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The Horror ... THE HORROR! *PRIMER*

Commander / EDH Bracket 3 Horror Mill UB (Dimir)

NV_1980

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Land (36)

Instant (6)

Creature (25)

Enchantment (6)

Planeswalker (2)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Captain N'ghathrod

Artifact (13)

Sorcery (11)

Welcome to The Horror … THE HORROR!

Hi there! Welcome to the primer of this Dimir, horror-tribe-mill deck; commanded by Captain N'ghathrod. Thanks to these planes’ tendencies to have rifts open up on a regular basis, into dimensions best left unexplored by the weak, a conglomerate of vastly unpleasant yet likeminded creatures have been brought together by a horrible, relentless (naval?) officer whose features must be even more unpleasant to witness in person than those of Davy Jones’ cursed form itself. His army of brain-eaters is poised to strike; ready to be unleashed by his furious command so that gray-matter may be liquified and consumed wherever it may be located (all without harming the remainder of physical forms until it cannot be avoided anymore). The goal: to retrieve every wisp of psychic power their victims possess, while relishing each ounce of exquisite agony from writhing forms until all spirit essence has been utterly absorbed. Get ready to have your mind blown from your skull, in ways heretofore unimagined. This deck is meant to be played casually. It’s not meant to be used in a competitive fashion, but of course anyone is welcome to try! Feel free to comment on anything you (dis)like throughout this primer; hope you will enjoy it!

Because mill-decks are great and he brings a number of advantages towards such a strategy with him in a single, neat package. Our cap’s most awesome ability is to turn all horrors into milling engines (in addition to their combat-damage output!). Second, he makes it much harder for opponents to stop his horrors, by granting them all menace (now the opponent has to waste two blockers minimum to halt a single horror). Third, provided one can mill an opponent every turn while he’s around, it’s possible to steal at least one creature/artifact from someone’s graveyard every turn; yowza! He's got some disadvantages of course, one of them being that he’s not cheap to cast. Therefore ways have been added to cheapen his (and his comrades’) casting. Another is that his presence is rather important to the deck’s functioning. This has resulted in the addition of measures to prevent his (un)targeted removal.

The following ten parameters have been used to determine the strength of the deck. For each, a score of 5 (very good), 4 (good), 3 (mediocre), 2 (bad) or 1 (very bad) has been allocated; when totalized this score represents the power rating of the deck (maximum score is 50 points).

  • Mana: indicates the availability of mana sources within the deck.
  • Ramp: indicates the speed at which mana sources within the deck can be made available.
  • Card Advantage: indicates availability of filter- and draw resources represented within the deck.
  • Overall speed: indicates the deck’s potential for pace, based on resource availability and mana curve.
  • Combo: indicates the measure of combo-orientation of the deck.
  • Army: indicates the deck’s creature-army strength.
  • Commander: indicates how much the deck is commander-oriented/dependent (less dependency is better).
  • Interaction: indicates how much this deck can mess with opponents’ board states and turn-phases.
  • Resilience: indicates whether the deck can prevent and take punches.
  • Spellpower: indicates the availability and strength of high-impact spells.

Mana: 3

Energy is often hard to come by in a Dimir-colored deck. For the most part, this one relies on rocks for this (six options) as well as three artifacts that can cheapen a large percentage of castings. The deck also features a cheap, instant black-mana spell.

Ramp: 1

Alas, not a single card in this deck ought to be considered as meant for ramping purposes.

Card Advantage: 4

Fortunately, Cap is a card-advantage resource onto himself, as his thefts can provide ample great resources every turn. Of course the deck also contains a number of direct draw resources (six cards), a few tutors (two cards) and it wouldn’t be completely Dimir if it didn’t also contain some theft cards (seven cards).

Overall speed: 3

More or less medium speed, compared to the average EDH deck. Its mana resources are mediocre as is its magazine of card advantage options. Average CMC of cards in the deck is decent, sitting at 3,4.

