Over the past few weeks, various strategies built to maximize This Town Ain’t Big Enough have surged. Both Esper Pixie and Dimir enchantments in Standard are seeing lots of play, which has caused a massive spike to the powerful uncommon instant.
Recently, the card even started popping up in Pioneer! A Dimir discard deck put up a solid performance in yesterday’s Magic Online Pioneer Challenge. This shell blends these self-bounce elements with old-school Waste Not staples, which work surprisingly well together. Waste Not decks have fallen by the wayside in Pioneer over the last year, but perhaps these innovations could help revive the forgotten archetype.
Sel-Bounce Core
- Mana Value: B
- Rarity: Common
- Card Type: Enchantment
- MTG Sets: Wilds of Eldraine
- Card Text: When Hopeless Nightmare enters the battlefield, each opponent discards a card and loses 2 life. When Hopeless Nightmare is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, scry 2. 2B: Sacrifice Hopeless Nightmare.
At its core, this deck has a ton in common with the Dimir enchantments Standard shell that crushed an enormous event in Atlanta just a week ago. The goal is to use cheap enchantments with enters-the-battlefield effects and pair them with efficient bounce spells so you can replay them.
In the enchantment department, Hopeless Nightmare and Stormchaser’s Talent are the cream of the crop. Repeatedly casting Hopeless Nightmare not only causes your opponent’s resources to dwindle, but their life total will also plummet in the process. Meanwhile, Stormchaser’s Talent puts a ton of pressure on the opponent in its own right.
Outside of these two cards, you’ll find a couple copies of Tinybones Joins Up and Nowhere to Run. Tinybones Joins Up is worse than Hopeless Nightmare in this deck, but it adds redundancy to your gameplan which is important. Nowhere to Run is a decent piece of removal that even has the ability to help you take down creatures like Sylvan Caryatid that are immune to most kill spells.
All these cards conveniently work well in conjunction with This Town Ain’t Big Enough and Fear of Isolation. Both cards are great tempo plays that let your enchantments generate additional value. In some games, simply curving out with Stormchaser’s Talent and Fear of Isolation will be enough to put your opponent on the backfoot early.
Waste Not Support
- Mana Value: 1B
- Rarity: Rare
- Card Type: Enchantment
- MTG Set: Wilds of Eldraine: Enchanted Tales, Secret Lair, Commander 2016, Magic 2015
- Card Text: Whenever an opponent discards a creature card, create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token. Whenever an opponent discards a land card, ad BB to your mana pool. Whenever an opponent discards a noncreature, nonland card, draw a card.
Where things start to get interesting is once you factor in the presence of Waste Not. Waste Not is a powerful engine that enhances all of your discard spells. This includes Hopeless Nightmare and Tinybones Joins Up, making them more essential pieces of the puzzle.
It’s no surprise that a playset of Thoughtseize makes an appearance here, too, along with a few copies of Liliana of the Veil. Liliana isn’t the same Constructed all-star she was back in the day, but her synergy with Waste Not is undeniable.
You’ll even find two copies of Geier Reach Sanitarium hidden amongst the lands that play a key role. In the instance where you and your opponent are in topdeck mode, Geier Reach Sanitarium continuously provides fuel for Waste Not while simultaneously letting you loot away excess discard spells.
In post-sideboard games, Geier Reach Sanitarium can take over games alongside Narset, Parter of Veils. During your opponent’s upkeep, you can activate your land, forcing your opponent to loot. Then, they won’t be able to draw a card during their draw step thanks to Narset’s static ability. Once they have no cards in hand, they’re essentially locked out for the rest of the game.
Fixing a Kew Issue
- Mana Value: U
- Rarity: Rare
- Card Type: Enchantment – Class
- MTG Sets: Bloomburrow
- Card Text: (Gain the next level as a sorcery to add its ability.)
When Stormchaser’s Talent enters, create a 1/1 blue and red Otter creature token with prowess.
3U: Level 2 | When this Class becomes level 2, return target instant or sorcery card from your graveyard to your hand.
5U: Level 3 | Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, create a 1/1 blue and red Otter creature token with prowess.
What makes this deck so intriguing is that it does a decent job addressing a couple major flaws that have held Waste Not decks back in Pioneer for quite a while. The first issue these styles of decks have had is their lack of consistency.
In games where your mono-black Waste Not opponent curves Thoughtseize into Waste Not and follows up with multiple discard spells, things can feel hopeless. However, in games where your opponent doesn’t draw Waste Not, they run the risk of simply trading resources without gaining any ground. From there, topdecking anything of significance can pull you right back in it.
This deck is much less reliant on finding Waste Not early to pull ahead. Bouncing and replaying Stormchaser’s Talent is a great way to create an advantage.
This segues nicely into the second issue these inclusions address: lack of pressure. Outside of a few copies of Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, the mono-black Waste Not decks of old ran few ways to actually close games that didn’t involve Waste Not.
As such, mono-black Waste Not players sometimes gave their Niv to Light or Azorius control opponents ample time to find a card like Bring to Light or Teferi, Hero of Dominaria that could singlehandedly undo all the progress they’d made.
In this Dimir version, Stormchaser’s Talent forces your opponent to interact early, or they’ll fall behind quickly. Then, if the game does drag out, you can level up Stormchaser’s Talent and start flooding the board with tokens.
This archetype is far from perfect, but it at least gives Waste Not enthusiasts hope. There’s plenty of room to explore within this archetype, so perhaps we’ll see some neat innovations in the near future.
