Magic Duels: Origin Dimir/BU Control Deck Build Guide

Here's a blue-black control deck (that I'm currently using with some success!) and how it works.

Introduction

This is more or less your average B(lack)(Bl)U(e) control deck with some artifact synergy that could be increased further. I have not unlocked even a quarter of all cards yet so there is definitely room for improvement with this one and I might update it as I get new cards.

Win conditions for this deck are either the flyers (pinging away at the enemy health) or Necromantic Summons reveving a powerful creature from your opponent's graveyard and sealing the deal that way.

With this deck I would also like to show that one can already play decks other than aggro in the versus multiplayer. As of right now I have played this particular deck four times in versus and won each duel so it definitely is possible.

Deck List

(external list: http://deck.tk/4jUM1nFe)

3 Bone Splinters

4 Perilous Myr

1 Harbinger of the Tides

1 Sigiled Starfish

1 Throwing Knife

3 Telling Time

1 Disperse

1 Guardians of Meletis

3 Jorubai Murk Lurker

2 Aeronaut Tinkerer

2 Frost Lynx

2 Bloodflow Connoisseur

2 Artificer's Epiphany

2 Darkslick Drake

1 Aspiring Aeronaut

1 Thopter Spy Network

2 Inspiration

2 Countermand

1 Bone to Ash

2 Possessed Skaab

1 Necromantic Summons

1 Kothophed, Soul Hoarder

10 Island

5 Swamp

2 Drowned Catacomb

4 Dimir Guildgate

60 cards in total.

Analysis

Let's look at the cards individually:

Bone Splinters/Bloodflow Connoisseur + Perilous Myr: The core of this deck's removal. Aside from this combo BC can also be useful to profit off of your opponent's removal (i.e. if he is about to kill one of your creatures just sacrifice it with BC instead to get dem 1+/+1 counters).

Harbinger of the Tides: Typical blue temporary removal, especially effective on enemy creatures with auras. Its Flash makes it useful in mid-/late game, too, since it will be able to return a tapped (usually attacking) creature to its owner's hand AND act as a blocker if cast right after the declaration of the attackers.

Sigiled Starfish: Not really much to explain here, two-drop 0/3 blocker with "[tap] Scry 1". Helps you survive and draw the cards you need. Note that due to WotC/Stainless' bad game design we cannot pause during upkeep (yet, hopefully), meaning that you'll have to activate this during the enemy's end step if you want to scry the card you are about to draw.

Throwing Knife: Artifact for the whole artifact synergy thing, +2/0 buff and also a neat removal in a pinch (although it is less useful in that regard than, say, Inferno Fist because you have to be attacking and sac it before damage is dealt or blockers are even declared).

Telling Time: Ultra useful draw spell! The only way this could have been better without being completely broken is if it had "Scry 3 then draw a card". I'd have this as a playset in here if I could.

Disperse: Similar to Harbinger of Tides, cheap temp. removal with the difference that you can return ANY non-land permanent, not just creatures.

Guardians of Meletis: Artifact creature, 0/6 three-drop defender, 'nuff said.

Jorubai Murk Lurker: A 2/4 creature for 3 mana is okay. Add to that its activated lifelink for 2 mana and this card is good. Now make that activated lifelink for ANY creature and JML is golden! Seriously, this card will keep you in the game against aggro/burn decks of all sorts due to the fact that you can always swing back in for 2 or more life.

Aeronaut Tinkerer: Synergy with artifacts to make him a flying 2/3 blocker or even attacker (nice with JML's lifelink, too).

Frost Lynx: Gives you some time if the enemy is dropping fatties and also acts as a chump blocker. Can be substituted with Claustrophobia (which also costs three mana but taps permanently). If you do make sure to add some creatures elsewhere to keep their number around 22.

Artificer's Epiphany: Artifact synergy, card draw.

Darkslick Drake: Flying blocker (or attacker, cf. Aeronaut Tinkerer) with the added benefit of giving you a card if he bites the dust.

Aspiring Aeronaut: Creates an artifact, chump blocker.

Thopter Spy Network: Creates artifacts, card draw if you manage to deal damage with artifacts.

Inspiration: Card draw, nothing to see here.

Countermand: Counter spell with mill which is nice but not really that useful although it manage to put something dope into the enemy graveyard which you can then grab with Necromantic Summons.

Bone to Ash: Creature counter + card draw.

Necromantic Summons: Returns a creature from the graveyard to the field with two +1/+1 counters on it (if you've got two either Instants or Summons in your GY ... which you should by the time you cast this). Pretty obvious pick, can be used in this deck more than once, too.

Possessed Skaab: Kinda like Necromantic Summons except that it only targets your graveyard but can also return Instants and Sorceries. Also, a 3/2 is a 3/2. Unlike NS you can bounce it back to your hand with Disperse to use it again.

Kothophed, Soul Hoarder: Flying 6/6 with card draw, no brainer for this deck. Take note that ANY permanent that's put in the GY from the battlefield (enchantments, artifacts, lands etc.). Also, make sure you have enough life left for the card draw if you play him. Otherwise your enemy CAN and WILL use his ability against you by purposefully sending their ♥♥♥♥ to their graveyard.

The mana base for this deck consists of 21 lands which might be too few for comfort for some of you. However, having played this deck extensively to grind solo duels against the AI I can say that it works often enough. If you feel differently you can adjust the number of lands as you see fit.

Last but not least ...

... thanks for viewing! Feel free to leave feedback but please keep in mind that I KNOW that this could be better, it's just that I have a rather limited card pool right now. As it changes so might this guide.

Also, because of that this is more of a template so experimenting with how to make this work differently with your own card pool and play style preferences is not only possible but encouraged!

Source: Guide by Demut- http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=492312138