Dimir House Guard

Creature — Skeleton

Fear (This creature can't be blocked except by artifact creatures and/or black creatures.)

Sacrifice a creature: Regenerate this. (The next time this creature would be destroyed, instead tap this, remove this creature from combat and heal all damage on this.)

Transmute {1}{B}{B} *({1}{B}{B}, Discard this card: Search your library for a card with the same converted mana cost/mana value as this card, reveal it put it into your hand, then shuffle. Transmute only as a sorcery.)

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (49)

Destroyerbirb on K'rrik Son of Yawgmoth 2.0

3 weeks ago

For cuts I would recommend:

Professor Onyx - While Liliana's side job is beneficial for society (educators are very important, especially those who help us raise people from the dead), the deck doesn't have a strong spell slinger theme so her static doesnt work, the minus three is not as optimal as it makes itself out to be, and other effects are... not worth the six mana and time required.

Charcoal Diamond - You've got a ridiculous amount of ramp in this deck already, not sure this piece is needed. Plus, with the way K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth works, you want to ramp in colourless more than in black with your artifacts and similar since K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth always pays for black anyways, so Mind Stone just makes Charcoal Diamond look that much more of a downgrade.

Defense Grid - Not really seeing the point. Plus, this is meant to be a casual deck, all this will do is make everyone more upset and make interaction harder.

Saw in Half - It's a fun card not really worth adding.

Meathook Massacre 2 - I have a feeling it's a bit redundant to have both, especially since they both do a bit different things and you've got many tutors. Cutting the second part instead of its original installation would make more sense because this copy does cost a lot for its effect, whereas The Meathook Massacre became so played because it being pretty low costing for everything it does.

Paradise Plume - A lot of mana for its effect, and you have too many ramp cards.

Shared Trauma - Not too sure on this card's inclusion and what it would do.

Chain of Smog - I personally don't think discard cards are very strong in EDH, might be a good cut. I can see this being played against CEDH players and having a big effect, but EDH? Not as convinced.

Grim Tutor - You've got a lot of tutors, you can cut this one.

Final Parting - Same as above.

Diabolic Tutor - You can guess what I've got to say about this one.

Platinum Angel - I think take this one out. You can't pay life below zero so I'm not sure why else this would be in the deck.

Phage the Untouchable - As you said, you'd put it in your maybeboard and have it come out a game or two so you can just say you've killed someone with Phage, but I'd probably just keep it in the maybeboard.

Orcish Bowmasters - What are you playing, CEDH?

Opposition AgentGC - This is really more a meta suggestion than anything, but you don't verse people with a lot of tutors, you'd be lucky if people run more than one tutor. I'd cut this just from a meta perspective, or at least have it as a maybeboard card.

Doomsday Excruciator - Eh, nah.

Dimir House Guard - It's a sac outlet and a tutor in one, so I see what you're going with, which is why I'm only partially suggesting it as a cut, but also it's not the best at either job.

Chainer, Dementia Master - Not sure I'm feeling Chainer in this deck specifically.

Bloodletter of Aclazotz - Would be a lovely card for our cube, but I think there are already better finishers in this deck.

Asmodeus the Archfiend - Another maybe cut. It's a fun and spicy card, but also you're losing a lot of life for an effect which you do better with other cards in here. You really don't want to have too many cards that do similar things, especially since you've got many tutors and draw cards.

Cabal Stronghold - You've got three basic lands. There is no world in which you could activate this card and get a payoff from it.

Emergence Zone - Playing stuff at instant speed doesn't really help your deck.

Rogue's Passage - Zero use in this deck.

/

I also have addition suggestions:

Torment of Hailfire - Not sure why this isn't here.

Swamp - Add one Swamp for every land cut.

FAIRxPOTAMUS on A Ghoulcallers Dream

11 months ago

No offense taken. Criticism is welcome. I’m trying to shoot for under $50 US but I’ll see how that goes, getting the itch to buy some cardboard. I could save up a few months and make a big purchase. Mana rocks sound good. What would you suggest? I’m looking at things like tutors and cards with transmute. Dimir House Guard could never be fielded and transmute for {1}{B}{B}. Do you know any cards that would look nice for lowering the cost of black spells?

Adny888 on MossyFungoid

1 year ago

Hey unleashed Havoc

Thanks for looking over my decklist and for the suggestions! The Tendershoot Dryad looks like a solid addition, and I will add to my potential buy list.

The Tutors sound like a good inclusion too, (along with the sac outlets) but they are all pretty spenny here in Aus... what do you think on these guys as cheaper alternates? Dimir House Guard, Shred Memory and Fierce Empath

Thunderfoot Baloth looks ace too, just... its like $15.00 here or not avaliable anywhere, so ill keep an eye out

I actually forgot the wording that focused on premanants going in to the graveyard, so maybe I should look more closely at teh instants and sorceries there for sure.

DreadKhan on Chatter

1 year ago

I feel like your Commander would like One with the Kami and Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest. You just need a free sac outlet like Viscera Seer, Carrion Feeder, Woe Strider, Dimir House Guard (does double duty as a tutor for MV 4 stuff), or Sadistic Hypnotist. Most of these don't have a very good payoff other than killing a creature, but some have useful upsides.

