Grist, Voracious Larva // Grist, the Plague Swarm (Grist, Voracious Larva)

Legendary Creature — Insect // Legendary Planeswalker — Grist

Grist, Voracious Larva // Grist, the Plague Swarm

Mana value1EDHREC#4,286

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The Commander

Deathtouch

Whenever Grist or another creature you control enters, if it entered from your graveyard or you cast it from your graveyard, you may pay {G} . If you do, exile Grist, then return it to the battlefield transformed under its owner's control.

+1: Create a 1/1 black and green Insect creature token, then mill two cards. Put a deathtouch counter on the token if a black card was milled this way.

−2: Destroy target artifact or enchantment.

−6: For each creature card in your graveyard, create a token that's a copy of it, except it's a 1/1 black and green Insect.

Guide

Gameplan

Cast Grist for one mana as a deathtouch blocker, then transform it into a planeswalker by recurring or reanimating creatures from your graveyard. Once flipped, Grist grinds value—generating Insect tokens, milling to fuel the graveyard, destroying artifacts/enchantments, and threatening a massive ultimate. You win by going wide with Insects backed by aristocrat payoffs, sacrifice synergies, and reanimation that loops creatures to repeatedly flip and protect Grist.

Strengths

One-mana commander that's cheap to recast and hard to punish for low tax
Built-in flexible removal (-2 hits artifacts or enchantments) that most BG decks lack
Generates token armies and self-mill that synergize with aristocrats and reanimation
Game-ending -6 ultimate that can rebuild from a stocked graveyard
Deathtouch on the front side makes it a strong early defensive body

Weaknesses

The flip requires a creature entering from your graveyard, so you need consistent reanimation enablers
As a planeswalker it's vulnerable to attackers and easily killed before ultimating
Slow to set up without graveyard fuel; clunky in the opening turns
Graveyard hate shuts off both the flip condition and the payoff
Mono-removal -2 doesn't deal with creatures, leaving you reliant on other interaction

Key Cards

Reanimate — Cheaply returns a creature from your graveyard, instantly triggering Grist's transform ability.
Animate Dead — Repeatable-style reanimation that flips Grist while putting a big body on the battlefield.
Skullclamp — Turns your endless stream of 1/1 Insect tokens into a card-drawing engine.
Pitiless Plunderer — Converts dying Insects into Treasure, ramping toward more reanimation and recasting Grist.
Meren of Clan Nel Toth — Recurs creatures from the graveyard each turn, reliably flipping Grist while building experience value.
Dictate of Erebos — Sacrifice fodder plus Insect tokens force opponents to lose their board in an aristocrats shell.

Upgrade Path

Add fast reanimation (Reanimate, Animate Dead, Necromancy) and recursion engines (Meren, Mikaeus, Phyrexian Reclamation) to make the flip reliable, then layer aristocrat payoffs and free sacrifice outlets like Viscera Seer and Carrion Feeder. Improve mana with fast rocks and dual lands, and include tutors (Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Buried Alive) to assemble loops. For higher power, build toward an infinite drain combo such as Mikaeus, the Unhallowed plus a sacrificial creature or a Gravecrawler engine.

Core Cards

The most-played cards for this commander, built from aggregated deck data (the Mythic Graph). Build public decks to seed it.

Win Conditions

▸Aristocrats drain via Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat, and Bastion of Remembrance off dying Insects
▸Going wide with token swarms boosted by anthems like Cathars' Crusade or Coat of Arms
▸Grist's -6 ultimate copying your graveyard into a lethal army
▸Reanimating a large finisher (e.g., Sheoldred or Massacre Wurm) backed by recursion loops

Archetypes

Aristocrats — Grist floods the board with expendable Insect tokens that feed sacrifice and drain engines.
Reanimator — The flip mechanic rewards returning creatures from the graveyard, marrying transform triggers with big reanimation targets.
Tokens / Go-Wide — Repeated +1 activations and the -6 ultimate build a swarm of Insects to overwhelm or fuel anthems.
Combo — Recursion loops and sacrifice payoffs let Grist enable Blood Artist-style drain or infinite token engines.