Primer updated 3/20/2023

Dimir Reanimator Control

> Introduction

UB (Dimir) Reanimator is probably my favorite archetype. My (re)introduction to MTG and Commander was during Hour of Devastation, and I fell in love with The Scarab God pretty quick. Despite this, I have attempted to brew The Scarab God many times over the years, but they have always felt too slow, too sorcery speed, too clunky, or too reliant on generic, boring Dimir combos.

Recently I have spent a lot of time with Gale, Waterdeep Prodigy and Scion of Halaster. With this pairing (and the printing of a ton of Dimir Reanimator staples in recent times) I had success in forming a very (in my opinion) robust but more importantly fun (to me) Dimir Reanimator shell (see my decklist and primer for Gale/Scion). I decided to take my shell and tailor it to The Scarab God, and the result was my absolute favorite deck I have ever made.

> Overview

The shell, coming from my Gale list, is a spellslinging reanimator control focused strategy. It aims to play at instant speed which aligns quite nicely with The Scarab God’s ability.

If you run over to EDHrec and punch in The Scarab God, you’re going to see a Dimir Zombie Commander. That’s not this deck and that’s not how this deck should be played. This is a control list, and the goal is inevitability.

> Strategy

Here's a good spot to talk about playing Control in Commander. Some (a lot) of people think Control in Commander equates to Control in 1v1. Answer every threat. Deny value. Be the fun police. These folks must not have played an RPG before. You need to control your threat. Don’t burn all your resources aggroing every player at the table and then get hated out of the game. For folks who try to play Control and wind up losing a majority of their games this way, I suggest building/playing an Aikido deck (Queen Marchesa, for example). This type of deck will teach you politics and restraint, how and when to respond to threats, and how and when to drop your bombs. The mindset from an Aikido deck is (in my opinion) simply the perfect mindset for playing Control in Commander. You save your answers for the things that MATTER. Your focus should be on protecting your key pieces (and not losing). You should (almost) never be denying value or removing things for no good reason.
With Control, you also want to be playing draw/go. You want to hold up mana to respond to things that threaten our game state with cheap interaction and dump your mana on advantage right before your turn. You don’t worry about playing The Scarab God until mid to late game, when graveyards are juicy and ripe for picking. And when you do, you treat his ability like an instant in your hand, activating it at the dead last second you’re able each round.

The deck is open in terms of game plan right from the start. A perfect hand would have 2-3 lands, ramp, graveyard filtering, a bomb, and a cheap reanimator spell. I wouldn’t feel bad about mulliganing down to 5 to ensure a decent hand. Early game, the goal is simple. Ramp yourself, filter your bombs into the bin, reanimate bombs to apply pressure on your opponents, and set up your win cons. You’ve got a pile of high value ETB reanimator targets – get them out with your reanimator spells for cheap. Flicker them with Displacer Kitten. Accrue that value.

> Infinite Combos

This deck is tuned for my meta. I currently have included no (known) infinite combos.
Easy combos to include:

• Astral Dragon + Machine God's Effigy
• Necrotic Ooze + Asmodeus the Archfiend + Skirge Familiar
• Codex Shredder + mana positive rocks + Hullbreaker Horror
• Bolas's Citadel + Sensei's Divining Top
• Thassa’s Oracle combos (you’re in Dimir)

> Wincons

Some combination of kicked Rite of Replication, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Living Death, and your reanimator targets will be enough to close out most games in mid-power metas. The deck is about inevitability. As the game progresses, your opponents are over-extending, burning resources, board-wiping and removing. Graveyards are filling. You take your licks and bide your time but establish key pieces on the board, protect them, and accumulate answers. Eventually you start dropping the “thumb screws”, the puzzle piece components that lock together to form an un-answerable mess for your opponents (if only because you have 3 counterspells in your hand). You’ve got The Scarab God, Training Grounds, and Sphinx of the Second Sun out, a handful of interaction, and graveyards are full. You’re off to the races. Tighten the thumb screws, reanimating with The Scarab God’s ability, and drain your opponents out. You’ve got Displacer Kitten out, Portal to Phyrexia in your graveyard, Reanimate and a ton of interaction in your hand, and you just filtered Scholar of the Lost Trove to the graveyard. You’re off to the races. You have Agent of Treachery out and just drew your Rite of Replication. There are endless examples I could throw here but the point is the deck is chock full of ways to get to this inevitable game state and close it out.

