Hello awesome folks and happiest of days to you and yours!!!!!! Today I want to knock off a brand-new tribal leader for a Jumpstart (2022) leader named Zask who suggests a Golgari Insect deck. Let's look!

This is the Insect with three abilities. The first is that you can play lands and Insects from the graveyard. That means I'll load up the deck with self-sacrificial lands like fetchlands and then we can bring back Insects in there. Whenever one dies though, it gets put on the bottom of your library and then you mill 2 cards, so you won't be able to create any loops from it. Then you can spend two mana to pump an Insect's power by one and give it deathtouch which is brilliant for trading up and playing keep away. According to Gatherer there are 166 Insects in Golgari or colorless.

Note that a lot of Insects randomly in the land-matters genre, so this will have a land matters subtheme, which works well with the fetchlands. Ready for my brew? Alright!

Key Powerful Insects and Game Winning Beaters

Check out this pair of high-mana Insects. The Queen is a seven-mana 2/2 flying deathtouch body that comes with four 1/1 Insect flyers with deathtouch to hold the fort. No one attacks, since no one wants to trade for a 1/1 token. It's very strong at holding defense while you swing with your beats, like the Adephage, which rocks trample. When it does combat damage to a player, which is likely with it's power and trampling, you make a copy of it. Then if you get two copies through next turn, you get two more copies, and so forth. It can win the game quite ably here once it arrives to the battlefield.

Check out a pair of 8-mana Insects with trample: Giant Ankheg and Living Hive. The 8-powered one has ward 2, gives trample and ward 2 to your other stuff, so it can really help them punch away. Trample is the only major evasive ability in Golgari and giving it on a beater is pretty nice, and don't sleep on that ward either. A trampler enabler with a power pumper is strong, and it's very strong with deathtouch since you only deal one damage to each blocker and then the rest to the defender or their planeswalker. The 6-powered one also has a combat damage to a player trigger. You make that many 1/1 Insect tokens. So, if it was chump blocked, then you'll make two, make sense? This pair is nasty together!

Insects That Love Lands and Mana Sinks

Now let's turn to land and landfall caring things like this Scute pair. The former is a 1/1 that can get five +1/+1 counters in your upkeep if you have at least five lands, the same amount of mana for your leader. That's pretty likely here. The latter one is a 1/1 for two that has a key landfall. Make a 1/1 green Insect token. And then...if you have at least 6 lands, make a copy of it instead, so this is a powerful game winner as well as a key landfall card.

Check out this pair of on-curve 5/5s! The Beetles add in trample to their powerhouse to break out, and if you control 10 or more lands you can have a nasty 15/15 smasher of games. The Ant doesn't have trample, but you can spend two mana as much as possible to make 1/1 Insect tokens. Going wide is nice for the team. When you are attacked, I also love her making a dork out of nowhere and then pumping it and giving it deathtouch with your leader and then blocking and trading up. Nasty combo there. Nice pair!!!

Synergies and Win Conditions

Let's turn to synergies and win conditions. The Scarab is a five-drop 4/4 that plays nicely here. You can spend a mana to sacrifice it and draw a card, so that is card flow from an Insect body. Then you can bring it back to your hand in replace of a card draw by milling one, so that is also mill and card draw in a card. The Class is a two-drop that has a landfall trigger, gain a life. Then you can level it up and drop two lands every turn, which includes your graveyard or your hand (always play from your graveyard first unless you have a good reason not to). Drop it turn 2, then turn 3, play a land, gain a life, level up and then drop a fourth land, and gain another life. Then when this levels to 3 with another five mana you can turn a land into a creature with haste and power and toughness equal to your land count, so it can make a game winner too in one card. All three work well here.

Grist, the Hunger Tide was the first Golgari Insect brew leader and has a nice sized 3,195 decks over at EDHREC.com and has proved to be a very popular leader. Grist counts as a 1/1 Insect anywhere other than the battlefield for things like tutoring from your library. It's also an Insect in your graveyard so you can bring it back with Zask, but not in play, so it will go to your graveyard when it dies, and then can be brought back if you control your leader. They are a nasty duo.

Grist is a three-drop with three abilities. The first +1 will make a 1/1 Insect token then mill one card for graveyard fuel. Did you mill an Insect? Awesome, do it again until you don't mil an Insect. You can also -2 and sacrifice a creature, and then destroy an opposing dork or planeswalker, you have a variety of ways of making tokens, so you can find much to sacrifice, or you can just trigger the death trigger of your Commander.

