Bouncing Etrata

Standard*

GabeBurch

Creature (18)

• 2x Dimir Informant
• 2x Dimir Spybug
• 1x Dream Eater
• 3x Etrata, the Silencer
• 2x Nightveil Predator
• 2x Nightveil Sprite
• 3x Thief of Sanity
• 3x Thoughtbound Phantasm

Instant (16)

• 4x Artful Takedown
• 1x Mission Briefing
• 1x Price of Fame
• 3x Siren's Ruse
• 4x Unexplained Disappearance
• 3x Vraska's Contempt

Land (24)

• 4x Drowned Catacomb
• 9x Island
• 7x Swamp
• 4x Watery Grave

Sorcery (2)

• 2x Notion Rain

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Sideboard

Instant (10)

• 3x Cancel
• 2x Essence Scatter
• 2x Negate
• 3x Sinister Sabotage

Enchantment (2)

• 2x Dead Weight

Sorcery (2)

• 2x Unmoored Ego

Artifact (1)

• 1x Chaos Wand

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Maybeboard

Instant (2)

• 1x Blink of an Eye
• 1x Mausoleum Secrets

Creature (1)

• 1x Lazav, the Multifarious

Artifact (1)

• 1x Helm of the Host

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Bouncing Etrata

Trying out our newest alternate win condition - Etrata, the Silencer!

The ideal situation is to swing with Etrata, then flicker her or bounce her back to your hand with her ability on the stack (after targeting the opponent's creature) so she doesn't get shuffled back in but the creature still gets exiled with a hit counter. This accounts for 25-30% of the wins, and the rest of the time it's a tempo deck with a lot of value from surveil.

The Creatures

• Thoughtbound Phantasm: A great blocker that can keep getting bigger and eventually beat your opponent down. Being able to pump it at instant speed with Unexplained Disappearance can be a nice combat trick also.
• Dimir Spybug: Flying and Menace makes this annoying at the very least, and a serious threat after a couple surveils.
• Nightveil Sprite: I underestimated this card at first, but being able to surveil every turn is crazy good.
• Dimir Informant: A great blocker, even into the mid-game, and surveilling turn 3 can not only make your Spybug bigger but it can help ensure you get your fourth land.
• Thief of Sanity: This card is always a gamble, but the payoff can be amazing. A lot of the time it gets hit with a Shock before I get to untap, but even hitting once with Thief is worth the risk I've found.
• Nightveil Predator: Great card that's extremely tough to deal with. You can beat down your opponent in the air with it, or keep it as a defender and the deathtouch can deter your opponents from swinging with their big guys.
• Etrata, the Silencer: The star of the show, and not always because of her win-condition. She's a good blocker on the turn you play her, removes any creature when she swings, and if you can Siren's Ruse or Unexplained Disappearance her you get extra value out of this amazing card and maybe a win.
• Dream Eater: What's not to love? Flash it in to block a little pest, bounce a threat, and a 4-card-deep dig through your library - and that's before it swings in the air. Extra value with Siren's Ruse is pretty nice too.

The Spells

• Siren's Ruse: The best use of this card is to flicker Etrata, but it can also be used to protect a creature from a burn spell or remove something like Luminous Bonds.
• Unexplained Disappearance: Another way to keep Etrata from being shuffled back into your deck. It can also deal with an opposing creature with an aura or counters on it, or slow your opponent down by bouncing their big bomb.
• Mission Briefing: Recasting Siren's Ruse or Unexplained Disappearance on Etrata is one of the core uses of this, but most of the spells in the deck are good targets.
• Notion Rain: Lets you find what you need and put it into your hand, and the two life usually isn't a problem.
• Artful Takedown: Can remove most creatures, and taps the ones it can't.
• Vraska's Contempt: Great removal spell that takes care of planeswalkers too.
• Price of Fame: Removal that lets you surveil and gets cheaper if you hit something legendary.

Update: Just finished my 100th game on Arena with 66 wins and 34 losses. These have been best-of-one games, but I am going to start trying best-of-three matches and see how the sideboard works.

Top Ranked	Achieved #9 position overall 6 years ago
Date added	6 years
Last updated	6 years
Legality	This deck is not Standard legal.
Rarity (main - side)	1 - 0 Mythic Rares 18 - 3 Rares 10 - 3 Uncommons 15 - 9 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.94
Folders	Guilds of Ravnica Standard, Dimir, Decks to try out (Standard), wannabe, #goodone