Circu, Fateseal Lobotomist

Commander / EDH Control Multiplayer Primer Theme/Gimmick UB (Dimir)

KarnAgGolem

Land (37)

• 1x Bad River
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Choked Estuary
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Darkslick Shores
• 1x Deserted Temple
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Duskmantle, House of Shadow
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Gemstone Mine
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 3x Island
• 1x Lotus Vale
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Mystifying Maze
• 1x Nephalia Drownyard
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x River of Tears
• 1x Sea Gate Wreckage
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 1x Sunken Ruins
• 2x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Isle
• 1x Tarnished Citadel
• 1x Temple of Deceit
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Vivid Creek
• 1x Watery Grave

Instant (16)

• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Commit / Memory
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cryptic Command
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Dimir Charm
• 1x Forbidden Alchemy
• 1x Hinder
• 1x Lim-Dul's Vault
• 1x Memory Lapse
• 1x Predict
• 1x Reality Shift
• 1x Spell Crumple
• 1x Spin into Myth
• 1x Sudden Spoiling
• 1x Thought Scour

Sorcery (12)

• 1x Beseech the Queen
• 1x Bitter Ordeal
• 1x Black Sun's Zenith
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Dimir Machinations
• 1x Extract
• 1x Memoricide
• 1x Praetor's Grasp
• 1x Sadistic Sacrament
• 1x Sealed Fate
• 1x Stolen Goods

Enchantment (8)

• 1x Dissipation Field
• 1x Field of Dreams
• 1x Leyline of the Void
• 1x Propaganda
• 1x Psychic Battle
• 1x Psychic Surgery
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Sphinx's Tutelage

Commander (1)

Artifact (13)

• 1x Codex Shredder
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Dimir Keyrune
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Elixir of Immortality
• 1x Ghoulcaller's Bell
• 1x Isochron Scepter
• 1x Lantern of Insight
• 1x Mindlock Orb
• 1x Pyxis of Pandemonium
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Voltaic Key

Planeswalker (8)

• 1x Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
• 1x Jace, Memory Adept
• 1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• 1x Liliana of the Veil
• 1x Liliana Vess
• 1x Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
• 1x Teferi, Temporal Archmage
• 1x Tezzeret the Seeker

Creature (5)

• 1x Notion Thief
• 1x Oona, Queen of the Fae
• 1x Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1x Scrib Nibblers
• 1x Wizened Snitches

---

Maybeboard

Creature (5)

• 1x Mindshrieker
• 1x Oblivion Sower
• 1x Sire of Stagnation
• 1x Trinket Mage
• 1x Vizier of Tumbling Sands

Instant (3)

• 1x Foreshadow
• 1x Shadow of Doubt
• 1x Vanishment

Sorcery (4)

• 1x Devastation Tide
• 1x Gitaxian Probe
• 1x Portent
• 1x Time Ebb

Artifact (1)

• 1x Grafdigger's Cage

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Mind's Dilation
• 1x Precognition
• 1x Psychic Surgery

---

Circu, Fateseal Lobotomist

Introduction

Circu, Dimir Lobotomist

The Guild Champion of Ravnica's secrect organization. A commander sometimes seen as underwhelming at the helm of an EDH deck; and sometimes seen as a formidable opponent if built for combo. What some may not realize is that Circu shines when built around a concept in which House Dimir has always specialized in game as well as in lore: Gathering Information. This method of intelligence trafficing is based off of a fairly new theme called "Lantern Control".

History

A shadowy guild that few of the common people of Ravnica are sure still exists. The other nine guilds know it does, and that it traffics in secrets, employing a network of spies and assasins to discover them and enforce their use in blackmail. It is lead by the eldritch psionic vampire Szadek and the mysterious champion of the guild Circu, Dimir Lobotomist.