Crawling Sensation is a three-drop enchantment that (can) mill you two cards in your upkeep. Milling is great for filling up your graveyard. When a land hits your graveyard from anywhere, make a 1/1 Insect token, but just once per turn. In a four-player game that can be four Insects a round. One from milling, then save your fetchland getting cracked for a future opponent's turn, and then discard your cycling lands that I added in here for another future turn and you can really break this. Both have very strong synergy here.

Let's check out a mono-green pair of +1/+1 counter synergies in Nantuko Cultivator and Moldgraf Millipede The uncommon is a four-drop 2/2 and when it arrives to the battlefield you can discard any number of lands. When you do, draw that many cards and toss the aforementioned counters onto it. Nice card flow, land discard, and creature growth. The common is a five-cost 2/2 that, on arrival to the battlefield, will mill three cards. Nice milling for lands and Insects to play. Then for each dork in your graveyard, toss a +1/+1 counter onto this. Again, both have ways to fill the graveyard with things to replay while also growing themselves.

Izoni makes Insects tokens of the 1/1 variety when it enters the battlefield equal to your graveyard creature count. Nice! You can also sacrifice a dork for two mana to gain a life and draw a card, so that's card flow from her as well. The 'Walker is a three-drop 2/3 with changeling, so it's an Insect that calls insects when they arrive. You can cast Insects from the top of your library in addition to the graveyard, so that's a lot of card flow in these two dorks.

Check out this pair of Insect and pumpers. Blex is a 3/2 Pest that pumps your Insects by +1/+1 each, so it's Glorious Anthem on a stick, and when it dies, you gain a quartet of life, so don't sleep on that. The Search for Blex is also card flow if you prefer it, although I think he's better as an Anthem to pump your Insect Swarm and tokens. The Grub is a four-drop 0/5 that mills four cards on arrival to the battlefield. More milling! Then its power is equal to your greatest powered dork in your graveyard. Nice powerhouse!

Let's turn to the common Devouring Swarm. This three-drop flying 2/1 can sacrifice another dork to give it a +1/+1 boost for the turn.

But why is it here? Sacrificing an Insect to it puts it into my library not my graveyard, when I control Zask. Although I will mill two. It's here for a few reasons. First, if someone is targeting my stuff with exiling removal, then you'll want the ability to sacrifice this. Also, if I don't control Zask, (and this is two fewer than Zask) then this will store them and then bring them back later. And this can be a win con with flying, sacrifices and Zask pumps. Gleancrawler acts as further recursion backup.

Card Flow

Now let's turn to card flow. We have some obvious cards like Skullclamp and Harmonize. You've also seen some options in the synergy section. There are three sorceries in Black that draw two, lose two life, and put cards into your graveyard, and all three are here. The best is the Revelation, the default that's quite ubiquitous. Then the next is the Discussion, three mana, draw two, lose two, and make a Blood token, so for another mana at anytime you can discard to draw. Discard a land or key Insect to recur, and draw that card. The last is the Experiment that mills two first before the draw and life loss.

Now let's turn to five-mana green card flow with Shamanic Revelation and Moldervine Reclamation. The Revelation draws cards equal to your creature count. Here? That can be all the cards and a refilled hand. You might also gain a spot of life. The Reclamation is a five-drop enchantment that draws you a card, and gains a life, each time a dork you controls dies. This does count the death of tokens. Nice card flow over time, and it can also draw you a ton of cards without requiring any additional investment.

Spring-Leaf Avenger is a five-mana 6/5 dork with Ninjtutsu four. When this deals combat damage to a player, Regrowth a permanent. Pretty nice. Give a small dork deathtouch, swing, get no blocks, and then use this to hit them for 6 and get a nice free Regrowth effect! Nice combo! Vraska, Golgari Queen is our other planeswalker This four-mana 4 loyalty 'walker is here for that +2 to draw a card, gain a life, and sacrifice a permanent. It's here to sacrifice a land and then replay it and draw. Insect token? Mana rock past it's premium? You got it! Then you can -3 her to destroy a nonland with cost 3 or less. Nice removal tucked into your card flow, love it loads here!

