Darkblade Agent

Creature — Human Assassin

As long as you've surveilled this turn, Darkblade Agent has deathtouch and "Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, you draw a card."

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (10)

TheVectornaut on Blue-Black Deck

3 years ago

I'd start by identifying what you want the main goal of your deck to be. I see two main ideas here that could be built around.

The first is dealing unblocked damage by disincentivizing blocks with deathtouch. Darkblade Agent , Eternal of Harsh Truths , Graveblade Marauder , and maybe Blightsteel Colossus (with enough reanimation) fit this archetype. Because of the two "blade" cards, there is some overlap with the second archetype which I'll cover next (and if you keep them, cards like Notion Rain , Mission Briefing , Thought Erasure , and Discovery / Dispersal are likely to get more mileage than Divination or Secrets of the Golden City ), but there may be even better ways to profit from unblocked creatures. Curiosity enchantments like Curious Obsession , Sixth Sense , and Keen Sense are frequent accompaniments to the Invisible Stalker s and other bogles of the world, and Bident of Thassa is a strong option for those going wide. I like Quietus Spike as a sort of midway point between Basilisk Collar and Master of Cruelties in decks like these too. Other beaters to get in with could be Tomebound Lich , Oona's Blackguard , Dimir Cutpurse , Looter il-Kor , Shadowmage Infiltrator , Surrakar Spellblade , Wharf Infiltrator , or Virtus the Veiled if he's legal in whatever format this is for. More generic deathtouch synergy could include Hooded Blightfang , Viridian Longbow , Thornbite Staff , Psionic Gift enchantments, and any source of first strike. Finally, I like Cipher as a way to gain advantage from repeated attacks, so maybe a Hidden Strings or Paranoid Delusions could come in handy.

The second main idea is to stack the graveyard(s) with as many creatures as possible to extract value from Undergrowth and similar mechanics. Avatar of Woe , Lotleth Giant , Trepanation Blade , Teferi's Tutelage , and some of your Disentomb effects fit here. Major threats in these kinds of decks include Wight of Precinct Six , Jace's Phantasm , Consuming Aberration , Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker , Fleet Swallower , Nemesis of Reason , Bonehoard , Mortivore , and Nighthowler . If you want to focus on your own graveyard, green is a great color to dip into as I alluded to earlier. Ghoultree , Boneyard Wurm , Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord , Splinterfright , Nyx Weaver , Nemesis of Mortals , Spider Spawning , and Kessig Cagebreakers are just some of the tools you get access to. Golgari is also the king of Undergrowth, so Hatchery Spider , Izoni, Thousand-Eyed , Molderhulk , Rhizome Lurcher / Undergrowth Scavenger , Kraul Harpooner , and Necrotic Wound are on the table. If milling your opponents is more your thing, some staples to consider are Thought Scour , Sphinx's Tutelage , Drown in the Loch , Traumatize , Fraying Sanity , and the crab duo. Jace's Erasure , Psychic Corrosion , and the Tutelage pair benefit the most from other draw synergy, and Visions of Beyond is an obvious inclusion if that's the route you take. Either way, I'd cut down to only the most efficient of your reanimate to hand cards and the like since you don't want to be stuck with a fist full of them and no creatures in the graveyard to target. Speaking of cuts, for maximum power, it's usually correct to play as close to the 60 card minimum as possible. Picking a single strategy to hone in on should make it easier to whittle down to the most important 60 in the deck.

If you have questions, let me know. Good luck with your build!

Kithios on Dimir Surveil

4 years ago

Skyler1776 That ones going in for sure, great suggestion. I'm thinking of sideboarding the Darkblade Agent and one of the Discovery / Dispersal cards for 3x of those.

Kazierts on

4 years ago

I'm not the best when it comes to deck building but I can see there's lots to improve.

What to cut: - Darkblade Agent - Completely pointless and does not help develop your deck's strategy neither is it a win con.

• Glowspore Shaman - A worse version of Satyr Wayfinder .

• Golgari Raiders - Sure, Haste is nice. However, without evasion it's just gonna get blocked by a 1/1. Run either Boneyard Wurm or Splinterfright . The former has no other effects except for growing with your grave while the latter is still cheaper than the raiders, helps your strategy and has trample.

• House Guildmage - Really worse version of Discovery / Dispersal .

• Kraul Foragers - Really worse version of Gnaw to the Bone . This one is an instant and can be cast from your grave.

• Nightveil Sprite - The evasion is nice, but Stitcher's Supplier develops your strategy waaaaay more and doesn't have to attack.

• Quench - Just run Mana Leak if you want a cheap counter.

• Enhanced Surveillance - Does nothing.

WKM on

5 years ago

I'd replace the Barrier of Bones and Darkblade Agent. Some good budget options to look at are Plaguecrafter, Nightveil Sprite, Burglar Rat, Unexplained Disappearance, and Price of Fame to name a few. Are you wanting to build a more tempo based deck or a more control focused deck? One nice thing about UB for budget is it's fairly easy and cheap to be able to transform your deck from one to the other through side boarding.

thijmnesoy on

5 years ago

I think you really want Darkblade Agents in your deck. Someone totally destroyed me with three, yes, three copies of it at a FNM draft. It's a pretty good card: you surveil, then attack, draw the card you put on top with surveil, and next turn you can play that card for the same value if it surveils.

Vulnerrac on

5 years ago

Hi ! This deck looks super cool ! Have you played it ? It must be really fun at FNM, it's just already set up against control and against an aggro deck, play mausoleum secrets on ritual of soot seems so funny ^^ The only card I don't really like is Darkblade Agent. Is it that strong ?

Thanks for sharing this deck, hope the best for you if you try it somewhere ;)

pettigrew23 on

5 years ago

I played 3 events as Dimir for the pre-release, such a fun mechanic! I'm glad to see you also run 4 spybugs. I don't know your playstyle so the following is just what I would change for myself, everyone is different!
I'd drop maybe 1 or 2 of the sphinx since it's such a high cost card, and with dimir being the master of control you'll want some extra control. To add some utility and still be a threat you could use a mixture of Darkblade Agent and Dazzling Lights, utility calls for the lights since they provide combat tricks for 1 and surveil at the same time. I've pumped spybugs last minute as well to prevent their destruction. With enough surveil in a deck, Thoughtbound Phantasm can be a threat as well, but I personally wouldn't run 4 of those. The great thing is this deck can already be built so many different ways with the limited cards they have.

David_H18 on Bouncing Etrata

5 years ago

Very interesting deck! Just a thought, but I believe Darkblade Agent would put a lot more pressure on an opponent than Dimir Informant, unless you are just looking for repeatable surveil, in which case Nightveil Sprite would take much less effort, as attacking saves you the bounce card and mana. Really cool idea though, definitely gets an upvote here!