Beating Dimir Beaters

I have been running hot lately with the Dimir Control deck (or Dimir Mill, if you prefer it that way) and I would like to give you a short recap of my latest tournament as well as give you some advise on how to play against aknowledged opponents and offer new tech options to strengthen your 75.

To begin the tournament, I had to play in a mirror match. My opponent Mace_Windu had Read the Bones in his deck and I also resolved a few Psychic Strikes against him, which gave me enough „library advantage“ to just wait for a billion of turns. My opening hand in  the second game was three lands, three Dispels and a singleton Razortip Whip. Since Mace_Windu kept a hand with three Islands, a few 4 CMC cards and Pilfered Plans he just conceded without hitting his black mana in a few turns. I sided in my „damage package“ against him Razortip Whip and Benthic Giant.

1-0 Round 1: Mace_Windu  with Dimir Control 2-0

In the second round I played against Gwyned and his Azorius Control, which looked were potent against Dimir. I won the first game simply countering everything he played, but he was ready for this matchup in the second game. He sided into a 75 cards deck and mulliganed to 4. I think that is way better than mulliganing to 0, which looses to Archaeomancer very quickly. I made a huge mistake by siding out 1 Archeomancer and just did not have anything to attack him before decking out. I side in my Archeomancer, Benthic Giant and Whip in the 3rd game and win a very close game only because Gwyned made a mistake of Last Breathing my creature to pull me in the race between attacking Omenspeaker and Razortip Whip.

2-0 Round 2: Gwyned with Azorius Control 2-1

I win against CIPPDOGG playing Mono-Black in two very easy games. Mono-black is the best match-up for our deck and CIPPDOGG did not try to side into more cards or do any other  tricks, which is the only way for Mono-Black to win against a reasonable Dimir hand.

3-0 Round 3: vs. Mono-black by CIPPDOGG 2-0

The fourth round was not very pressuring, when I was undefeated, but I wanted to win against wisker‘s Mono-Red again.  And I did it, in the first game I filled his graveyard with countered creatures (and discarded Makkas) while taking some insignificant damage and then Crypt Incursion just put it out of his reach. I lost the second game in four turns after mulliganing and stumbling a little, that was the perfect time for Mono-Red to shine. The third game was a lot like the first, filling his graveyard and the Incursing it. I also hit my personal record for biggest Grisly Spectacle mill, which was equal to 8.
4-0 Round 4: wisker  with Hyper Aggressive Mono Red 2-1

Top 8 vs Chipp Extort 2-0

These two games are hard to remember for me, but they were quick and easy. I think extort is a reasonable match-up. They never accumulate a big mass of Extort creatures to drain a lot and their creatures are too mediocre to deal 20 in time. Important thing to remember – Pharika‘s Cure hits everything in this deck besides  1/4s some players opt to run.

Top 4: vs CIPPDOGG MonoBlack 2-0 

My opponent from the 3rd round. Once again, Mono-Black is a great match-up. CIPPDOGG learned from his last match and tried to run 75 cards and not play any spell, but here my singleton „safety“ Tome Scour showed up and foiled his plan. 

Finals: vs beatnik bobby Bant Hex 2-0

Finals games were quite interesting and it came down to me having a removal spell for his Gatecreeper Vine in conjunction with Devour Flesh to remove big Voltron creature. This deck can be quite powerful if they stick a hexproof creature on the field and puts a bunch of auras on it. And sticking a one drop is not very hard, so drawing our Devour Fleshes is required to win here. Also, this was the second match I drew Stymied Hopes and it was way too late in the game, do not run that card, it is not the fifth Essence Scatter we want.

During all these matches I have never missed Read the Bones I cut. It is bad against aggro and puts us behind in the library count against 75 card decks or the mirror. There are no need for this card in games 2 and 3, so it has no place in the 75. Considering how happy I was to cut Read the Bones, I was equally satisfied with Pharika‘s Cure‘s performance. It is a great cheap removal card and I am definitely maining 4 next time. This card in conjunction with Devour Flesh allows us to survive early game against aggro and trumph them with Crypt Incursion. I could go as far as to say that with these cards we are not even unfavored against the Mono-Red, although I might be biased.

As for sideboarding, Tome Scour was a hidden gem for me in the last MPDC. Running only one copy in our maindeck provides us with a wiin condition against these players who refuse to play a spell when they have more card in their library. We are guaranteed to draw it before milling out and our Archeomancers can recast necessary number of Scours to win. Running one makes sure we do not draw it too eaerly and we are not flooded with excess copies, also the only way to win against us with Tome Scour in the deck is to deal 20 (and more) damage. After siding, bringing in the second copy might be correct, especially if we saw our opponent  side into 75 cards deck and mulligan. That means they are not going to kill us with damage and all we need to do is hit our land drops patiently. I also want to point out that the third copy of Tome Scour is for the mirror because they can get milled before we draw them and we want to cast that  card as many times as possible there. I have not tested the mirror match enough to convince you that milling with Tome Scour is better than dealing damage with Razortip Whip since that card provides a solid, impossible to remove twenty turns clock. It sounds funny, but that clock is not easy to beat by milling. In this tournament my „damage-dealing package“ of singleton Razortip Whip and Benthic Giant was underwhelming and I always thought I had rather gone full Tome Scour plan. Both sideboarding options might be correct, but Dimir players should commit to either damage or mill sideboards. I think that staying on the mill plan is better, but it is not a given.

Despite recent success of Dimir Control, people, who hate it, please, do not give up yet. I think format can evolve to beat it and Simic Aggro and Azorius decks with flash creatures and blue mana for cheap counterspells seem to be the right way to beat Dimir.

See you at the tables,
MundisV