When we last left Our Hero, he was on a 3-0 tear with - for the first time - Mono-Blue Terror in Pauper. But ever the explorer, he has since ventured into the murkier waters of Dimir Terror:

Dimir Terror | Pauper | Michael Flores

• Creatures (11)
• 3 Gurmag Angler
• 4 Tolarian Terror
• 4 Sneaky Snacker

• Instants (29)
• 2 Spell Pierce
• 3 Cast Down
• 4 Abandon Attachments
• 4 Brainstorm
• 4 Counterspell
• 4 Mental Note
• 4 Snuff Out
• 4 Thought Scour

• Sorceries (5)
• 1 Deep Analysis
• 4 Lorien Revealed

• Lands (15)
• 10 Island
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Ice Tunnel
• 3 Contaminated Aquifer

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Nihil Spellbomb
• 2 Annul
• 2 Steel Sabotage
• 2 Blue Elemental Blast
• 2 Hydroblast
• 2 Suffocating Fumes
• 2 Unexpected Fangs
• 1 Arms of Hadar

Buy This Deck Export text

I was put on this deck by my friend Bill Ellis.

I was playing Mono-Red at the time, but Bill was excited to revert to the Black splash because of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

This card isn't only good at winning Standard Pro Tours!

If you've read any of my previous Pauper articles, you know that this kind of function - two mana to essentially discard a card but draw two cards - is not just a Staple but an eight-of or even twelve-of in Mono-Red Madness decks.

Abandon Attachments is a novel addition to Pauper for two reasons:

1. Like Highway Robbery, you discard the card on resolution, rather than as an additional cost. This limits the downside risk of getting it countered by a Blue opponent.
2. Speaking of a Blue "opponent" ... Abandon Attachments is blue itself, not Mono-Red. Combined with being an instant, this gives the card an unprecedented position in the Pauper format!

Mono-Blue Terror already wanted to play lots of cheap cantrips / card drawing. Abandon Attachments costs 2 mana (so more mana than the Ponder it replaces in Dimir Terror)... But now gets to discard Sneaky Snacker!

It is difficult to exaggerate how good Abandon Attachments + Sneaky Snacker is in a blue-black deck. We already know that this function (generally best in the hands of Grab the Prize, but any of them) is outstanding in Mono-Red... But what if you can - hold onto your seat here - just cast Sneaky Snacker for two mana?

Yeah.

That's the unlock.

I'm not sure if all the rest of the deck - and there are some good reasons you might try some of the rest of the stuff in the deck - would be worth exploring but for this combination. But I can tell you that the cards you were already playing in Mono-Blue (Deep Analysis, Lorien Revealed, and especially Brainstorm) all become outrageously better when you have Sneaky Snacker in your deck. Heck, Mental Note and Thought Scour get even better.

Hold that thought.

How does this deck work?

Dimir Terror is a mid-range control deck that essentially cheats on mana. Mental Note and Thought Scour are basically cantrip Black Lotuses here. You pay one mana, replace it with one card... But put as many as three instants and sorceries into your graveyard. In a few short turns, Tolarian Terror becomes very inexpensive. In Dimir, Tolarian Terror is joined by Gurmag Angler rather than Cryptic Serpent.

It might take you a moment to realize why Gurmag Angler is such a huge upgrade. After all, it is not intuitive to want to destroy the graveyard you've been fastidiously building in order to make your other 5/5 cheaper. But there are two things going on here.

First of all, you only need six instants and sorceries, total, in your graveyard to minimize the cost of Tolarian Terror. Having 20 or 30 of the things in your graveyard doesn't make your Blue 5/5 any cheaper.

More importantly, or at least more tactically, you have a lot of turns where you rattle out a Tolarian Terror and a Gurmag Angler immediately after for two total mana. Even if it might make your next Tolarian Terror more expensive, having a second 5/5 the same turn can really work to overwhelm your opponent. And don't worry: You'll rebuild your graveyard soon enough.

The biggest knocks against Dimir are 1) that its mana tends to start off a little slower than Mono-Blue's, and 2) often Snuff Out just sucks.

You do sometimes play an Ice Tunnel on turn one and say "go". Your turn three is a hair less explosive than Mono-Blue's, at least on average. But in my experience so far, a little bit of a ragged mana is worth it relative to what you are getting back.

