Dimir Tempo

Colors:Archetype: Tempo

Also known as: UB Tempo

Dimir Tempo aims to land early threats, protect them, and disrupt the opponent with countermagic, discard spells, and removal. Blue-based tempo decks have a long history in Canadian Highlander, while black offers efficient spot removal and proactive disruption such as Thoughtseize and Opposition Agent to cover the weaknesses of counterspells, along with powerful threats such as Barrowgoyf and Emperor of Bones. Sticking to two colors makes Harbinger of the Seas and Back to Basics viable as another angle of disruption.

The deck has access to a variety of useful pointed cards, allowing the spread to be customized to suit the expected metagame. After the two moxen, options include Psychic Frog, Treasure Cruise, Dig Through Time, Mana Drain, True-Name Nemesis, Reanimate, and Strip Mine, with Psychic Frog seeing the most play. True-Name Nemesis and Reanimate are often chosen to improve fair matchups, while Dig Through Time and Mana Drain are preferable when tapping out is undesirable.

Dimir’s biggest strength in the metagame is an excellent combo matchup through efficient pressure and a variety of disruptive interaction. It can compete in fair matchups, but struggles against decks like Death and Taxes that can out-value Dimir in the late game or outrace through accelerated Initiative creatures. The deck can also struggle against artifact-based strategies as the color combination lacks permanent answers to resolved artifacts.

— written by Ian Gitax