Witherbloom, the BalancerWitherbloom, the Balancer | Art by Chris Rahn

Photo provided by Evan Pierce

On Sunday, August 23, one of the largest cEDH tournaments in the history of the format came to a stunning conclusion. Breach the Bay 2 was held in San Mateo, California, with a massive 429 players competing. Standing tall at the end of it all wasn't a format juggernaut — not Blue Farm, or RogSi, or a relative up-and-comer like Vivi Ornitier.

Instead, the tournament was won by a relatively fringe homebrew: Witherbloom, the BalancerWitherbloom, the Balancer. So, what does the deck do, and why did Andrei Blanton — winner of Breach the Bay 2 — bring it to California? Let's dive in, with help from the champion Andrei Blanton himself, who chatted about his recent win and the deck that secured him the gold.

Tournament winner Andrei Blanton (far left) poses with the rest of the Finalists. (Photo by Evan Pierce)

What Does Witherbloom, the BalancerWitherbloom, the Balancer Do?

For , per Andrei, Witherbloom, the Balancer "solves Golgari's cEDH problems." A legendary 5/5 Elder Dragon creature with flying and deathtouch, Witherbloom brings with it cost reduction afforded by its affinity for creatures — a cost reduction effect that Witherbloom also extends to all your instants and sorceries.

This cost reduction allows Witherbloom to play multiple angles at the same time. Doubling the value of mana dorks is already naturally potent — I mean, just look to how powerful Kinnan, Bonder ProdigyKinnan, Bonder Prodigy is when it comes to making the most of your mana dorks — but where Witherbloom really thrives is in amassing a boardstate of threatening creatures that wouldn't normally add mana, but now effectively do thanks to that affinity clause.

The fact that Witherbloom both has affinity itself and, once resolved, grants it to your instants and sorceries, gets to the heart of "Golgari's problem." Traditionally, Golgari plays mana dorks essentially as a requisite to keeping up with the cEDH table — not actually as an edge of the strategy. Here, however, those mana dorks (and other small creatures) provide value at all points of the game and are central to the deck's game-winning strategy.

Slamming down a Birds of ParadiseBirds of Paradise in The Gitrog MonsterThe Gitrog Monster accelerates you one mana per turn; slamming a Birds of Paradise here counts as two mana towards your commander and, once Witherbloom comes down, makes every other relevant spell cheaper. It might not be turbo, but that's about as proactive as a mana dork can possibly be.

Looking to the broader cEDH arena, this proactive take on midrange — that is, Witherbloom's solution to Golgari's dilemma — was a key reason Andrei brought this deck to the tournament. "Witherbloom does a great job setting up early in a way that lets it play proactively against both midrange and turbo decks," said Andrei in our interview. "I knew Breach the Bay 2 was going to be full of proactive decks, and this deck is able to both keep pace with their resource accrual and throw out creature-based roadblocks along the way."

The 400+ players of Breach the Bay 2 (Photo by Evan Pierce)

Key Cards for Witherbloom, the BalancerWitherbloom, the Balancer

Lock-Out Creatures

Many cEDH decks these days are resource-maximizing, building out more and more toward the "slop" archetype that wins by hoarding resources, rather than disrupting opposing strategies. Since Witherbloom's affinity clause cares about the number of creatures you control, not the text of those creatures per se, this lets the deck effectively play both angles at once. "Dauthi VoidwalkerDauthi Voidwalker, Collector OupheCollector Ouphe, and Opposition AgentOpposition Agent are all backbreaking creatures that most decks can't effectively deal with these days," said Andrei. Currently, these are cards that most decks cut simply because they don't immediately put the controller up on resources. With Witherbloom's affinity that's far from the case, making these cards all-stars.

High-Impact Instants and Sorceries

Witherbloom's army of many creatures sets up the game; this deck's slew of high-impact instants and sorceries closes it out. Stinging StudyStinging Study, Last March of the EntsLast March of the Ents, and Dark PetitionDark Petition are all the kinds of spells that readily convert an excess of mana (or, in this deck's case, an excess of creatures) into an absurd imbalance of resources between you and your opponents.

Stinging Study is frequently to draw eight cards at instant speed, Last March of the Ents draws at minimum five cards — frequently for — and dumps as many creatures as you can count into play, while Dark Petition is a Demonic TutorDemonic Tutor and Dark RitualDark Ritual for just . If those don't sound like cEDH game-enders, then I don't know what does.

Photo provided by Evan Pierce.

How Does Witherbloom, the BalancerWitherbloom, the Balancer Win?

Razaketh Toolbox

At its core, this is a Razaketh toolbox deck. While Razaketh, the Foulblooded isn't a win in and of itself the way something like Thassa's OracleThassa's Oracle is, there's a clear sequence of activations once Razaketh has resolved that makes it pretty hard for your opponents to stop you from subsequently tutoring up a closer of your choice. To understand why, let's look at the usual first-find off of a Razaketh activation: Sprout Swarm.

For , Sprout Swarm is an instant with convoke and buyback which creates a 1/1 green Saproling creature token upon resolution. When discounted by Witherbloom, however, this is effectively an instant-speed infinitely large army of tapped Saprolings, as controlling four creatures is enough to pay for the buyback cost as well as the already present in Sprout Swarm's mana cost. Pair that with convoke and voilà — you've got a spell that creates exactly the token you'd want to tap when you recast it the next go around.

What this means for Razaketh is that you can pay 2 life and sacrifice another creature to find Sprout Swarm, then use Sprout Swarm to create an infinite army of tapped Saprolings. Each Saproling then serves as sacrifice fodder for Razaketh as you pick key cards — Aristocrats closers à la Marionette ApprenticeMarionette Apprentice and Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIERSephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER, interaction, etc. — out of your deck.

"Razaketh just closes out so many points of interaction," said Andrei. "Once Razaketh's down, there's just so little your opponents can do, because you can always activate it over-top [of any opposing interaction]."

Almost nothing stops a creature spell these days, save for Force of WillForce of Will, so the only trick with Razaketh is getting it into play in the first place. But, if there's one thing this deck is good at, it's making mana — and Razaketh puts it to good use.

Andrei's Witherbloom cEDH Deck List from Breach the Bay 2

Wrap Up

Well folks, that's the breakdown on the deck that won one of cEDH's biggest tournaments ever — not Blue Farm, not RogSi, but a homebrew tuned to the maximum and piloted excellently.

For live updates on Andrei's deck, check out here, and thanks for reading!