Arnyn, Deathbloom BotanistArnyn, Deathbloom Botanist | Art by Anna Steinbauer

With Secrets of Strixhaven now officially released, I've noticed a few hidden gems in the set. While there was certainly a big focus on instants, sorceries, and multicolored creatures during this trip to Magic's magical college, we got a few interesting monocolored commanders too!

In fact, we got a whole cycle of these cards at uncommon. While they're all unique designs, I'll be focusing on the mono-black legend today: Arnyn, Deathbloom BotanistArnyn, Deathbloom Botanist.

Anytime we get a Blood ArtistBlood Artist-esque card that can be played in the command zone, I'm intrigued. I've built this deck with a bit of a special twist, but I'll get to that in a moment. Let's see what this Vampire Druid can do!

What Does Arnyn, Deathbloom Botanist Do?

For , Arnyn is a 2/2 with deathtouch. And, whenever a small creature we control dies, she lowers an opponent's life total by two points while raising ours by two points. I should be a bit clearer about what I mean by "small," though: any creature we control with power or toughness one or less will trigger our commander's ability.

As soon as I saw this card revealed, I noticed its similarity with Shirei, Shizo's CaretakerShirei, Shizo's Caretaker. Both are mono- commanders that care about tiny creatures dying. But Shirei decks are often built to loop those creatures between the graveyard and the board to maximize value, while Arnyn decks are likely going to be built around sacrificing as many small creatures as possible (without as much care for recursion).

I had a few build paths in mind for Arnyn. I could have built a classic Aristocrats list with important cards like Ayara, First of LocthwainAyara, First of Locthwain and Endrek Sahr, Master BreederEndrek Sahr, Master Breeder. I also could have built a deck around Rat ColonyRat Colony, because the Rats' toughness is still small enough to trigger our commander.

But with either of those ideas, Arnyn's unique ability loses its luster. So, to make sure that this deck is truly an Arnyn deck instead of another death triggers deck, every nonland card in this deck is a creature that can trigger our commander.

This deck is a bit different from what I typically write my articles on, so be sure to let me know if I missed any cool inclusions in the comments!

Key Cards for Arnyn, Deathbloom BotanistArnyn, Deathbloom Botanist

Even with our deckbuilding restriction, we've still got some fantastic cards available to us.

Sacrifice Outlets

Gas GuzzlerGas Guzzler should come online quickly with the direct life drain our commander provides. This Vampire Rogue then allows us access to some much needed card advantage at a reasonable rate. Priest of Forgotten GodsPriest of Forgotten Gods is another fantastic inclusion, turning two disposable creatures into life loss, removal, and card advantage. This Human Cleric can also be cast before our commander, allowing us to begin sacrificing creatures for value as soon as Arnyn arrives.

Then there's Soldevi AdnateSoldevi Adnate. While we won't be making a ton of mana with this 20-year old card, it's nice to find a home for it somewhere. This Cleric can allow us to sneak in a few extra value plays, like returning Altar of the WretchedAltar of the Wretched from our graveyard to our hand when we'd otherwise lack the mana to do so.

It's far from the best card in our 99, but I've gotten some great mileage from this creature in playtesting.

Token Creators and Persistent Creatures

We've got solid cards like OphiomancerOphiomancer and Bitterbloom BearerBitterbloom Bearer to make some creature tokens, but I wanted to give a bit of extra attention to Canoptek Scarab SwarmCanoptek Scarab Swarm. This card released in the Warhammer 40k preconstructed decks, and does so much for just .

We'll often make 10 or more 1/1 flying tokens with this creature, assuming that someone in our pod is making use of their graveyard, and it's really hard to beat that efficiency.

All of the tokens these creatures make will trigger Arnyn on death.

Among the best early-game plays in this deck are the one-drop creatures that trigger upon dying. Nested ShamblerNested Shambler, Infestation SageInfestation Sage, and even Shambling GhastShambling Ghast feel fantastic to place on the board on turn one or two. While we're able to sacrifice any creature in our 99 to trigger our commander, these cheap creatures actively want to be sacrificed.