> Tips

Most of the tips have been outlined above. The absolute most important things I can say here:

• Play Control with an Aikido mindset
• Do not cast your commander until you need to
• Activate your commander at instant speed at the dead last moment it makes sense each round

> Single Card Discussion

Let's talk about the reanimation cards I picked and why I picked them.

• Reanimate: Staple. Hits any graveyard and costs a single black mana.

• Persist: Only hits your graveyard, nonlegendary creatures, and the creature comes back with a -1/-1 counter, however it's the second cheapest reanimation spell behind Reanimate. Our deck is built with nonlegendary ETB creatures to synergize with both this card and Rite of Replication.

• Doomed Necromancer: Summoning sickness but notice there’s no sorcery speed rider. Once he’s out he can be treated as another instant in our draw/go gameplan. Can also be reanimated by The Scarab God for another activation later.

• Obsessive Stitcher: Same story as Doomed Necromancer. Sure the ability is more expensive but she comes with a looting ability that doesn’t cost any mana. Slam dunk.

• Beacon of Unrest: We talked about it above – Shuffles back into the deck to be reused later, and can hit a creature or artifact (Bolas’s Citidel and Portal to Phyrexia).

• Incarnation Technique is slept on. Mill 10, reanimate 2 for 4B is a crazy rate.

And now for the rest:

• Chromatic Lantern: Yes it's a 3 mana rock. However it completely fixes us for maximum activations of our color intensive activated ability on our Commander. I also run this in my Hazezon deck for similar reasons (deck is filled with crappy deserts that tap for colorless).

• Disallow, Ertai Ressurected, and Overcharged Amalgam: I’m huge on countering activated abilities. Save your ass from a Bojuka Bog at the very least or stop someone from winning the game with some busted trigger. These cards are just generally useful (Ertai and Amalgam can be hit from the graveyard at instant speed by The Scarab God) and you’re nearly always trying to leave 4 mana up at end-game anyways to activate The Scarab God’s ability, so we don’t feel bad about the cost.

• Saw In Half: Man, this card is busted. our deck is filled with ETB creatures or static effects. Is someone going to remove The Scarab God or a value piece? Cast this on your creature as "protection". The Scarab God will go to the graveyard and then at the next end step go to your hand, two copies will hit the field (one will die to state-based actions) and you’re left with your commander safely in your hand (great for dodging Path to Exile) with a copy safely remaining on the battlefield. Or double your ETBs. Or remove an attacking threat and they're left with smaller ones with summoning sickness.

• Displacer Kitten: Deck is filled with ETBs. Your hand is filled with cheap interaction. You can do the math.

• Agent of Treachery: Backbreaking reanimator target (even better with Rite of Replication). More importantly it functions as permanent removal for things you can’t easily get rid of.

• Portal to Phyrexia: Blink it with Displacer Kitten or copy it with Astral Dragon. I'm always looting this card away (see the theme?). I'll never cast it for 9 mana. I have successfully reanimated it several times since release. Hitting it with a reanimated Scholar of the Lost Trove is no joke. Getting it out is backbreaking for your opponents unless they are a token deck. (Old) Sheoldred stapled to a triple edict, what's not to love?

• Sphinx of the Second Sun: This card was made for The Scarab God, there’s no way around it. Doubles your upkeep trigger, untaps for your draw/go plan, and draws a card to boot. If you land and protect this with The Scarab God out you nearly always win the game.

• Sheoldred, the Apocalypse: She is extremely polarizing and immediately draws removal and aggro. Despite this, she is fantastic. If protected, she is inevitable. At 4CMC, you never feel bad hardcasting her, unlike your other polarizing, aggro-drawing reanimator bombs (Consecrated Sphinx at 6; Hullbreaker Horror at 7). She rewards you and punishes (without preventing!) your opponents for simply playing the game. The bit between the parenthesis is important! It's not Notion Thief or Narset, Parter of Veils here. It's not stopping your opponents from playing the game, and doesn't NEED an immediate answer. It's a tax, not a stax. It's like the Smothering Tithe that no one wants to pay the 2 on. Your opponents know it's providing you a snowballing advantage and will definitely answer it when they have the resources available, but it's not "answer now" like Notion, Narset, Tergrid, etc. You could run Windfall and friends as potential wincons with her (although I'm not ready to start cutting things for wheels just yet). Despite not currently having these cards, we run a ton of looting and draw effects. She has stabilized me into a winning position before eating removal several times since her release.

