Ravnica Allegiance brought a card that becomes more and more interesting to me in its uses, and I’m inclined to include it in more and more decks. That card is Smothering Tithe. I like tokens, I like mana and I like colour fixing. But Smothering Tithe is that much more.

The basic idea is that each turn, each opponent has the choice to either give me a treasure or pay . Either outcome is ok, because I gain some mana, or they spend a significant percentage of their mana, and slow down. Often, players include their own card draw, and that’ll give me even more mana to work with. But ultimately it allows my decks to really go off, when I force all opponents to draw multiple cards, often enough so they can’t actually pay the tithe. And then, I go either large or infinite.

Think how it’ll work in a 4 player game, and I gained some treasure, then use it to cast a big Prosperity. I draw cards, everyone draws cards, and I get a huge amount of treasure. Then I can chain it into another draw spell, like Skyscribing, get even more cards and more treasure.

There are some decks where I’m particularly interterestin in using Tithe in:

• Shu Yun runs some combos, especially Eye of the Storm, which can use wheel effects to keep generating mana and keep the storm combo flowing. I also like the interaction with Molten Psyche, because the treasures also help trigger metalcraft.
• Breya, Etherium Shaper can use any source of extra artificats to her advantage.
• Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis forces extra card draw already, and is a perfect fit for Prosperity / Skyscribing / Fascination / Minds Aglow chains.

I really dig all the applications, from just creating “materials” for artifact decks, a little more ramp for some decks, and a combo piece for others, creating huge turns. It’s powerful enough to ‘warp’ some decks around it, like my Shu Yun deck which will have a few more wheel effects to enable Tithe.

The Magic Arena version of my deck is still slowly getting closer to my ideal version. Sidestepping to other cards shows what works and what doesn’t, even though some cards will work better in context once I get the right amount of cards around it. My general philosophy on deckbuilding is using 4x the cards I like when possible, because if it’s good enough to play it should be good enough to be in there 4 times; This deck is becoming a hotchpotch of 2x or 3x cards. This is because I have a lot of card selection, and the cards are different approaches to the same result, all slighty different so they work better in different situations.

An example is Etrata. I’m not 100% sure about her. I want a big wall that I can use as a removal when needed, or as an attacker when the board is clear. She’s fine, but so far she doesn’t solve the problem when I play against another control deck, and that is having a persistant threat on the table. But there are other cards that fill a similar role, while being very good in a situation the rest of the deck has trouble handling. So, maybe I want to run Nightveil Predator instead. A flying deathtouch creature still works well as a “wall” and trades with most of the things that get thrown at me, all the while being resiliant against spot removal.

In fact, when playing a mirror match I see Etrata once in a while, and I simply kill her with a removal spell, but my deck roled over when faced with a Nightveil Predator, because I simply couldn’t touch it. This is partly because I didn’t have enough Dimir Spybugs, Thought Erasures or Sinister Sabotages to actually handle it, yet, but I think the Predator simply works better as a standalone threat than Etrata.

In a similar slot is Hostage Taker. She works as a removal spell, and sometimes I get some card advantage out of her, by stealing an opposing creature. There are some issues that they have a chance to get their creature back, and bouncing something I have stolen is something that comes up often enough.

The same problem happens with Thief of Sanity. I do note that I’m often happy to see one, more than I am to see Darkblade Agent, but there are risks involved.  Thief is slightly more vulnerable than Agent, but doesn’t require to be “turned on” for card advantage, and it’s more evasive. I think I’ll replace the Thieves eventually, especially once I complete my disruption package:

The cards  I’m debating in that disruption package are Thought Erasure and Sinistar Sabotage.  On one hand, Thought Erasure a cheap surveil spell, and it makes me feel a lot more safe when I know what my opponent is doing, and I get rid of a removal spell that could ruin my plans. It’s a really good card. The downside is that, while it can remove things I normally can’t deal with, it also does so without costing my opponent mana. When I counter something with Sinister Sabotage, at least it means my opponent invested in the card I’m trying to stop. Sabotage requires me to keep mana open, though, and since my mana isn’t optimised yet, keeping open is dificult. Especially if I want to use Mission Briefing to keep open to counter things. Mission Briefing is a big part in my toolbox strategy, but difficult on mana. I run 2, which somewhat counts as 2 additional copies of any particular spell. The manabase might need some rework to make it work better, I’m often lacking to do the things I want to do.

