commander · The Wise Mothman
Mutant Menace (PIP).
A Sultai rad-counter and proliferate deck from Fallout. The Wise Mothman irradiates the table, and every card those rad counters mill grows your team with +1/+1 counters.
The Commanders
Mutant Menace runs on rad counters, the Fallout mechanic that makes players mill themselves. Each turn a player with rad counters mills that many cards and sheds one counter, and a lot of bad things happen when nonland cards hit graveyards. This is a Sultai deck that hands out radiation like candy, then cashes in the mill for +1/+1 counters and proliferate.
The Wise Mothman is the payoff and the pusher. When it enters or attacks, every player gets a rad counter, so the whole table starts milling. Then, whenever one or more nonland cards are milled, it puts a +1/+1 counter on up to that many creatures you control. One good mill can spread counters across your whole board. It flies, so the attack trigger is reliable, and the counters it drops turn on every proliferate and counter payoff in the deck.
Key Cards
Feral Ghoul
A menace body that grows a +1/+1 counter every time another creature you control dies, so it gets big in a grindy game. The real value is its death trigger: each opponent gets rad counters equal to its power. Pump it up first and its death dumps a huge pile of radiation on the whole table, which means a huge mill, which means Mothman counters everywhere. It punishes removal and feeds the engine on the way out.
Glowing One
Combat damage from this deathtouch body hands the defending player four rad counters, so a single connection sets up a fat mill next turn. It also gains you a life every time any player mills a nonland card, and this deck makes players mill constantly. Left alone it drains the table dry while padding your life total. Deathtouch means nobody wants to block it either.
Screeching Scorchbeast
Every attack gives each player two rad counters, so it keeps the mill rolling on its own. The payoff is the second half: whenever nonland cards are milled, you can make that many 2/2 Zombie Mutant tokens, once per turn. A board full of rad counters means a big mill means a wave of bodies. Those tokens block, attack, and give Mothman more targets to grow.
Mirelurk Queen
She irradiates a player on entry and then draws you a card and grows herself whenever nonland cards get milled, once each turn. That is card advantage bolted straight onto the mill you were already generating. In a deck this hungry for gas, a free card every turn cycle keeps your hand full. She gets large fast and blocks the sky with vigilance.
Inexorable Tide
Every spell you cast proliferates, which quietly adds a rad counter to each player who already has one and a +1/+1 counter to each creature that already has one. In this deck almost everything has a counter on it, so a normal turn of spellcasting piles radiation on the table and pumps your team. It also thins closer to any Saga or planeswalker payoff. This is the enchantment that turns the deck from a good clock into a runaway.
Vault 12: The Necropolis
This Saga is a rad payoff in three chapters. First it gives every player three rad counters, seeding a big mill. Then it makes a 2/2 Zombie Mutant for every rad counter across all players, which after a few turns of radiation is a small army. The last chapter drops two +1/+1 counters on each of your Zombies and Mutants. It reads as a one-card board and closes games on its own.
How to Play
Early turns are about ramp and getting rad counters onto the table, so lead with Mothman attacks, Vault 12, or any enter-the-battlefield radiation. Once players are milling, your payoffs snowball: Mothman spreads counters, Scorchbeast and Vault 12 make bodies, and Mirelurk Queen keeps your hand full. Lean on proliferate from Inexorable Tide and Contagion Clasp to push both the rad counters and your +1/+1 counters at once. Grow Feral Ghoul big, then let it die to blanket the table in radiation for a massive mill. You close by going wide with counter-pumped Mutants and flying beaters while the mill grinds your opponents into the dirt.
