Dimir in Commander: Masters of Lies, Secrets, and Silent Wins

The Dimir Archetype (Blue & Black)

Secrets and Shadows, Deception and Control — Dimir doesn’t fight wars, it wins them before anyone realizes there was one. In Commander, Dimir decks usually thrive on subtlety and manipulation, trading brute force for information, precision, and inevitability.

Dimir undoubtedly is the king when it comes to control. Blue provides the counters and the bounces while Black provides the removal and the sacrifice of resources for even more resources; they’re a match made in hell. You don’t just dominate the board, you dominate perception. Its identity lies in knowledge as power, using card draw, mill, and counterplay to orchestrate the game. You don’t react as Dimir; you anticipate. You pull the strings while others dance.

Playing both Blue and Black gives access to two of the most dangerous tools in Magic, information and inevitability, and when combined, they become a terrifying symphony of mind games and resource control. This is reflected by the fact that when it comes to Game Changers, both Blue and Black have more than any other color, and combined, you have access to most of them.

Here are some of the signature Dimir tools that define its archetype:

Manipulating Minds and Choices — Mindcrank | Painful Quandary | Mind's Dilation | Vile Consumption

Commanding the Flow of Information — Rhystic Study | Consecrated Sphinx | Demonic Tutor | Vampiric Tutor

Controlling Reality Itself — Cyclonic Rift | Fierce Guardianship | Counterspell | Archmage's Charm

Weaponizing Knowledge and Secrets — Ashiok, Dream Render | Notion Thief | Teferi's Tutelage | Syr Konrad, the Grim

Where Blue values control through knowledge and Black through ambition, Dimir weaves the two into a perfect web of manipulation. Every draw, every discard, every counterspell is another thread in a grand design only you can see.

Dimir decks don’t win with explosions or theatrics, they win with inevitability. While others fight, you prepare. While others play, you scheme. By the time your opponents realize what’s happening… It usually already is too late.

Archetype 1: Mill

Dimir is known for many things, but one of the main ones is milling. Blue already is a beast when it comes to this mechanic, combine it with Black’s strength of being deadly efficient and you’ve got an overwhelming power when it comes to milling.

Staples like Glimpse the Unthinkable came out of nowhere a few ages ago and reshaped the meta of the game and how mill was seen and played, if it ever was played before that. Sadly, as good as the card is and was, it’s not that good for multiplayer so we won’t be using it this time.

To help us explore this archetype, we have Phenax, God of Deception at the helm of our deck, which lets us turn every one of our creatures into a milling machine. To maximize his power we’ve a lot of big booties (or whatever the kids call ’em these days). Suddenly, creatures like Caelorna, Coral Tyrant, Glacial Wall, and Wall of Junk don’t seem like junk at all anymore.

We also have our fair share of creatures that actually do stuff. Creatures that grow their booty as a byproduct of the match going on. Creatures like Consuming Aberration and Mortivore. Our friendly mill crabs, which turn every land we play into a nuiscance: Hedron Crab and Ruin Crab.

Creatures that vex our opponents in general: Bruvac the Grandiloquent turns every card we mill into double the amount. Silent Arbiter which brings the battlefield into more of an stalemate while we keep on relentlessly milling. The Ancient One which is just incredibly value when combined with our commander at the low cost of 2 mana. And King Macar, the Gold-Cursed which can easily get out of hand controlling the opponents creatures when combined with cards like Freed from the Real, , Minamo, School at Water's Edge, and Thousand-Year Elixir as ways to keep on uptapping him over and over again.

Mill’s downside usually lies in the fact that most mill effects target one single player, however cards like Mind Grind and Court of Cunning don’t have such downside. Ideally you would want to wait the most you can to be sure no one will be able to counter a fully maxed Mind Grind, which could potentially end the game right then and there.

Other notable cards come in the form of artifacts, such as which can give you replayability of one of your instants each turn; and which just by existing will do its job of milling over and over again while your enemies keep trying to kill each other

The gameplay is quite simple, yet sweetly efficient and controlling, just as any Dimir deck should be. Come on in and dive with me into the darkness where secrets lie.

Archetype 2: Faerie Dominance

Faeries. Usually cute and whimsical in literature and folklore. Small good-willed creatures that just like to help. Combine that with the Dimir colors and you get anything but that; try the complete opposite. Small but terrifying, vindictive, swarm-y, destructive, cunning… You get the point. This is the darkest side of the faeries, and don’t underestimate just because they’re small, they can be deadly regardless of.

With Talion, the Kindly Lord at the helm, we will be leaning heavily into the tribal aspect of the faeries, with every subsequent faerie making the others stronger and stronger. Faeries not only fly, but they can also do whatever their colors can. In Blue and Black this means they can counter spells Spellstutter Sprite, ping life Obyra, Dreaming Duelist, draw cards Faerie Mastermind, bounce permanents Brazen Borrower, force discards , play at instant speed High Fae Trickster, and clone Malleable Impostor among many, many other things. Think of all of the hats, we have them.

Since we’re playing Dimir, we have to be cunning and careful, but that doesn’t mean we can’t pack a punch; by using banner effects we not only keep our army big and menacing. Cards like Banner of Kinship, Door of Destinies, Anduril, Narsil Reforged, and Vanquisher's Banner which will also keep our hand full to keep on making plays.

Roaming Throne is a must-staple in every tribal deck. The amount of value it gives is beyond insane, doubling every trigger of your faeries. Combine it with some of our better triggered abilities like Shadow Puppeteers which will make 4 tokens instead of 2, and it will turn more creatures into dragons; Puppeteer Clique to reanimate twice; Archmage of Echoes to copy your new permanents twice; Rankle, Master of Pranks; Sower of Temptation; Blightwing Bandit; and Alela, Cunning Conqueror and you can see how easily it all gets out of control for our enemies.

