Hey all. Strickles here with another Standard deck guide. Ever since rotation, Dimir Midrange has kind of been a stick in the mud. It only played two cards from Bloomburrow, one of them being Fabled Passage, and at first it looked like they weren’t going to adopt any of the great new cards from Duskmourn.

That all changed this past weekend when finally, Dimir Midrange players realized that new sets had been added to Standard and decided to innovate in a way that makes the deck feel a lot more flexible, by adding new cards to the deck.

So let’s break down the deck, review the impact of the new cards in it, and go over why I think it is a powerful option in Standard moving forward.

Key Cards and Gameplan

This build of Dimir Midrange is really like a mix of a midrange and a tempo deck. Like most midrange decks we are looking to curve out with our creatures, use efficient removal and counterspells to disrupt our opponent’s plan, and use our card advantage to overwhelm the opponent’s resources.

The tempo aspect of the deck comes in thanks to several of our creatures having flash, letting us pass with open mana and choose to either interact with our opponent using removal and counterspells, or flashing in our threats to apply pressure the next turn.

Creatures

While I usually start at the bottom of the curve and work my way up, let’s go over our new card from Duskmourn that is also our main card advantage engine.

Enduring Curiosity is a four mana enchantment creature with flash that draws us cards whenever our creatures deal combat damage to the opponent. This card gets more powerful thanks to its second paragraph, which says that if it dies it will return to play as an enchantment, meaning we keep its effect going even if it dies to removal, or lets us trade with it in combat and continue to use its effect.

Most Dimir Midrange decks used to play Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor for their card draw effect, and while Enduring Curiosity does cost one more mana than Gix it has three things that make me like it more. First, the flash ability plays right into our flexible game plan, not forcing us to commit our threat to the board at sorcery speed or at an inopportune time. Second, we don’t have to lose life when we draw cards with Enduring Curiosity. And third, even if it is removed it will return to play and let us continue to gain card advantage.

This one evolution has made the deck feel a lot smoother when it comes to playing in the mid game. While Gix is better on curve, Enduring Curiosity feels like it gives us much more agency and flexibility.

The rest of our creatures either work well with Enduring Curiosity or are just good on their own. Spyglass Siren may seem quite tame, but thanks to flying it works great with Enduring Curiosity to connect with the opponent and draw a card. The map token is also quite useful, helping us find a land or grow one of our creatures.

Deep-Cavern Bat is great because it both disrupts our opponent’s gameplan, either breaking up their curve or taking a removal spell, but it also has flying to get in some points and buffer our life total, and draw cards with Enduring Curiosity.

Faerie Mastermind plays well with our flash game plan, letting us hold up interaction early and then flashing it in when we have the time, or in response to a card draw spell from an opponent to draw an extra card. Later on, we can activate its ability on our opponent’s turn to trigger and draw two cards. It also has flying which, you guessed it, makes it work well with Enduring Curiosity to draw cards.

Preacher of the Schism is just a solid creature on its own. 2/4 stats makes it resilient to most removal in the format, and deathtouch lets it attack into any board and block any creature on the ground. When we are ahead on life preacher will draw us cards, and when we are down on life it makes lifelink tokens. Both modes are great in this deck, as we either get cards directly or we get tokens which can block to buy time, or give us more attackers to draw cards with later.

Unstoppable Slasher is another new card from Duskmourn that I think adds a lot to the deck. At a base it is a 2/3 deathtouch that comes back when killed, but the real meat here is its second ability that takes half an opponent’s life when it connects.

This is most useful in match ups against control decks where we need to end the game before they take over the late game. Like against Domain Ramp, for example, our clock is quite slow, and it can be difficult to end the game before Atraxa, Grand Unifier usually uncounterable thanks to Cavern of Souls, comes down and buries us in card advantage.

In those games, Unstoppable Slasher getting in a hit or two can help us close out the game before then. Thanks to deathtouch, we can attack into any blockers, either connecting, or trading and getting our slasher back into play with two stun counters on it.

Our last creature is Ertai Resurrected, which serves as both removal, counterspell, and has flash, working perfectly with Enduring Curiosity, letting us pass with four mana up, representing either four drop, forcing our opponent’s to be worried about a variety of scenarios.

Ertai can also counter triggers, so keep in mind that even if your Domain opponent casts an uncounterable Atraxa, Grand Unifier you can still counter her enters trigger for example.

Removal Spells

Our removal spells are fairly standard, but this build has a couple of interesting choices based on the current meta.

Cut Down, Go for the Throat, and Sheoldred’s Edict are all pretty standard fare, but we have Disfigure and Anoint with Affliction for very specific reasons.

Disfigure is very similar to Cut Down. While Cut Down can take down a 2/3 creature, it can’t take down a 4/2, while Disfigure can. Now this normally wouldn’t be a big deal, but thanks to Leyline of Resonance it is a huge deal.