• Rite of Replication: The deck was rebuilt with non-legendary reanimator targets with great ETBs. Kick it and watch the sparks fly.

• Heartless Summoning: MVP. Straight cost reduction on all your reanimator bombs making it easier to hardcast them if needed. Makes The Scarab God cost 3. It’s just straight gas and we don’t really care about the -1/-1 effect.

• Astral Dragon: Wild reanimator target. You never want to hard cast it. (Nearly) always throw it away to a loot effect. It's nuts. If you wanted a combo, just put Machine God's Effigy in the deck to go infinite. I put it in ramp because the floor is hitting a land or rock. But hitting Rhystic Study, or someone's Smothering Tithe, etc., and getting TWO of them... Last Saturday I played this deck and got Portal to Phyrexia out with Beacon of Unrest. Then I reanimated my Astral Dragon to make two more Portals. Won that game.

• Scholar of the Lost Trove: Scholar + Incarnation Technique or Rise of the Dark Realms is the dream.

• Some good modal spells have come out of the D&D sets. White got Your Temple is Under Attack, blue got You Find the Villains' Lair. Modal filter or hard counterspell, excellent.

> Notable Exclusions

• Animate Dead / Dance of the Dead / Necromancy - These are fantastic reanimate spells. I don’t feel I need them in this build.

• Razaketh, the Foulblooded, Vilis, Broker of Blood, other Legendary reanimator target - I cycle through reanimator targets to keep it fresh. Run whatever bombs you want. This latest build runs ETBs that synergize with Displacer Kitten and Rite of Replication.

• Codex Shredder - Combo piece with Hullbreaker Horror. Outside of that, felt very low impact. Didn't need the combo to win.

• Pact of Negation / Force of Will - mentioned above. Multiple free counterspells to protect a combo win is probably too strong for my meta. Feel free to make swaps and include them.

• Fast Mana - Feel free to power the deck up. Would allow greater consistency to combo with Hullbreaker Horror

• Sensei's Divining Top / Aetherflux Reservoir - I've done it enough in the past. Cards, while super good, are "goodstuff" and not synergistic with what I'm trying to do Gale-wise or Reanimator-wise.

• cEDH quality UB combos - I'm not interested in running these. Feel free. I wanted to stay on theme with reanimator.

• Expel From Orazca, Hostage Taker, Meteor Golem, (anything else that can hit enchantments/artifacts): Dimir is starved for removal. What we are most worried about here is graveyard hate. There are two types, static and triggered. Triggered effects are going to happen, folks are going to get a Bojuka Bog in or activate their Tormod's Crypt. That's fine. Graveyard hate has gotten incredibly potent over the past several years, just look at Dauthi Voidwalker. We run Disallow, Ertai Resurrected, and Overcharged Amalgam to (hopefully) deal with a backbreaking graveyard exile trigger, but for the most part this is why we selectively place things in our graveyards nowadays through looting, conniving, and entombing instead of greedily milling. So, we are most concerned with static effects. Creature based static effects don't really concern us because we can blow those out of the water easily. It's the artifact and enchantment based static graveyard hate we're most afraid of, and specifically meta cards are Grafdigger's Cage, Ground Seal, Rest in Peace, and Leyline of the Void. Now we get into our local metas. I nearly never see these cards in my playgroup (your mileage may vary), and there's only 4 cards here total I'm terrified of. We're now in a situation where someone is playing these cards, has them in hand, and can resolve them against my counterspells. 3 of the 4 are <= 2CMC, and can be easily dealt with with Blast Zone, which I run. Otherwise, I am hoping to get my Cyclonic Rift or Venser, Shaper Savant to bounce it and counter it on recast. Theoretically, if I was seeing these cards pop up constantly in my meta I would add Karn's Silex and Filigree Silex next, as these can wipe those low CMC static graveyard threats as easily as Blast Zone, and if I needed to continue to make swaps, would start looking at adding more bounce spells such as Expel from Orazca (Although I'd be looking at Geistwave which can function as a pseudo cantripping protection / put an ETB creature back in your hand and also Commit // Memory, since we are usually always trying to hold up 4 mana for a TSG activation and Commit is extremely versatile).

