This week I'm trying something different. I'm going to show off one of my personal decks and then give it an upgrade. The deck in question has been sitting in a box for years now. I tagged it for destruction, I mean to be taken apart, years ago. I even desleeved it. I felt bad about the process and kept it together. For a while I was cannibalizing the deck, taking relevant cards away from it to put in other decks, but still replacing them with lower powered equivalents. At some point, I decided to power the deck back up and picked up a couple of high powered cards to reinforce the deck. These cards were on theme, but there was no cohesion given for what I was adding in, just that it fit the theme. I'm going to streamline the deck and refocus it for games today.
Mill is one of the first alternate win conditions people encounter. I was no different. There is something amusing about tearing through someone's deck until they have no options left in their library and lose. It seems like a “surprise” way to win. People don't keep track of how many cards are in their library, so mill feels like it sneaks up on them. The problem is there are way more cards in a library than life for an opponent. Another problem is that until you win an opponent doesn't really feel the effects of your plan. So when Gate Crash came out I was pleasantly surprised to see a fusion of combat and mill. Mirko Vosk had a certain appeal in bringing the two play styles together. At the time Commander was just a thought to me and I let the Dimir legend stay in obscure limbo.
When I started moving towards EDH dabbled with Commander damage and some of my favorite color combinations. It didn't take long for me to try and make another alternate win condition happen. I immediately went to mill. I ran with some standard mill options that were available at the time like Thought Scour and Mind Sculpt. Then the deck did a weird split. There were cards that fit the "mill until you find a land" thing like Balustrade Spy, Undercity Informer, and Mind Grind. Then there were cards that wanted me to be aggressive to make Mill happen like Crosstown Courier and Lord of the Void. All of that rounded out with more traditional mill cards. Think Increasing Confusion and Curse of the Bloody Tome. I thought these would balance each other out so I always have a way to put cards into the graveyard but in reality, they just made the deck less specific.
There's one other thing about the commander I want to talk about, that's completely irrelevant. Mind Drinker is an incredibly cool title. But almost every time I say it I'm thinking “Mind Freak.” This vampire looks like Criss Angel, pretending to levitate no less. The two have been linked in my mind for years. Now you can't un-see it either.
However, the cards made it into the graveyard there were some great payoffs at the time. Lazav, Dimir Mastermind gets to become the most impactful creature on its way to the bin. Necrotic Ooze just grabs the best abilities from stuff sitting in the graveyard. Wight of Precinct Six and Consuming Aberration bet very powerful very quickly. I even got to play an old classic, Mortivore, that powers up the same way. Some of these have proved more versatile than others.
Like I said, I've added some strong mill options over the years, but with no sense for the deck as a whole. I put Tasha's Hideous Laughter this way. It's not 20 cards, but 20 mana value worth of cards is going to be a sizeable number. Startled Awake is probably a better rate, but it varies. What makes that spell even better is the fact it comes back as an evasive creature and can return itself to my hand. Fraying Sanity doubles up all of my mill efforts against one opponent. Even better, if anything that player owns happens to die that many cards will get milled to. So boardwipes are still your friend.
The mill plan is bolstered by another thing these colors are good at, playing opponents' cards. Nightveil Specter does just that. Once it connects I get the top card of that opponent's library. Talent of the Telepath lets me take the best option out of 7 cards that get milled. I usually get 2 spells with this thanks to Spell Mastery. Rogue Class is a little slower. It turns successful combat steps into potential cards. I just have to get to Level 3.
After that brief history, here's what the deck looks like right now.
