Etrata, the Silencer - Control (EDH / Commander)

With Guilds of Ravnica I just wanted to build a cool and different EDH deck and Etrata, the Silencer just gave me the right push, even if to a commandercentric build.

Hers trigger ability is so attractive but has some serius drowbacks: Etrata always want to reshuffle herself, if someone doesn't have cretures it's almost useless to attack and my be hard to keep her on the battlefiled after some turn around the table. For those reasons, the best way to work around her is not to rush her on the battlefield and hope for the best but develop the game in a way that let us win in a single turn or, at least, remove an oipponent with a single attack.

So... a Dimir Control deck!

We got a lot of counter and mass removal, like Counterspell, Life's Finale, Swan Song or Black Sun's Zenith, to keep in check all the other player avoiding them to win or fill the board with to much creatures.

Beside Helm of the Host, that can lead to an interesting situation if we can protect it, we want to give Etrata, the Silencer haste with Hall of the Bandit Lord or Swiftfoot Boots, attack a player that has in play at least three creatures he or she owns beside his or hers commander and activate Strionic Resonator to copy Etrata's ability and Rings of Brighthearth to copy Resonator's ability. In this way, we can exile three creatures and remove form the game that opponent.

Etrata, the Silencer will try anyway to reshuffle herself in our deck but, instead sending her to the Command Zone, we can blink her in response on hers trigger ability. The ideal would be to use Deadeye Navigator or Vanishing, but we may be forced to play something like Displace and for this reason it's not ideal have Lightning Greaves.

We have a good bunch of draw, like Trail of Evidence or Mulldrifter, and tutor, Diabolic Tutor or Diabolic Revelation, to find what we need or the artifacts for the combo, but Trophy Mage is the best creature for this job. Beside Rings of Brighthearth, she can find Crystal Shard to bounce herself, our commander or our opponent creatures... and she can also find Basalt Monolith that can combo with Rings of Brighthearth for infinite colorless mana.

With all that mana, we can win the game with Walking Ballista or Exsanguinate or we can remove a player from the game with Blue Sun's Zenith.

If we encounter some difficulty to find a player with three creature he or she own and control, we can always force them to play it by controlling their turn with Worst Fears and Mindslaver... and why we should play Mindslaver without Academy Ruins?

If, for some reason, none of this combo is viable, we can always use the ability of Etrata, the Silencer to not be blocked to win... while it's pretty hard to win for commander damage, we need just two attack to poison an opponent thanks to Grafted Exoskeleton.

About this, we have to keep in mind that to win with Etrata we most likely need to be able to attack and inflict combat damage to our opponent and we need to play around cards like Maze of Ith or Glacial Chasm, so it's useful to list cards like Ghost Quarter or Tectonic Edge.

So, this is an idea of a Dimir Control with Etrata, the Silencer as Commander. If you like to take the lead of the game and be the one who everyone ask for permission when they try to do something, this might be the EDH Deck for you!