When Snuff Out doesn't suck... It really doesn't suck. Notably, Snuff Out is a zero mana instant that can help you to cast your Tolarian Terror by beefing up your graveyard. In this way, despite being one of the more expensive cards in the deck, Snuff Out actually helps to lower the Dimir deck's mana requirements.

I like the mix of Ice Tunnel and Contaminated Aquifer... You might have some players guessing how many you play. These lands are both Swamps and Islands so, conveniently, you can find either with Lorien Revealed. And that's really it... Any Lorien Revealed guarantees your second land (which might be a Swamp Island), and once you're at two, your deck is pretty functional. In fact, you can play a tapped Ice Tunnel and pass... and even though you have no untapped black mana you can cast Snuff Out! Huge upgrade.

In the metagame itself, I'll explain my context for liking Dimir more than Mono-Blue (at least for now).

Agaisnt Mono-Red, Gurmag Angler is another 5/5... But one that your opponent can't Pyroblast! On top of that, you get to side in Unexpected Fangs. Believe me: Red Decks don't easily come back from being hit with even one of these lifelinking finishers, especially when applied to a 5/5... that is now gaining 6 life.

In the quasi-mirror, all the Black removal is perfectly situated. Cast Down might "cost four" total mana against a Tolarian Terror, but it can still kill one. Sneaky Snacker is a threat-breaker in the mirror (in particular against Delver of Secrets builds)... But if you save your Counterspells and removal for Murmuring Mystic, it can overcome even many 1/1 flying tokens over time. It's really going to come down to their 4 Tolarian Terrors and 4 Cryptic Serpents against your 4 Tolarian Terrors, 3 Gurmag Anglers, and basically all the Black cards. Dimir is ahead on this by a long, long mile... Especially in a universe where both of you are gobbling up your libraries with Mental Note and Throught Scour. Furthermore, after sideboarding, you can upgrade with Nihil Spellbomb (another somewhat synergistic cantrip-type) while Mono-Blue has to wonder if they should "mulligan" into a Tormod's Crypt. The jury is out on Tormod's Crypt in or against Terror decks. Slowing the opponent down is great, but being essentially down a card (in a matchup that is so much about trading) isn't.

I got a lot of mileage out of my Black sideboard cards, from the very first match I played with Dimir.

Here is a quick rundown (with sideboarding!) of my last two Leagues with the deck:

Tournament 1, Match 1: White Weenie

I think this is one where I would have struggled more with Mono-Blue Terror versus Rakdos. For example my opponent was always forced to choose a color with Prismatic Strands, and the other color of 5/5 would be able to deal damage!

I sided:

• 2 Suffocating Fumes
• 1 Arms of Hadar
• 2 Unexpected Fangs

For:

• 4 Snuff Out
• 1 Spell Pierce

Spell Pierce has text in this matchup, but it isn't great. Snuff Out also has text... But wow is it painful to pay four life against a Thraben Inspector or Bird token! The sweepers were good because their creatures are so small, and Unexpected Fangs is good because it can end up kind of a race on the battlefield.

WLW, 1-0

Tournament 1, Match 2: Rakdos Madness

In the second episode of our new Pauper podcast, Rich points out one of the reasons that the Blue decks get so much better against the Red decks after sideboarding. Even if they're basically par on the number of Blasts that are coming in, the function of those Blasts is very different. A Blue Elemental Blast, in matchup, is basically an upgrade to any interactive card that the Blue deck plays. It's a Counterspell for one mana instead of two; plus gains the functionality of killing a creature in play.

On balance, the Red deck gets a cost effective interactive spell... But had to remove a source of damage or one of the cogs that makes their deck function at a basic level. The imbalance in strategy is even greater than the sheer number of Blasts that might be coming in.

As Dimir, I had fewer Blasts to side in, but a bigger bomb in Unexpected Fangs. Like so:

• 2 Blue Elemental Blast
• 2 Hydroblast
• 2 Unexpected Fangs

Against:

• 4 Snuff Out
• 2 Cast Down

Snuff Out is atrocious against Red Decks generally, and all these decks are attacking you with Sneaky Snacker, so you don't even have the option to stab yourself in the foot a lot of the time.

I lost a very close first game, and won a very lopsided third game when he mulligan'd into oblivion.

LWW, 2-0.

Tournament 1, Match 3: Gruul Cascade

This was the first match where my strategy felt really dominant. The Gruul Cascade card uses a lot of enablers like Tinder Wall, so you can ostensibly get two-for-one on their big threats with a Cast Down, Snuff Out, or Counterspell... But those threats tend to have Cascade, so they're getting a card right back.

