Upgrading the Blight Curse Commander Deck

Posted on February 12, 2026

One of my favorite things to do in a game of Magic: The Gathering is to put counters on just about everything. Like many players, I carry around a big bag of six-sided dice to every event I play in to take advantage of counter-heavy strategies.

This is especially true with +1/+1 counters, which are an excellent way to pump your board and crush your opponents.

Counters are a big reason something like Ouroboroid has become a major player in multiple formats since its release last year with Edge of Eternities. Players love making their boards massive and this card does it extremely fast. This is why it's popular in Standard and, of course, Commander.

It's to the point that it almost reminds me of Cathars' Crusade - a card that would dump so many counters it rapidly gets difficult to track in paper games. However, sometimes it's more fun to dish out counters to your opponents' creatures instead - especially if they're harmful. -1/-1 counters are an excellent way to decimate enemy forces.

Typically, this is the kind of strategy that Wizards of the Coast likes to shy away from. It's not exactly a ton of fun for your opponents to deal with negative counters in high numbers. Sometimes, though, it makes sense. Amonkhet and Scars of Mirrodin immediately come to mind thanks to the nature of their worlds and story. Perhaps one of the most unsung champions of this mechanic, however, is Shadowmoor.

As such, it's only fitting that it would be revisited once again in Lorwyn Eclipsed. Not only was it revisited, but Wizards also opted to make a whole Commander deck around it!

Enter the Blight Curse Precon

This Commander deck is chock full of cards that care about dishing out the -1/-1 counters! Best of all, it boasts not one, but two outstanding options for pushing the strategy.

Auntie Ool, Cursewretch is a commander that begs for you to build around her, she's an excellent choice to have at the helm. However, she only dishes out counters when she's being removed, so the rest of your deck has to carry a lot of that weight.

Once you set up a reliable counter engine, it's not hard to rack up tons of value. The cards will flow and your opponents will bleed.

Alternatively, you can lean into the secondary commander. Typically, with these upgrade articles, I like to put my focus on highlighting the main legend that the deck is meant to be played with. The Reaper, King No More is so interesting and such an iconic card from the original block (Reaper King) that I have to mention it as well.

It throws out its -1/-1 counters when it enters. Even though it's only a small amount, it can be enough to kill a creature or two, bringing them over to your side of the board. With how many counters your deck is set to put on opponents' creatures, you'll be resurrecting creatures left and right. So, what if it's only once per turn? It's still plenty good enough to build your army one creature at a time!

So now that we've gotten a look at our commanders, let's check out the official deck list from Wizards.

Blight Curse Precon | Commander | Wizards of the Coast

Commander (1)
1 Auntie Ool, Cursewretch

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Examining the Deck List

Looking through this list, I'm quite impressed at just how much how much Wizards managed to fit in there to support the -1/-1 counter plan. Lots of iconic cards are in here. They even included some recent chase cards like Massacre Girl, Known Killer, Vraska, Betrayal's Sting, and Chimil, the Inner Sun.

That alone came as somewhat of a shock, though the powerful mythic has since come crashing down because of its inclusion here. Even the once-expensive Fire Covenant gets a strong reprint here, coming with awesome new artwork as well.

What I find most impressive, though, are the number of cards from the original Shadowmoor and Eventide sets that made the cut. The entire Lorwyn and Shadowmoor blocks suffered notoriously poor sales at the time of their releases. The blocks had a variety of complexity issues, which compounded with issues from the Time Spiral block. Couple that with the 2008 recession and a then-contentious art style and you've got a perfect storm.

A ton of major -1/-1 pieces jumped in price just before the release of Lorwyn Eclipsed when High Perfect Morcant was previewed. Cards like Necroskitter, Soul Snuffers, Blowfly Infestation, and Flourishing Defenses all saw huge price spikes.

Thankfully, all of these got reprints, ensuring that players could easily access them - an important factor in making the theme resonate.

The new cards are pretty cool. Dread Tiller is a sweet way to get additional value out of -1/-1 counters, as is Puca's Covenant. Village Pillagers, Sinister Gnarlbark, and Aberrant Return are also awesome effects that hand out -1/-1 counters. Some of those may impact your own creatures, but as long as you get value from it, you shouldn't let this stop you.

If you really want to maximize your returns, though, why not add a nice Oft-Nabbed Goat into the mix? The creature will get passed around the table like nobody's business and you'll end up being the one that truly reaps the rewards. Everyone gets a little something in the process, but you can make it benefit you the most. That's to say nothing of its fantastic flavor calling back to Goatnap from the original block (and its reprint in Lorwyn Eclipsed).

The Other Shadowmoor Block Cards

Now that we've looked into the deck, we need a plan to upgrade it. Naturally, your mind probably goes to the most obvious place: other cards from the original Shadowmoor block that might've been left out.

Three big ones come to mind, Corrosive Mentor, Crumbling Ashes, and Quillspike. These cards are either great at dishing out the -1/-1 counters (in the case of the Mentor) or interacting with creatures that already have them. Crumbling Ashes destroys them and Quillspike provides an excellent method of removing the counters from your creatures. Since many of your cards put counters onto your stuff, that can be extremely helpful.

The main problem with these cards is price spikes. Quillspike's jump was modest (around $6) but the other two are a bit costly. Corrosive Mentor will run you around $15 while Crumbling Ashes is a whopping $40+. Thankfully, I recently stumbled on a few of these in my collection, as I already had some cards from that era.