They'll all leave us with some minor benefit after their death, which matters a lot in this lower-power list.

Most of the spells in the deck cost very little mana, so we'll often have excess mana to dump into activated abilities. That means we can bring creatures like Persistent SpecimenPersistent Specimen, Cult ConscriptCult Conscript, and Clattering AugurClattering Augur back from the bin. Clattering Augur is probably the best of the bunch, as it lets us draw an extra card upon entering the field.

Stax and Hatebears

If we're denying ourselves access to some of the best cards in Magic, we might as well prevent our opponents from accessing them without consequence too.

Spectrum SentinelSpectrum Sentinel could gain us upwards of a dozen life over the course of a Commander game, especially if we're playing against multiple multicolored decks. Zenith ChroniclerZenith Chronicler will also help us out when our opponents play with more than one color of mana.

Phyrexian RevokerPhyrexian Revoker can shut off our opponents' best permanents, which can be extremely useful given the difficulty we'll have in dealing with artifacts and enchantments otherwise.

Finally, we can ensure that one opponent also loses the privilege to cast noncreature spells with Hope of GhirapurHope of Ghirapur!

How Does This Arnyn Commander Deck Win?

Because our whole deck consists of tiny creatures, we can't make use of typical win conditions for this archetype. The Meathook MassacreThe Meathook Massacre, Enduring TenacityEnduring Tenacity, and even combos with Sanguine BondSanguine Bond and Exquisite BloodExquisite Blood are off the table.

We'll be attempting to drain the table out with our commander, Blood ArtistBlood Artist, and Zulaport CutthroatZulaport Cutthroat. Because we've got 65 creatures in our 99 (and even more if you count creature tokens), we should easily be able to drain out our opponents with just one or two Blood Artist variants on the table.

Marionette ApprenticeMarionette Apprentice may not gain us any life, but it'll also help us whittle our opponents' life totals away.

We can also turn all the life that we'll be gaining against our opponents with Gollum, Obsessed StalkerGollum, Obsessed Stalker, Starscape ClericStarscape Cleric, and Vito, Thorn of the Dusk RoseVito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose. We'll often gain five or more life in a given turn, meaning that these two creatures help accelerate our clock significantly.

Raven of Fell OmensRaven of Fell Omens will help speed up our opponents' life loss even further when paired with Arnyn.

Finally, we do have one infinite combo in our deck. By making use of Pitiless PlundererPitiless Plunderer, GravecrawlerGravecrawler, and Viscera SeerViscera Seer, we can loop Gravecrawler between the graveyard and the battlefield infinitely. That'll let us kill our opponents with our commander, closing out the game if all else fails.

Arnyn, Deathbloom Botanist Commander Deck List

Conclusion

This deck was certainly inspired by one of my own lists. I've got a Meren of Clan Nel TothMeren of Clan Nel Toth list with Umori, the CollectorUmori, the Collector sitting as the companion. I noticed that, as I upgraded the deck over time, I was adding more and more creatures. So I decided to lean all the way into the theme.

It certainly makes the deck more unique, and forces me to consider each slot in the list heavily as I'm making changes to my 99.

This type of deckbuilding restriction isn't always great, though. It worked well with Arnyn (and Meren) because both commanders rely so heavily on us having a critical mass of creatures available to perform some critical function. Other decks, like big mana Dragon decks helmed by Miirym, Sentinel WyrmMiirym, Sentinel Wyrm, may have a harder time getting away with an all-creature-and-land 99 because they need efficient ramp to accelerate their commander onto the field.

I love deckbuilding with some sort of restriction, even if that restriction isn't as severe as this deck's was. Some of my favorite decks were built on extremely tight $25 budgets that necessitated the use of some obscure cards.

It's said that restrictions breed creativity, so I'd love to know how you've shaken up some of your 99s. Let me know in the comments, and I'll be back next week with another article!