Talent of the Telepath | Nightveil Specter | Psychic Corrosion |
Fraying Sanity | Pilfered Plans | Dream Twist |
Tasha's Hideous Laughter | Sphinx's Tutelage | Merfolk Secret Keeper |
Psychic Spiral | Teferi's Tutelage | Talrand Sky Summoner |
Increasing Confusion | Rogue Class | Sage's Row Denizen |
Sweet Oblivion | Mindcrank | Crosstown Courier |
Thought Scour | Lord of the Void | Raven Guild Master |
Mind Sculpt | Jace's Mindseeker | Elite Arcanist |
Memory Sluice | Manic Scribe | Jessian Thief |
Startled Awake | Duskmantle Guildmage | Hypnotic Siren |
Mind Grind | Krydle of Baldur's Gate | Realmwright |
Terpination Blade | Selhoff Occultist | Jace's Erasure |
Grisly Spectacle | Lazav, Dimir Mastermind | Curse of the Bloody Tome |
Sands of Delerium | Codex Shredder | Bloodgift Demon |
Hero's Downfall | Profane Command | Traveler's Amulet |
Killing Wave | Rise from the Tides | Hedron Archive |
Drown in the Loch | Dimir Charm | Dimir Keyrune |
Dissipation Field | Liliana of the Dark Realms | Dimir Cluestone |
Painful Lesson | Praetor's Grasp | Silumgar Monument |
Metallurgic Summonings | Polymorphist's Jest | Echo Mage |
Necrotic Ooze | Consuming Aberration | |
Temple of Decipt | Nephalia Drownyard | Choked Estuary |
Watery Grave | Rogue's Passage | Sunken Hollow |
Dismal Backwater | Swamp x11 | Island x17 |
There were some easy cuts to start with, and then some that were a little less straightforward. Sage's Row Denizen was low impact. Hitting 2 cards when I played a blue creature was not cutting it. Jace's Erasure is the same thing. I would need to draw 100 cards to mill 100 cards from an opponent. That's not going to happen. Talrand, Sky Summoner was a surprise in the deck to begin with. All my mill spells would net me a 2/2 flying Drake. That little army never consistently materialized, so it's gone.
Right away I know I need to improve my ramp options and get Chris Angel, I mean Mirko Vosk, access to haste. I need him out quick and doing damage right away. To play a 5 drop on turn 4 I only need one piece of ramp on turn 2 or 3 and to hit my land drops. So if I plan to play Crashing Drawbridge it doesn't matter if I use 2 or 3 drop rocks. The same goes for Lightning Greaves if I were to include it in the deck. I'm going to prioritize 2 drop rocks like Mind Stone and Liquimetal Torque. This will allow me to cast a haste enabling piece of equipment on turn 3 or another mana rock before Mirko Vosk is on the field. Some of the equipment I'm looking at provides a lot of keywords in addition to Haste. Haunted Cloak, Chariot of Victory, and Strider Harness are all 3 drops that equip for 1 and give Haste along with some other benefits. I'm prioritizing cheap equip costs for these cards. I would like to include Ring of Valkas even though I won't get the +1/+1 counters and Lavaspur Boots for the same reasons. Hall of the Banditlord is also key here. The 3 life is worth the upside of Haste and still making a mana to cast my commander.
Decks have less than 40 lands in them. With opponents playing lands each turn I figure I only have to mill 30 lands from a player to knock him out with Mirko Vosk. That means I have to connect 8 times to get all the lands. That would take forever to knock out 3 opponents. I needed to accelerate my attack plan. Dimir is lacking on extra combat step effects and I don't want to move into extra turn spells just to get extra combat steps. I needed to get creative to make more combats happen. I just had to keep in mind I don't need an actual extra combat step, I just need the end result of another combat, the same effect as a second or third combat step. So let's get weird!
The simplest way to get 2 combats without an additional combat step is with double strike. I felt a little silly that I didn't think about it sooner than I did. This is a simple way to cut the number of combats I need in half. Fireshreaker was easy to add in. So were Brass Knuckles. They're too straightforward and fit nicely into the strategy for me not to include. Grappling Hook may be worth including. It lets me Provoke an opposing creature. My 8 combats is looking more like 4 each. Better, but not enough.
How else can I get more combats? What about combat on someone else's turn? Assault Suit lets me pass around my commander to other players. This unlocks their combat steps to let Chris Angel accelerate my mill plan. Assault Suit does insulate my creature from sacrifice effects, and the power/toughness boost means I'm more likely to survive contested combat steps. I can go a step further and keep my equipped creature safe from harm by regaining control of it. Homeward Path lets me take my creature back. That means I can pull it out of an unfavorable blocking situation. I can also protect my commander by using common sense when choosing to give it away. Just making sure someone is going to use him responsibly will often be enough to guarantee he survives the turn.
This next one is a one off. It's like a free hit from my commander. The Stone Brain exiles itself to hit 4 cards with the same name from an opponent's library. I'm of course going to name a basic land. Anyone playing a one or two color deck is going to be the primary target. Mana bases get weird when people have 3 or more colors, there are a lot fewer basic lands of any one type in a deck. I want max value from this Brain. You might say, I'm hard headed.