Combo: 2

There’s a few ways in which this deck is able to create infinite mill cycles, by damaging opponents per mill-cycle and having the damage itself be a trigger for a new mill-cycle. There’s also a few methods with which it’s possible to have opponents mill their entire library in a single move.

Army: 4

The horrors that make up this deck’s fighting force mean business! There’s twenty one of them, ready to drain face at the behest of the captain. Well over half of them can be considered very strong combatants, with (potentially) high power and toughness scores. Three of the deck’s creatures can spawn tokens. The remaining critters have been added to cheapen castings, increase mill potential and add some other utility purposes.

Commander: 2

Cap’s presence makes all the deck’s horrors about twice as dangerous, compared to when he’s not on the battlefield. As a result, packing such a wallop means he will often be key to victory. Some precautions have therefore been taken to keep him around after he arrives; mostly in the form of options that can counter his targeted removal.

Interaction: 5

Plenty of that in a deck that’s focused on sucking people’s libraries into their graveyards. Every horror is a mill-enabler with Captain N'ghathrod around. Supporting them are an additional seven permanents that enable milling, as well as seven non-permanents. A decent counter-suite of five instants has been added to prevent targeted removal and other noteworthy spell-attacks from the opposition.

Resilience: 2

A few life-link options have been added to recover any life-losses on the wielder’s part, along with a small number of options to recur (or even steal) lost creatures. One artifact prevents the commander’s targeted removal.

Spellpower: 3

The deck contains no fewer than seven very strong non-permanent mill spells, along with two very powerful recursion spells and the strongest bounce spell on offer.

Total power score: 28

Definitely not a particularly strong deck at the starting phases of games, mostly because resources are not super abundant, but once it picks up momentum and Cap joins the battlefield, balances can quickly start to shift in its favor. Many of the horrors are able to complement each other’s powers, but this is not likely to happen early on and therefore not immediately apparent.

Not particularly sophisticated; just combine the application of combat damage, milling and the theft of cards that have been milled to pull in wins. The Cap enables doing this on a grand scale. The plan is to slowly, but surely, flood the board with a tide of horrors (priority is given to those that have cheap utilitarian uses). While this goes on, use strong mill-sorceries when opportunity knocks (many of the critters in this deck are boosted by large graveyards). Then N’ghathrod hits the field and offensive action will kick off in earnest.

At least three cards in the starting hand ought to be lands (or two lands and a cheap-to-cast rock like Arcane Signet, Jet Medallion, Sol Ring or Talisman of Dominance). It is recommended not to start a game without this hand (even if one has to mulligan down to three cards). The ideal hand would also contain some additional ramp and/or low-cost draw options.

In most cases, this deck will start out slow. The idea is to build up first, giving priority to resources (mana and card-advantage) or cards that can steal resources from others. Some low-cost permanent milling (preferably triggered by opposing actions) also has priority during this phase, so that without anyone noticing it too much, graveyards will already start to fill out a bit. Thus, for additional mana the first cards on the board should be stuff like Dimir Signet and Sapphire Medallion (aside from the rocks already mentioned of course). An early Dark Ritual is recommended should the opportunity presents itself.

Card-advantage can be obtained through cards like Phyrexian Arena and Rhystic Study. Also, some early tutors are great but are used for different purposes. Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor are usually reserved for resource cards during this phase. Some early horrors, like Aboleth Spawn and Grell Philosopher are highly recommended; both can be exceptionally awesome at making use of opposing resources.

In terms of low-cost milling, cards like Altar of the Brood, Mindcrank, Ruin Crab and Zellix, Sanity Flayer should appear as early as possible on the field.

Once a baseline has been established, it’s time for the most fun part of the deck; getting horrors and their cap onto the field and commence operation brain-vacu-suck. Ideally, one starts with the cheap-skate beasties, like the horrors mentioned in the early game section, or cards like Chasm Skulker, card:Grazillaxx, Illithid Scholar or Hunted Horror. Cap is also free to hit the field by now, to kick off some epic milling (and stealing, if possible). He should bring along Bruvac the Grandiloquent as well, to double the effectiveness of all milling.

