Overview

Death Toll is a black-green graveyard deck built around Winter, Cynical Opportunist. Winter has deathtouch, mills three cards whenever she attacks and, with delirium at your end step, turns a pile of graveyard cards into a free permanent. The rest of the deck either fills your graveyard, cashes it in for value, or reanimates the best thing in it.

The engine runs on three layers. Self-mill, such as Deadbridge Chant, Winter's attack trigger and Grim Flayer's surveil, fills the graveyard with different card types. Payoffs like Old Stickfingers, Deluge of Doom, Formless Genesis and Grim Flayer's delirium bonus count what is in there. Recursion such as Reanimate and Whip of Erebos puts the best creature back onto the battlefield.

Key Cards

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Winter, Cynical Opportunist
Commander · Delirium Engine
A 2/5 with deathtouch that mills three cards whenever she attacks. At the beginning of your end step, if you have delirium, you may exile any number of cards from your graveyard with four or more card types among them and put a permanent card from among them onto the battlefield with a finality counter on it.
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Deadbridge Chant
Self-Mill · Recursion
When it enters, mill ten cards. Then at the beginning of your upkeep, choose a card at random in your graveyard: if it is a creature card you put it onto the battlefield, otherwise you put it into your hand. It fills the graveyard and then turns it into a steady stream of free cards.
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Old Stickfingers
Graveyard Payoff · Threat
Cast it with X and, as you cast it, reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal X creature cards and put them into your graveyard. Its power and toughness are each equal to the number of creature cards in your graveyard, so it is both a self-mill spell and a huge body.
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Grist, the Hunger Tide
Planeswalker · Insects
A three-mana planeswalker whose +1 creates a 1/1 Insect and mills a card, repeating if the milled card is an Insect. Its -2 lets you sacrifice a creature to destroy target creature or planeswalker, and its -5 drains each opponent for the number of creature cards in your graveyard.

Playing the Deck

In the early game, prioritise mana and getting cards into your graveyard. Rampant Growth, Harrow and the mana rocks ramp you towards the top end, while cheap creatures like Grim Flayer start filling the graveyard. Resist the urge to rush Winter into combat before you have a plan for her attack triggers; her mill is most useful once you have recursion or delirium payoffs ready.

The mid game is where the deck comes alive. Winter attacks to mill three cards and, once the graveyard holds four card types, her end-step trigger puts a permanent onto the battlefield. Grist, the Hunger Tide and the other planeswalkers (Wrenn and Seven, Professor Onyx and Ob Nixilis Reignited) give you removal and card advantage while the graveyard fills up, and Deadbridge Chant keeps returning cards to your hand or battlefield.

In the late game the deck has plenty of ways to finish. Hornet Queen and Giant Adephage give you big flying or trampling threats, Noxious Gearhulk removes a creature while it adds a 5/4 menace body, and Old Stickfingers can be an enormous creature once the graveyard is full. Reanimate and Whip of Erebos bring back whatever has died, including the opponents' creatures.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths: The deck gets value from almost every card, because a card that goes to the graveyard is often more useful there than in hand. It has several planeswalkers, plenty of removal and a lot of recursion, so it recovers well from sweepers and attrition.

Weaknesses: The deck is vulnerable to graveyard hate, which shuts off Winter's delirium trigger, Deadbridge Chant and the recursion spells together. Winter's finality-counter permanents are exiled if they leave the battlefield, so her end-step trigger is not a repeatable source of the same creature. The strategy can also be slow to set up against fast decks.

Want to improve it? See the Death Toll upgrade guide: 7 cheap swaps with the data behind each one.

Verdict
Death Toll is a flavourful graveyard precon with a clear plan. Winter turns self-mill into free permanents, the planeswalkers and removal keep the table in check, and the recursion package means that very little in the deck is ever lost for good. Players who enjoy sifting through their graveyard and getting value from every card will enjoy it.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What cards are in the Death Toll decklist?
The Death Toll precon is a 100-card Commander deck led by Winter, Cynical Opportunist. The full Death Toll decklist, with every card, current prices and a button to copy the list into your deck builder, is on this page.

Who is the commander of Death Toll?
Death Toll is led by Winter, Cynical Opportunist, a black and green commander.

Which set is Death Toll from?
Death Toll was released in 2024 as part of Duskmourn Commander.

How can I upgrade Death Toll?
We have a step-by-step upgrade guide for Death Toll that lists specific cards to cut and add, with the reason for each swap.

Full Decklist

All 100 cards from the out-of-the-box Death Toll precon, enriched with current prices. Click any card to expand it.

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