of Clan Nel Toth, for example, naturally incentivize you to sacrifice your own creatures for value. From there, having an engine that keeps spitting out extra fodder is a great way to pull ahead.
Given that the tokens Gutter Grime generates are Oozes, this enchantment also has plenty of value in Ooze Typal decks. There’s no better Ooze Commander than Aeve, Progenitor Ooze, and Gutter Grime helps ensure you have plenty of Oozes already in play to make all copies of Aeve as massive as possible.
As you continue to accumulate Slime counters on Gutter Grime, you can even grow your Ooze army with Proliferate cards like Evolution Sage. Then, adding Parallel Lives and other token doublers into the mix makes it easier to create a wide battlefield. With the right support, it won’t take long before Gutter Grime pulls its weight.
Gutter Grime Combos
If Gutter Grime’s general synergies weren’t enough to sell you on the card, there are also a variety of token-themed combos that can be executed with the enchantment in play. One of the simplest combos uses Reassembling Skeleton and Phyrexian Altar to make an infinitely big Ooze.
By sacrificing the Skeleton to the Altar, Gutter Grime will give you an extra Ooze to sacrifice, covering the Skeleton’s reanimation cost. Not only will this simple infinite loop get you infinite enters and dies triggers, but your Oozes will steadily get bigger, too. This opens up win conditions using Fling alongside the regular Impact Tremors.
Interestingly, you can set up a similar combo by pairing Gutter Grime with Beifong’s Bounty Hunters and any sacrifice outlet. Since sacrificing an Earthbend-ed land will trigger Gutter Grime, and sacrificing an Ooze token triggers Beifong’s Bounty Hunters, Earthbending a land, setting up a loop is trivial. From here, you’ll get the usual massive ooze and infinite enters/dies triggers, alongside infinite Landfall.
An Underplayed Support Piece
Despite having all of this utility and being from one of MTG’s most popular sets, Gutter Grime is still very underplayed. This enchantment only appears in 6,450 Commander decks according to EDHREC, so it’s certainly deserving of more recognition.
The good news, though, is that Gutter Grime’s lack of demand has contributed to its low price tag. With copies selling for roughly $0.40, this Ooze-generating engine is easily affordable. So, if you’re looking for a neat addition to your Aristocrats or Ooze-themed Commander deck, there’s never been a better time to pick up a copy of Gutter Grime.
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