I am smitten by Heartless Act, more so than any other removal spell in many years. Once the card was previewed, I broke down its application across all the competitive formats in Magic There’s so much good to say about it, with very little negative. The only area of concern I have with Heartless Act is that it’s a black spell. This usually wouldn’t be an issue, but the power of control is centered around Dream Trawler, Shatter the Sky, Elspeth Conquers Death, and The Birth of Meletis. With Jeskai and Sultai being the recipients of mana fixing in Ikoria, this blocks out the obvious Esper Control concoction that I was hoping to toss together.
The Esper license plate I possess aside, Heartless Act would truly be the answer to all of control’s woes from the early-game. Receiving the best two-mana removal spell in nearly a decade, as well as being able to incorporate Thought Erasure again, would put control on top of the power level tower. However, Azorius Control is strong enough moving forward that the mana base gymnastics that would be required for a black splash is simply not worth it. The Birth of Meletis calls for generous portion of Plains and the double mana requirements are high from the staple blue and white cards. Without a Triome to solve our problems, we’ll have to wait for Core Set 2021 to assemble that masterpiece.
My deck building process began with identifying the powerful control cards; however, the color requirements had me look elsewhere. Jeskai Control was my first go to and quickly evaporated. Narset of the Ancient Way is a decent card with a fantastic converted mana cost and the four-mana slot has been vacant for far too long and needs more than Shatter the Sky as the payoff. There are too many games where a few interactive spells leave zero or one threat on the battlefield, which lines up perfectly with this planeswalker. The card advantage engine is there, although it can’t be used every turn. The most common play pattern with Narset of the Ancient Way is a rush to the ultimate, allowing each spell to tack on a Shock when cast. This ultimate is an easy one to reach on a clean battlefield but can be tricky when the second ability drops the loyalty down a couple points. All and all, Narset of the Ancient Way is above average in strength and deserves control play in Ikoria Standard. She became the primary reason to add a third color to an already powerful control deck, but she did have some Jeskai backup on the way.
Inspired Ultimatum is a fantastic control late-game card that caught my eye immediately. For those that have read the blurbs in the history books about my ancient control shenanigans, you’ve probably noticed I played a Cruel Ultimatum deck in old Extended to a Top 32 Pro Tour finish. I conceded the final round to LSV after determining the winner would get 9th, due to the Pro Points not being relevant to me. Cruel Ultimatum was that good then, being cast in a non-Standard format, and Inspired Ultimatum can join elite company moving forward. That lingering issue comes back to haunt us here, once you notice the triple red commitment required to play this devastating spell.
Even with the assistance of an on-color Triome, the Jeskai Control mana was too difficult to pull off. With Esper Control, a light black splash was required to make the removal magic happen, but with Jeskai Control, the red commitment on Turn 7 was making the early-game much more difficult. More shocklands added additional difficulty to defeating aggressive decks and the payoff was not worth it in early testing. I’m not giving up on Jeskai Control just yet, but it will have to look much different than Azorius Control with a light red splash.
For those interested in Jeskai Control, the red removal spells will have to be utilized over the white staples. This means using cards like Mythos of Vadrok over Shatter the Sky, which may not be too bad depending on the metagame. The red alternative is just as devastating against aggressive decks, but very weak against larger creatures. It being an answer to planeswalkers also gives it a slight uptick in playability. The amount of damage and lands that enter the battlefield tapped that a true Jeskai Control deck must play is too tall of an order for me right off the bat. I’ll work on a few alternatives, mainly a Sultai Control with a light black splash and a Jeskai Control deck with a light white splash and have them ready for you soon. In the meantime, this control deck utilizes many of the new control spells from Ikoria with none of the mana woes.
Creatures (1)
Planeswalkers (6)
Lands (26)
Spells (27)
Dimir Control completely shifts away from the staples of its control competitor. All the powerful tools Azorius Control boasts about are not included here, but somehow, we end up with a deck capable of defeating the current Standard metagame so far. There were some tough decisions and cuts in this deck. Many of the new cards seem better on paper but it’s not as cut and dry as I’d like.
The easy additions were Heartless Act, Easy Prey, and Shark Typhoon. I provided a deep analysis on the power of both removal spells, as well as the new control finisher in previous articles., and these cards were always going to find a home in a Soorani control deck for sure. Black-based control may be so strong that it completely dwarfs Dream Trawler and company, which is why this is the first deck I’m confidently using on MTG Arena right now. If it’s a bit lacking on power level, I’ll move onto Sultai Control with Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath and Nissa, Who Shakes the World to provide it the weapons that should have never been printed. This Dimir Control deck, as currently built, rarely taps out — an advantage that we gain by not delving into a third color.