Still, there is a great deal of tempo to be had in casting one or more 5/5 creatures for 1 mana, and just managing their ability to "huge creature you back" with your instants.

I didn't have anything I was super enthused about, despite being up against a deck with Red cards; though Spell Pierce seemed kind of flaccid to me.

• -2 Spell Pierce
• +1 Hydroblast
• +1 Blue Elemental Blast

When you sideboard a non-maximum number of Blasts, I think you gain a few percentage points by keeping them guessing on the numbers, which is why I did one and one here.

WW, 3-0

Tournament 2, Match 1: Rakdos Hellbent

This one was a lot less stressful than my previous Rakdos fight, largely because my opponent's deck was focused on Hellbent buffs on the battlefield, rather than burning me out. I got extra value in both games by countering a filtering card that had an additional discard cost.

The structural advantages of Dimir (one 5/5 has Ward, one can't be Blasted) carried. Snuff Out particularly under-performed in this one.

• -4 Snuff Out
• +2 Blue Elemental Blast
• +2 Hydroblast

WW, 1-0 (4-0)

Tournament 2, Match 2: Mono-Blue Faeries

I got Game 1 in dominating fashion! It felt great! Great enough that I forgot that I would have figured that Faeries should have the advantage over my clunkier deck.

"He has Spellstutter Sprite" was the sentence going through my head as I sided out...

• 2 Spell Pierce
• 1 Snuff Out

For:

• 2 Suffocating Fumes
• 1 Arms of Hadar

Game 2 opened with a Bind the Monster on the Sneaky Snacker I had been planning to hold off his whole deck with, and didn't get any better. I got my second Snuff Out of the match countered and started to second guess my decision to cut Spell Pierce.

For Game 3 I put Spell Pierce back in for the under-performing Snuff Out and got there by successfully playing one of my sweepers.

WLW, 2-0 (5-0)

Tournament 2, Match 3: Grixis Affinity

Game 1 had the all-time best play. I had a Sneaky Snacker, Tolarian Terror, and Gurmag Angler all on the battlefield quickly, but was tapped out.

My opponent had already zingered me once this match.

"I don't think we've met," she said. "But I know who you are."

Ready for a glowing thank you for Who's the Beatdown? (Or perhaps my new Pauper podcast), she completed it with "My friend Lilly plays with your sleeves."

These sleeves: https://www.instagram.com/p/DBka3F5pueV/?igsh=MXFyMWtmNG9udWhqbQ==

So, anyway she had one of these guys in play:

And again, I was tapped out, when she went to apply this one-of to it:

This would obviously have been horrible for me, only Snuff Out FINALLY got its money!

Despite a nice two-for-one that left me my three creatures this ended up a tough Game 1 with a lot of back-and-forth. Grixis has even more card drawing than Dimir, and its creatures are pretty high impact, and often cheaper.

I got it with a Counterspell on the last turn, on what would have been a lethal Galvanic Blast (her third of the game).

Despite Snuff Out's heroism in Game 1, I didn't really want any of the conditional stuff and upgraded to all one casting cost spells:

• -4 Snuff Out
• -2 Spell Pierce
• +2 Annul
• +2 Steel Sabotage
• +1 Blue Elemental Blast
• +1 Hydroblast

The match ended in spectacular fashion. I was both ahead and almost dead. I cast a Brainstorm (so knew what my top card was) and passed the turn with one card in my hand (another Brainstorm).

She went for a lethal Galvanic Blast.

I cast the Brainstorm, returning two Sneaky Snackers to the battlefield, and revealed a third Brainstorm and two Counterspells as my top three cards.

I kept the first Counterspell, successfully didn't die, and left Brainstorm on top so I could make the same play again if need be. I didn't have to.

Between the single most memorable play of my short Pauper career, the sleeves zinger, and the tightness of both games, this had been my best match of Pauper maybe ever.

WW, 3-0 (6-0)

Anyway, that's where I am with Dimir Terror. I rate it as "great" in part because instead of Deem Inferior (which I deem to be inferior), you get much better removal cards... Which is kind of an odd thing to say given how much I've sided out Snuff Out in these two tournaments. Still, the deck feels great, and is the most fun to shuffle. Trust me on this.

I mentioned my new Pauper podcast with Rich Bucey earlier. If you like Pauper I think you'll like this:

LOVE

MIKE