20 with 20 Series – Dimir Control

During the 20 with 20 series I will play with the top 20 decks in the format for 20 leagues each. I will then do an in-depth write up with the final decklist for each deck. 

Final Record: 63-37 (63%)
Best 2 Matchups: Burn (8-0), Mono W Heroic (7-1)
Worst 2 Matchups: Mirror (3-5), 5-Color Tron (4-5)
Closest Deck in Another Format: Grixis Death’s Shadow (Modern)

Final List:
Lands(22)
4 Dimir Aqueduct
4 Dismal Backwater
2 Radiant Fountain
4 Swamp
7 Island
1 Bojuka Bog

Creatures (8)
4 Augur of Bolas
4 Gurmag Angler

Instants and Sorceries (30)
2 Doom Blade
4 Disfigure
4 Chainer’s Edict
1 Moment of Craving
4 Counterspell
4 Preordain
2 Probe
3 Forbidden Alchemy
3 Mulldrifter
1 Evincar’s Justice
1 Mystical Teachings
1 Echoing Decay

Sideboard (15)
2 Doom Blade
2 Cartouche of Ambition
2 Dispel
1 Evincar’s Justice
2 Hydroblast
3 Duress
2 Stormbound Geist
1 Exclude

Intro To Dimir Control: Dimir Control is a deck that aims to remove your opponents creatures and then win the late game by powerful draw spells (mulldrifter, probe) and flashback spells (forbidden alchemy, mystical teachings). It also has a sub theme of bouncing lands for value. Eventually it will end the game usually with a 5/5 Gurmag Angler.

Deep Thoughts on the Deck: The allure of playing UB Control is the 3-4 maindeck chainer’s edicts the deck plays along with the counter magic suite. This gives you strong game against a swath of voltron strategies that go all-in on one creature. These decks include Mono White Heroic, Bogles and to a lesser extent stompy. On the other hand it will still have fair game against decks that go wide like elves or present threats and disruption like affinity or delver strategies. Where it really struggles is strategies that go bigger than it which include Tron and Bigger Control decks. Keep this in mind when choosing this as a meta deck.

The good news is despite these matchups the deck can win against any deck in the format with solid play. To do this  practice identifying important spells to counter and when you need to hold up mana to counter them. Practice sequencing mana correctly to hit your land drops when you need them and identifying which lands are best to bounce and when (untapped value lands are best). The hardest part of this deck is identifying which cards you need at which time with Forbidden Alchemy or preordain. Taking the wrong cards can cost you an entire game so improving this skill is paramount.

Lastly, I wanted to talk about the list itself. Other lists are running slightly more counter magic which probably lead to my poor result in the mirrors. I think deprive is terrible in aggro matchups though so i chose to exclude it so I wouldn’t get … DEPRIVED … in those matchups. The two cartouche of ambition in the sideboard might be overkill as I only bring them in against Burn and no other deck but you can see that having those did work to the tune of an 8-0 record. The two cards that I think might be too cute are the maindeck moment of craving to improve aggro matchups (echoing decay might just be better) and the sideboard exclude (to improve Kudultha boros and Tron matchups). So feel free to replace those two cards first if you don’t agree with the methodology or don’t feel like you need them.

 

Sideboarding:
In this section I will go through just a few relevant matchups. If you want a specific matchup feel free to hit me up on twitch via whisper or during stream (twitch.tv/ponypuddle). 

-vs. UR Delver (8)
OUT:
2x Probe
1x Moment of Craving
1x Mystical Teachings
2x Counterspell
1x Gurmag Angler
1x Forbidden Alchemy

IN:
1x Duress
2x Dispel
2x Doom Blade
2x Stormbound Geist
1x Evincar’s Justice

-vs. 5-Color Tron (10)
OUT:
4x Disfigure
2x Doom Blade
1x Moment of Craving
1x Echoing Decay
1x Evincar’s Justice
1x Chainer’s Edict

IN:
2x Dispel
1x Exclude
2x Hydroblast
2x Stormbound Geist
3x Duress

-vs. Burn (9)
OUT:
4x Disfigure
1x Echoing Decay
1x Evincar’s Justice
2x Doom Blade
1x Mulldrifter

IN:
2x Hydroblast
2x Dispel
2x Cartouche of Ambition
3x Duress

-vs. Mono White Heroic (5)
OUT:
3x Mulldrifter
1x Moment of Craving
1x Forbidden Alchemy

IN:
2x Doom Blade
3x Duress

-vs. Affinity (7)
OUT:
4x Disfigure
1x Moment of Craving
1x Echoing Decay
1x Evincar’s Justice

IN:
2x Doom Blade
2x Hydroblast
3x Duress

-vs. Elves (3)
OUT:
2x Probe
1x Mulldrifter

IN:
1x Evincar’s Justice
2x Doom Blade

 

Thanks for reading. Please let me know if you’d like to see any other stats or something else as part of the articles in this series. If you’d like to see some of the work put into these articles you can follow at twitch.tv/ponypuddle. If you like what you read and want to throw down some support you can also do that at Streamlabs Link but it is in no way expected. These articles are free and will remain free throughout. Thanks for reading and until next one!