Heartless Act is a removal spell that should be a four-of in each control deck that has black spells. It kills pretty much everything and wounds creatures it cannot take down alone. It allows for easy setups, killing the creature it can, while saving counterspells and other removal for threats with counters on them. Removal spells like this have always been good and this is the best one of the bunch. It will be the flagship removal spell for black-based control moving forward and gets a little bit of help from a cycling comrade.
Easy Prey is another gem from Ikoria that gives the necessary backup Heartless Act needs against aggressive decks. Having removal spell five and six against Mono-Red Aggro Game 1 is vital, but usually frowned upon in control circles. Most control players would rather gamble with the removal count than have all these dead spells against the slower decks. Easy Prey fixes that problem with cycling, arguably the best mechanic ever created by Wizards of the Coast (WotC). There’s relatively no cost to running a couple of these in a control deck, as the games that go long provide the resources for a quick cycling. In the games that the enemy is at the front gate, it costs two-mana and will save your life. I’m very happy with the control options Ikoria has provided us, even if we must leave our Azorius Control family behind.
Shark Typhoon joins Lochmere Serpent and Ashiok, Nightmare Muse as the finishers of Dimir Control. Shark Typhoon is the new kid on the block, adding some flare to the stale finishers that existed before. Lochmere Serpent is a sweet card and I’ve been dying to play it again. The format became hostile for Esper Hero, and once it was usable again, Dream Trawler easily took that slot. Lochmere Serpent is no Dream Trawler, but it is a decent one-of that can abruptly end the game. Ashiok is a stretch for killing the opponent, but is capable if the game flow allows for a protected planeswalker. Even then, many opponents have clean answers for planeswalkers, leaving the other two as stronger options.
The un-counterable, instant-speed cycling of Shark Typhoon provides the cleanest win condition for Dimir Control. The reason why it has Lochmere Serpent as backup is in case they’re used in the early-game. Producing pressure for planeswalkers, blocking creatures, cycling to hit a land drop, or anything in-between may require cycling Shark Typhoon before the late-game arrives. Liliana, Dreadhorde General was the other win condition I had on a short list for this deck, but it didn’t play as well as the instant-speed win conditions I already had occupying that slot. As I mentioned earlier, this deck plays mostly on the opponent’s turn, making the slower decks struggle in combating the current build. At this point, I like the win condition package against this new metagame.
Cutting Ritual of Soot for Extinction Event was a tough decision, but appears to be a correct one. Ritual of Soot carried the sweeper’s burden for black-based control and has been cast aside for some time now. It isn’t a bad spell, but it misses some of the most pressing creatures like Dream Trawler and Uro, making it not reliable enough for competitive play. Looking away from Ritual of Soot, Dimir Control needs something to handle more than one creature and Extinction Event has risen to the task. It looks a bit gimmicky at first but turned out to be exactly what the doctor ordered. In a deck with more than ten interactive spells on Turn 2 to handle a creature, Extinction Event can be setup for the perfect two-for-one, or better. It’s not used like a traditional sweeper and requires a bit of elbow grease to clear a battlefield for the controller but the main selling point of Extinction Event is that it exiles, making it a game changer against creatures that haunt you when they leave the battlefield or return to it from the graveyard.
The other tough decisions during deck building centered around the special removal and counterspells. Killing a planeswalker is a must-have for control decks when they slip past a counterspell. Murderous Rider and Eat to Extinction serve the same role, but I went with the latter. Eat to Extinction doesn’t cost two life, exiles, and can be retrieved from a Narset, Parter of Veils activation. I’m not convinced that it’s strictly better that Murderous Rider, but in a world full of aggressive decks, it’s the smoothest option. It also is a four-mana spell, only sharing room with Extinction Event.
Neutralize over Sinister Sabotage may seem like a no brainer, but it isn’t as cut and dry as I initially thought. The new cycling counterspell has a lot of flexibility and can assist in hitting land drop. And while Sinister Sabotage doesn’t cycle, it does allow for a bit more controlled digging upon resolution. The move to Neutralize is beneficial against decks that get under three-mana counterspells and with the format likely being fast decks and broken Simic-based decks, this decision seems justified.
The rest of the cards in Dimir Control should be familiar to everyone. The best card of the guild is represented with Thought Erasure, a disruption spell that’s truly good against everything. The supporting blue cast of Narset, Parter of Veils and Negate gives Dimir Control the edge against Simic Ramp and control decks that depend on card advantage and non-creature spells. The sideboard is built to take on the current Standard metagame, since the new decks haven’t made their mark quite yet. Having access to Noxious Grasp again is a great edge for black-based control. That, along with two-mana removal spells, has been sorely missed while living in the Azorius Control world.
Dimir Control is highly adaptable, so be sure to check my Twitter @shaheenmtg for updates and the possibility of adding green soon!