I wonder if you could shave a few lands by running some of the following: Golgari Rot Farm, Blighted Woodland, Myriad Landscape, Castle Garenbrig, Guildless Commons, and Mosswort Bridge. Most of those are fairly budget, and getting a ramp effect out of a land feels extremely good in my experience. The best options also help with fixing your mana.

If you want to add something really pushed, Pitiless Plunderer is really good with your Commander, it looks like it's had a reprint, but it's still up there for a single card. Another card to keep an eye out for is Swarmyard. Toski, Bearer of Secrets is a solid Squirrel pick, if not the cheapest. If you often have 1/1 creatures you aren't super attached to their is always Skullclamp, it's a few bucks but it can do a lot of work with 1/1 tokens.

I'm not sure how desperate you are for tokens/are afraid of flyers, but I always have fun with Sandwurm Convergence. Transmogrifying Wand is a nice way to put pressure on your opponents' creatures, it plays well in budget decks. Grim Haruspex is a pretty nice card if you expect to lose creatures, it doesn't even charge life.

Madcookie on Pattern Recognition # 288 - …

1 year ago

Transmute is one of my favorite mechanics precisely because of how flavorful but also fair and limiting it is. You mention tutors that cost less than 4 mana have a drawback and make transmuting for 3 sound OP, while the main downside of the mechanic is its extremely limiting scope - you can only get a card of the same CMC. On top of that everything except Muddle the Mixture, Dimir House Guard (only in some K'rrik cEDH), maybe Shred Memory does not have any meaningful effects for the mana cost and excluding the transmute ability, is essentially unplayable.

Most tutors that are played in various formats are very versatile either grabbing almost any card you want like Demonic Tutor(deck) or Fae of Wishes(sideboard), or can get a card type that synergizes with your deck like Buried Alive or Fabricate. Transmuted cards can only grab a card with certain CMC usually a specific combo piece, which means in the majority of situations they can't be used to tutor for something else like an answer or a different combo piece, increasing the chance that they are dead cards in your hand.

Sure, Transmute is uncounterable but in situations not involving storm you are better off countering the stuff your opponent searched for, instead of the tutor itself. Last but not least most of the Transmute cards have black in them and generally black tutors do not reveal what you search for, unlike Transmute which always makes you share that information with everyone.

Because your topic bled into "Are tutors bad for the game" I'll touch on that too. No. If you ban tutors then cards that overflow with value take their place - Consecrated Sphinx, Rhystic Study, Esper Sentinel, Smothering Tithe. Prices skyrocket even higher. Then you probably ban those. Then what? Where do we draw the line? When 99 Colossal Dreadmaw becomes the meta?

If anything players should discuss power-levels and have some consideration for their playgroup when deckbuilding.

nothingstar on

2 years ago

This is a good start, you have some really nice lifegain synergies going. It doesn't really seem like a card draw deck to me, though. It leans more towards the lifegain world of Aetherflux Reservoir than to the U/B world of card draw. There are a lot of black cards that exchange life for cards; if you want card draw, you should get a Graveborn Muse leave the Reservoir behind.

If you go the true lifegain route, you might add transmute effects for tutors, like Clutch of the Undercity or Dimir House Guard. And another good wincon could be Celestial Convergence + Solemnity. And Test of Endurance. Though those will require more counters/protection than you have right now.

I have learned from experience that strategies that ping your opponents for one or two life every turn get you killed very quickly, because they make you stand out even when you're doing very little. So things like Drana's Emissary are kinda dangerous.

In that same vein, Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose will draw hate. It's Sanguine Bond on a stick, and when people see half of the Sanguine Bond/Exquisite Blood combo, they shoot it immediately.

One final bit of overarching advice -- since this is a 3-color deck, I suggest staying away from cards that require a lot of one kind of mana. Particularly lots of black mana, like Underworld Dreams or Peer into the Abyss, since this deck is heavily U/W right now.

Okay, now some slightly more nitpicky things about card choices:

• Since the Mages only seem to fetch mana rocks at this point, might you switch them out with myrs? Like Alloy Myr.

• I'd replace Folio of Fancies with Temple Bell, personally, because I like having to spend less mana per draw.

• Serra Avatar might be better than Celestial Force. But also I just really like Serra Avatar.

Again, this is quite good, just needs a bit of focusing towards the endgame. All the nitty-gritty of the mana curve and stuff you'll work out in playtesting, and what you have so far is workable.

CruelEntertainment on Date Night with Phage

2 years ago

Have you Though about adding any transmute cards to the list, like Dimir House Guard or Brainspoil, if anything just to save a bit of money, also, thanks for making the list, I feel like it is a cool primer for how to

Flarhoon13 on Kenrith, the Cycling King

2 years ago

Inaugural game went perfectly. Time of Need got Zirda, the Dawnwaker. An early Fluctuator allowed me to cycle about 7 cards early. Zur the Enchanter got Astral Slide, Escape Protocol and Training Grounds. So, when Kenrith, the Returned King finally came out, all of his abilities were reduced to a single coloured mana. Razaketh's Rite got a Palinchron, probably should've gotten a Herald of the Forgotten. My opponent had been kind enough to mill my Scholar of the Ages so I could search with Razaketh's Rite again, this time for the Dimir House Guard to loop Palinchron via Kenrith, the Returned King for infinite mana and the win.