Deck Primer: Dimir Enchantments
By Scott McNamara & Christopher Kral - Team Main Phase
Howdy all and welcome to a short deck guide for Dimir Enchantments. This document will include:
Decklist:
Deckbuilding Thoughts
The week before SCG ATL the standard format was shaken up with a heavy uptick in the new Esper Pixie archetype. That deck has a low curve, pressures opponents in a unique way, and can grind late into the game. However, the mana base is untenable and individual card quality is low. The Dimir Enchantment list is an attempt to merge the low curve and synergistic engine pieces of Esper Pixie with the power and consistency of the Dimir Midrange shell. Kaito and Enduring Curiosity are just as good as they’ve always been and lowering the curve a bit makes them even better. Stormchaser’s Talent gives you a high density of playable one drops leading to some aggressive draws that rival the red decks. We even have some reach in the form of Hopeless Nightmare to close out games after a fast start. Since many of the red variants lean on hexproof/ward effects to protect their creatures, Nowhere to Run is one of the best cards in the format against them. Stormchaser’s Talent + This Town Ain’t Big Enough(TTABE) gives you a late game engine that the Dimir Midrange deck is sorely missing. We end up with a version of Dimir that is simultaneously more aggressive and has a better late game.
Gerry Thompson, Dave Shiels, and friends also brought a sweet looking take on Dimir Enchantments. I have lots of thoughts on their build that I’ll save for another time, but just want to make the distinction here. Both versions seemed to have success in Atlanta. However, this is something to keep in mind when reading over win rate data and matchup spreads.
Since Dimir Enchantments deck is a hybrid between two known archetypes, I believe it’s helpful to compare it to both of them directly.
Compared to Esper Pixie, Dimir is a more measured and conservative build. We are trading off some explosive potential by cutting white but adding much needed consistency. There is some concern that removing white from the Pixie deck cuts off some great tools against red. While this is true, I’d argue that the improvement of the manabase(removing 6-7 painlands) gains back a lot of ground. If you have been playing Esper Pixie, I highly recommend giving Dimir a try.
Compared to Dimir Midrange, Dimir Enchantments is not exactly a direct upgrade. We are giving up on maindeck counterspells and faerie mastermind for a lower curve and a powerful late game engine. Against the “go big” decks with up the beanstalk/caretakers talent this is not a trade off we are happy with. However, I’m under the impression that the Dimir matchup is so favored vs these decks that I’m willing to give up some percentage points for improved matchups elsewhere.
My teammate Christopher Kral made the choice to play the third cut down in the main deck over the third copy of enduring curiosity. Chris wanted to make his deck even leaner, giving him a stronger G1 vs the Red decks. Additionally, it opened up an extra sideboard slot for him to put in one copy of Ghost Vacuum. While somewhat narrow, Vacuum ended up being huge for him as his day 2 matchups included Azorius Oculus, Sultai Terror, and the new Azorius Omniscience combo deck. This tradeoff slightly hurts in the matchups where curiosity shines such as mono white and domain strategies.
Overall, I believe the Dimir Enchantments is the next evolution of the Esper pixie deck. It does not, however, totally invalidate regular Dimir midrange as I’m sure there will be metagames where that’s the correct call. I’m proud of where we ended up with our list, but I’m looking forward to watching the community continue to innovate on this archetype.
Matchup descriptions
SB guide HERE
VS Dimir Midrange
- At the end of the day, it’s a mirror match except we have inevitability. Early game is all about fighting over Kaito and Enduring Curiosity. Having extra one drops helps win those fights. If the game does drag out, talent + TTABE completely takes over. One of the reasons to play Dimir enchantments is that it has a very good matchup vs the normal Dimir Midrange deck.
VS Red decks
- Both Boros and Gruul lean heavily on hexproof/ward effects to beat removal, so 4 maindeck Nowhere to Run is a nightmare for them. Game 1 often turns into a race, so don’t be afraid to attack early and often. Staying back to block is usually a losing strategy. As per usual vs red, they are ahead in g1 but the matchup swings in your favor post-board.
VS Esper Pixie
- Their very best draws will be able to run you over, but anything short of that is often not enough. The key here is to trade resources as aggressively as possible and allow your superior card quality to take over the late game. Having your own Fear of Isolations is nice here to offset their hopeless nightmare discard triggers.
VS Golgari
- We are good vs Golgari for all the same reasons regular Dimir is favored. Be mindful of Maelstrom Pulse when playing out multiple talents.
VS Domain
- Here’s a matchup where we are worse off than the normal Dimir builds. While it’s nice to have a lower curve to more effectively pressure them, we are really missing faerie mastermind and maindeck counterspells. In addition, the bounce synergies motivate us to play a pile of Nowhere to Runs instead of Go for the throat. We still have TTABE and Floodpits Drowner to combat big creatures, but we are soft to Zur. An early Kaito is usually our route to victory here. Post-board we have more relevant interaction to help offset our g1 disadvantage.
VS Mono White
- Another matchup where I’d rather be playing faerie mastermind and counterpells in my maindeck. Their card advantage engine combined with plenty of ways to gain life means our hopeless nightmare plan is not very effective. I’m not sure how Esper pixie ever wins this matchup. Our plan post-board is to pivot away from the bounce synergy stuff into a more traditional Dimir deck.
VS Jeskai Convoke
- Dimir decks have historically struggled vs convoke and this is no exception. If they have a functional draw involving Gleeful Demolition it’s hard to keep up. Fear of isolation is a nice sized blocker that draws you to an extra otter/removal spell to help deal them going wide. Gix’s Command helps, but I’m not sure we can load up on 3 mana sweepers in this version of Dimir.
VS Temur Otters
- After playing Otters all season, I believe that it is favored over a normal Dimir build. I am not sure how much things change with our version. I’d imagine that our more aggressive curve combined with hopeless nightmare gives you a better chance than normal Dimir, but the jury is still out on this one.
VS Azorius Oculus
- Bad matchup. Here we get punished for our nowhere to runs instead of go for the throat. TTABE can be an effective answer to their threats sometimes, but I’d imagine in most cases it will not be enough. Ghost vacuum is a big deal in the post-board games, but I elected not to play any.
VS Selesnya Tokens
- Here is a deck that is designed to beat Dimir. Removal spells aren’t great against them and they have a ton of flying blockers. The Dimir Enchantments deck at least has TTABE to help manage the tokens and rebuy Nowhere to run, but I wouldn’t be thrilled sitting across from tokens.
VS Azorius Convoke
- Much less scary than Jeskai Convoke. Without access to gleeful demolition and recruiter it is way easier to stabilize. Our curve is almost as low as theirs so keeping up on the board is reasonable. Post-board we bring in some better blockers along with Gix’s Command.