Death Toll Precon Upgrade Guide: Winter, Cynical Opportunist
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DSC precon
Death Toll
- Commander
- Winter, Cynical Opportunist
- Colors
- Black, Green
- Released
- 27 September 2024
- Card value
- ≈ $88.68
- Key cards
- Reanimate, Whip of Erebos, Arachnogenesis
Death Toll hands you Winter, a deathtouch attacker who mills three on every swing. At your end step you can exile graveyard cards with four or more card types among them to put one permanent card from that pile onto the battlefield. The deck is packed with self-mill and big creatures, but too many of them are slow, clunky or barely care about the graveyard.
Below you’ll find the full interactive decklist, what the deck does well, where it struggles and our recommended upgrades, split into budget ($5.83), mid-range ($14.46), premium ($72.20). Start with the cheapest swaps and work your way up.
The decklist
Commander (1)
Creatures (26)
- 1Burnished Hart$0.16
- 1Carrion Grub$0.20
- 1Deathcap Cultivator$0.29
- 1Demolisher Spawn$0.28
- 1Giant Adephage$0.48
- 1Gnarlwood Dryad$0.35
- 1Grim Flayer$0.24
- 1Haywire Mite$1.06
- 1Hornet Queen$0.28
- 1Ishkanah, Grafwidow$1.31
- 1Moldgraf Millipede$0.27
- 1Moldgraf Monstrosity$0.34
- 1Noxious Gearhulk$0.51
- 1Nyx Weaver$0.28
- 1Obsessive Skinner$0.22
- 1Old Stickfingers$0.35
- 1Rendmaw, Creaking Nest$1.28
- 1Sakura-Tribe Elder$0.34
- 1Scavenging Ooze$0.33
- 1Skola Grovedancer$0.22
- 1Solemn Simulacrum$0.32
- 1Stitcher’s Supplier$0.40
- 1Suspicious Bookcase$0.33
- 1Titania, Nature’s Force$0.76
- 1Ursine Monstrosity$0.38
- 1Vile Mutilator$0.21
Planeswalkers (4)
- 1Grist, the Hunger Tide$0.52
- 1Ob Nixilis Reignited$0.41
- 1Professor Onyx$5.04
- 1Wrenn and Seven$1.34
Instants (6)
- 1Arachnogenesis$7.72
- 1Grapple with the Past$0.36
- 1Grisly Salvage$0.35
- 1Harrow$0.45
- 1Inscription of Abundance$0.37
- 1Putrefy$0.33
Sorceries (9)
- 1Convert to Slime$0.33
- 1Culling Ritual$0.82
- 1Deluge of Doom$0.25
- 1Formless Genesis$0.38
- 1Harmonize$0.28
- 1Mulch$0.32
- 1Night’s Whisper$0.40
- 1Rampant Growth$0.42
- 1Reanimate$10.03
Artifacts (8)
- 1Arcane Signet$0.71
- 1Commander’s Sphere$0.27
- 1Golgari Signet$0.37
- 1Mind Stone$0.72
- 1Sol Ring$2.11
- 1Talisman of Resilience$0.46
- 1Whip of Erebos$9.42
- 1Whispersilk Cloak$3.18
Enchantments (8)
- 1Binding the Old Gods$0.34
- 1Cemetery Tampering$0.37
- 1Crawling Sensation$0.27
- 1Deadbridge Chant$0.60
- 1Deathreap Ritual$0.35
- 1Demonic Covenant$0.31
- 1Into the Pit$0.31
- 1Polluted Cistern$0.39
Lands (38)
- 1Ash Barrens$0.23
- 1Barren Moor$0.65
- 1Bojuka Bog$1.54
- 1Command Tower$0.40
- 1Darkmoss Bridge$0.33
- 1Dryad Arbor$3.62
- 1Evolving Wilds$0.25
- 1Exotic Orchard$0.32
- 4Forest$0.18
- 3Forest$0.17
- 1Golgari Rot Farm$0.38
- 1Grim Backwoods$0.24
- 1Jungle Hollow$0.29
- 1Llanowar Wastes$0.72
- 1Necroblossom Snarl$0.44
- 1Reliquary Tower$4.95
- 4Swamp$0.22
- 3Swamp$0.18
- 1Tainted Wood$0.38
- 1Temple of Malady$0.33
- 1Temple of the False God$0.32
- 1Terramorphic Expanse$0.17
- 1Tranquil Thicket$0.25
- 1Tree of Tales$1.38
- 1Twilight Mire$0.55
- 1Vault of Whispers$5.43
- 1Viridescent Bog$0.36
- 1Woodland Cemetery$0.61
Hover a card to see it (tap on mobile). Prices are for the precon printing, via Scryfall.
