So far, on every guild theme week, I’ve managed to put together a sixty-card deck featuring the guild colors for your multiplayer games. That streak ends this week. Don’t worry, I won’t leave you without some deck ideas (because honestly, copying my decks card-for-card is not the way to go), but we are going to jump into the Commander decks this time. My reason to shift gears will be explained at the end of the article, or in the title of the article for those of you who can fill in the blanks.

I have a difficult time building decks with this color pair since all the recent Dimir cards seem to push strongly toward mill decks. I’m not a fan of milling in multiplayer. While many of the newer cards allow you to mill all of your opponents, using milling to win games demands that you not use a plentiful resource in every multiplayer game: the other players!

When milling, you are on your own. You receive no help from other opponents. When one opponent is almost decked, it is still up to you to do all the work to make it happen. The other players are of no help to you, and you really aren’t offering much help to them since you are focused on milling and not life loss. I find it difficult to understand why players would choose to build decks that take no advantage of multiple players there to help you.

If I’m mostly ignoring the Dimir milling theme, my U/B decks tend to be super-focused on some eccentric idea or they turn into a three-colored deck that uses Dimir colors to generate the card-drawing, bounce, and removal I’m looking to put in the deck. Rather than try to do that in a Commander deck, I looked to see which commanders I owned in Dimir colors that didn’t involve milling. I opted to try the new guy, Lazav, Dimir Mastermind, and see how things worked out.

While wading through my cards to find pieces for this deck, I thought I’d step away from the usual again and head for the Internet. I found at least ten slightly different Lazav builds around the Internet. I amalgamated the builds and put this together:

"PAX Lazav"

• Commander (1)
• 1 Lazav, Dimir Mastermind

• Creatures (30)
• 1 Artisan of Kozilek
• 1 Avatar of Woe
• 1 Baleful Strix
• 1 Body Double
• 1 Cemetery Puca
• 1 Consecrated Sphinx
• 1 Consuming Aberration
• 1 Deadeye Navigator
• 1 Dimir Infiltrator
• 1 Evil Twin
• 1 Geralf's Mindcrusher
• 1 Glen Elendra Liege
• 1 Guiltfeeder
• 1 Invisible Stalker
• 1 Mindshrieker
• 1 Mortivore
• 1 Necrotic Ooze
• 1 Nemesis of Reason
• 1 Nightveil Specter
• 1 Riddlekeeper
• 1 Void Stalker
• 1 Wight of Precinct Six
• 1 Junktroller
• 1 Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Tidehollow Strix
• 1 Dralnu, Lich Lord
• 1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1 Sygg, River Cutthroat
• 1 Szadek, Lord of Secrets

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 1 Jace Beleren
• 1 Liliana Vess
• 1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage

• Spells (31)
• 1 Blue Sun's Zenith
• 1 Brainstorm
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Cryptic Command
• 1 Desertion
• 1 Doom Blade
• 1 Evacuation
• 1 Go for the Throat
• 1 Hinder
• 1 Spell Crumple
• 1 Beacon of Unrest
• 1 Black Sun's Zenith
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 Devastation Tide
• 1 Diabolic Tutor
• 1 Exsanguinate
• 1 Killing Wave
• 1 Psychic Drain
• 1 Rise from the Grave
• 1 Rite of Replication
• 1 Telemin Performance
• 1 Tunnel Vision
• 1 Painful Quandary
• 1 Bladed Pinions
• 1 Chromatic Lantern
• 1 Deathrender
• 1 Dimir Signet
• 1 Sensei's Divining Top
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Sword of Body and Mind
• 1 Sword of Feast and Famine

• Lands (35)
• 10 Swamp
• 14 Island
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Creeping Tar Pit
• 1 Drowned Catacomb
• 1 Maze of Ith
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Strip Mine
• 1 Underground Sea
• 1 Vesuva
• 1 Wasteland
• 1 Watery Grave
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Buy This Deck

Let’s break it down to more manageable parts.

Utility

• Artisan of Kozilek
• Geralf's Mindcrusher
• Junktroller
• Glen Elendra Liege
• Nightveil Specter
• Invisible Stalker
• Tidehollow Strix
• Baleful Strix
• Solemn Simulacrum

None of these creatures is essential to what the deck is trying to do, but each offers its own unique benefit to the deck. These are the cards that do all the things you need your deck to do to if you are to survive long enough to enact your own plan. Of these, the Nightveil Specter is most interesting. I fully expect that most of the cards that are exiled will be cards I can’t cast, but when I find things I can . . . 

Counterspells

• Counterspell
• Spell Crumple
• Hinder
• Desertion
• Cryptic Command

I am not a huge fan of counterspells in a multiplayer deck. Being forced to decide what is a threat to you before the opponent can show how he intends to bring the threat to bear is a huge downside to counterspells. Quite often, that horrible bit of nastiness would have gone after someone else, but you countered it away. I have left these in the deck because there are times when a counter is the only thing that can save you and other times when the spell in question is going to harm everyone—and by everyone, I mean you for sure.

I know many people are opposed to the tuck spells and believe they are unfun. I can completely relate to that point, but when you realize that most of the time, you are simply relocating a player’s spell to another zone an opponent can access, tuck spells become something more.

A final note for counterspells: Desertion belongs in most decks that can run it. When it hits something big, just watch your opponent. When his shoulders sag and the breath comes out of him like a prizefighter just gut-punched him, you know you used it correctly.

