This is the current version of the deck I’m trying to collect. There are 18 cards that surveil, and 12 that trigger of surveil. I think that triggering surveil is the most important part of the deck, and 18 is the minimum so I can do it somewhat reliably ervery turn. The Nightveil Sprites and Doom Whispererers offer repeated surveilance, which help consistancy.
I removed the Syncopates and brought in the Etratas. Both are not surveil related and different approaches to control.
The deck is still somewhat weak to flyers and mass tokens. (I see a lot of vampire tokens and Sylesnia is gaining traction.) I mentioned Mephetic Vapors as a possible solution for go-wide strategies, but I think that Golden Demise is a better choice, as it hits more things, while possibly leaving my side of the board uneffected. I do consider these things sideboard solutions, and in Arena I generally don’t play best out of three, so inclusion will be a metagame choice.
~ Dimir Sinister Surveilance (version 3) ~
Creatures (18)2 Darkblade Agent 2 Doom Whisperer 4 Dimir Spybug 2 Etrata, the Silencer 2 Nightveil Sprite 2 Thief of Sanity 4 Thoughtbound Phantasm Spells (18)4 Cast Down 2 Discovery // Dispersal 2 Notion Rain 2 Mission briefing 2 Price of Fame 2 Sinister Sabotage 4 Thought Erasure Enchantments (2)2 Disinformation Campaign | Lands (22)4 Drowned Catacomb 2 Watery Grave 8 Island 8 Swamp |
The 2 Nightveil Sprites could still be House Guildmages, the latter being more mana-intensive, but they can lock down a creature and don’t have to attack to surveil. Testing should indicate which one I like better.
I think I’ll skip on Search for Azcanta, for now. It’s nice to dig for answers, but I’m somewhat out of space for it. I also went down on Sinister Sabotage, because I wanted to include Mission Briefings, which is a more flexible spell, and it still keeps a bit of the control elements. I’d like to have more counterspells to protect my stuff, but for now this is how I see the numbers. Maybe I go down one Dimir Spybug for a Sinister Sabotage, and up the surveil count a little.