Notion Rain is a card I was reluctant to spend card slots on. I certainly don’t want to play 4 of it, because of the life cost involved. So far I was happy to see this one though. Digging 4 cards deep and gaining card advantage often helped, but against very aggressive decks it sometimes becomes a dead card, because I can’t afford the 2 life. I haven’t experienced Disinformation Campaign yet, which is a similar draw spell, plus disruption, which might be a reasonable alternative, and gains me more value over time.

The current goal is:

~ Dimir Sinister Surveilance (version 4) ~

Creatures (18) 2 Doom Whisperer 4 Dimir Spybug 2 Nightveil Predator 2 Nightveil Sprite 4 Thief of Sanity 4 Thoughtbound Phantasm Spells (18) 4 Cast Down 2 Discovery // Dispersal 2 Notion Rain 2 Mission briefing 2 Price of Fame 3 Sinister Sabotage 3 Thought Erasure Enchantments (2) 2 Disinformation Campaign

Lands (22) 4 Drowned Catacomb 6 Island 1 Memorial to Folly 1 Memorial to Genius 6 Swamp 4 Watery Grave Sideboard (15) 4 Duress 3 Golden Demise 2 Moment of Craving 2 Nightveil Predator 2 Selective Snare 2 Vraska’s Contempt

Land wise I might also include Memorial to Folly and Memorial to Genius. I’m not commited to these, because they come into play tapped. My live version still includes some Dimir Guildgates, and having lands come into play tapped so far hasn’t been a huge downside, but it’s obvious something you want to avoid. Memorial to Genius seems like a poor man’s Search for Azcanta however. It remains to be seen if a tapped land basically counts as half a landdrop, or if Azcanta can be reliably flipped to count as a land drop. Azcanta helps digging for lands early on and digging for spells later on, but I want to avoid getting too little lands in my opening hand, and have a higher chance of early manascrew.

That said, the opportunity cost seems low, and Folly enhances my threat density, while Genius gives me a chance at card advantage. I’m not exactly expecting miracles here, but they might give me some incidental advantage, for example when I’m holding up counters, but nothing gets played.

And even though I usually don’t play best out of 3, it’s nice to have an idea for a sideboard for when there is an event. There are extra Nightveil Predators in there, for when I play against other control decks. Then there are mass removal effects against tokens. Moment of Craving for decks with small creatures, to give some live padding. Vraska’s Contempt also gives me some life and also deals with Planeswalkers. There are some Duresses to deal with spell heavy decks. Duress might miss more than Thought Erasure, but it can come in when there are more targets for it.

Now that Guilds of Ravnica draft is life, I have something to grind towards. The plan is to draft for missing pieces, and do more and more testing. Even though I’m not having the version I want of the deck, yet, the performance seems good enough that it wins more than it loses. I expect that problem matchups will become more prominent. That is, fast, aggressive red decks and decks that create lots of tokens, but that the final version also becomes more resiliant to those decks.

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.

I’m slowly grinding towards my favoured build of Sinister Surveilance in Arena. I’m still missing some key pieces, but at least I have two Doom Whisperers in the deck, and I’ve substituted some cards with things I have available. This allows me to experiment a little, to see what cards I like in practice.

So, I put in a single Hostage Taker, since I unlocked one. This counts as a removal spell that potentially turns into multiple blockers. So far I liked it for this deck, even if it doesn’t do anything with surveil. But often it’s a source of card advantage.

