Hello everyone! I'm Levi from The Thought Vessel, and today we're taking a look at my newest deck in my personal collection, "Double Major." This is a deck designed around cards like the new card from Foundations, Mischievous Mystic. These cards trigger off your second card drawn EACH turn, not just yours. So, we are trying to draw two cards every single turn in rotation to get the effects as often as possible.

The initial design for this deck came from Morska, Undersea Sleuth, and the connected precon "Deep Clue Sea." The issue I had with the original list was that it relied too much on clues for what I wanted to do, and the payoff wasn't strong enough to justify Morska in the command zone. Since this is a bottom-up commander-designed deck where the concept matters more than the commander, we settled on Zimone and Dina. Let's look at why.

Zimone and Dina provide three very important components to the deck. First, Zimone and Dina have a payoff for drawing a second card each turn. Secondly, they enable an ability that grants that second draw as well as ramping. Finally, the landfalling permits additional synergies to fill in the blanks as we haven't gotten a ton of "draw your second card" creatures yet.

The deck itself operates through Zimone and Dina's ability to sacrifice creatures and draw/ramp. There are outlets creating value on the second draw, Blood Artist effects taking advantage of the death triggers, and landfall payoffs for all the extra lands being played. The objective is to use all this value to outpace your opponents and win through draining, combat, or even combo. As far as power level goes, we are aiming for higher-power tables that are not trying to do cEDH things. Before we dive into the full list and win conditions, let's take a look at the stats.

"Double Major" has 13 Ramp, 12 Card Draw, 12 Spot Removal, 3 Board Wipes, and 28 Synergy pieces with the commander. The commander itself also provides ramp and a board wipe, so this deck is more about the system rather than any individual card. The best thing you can do each turn is simply add more pieces to the value engine.

Ramp

1. Patriar's Seal: This is a neat card from Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate. It is a nice three-CMC mana rock that can also allow you to untap your commander to use their ability again. This type of card usually flies under the radar, but it is incredibly powerful.
2. Black Market Connections: This is a great card in a lot of decks. In this deck in particular, it is especially good since you can ramp, draw, and make a token that Zimone and Dina can use for their ability. With the second card drawn, you will get two life back, which allows you to be a little more aggressive with choices.

Card Draw

1. Consecrated Sphinx: This is probably the best card in the entire deck. Each card in the deck that triggers off the second card drawn is going to trigger on each and every turn at the table. If you need a generic tutor target, this is a great one.
2. Teferi's Ageless Insight: Again, the goal is to draw two cards every single player's turn. Teferi's Ageless Insight allows triggers like Rhystic Study and Nezahal to be the elusive draw two.

Spot Removal

1. Arcane Denial: I'm usually a little colder on this card in Commander since it provides card advantage to an opponent that is motivated to get back at you, but in this deck it provides that extra synergy by giving you a card. You can hold up Zimone and Dina to get to that second card drawn for the turn for triggers.
2. Sink into Stupor: In this deck, landfalls matter, so having a spell bounce that can also be a land if needed is great. With the Ravnica bounce lands in the deck, you could very well use this card as a land early and get the spell back later.

Board Wipe

1. The Meathook Massacre: It is an Aristocrat piece that can also clear out the board. At some point in the game, it can almost be board wipe insurance because life totals will get low enough that a big board being destroyed will have enough triggers to be fatal.

Commander Synergy Pieces

1. Sting, the Glinting Dagger: This deck likes Seedborn Muse effects, but Seedborn Muse is a little overkill for this strategy since the only thing we really need to untap is Zimone and Dina. Sting allows us to have that ability on a much less threatening card.
2. Jolrael, Mwonvuli Recluse: This is our "Craterhoof." Jolrael will come out in the game and create an army of cats as you are making your second draws and building up your hand. At instant speed before damage, you can activate the second part of this card and make all your creatures have a base power and toughness equal to the number of cards in your hand, which in this deck is easily going to be around 10+.
3. Marvin, Murderous Mimic: What's better than having your commander's ability on the field? Having two of your commander's ability on the field. Marvin can simply copy the ability and allow for an additional use on a different turn if one of the untapping engines isn't out yet.
4. Minn, Wily Illusionist: If I could have five of these cards in the deck, I would run all five. As sets come out, this is exactly the type of card I am looking for, and I had actually considered using Minn as the commander for this concept before going with Zimone and Dina. The illusion tokens end up making solid attackers or blockers that can be sacrificed at any time to drop value pieces into play without the need to risk the spells being countered.
5. Gurgling Anointer: On the second draw ability alone, this card can become a solid flying attacker or blocker. But being that Zimone and Dina can sacrifice this card to reanimate a creature from your graveyard like Consecrated Sphinx or Minn, Wily Illusionist, it makes this a very valuable piece of the puzzle.

