Deck Choice: Dimir Control
https://moxfield.com/decks/VbBFbaZwQEG948VTHUhGUQ
We are back running Sneaky Snacker and Spellstutter Sprite alongside the Legacy Package of Pauper. Our local Leipzig Meta has been full of Combo and Value-Piles all season long. With the latest demise of Ichor Wellspring Decks (Jund, Grixis, Gardens, Tron) and even the increase of Snuff Out targets (Walls, Elves, Slivers), lets run the good old one-for-one-what-you-got-game once again.
Deck List: Some Spoderman Spice
Everyones beloved Multi-Breach-Verse-Cross-Over-Sell-Out-Thingy has brought Mob Lookout and Wekhdu, Midnight Hunter to the Archetype. I would have never longed for an upgrade for Modern Age - but here we go: Mob Lookout loots only once but brings a 1/4 into play immediatly (screw you Lightning Bolt and Eldrazi Repurposer). There are more use cases like conniving on another creature, or ninjutsu it on the following turn, it doesn’t die to incidental enchantment-hate. But just the immediate board presence sold me quickly to test it. Shout Outs to Brazilian Online Legend Barff for reinventing the Archetype!
History Corner: An ode to Sneaky Snacker
Sneaky Snacker was the card that jumped to my eye and heart right after MH3 was spoilered in early 2024. While others were busy breaking Broodscale Combo, whining after Caw Gates and Moggwarts, or bowing down in awe to the power of Refurbished Familiar and Writhing Chrysalis - I used a good amount of that summer brewing Sneaky Snacker alongside Faithless Looting, Stinkweed Imp, Dread Return, Izzet Charm, Thought Scour and of course Brainstorm. The Faerie-Rogue seemed absolutly cracked to me and I was betting on how long before an emergeny banning was announced. I was trying to catch the spirit and structure of some old time favorite Modern decks like Dredge and Izzet Phoenix - Graveyard/Spell based decks with a lot of free value and unfair-ish flavor to them. Cast Looting, Dredge 10, Trigger 3 Snacker, Cast Dread Return, your end-step cast Brainstorm to do it again. 2 mana spent. Haha
I had a good run with that Izzet-pile in summer ‘24. No life-gain, no hard-casting Sneaky Snacker, all honest tempo. I sometimes died to a single Relic of Progenitus. In autumn I finally found a Dimir version that was leaning away from the graveyard-vulnerability and step by step emancipated from Dimir Terror (no Thought Scour, no Tolarian Terror anymore). What was left were Sneaky Snacker, Modern Age and Spellstutter Sprite. If you defended these cards properly, they were enough to win about any game. Loved it. Never looked back. The deck has always given me good results on the big stages. And a lot of cheer. So what better to pick when you are 5-5 after 4 gamedays, and you basically have to go undefeated to hit top8. Let’s go Sneaky Snacker!
PS: please don’t call it Schnitzel! Thanky you.
Faerie Seer -> Dimir Fae
Thought Scour -> Dimir Terror
Modern Age or Mob Lookout -> Dimir Control
Round 1 vs Hexproof/Infect 1-0-0
I get to run Snuff Out and Spellstutter vs an opponent who had trouble finding more creatures after Ichorclaw Myr passed away. I find Extract a Confession against their sole Slippery Boggle in game two 2-0
Round 2 vs Caw Gates 2-0-0
I get to play vs an old time favorite of mine. Once Basilisk Gate starts hitting, I have to answer every single creature on the board - or race hardcore, which I usually have troubles with. My tools are Monarch, Mystic and some value I can squeeze out of Ninjas. Snuff Out helps a lot on tempo. Squadron Hawk on the stack is my main target, followed by Modern Age and Guardian of the Guildpact.
Game 1 they resolve two Modern Age and I yolo a Thorn the moment they are tapped out. We pass Monarch back and forth but I stay up on cards. I throw Removal, a Fumes and Bojuka Bogs at them to trade down creatures. After some 30 minutes a horde of Snackers takes it home 1-0
Game 2 my mull to five is: Snacker, Cast Down, Brainstorm, two Lands. Again I can not prevent their engines, instead I tap out to cast two Snackers on turn two and three. Turn four I get greedy and throw a precious Extract a Confession at their first Vector Glider. They untap, cast Guardion. Shit. My hand is Cast Down, Brainstorm. I proceed with my Snacker beat down and put them to 10 life. Next turn Mob Lookout increases my Snackers to five damage in the air (discarding Brainstorm, unbelievable heresy). They go to 5 and I have three creatures on board that can actually block Guardian. They put me to two on the back swing, but cannot answer the board. The Snackers bring it home 2-0
Round 3 vs U Fae 2-1-0
I am playing Milan, so we both know what’s up. I feel confident because I have the better tools for a Control-(mirror)-game. Namely Snuff Out, Fumes and Mystic.
Game 1 I Snuff Out the first Fae. Milan never gets to deploy a real threat, I never tap out or present an opening. When I resolve the first Spelstutter Milan scoops. Turn ten with ten minutes played. Disciplined tournament magic 1-0
Game 2 I feel very confident. Let them win on the play, but on the draw I will strike back. I now have even Arms of Hadar and Mind Extraction as Silver Bullets. We fight it out to the very last.