While it's nice if you can shell out for them, I'd recommend two things. First, -1/-1 counters have been around for decades with tons of support, so there are plenty of other great cards at lower price points. Second, there is a lot of hype that has driven the prices up, if you're willing to wait it out a little bit, these will probably go down.

These three heavy hitters aren't the only great options to pull from. The sets have a few additional ways to put -1/-1 onto the board. Torture lets you focus on a single creature and is quite accessible thanks to its original printing in the laughably-bad Homelands expansion. The downside is you can only do it to one creature, though Gnarled Effigy gives you a way to pop counters on anything, but with a hefty cost.

The one that I particularly enjoy here is Morselhoarder. The idea with this card is that you put a lot of mana into it up front and it'll start out small. However, you can remove the counters from it to make additional mana. If you have a means of putting extra -1/-1 counters onto it, then it can be a great mana outlet that also allows for continued card draw with Auntie Ool, Cursewretch.

There are also a handful of cards that work great with the deck if you can come up with ways to remove the -1/-1 counters from your creatures. The obvious examples here are creatures with Persist. Only one of these cards appears in the deck natively, and that's Puppeteer Clique. It's a great card, but we can certainly pump things up a notch.

Murderous Redcap was easily the first card to come to mind for me. It's a classic competitive card in Constructed and Cube formats that can pick off threats or machine gun life totals if you find a way to loop it. You can also go nuts with the big, bad, casual favorite Woodfall Primus.

But why not go a bit deeper? Furystoke Giant turns all your creatures into mighty threats that can be used repeatedly if you can remove its Persist counters. Or, heck, why not make all your creatures into veritable Persist threats with Cauldron of Souls?!

Finding More Ways to Give -1/-1 Counters

So now the question is how to put -1/-1 counters on your opponents' creatures. You're probably already doing this a lot, but are there other effective ways to do it?

One of the better options worth mentioning is the wombo combo of Wither and Infect creatures. Infect is basically Wither, with the added benefit of putting poison counters on your opponents if they deal damage to the face. Even though Wither creatures largely come from the original Shadowmoor block, it felt best to mention them alongside Infect since they're so similar.

The benefit to these mechanics is that they work well between small and large creatures alike. Some of Infect's most infamous creatures are Glistener Elf, Plague Stinger, and Blight Mamba - perfectly acceptable choices. Or you can go big and jam something like Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon and Phyrexian Crusader. Wither works well with everything from Scuzzback Scrapper to Boggart Ram-Gang, so there are some solid options to pull from.

The better options to dish out counters are the ones that go heavy. Nest of Scarabs has jumped in price a modest amount lately but can still be had for a reasonable proce and does great work at passing out -1/-1 counters. So do cards like Contagion Engine - a bigger version of Contagion Clasp, which is already in the deck - and the sweet new sweeper Darkness Descends.

Much like what Contagion Clasp and Contagion Engine are up to, you can also proliferate a lot to add tons of counters. Even a one-shot spell like Drown in Ichor or Whisper of the Dross can go a long way. However, the real fun starts when you can do it repeatedly.

The precon already has Evolution Sage and the Clasp, but what about some extra potency from Karn's Bastion, Throne of Geth, and - if you have the means - Yawgmoth, Thran Physician?

As you can see, there are tons of ways to put -1/-1 counters on things, so make sure to experiment with your builds. That's what makes it fun.

What about removing counters?

Handing out -1/-1 counters can be easy but, removing them from your creatures can be a whole different ballgame. Wizards doesn't print many cards that can remove counters from creatures, let alone other permanents. After all, if you could remove the counters from any permanent, you could get up to some nasty things with Dark Depths.

Just look at Vampire Hexmage to see what I mean, or put it into your deck as a one-shot method to rid creatures of heavy counters.

The problem with most of the cards that remove counters in this deck's colors (Black, Red, and Green - better known as Jund) are one shot effects. The aforementioned Hexmage is a great example of this, as are Price of Betrayal, Perfect Intimidation, and Render Inert. Let's be real, after all: you're not making one opponent discard from Perfect Intimidation.

Probably the best option for a card like this, though, is Heartless Act. With it, you can either remove counters from your creatures or kill a creature that doesn't have any counters on it. Either way, you can get the upper hand, making it nice and versatile. That said, it's still not something I would rely on.

In fact, the only option I find to be reliable for outright counter removal - beside the Glissa Sunslayer in the deck - is Hex Parasite. This sweet critter used to be great for killing Jace, the Mind Sculptor back in the day, and now you can use it to make your creatures healthy. Then, you can swing in for big damage.

The best way to get rid of -1/-1 counters is straightforward: add +1/+1 counters to your creatures. Not only does this cancel out the negatives, but there's a near-endless supply of cards that can help.

That said, one card does go especially wild with some of the others I've covered here. Remember how I said that Murderous Redcap could go crazy with a good way to remove counters?

Well, if you happen to have a copy of Grumgully, the Generous and any sacrifice outlet, you can go infinite! The Redcap will enter with a -1/-1 counter and a +1/+1 counter and they'll cancel each other out. It's a cheap and easy way to juice up your new deck.

Wrapping Up

Going into this article, I honestly wasn't sure how much there was to discuss. The further I got into it, though, the more angles I discovered. I've likely only scratched the surface of what you can do with this deck. Get creative, try out new ideas, and you're sure to have a great time at your next Commander night.

Just be on your toes, because your friends may not be having as much fun as you will be.

Paige Smith

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