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Dimir (
) is one of MTG's most cunning and intriguing color combinations. It focuses on espionage, assassins, and lurking in the shadows - a pretty accurate representation of the Blue-Black color combination as a whole.
Decks featuring these colors traditionally deal in library manipulation, control strategies, and finding ways to cheat cards into play or to steal spells from your opponents' decks. Since Dimir has a wide array of different strategies across its many Commander options, you'll want to pick Lands for your deck that not only help you cast your spells profitably, but play into your deck's specific identity.
Whether your strategy is focused on reanimation, zombies, casting cards at instant-speed, or stealing your opponents' threats, it's important to understand first what Lands you'll be using to cast your spells.
Let's start by looking at the top five overall, utility, and budget lands in this color combination:
Top Dimir Lands for Commander
Top-Ranked Overall
Best Blue-Black Utility Lands
- Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
- Shizo, Death's Storehouse
- Otawara, Soaring City
- Creeping Tar Pit
- Nephalia Drownyard
Best Budget Dimir Lands
The Dimir Staples
If you had access to any Dimir Lands for your EDH deck, the undeniable top three to include would be Watery Grave, Polluted Delta, and Underground Sea. Underground Sea and Watery Grave are the cream of the crop when it comes to Blue-Black dual Lands, as both enter untapped (Watery Grave at a small price of two life) and both share the Island and Swamp Basic Land types.
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Dual Lands are important for your Commander decks, as they give you flexibility to cast the cards in your hand without issue. Even more important than adding both Blue or Black mana is the ability to have your Land come into play untapped, so you don't have to wait a turn to have access to it.
Polluted Delta is probably the third most important Blue-Black EDH Land in this regard, as it can fetch not only basic Lands, but untapped Dimir sources like your Watery Grave.
While Underground Sea is a card that fetches a pretty high price, Polluted Delta and Watery Grave should be your starting point for the top Dimir Lands for your EDH deck.
Depending on if you're playing Duel Commander or Multiplayer will also have some minor influence on how you build your mana base. Morphic Pool is undoubtedly on par with Underground Sea and Watery Grave, as long as you're playing with two or more opponents. While it doesn't have the basic Land subtypes, an untapped Blue-Black source is undeniably an important resource.
Solid Blue-Black Lands
Following the "big three" Dimir Lands comes dual Lands that either come into play untapped or also share the Island/Swamp basic Land types.
Undercity Sewers, Sunken Hollow, and Fetid Pools are all solid Dimir Lands with the Island/Swamp type stapled on. While Fetid Pools comes into play untapped and doesn't have a surveil effect, like Undercity Sewers, it does at least have the added ability to cycle itself to draw a card in a pinch.
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When it comes to Lands that come into play untapped, the next batch of important options include Drowned Catacomb, Gloomlake Verge, and Shipwreck Marsh.
With Drowned Catacomb and Gloomlake Verge especially, you'll want to sequence either a basic Land or dual Land with the Island/Swamp type first, to guarantee you have these at full value. This is why a card like Polluted Delta is important, because it can fetch for an Undercity Sewers on turn one before you play one of these two dual Lands the following turn.
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Next up are more Blue-Black MTG Lands that enter untapped, that have a minor inconvenience to them. While Sunken Ruins and Darkwater Catacombs don't exactly add Blue or Black mana by themselves, they are pretty easy to turn on with just one other mana source in play. Sunken Ruins can be particularly important if you need two Blue or Black mana.
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Underground River is another solid option. While this card was definitely more of a liability in its Standard days, having a starting life total of 40 means the life costs of Lands like Mana Confluence and Starting Town are less detrimental than in a 20-life format.
Clearwater Pathway is a flexible Land that gives you the option of Blue or Black mana, but unfortunately not both.
There are a handful of other Dimir Lands that are playable, but not as enticing as the ones listed above due to some drawbacks. For example, Temple of Deceit is a dual Land that also gives you a scry. However, Undercity Sewers is a much better option due to the Surveil pairing well with any decks with graveyard synergies, as well as also having the Island and Swamp land types.
While you can play Temple of Deceit, you should be mindful of how many come-into-play tapped Lands you actually want in your deck, and if you can find a better option. With most mana bases being around 35-37 cards, you don't have room for every dual Land in existence.
This is why a card like River of Tears is less exciting than Underground River, for example. River of Tears is like a partial dual Land. It's not actually that bad, since in the early game if you're hitting Land drops you'll have access to both Blue and Black mana.