Answers

Now let's turn to Insect removal like this morph duo. The common is a 3/2 after it morphs, which costs two to flip, and then it Naturalizes. Nice removal on a stick. The rare is a bigger 4/3. It morphs and reduces the size of all dorks by X including itself, for the turn, so the Bane is a flexible mass removal spell on legs. And if you just want the beater, you can get a 4/3. You can also cast these with morph from your graveyard. Also note I tossed in another Insect with morph to hide. Broodhatch Nantuko that turns damage to it into Insect tokens.

Check out this pair of one-drop Insects in Green. The artifact can be sacrificed for a mana to exile an opposing non-dork artifact or creature, so that's removal on a sacrificing body. It also gives you life when it dies. The non-artifact one can be sacrificed for two to destroy rather than exile any of that type. Having these means you can drop them early, sacrifice, and then bring them back and another sacrifice cheaply and trigger our Commander's death trigger for mill and reloading to the library. Love it loads.

Check out Kraul Harpooner and Hex Parasite. The Green one is a two-mana 3/2 with reach. On arrival to the battlefield, it fights an opposing flyer. Then it gets power boosted equal to your creature in your graveyard count. I love it here since with reach you have a deathtouch blocker and with fight if it's size boost isn't enough to kill, just give it deathtouch. The Black is a one-drop 1/1. Then you can X and remove X counters from target permanent and pump it. It's here to pull loyalty counters off opposing planeswalkers and kill them. You can pull counters off Vivid lands and other key things, or your own Dark Depths if I was running one. It's very strong here in my tribe, and I regularly run it in my brews.

Check out this pair of four drop Insects from the same Warhammer 40k Commander set. The first has a nice 4/3 body and vigilance. On arrival to the battlefield from your graveyard, you can exile any nonland permanent. Note that it also has unearth. A better way to bring it back is just to cast it for four when you control Zask from your graveyard. Exiling is very important since it gets past indestructible bodies. And you can target pretty much anything that you want. The second is a 1/1 flyer and on arrival to the battlefield you exile an opposing graveyard. For each land and artifact exiled this way, make a 1/1 Insect token, so it goes wide. This is great mid-game for two or three and late game for five or seven. It's also graveyard answers in a format that is rife with graveyard abuse as this deck shows. Nice pair, right?

Mana and Stuff

Now let's turn to mana ramping, rocks, and lands. The Ladybug is printed in the same set as Zask. It's a cheaper 4/1 with reach for three mana. Reach is nice when combined with the flying that might swing your way, plus deathtouch. Then you can search your library for a basic and put it on top of your library. It's not your hand, sadly, but it is in your Tribe, so it's in. Zask costs 5 mana, so a second turn ramp or rock like Arcane Signet won't bring it down faster than a three turn rock or ramp spell, so I added in some Manaliths like the Heirloom. This adds to your mana making and then you can tap it with two mana to exile a card in a graveyard at instant speed. Nice ramper!

The artifact will tap for any color on arrival to the battlefield, so it's a Manalith. Then on arrival to the battlefield, you turn to day, and then you can tap it with three to change night to day or day to night as a sorcery. Then you draw a card and discard a card and gain a life too, by the by. This looting in a mana rock will let you draw and then discard the best land or Insect for the situation. It's very strong. The land arrives untapped, and then you can tap it with a pair of mana to have all players draw and then discard. That's another looting effect for you and it plays nicely with your foes as well. Nice pair!

Now let's turn to some ramp spells. Field Trip is really strong here. It's a three-mana basic Forest ramping card instead of two, but you can Learn. When you cast it, discard and draw, so it's free card flow in my ramp section, which discards for graveyard caring fun times. Crop Rotation is a key instant that just costs one mana, sacrifice a land, and then ramps any land from your library to the battlefield. Note that you can then play that land again that turn if you control Zask. Then you can grab any land, not just basics.

Quarry Beetle is a nice-sized 4/5 for five mana. On arrival to the battlefield, you can put a land from your graveyard to your battlefield. With all of our milling and discarding and sacrificing, that seems pretty likely, so you can have another key land there. Sylvan Scrying is a two-cost that grabs any land from your deck and puts it into your hand, so it's a nice Demonic Tutor for any land. I also tossed in the Tutor as well to grab anything here. Having multiple ways of grabbing a key nonbasic land is very important here.