They come up ahead on early tempo, so I have to concede a lot of small advantages to them, as to not fully lose control over the game. You would like to kill the Fae before combat, but you can not run Cast Down with one blue up into four open Mana. So you have to let them go through combat, take two from a Ninja, concede a card - only to then clean up the Ninja on your following turn with two blue up. It works out, but by the time they get to attack again, you are back in the same pickle. We stay on card parity, fight all these min-games, but after taking damage in ten combat steps I am at zero life 1-1
Game 2 back on the play, I board in two Extract a Confession. The only real issue seems to be answering the Ninjas. What follows is a rather unusual development: By turn 4 they have spent 7 mana to cast 4 Faerie Miscreant and 3 Faerie Seer. Three of these pesky Flyers I answer with some 1for1-interaction - not where you wanna be. I don’t find a Snacker and I can’t even dream to resolve a Sweeper against their stacked hand. I look in disbelief at the board. Maybe I should have brought in Mukotai Ambusher, as there seems nothing to be done here 1-2
Round 4 vs Red Madness 3-1-0
Another deck that I fortunately know from the inside. Only Snacker and Guttersnipe can really spiral out of control for me - so countering any Draw-Spell goes a long way here.
Game 1 they deploy two early Kessig Flamebreather. I don’t have removal yet, but at least I control the stack, aka the Draw Spells. In the midgame I get confused as of how to play around Lava Dart with Spellstutter and I concede some value. They manage to overload me with burn 0-1
Game 2 I only run 4 Pyroblast in the Side, but 2 Mukotai, 2 Spellbombs, 1 Crypt Incursion should help as well, right?! On the play it is much easier to prevent the first Draw Spell and to Cast Down a Pinger on End Step without losing tempo. I end the game with around 4 Counter in hand 1-1
Game 3 I have an early Pyroblast but they still get to overload me turn three with Draw Spells and get a Snacker in play. The heat is on. We fight about that Snacker. Looting gives to him the hidden value that my Bojuka Bog is stealing back. When the dust settles, again I have not gained much life, but my hand controls the stack 2-1
Round 5 vs Altar Tron 3-1-1
We all know him, we all love him, one of my personal nemesis’ in the League, as always in Round 5 - it’s the gentleman who loves to cast 20 Chromatic Star per game: It’s Quoc. Shout Outs to some fine gameplay as always!
Game 1 Could anyone print Life-Count-Paper in A4 please? We are fighting in the range between 20 to 10 life, then 20 to 30 life, some fighting in the 30s, back to the 20s, you know, like a fine radio program, or the weather charts of last July, Packtdoll Terror Gaming. Funny game because I got stuck on four lands (26 cards into the game), I usually knew that it would remain like that thanks to three Brainstorms, but within those 26 cards were 4 Counterspell, 3 Spellstutter Sprite and 2 Sneaky Snacker. I think I countered one copy of Blood Fountain four times - which also got all four Myr Retriever in the Grave (or was it the other way around?) - so eventually Quoc got tired of the Combo, discarded two Altar and got the good old Pactdoll Terror Ping Plan online. So I just tap out to hard cast Thorn and Mystic - I was shaking, but what can you do with nothing else in hand - and for unknown reasons I won another Control Game with Snacker beat down 1-0
(Could it be that sometimes you just have to spend Mana, cast Creatures and attack your Opp with them? Feels weird…)
Game 2 I need an engine and I need land drops. One piece of interaction per turn miraculously worked out last game, but not again. I board in 2 Mukotai, 2 Spellbomb, 1 Okiba. He stumbles on Tron, I deploy early Mukotai, then early Thorn, no combo pieces on his end while still fixing land drops, lets goo! Turn five I pass with six cards in hand, of which none can interact with stack or grave and none increase my clock. Shit. Back on my turn I try to squeeze max value out of Cast Down and Bojuka Bog against Myr Retriver and Pactdoll - but I kind of mess it up and pass back still without any permission in hand. From here he is just popping off with Golem Foundry and 2 Pactdolls. A lost chance 1-1
Take Away
What a sweet game day with 65 players! That is SIXTYFIVE of the finest Pauper Players from Magdeburg, Chemnitz, Kassel, Jena, Dresden, Berlin, Leipzig comming to Pöge-Haus to play on their Saturday. Incredible and thank you everyone for being part of this and making this happen! We have had wonderful coffee and even a Tatort around this time…
Deck-wise I have been pretty happy. The Archetype gives you play and angles to dance with about any deck in the field. Adding just some more board-presence with Mob Lookout helped quite a bit and another avenue of value with Big Ninja added a lot of spice. Thorn and Mystic are still the bombs - but especially against Caw Gates and Tron I felt happy to add some tempo and attackers to the tables. We are not at the point to invent “Dimir Tempo” quite yet, but I swear to bog, Preordain is gonna be Moon Circuit Hacker next time around. See y’all!