Dimir spies report the Selesnya Enclave have been rapidly outgrowing their territory. Find out what their endgame is, and assign agents to dismantle their plan.
The deck is constructed around the three UB Legendary creatures, each able to command the deck to match the player's style:
Lazav, Dimir Mastermind,
Dralnu, Lich Lord and
Sygg, River Cutthroat. Lazav is the featured commander, with the deck having a mill theme as means for Lazav to copy creatures from your opponents’ graveyards. Dralnu allows for a different play style when leading the deck, being able to reuse the instants and sorceries that are used or milled into your own graveyard. As the third commander, Sygg pushes the strategy into card advantage territory.
Representing House Dimir, the creatures in this build include rogues, wizards and assassins. Merfolk are also well represented, as a possible direction for the deck to be modified with Sygg. A few cards in the deck care about these creature types, including
Drowner of Secrets,
Information Dealer,
Sigil Tracer and
Sage of Fables.
Bomb creatures include
Massacre Wurm,
Sphinx of Magosi,
Overtaker and
Havengul Lich.
Overtaker (and to a lesser extent,
Chamber of Manipulation) calls in Dimir’s sleeper agents by taking control of opponents creatures, making combat tricky, and worse yet when coupled with the deck’s sac outlets.
Worst Fears is another bomb mythic, and what could be more Dimir than controlling another player's turn?
Removal is key to winning, and Dimir has plenty to go around. Board sweepers include
Life's Finale (with bonus of looking through a library and putting more creatures down),
Killing Wave to even the playing field, and
Sudden Spoiling for a surprise blowout. Pinpoint removal is also strong with
Assassin's Blade,
Brittle Effigy (a nice rattlesnake),
Grisly Spectacle (which adds to the milling) and
Dismember. Creature based removal includes
Nekrataal and
Stalking Assassin, while
Onyx Mage makes our army of relatively small creatures a definite combat threat.
Onyx Mage also adds to our wizard count for
Information Dealer and
Sage of Fables.
Dimir values knowledge for planning and control.
Information Dealer and
Architects of Will allow you to manipulate the top of libraries, while
Thoughtcutter Agent and
Hired Torturer let you see what other players have in their hands.
Lantern of Insight lets everyone see what cards are coming up, and the mill effects are a great way to abuse that knowledge.
Dakra Mystic doubles as mill and possible card draw,
Lurking Informant mills or conversely leaves bad or useless cards on top of their library,
Undercity Informer doubles as a sac outlet and
Drowner of Secrets puts good use to all of our Merfolk. Non-creature mill cards include
Duskmantle, House of Shadow,
Dimir Charm,
Trepanation Blade and
Sands of Delirium (which puts extra mana to good use late game).
Duskmantle Guildmage make all of these milling effects cause life loss to our opponents, making it a definite threat.
Discard effects include
Unnerve,
Blackmail, and
Immobilizing Ink.
Dinrova Horror and
Recoil are great control with added discard effects, removal if the opponent's hand is empty.
Dire Undercurrents works as both discard and draw effects depending on the spells played after. Draw effects are also plentiful with
Sygg, River Cutthroat,
Shadowmage Infiltrator,
Disciple of Bolas and
Compulsion to name a few.
Sage of Fables is a particularly good draw engine (and power boost) with the number of wizards present in the deck. Both on-color cycle lands (
Barren Moor and
Lonely Sandbar) are included as well.
Some other good effects for the Dimir master plan include making your creatures unblockable with
Rogue's Passage or
Minamo Sightbender, and getting another use from cards in the graveyard with
Dralnu, Lich Lord,
Pit Keeper,
Havengul Lich or
Elixir of Immortality. Commander deck staples include
Sol Ring,
Swiftfoot Boots,
Dimir Keyrune (mana rock) and an extra Legendary creature (of fewer colors) for players to brew with:
Jalira, Master Polymorphist.
A few particular combos included:
Lantern of Insight + any mill,
Sigil Tracer +
Worst Fears,
Massacre Wurm and
Sudden Spoiling. A group of combo cards include sacrifice outlets
Jalira, Master Polymorphist,
Safe Haven and
Undercity Informer, for use with
Overtaker or
Chamber of Manipulation, to prevent giving the controlled creature back. Dralnu can also make use of the sac outlets to prevent him from taking damage. No infinite combos were included (I.e.
Mindcrank) and the overall choices of cards were made to keep the power level of the deck within the power and price range of a precon.
