Invasion – Dismissal Analysis

The Phyrexians have been quite busy on Dominaria lately. At this point in the game they’ve tried to take over the plane twice now, and only the combined forces of the Dominarian nations, the Coalition, and several powerful planeswalkers have managed to save the ravaged plane each time.

The first Phyrexian Invasion may have seen scores of mechanical legions marching into combat as Yawgmoth prepared to overlay the artifical plane of Rath onto Dominaria’s surface, plus the deadly diseases and bioweapons that caused massive casualties in the initial stages. But we cannot forget that the Phyrexians have a more subtle side as well, being able to infiltrate and deceive their way into the Coalition’s ranks to cause damage from the inside while sowing paranoia and distrust. Indeed, subterfuge is such a powerful weapon in Phyrexia’s arsenal that they put it to great use the second time around, secretly transforming many warriors, leaders, and even a few planeswalkers to their side while pulling the strings from behind the scenes.

If you had to pick a deck that best exemplifes the insidious machinations and cruel deception of Phyrexia, Dismissal would certainly be a good choice. As a Blue/Black control deck, it’s the perfect precon for those who like manipulating and outsmarting your opponents in a devious fashion.

Deceit is the Heart of War

When you picture control decks, a few things typically come to mind. Lots of removal, countermagic, perhaps some discard or other trickery, and a fat closer or two to polish things off once your opponent has been starved out of the game. While most of those things are true of Dismissal, those who were expecting that last little detail might be a bit surprised with the creature curve.

Creatures (22):

• (1 Drops): Duskwalker, 2 Faerie Squadron, Nightscape Apprentice, Tidal Visionary
• (2 Drops): 3 Ravenous Rats, 2 Dream Thrush, Hate Weaver, Metathran Zombie, Vodalian Hypnotist, Vodalian Zombie
• (3 Drops): Phyrexian Infiltrator, Stalking Assassin, 2 Urborg Drake, Urborg Emissary
• (4 Drops): Slinking Serpent, 2 Vodalian Serpent

For a deck clearly wanting the game to go long, having your curve top out at four mana is quite the interesting choice. You would usually expect a curve like this for aggro, but most of Dismissal‘s creatures aren’t going to be tearing up the red zone for you. This unusual choice can be explained by the kicker mechanic, which lets you sink more mana into a spell to power it up. Your creatures may be cheap, but some of them can be more powerful later in the game.

The two Faerie Squadrons and Duskwalker may start as one-mana 1/1s but get to five mana and they instead become evasive 3/3s, allowing them to stay relevant later. The Vodalian Serpents should never be cast unkicked, so you can effectively view them as 6/6s for six, the largest creatures you can produce. While not a kicker card, Hate Weaver also appreciates having extra mana lying around which it can use to pump your blue creatures.

The real order of the deck is disruption and control, and a bunch of your creatures happily fill this role. We saw how nasty a playset of Ravenous Rats could be in Blowout, and Dismissal happily runs three of its own to ravage your opponent’s hand. It makes up for the fourth copy with Vodalian Hypnotist, which offers repeatable discard at the cost of three mana a pop. The Urborg Emissary can be kicked to bounce any permanent back to its owner’s hand for a nice two-for-one. On the deck’s rares, Stalking Assassin is a riff on the classic Royal Assassin, with an activated ability to kill tapped enemy creatures. Although it costs four mana to do what the Royal version can do for free, it slightly makes up for it with a second (equally costly) ability to tap a creature, ensuring nothing can avoid a knife in the back forever. Finally, Phyrexian Infiltrator can swap places with an enemy creature, and if you’ve got the Emissary or a bounce spell you can send it back to your hand to do it again!

On defense, Metathran Zombie provides a shield as a cheap regenerator, and its friend Vodalian Zombie can hold off Green creatures thanks to protection. While you erect defenses, the Urborg Drakes can fly over the enemy to hit them directly, and Slinking Serpent can slither through unimpeded if they have a Forest.

Should your opponent not oblige you by playing the correct colors, Tidal Visionary and Dream Thrush are here to help you out. The Visionary can change a creature’s color, allowing more favorable combat for Vodalian Zombie and Duskwalker, as well as letting your Black creatures enjoy the services of the Hate Weaver. The Thrush instead plays with land types, allowing your Serpents to attack optimally. It can also mess with your opponent’s mana or fix your own, allowing you to use Nightscape Apprentice to its full potential. While the first strike ability will be out of reach without a Thrush, sending your creatures back on top of your library can let you replay your early creatures that you hadn’t kicked, or abuse ETB effects from Ravenous Rats or Urborg Emissary.

Noncreature Spells (15):

• (1 Drops): Cursed Flesh, Disrupt, Opt
• (2 Drops): Prohibit
• (3 Drops): 3 Recoil, Repulse, 2 Probe, Drake-Skull Cameo
• (4 Drops): Agonizing Demise, Lobotomy, Seer’s Vision, Spite//Malice

The noncreature spells certainly don’t disappoint when it comes to controlling the game. Just about anything you could do to disrupt your opponent can be done one way or another, and you’ll relish choking your opponent out of the game as you grind them down.

The trio of Recoils are probably the cruelest option at your disposal, bouncing an enemy permanent to hand plus forcing a discard afterwards. If your opponent is playing with an empty hand, this can basically destroy a permanent for three mana, a nice choice at common! Repulse flips the script by having you draw a card instead, also servicable.

For more permanent solutions, Agonizing Demise kills a nonblack creature outright while throwing in a bit of damage if you can procure Red mana to kick it. Cursed Flesh can pick off a small creature or provide fear to one of yours, perfect for slipping a Vodalian Serpent through the ranks. The Malice half of Spite//Malice effectively does the same thing, with the other half being a counterspell. Speaking of countermagic, Prohibit can counter anything with mana value 2 or less (or up to 4 if you pay the kicker). Disrupt only counters instants and sorceries and only if the opponent can’t spare a mana, but the fact it’s a one-mana counterspell that lets you draw a card off of it ironically means it’s never a dead card despite being so narrow.

On top of the Recoils, Lobotomy and Seer’s Vision can also help knock cards out of your opponent’s hand before they ever become a problem. A kicked Probe can do so as well, and even if you don’t it’s a nice bit of card draw for your own hand. Opt makes its debut appearance here as a nice scrying cantrip, and the Drake-Skull Cameo offers the odd bit of mana ramp.

The manabase is mostly basics with eleven Islands and nine Swamps, but you also get a pair of Salt Marshes as simple dual-lands that enter tapped. Sulfur Vent also enters tapped and provides Black mana, or can be sacrificed for a Blue and a Red as one more way to fuel Nightscape Apprentice or Agonizing Demise.

Initial Impressions

The deck has a lot of control options at its disposal, looking to set up nasty softlocks over time while denying the opponent the ability to advance their game plan. Lots of bounce, removal, and countermagic can keep your opponent guessing and stymie their efforts while you build up.

The creatures are surprisingly cheap to let you get on the board early, while several of them offer kickers to sink your mana into later. The deck will likely kill with a death of a thousand cuts rather than one lethal strike, utilizing evasion and trickery to slip through for damage.

Many creatures offer added utility at the expense of combat strength, and only a handful of them are suited for prolonged defense. You’ll likely have to rely on noncreature spells to slow the opponent down in the early game, as your creatures might easily crumple under a fast and furious assault. As is often the case in Magic, aggro decks will likely be your toughest opposition as a control deck.

Dismissal looks solidly constructed with some of the nastiest control cards Invasion has to offer, but how will it hold up in an actual duel? Stay tuned to find out!