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The Dimir Guildsman Who Came in from the Cold

Commander / EDH Mill UB (Dimir)

Lo_Pan


Maybeboard


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 Expropriate
  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).

Suggestions

Updates Add

out ---> in (+/- CMC): Reason

Bribery, Praetor's Grasp & Treachery ---> Baleful Strix, Wail of the Forgotten & Likeness Looter (-7): Dropping the overall CMC of this deck, which plays more lower to the ground than it's man distribution suggests. Bribery, Praetor's Grasp and Treachery are super cool and expensive cards, but they don't really fit the strategy of this deck (taking from the library or board vs g/y), which I need to better focus. More low cost looting/card advantage early would have helped me mightily this year. Also worth noting: I primarily play edh on SpellTable, so effects like these outgoing ones are a pain online.

Phyrexian Metamorph ---> Sudden Substitution (0): This is just a personal choice. I really like SS, but I couldn't find a deck where it fit, so I'm forcing it in here to see how it does. I'd love to move this deck toward a more control/mill plan and thi works for that and with the current theft/clone plan as well.

Temple of Deceit ---> Shipwreck Marsh (0): I can't believe I left a tapped dual land in here (I have a few decks and this must have escaped my view), SM is a better tempo play.

Bojuka Bog ---> Pit of Offerings (0): I love the Pit! Also, I assume that targeted GY hate across opponents is better for this deck than a full exile of one player's yard (mass GY exile goes against the philosophy of this deck anyway), which denies this deck of resources though stopping the reanimator opponent cold. I'm losing tempo either way with these cards, and having Pit eventually tap for whatever is a bonus.

So there we have it, 2024 should see a Lazav back in action for his 11th year (yikes) with an overall CMC below 3 for the first time and costing about $50 less! Suggestions always welcome aboard this Ship of Theseus.

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94% Casual

Competitive

Date added 9 years
Last updated 1 month
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

8 - 0 Mythic Rares

48 - 0 Rares

20 - 0 Uncommons

8 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.86
Tokens Copy Clone, The Monarch
Folders oona?, Active Decks
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