The Dimir Guildsman Who Came in from the Cold

Commander / EDH Bracket 3 Mill UB (Dimir)

Lo_Pan

Land (37)

• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Duskmantle, House of Shadow
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 1x Glasspool Shore  ^Flip
• 1x Gloomlake Verge
• 9x Island
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Mistrise Village
• 1x Morphic Pool
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Shipwreck Marsh
• 1x Soporific Springs  ^Flip
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 7x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Isle
• 1x Thespian's Stage
• 1x Tolaria West
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Watery Grave

Take what you need (8)

• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Dauthi Voidwalker
• 1x Likeness Looter
• 1x Aboleth Spawn
• 1x Mnemonic Betrayal
• 1x Arcane Heist
• 1x Breach the Multiverse

Card Advantage (10)

• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Visions of Beyond
• 1x Baleful Strix
• 1x Jace's Archivist
• 1x NecropotenceGC
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Rhystic StudyGC
• 1x Thief of Sanity
• 1x Windfall
• 1x Whispering Madness

Combo Pieces (10)

• 1x Bloodchief Ascension
• 1x Duskmantle Guildmage
• 1x Mindcrank
• 1x Hinder
• 1x Spell Crumple
• 1x Eater of the Dead
• 1x Guiltfeeder
• 1x Phenax, God of Deception
• 1x Syr Konrad, the Grim
• 1x Tunnel Vision

Removal and Control (8)

• 1x An Offer You Can't Refuse
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Cyclonic RiftGC
• 1x Drown in the Loch
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Perplex
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Singularity Rupture

Passive Mill (7)

• 1x Altar of the Brood
• 1x Hedron Crab
• 1x Ruin Crab
• 1x Mesmeric Orb
• 1x Bruvac the Grandiloquent
• 1x Memory Erosion
• 1x Psychic Corrosion

Commander (1)

Active Mill (9)

• 1x Glimpse the Unthinkable
• 1x Maddening Cacophony
• 1x Mind Grind
• 1x Fractured Sanity
• 1x Mind Funeral
• 1x Trepanation Blade
• 1x Zellix, Sanity Flayer
• 1x Archive Trap
• 1x Traumatize

Ramp & Fixing (8)

• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Misleading Signpost
• 1x Spoils of Evil
• 1x Thada Adel, Acquisitor

Misc. (2)

• 1x Profane Memento
• 1x Dimir Infiltrator

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Maybeboard

Other (8)

• 1x Deserted Temple
• 1x Slip Out the Back
• 1x Vanishing
• 1x Absorb Identity
• 1x Paranoid Delusions
• 1x Bond of Insight
• 1x Notion ThiefGC
• 1x Deadly Cover-Up

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Welcome to the Undercity, friends. Here’s the current framework for this deck, which has been in rotation for several years now and is a personal favorite. Note: Cards with Guild Watermark: 21

Strategy: Play to parity. Use theft and clones to adapt to the board as it evolves without appearing to be the major threat, while you accumulate mana and some combo pieces. When ready, transmute or tutor the rest of the combo (if you haven’t already drawn into one) and sneak in a KO.

Early game plan: Ramp where possible (this deck is light on traditional ramp with 4 rocks only, so you'll mainly rely on cloning or stealing opponents ramp pieces), prioritize passive and active milling.

Mid game plan: Adapt to the board and play to parity, your hand should generally have a means to pull out or clone an opponent’s threat from the battlefield (e.g., Treachery), their library (e.g., Bribery), and graveyard (e.g., Animate Dead). This is where this deck shines, if we keep our hand full, we should adapt to nearly any solution, drawing from multiple zones. Steal what you lack.

Late game combos:

1. Mindcrank + Bloodchief Ascension
2. Mindcrank + Duskmantle Guildmage
3. Mindcrank + Guiltfeeder
4. Eater of the Dead + Phenax, God of Deception
5. Hinder or Spell Crumple + Tunnel Vision
6. Traumatize + Keening Stone (keening stone on hiatus from this deck atm)
7. Many cards combo nicely together like, say Consuming Aberration and Phenax, though not necessarily to end the game; needless to say, there are many ways to steal a win quickly with just a pair of cards when in a disadvantageous position later in the game.

Alternate victory conditions:

1. Resolve ExpropriateGC
2. Get Lazav on the board, mill, and turn him into something that starts the commander-damage clock via a hexproof beater.

And there you have it. This deck evolved nicely from it's humble origins as a collection of Ravnica and RTR cards used in a 10-way casual guild competition. As this deck has been optimized, I do feel like some of the personality has worn off. Bummer note to end on, so here's the original plan for this deck, which--the bones at least--are actually still very present all these years later.

Original plan: This deck started as part of a casual competition to compile a Commander deck using one of the ten Guilds with either the Guild Master, Parun, Champion or Maze Runner as Commander, so I rotate in all 4 when required. Other requirements are that one third of more of the nonland cards must have the guild watermark, at least 1 of each guild mechanic (in this case transmute [Ravnica] and Cipher [RTR]) must be represented, guildgates, karoo, and special lands required.

Overall Idea: Mill is difficult to pull off in EDH and apparently not entirely fun to play against. This deck can combo out into a win, but I want to play EDH, not solitaire, so I've made it more synergistic with the battlefield. I've also included some nifty creatures to neutralize the game long enough for my mill shenanigans to pay off. All transmutable cards can fetch combo pieces or board wipes, (would like a reason to include Dimir House Guard, but have no 4 CMC cards worth transmuting).

Date added	11 years
Last updated	1 month
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 45 - 0 Rares 24 - 0 Uncommons 7 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.75
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Horror, Treasure
Folders	oona?, Active Decks