HI!

This seems to be a pretty active forum for duels decklists and I wanted to share one that passed the sniff test ie. never losing against the AI except when mana screw. I don't have much time to play online. I think this deck uses some underrated cards very well.

2x Drowned Catacomb
4x Evolving Wilds
2x Foundry of the Consuls
1x Rogue's Passage
7x Island
7x Swamp

23 lands

4x Alchemist's Vial
3x Runed Servitor
4x Perilous Myr

1x Jorubai Murk Lurker
3x Fleshbag Marauder
2x Graveblade Marauder
3x Read the Bones
2x Artificer's Epiphany
3x Guardians of Meletis

2x Thopter Spy Network
3x Whirler Rogue
2x Languish

1x Sigil of Valor
2x Bone Splinters
2x Anchor to the Aether

You build board state on your first 4 turns and then try to sneak unblockables for the win. With all the drawing, you can run fewer of the cards that you don't want to see often and one less land. Threats are varied and you curve out at 4 which is convenient against late game control. Aggro shouldn't be a problem and decks that take your creatures don't have very good targets. Other enchantments and artifacts could be a problem but you could either add bounces or splash a third color with removal.

(edited card misspellings)

looks pretty cool only card I have issue with is Anchor why not some sweet Claustrophobia action instead?

oh and you have alchemist's vial but no esperzoa?

She has a point, but I can see where 1UU is harder to cast over 2U. Claustrophobia is a better solution if you aren't concerned with the mana.

Claustrophobia can be destroyed/removed. More permanent solution than Anchor to the AEther, true, but the Scry helps smooth the next draw, sets back your opponent for a turn, and is slightly easier to cast.

if you're looking for permenance then there is plenty of black removal not in this deck like reave soul and cruel revival to name a few

Claustrophobia and Fleshbag Marauder don't really like each other.

Cool. Thanks for the feedback.

Re: Anchor
The goal of for this card is to stall the board midgame. If you find you need to deal with late game threats, I would suggest Bone Splinters or the five mana black spells. The idea though is that you've built up enough Alchemist's Vials and blockers by then that it isn't an issue. Flying + trample could be problematic.

Re: Reave Soul
You're not really worried about weenies. guardians of Meletis takes care of this and also acts as an enabler for Epiphany, Network, Rogue and Sigil of Valor. Bonus that it survives Languish.

Re: Esperzoa
Trust me, you'll be drawing enough cards already. Maybe as a one of instead of lurker. 4 damage is relevant. I'd hate to draw it without Vial but getting it later in the game could be profitable. Slightly winmore I guess. Worth a try.

Blue black always works better with a fixer. Remove for clear hits and perhaps a CS always better I think. Anchor has more "tools" effect.

was that even english?

Huh?

Hi there guys I don't know if this has been discussed or not, but can you help me find some answers for thopter spy network when you are playing blue/black ?

Languish is only a way of delaying the inevitable and is unreliable as a 2-off.
Disperse and counterspells may be the best option as I don't think there's any enchantment removal in these colors.

Not only thopter spy network.

Evolutionary leap and to a lesser extent Shadows of the past, which are 2 drop enchantments and often drop before you can hope to counter, are 2 other horrible things blue black can't deal with. Shadow Conjuring is more marginal, as is Strider harness (laugh all you want, I just survived a monored aggro deck rank 40 dude with 1 life left ONLY because I recurred reclamation sage twice, that thing was brutal); but all in all; the lack of good counterspells really holds dimir decks back.

There is no real solution currently. I've made a dimir control deck that uses artifacts and thopters spy network itself, and I feel it performs better than alot of the reanimator style stuff, but it's still soft to evoleap

For this reason, I think there is no way to currently build a Tier 1 Dimir control deck. Sultai and golgari are simply better because they have answers to enchantments and artifacts.

Before origins blue black control was strongish because of stuff like silumgar's scorn etc. Now as you said; it's disperse or BAD countermagic.

You asking what "fixer" is? I was speaking about how anchor is good for putting a creature back in his hand so you can attack, and then you can counterspell him if he wants to put it back on the battlefield. Scry is a great effect because it also helps you better setup for the next turn. Takes away a little bit from having to plan around your RNGesus.

Anchor to the aether puts the creature on top of the opponent's library, not in his hand.

It's a good card, but it's pretty niche since it is sorcery speed. I don't think it works in dimir colours very well. Try azorius aggro or simic/izzet tempo. If it was an INSTANT, then yes, it would be awesome.

This is funny I'm saying this but if anyone remembers the dimir duels 2014 deck, it had a copy of Time ebb, which is strictly worse.

It wasn't a MUST play, but that deck had very high synergy with the card.
It had discard elements and OTHER drawstep denial methods (chittering rats), and on top of it it could create 2/3 card comboes that would produce soft locks that effectively would prevent the opponent from ever drawing a new card. We have Jace and Skaab here, but all in all I don't think we have the pool currently to use this card in a control setup really (skaab + acnhor is an 8 mana play lol). Gotta get some Fool's Demise, evil twin, followed footsteps jank going on

Come to think of it that deck never was tier 1 either. Probably one of the most fun to play though

Masks of the Dimir was a lot of fun, but certainly not tier 1. Same applies to the following deck;

Zombie aggro/mid-range
4 x Screeching Skaab
4 x Shambling Ghoul
4 x Reave Soul

4 x Nantuko Husk
4 x Scrapskin Drake
3 x Fleshbag Marauder
1 x Liliana, Heretical Healer

4 x Undead Servant

2 x Rise from the Grave (flavour) / Necromantic Summons (strictly better)
3 x Cruel Revival
3 x Possessed Skaab

24 x land

very interesting build. I'll try it out as soon as possible! I noticed there are 59 cards in the count. What card is missing?

Ok don't expect this to be tier 1.

It's janky, but I'm having fun with it, because a 10/7 haste giant turn 5 after you languish the board makes the johnny in me jizz in his pants:


SKAABS FOR DAYS

1 x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
4 x Screeching Skaab
1 x Shadows of the Past
3 x Telling time
1 x Displacement Wave
3 x Reave Soul
1 x Liliana, Heretical Healer
3 x Fleshbag Marauder
4 x Artificer's Epiphany
2 x Languish
2 x Cruel Revival
3 x Possessed Skaab
3 x Necromantic Summons
2 x Alhammaret, High Arbiter
2 x Gaea's Revenge
7 x Island
8 x Swamp
2 x Drowned Catacomb
4 x Dimir Guildgate
4 x Evolving Wilds




Ladies and gentlemen; you can laugh at me now.

I'm sorry wut? why the heck do you have GRs in there?

You dissapoint me, young one.

like i get it self discard blah blah blah necromantic summons blah blah blah but you have check lands brah at least include those