All jokes aside I figured there is another way to reliably get more combats. Even better than double strike. I need to double my commander. You might be saying that it's impossible since the commander is a Legendary Creature. That's not a problem these days. Take Spark Double for instance. It copies Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker and brings a +1/+1 counter with it. It will still hit and force an opponent to mill 4 lands just like the genuine article. Another favorite way of mine to make nonlegendary copies of my commander is Helm of the Host. With this equipped to my commander, I'll make a copy when I go to my combat step. But what makes this even better is that I keep the token and can do it again on my next turn. I'll double and triple my combat damage effect in no time. The last way I do this is with Irenicus's Vile Duplication. I just find it neat to diversify the card types that give me this effect to insulate against weird effects people play.
With all these great ways to make the effect or combat more robust, I need to guarantee my Commander(s) will hit for damage. A card like Dauthi Embrace is just what I want. It sits on the field and I can pay 2 black mana to essentially make my commander unblockable. I can even get creative and political if someone else wants to attack without being blocked. Rogue's Passage is expensive but a reliable way to make my Commander unblockable.
With all this focus on attacking I want to take a step back and talk a little defense. A good defense protects me. A great defense enables my offensive plan. This is where Kaervek, The Spiteful and Night of Soul's Betrayal fit. They just sit on the field and drop creatures' power and toughness. I don't have to worry about creature tokens with one of these out. Thopters, soldiers, offspring, and more, are all wiped out. This is a great way to clear the board for my Commander to get in for damage. It doesn't matter how much damage Mirko does, only that he connects. Would I play more than one of these effects at a time? It depends if I can increase Mirko's power. I still need him to do damage. Resisting a static board wipe could be a challenge. The good news is Selhoff Occultist will survive 2 of these effects and manage to mill a ton of cards when those creatures get negged to death.
These effects led me to a painful cut that I want to highlight. Raven Guild Master has a powerful effect but is not tough. With Morph it comes down as a tricky 2/2. Once I flip it over it drops to a 1/1. It isn't going to survive any of my static -1/-1 effects. Would I love to have an army of these swing in thanks to my copy spells; Absolutely. But I need something more survivable. I think Jace, Memory Adept will be more effective. I get to bin 10 cards right away instead of having to wait for combat. Could I get to the ultimate? I don't think so, but I would walk that razor's edge of letting people draw 20 cards just to do it. Plus this Jace plays nice with Spark Double. I can double up on the 0 effect or let one pursue the ultimate and the other just do the 0.
Where is my head at with all this? The deck list looks like this.
Talent of the Telepath | Nightveil Specter | The Stone Brain |
Fraying Sanity | Pilfered Plans | Fireshrieker |
Tasha's Hideous Laughter | Sphinx's Tutelage | Brass Knuckles |
Psychic Spiral | Teferi's Tutelage | Kaervek, The Spiteful |
Increasing Confusion | Rogue's Class | Spark Double |
Sweet Oblivion | Mindcrank | Plague Engineer |
Thought Scour | Lord of the Void | Dauthi Embrace |
Irenicus's Vile Duplication | Jace's Mindseeker | Assault Suit |
Memory Sluice | Manic Scribe | Helm of the Host |
Startled Awake | Duskmantle Guildmage | Lavaspur Boots |
Mind Grind | Krydle of Baldur's Gate | Strider Harness |
Terpination Blade | Selhoff Occultist | Wayfarer's Bauble |
Grisly Spectacle | Lazav, Dimir Mastermind | Night of Soul's Betrayal |
Sands of Delerium | Codex Shredder | Jace, Memory Adept |
Hero's Downfall | Profane Command | Liquimetal Torque |
Killing Wave | Rise from the Tides | Mind Stone |
Drown in the Loch | Dimir Charm | Dimir Keyrune |
Dissipation Field | Liliana of the Dark Realms | Dimir Cluestone |
Painful Lesson | Praetor's Grasp | Silumgar Monument |
Metallurgic Summonings | Polymorphist's Jest | Mortivore |
Necrotic Ooze | Consuming Aberration | Star Compass |
Hall of the Bandit Lord | Homeward Path | |
Scavenger Grounds | Desert of the Glorified | Desert of the Mindful |
Dismal Backwater | Swamp x11 | Island x13 |
Watery Grave | Rogue's Passage | Sunken Hollow |
Temple of Decipt | Nephalia Drownyard | Choked Estuary |
I think there is a lot of potential with this strategy. I would love a couple more “mill till you hit a land” effects. Let Dimir play into that trickiness. Let strategies play out in unique ways. Drink the Mind. With any good mill strategy, graveyard hate is a must. It's to be used regularly. A couple of extra Deserts for Scavenger Grounds will go a long way for that. Just be sure to play Psychic Spiral and Drown in the Loch first.
As always, please use my referral links. With your support, I might even be able to build this crazy idea of a deck.
Your choice!
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