Later on, when you're expected to have multiple Lands in play, the drawback shouldn't be an issue for you to cast your spells. However, because you won't have access to Black mana on your opponents' turn and the fact that so many better options exist, I just don't see a reason to include it in your average Dimir deck.
Some Dimir Lands' value entirely depends upon the deck it's in. For example, Secluded Glen is just a regular dual Land that always comes into play tapped. However, if you're a Faerie deck, this is an auto-include since on average it'll be an untapped mana source.
In EDH, Lands' value and utility entirely depends on the Commander they're supporting. Speaking of utility Lands...
Dimir Utility Lands
Finding the best MTG Blue-Black utility Lands will all depend on what your Commander's strategy is based around. Different Commanders will require different utility Lands to further their gameplan, although there are a handful of utility Lands that are just always good inclusions in a Dimir strategy.
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For example, the Channel Lands Otawara, Soaring City, and Takenuma, Abandoned Mire do so much on their own, they feel like auto-includes in any Dimir Commander deck. While not dual Lands, their Channel abilities are incredibly useful, especially at Instant-speed.
Takenuma, Abandoned Mire is especially important to Dimir decks that utilize their graveyard in some fashion, for Commanders like The Scarab God or Gisa and Geralf.
A Commander deck featuring Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow, might want to include a variety of ways to make their Creatures unblockable, so as to sneak Yuriko into play. Lands like Shizo, Death's Storehouse, Access Tunnel, and Rogue's Passage are all solid options here.
This is another strategy where Creeping Tar Pit, arguably the best Dimir Creature Land, shines due to how it interacts with ninjutsu strategies.
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If you're playing a more typal-focused strategy, like Zombies or Faeries, you might want to include Lands that play well with those Creatures. With Zombies having inherent an mill strategy, Lands like Crypt of Agadeem and Unholy Grotto are great sources of utility.
A Faerie deck with Alela, Cunning Conqueror as its Commander might want access to Faerie Conclave as another way to draw cards with Alela in play.
Lord of the Nazgul gets a pretty unique Land to its benefit in Minas Morgul, Dark Fortress, turning your non-wraith Creatures into servants of the dark lord Sauron.
Swarmyard is another nice option if you're playing a rat deck with Vren, the Relentless.
Another graveyard strategy, revolving around a Dimir Commander like Emet-Selch, Unsundered might play utility Lands like Cephalid Coliseum, Spymaster's Vault, or Nephalia Drownyard in order to hit fourteen cards in your graveyard.
It's interesting to discover how Lands that are generally good on their own can give your deck some added benefits. While Nephalia Drownyard might be a more graveyard-centric Land, you can still get utility from an Agna Qel'a or Geier Reach Sanitarium in Emet-Selch, Unsundered.
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Depending on your Commander's identity there are lots of niche utility Lands that can add some benefit to your deck. If your deck is more Artifact-focused, with Golbez, Crystal Collector, you can play cards like Inventors' Fair, Archway of Innovation, and Academy Ruin.
Even a much less powerful Land like Sinister Hideout can have synergy with a Commander like Mirko, Obsessive Theorist.
Regardless of what specific theme your Dimir Commander deck is built around, there are still a handful of utility Lands that can be slotted into most decks.
Rivendell shines in Commander as opposed to a format like Standard since you have a higher concentration of Legendary Creatures in your deck.
Castle Vantress is just a generally good way to set up your draws, especially when you get to later stages of the game.
Castle Locthwain is a bit more risky, but if your Commander deck has life gain strategies, you can easily offset the initial cost of its activation.
Conclusion
Overall, there is a variety of Lands you can include in your Blue-Black EDH deck. No matter what your Dimir Commander's inherent strategy, it's important to understand that the best Lands are vital in helping you cast your spells.
Whether you have access to an Underground Sea, or you're playing budget EDH with Underground River, there are a multitude of dual Lands to choose from.
More importantly, it's important to not only include Lands in your deck's mana base that can better cast your spells, but also Lands that have baked-in utility to your Dimir Commander's identity. Whether you're dealing in Ninjutsu strategies or Zombies, Reanimation or Instants and Sorceries, you should figure out what tools you need to further your EDH deck's strategy.
No matter what color identity your Commander is, asking these questions like "what's the best dual Land or utility Land for my deck?" will help broaden your scope as a deck designer. Researching the best cards for your deck will help you figure out a concise build and will help you evolve your strategy as new sets get released.
-Roman Fusco
