Is Grist, the Hunger Tide the New Combo Bad Boy In Modern?
One of the earliest spoilers that Wizards of the Coast announced for the new Magic: the Gathering set Modern Horizons 2 is the new 3 mana Planeswalker Grist, the Hunger Tide. Immediately, there was a lot of discussion amongst the community around how to utilize the card with it’s unique passive ability. Historically, 3 mana Planeswalkers are very powerful cards, but is Grist, the Hunger Tide the new combo bad boy in Modern?
READ MORE: Full Modern Horizons 2 Spoiler Gallery
Doubling Season and Planeswalkers
The first piece of our combo is obviously Grist, the Hunger Tide, but the second part of this is Doubling Season. The interaction between Grist and Doubling Season is one that can allow us to win the game on the spot, assuming some conditions are met first. With Doubling Season in play, when Grist enters the battlefield, it will enter twice the amount of Loyalty counters, which can let us activate Grist’s ultimate right away. This combo of cards is not something new to Modern, as the combo used to be utilized with Jace, Architecht of Thought, and a host of other planeswalkers that can ultimate right away to win the game.
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Doubling Grist Combo
With this knowledge, we can now build our deck to incorporate this combo. Normally, we want to find ways to turbo out our combo to the board, but there are some specific conditions that we need to meet for this combo to work. Grist’s ultimate says that each opponent loses life equal to the number of creatures in our graveyard. We could play a fair midrange game and use Grist a bit more fairly, but the list that we have here is more akin to a dredge-vine list. We look to turbo creatures into our graveyard with
Stitcher’s Supplier
Stitcher’s Supplier
When this creature enters or dies, mill three cards. (Put the top three cards of your library into your graveyard.)
, and dredge creatures in
Stinkweed Imp
Stinkweed Imp
Flying
Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a creature, destroy that creature.
Dredge 5 (If you would draw a card, you may mill five cards instead. If you do, return this card from your graveyard to your hand.)
and
Golgari Thug
Golgari Thug
When this creature dies, put target creature card from your graveyard on top of your library.
Dredge 4 (If you would draw a card, you may mill four cards instead. If you do, return this card from your graveyard to your hand.)
. We round out the creature package with
Silversmote Ghoul
Silversmote Ghoul
At the beginning of your end step, if you gained 3 or more life this turn, return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped.
{1}{B}, Sacrifice this creature: Draw a card.
,
Bloodghast
Bloodghast
This creature can't block.
This creature has haste as long as an opponent has 10 or less life.
Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, you may return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
, and
Vengevine
Vengevine
Haste
Whenever you cast a spell, if it's the second creature spell you cast this turn, you may return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
.
The next part of the deck that we have is our insurance package in case we dredge our combo pieces. Because Grist is a creature everywhere except on the battlefield, we can use
Priest of Fell Rites
Priest of Fell Rites
{T}, Pay 3 life, Sacrifice this creature: Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield. Activate only as a sorcery.
Unearth {3}{W}{B} ({3}{W}{B}: Return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield. It gains haste. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step or if it would leave the battlefield. Unearth only as a sorcery.)
as a way to reanimate Grist from the graveyard, while also fueling our creatures in graveyard requirement. Because we need to pay life for Priest of Fell Rites and we’re doing a lot of self mill, it makes sense to include Creeping Chill. This is our main way to turn on our Silversmote Ghouls as well.
Hall of Heliod’s Generosity
Hall of Heliod’s Generosity
{T}: Add {C}.
{1}{W}, {T}: Put target enchantment card from your graveyard on top of your library.
is our way to get Doubling Season back on top of our library if we mill it over as well.
Finally, we have our finishing combo of Grist and Doubling Season. What’s nice about this list is that we can play a very normal dredge style game and win the game with creatures, but we also have the option to win off the back of our combo, and we have multiple ways to get there.
Grist, the Hunger Tide is definitely one of the most unique and interesting planeswalkers that we’ve seen printed in a while. It definitely has great uses in commander, but do you think that it’s best use case as a combo piece in Modern? Or will it be relegated to more fair use planeswalker?
If this combo, or any of the Modern Horizons 2 cards are exciting to you, you can now preorder Draft Boosters, Collector Boosters, Set Boosters, and Bundles online.
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