I think Lazav, Dimir Mastermind would be a fun commander in this. His cost is only 4 compared to 8, and he can steal all the creature goodies from you opponent.

no Consuming Aberration ? it's not that expensive.

also if you want to take a stupid amount of turns (infinite, in other words), you can use the Time Sieve /Thopter Assembly combo.

Dimir Aqueduct , Secluded Glen , Drowned Catacomb , Darkslick Shores , Rupture Spire on the land end of things.

trulychaos: Szadek, Lord of Secrets is an amazing mill source where as all Lazav, Dimir Mastermind can do is copy the stuff i do mill. Not quite as helpful.

canterlotguardian: I do have Consuming Aberration , I put in the turn loop, and i am trying to make this deck extremely cheap not just kinda cheap so all those lands are out of the question.

Rupture Spire usually runs about 50 cents, same for Dimir Aqueduct

also Psychic Intrusion would work well in this deck

I've played a deck similar to this, I found Honden of Night's Reach to be an interesting addition to keep your opponent from actually using cards they draw.

That is a pretty cool and useful card, but if if did add that I would also add to go with it Honden of Seeing Winds . What do you suggest that I take out to make room for these two cards?

This is amazing! Part of the problem I've had getting into EDH is that most people's decks are so dang expensive, so it's hard to get good deck ideas. Also, black and blue are my two favourite colours, and I have Szadek and would love to use him. This deck fulfils all three!

I want to point out that you currently have two of Dimir Aqueduct on the list... but that's oK, I have some suggestions to replace it!

Dralnu, Lich Lord is under a $1, and his tap ability could be amazing, since a third of your deck is instants/sorceries. And it's EDH, so you only get to cast each once.... unless you can flash them all back! His damage prevention may be a detriment (mainly against red burn spells).... I'll let you be the judge of that.

You dismissed Lazav, Dimir Mastermind earlier when suggested as a commander, but I still think he'd be a valuable inclusion. If you're going to be doing all that milling, why not take advantage of it. You could potentially make him a copy of some pretty nasty dudes (including ones that normally have hexproof/shroud)! He is nearly $2, but could be worth it.

If you were to spend $4-5 on one card, Oona, Queen of the Fae could potentially be it. Not only are you getting cards out of their library, but you get lots of chump blockers (especially against mono-colour decks!). Suddenly Dralnu's permanent sacrificing doesn't look so scary....

Another guy that could be attacking alongside Szadek is Wrexial, the Risen Deep . He doesn't have as reliable evasion, but that free cast of any given (potentially very powerful) instant or sorcery is niiiiice. And he's only a little over $1.

I have Szadek, Lazav, and Wrexial, and would love to get Drainu, Mirko Vosk, and Oona. I hope a couple of those strike your fancy!

Anyways, once again, so glad I found this! Gonna stick this in my folder :D

+1

Thanks for the suggestions @Halbrecht, I dropped the extra Dimir Aqueduct and added Dralnu, Lich Lord . I want to add Wrexial, the Risen Deep but don't know what to take out, any suggestions? (I don't want to drop any more land because of the high drop a decent amount of cards in the deck including Szadek, Lord of Secrets )

Hmm... Always a good question. You need all your counterspells to protect your Szadek, with all those tentative +1/+1 counters (you only have 11, and Whispersilk Cloak ). And there's no good reason to cut any of the direct mill spells, especially with Dalnu making them all doubly useful. Your artifacts and enchantments also all seem quite useful.

Every creature is great in here.... except one. I think you could cut Dimir Guildmage and not feel the loss. Sure, he gives you repeatable draw and discard, in case you run out of stuff to do with your mana... but with the amount of other draw you have, that probably won't happen: Dimir Cluestone , Mask of Riddles , Perplex , Recoil , Thought Scour , Brainbite , Consult the Necrosages , Pilfered Plans , Read the Bones , the two Honden, and Soul Ransom all give you draw/discard, often with some other effect. That's 12 things you'll probably want to use your mana on instead of the mage's ability. Mask of Riddles in particular gives you the repeated card draw of the mage, And as much as this deck already relies on hitting the opponent, if you aren't drawing each turn with the Mask, then the deck isn't working anyways. Lastly, now that you added Dralnu, you're pretty much getting a whole new hand to cast from. Who cares about card draw now! Heh.

Also, I have a thing against activated abilities at sorcery speed.....

That may have been a much longer argument than was necessary to help you decide. :) One big point against that trade is that the mage costs only 2, as opposed to 6 for Wrexial.

Out of curiosity, did you decide against Lazav and Oona more because of the price tag? or just because they didn't strike your fancy? Totally understand price tag, by the way!

Alright thanks, I pulled the Dimir Guildmage for Wrexial, the Risen Deep . Lazav, Dimir Mastermind and Oona, Queen of the Fae aren't going to be in at first, I might later get them and swap them in but for initially buying what I don't have of the deck, I don't want to spend the couple extra dollars.

