Speak No Evil (Standard MTG Deck)

Speak No Evil

Standard* Budget Control UB (Dimir) WB (Orzhov) WU (Azorius) WUB (Esper)

Nikolai1204

Creature (11)

Planeswalker (1)

1x Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver

Land (23)

Enchantment (5)

Instant (13)

Sorcery (7)

Sideboard

Creature (5)

Enchantment (1)

1x Indestructibility

Instant (7)

Sorcery (2)

2x Diabolic Tutor

This is a deck that features an above average early game with two drops like Tithe Drinker that will keep your life high while your opponent is kept at bay. You also have cards like Beckon Apparition, Inaction Injunction, and Lyev Decree to stall your opponent.

Mid game is a tad weaker with only the addition of Lyev Skyknight to deal some damage and detain until Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker or Archangel of Thune is brought out. Use counters such as Render Silent and Celestial Flare to keep opponents at bay. However you may also make powerful use of Obzedat, Ghost Council and Consuming Aberration to inflict serious pain on your opponent

Late game is where this deck really shines. Upon getting out Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts you now have a great protection against creatures to put your boot on your opponent's throat while Archon of the Triumvirate presses it down. Utilize enchantments such as Gift of Orzhova and Martial Law to really put the hurt on your enemies.

As for mana, use Realmwright and declare swamps which then means that with Crypt Ghast your mana is doubled since lands tap for their colors as well as an additional black. Get out your second Crypt Ghast and you are now producing triple mana.

Sideboard is made to counter decks like Izzet and similar libraries that run a lot of instants and sorceries due to the default deck being based around fighting creatures. Sub out cards like AEtherize and Celestial Flare for cards like Riot Control and Negate while subbing out cards like Azorius Arrester and Archon of the Triumvirate for cards such as Sin Collector and Council of the Absolute. That sound make this deck super control. Some cards such as Lavinia of the Tenth and High Priest of Penance are thrown in for a change of pace while Doom Blade is meant to replace cards like Celestial Flare and Arrest if facing a non-black deck. Finally, Diabolic Tutor is included just as a wildcard utility should you find one specific spell that really puts pain on a particular opponent.

It's pretty easy to construct and you can get 80% or so of these cards with two Azorius Advance intro packs and one Orzhov Power intro pack. Most of the cards are pretty cheap except for Archangel of Thune and the non-basic lands which is why this deck is budget.

That's it. It used to be detain and extort but I've spiced it up. Don't expect to win in the short game (though it can happen) and instead expect to duke it out in the mid to late game for a well earned victory. I hope this may be able to become one of the more competitive and unique Esper decks on the circuit today. Sideboard still in progress.

Suggestions

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Cipher sucks...or does it? — Sept. 2, 2013

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Probably the most underused guild ability (in my opinion) would have to be Dimir's Cipher effect which is the equivalent to populate or battalion. Essentially, you cast a sorcery and after it resolves it exiles and encodes itself on a creature, and then whenever that creature deals combat damage you may cast the spell again for free. This would be a good ability with a guild that focuses on damage and creatures but Dimir focuses more on mill-to-death and so because of the awkward fit the ability sees little play in standard. However, the idea to utilize Cipher in this deck where Detain is a common asset (put fourth by flyguy) was one that may or may not make use of the raw potential Cipher has. During a casual gamenight with friends last night I decided to try some various Cipher cards (only ever two at a time which surprised me at how consistently I was able to get them) and boy did they do work. I played a Selesnya health, a Boros aggro, a Golgari control, an Izzet aggro, and a Naya token throughout the night and I only lost once maybe twice. The two cipher cards I decided to go with permanently are Voidwalk and Midnight Recovery.

Midnight Recovery is a sorcery that within itself is a good card: tap four and put a creature from your grave back to hand. Now imagine having the option to do this every turn for free. In the scenario from last night that really stuck out to me I was playing Izzet aggro and the guy kept pummeling me with massive Nivmagus Elementals. I defended as many turns as I could with any creatures out there like Tithe Drinker and Crypt Ghast. I managed to survive to late game where I brought out my Archon of the Triumvirate and waited a turn; I took enough damage on the next turn by not blocking his two Nivmagus that I almost died. When my turn came around again I casted Midnight Recovery and ciphered it onto Archon. So now, I was consistently doing 4 damage in the air while shutting down his massive creatures and every time I did I was getting a low cost creature back from the grave which then re-emerged back onto the battlefield. I went from clutching onto 2 life to destroying my friend with an army of once dead creatures. With its overall consistency and utility, Midnight Recovery is the new black cipher card for this deck.

The blue one I chose requires a little more thinking. This is the spell Voidwalk which exiles a creature then returns it at the end step. Now alone, this card doesn't do that well but my favorite combo of the night was based around this card. Basically, I brought out a Tithe Drinker and next turn attached Holy Mantle onto her making her a 4/3 with lifelink, pro-creature, and extort. Next turn Obzedat, Ghost Council. Now the turn after that when Obzedat returned to the field I gained 2 life and my opponent lost 2. I then casted Voidwalk onto Obzedat and exiled him while ciphering the card onto Tithe and extorted for gain 1 opponent loses 1. I then hit with Tithe for gain 4 opponent loses 4 and then Obzedat appeared during the end step just to be exiled again using his ability but not before giving me 2 and my opponent losing 2. If we do the math here then I now had a factory gain of 9 life per turn from Obzedat, Tithe lifelink, and cipher extort, while dealing 9 to any one opponent. It was a truly beautiful combo. Voidwalk also served utility as being a great way to weaken token decks and also was used several times to exile a Lyev Skynight after attacking just so he could be brought back at end of turn to use his detain again. Overall, [[Voidwalk probably will not find a home in a competitive Dimir deck but it has so much potential in this particular Esper control.

Also, just on a sidenote I've been beginning to question the utility of Dramatic Rescue in a control deck but I was horribly mistaken. I underestimated being able to bounce tokens out of existence, being able to reset a buffed creature, and saving my own creatures or reusing their ETB effects all while gaining two life. Very, VERY good control card.

Enter Black — Aug. 31, 2013

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Revision 7 See all

(11 years ago)

-1	Archon of the Triumvirate	main
+1	Ascended Lawmage	main
+1	Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver	main
-2	Azorius Guildgate	main
+3	Cremate	main
-2	Crypt Ghast	main
+1	Holy Mantle	main
+1	Island	main
+1	Medomai the Ageless	main
+4	Negate	main
-1	Orzhov Guildgate	main
-3	Plains	main
-2	Psychic Strike	main
-1	Realmwright	main
-2	Render Silent	main
+2	Temple of Deceit	main
+2	Temple of Silence	main
-1	Tithe Drinker	main
-1	Whispering Madness	main

Top Ranked	Achieved #84 position overall 11 years ago
Date added	11 years
Last updated	11 years
Legality	This deck is not Standard legal.
Rarity (main - side)	3 - 1 Mythic Rares 24 - 3 Rares 7 - 5 Uncommons 19 - 6 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.89
Tokens	Spirit 1/1 WB
Folders	BLUE WHITE BLACK
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