An alternative to cheap monsters, is casting a vicious milling spell that will empower monsters (or the pool of stolen stuff) later. Cards that come to mind are Fractured Sanity, Maddening Cacophony, Mind Funeral, Startled Awake   or Traumatize. These are all fuel to some rather fun critters like Consuming Aberration, Nighthowler and card:The Haunt of High Tower.

While all this is being cast, some (horror-)support should be considered as tertiary options for appearance. Great examples include Sludge Monster (to weaken opposing creatures that made it to the battlefield), Spark Double (to copy the most useful creature or planeswalker on the battlefield at this time), Uchuulon (to create very terrifying tokens that exile stuff) and Umbris, Fear Manifest (for extremely nasty milling). Along the milling, it would be helpful to have some life-drain support in the form of Bloodchief Ascension, Duskmantle Guildmage and Guiltfeeder.

Once the milling rampage is in full-swing, it’s time to think about wrapping up. Resources should be abundant enough by now to summon some of the deck’s more outrageous horrors (both for their combat potential as well as their abilities (to steal stuff)), like Brainstealer Dragon, Hullbreaker Horror, Mind Flayer, the Shadow, Mindleech Mass and Toxrill, the Corrosive. Some of the deck’s combos might also spring into action during this phase, or maybe a pumped up Mind Grind, Shadow of the Enemy or Singularity Rupture will be enough to pull in the win.

The following are infinite and/or game-ending combos:

Then there are some great synergies to be aware of:

  • Captain N'ghathrod + Phyrexian Obliterator: Fun to use against opponents that have only a few strong creatures on the field. Attack with Obliterator. No way he’s going to get blocked, as doing so will cause the opponent in question to lose way too many permanents.
  • Altar of the Brood + Zellix, Sanity Flayer: Whenever someone mills, Zellix gets to create a horror. This triggers Altar to make every opponent mill again. Decent chance a creature is milled with this action, which triggers Zellix to create a horror again. Rinse and repeat.
  • Horrors + Phenax, God of Deception: If for whatever reason the deck’s horrors are unable to attack, they can still mill the stuffing out of whatever needs milling.
  • Uchuulon + Umbris, Fear Manifest: The longer Uchuulon and his tokens are allowed to linger, the more dangerous this synergy becomes. When Uchuulon is triggered the first time (at the end of the deck’s turn), Uchuulon creates a copy of itself which triggers Umbris’s ability (an opponent mills until they mill a land card). If no-one removes Uchuulon (or his copy), this happens twice in the next turn. Four times the turn after that. Eight times after that. Etc.

Reliable sources of mana, and some utility:

The cards used to accelerate mana-availability:

All the cards one needs to draw, tutor or steal additional cards with:

  • Brainstealer Dragon: doesn’t just steal your stuff, but also ensures you lose life whenever a permanent is nabbed from you.
  • Demonic Tutor/Vampiric Tutor: it’s wise to heed the council of an immortal.
  • Grazilaxx, Illithid Scholar: saves blocked horrors from death (at the expense of having to summon them again), while also allowing for draw upon one or more of them connecting to the enemy.
  • Jace, Memory Adept: primary and tertiary powers are excellent draw enablers, while his secondary is a strong mill-enabler.
  • Jace, Wielder of Mysteries: allows for draw while he mills others. Also provides a nice alternate win condition.
  • Mind Flayer, the Shadow: powerful combatant that’s anxious to feed on your brain.
  • Mindleech Mass: your graveyards aren’t safe, your libraries aren’t safe and now your hand isn’t safe anymore either.
  • Phyrexian Arena: dependable draw for a small price.
  • Reanimate: recurs a creature from anywhere at the cost of some life; can be used to get back something from the graveyard, or steal a creature from someone else’s.
  • Rhystic Study: you either pay spell-casting tax, or this deck gets to draw.