Leyline of Resonance decks try to go off on turn two with Heartfire Hero or Cacophony Scamp and pump spells. However, outside of Monstrous Rage, none of these pump spells add toughness. So, they cast a pump spell on their creature, we respond with Cut Down, and then they play another pump spell. Suddenly, our Cut Down is fizzling due to the large power of the creature.

But as long as you are responding to the valiant trigger on Heartfire Hero, there is no way for them to get their creature’s toughness above two. So Disfigure will always take it down when they try to go off on turn two, giving us a way to survive even when on the draw.

Our other meta choice is Anoint with Affliction. While also good against Leyline of Resonance decks, it is also great against Azorius Helping Hand decks, as exiling their Abhorrent Oculus or Haughty Djinn will prevent them from bringing it back from the graveyard. It also helps against an opposing Unstoppable Slasher or Mosswood Dreadknight.

The removal suite in this deck is flexible. The numbers can be easily tweaked based on what you expect to face on the MTG Arena ladder or what the meta at your local game store is.

Counterspells

This build is light on counterspells, but they are solid at helping our tempo game plan.

Phantom Interference plays great with our tempo game plan early, letting us counter early plays from our opponent while holding up our flash threats or removal, and later in the game we can kick it to get a 2/2 flier as well.

Three Steps Ahead is a super flexible card and is a great mana sink later in the game. On top of being a counterspell it can help us find more action or lands, and in the best scenarios can copy a key threat to keep the pressure on.

Just like our removal spells, the counterspell numbers can be tweaked up and down based on what feels good. I do like indexing more on Phantom Interference just because it is cheaper, letting us use it and cast another spell in the mid game.

Lands

There isn’t anything super interesting going on in the mana base, but we do have two copies of Fountainport as a source of tokens and card advantage, and four Restless Reef to help get in damage or block later on.

Be careful when deciding who to mill with Restless Reef, as there are several decks in the format that make use of their graveyard so in those instances it is better to mill ourselves.

Sideboarding

We have a lot of good tools in the sideboard to take on the meta, so let’s break it down.

Leyline Aggro Decks

In: 2x Harvester of Misery

Out: 1x Three Steps Ahead 1x Enduring Curiosity

Versus Leyline of Resonance aggro decks our main deck is pretty well situated honestly. We have access to a high number of removal spells, and should consider taking a mulligan if we don’t have access to any in our starting hand.

We can bring in Harvester of Misery as two extra removal spells that play similar to Disfigure, and trim a Three Steps Aheadand a copy of Enduring Curiosity to lower our curve and play a more proactive game plan once we have dispatched of their first threat or two.

Azorius Hand

In: 4x Leyline of the Void

Out: 3x Disfigure, 1x Cut Down

Leyline of the Void is in the sideboard for this matchup. While they do have good tools to bounce or disrupt graveyard hate permanents, Leyline of the Void can buy us some time. We take out our removal spells that don’t remove their key threats.

Token Control

In: 2x Tishana’s Tidebinder, 2x Duress, 2x Liliana of the Veil

Out: 3x Disfigure, 1x Cut Down, 1x Go for the Throat, 1x Sheoldred’s Edict

Against these decks we want to trim out most of our spot removal, but I like keeping Anoint with Affliction to take out Enduring Innocence. Tishana’s Tidebinder can help slow down a Caretaker’s Talent or Urabrask’s Forge, while Duress and Liliana of the Veil attack their hand and try to run them out of resources before they set up their engine.

Domain

In: 2x Liliana of the Veil, 2x Tishana’s Tidebinder, 3x Disdainful Stroke

Out: 3x Disfigure, 1x Cut Down, 2x Anoint with Affliction, 1x Sheoldred’s Edict

Against Domain we also want to take out most of our spot removal and focus on fighting their mid game plays. Liliana of the Veil is good at keeping them low on resources, making it harder to get to their late game plays. 

Tishana’s Tidebinder and Disdainful Stroke are best at fighting for control in the mid game, countering a Sunfall, stopping an Overlord of the Hauntwoods enters trigger, fighting Leyline Binding, etc.

We can’t rely on Disdainful Stroke against Atraxa, Grand Unifierbecause of Cavern of Souls, so we want to use all of our tools to end the game before Atraxa comes down.

Convoke, and other go wide Aggro decks

In: 2x Harvester of Misery

Out: 1x Enduring Curiosity, 1x Sheoldred’s Edict

Against go wide aggro decks we want our “sweeper” in Harvester of Misery, and can trim an Enduring Curiosity to lower our curve and Sheoldred’s Edict is usually just awkward to use.

Wrapping Up

Dimir Midrange is a versatile deck that got some meaningful upgrades from Duskmourn. I think it has game against everything in the meta, and has a lot of great tools that can be tuned in and out of the main deck and sideboard to make it more competitive based on what is currently dominant in the meta.

I hope this deck guide was helpful in breaking down the deck and showing why I think that Dimir Midrange is a good choice in Standard right now. I’ll be keeping an eye on Standard as it continues to develop so I’ll be back next week with more meta analysis and decks, so keep an eye out for those!

As always, best of luck in all of your games.