This does lead me into thinking about a card that is in some ways similar: Etrata, the Silencer. It’s easy to look at Etrata and think “Hey 3 hits wins me the game!” but in practice, she will function as a 3/5 wall that discourages opponents from casting their bombs, and that I sometimes can cash in as a removal spell, for instance against flyers that she can’t block. Sure, it’s a Dimir control deck, with lots of surveil, and it’s not impossible to win with hit counters, but I don’t see that happen very often while I only include one or two of her.

So, I’ll be testing her for her ability to make me not lose that game, not for her ability to win me the game (It’s a nice bonus if she can manage that though.) If I like her wel enough that she’ll become a 3 or 4 of, and shift the focus towards her, it’s a different story. Then I can conceivably win with her more often.

Another plus of Etrata is that she can help deal with some random planeswalkers I encounter. The unblockable damage can keep them manageable, and she doesn’t shuffle herself when she hits one, so she’ll keep on the pressure on those things.

I’m looking forward to try her out. Once my deck develops and I have more Thought Erasures to see what opponents are up to and to disable any removal or tricks they have, having utility creatures like this is probably going to work better. Etrata should make people more nervous too.

Having a big “wall” to stem the bleeding is one thing. I encounter a lot of token decks, and making it costly to attack into me is one thing, but my focus on dealing with threats one for one sometimes causes me to be overrun. For that reason I may want to include some mass removal. Mephitic Vapors is one option, but -1/-1 isn’t enough in general. Ritual of Soot is a little better, but it also deals with my Thoughtbound Phantasms.

Other cards concidered are River’s Rebuke and Find // Finality, but at 6 mana they might be too expensive to deal with the problem of quick decks. Find // Finality also forces me to splash if I want to use it as a boardwipe.

I think Selective Snare might be the best choice here. Heroic Reinforcements often kills me, and the combination of the sudden boost and haste makes a sorcery speed solution less of an ideal pick, but I have Sinister Sabotage for that. For other mass soldier, saproling or vampire token decks, it seems like a good solution, that is flexible enough to work as an early tempo play. I would have loved it as an instant, but what can you do. As long as the many tokens are a big part of the metagame, it certainly is a card to try out.

The deck is still very much a work in progress, and it’s all about tweaking the numbers. I want to have enough surveil cards to keep my draws smooth and enable the synergies. Doom Whisperer and Notion Rain are good sources of surveil, but they really dig into my life total. I’m not yet quite prepared to spend some slots on Creeping Chill or Whispering Snitch, though the latter can become a split 2 and 2 with Dimir Spybug, for a slightly more defensive stance and more long term value.

One of the cards from Guilds of Ravnica I want to brew around is Erratic Cyclops. I always liked Nivix Cyclops, and I want to use the bigger version of this Big Daddy.

I want to see how crazy I can make this as an attacker, having a deck that throws huge haymakers at my opponents. One of the tricks to use is Invert // Invent. This alone turns the cyclops into a 8/1 attacker. Another trick I thought of is using Dive Down, as it is a cheap trick that allows me to protect the cyclops, as well as adding +3/+1 when I get to Invert it afterwards. Then there is Sure Strike, which adds +5/+0 and first strike. This all makes a nice core to expand upon.

Another card I’d like to try is Runaway Steam-Kin. It seems these can grow fast enough to pose a threat, and there is always the option to cash in the counters for so I can get another spell off.

The list is a bit all-in, but it seems fun to try:

~ Erratic Inversion ~

Creatures (12) 4 Erratic Cyclops 4 Goblin Electromancer 4 Runaway Steam-Kin Instants (25) 4 Dive Down 2 Expansion // Explosion 1 Inescapable Blaze 4 Invert // Invent 4 Lightning Strike 4 Risk Factor 2 Run Amok 4 Sure Strike Sorcery (1) 1 Banefire

Lands (22) 2 Island 12 Mountain 4 Steam Vents 4 Sulfur Falls

Choosing spell, I went for as much red spells as possible, so that when I can “storm off” I can get the most out of Runaway Steam-Kin.

