GolgariLegendary Creature — Human WarlockWinter, Cynical Opportunist
Mana value4Rank#9,082
The Commander
Deathtouch
Whenever Winter attacks, mill three cards.
Delirium — At the beginning of your end step, you may exile any number of cards from your graveyard with four or more card types among them. If you do, put a permanent card from among them onto the battlefield with a finality counter on it.
Guide
Gameplan
Mill yourself to stock the graveyard with varied card types, achieve delirium (four+ types in your graveyard), then exile clusters of cards each end step to cheat the best permanent among them onto the battlefield with a finality counter. You grind value engines and reanimate bombs while Winter's deathtouch keeps the board honest, snowballing into overwhelming permanents faster than anyone can answer.
Strengths
- Free, repeatable reanimation every end step without paying mana once delirium is online
- Deathtouch makes Winter a sticky blocker and trades up against anything
- BG has the format's best self-mill, recursion, and ramp tools
- Card-type diversity is easy to hit in EDH, so delirium comes online quickly
Weaknesses
- Finality counters mean exiled-then-reanimated permanents are removed from game if they die again
- Graveyard hate (Bojuka Bog, Rest in Peace) shuts the whole engine off
- Relies on filling the yard with the right four card types, which can stall on bad draws
- Slow to close games on its own without a payoff or combo finisher
- Winter must connect or you build delirium passively, inviting heavy removal
Key Cards
- Mesmeric Orb — Relentlessly mills you each untap, filling the graveyard with varied card types fast.
- Crucible of Worlds — Replays lands milled by Winter, helping ramp and reload while feeding the yard.
- Golgari Grave-Troll — A massive recursive threat that grows from your full graveyard and is easy to reanimate.
- Bolas's Citadel — A premium permanent to drop with the end-step ability, converting your graveyard into card advantage.
- Syr Konrad, the Grim — Turns every mill and graveyard exile into direct damage, providing a real win condition.
- World Shaper — Mass land recursion enabler that ramps you hard while Winter mills lands.
Upgrade Path
Add fast mana (Sol Ring, mana dorks) and efficient self-mill (Hermit Druid, Stitcher's Supplier) to hit delirium by turn three. Include a compact win like a reanimated combo piece or Mikaeus, the Unhallowed plus a free sac outlet, and pack graveyard protection against hate. Prioritize permanents with strong enters-the-battlefield or static effects so each end-step trigger swings the game.
Core Cards
- Gnarlwood Dryad
- Old Stickfingers
- Suspicious Bookcase
- Grisly Salvage
- Carrion Grub
- Deluge of Doom
- Ishkanah, Grafwidow
- Dryad Arbor
- Deathcap Cultivator
- Into the Pit
- Sakura-Tribe Elder
- Demonic Covenant
Seeded from a single deck — rates appear once more public decks exist.
Win Conditions
- ▸Reanimating multiple bombs and overwhelming the board with permanents
- ▸Mill/exile triggers feeding Syr Konrad, the Grim for direct damage
- ▸Recurring threats like Golgari Grave-Troll attacking through deathtouch blockers
- ▸Assembling a graveyard-based combo such as Bolas's Citadel value loops
Archetypes
- Reanimator — The end-step ability cheats expensive permanents directly from your milled graveyard for free.
- Self-Mill / Graveyard Value — Winter's attack trigger and BG enablers fuel a deck that profits from a stuffed yard.
- Aristocrats — Deathtouch attacks, mill triggers, and recurring sacrifice fodder pair with payoffs like Syr Konrad.
- Midrange Control — Deathtouch deters attacks while you grind incremental advantage into inevitability.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (BG), by popularity.
