Right now, many Magic: The Gathering Standard players are holding their breath. Tarkir: Dragonstorm preview season is right around the corner, after all, which means the format is about to get a refresh. Some players are unperturbed by the oncoming Dragonstorm, however, and are still experimenting with the current card pool. One such MTG player has Frankensteined together two powerful archetypes into one shell: Dimir Bounce, and Demons.
If this sounds silly on the surface, there’s certainly an element of that at play. The Demon package tends to play best in Midrange builds, and has little synergy with what Dimir Bounce is trying to do. This list has put up decent results already, however, which certainly warrants a second look. Is there a meta-breaker hidden here among this pile of seemingly disparate Magic cards? Let’s dive in and find out.
Dimir Bounce With A Side Of MTG Demons
This spicy new brew comes to us via SoggyCheerios, who piloted it to a 5-0 finish in yesterday’s MTGO Standard League. For the most part the deck is similar to the other Dimir Bounce decks in the MTG Standard meta right now, but the splash of Demons really give it an extra kick.
To start with the conventional stuff, the deck runs the classic Dimir Bounce pieces alongside their respective payoffs. I’m talking four copies of This Town Ain’t Big Enough, and four copies of Fear of Isolation. These get your key permanents back in your hand to re-use later.
What are those key permanents? Well there’s Hopeless Nightmare, of course, perhaps the most important card for the Standard Bounce archetype in general. This strips cards from your opponents hand while also burning down their life total at the same time, leaving them vulnerable on two fronts. SoggyCheerios backs this up with Nowhere to Run and Momentum Breaker, enchantment-based removal spells that feel great to bounce and replay.
Last bit not least, Stormchaser’s Talent is an absolute powerhouse in the list. Creating multiple 1/1 Prowess Otters for just one mana apiece is a great deal, especially considering how noncreature-heavy the deck is. This little one mana card can be a legitimate win condition in the deck.
On top of this tried-and-tested shell, SoggyCheerios layers the Demon package. This consists of a full playset of Unholy Annex/Ritual Chamber, and a pair of Archfiend of the Dross. If you’ve ever played with or against a Golgari Midrange list recently, this lineup will look familiar. What SoggyCheerios does with it is entirely new, however.
Switching Up The Rhythm
Turns out there are a surprising number of synergies between Dimir Bounce and the Demons package in MTG Standard. First of all, Archfiend of the Dross plays very nicely with bounce cards. Archfiend creates a kind of sub-game where if your opponent can survive four turns they win the game. With access to bounce effects, you can return it to your hand and reset the oil counters, thus buying yourself a ton of extra time.
Unholy Annex/Ritual Chamber, similarly, plays nicely with what Dimir Bounce is already doing. It’s an enchantment, so it buffs up all of your Prowess Otters. You can also return it to your hand to create a second 6/6 Flying Demon if the need arises. Annex can serve as a long-term win condition thanks to the life drain, so as mana-intensive as this play is it’s still very relevant.
Crucially, Unholy Annex also makes Entity Tracker much better in the deck. This is a card that fades in and out of favor for Magic: The Gathering Bounce decks, but here it shines due to the inclusion of an actual Room card. You can draw one card when Annex enters, and another when you use Chamber to make a Demon. Throw in the cards Annex itself draws and you have a formidable value engine indeed.
With the addition of this package, Dimir Bounce gains two things. It gains the potential for overwhelming tempo wins via Archfiend, and a ton of long-game staying power via Annex. This added flexibility undoubtedly played a big part in SoggyCheerios’ 5-0 League victory. It may also lead to a change in how Bounce decks are played and built, depending on how the meta shakes out.
A Worthy Experiment?
Does SoggyCheerios’ rich blend of Dimir Bounce and Demons have a future in MTG Standard? Quite possibly. Right now Dimir Bounce is usually outclassed by the Esper variant of the deck, which commands a much higher meta share. a switch-up like this, however, could give Dimir an edge in the long run.
The main advantage Esper Pixie has over Dimir Bounce is its stronger early game. Nurturing Pixie and Optimistic Scavenger allow for snowbally tempo wins, which Dimir has a hard time replicating. SoggyCheerios doesn’t attempt to address this issue with their build, but rather focuses on the long game instead.
This means the list likely loses to Esper Pixie most of the time, and Gruul Aggro too. It can stabilize around turn four with Unholy Annex into Archfiend, but that may well be too late in many cases. Where the deck will shine is against slower decks like Domain and Azorius Control. By playing a slower, more value-driven game, SoggyCheerios’ list shouldn’t run out of steam against decks like these, unlike its more tempo-driven cousin.
That said, it is still quite an experimental build. There’s a good chance that by gunning for a value/Midrange plan, the deck just ends up worse in both extremes than the decks around it. Even if that does end up being the case, I think it’s an admirable deckbuilding experiment. While it’s easy to grow cynical about a rapidly-shifting Standard, as long as Magic: The Gathering players are turning out cool brews like this the format should be A-okay.