Winning the Game

Now, this deck is more than capable of winning through combat with all the tokens it can produce, but the deck does in fact have a couple of combos that allow you to use Zimone and Dina over and over, leading to a massive board or some type of drain effect that results in enough damage to win. The combos are as follows:

• Zimone and Dina + Thornbite Staff + Field of the Dead + Dimir Aqueduct + Chasm Skulker = Damage to each opponent equal to cards drawn and every land in the deck into play.
• Zimone and Dina + Bloodghast + Retreat to Coralhelm + Dimir Aqueduct + Bastion of Remembrance = Life drain equal to the number of cards in the deck.

As a failsafe, Nexus of Fate can be cast over and over to shuffle back into the library to prevent milling out.

Double Major Zimone and Dina EDH | Commander | Levi Perry

• Commander (1)
• 1 Zimone and Dina

• Creatures (26)
• 1 Alandra, Sky Dreamer
• 1 Blood Artist
• 1 Bloodghast
• 1 Chasm Skulker
• 1 Consecrated Sphinx
• 1 Emrakul's Messenger
• 1 Ethereal Investigator
• 1 Greensleeves, Maro-Sorcerer
• 1 Gurgling Anointer
• 1 Homunculus Horde
• 1 Hydroelectric Specimen
• 1 Jolrael, Mwonvuli Recluse
• 1 Legolas's Quick Reflexes
• 1 Marvin, Murderous Mimic
• 1 Minn, Wily Illusionist
• 1 Mischievous Mystic
• 1 Nezahal, Primal Tide
• 1 Ophiomancer
• 1 Psychosis Crawler
• 1 Delighted Halfling
• 1 Detective of the Month
• 1 Scute Swarm
• 1 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
• 1 Tatyova, Benthic Druid
• 1 Tireless Provisioner
• 1 Springheart Nantuko

• Artifacts (16)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Bastion of Remembrance
• 1 Black Market Connections
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Deadly Dispute
• 1 Deadly Rollick
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 Fierce Guardianship
• 1 Gaea's Cradle
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Spellskite
• 1 Thornbite Staff
• 1 The One Ring
• 1 Sting, the Glinting Dagger

• Enchantments (6)
• 1 Curse of the Restless Dead
• 1 Rhystic Study
• 1 Retreat to Coralhelm
• 1 Teferi's Ageless Insight
• 1 The Meathook Massacre
• 1 Wizard Class

• Spells (18)
• 1 Arcane Denial
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Brainstorm
• 1 Fierce Guardianship
• 1 Pongify
• 1 Tear Asunder
• 1 Toxic Deluge
• 1 Assassin's Trophy
• 1 Deadly Dispute
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 Nature's Lore
• 1 Nexus of Fate
• 1 Vampiric Tutor
• 1 Three Visits
• 1 Legolas's Quick Reflexes
• 1 Three Steps Ahead
• 1 Skyshroud Claim
• 1 Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler

• Lands (33)
• 1 Ancient Tomb
• 1 Bayou
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Dimir Aqueduct
• 1 Darkwater Catacombs
• 1 Gaea's Cradle
• 1 Ghost Town
• 1 Golgari Rot Farm
• 1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
• 1 Misty Rainforest
• 1 Morphic Pool
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 1 Polluted Delta
• 1 Rejuvenating Springs
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 3 Snow-Covered Forest
• 3 Snow-Covered Island
• 2 Snow-Covered Swamp
• 1 Tropical Island
• 1 Undercity Sewers
• 1 Underground Sea
• 1 Undergrowth Stadium
• 1 Verdant Catacombs
• 1 Watery Grave
• 1 Zagoth Triome
• 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 1 Field of the Dead

Buy This Deck Export text

And there you have it! This deck is a ton of fun to pilot and a value machine. It can work just as well with a cheaper mana base if you so choose, and you could bring the power level down by omitting some of the stronger staples like The One Ring and Cyclonic Rift. I am attaching the entire list below. Feel free to check it out and try it for yourself. Until next time, happy gaming!