Yoink! [2DH] *ARCHIVED*
Commander / EDH*
SCORE: 36 | 25 COMMENTS | 8975 VIEWS | IN 36 FOLDERS
Blowing off the dust —April 5, 2017
Additions: Avatar of Woe, Telemin Performance, Keening Stone, Snuff Out, Beacon of Unrest, 2 Island.
Cuts: Rapid Hybridization, Trepanation Blade, Archfiend of Depravity, Cemetary Puca, Steal Enchantment, Lonely Sandbar, Barren Moor
Hey all! It's been a long while since I've updated this deck. I've been giving so much attention to my other decks that I've let this one and Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord fall on the wayside. I've been making subtle changes to both, but I thought I'd give this one a definitive update for old times' sake.
Tl;dr overview of the changes: I love the core of the deck and want to make it more consistent. I want to take what the deck has and either upgrade the cards with better versions; or add more ramp and card draw to be able to use those cards more often.
The long explanation behind the additions and cuts:
Added: Avatar of Woe. This is just an amazing card. I picked up a copy for this deck and my Jarad deck and it's an all-star in Jarad but works even better here! Essentially 2 black mana for a 6/5 unblockable with the ability to destroy creatures as a tap ability. Broken. Granted there will be cases where you draw it before you start to mill and there will be cases where all your opponents have black/artifact creatures to block with, but it's still a card I feel solidly deserves a place in this deck.
What it replaced: Archfiend of Depravity. You'll see me saying this A LOT in this update, but this is a card I would consider adding back into the deck. In the end, they both achieve the same sort of thing that I'm looking for: removal on a decent body. They're both useful in different situations and would easily replace Avatar of Woe with Archfiend of Depravity if my meta was heavy on tokens. I just don't like the fact that your opponents choose what goes to the graveyard because they're always going to choose what's best for them; which is usually what's worst for you. Also the fact that Avatar of Woe is 3 mana cheaper and more flavorful with what the deck wants to do made it so that I made the cut.
Added: Snuff Out. 0. Mana. Removal. This card is essentially Slaughter Pact and it just baffles me to why it doesn't see more play. One of the few cards I'll call criminally underrated. I absolutely love this card and you'll see copies of it in pretty much every black deck I play. Once again, it sucks if the creature you really want to remove is black; and it's a 1-for-1 in EDH which generally isn't good. However if you cast your commander (or your commander is already in play) and then remove the best creature in play, well, now you have the best creature in play.
What it replaced: Rapid Hybridization. This is a card that could easily go back into the deck (see I told you I'd be saying it a lot). As I said earlier, single-target single-use removal is generally bad in EDH, but combined with Lazav, Dimir Mastermind, Sepulchral Primordial, Body Double, Dimir Doppelganger, Rise from the Grave, and many many other cards; you are able to use your single target removal as a response to a big scary creature or as a way to pseudo-steal their creatures. I like single target removal but I'm a bit wary about running too much. Also there are too many good cards in this deck that it was hard to find something to cut; I just ended up liking Snuff Out a bit better than this.
Added: Keening Stone. One thing I feel that the deck needs is a win condition aside from accidentally milling them to death or taking their own big creatures and swinging at them. The deck is no doubt fun to play, but doesn't have the highest of win rates. That's why I added in Keening Stone into the deck to turn the "mill to steal their creatures" strategy into a "mill their decks to win the game" strategy. I might end up adding more mill cards in the future, but this one is just such a perfect card for EDH mill decks that I couldn't say no.
What it replaced: Trepanation Blade. I know I just said I wanted to go more into the mill strategy and then I go and remove a mill card from the deck. However, I was never too happy to draw or play this card. The only time I enjoyed playing this card was when I attached it to my Blighted Agent and prayed for 10 infect damage. It's not a bad card to throw on Lazav to go for the commander damage win, but it always felt like a constant underperformer and usually never milled more than 3 cards on attack. If I add in Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker or go for a more voltron strategy with Lazav I might add it back in, but for now I'm pretty underwhelmed by it.
Added: Telemin Performance. To be 100% honest, this card is in here mostly for fun. It goes with the Lazav theme of milling and stealing creatures but it specifically does NOT mill creatures and the creature that you steal is completely random. I can see this being a card that I cut, but I definitely have to try it and see how I like it.
What it replaced: Cemetary Puca. How could I replace Lazav #2?! Well, just like the card that replaced it, it looks like it fits with the theme of the deck, but it doesn't fit enough. To copy the creature with Cemetary Puca the creature has to hit the graveyard from the battlefield. That means the only way to have it become a copy of a creature is to use your single target removal (which the deck doesn't have too much of) or to rely on an opponent killing off something powerful. I have rarely been able to use Cemetary Puca's ability, and everytime I have been able to use it, it was just copying whatever I could get my hands on instead of a card that I actually wanted to copy.
Added: Beacon of Unrest. I originally added this in to replace Rise from the Grave, but I thought it would be good to just have both of them in the deck instead. This card is a Rise from the Grave that also recurrs artifacts and gets shuffled into your deck. Pure value. Don't really have much to explain about this one. Mill their good stuff, take their good stuff.
What it replaced: Steal Enchantment. This card was an experiment and to be fair it wasn't awful. Dimir is terrible at destroying artifacts and enchantments so I've tried Steel Hellkite, Nevinyrral's Disk (which is still in the deck), Xenic Poltergeist, and even Puca's Mischief to try and get rid of them. All aside from one of those was too gimmicky to stay in the deck and Steal Enchantment is no exception. It does nothing against global enchantments and all they have to do is destroy your enchantment (which practically every single other color can do) and then they get their own enchantment back. It was fun to try it out, but definitely not a keeper in this deck.
Added: 2 Island. Islands are good.
What it replaced: Lonely Sandbar and Barren Moor. This is more of a personal preference, but I honestly didn't like drawing these lands at any stage in the game. In the opening turns I never wanted to play them for either tempo reasons or just for the "feel-bad feeling" of playing an island/swamp that comes in tapped and does nothing else. In the later stages of the game I also always felt bad about cycling the cards as well. There is an incredibly high chance that I'm looking at cycling the wrong way, but I just didn't enjoy drawing these lands at any stages of the game. Also since then I've added practically every 1 mana cantrip spell (Serum Visions, Ponder, Preordain, and Brainstorm) so I think my card draw is much more consistent than before.
Phew. I probably won't be doing these extensive updates often, but I love getting to explain my reasoning and talk (type?) through my changes when I'm coming back to an old deck. I hope you still love the deck and it hasn't changed too much from what it originally was. Enjoy, and as always, I love hearing feedback so please leave comments below!!