Bounce

• Devastation Tide
• Deadeye Navigator
• Evacuation

Including these in one category is probably a misnomer. Whereas the Navigator is there to hit enters-the-battlefield abilities and hide creatures from removal, the Devastation Tide and Evacuation are there as reset buttons.

I know there are plenty of two=card combos with the Navigator that could easily be included to make this deck more degenerate, but for now, I don’t think I want to go that route. I believe I already have plenty of options with the other cards in the deck.

Creature Destruction

• Evil Twin
• Avatar of Woe
• Sheoldred, Whispering One
• Killing Wave
• Black Sun's Zenith
• Doom Blade
• Go for the Throat
• Void Stalker

I normally don’t include so many ways to kill off creatures, but this deck loves to see creatures in graveyards, so there they are.

I suspect this will reveal my Commander newbieness, but I had never considered the value Void Stalker brings! I know that I want creatures in graveyards, but some creatures should never be in a graveyard, and this fellow makes that happen. Just having him in play will deter some players from dropping truly degenerate creatures into play.

Reanimation

• Rise from the Grave
• Beacon of Unrest
• Deathrender

I really don’t think this will be nearly enough reanimation for this deck. Even with the recursive nature of Beacon of Unrest, three cards dedicated to reanimation seems light. I’m reluctant to add more simply because I know there are so many other cards in the deck that can find creatures in the graveyard, and there are many more that want the cards to stay in the graveyard. We’ll be watching this slot closely for additions.

Creatures That Take Advantage of Large Graveyards

• Consuming Aberration
• Cemetery Puca
• Lazav, Dimir Mastermind
• Dralnu, Lich Lord
• Mortivore
• Necrotic Ooze
• Wight of Precinct Six
• Guiltfeeder

Now we get into the nitty-gritty part of the list! I will happily play any of these cards once the game takes shape. Each of them is degenerate in a multiplayer game. I am particularly interested in Consuming Aberration. I predicted as soon as I saw the card during spoiler season that it would be a dominant all-star in multiplayer formats. This will be my first chance to try him out. I know he is lacking hexproof and any sort of evasion, but I will try to make him a game-breaker anyway.

The Wight of Precinct Six is another card that interests me. Even fairly early in games, this can be a 5/5 for only 2 mana.

Cemetery Puca is a criminally underrated card. While lacking Lazav’s hexproof and demanding a 1 mana payment, this creature costs only 3 mana, and in this deck, that mana might as well all be generic mana! Copying different creatures to fit whatever is needed, Cemetery Puca will force opponents to deal with him before I even consider playing Lazav.

Dralnu, Lich Lord may not be a good fit for this deck, but I love the upside! While I think there are plenty of sorceries and instants in the deck, I may find that there aren’t as many in my graveyard as I expect there will be. Dralnu also demands that you play with some sort of bounce available or be ready to be hosed by someone playing Blasphemous Act. While I wouldn’t mind dropping a few creatures into my graveyard, having my entire board—including lands—dumped into my graveyard may be more than I bargained for!

Cards to Copy Other Creatures

• Body Double
• Phyrexian Metamorph
• Rite of Replication

I’m playing blue. For me, that is reason enough to play the Phyrexian Metamorph. I’m also interested in seeing big things happen, so Rite of Replication is in as well.

Card-Draw

• Consecrated Sphinx
• Sygg, River Cutthroat
• Brainstorm
• Blue Sun's Zenith
• Jace Beleren
• Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
• Sensei's Divining Top

I am always very reluctant to put Consecrated Sphinx into a deck. I dislike becoming the target for everyone at the table, and there are few creatures that cause that as assuredly as the Sphinx does. I hope it just gets destroyed and that is the end of my opponents’ wrath. Of course, with several ways to copy it, my opponents can probably expect to see the Sphinx copied repeatedly. I suspect I will need to win and win quickly once the Sphinx starts up.

I have included Sensei's Divining Top here because it improves the quality of the card-draw, if not the quantity. While I don’t have many ways to reshuffle my library, having the ability to resort the top three should not be understated.

Cards That Mill to Create Large Graveyards

• Sword of Body and Mind
• Painful Quandary
• Telemin Performance
• Riddlekeeper
• Nemesis of Reason
• Szadek, Lord of Secrets
• Mindshrieker
• Psychic Drain
• Tunnel Vision

I made it clear at the start of the article that I didn’t like mill as a multiplayer option, and here I am with ten cards that all mill in one way or another. The best part for me is that they all do something else. Whether they block, get rid of a problematic card, deal damage, or gain life, none of these cards only mills. My concern is that there are too many cards in the deck that mill. I don’t like tweaking the numbers before getting in a few games, and I’m not sure which I would cut yet, so for now, everyone gets a pass.

The Reason

I will be attending PAX East this weekend, and I want to play some Magic with you! I’ll bring Lazav and a couple sixty-card decks in hopes of some multiplayer games. If you’ll be at PAX this Saturday, let me know on Twitter (I’m @manaburned). We can meet near one of the ridiculously huge posts in the gaming area, preferably at either 10:00 A.M. or 3:00 P.M. I’m the 6’4” guy who looks a lot like my picture. Please get in touch with me beforehand; with everything there is to do at PAX, I’d rather not stand around waiting for people who aren’t coming when I could be doing all the other things PAX offers!

I hope to see you tomorrow!

Bruce Richard