The tentacles, mandibles and teeth that have come to seal your doom:

  • Aboleth Spawn: great ETB … thanks for that! Quite a unique take on thievery.
  • Chasm Skulker: grows and grows whenever one draws and then shatters into a host of island-walking squids when it dies; scary!
  • Grell Philosopher: especially strong when considering one can temporarily transform its horrors into mana-rocks, which allows them to help summon more of their brethren.
  • Guiltfeeder: half your library in your graveyard and no black/artifact creatures on hand to block this? That’s a shame. Might as well scoop.
  • Hullbreaker Horror: casts a free bounce-spell whenever the deck casts anything whatsoever.
  • Hunted Horror: excellent value at such low CMC. Especially of great value when one has a (temporary) ally.
  • Nighthowler: becomes terrifyingly strong, the more cards are milled into opponents’ graveyards.
  • Phyrexian Obliterator: exceptionally powerful at CMC4; no one will want to block it for obvious reasons. Becomes even more of a problem when he’s granted ‘menace’ by cap.
  • Sludge Monster: Garfield: “Aaagh, it’s the Sludge Monster!!”. Can neutralize most strong opposing creatures.
  • Toxrill, the Corrosive: a slug-generator with some draw-enabling mixed in.
  • Uchuulon: if this bad-boy is not kept in check, he’ll overrun the entire field by himself.

The graves beckon:

  • Altar of the Brood: mills well in a deck that features 82 permanents.
  • Bruvac the Grandiloquent: because when one mills, it should be taken seriously.
  • Consuming Aberration: casting spells is already an unhealthy proposition for you; this makes it even worse (not to mention his combat-prowess can truly grow off the chain).
  • Fractured Sanity: great value for its CMC; even when one decides to cycle it.
  • Keening Stone: nasty method of cascading worse upon worse mills on opponents.
  • Maddening Cacophony: such a powerful sorcery when kicked.
  • Mind Funeral: usually worth its CMC when considering its mill amount.
  • Mind Grind: a nice mid/end-game spell when resources are abundant for maximum milling effect.
  • Mindcrank: it’s so easy to cause loss of life, and the milling on top makes it even sweeter.
  • Phenax, God of Deception: it’s possible to attack … or just sit back and mill you to death without risking any damage to the army.
  • Ruin Crab: lots of potential mill for every land-drop, especially in playgroups. Great value!
  • Singularity Rupture: massive destruction and massive mill in a neat package.
  • Startled Awake  : a repeatable mill spell, not cheap to use but still effective.
  • Traumatize: being able to cast this spell at the start of games gives such an incredible advantage (against most decks).
  • Umbris, Fear Manifest: not exactly a mill-enabler, but maybe even worse. Works especially well with horror-token generators like Uchuulon and Zellix, Sanity Flayer.

Responses to your actions and some ways with one can capitalize on milling.

  • Animate Dead/Dance of the Dead: ridiculously cheap spells to steal a card from whatever graveyard chosen.
  • Bloodchief Ascension: one of the most dangerous drain engines, that requires very little to make getting milled even more dangerous.
  • Counterspell: the word ‘no’ in spell-form.
  • Cover of Darkness: shadows friends and mechanicals will be needed to stop these.
  • Cyclonic Rift: your hand is not full enough …, please … have some more! *grins evilly*
  • Duskmantle Guildmage: drains opponent’s life-points for each card that’s milled from their library this turn AND it can initiate that milling itself if necessary.
  • Feed the Swarm: one of the few ways in which black can get rid of enchantments.
  • Fierce Guardianship: when a certain tentacled officer is around, this ‘no’ is free-of-charge!
  • Mana Drain: thanks! That can be used elsewhere!
  • Whip of Erebos: life-link-horrors … YIKES! And a temporary recursion ability to boot.

Appreciate the time you took to read this primer. Hopefully it was entertaining and useful to you. If so, feel free to leave a +1 and/or feedback of any kind in the comments below. Thanks again!

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95% Casual

Competitive

Revision 4 See all

(4 months ago)

+1 Singularity Rupture main
-1 Wrexial, the Risen Deep main