Lazav's Many Faces

Commander / EDH Mill Surveil UB (Dimir) Unblockable

Quazer

Land (35)

• 1x Choked Estuary
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dimir Aqueduct
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Escape Tunnel
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Fetid Pools
• 10x Island
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Shipwreck Marsh
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 10x Swamp
• 1x Temple of Deceit
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Tocasia's Dig Site
• 1x Undercity Sewers
• 1x Watery Grave

Draw (7)

• 1x Barbed Servitor
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Kami of the Crescent Moon
• 1x Palantir of Orthanc
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Shadowmage Infiltrator
• 1x Whispering Madness

Protection (6)

• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Dread Return
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Sinister Sabotage
• 1x Spellskite
• 1x Unwind

Self Mill (14)

• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Candlestick
• 1x Case of the Shifting Visage
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Master of Death
• 1x Mirror-Mad Phantasm
• 1x Oriq Loremage
• 1x Otherworldly Gaze
• 1x Perpetual Timepiece
• 1x Scion of Halaster
• 1x Stinkweed Imp
• 1x Tortured Existence
• 1x Unmarked Grave
• 1x Unshakable Tail

Creature Copy, Defensive (9)

• 1x Cavern Harpy
• 1x Erebos, God of the Dead
• 1x Invisible Stalker
• 1x Kefnet the Mindful
• 1x Kjeldoran Dead
• 1x Phyrexian Obliterator
• 1x Saiba Cryptomancer
• 1x Thassa, God of the Sea
• 1x Will-o'-the-Wisp

Copycats (5)

• 1x Dimir Doppelganger
• 1x Likeness Looter
• 1x Ludevic, Necrogenius  ^Flip
• 1x Shadow Kin
• 1x Vesuvan Drifter

Removal (5)

• 1x Curse of the Swine
• 1x Hero's Downfall
• 1x Price of Fame
• 1x Ravenform
• 1x Terror Tide

Commander (1)

Creature Copy, Offensive (10)

• 1x Cordial Vampire
• 1x Cruel Somnophage
• 1x Hunted Horror
• 1x Nighthowler
• 1x Phage the Untouchable
• 1x Slither Blade
• 1x Souls of the Lost
• 1x The Ancient One
• 1x Tormented Soul
• 1x Vector Asp

Ramp (7)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Millikin
• 1x Omen Hawker
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Thran Dynamo

Alt Win (1)

• 1x Thassa's Oracle

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Maybeboard

Maybe (5)

• 1x Bontu the Glorified
• 1x Cemetery Tampering
• 1x Corpse Connoisseur
• 1x Criminal Past
• 1x Dimir Strandcatcher

Upgrades (4)

• 1x Damnation
• 1x Jace's Archivist
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Sunken Ruins

New Card Maybe (2)

• 1x Conduit Pylons
• 1x Tinybones, the Pickpocket

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When I was a kid the first commander deck I ever made was a shapeshifter Lazav, Dimir Mastermind deck thats goal was to play the other persons deck. Just as you'd expect from a first deck... it was pretty bad. I took it apart not too long ago in favor of this, my tribute deck to my first commander!The thing I liked most about my deck before was Lazav, and I ended up not liking the whole "play your opponents deck" theme. So, with a bit more experince under my belt, I made this self mill deck.

Deck Tech

In this deck, Lazav, the Multifarious, is the star; the goal is to dump as many cards as possible into the grave and use that as our toolbox with Lazav to win. When we are dumping cards into the grave, obviously, the thing we want most is creatures, and the key to all of these creatures is their low cmc and one or two keywords or abilities that give Lazav tons of options at a low cost. That being said, getting caught without mana when you need to do something with him feels really bad, so we also run quite large ramp with Thran Dynamo, Karn, Living Legacy, and Omen Hawker to empower his ability.

Is someone going to destroy him? Make him into Kefnet the Mindful. Maybe he is about to be bounced to your hand? Make him into Saiba Cryptomancer. Even a board-wide creature exile can be responded to by turning him into Thassa, God of the Sea, to keep him alive. But how do we win? Well, the main thing at first is CMD damage. Lazav has many ways to go unblockable with Slither Blade, Tormented Soul, and Invisible Stalker. This usually would not be a massive deal, only dealing 1 damage, but after no blockers are declared, we can make him into something like Hunted Horror for 2 CMC to suddenly deal 7 out of nowhere. That CMD damage can stack up over a game and kick out one or two people, but if we make it to the late game, we may need a way to knock out someone quickly.

That's where Phage the Untouchable and Vector Asp come in. Throughout the game, the goal is to get one of these cards into the grave along with a way to be unblockable. An important thing to note about Lazev's transformations is he does not re-enter the battlefield when he does. This means, for better or worse, he avoids any ETB triggers a creature may have, so Hunted Horror would not make a creature for someone, and Phage the Untouchable would not make you lose the game. So that means late game, we can swing unblockable and have him become Phage the Untouchable in response to no blockers, instant killing our opponent. Vector Asp is almost just as dirty; his ability gives Lazev infect even if he turns into a creature other than Vector Asp. This means we can suddenly provide any of the unblockable damage we are dealing to have infect. This, paired with a late-game Nighthowler or similar creature in our grave, could easily swing for over 10 poison damage for an instant win.

The last way of winning is weird but fun to pull off. It's a combo that starts by needing Lazav, the Multifarious and 3 other creatures on the battlefield under your control, and Mirror-Mad Phantasm in your grave. First, Lazav, the Multifarious, becomes Mirror-Mad Phantasm and activates the ability of Mirror-Mad Phantasm. Then Lazav gets shuffled into your library, and you flip cards, looking for a card named Mirror-Mad Phantasm. That card is already in your grave, so you flip the whole library looking for it and wind up deckless. Then we sacrifice 3 creatures to cast Dread Return to get Thassa's Oracle, which will win us the game with its ability.

Date added	1 year
Last updated	5 months
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 0 Mythic Rares 34 - 0 Rares 15 - 0 Uncommons 22 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.55
Tokens	Bird 1/1 U, Boar 2/2 G, Centaur 3/3 G w/ Pro Black, Clue, Copy Clone
Folders	Deck Upgrades