INTRODUCTION:
House Dimir has always been my favorite two-color combination, and Commander is in part a way to identify yourself and depict how you live your life through Magic. Thus, the creation of this deck, with Lazav, Dimir Mastermind at the helm. Clones are a lot of fun to play with, and having a clone card that synergizes so well with milling made him basically the perfect candidate for commander. As a side note, you can stack the trigger on top of the graveyard triggers from Eldrazi Titans and have Lazav become a Kozilek or Ulamog. And people said they kill mill decks!
While Phenax, God of Deception is still in the deck, I came to the conclusion that with him as my commander, my deck performs in ways I'm not entirely comfortable with. (Besides, nothing is more boring than shoving a bunch of lumbering walls in a deck and calling it a day.) Lazav leaves a clear indication that mill is my gameplan, but not my entire gameplan, which is how every mill deck should be anyway. The objective is to mill everyone as much as possible, and if I can't win that way, I reanimate the leftovers, or clone them with Lazav's ability, and destroy my opponents that way. With my opponents having massive graveyards, I access an equally massive toolbox of cards to steal for my own gains. I'll go ahead and admit that I don't own all of these cards (especially not Underground Sea, I'm in college for crying out loud), but I do own Mirko and some of the cheaper cards.
THE MILL-MEISTERS (the prime milling engines)
Consuming Aberration--Former Gatecrash limited all star. I love this guy in terms of flavor and effectiveness; it gets bigger (and more terrifying) the more you mill.
Lich Lord of Unx--I'm a huge fan of zombies, so zombies that mill are usually on my top priority of cards to play.
Undead Alchemist--See Lich Lord of Unx and see for yourself the power! (And slightly infuriate graveyard decks.)
Duskmantle Guildmage--Just as a disclaimer, Mindcrank is not in the deck. I refuse to create that kind of infinite loop when the guildmage is so freaking good anyway.
Archive Trap--Screw you and your Worldly Tutor.
Traumatize--If you keep a slow hand, this card gives you a huge boost up. Cast it as soon as possible on whoever has the highest library size to maximize its effectiveness.
Dreamborn Muse--Because players who spend fun, interactive games of Commander durdling and accumulating card advantage and whatnot should be taught a lesson.
MIRKO'S SECRET ARSENAL (other sweet Dimir spells)
Whispering Madness--For a spell in two colors that don't generally allow for a ton of randomness, this is a sweet spell. For increased hilarity, cipher this thing onto an evasive creature.
Soul Ransom--Either you have their best creature, or they have to pay a fairly hefty card advantage price to get it back. House Dimir approves of this card. Did I ever mention that Dimir is my favorite guild?
Evil Twin--Abundant in flavor, and a very good clone all around. Kind of like how legendary rules used to be.
Dimir Charm--A card that can counter, kill, AND mill? This card is every Dimir mage's wet dream.
Mind Grind--Pump enough mana into this spell, and you may yet clear out the table. With that said, this is not my primary goal, but if the stars are aligned this way, so be it.
Nightveil Specter--One of my favorite cards from Ravnica/Theros Standard (which isn't saying much in support of that time period, by the way). In a format where dual- and tri-colored decks are in abundance, this card can find a lot of cool spells to cast.
Notion Thief--"I cast Prime Speaker Zegana to draw 12 cards." Me: "In response..."
THE GRAVEDIGGERS (reanimation spells)
Sheoldred, Whispering One--I can't justify playing a Commander deck with black in it and NOT playing this. She's that good.
Reanimate--Every time I cast this, I read the flavor text aloud just because it's that awesome. The life loss is (usually) completely irrelevant in a format where players start at 40 life.
Extract from Darkness--Everyone mills, then I take the best creature for myself. Everyone okay with this? Well, too bad.
Geth, Lord of the Vault--An excellent reanimator for this deck. I started playing Magic during Scars/Innistrad Standard, so playing cards from my first sets is very gratifying.
Sepulchral Primordial--I'll take that, that, and also that. I kinda wonder how all those good creatures got to the graveyard?
THE DEFENSIVE MEASURES (supporting cards)
Bitter Ordeal--"But Llamadowns, I'm playing with the Eldrazi titans and colossi, how do you expect to--" "NO, YOU'RE NOT."
Cyclonic Rift--In a format where Upheaval is not allowed in any way, shape, or form, this is an interesting card.
Life's Finale--Every mill deck needs a few reset buttons in the case of an emergency. This card, in addition to being incredibly flavorful, resets the board and gives me THREE extra targets for reanimation.
Maze of Ith--Dimir isn't very combat oriented. Having a safety valve is important to keeping your head above water while you try to bring together the milling tools.
Darksteel Plate--Hexproof is already annoying to begin with. Try having to deal with indestructible on top off that! (Don't Terminus me bro.)
The mana base should be fairly self explanatory. Let me know down in the comments what other cards I should consider including. Thanks for checking out my deck!