We also have a variety of Enchantments, keeps the pressure nonstop; Rogue Class can give us extra evasion for our faeries, as well as access to the decks of our enemies if we manage to level it up that far; Unstoppable Plan makes us a very unpleasant target when it comes to combat. Dictate of Erebos means that any of our faeries dying will cost our enemies; Kindred Discovery keeps us drawing to never run out of fuel; and duplicates all of our new creatures.

If things ever get dicey we always have back up plans, as any Dimir mage should. will turn our opponents battlefields into dust; will reset the battlefield for everyone while still giving us an advantage in the form of tokens, and if you combine it with it’s more certain than not that the game is over in your favor.

Come and explore the real power of the Faeries with this deck, have fun and don’t let others do the same.

Archetype 3: Graveyard Shenanigans + Zombie spam

My first time featuring Partners in Commander, for this archetype we will be using the combination of Tormod, the Desecrator which turns every change in your graveyard into advantage by creating a 2/2 zombie; and Esior, Wardwing Familiar which will give both of your commanders Ward 3.

The point of this deck is to heavily rely on Tormod’s ability, so you will fill your graveyard as fast as you can to then start meddling with it. Use Loot effects (draw then discard) and Surveil to achieve part 1 of the plan. Artifacts like Bag of Holding and Currency Converter are your best friends, as any discarded card can be used later on by exiling it with either of these, and if you do, they still touched the Graveyard before being exiled, so Tormod’s ability will trigger, creating new zombies.

Take extra advantage of your discards with cards like Dying to Serve and Bone Miser by either creating a bunch more zombies, or keeping you ahead by drawing or ramping. Squeeze extra value from cards leaving your battlefield with Teval's Judgment.

Abuse creatures that can return over and over again from the graveyard: Nine-Lives Familiar, Dogged Detective, Krovikan Horror, Vengeful Pharaoh, or use enchantments that are recursirve on your creatures as well Ghoulish Impetus, Screams from Within. Every card that leaves your Graveyard be it that it goes into Exile, or returns to the Battlefield, or goes back to your Hand, they all count towards Tormod’s ability, giving you extra zombies.

Keep your army of zombies pumped upwith creatures like Death Baron, Undead Warchief, give them evasion (flying with) Hordewing Skaab or Wonder .

Throne of the God-Pharaoh allows you to keep the pressure up even if your creatures don’t connect, making every zombie count, and speaking of making every zombie count, Bastion of Remembrance does just that, by draining life from all your opponents if they dare to get rid of your zombies; Grave Pact will make your opponents think twice before blocking, thus giving you an edge; and Monument to Endurance will ping 3 every turn to all your opponents if you keep on discarding to fill your Graveyard.

Come and start spamming the board with a relentless and endless wave of zombies with the power of Tormod and his friend Esior.

Archetype 4: Tempo Control

Blue and Black are best known for one thing in common: control. This archetype takes advantage of this control and weaves it with tempo, which is to say, carefully and constantly keeping up the pressure with well timed and precise plays. Tempo Control might just be the hardest type of deck to play; one poorly thought counter or impulsive play might just cost you the game, however do it properly and you will be pretty much unstoppable. By the time your opponents catch up with what’s happening, it’s already too late.

At the helm of this feature deck we have Sygg, River Cutthroat, and the deck follows as his name suggests. By taking 3 or more life from an opponent, your reward is to draw a card, thus easily keeping up the pressure. However you don’t necessarily need to have him in play for the deck to work; most commander decks solely rely on their commander to play out, this one doesn’t, Sygg is just another value piece that can be endlessly replayed. The deck is packed with value.

This deck is full with very impactful yet cheap creatures such as Baleful Strix which pays for itself by drawing an extra card while being a flying nuisance, Dark Confidant which allows you to draw an extra card every turn at a very cheap cost, Dauthi Voidwalker which really messes with any Graveyard related gameplan while also having the flexibility of doubling as something else, and Faerie Mastermind which will always give you extra value.

Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor keeps relentless pressure possible by allowing you to turn every hit into extra card draw; Sheoldred, the Apocalypse turns every one of those extra card draws into extra life, while punishing all your opponents; Chasm Skulker takes extra advantage of these card draws by growing larger and larger; and Hunted Horror is an unbelievable value at just 2 mana. The tokens you give to an opponent matter little to nothing in the grand scheme of things.

To top off your creatures you have cards like Syr Konrad, the Grim which just by existing will make your opponents lose more life than you may initially think; The Scarab God which can and will reanimate the best of the best any graveyard has to offer while being incredibly annoying to deal with; Massacre Wurm which can either offer a board wipe, or yet another wincon; and Hullbreaker Horror which if you’ve ever had to play against, you just know you’re royally effed once it enters the game.

On the supporting cast you will have a bunch of incredibly powerful and cheap control in the form of instants and sorceries. Some examples on the Blue side include: An Offer You Can't Refuse, Swan Song, Counterspell, Long River's Pull; and on the Black side: Suspended Sentence, Damnation, Withering Torment, and Feed the Swarm.

Last but not least, your powerful enchantments which provide even more endless value and control. Make even one of their creature’s deaths count with Bloodchief Ascension and The Meathook Massacre; keep the pressure up with Bitterblossom; make every opponent think twice about every possible attack against you Revenge of Ravens; bust everyone’s precious gems with Breathstealer's Crypt, Vile Consumption and Painful Quandary. To finish with this deck, just look at Mind's Dilation, isn’t it beautiful and obscene?