Dimir Dragon Control

 I have no idea what decks are going to turn out to be amazing in the metagame following the release of Adventures in the Forgotten Realms. Rumor has it that the set is a bit underpowered. Given that it's essentially the 2022 Core Set, that's not a terrible shock, as such sets historically have been less mechanically complex, so you don't get crazy things like Questing Beast (which, to be fair, was more powerful in the post-Ravnica era with all the planeswalkers running around.)

That being said, I decided to spend some mythic wildcards on a couple of cards that I think are likely to be very powerful moving forward. Also, I just got kind of lucky and snagged a couple copies out of packs.

So, I present to you: Dragon Control.

First, let's talk about the stars of the show:

Iymrith, Desert Doom, (of Storm King's Thunder fame) is a 5/5 flying legendary blue dragon for 3UU. While untapped, she has ward 4 (meaning that if you want to target her with a spell or ability, you have to pay 4 mana,) and when she hits the opponent, you draw a card, and then keep drawing if you have fewer than 3 cards.

Obviously, this is bonkers powerful, as she can refill your hand if you're running out of cards. She's also got a beefy body that can kill the opponent in 4 turns and can take out attackers while likely surviving. She's the absolute star of the deck.

Next is Ebondeath, Dracolich. This, I'll confess, seems like it might be overvalued in the buzz, but that didn't stop me from burning two wildcards to get more copies on top of the one I already had. Ebondeath is a Legendary 5/2 black dragon zombie for 2BB with flash and flying. It comes into play tapped. While it's in the graveyard, if another creature died this turn, you can play it.

The whole appeal of this guy is that he just keeps coming back (you know, like a lich). A 5/2 for 4 is not bad, and thanks to his having flash, you can get him out at the end of an opponent's turn to at least have him untapped as soon as possible. Honestly, though, I think that the coming-into-play-tapped is a pretty nasty downside on top of the fact that his toughness is so low. I haven't really been able to attack with him in the few games I've played, though he does attract removal that could be going to more serious threats. I'll be curious to see how this guy winds up in the long run.

The third starring player is Mordenkainen (Gary Gygax's own player character.) This planeswalker is a bit pricy at 4UU, but his abilities are quite good. He has a +2 ability that has you draw two cards and then put one card from your hand on the bottom of your library. He has a -2 ability that summons a Dog token with power and toughness equal to twice the number of cards in your hand (meaning it dies if you have 0.) Finally he has a -10 ability that lets you draw your entire library and swap it with your hand, and you have no maximum hand size for the rest of the game.

While it would be really hilarious to see a, like 80/80 faithful hound, I think the real value here is the card drawing, and if you find yourself with plenty of cards and need some meat to, among other things, keep him alive, you can get a dog out (the fact that the plus ability is the same as the general minus one makes this feel safer to do.)

So, Iymrith and Ebondeath are your primary win conditions, and Mordenkainen's hounds can also help with that.

The rest of the deck is just lockdown control. It's a Dimir Deck, so we have counterspells in the form of negate, essence scatter, and I think a couple other ones. Then, we have black there to help with anything that got through, using Heartless Act or Power Word: Kill to knock of individual monsters or Extinction Event and Massacre Wurm to wipe the board. I might consider tossing in my two Gelatinous Cubes as a bit of removal/threat, though the danger of those combined with sweepers is if I have to sweep the Cube(s) and that winds up putting an opponent's creature back into play.

I've really enjoyed the various Dimir Flash Rogues decks that have been around for a while, but I'm hoping to see other archetypes in that color combination turn out good.

Iymrith is such a great classic control win condition, that I imagine it could be a real star player in a lot of future decks.

Just because of its colors, I'm tempted to toss in my two Xanathar, Guild Kingpins, though as much as I really love that card, the need to survive a whole turn makes it a bit tough to use. I'd want to be able to leave up some mana for a negate or something, and that means that I'd have to wait to something like turn 8 to get him out there. Hoping I get to use that card at some point.