Check out these two mono-Black tapping lands. The Fortress arrives tapped so you have to take a turn off. Then you can spend five mana and exile this land, and then mill four and Zombify a dork from your graveyard to the battlefield. It's recursion and milling in land form and although it's a one trick pony since it self-exiles, it's still pretty strong. The Mire arrives untapped and taps for Black, and is here for that channel. Discard it from your hand to mill three and then Raise Dead a dork or planeswalker from your graveyard. You can then play it from your graveyard when you control your Commander.

Now let's turn to these two colorless lands: Ash Barrens will tap for colorless, arrives untapped and basic landcycles for just one colorless, so that's automatically done here on the first turn no matter the land you drop. Then play it from your graveyard on a future turn. Riveteers Overlook arrives and gets sacrifices and then ramps a Forest or Swamp tapped and you gain a life. We have all of the cycling lands in these colors and all of the other fetch lands as well.

Let's finish the land section with this pair. The 'Yard taps for colorless, arrives untapped ready to go, and taps without any mana to regenerate one of our precious Insects. That's very strong here in saving a dork from combat damage, burn like Lightning Bolt, removal like Murder, and loads more. It's very strong with Zask's deathtouch pumping when you block anything to trade up, and then keep what you traded by a simple tap of this land.

The Zone is awesome here. It taps for colorless, arrives untapped. Then you can sacrifice it with a tap and a mana to cast your stuff with flash for the turn so that's flashing fun times in your brew which is very strong when combined with ETB removal. You can just bring things back and keep on flashing on future turns for mass blocking a key attack that came your way.

Let's turn to the decklist!

Zask's Insects | Commander | Abe Sargent

• Commander (1)
• 1 Zask, Skittering Swarmlord

• Creatures (35)
• 1 Ant Queen
• 1 Bane of the Living
• 1 Battlefly Swarm
• 1 Blex, Vexing Pest
• 1 Broodhatch Nantuko
• 1 Canoptek Scarab Swarm
• 1 Canoptek Tomb Sentinel
• 1 Carrion Grub
• 1 Caustic Caterpillar
• 1 Caustic Wasps
• 1 Crash of Rhino Beetles
• 1 Devouring Swarm
• 1 Giant Adephage
• 1 Giant Ankheg
• 1 Giant Ladybug
• 1 Gleancrawler
• 1 Grave-Shell Scarab
• 1 Haywire Mite
• 1 Hex Parasite
• 1 Hornet Queen
• 1 Izoni, Thousand-Eyed
• 1 Kazandu Nectarpot
• 1 Kraul Harpooner
• 1 Living Hive
• 1 Loam Larva
• 1 Moldgraf Millipede
• 1 Nantuko Cultivator
• 1 Nantuko Vigilante
• 1 Quarry Beetle
• 1 Realmwalker
• 1 Scute Mob
• 1 Scute Swarm
• 1 Spring-Leaf Avenger
• 1 Virus Beetle
• 1 Vorapede

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 1 Grist, the Hunger Tide
• 1 Vraska, Golgari Queen

• Instants (3)
• 1 Crop Rotation
• 1 Heroic Intervention
• 1 Return of the Wildspeaker

• Sorceries (11)
• 1 Atrocious Experiment
• 1 Bitter Revelation
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 Field Trip
• 1 Harmonize
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Pointed Discussion
• 1 Shamanic Revelation
• 1 Sylvan Scrying
• 1 Three Visits

• Enchantments (3)
• 1 Crawling Sensation
• 1 Druid Class
• 1 Moldervine Reclamation

• Artifacts (5)
• 1 Honored Heirloom
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Skyclave Relic
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 The Celestus

• Lands (40)
• 1 Ash Barrens
• 1 Barren Moor
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Boseiju, Who Endures
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Desert of the Glorified
• 1 Desert of the Indomitable
• 1 Emergence Zone
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1 Golgari Rot Farm
• 1 Haunted Mire
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 1 Polluted Mire
• 1 Prismatic Vista
• 1 Riveteers Overlook
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Slippery Karst
• 1 Swarmyard
• 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Tomb Fortress
• 1 Tranquil Thicket
• 1 Verdant Catacombs
• 1 Volrath's Stronghold
• 1 Woodland Chasm
• 8 Forest
• 5 Swamp

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And there we go! So, what would you toss in? Old Rutstein? Crawling Infestation? Blightbeetle? Plague Stinger? Circuit Mender? Anything I missed or that you like here? Just let me know!!!