• Notion Thief and Opposition Agent: Simply a meta call here, TBH. These cards can win games. In my playgroup, I try to balance playing control with the fun my friends are having, and they generally hate these types of effects. Also, I try to always play with an Aikido mindset, and for this reason Sheoldred, the Apocalypse and Hullbreaker Horror are actually on the chopping block for me - These types of cards that put a blanket aggro out there immediately turn the entire board against you and I'm not looking for that type of aggro until end game.

• Sower of Temptation: I think Sower is a good card - it's a great target for The Scarab God. It can steal a creature, eat removal, and then get reanimated to steal something again. It's also costed nicely at 4CMC, so you don't feel bad hardcasting it. However, I also feel like it's a huge target for removal, since the stolen creature is returned to its owner when Sower dies, thus incentivizing your opponent to remove it. If I am limited on deckslots (and I am), I would rather run Agent of Treachery (and I do). Much more difficult to hardcast at 7CMC but we are relying on looting/entombing to get it into the graveyard to cheat the cost reanimating. Agent permanently steals anything on the battlefield. Your opponent is no longer incentivized to remove it (but they definitely should because we run Displacer Kitten, Saw in Half, and Rite of Replication) and unless they exile it, you can just reanimate it again. It also has card advantage stapled to it, and you wouldn't think it'd ever be relevant - but again we are running Displacer Kitten, Saw in Half, and Rite of Replication - this card advantage comes up more often than you think. Steal something with Agent, Saw in Half to steal two more things and you're online. Kick Rite of Replication on Agent of Treachery, steal 5 things from your opponents, move to end step and draw (1+5) * 3 = 18 cards. Usually you win after this.

• Stubborn Denial: Probably a great in a deck full of 4/4 reanimated creatures and a 5/5 commander. I think I'd rather use An Offer You Can't Refuse as it's not as conditional as Stubborn Denial and can hit artifacts unlike Swan Song (if we're worried about artifact graveyard hate). For the most part I'm only worried about removal / board wipes / winning a counter war.

• Awaken the Erstwhile: I believe I will add this card in a future revision – I just need to order it. I didn’t even know it existed. Great way to end games. You additionally (if you have your commander out) get a huge scry and drain on your upkeep, setting up your next draw better than everyone else.

• Whispering Madness, Windfall: Personal choice here. In Blue I simply prefer filtering cards into the graveyard. I'm trying to cultivate my hand with this deck and the card advantage / selection choices I've made. I (usually) don't want to just throw it away and then redraw it. That said these cards are a slam dunk / potential wincon with Sheoldred, the Apocalypse floating around in the deck.

• Crypt Ghast, doublers: I didn't feel I had enough swamps to justify black doublers / Witch's Cottage.

• Mesmeric Orb: Personal choice here. I feel like incidental graveyard hate is so pervasive nowadays (Dauthi Voidwalker for example) that I really try to avoid the greedy mill gameplan and instead rely on loot / surveil / connive / entomb to put things I want in the bin when I want. I also absolutely HATE the feeling of milling away some important spell or piece (granted this deck has ways to recur artifacts, instants/sorceries, and creatures). Example: Turn 2 play the Orb, turn 3 untap... and mill away your Rhystic Study. OOF. Like I said, I simply prefer cultivating my hand and graveyard through looting and entombing. I also feel like Mesmeric Orb has the potential to aggro the table. Additionally, if you are playing against another graveyard deck, you're potentially helping them. This might be another personal philosophy thing, but I rarely care about other folk’s reanimation targets. I'll still use TSGs ability at instant speed to break someone's reanimator combo of course, and if there's an absolute bomb in a graveyard, I'll try to grab it, but my gameplan is not milling and aggroing everyone at the table hoping to reanimate something juicy. It's to play a draw/go Control deck with an Aikido mindset, laying low, getting my pieces in place, and popping up as an unanswerable archenemy to close out the game.

• Victimize: The upside is fantastic. The downside is something I experienced running this in Gale, and it's why I don't run it in low creature count decks anymore. I cast this card as a desperate move to reanimate some bombs with only Gale out. I planned to sacrifice my Gale. In response to the cast someone Path'ed Gale. Victimize fizzles since now I have no creature to sacrifice. In a low creature count deck, this card feels win-more – You have enough bodies to safely resolve this spell getting even MORE bodies. Otherwise, you struggle to cast it. It's in my Extus / Blood Avatar deck - slam dunk there.

> Change Log

Please check the Revision tab for change history - I keep comments on each revision.