Sideboard

Control (2)

Draw (1)

Other (1)

Backup-Win-Con (1)

Full-Self-Mill (1)

Self-Mill (1)

Board-Wipe (1)


Maybeboard


Priority Cards to Entomb

When you cast Buried Alive, always pick Vengeful Pharaoh as one of your 3 creatures, then pick 2 bruisers, that are too high of mana to cast anyways (and so we'll use Stitch Together(threshold), Dread Return, etc. to cheat them onto the battlefield instead). When I say "Bruisers" I mean cards like Grave Titan or better yet Sheoldred, Whispering One (which can also help you to recover other creatures from your graveyard).

Also, it's worth pointing out that about the only way you'll ever get Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur onto the battlefield is via the graveyard, so never pass an opportunity to discard him when surveiling.

Deck Changes Show

Cards you must keep out of your Graveyard:

  1. Your Planeswalkers, especially Jace, Wielder of Mysteries and to a lesser extent Karn, the Great Creator
  2. Very important Sorcery & Instants: Grave Strength, Doomsday, plus your two board-wipes Living Death and Cyclonic Rift(overloaded) Laboratory Maniac is actually alright to let enter the graveyard, so long as nobody has stolen Lazav from you.

Dealing with the banes of your existence

  • Ground Seal, Nihil Spellbomb, Tormod's Crypt, Rest in Peace, ... if one of your friends has a graveyard hate artifact or enchantment in their deck then you will need to include Nevinyrral's Disk (and Fabricate to retrieve it, or just Mastermind's Acquisition so you can get to it without putting it in your deck) as a nuclear option to get rid of it, because Dimir doesn't have target enchantment or artifact removal.
  • Better yet, if your "friends" are big enough dicks to all include graveyard hate, then just put in all your tutors Mystical Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Diabolic Tutor, (Demonic Tutor is already in) use one of the black tutors to get Laboratory Maniac and any of them can chain to Mastermind's Acquisition to get Leveler from your sideboard and just deck yourself as soon as possible once you get Lab Man on the board. Follow up with a draw spell and flip them all the bird.
  • Whereas if they hit you with something like Bojuka Bog (something that doesn't have ongoing exile ability) early on, you can likely still restart the strategy with your remaining cards and have a chance, otherwise, you'll have to try and mill out a win with Lab Man.

Key Combos:

Win Conditions

  1. Bestow Nighthowler onto something big (like Doom Whisperer or Grave Titan) making it something massive. This way Nighthowler makes immediate impact, bypassing summoning sickness and if they kill or exile it (Yes, please do Swords to Plowshares my 20/20 creature, I would love to get 20 life while my creature only loses 6/6) you still have it as a big creature afterwards.
  2. If your opponents have a massive board state (while you don't), but you have a big graveyard (and they don't) then you are in position to Living Death and flip the script on them. This will nerf your Nighthowler, but the creatures you get back should more than make up for that. It's not like they're all going to be 1/1s.
  3. If you put Mirror-Mad Phantasm into your graveyard, know that you can have Lazav become it and trigger a full deck self-mill (Note: This will put Lazav back in Command Zone despite not being named "Mirror-Mad Phantasm"). You can do this as soon as you have Laboratory Maniac or Jace, Wielder of Mysteries in play. Note: Consider adding Necrotic Ooze since it could also do this.
  4. Keep milling yourself and play Laboratory Maniac. If you're lucky, you'll get Pull from Tomorrow to really pick up the pace. If Lab Man is in the graveyard, Lazav can take over for him.
  5. Doomsday is a bit of a desperation move, since there's no going back if it doesn't work out, so you'll either win quickly or lose quickly, however with the correct payload it should be effective. With Lab Man in play, you only need and 9+ life with Doomsday in hand you can win on your turn. Precise mana cost is + + + . If you didn't have Lab Man already in play you'll have to grab him with doomsday and come up with the extra to play him before you deck yourself.
  6. If Lab Man is exiled then get to Jace, Wielder of Mysteries ASAP.
  7. If Lab Man is exiled and you lost Jace, you'll have to Mastermind's Acquisition yourself up Mortal Combat from your sideboard instead.

Doomsday payload

Reminder: Cycling is instant speed.

  1. Laboratory Maniac (if not already on battlefield)
  2. Brainstorm
  3. Street Wraith {2 life}
  4. Visions of Beyond
  5. Barren Moor
  6. Gitaxian Probe Play this first!

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99% Casual

Competitive

Revision 10 See all

(4 years ago)

Date added 6 years
Last updated 4 years
Key combos
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

10 - 0 Mythic Rares

34 - 4 Rares

22 - 3 Uncommons

11 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.68
Tokens Zombie 2/2 B
Folders Commander Decks
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