On August 26, we have our next ban announcement that is very likely to shake up multiple formats. Both Nadu, Winged Wisdom in Modern and Grief in Legacy have been hot topics of discussion for months now and seeing both of these cards get banned wouldn’t be surprising in the slightest.
That being said, there’s a strong argument that banning only these cards won’t do quite enough. Yesterday, we mentioned how strong Energy decks were in Modern and how some players are clamoring for bans to affect that archetype, too. Meanwhile, in Legacy, the deck that won the Secret Lair Showdown Championship event at Gen Con over the weekend was a Dimir shell with 0 Griefs present.
This alone is a bit of a red flag. Beyond that, though, the pilot of the deck stated that they managed to go 8-1 versus the Dimir Reanimator menace on the weekend. This heavily signals that Grief isn’t the only card that makes the general Dimir shell super powerful. It’s very impressive how well this Dimir variant performed against Grief throughout the event, so let’s take a closer look at the similarities and differences between the victorious Dimir deck and the typical Reanimator strategy.
More Tempo Oriented
- Mana Value: B
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Stats: */1+*
- Text: Nethergoyf’s power is equal to the number of card types among cards in your graveyard and its toughness is equal to that number plus 1. Escape- 2B, Exile any number of other cards from your graveyard with four or more card types among them. (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its escape cost.)
Ultimately, the way this deck is constructed, it plays out more like the Grixis Delver decks of old rather than the Dimir Reanimator decks of late. The goal is to stick a problematic threat early in the game, while using disruption to push your advantage and keep the opponent off-balance.
In the creature slot, Nethergoyf now serves as the ultimate one-drop. You won’t find any copies of Delver of Secrets here, nor is this deck splashing red for Dragon’s Rage Channeler. This is less of a knock on the power of Delver or Channeler, but more so a praise of the strength of Nethergoyf.
Between Fetchlands, cheap cantrips like Brainstorm and Ponder, and low-cost artifacts such as Mishra’s Bauble, growing Nethergoyf quickly is very easy. Plus, the bonus of being able to Escape the card later in the game is great in attrition wars. As good as Dragon’s Rage Channeler is, there is certainly merit to staying two colors. Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student is a reasonable replacement, and being able to run a basic island and a basic swamp to fetch up without harming your manabase is a huge boon against Wasteland decks.
Speaking of Wasteland, this deck uses Wasteland to its advantage just like Grixis Delver decks have in the past. It’s very common to slam Nethergoyf or Psychic Frog, then use the combination of Wasteland and Daze to keep opposing threats off the table and ride your attacker to victory.
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Dominating Dimir Reanimator
- Mana Value: B
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Text: Destroy target creature if it has converted mana cost 2 or less. Revolt- Destroy that creature if it has converted mana cost 4 or less instead if a permanent you controlled left the battlefield this turn.
As we mentioned, part of what makes this Dimir deck so interesting is that it doesn’t feature the Grief+Reanimate package. The play patterns associated with Grief have made many Legacy players very frustrated, and an upcoming ban seems almost inevitable at this point. At the Secret Lair Showdown Championship event, Dimir Reanimator earned 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place. The Reanimator deck is clearly extremely strong, so how did this other version of Dimir perform so well against?
As it turns out, there are some benefits in the Dimir “mirror” to focusing hard on the tempo gameplan. First of all, this variant of Dimir is a bit more streamlined and less centered around assembling specific synergies together. As strong as Entomb and Grief are, they don’t directly affect the board in any way unless paired it with Reanimate or Animate Dead. The upside of getting to put a huge bomb into play like Atraxa, Grand Unifier is clearly very high, but fortunately, the winning Dimir deck has a lot of interaction to help prevent that from happening.
Obviously, Daze and Force of Will go a long way. On top of that, though, because the winning Dimir deck doesn’t have to dedicate a bunch of slots to reanimation enablers and payoffs, there’s room to run some unique tools to help further sway the Reanimator matchup in your favor. Nihil Spellbomb is an excellent hate piece to dig for that has a very low opportunity cost to play. Stifle, which does a great Stone Rain impression if the opponent cracks a Fetchland, lines up favorably against triggered abilities from Grief and Animate Dead.
Further, this deck has plenty of room to run a full playset of Fatal Push in the maindeck. Fatal Push is unbelievably well-positioned right now in a field with seemingly endless Psychic Frogs. This strategy is well set up to disrupt the opponent and have Nethergoyf and Psychic Frog go the distance. So long as you can keep the opponent from bringing back an enormous creature, you’re in good shape.
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Where Do We Go From Here?
- Mana Value: 2BB
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Stats: 3/2
- Text: Menace. When Grief enters the battlefield, target opponent reveals their hand. You choose a nonland card from it. That player discards that card. Evoke- Exile a black card from your hand.
With the emergence of an elite Dimir archetype that doesn’t utilize Grief in any way, there’s certainly a reason to doubt that a Grief ban will solve all of Legacy’s problems. Recently, we discussed how Psychic Frog could be poised for a takeover even in a Grief-less world. More and more, this looks like it could be a reality.
We’ve seen elite, efficient creatures like Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer and Dreadhorde Arcanist get banned in the past, in large part for how well they work in conjunction with Daze, Brainstorm, and Wasteland. Now, Nethergoyf and especially Psychic Frog are flexing their muscles in a similar way.
Plenty of players seem to believe that banning Grief isn’t the end all be all. This Dimir deck put the power of Psychic Frog on full display. It’ll be interesting to see how the announcement goes on August 26. There are a lot of different routes that may be taken. Either way, the success of this Dimir deck really puts things into perspective. For the time being, if you’re tired of losing to Reanimator and Grief in Legacy, this deck clearly delivers where it matters most.
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