I wanted Inescapable Blaze as a finisher spell at the top-end. However, since I also run 4x Invert // Invent, I decided to add one Banefire instead of the second Blaze so I can find both with Invent, and set up big uncounterable damage on the turns following, as an extra avenue to victory. Testing will show if the sorcery speed and 1 less damage for CMC is worth it.

So, that’s the plan. Get in for some chip damage, then finish off with a huge strike. To be fair, it doesn’t look entirely practical, but I feel there is potential here.

One of the important things I’m missing here is double strike. It would have been nice to have a Temur Battle Rage or Uncaged Fury in standard, but unfortunately, the only available card gives double strike to pirates. So, maybe we’ll see that once Rakdos enters the fray, but for now we’ll have to use regular pump spells, so I’ll use Run Amok as backup Sure Strikes. Depending on how this’ll work out, they may get replaced by Trumpet Blasts for a team-wide boost. Given I only run 12 creatures, that doesn’t seem likely though.

I had a draft yesterday, and I was the only Dimir player at the table. Sadly, there weren’t many payoff cards to surveil, mainly just Darkblade Agents and a Dimir Spybug. No Thoughtbound Phantasms or Disinformation Campaigns in sight. Still, the deck was strong due to the insane amount of card selection. It was like having a virtual Search for Azcanta in play the whole time. Maybe Search for Azcanta is a good card in a Surveil deck, too, because it has surveil in all but it’s name (and that means it doesn’t trigger the Phantasms and Bugs.) Azcanta is ultimately a good source of card advantage though, especially since you can set up your deck with surveil.

I think it’s worth testing. The initial deck has 19 instants and sorceries, and 3 Disinformation Campaigns that can be found, so the chance of hitting something is high enough. It has potential late game, since my build is a bit controlling.

But I but I digress. In the draft I had a Thought Erasure, and that card did so much work, even without having too many good surveil triggers. Just getting all the information, disrupting my opponents hand ánd fixing my draws is so much for just . I basically want more of these. I’m also looking at what other surveil decks are doing.

Some versions are less of a control deck, and more of a combo deck. The working theory is that if you control multiples of Dimir Spybug and Thoughtbound Phantasm, Doom Whisperer becomes a Hatred effect. This is helped by Creeping Chill, for additional drain and life gain.

I don’t know about Creeping Chill.  With enough surveil you can reduce the chance to actually have to cast it, and it gives a free 6 life swing. When it does go to your hand, it’s a bad card though.

~ Dimir Sinister Surveilance (version 2) ~

Creatures (16) 2 Darkblade Agent 2 Doom Whisperer 4 Dimir Spybug 2 Nightveil Sprite 2 Thief of Sanity 4 Thoughtbound Phantasm Spells (19) 4 Cast Down 2 Discovery // Dispersal 1 Notion Rain 2 Price of Fame 4 Sinister Sabotage 2 Syncopate 4 Thought Erasure Enchantments (3) 2 Disinformation Campaign 1 Search for Azcanta

Lands (22) 4 Drowned Catacomb 4 Watery Grave 7 Island 7 Swamp

The changes:

• -2 Dimir Informant: The Informants are excellent blockers, but ultimately the weakest cards in the deck. Probably.
• -1 Discovery // Dispersal: It’s flexible, but I want to try 1 Azcanta in this slot.
• -1 Notion Rain: It digs deep and draw a lot of cards. It’s also sorcery speed, which I want to avoid. This card is also on the bubble because of Mission Briefing, which may or may not be the better “draw” and card selection spell.
• -1 Disinformation Campaign: I don’t think it’s good in multiples, so one gets cut for now.
• +2 Doom Whisperer: Doom Whisperer is actually a good finisher once you know it’s safe to cast it.
• +2 Thougt Erasure: So far I’ve been always happy when I cast this. Knowing what your opponent is holding and being able to do something about it, and planning your plays around it is very valuable.
• +1 Search for Azcanta: I hope it gives me an edge in the very long game, by giving me instant card selection and draw. It might turn back into a Notion Rain, where I get the card selection and draw now, instead of over time.