Actually I'm heavily considering putting Oona, Queen of the Fae in since I can get one for $2 on tcgplayer.com and she is simply amazing, once again have no idea what to remove for it though.

This time I ordered the cards by casting cost, and looked through the 5 and 6 CMC cards. Some possibilities:

• Deny Reality -- The cascade can be amazing, but for the pure returning ability, there are several cheaper spells, notably AEther Tradewinds (you have four creatures and two auras which could all benefit from being recast), Boomerang (the cheapest "return permanent" you can find), Reality Strobe (amazing for its suspend recursion), Recoil (yay for the discard bonus!), and Rescind (because cycling is always a nice option). However, also consider how important returning a permanent really is. Always nice.... sometimes a game-saver... but nice enough to deny Oona a spot?

• Destroy the Evidence -- You have several other cards which give the "mill till a land" ability. How important is the land destruction in your meta?

• Psychic Spiral -- Do some playtesting (preferably against real decks). In an average game, how many cards do you actually put into your graveyard? Is this card worth it, compared to Oona?

• Thopter Assembly -- How important is that combo to you? I mean, sure, if you succeed in getting it, you've pretty much won. But with no tutoring in your deck, it's a once in very seldom you'll get both pieces. This would be a direct 6 for 6 CMC (and open up another spot from the other combo piece).

There may be others in the lower CMCs, but I didn't bother checking. If you're not willing to cut any of the four, then I don't mind looking through the others. :)

Alright I'm gonna drop Psychic Spiral for Oona, Queen of the Fae .

Also the only reason Oona, Queen of the Fae wasn't the commander was because she wasn't gonna be in the deck at all, think she should be commander over Szadek, Lord of Secrets ?

She's one cheaper to cast, and the hybrids make it even easier, so that's always a consideration. Also, she's passive, not relying on combat damage. You're sure to be able to get profit out of her, even if you can't attack. If you could be sure you'd get your Whispersilk Cloak , then Szadek would be better than her, hands down.

That being said, if you're playing a game where you know your opponents have few if any flying creatures, then switch Szadek in as commander. His big advantage over Oona is that he doesn't require any mana to do his awesomeness, and that awesomeness just becomes more and more awesome! (I told a friend about Szadek last night, and he pretty much drooled, and said how that card is a millers wet dream..... haha). That means you'll get to cast other good stuff AND attack with him.

Short answer -- I think it really comes down to the specific game, and you'll have both Oona and Szadek available, no reason to force yourself into choosing one for all eternity! Heh. If there's lots of flying, go with Oona, otherwise Szadek.

Although, if you're running Szadek, adding in a few more ways to make him (and all your other dudes that rely on damaging a player) hard to block would be good. Artful Dodge is a good reusable one. Anything that gives fear, especially to all creatures (Intimidation , Dance of Shadows ). I'd say trample, but I bet there's few if any blue/black cards that give that. If you can keep Szadek around AND make sure he gets through, he's gonna do waaaay more than any of your mill spells, so replacing one or two of those with some more unblockableness may be worth it.

I'm dumb. Of course you can get trample.... through equipment! There's only two I can think of (well, and a third, but it costs more money than it's worth):

O-Naginata -- It requires power 3 or greater, but Szadek and Wrexial start out that high, while Consuming Aberration and Sewer Nemesis have the potential to get very big, and Evil Twin likely could be too. The only one who doesn't benefit from this who could use it is Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker , sadly.

Vorrac Battlehorns -- No power stipulation, and it also only allows one creature to block, which is awesome!

The more I think about it, if you're running Szadek as commander, it would be good to have more stuff like this in here. Only playtesting will tell.... And again, it depends on if your opponents have flying or not. If they don't, then none of this is really needed.

Okay so I think I want to put in Artful Dodge , Distortion Strike , O-Naginata , and Vorrac Battlehorns . Once again though, I have no idea what to take out. I'm thinking Deny Reality and Destroy the Evidence like you suggested earlier but I would like to keep in the turn combo, so I still need two more to take out.

Recent Changes
+1x Artful Dodge
+1x Distortion Strike
+1x O-Naginata
+1x Vorrac Battlehorns
+1x Crypt Incursion
+1x Hidden Strings
+1x Tricks of the Trade
-1x Curse of the Bloody Tome
-1x Deny Reality
-1x Destroy the Evidence
-1x Read the Bones
-1x Hero's Demise
-1x Time Sieve
-1x Thopter Assembly

Maybe get some more search engines into your deck?! Like Diabolic Revelation , Demonic Tutor and Diabolic Tutor so you can find the cards you need for your combo:) nice deck. +1 :D

I might grab Diabolic Revelation and Diabolic Tutor but not Demonic Tutor since its too expensive, at least for my intense lack of spending money. Any removal suggestions to make room for those two?

Tome Scour and Stern Mentor dont hink they mill enough :)