"Lantern Control" is generally seen as a type of manipulation of an opponent's top deck. This allows the player to selectively choose what cards their opposition may draw. In order to optimally manage an enemy's top deck, the player usually has a way of revealing the top cards of player's libraries as well as a way to instantly remove the top card[s] of a player[s] library. This theme came into popularity after Zac Elsik piloted a Modern constructed deck of the same archtype in 2015.

General Strategies

The general idea of Circu, Fateseal Lobotomist is to establish a rather non threatening board state while being able to impose your will on the decks of your enemies. This will leave them with nothing more than dead cards, or with things that you don't care about. To do this, the player will have to play the key cards needed to establish control.

This deck can be played several ways using its Lantern Control theme. Either aggressively or passively.

• Aggressive play will allow the player to take full control of the opponents options. If your opponent is starved on lands early game, manipulate the top card so they cannot draw another land. This will force them to submit to your will until they have another low CMC spell that may or may not affect your control. While in a multiplayer format, this is rather difficult. All decisions much be thoroughly considered to get the highest value of your top deck control abilities. However, this seems to generate an abnormal amount of threat. When controlling the collective, usually one opponent feels they are getting targeted. While this may be true, and while you are getting brownie points for removing possible threats before they happen, the one opponent will more than likely take offense.

• Passive play will allow you to glide under the radar. It is highly recommended to play politically. To only rid of top deck threats that hinder yourself more than any other player. Let some other threats get past, make opponents face off with other opponents. This keeps the threat off of yourself while still making an impact on the game.
  

Reveal the Top Deck Card

• Lantern of Insight

• Field of Dreams

• Wizened Snitches

Control the Top Deck Card

• Ghoulcaller's Bell

• Codex Shredder

• Pyxis of Pandemonium

• Duskmantle, House of Shadow

• Nephalia Drownyard

• Jace, the Mind Sculptor

• Jace, Memory Adept

• Dimir Charm

• Thought Scour

Synergies

General Two Card Synergies

• Bloodchief Ascension + Zur's Weirding

  • With Bloodchief Ascension on the board with Zur's Weirding, anytime someone pays the two life to stop a player from drawing a card from Zur's Weirding, it activates the counter increase on Bloodcheif Ascension. Once Bloodcheif Ascension is active, anytime a player chooses to pay the 2 life to top their opponent, the opponent will also lose 2 life due to the trigger of Bloodchief Ascension (provided that the "opponent" isnt yourself).

• Bloodchief Ascension + Sphinx's Tutelage

  • With Bloodcheif Ascension active, anytime that Sphinx's Tutelage causes an opponent to place a card into the graveyard it will trigger Bloodcheif Ascension causing loss of two life for the opponent and two life gain for the player.

• Isochron Scepter + Dimir Charm

  • Isochron Scepter and Dimir Charm are an oppressive way to control a single player without the use of the other key cards for revealing a library or removing top of the library as seen above. Once exiled under Isochron Scepter, the player can control what a single opponent draws by using the third Dimir Charm ability. The ability, which states " look at the top three cards of target player's library, then put one back and the rest into that player's graveyard." This will allow the player to choose what the opponent draws every turn, allowing them to ideally draw nothing but dead cards or at least ones that do not further the opponent's board state.

• Voltaic Key with any artifact from the "Control the Top Deck Card" list

References and Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravnica

https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/3kxgy6/lantern_control_an_overview/

Thanks to this Imgur post for the Alter art. http://imgur.com/a/xk4eo

Top Ranked	Achieved #14 position overall 8 years ago
Date added	8 years
Last updated	5 years
Exclude colors	WRG
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 44 - 0 Rares 31 - 0 Uncommons 12 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.05
Tokens	Emblem Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, Emblem Teferi, Temporal Archmage, Faerie Rogue 1/1 UB, Manifest 2/2 C
Folders	decks i want to steal, steal for ideas, svg, Decks I want to build, Bookmarked, EDH, awesome decks, Decks I like, Deck recipes to try, EDH References