What the deck does well
- Winter turns a stocked graveyard into a free permanent every end step, as long as you can exile cards with four card types among them.
- Strong reprints like Grist, Wrenn and Seven, Hornet Queen and Reanimate give the deck real power.
- Artifact lands, Dryad Arbor and Formless Genesis make reaching four card types surprisingly easy.
Where it struggles
- Filler creatures like Carrion Grub, Obsessive Skinner and Moldgraf Millipede add little to the plan.
- Expensive bodies such as Giant Adephage and Demolisher Spawn clog the curve without helping delirium.
- Whispersilk Cloak and Old Stickfingers are weak slots in a deck that needs interaction and recursion.
Recommended upgrades
Pick a budget tab. Every row tells you which card to take out and what to put in.
Cheap swaps (under $2 each) that fix the biggest problems first.
| Cut | Add | From | Why | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carrion Grub | Satyr Wayfinder | $0.11 €0.08 | Reveals the top four cards on entry, keeps a land and puts the rest into your graveyard, fueling delirium early. | TCGplayer · Cardmarket |
| Ursine Monstrosity | Glowspore Shaman | $0.22 €0.02 | Mills three on entry and can put a land from your graveyard on top of your library to smooth your draws. | TCGplayer · Cardmarket |
| Demolisher Spawn | Splendid Reclamation | $0.36 €0.74 | Returns every land in your graveyard to the battlefield at once for a big ramp turn. | TCGplayer · Cardmarket |
| Moldgraf Monstrosity | The Gitrog Monster | $0.41 €1.04 | Draws a card whenever land cards hit your graveyard and gives you an extra land drop each turn. | TCGplayer · Cardmarket |
| Whispersilk Cloak | Assassin’s Trophy | $0.96 €1.07 | Two-mana instant answer to any permanent, far more useful here than equipment. | TCGplayer · Cardmarket |
| Obsessive Skinner | Stinkweed Imp | $1.13 €0.87 | A flying blocker that destroys any creature it damages, and dredge 5 returns it to hand while milling five cards. | TCGplayer · Cardmarket |
| Moldgraf Millipede | Conduit of Worlds | $1.17 €1.40 | Lets you play lands from your graveyard and recast a permanent card from it on turns you cast nothing else. | TCGplayer · Cardmarket |
| Gnarlwood Dryad | Eternal Witness | $1.47 €0.72 | Returns any card from your graveyard to your hand, often a removal spell or ramp piece you milled. | TCGplayer · Cardmarket |
| Total | $5.83 | |||
Stronger synergy pieces and better interaction ($2–$8 each).
| Cut | Add | From | Why | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vile Mutilator | Ramunap Excavator | $4.42 €2.78 | Lets you play lands from your graveyard, so milled lands still count as land drops. | TCGplayer · Cardmarket |
| Giant Adephage | Life from the Loam | $4.95 €4.71 | Returns up to three lands from your graveyard and can dredge itself back while milling three. | TCGplayer · Cardmarket |
| Skola Grovedancer | Six | $5.09 €5.20 | Mills three on each attack, keeps a land, and gives nonland permanent cards in your graveyard retrace on your turn. | TCGplayer · Cardmarket |
| Total | $14.46 | |||
Premium upgrades. None of these are on the official Game Changers list, so the deck stays friendly for most casual tables.
| Cut | Add | From | Why | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barren Moor | Overgrown Tomb | $8.22 €8.59 | An untapped black-green dual land that keeps the mana smooth from turn one. | TCGplayer · Cardmarket |
| Old Stickfingers | Underrealm Lich | $8.70 €5.59 | Each draw becomes a pick of the top three cards, with the other two going to your graveyard. | TCGplayer · Cardmarket |
| Convert to Slime | Lumra, Bellow of the Woods | $27.17 €25.43 | Mills four on entry, returns every land in your graveyard to the battlefield, and is as big as your land count. | TCGplayer · Cardmarket |
| Into the Pit | Crucible of Worlds | $28.11 €18.31 | Lets you play lands from your graveyard every turn, a natural partner for heavy self-mill. | TCGplayer · Cardmarket |
| Total | $72.20 | |||
Where to buy the precon
Don’t own the deck yet? Find Death Toll on TCGplayer or on Cardmarket.
Verdict
Death Toll is a strong, flavorful graveyard deck right out of the box. A handful of cheap self-mill creatures and land recursion pieces turn Winter into a relentless value engine.
