Pulling Three Micro-Steps Ahead!

Updated:
Unlock the secrets of the Dimir Micromancer deck in MTG. Discover three crucial strategies to outsmart your opponents and dominate the game.

Welcome Magic lovers!

While countless Magic: the Gathering players wait for the greatly delayed, yet now looming, Standard format rotation that will occur once Bloomburrow releases on August 2nd, the pace of innovation in the format has stagnated. Pro Tour Seattle, only two weeks ago, ushered no new archetypes into Tier 1, disappointing many who thought perhaps at least one of the pro teams may have something spicy to debut on the big stage, such as the Pioneer Rakdos Vampires deck which took the last Pro Tour by storm.

While insufficient testing time for the pro tour may have been a factor, as the set released a mere two weeks before the tournament itself, another reason may also have been that the archetypes which now have a stranglehold on the format, namely Domain Ramp, Esper Midrange and Boros Convoke, among others, are too well-tuned and optimally built to justify working on or developing something new. While Four-color Legends may still be the new kid on the block, even picking up recent addition, Honest Rutstein, to complement its gameplan, at its core the deck is still the same thirty-land Slogurk pile we've seen show up on the ladder and in the hands of recent top 8 finisher, cftsoc, for months now.

The Deck

However, even at this late stage in the Standard format, there are still glimmers of innovation lurking beneath the surface, hoping to be unearthed, admired and perhaps tinkered with before placing them on the shelf to await further consideration once the Standard landscape has shifted. One such deck may be this intriguing Dimir Control list, rocking a very interesting 'toolbox' package, all built around the underplayed Dominaria wizard, Micromancer, and its ability to find any and all of the powerful spells which utilize the 'spree' mechanic.

 

Check out Dimir Micromancer:

Total Cards:

The Plan

As its namesake implies, this is a control deck that's trying to resolve a copy of Micromancer, which, once it enters the battlefield, can act as a Swiss army knife of sorts, fetching up removal spells, counter magic, card draw or the extremely powerful Three Steps Ahead. In fact, the Micromancer works beautifully with Three Steps Ahead, as once one has enough mana, one can counter a spell or draw cards while also making a copy of a creature, in this case producing another Micromancer, which can then pull another copy of Three Steps Ahead from the deck to keep the chain going. By chaining Micromancers into Three Steps Ahead, then continually copying Micromancer to get more Three Steps Ahead, all while countering the opponent's spells or drawing more action along the way, its easy to establish a game-winning board state.

How it Plays

However, the Micromancer can do so much more than that. Being able to pull any one-mana spell, including those with the spree mechanic, out of the deck gives the pilot plenty of options when it comes time to deploy this wily wizard. Powerful removal spells that can be fetched up include the ubiquitous Cut Down when facing off against Raffine or small creature decks, or March of Wretched Sorrow when confronting more aggressive strategies where the life gain can be back breaking. Rona's Vortex is a versatile little instant that not only functions as hard removal, but can also be used as a one-mana bounce spell to regain tempo in a pinch. Black Sun's Twilight is an oft-forgotten, instant-speed removal spell that can not only remove a troublesome obstacle from the board, but also bring back a previously-used Micromancer in one fell swoop in order to keep the chain going.

Another portion of the toolbox is dedicated to disruption. Discard spells such as Duress and Dreams of Steel and Oil can be called up by the Micromancer to nab that late-game Atraxa, Grand Unifier before Domain can slam it, or a Worldsoul's Rage before the Temur Analyst decks can roast you with it. Counterspells include the previously mentioned powerhouse, Three Steps Ahead, as well as another hard counter in Wash Away, plus a single Spell Pierce in the sideboard.

Card advantage pieces can also be fetched up in the form of Insatiable Avarice, which not only provides raw card draw, but can also be used in turn to find a sweeper like Path of Peril or another Micromancer, or perhaps a Memory Deluge to keep the gas flowing. A single Consider also makes an appearance as simply another cantrip that can be pulled from the deck in order to keep digging up action.

The rest of the list is filled out with the usual suspects one would find in a control deck. Solid, black removal spells such as Go for the Throat, Long Goodbye and Sheoldred's Edict to manage the opponent's board of creatures. A couple of Path of Peril do excellent work against all the aggressive strategies, from Mono Red and Gruul aggro, to Bant Toxic, Simic Cookies and, of course, the potent Boros Convoke lists.

Additional card advantage is covered by preeminent draw spell, Memory Deluge, as well as a playset of Deduce. This, combined with the third mode on Three Steps Ahead, means the deck won't have any trouble ensuring its pilot's hand is full of action. Tishana's Tidebinder makes an appearance here as a necessary tool to fight non-creature permanents that may slip through the counter magic net the deck is casting. Cards like Urabrask's Forge or Simulacrum Synthesizer can be almost impossible to interact with once they're on the battlefield for a deck playing only blue and black mana, so having some way to at least slow them down, if not stop them entirely, is paramount. Planeswalkers have always been a thorn in the control deck's side, and while Sheoldred's Edict can be utilized to good effect against them, having a couple of Tidebinders also in the mix makes it feel a lot less vulnerable to decks leveraging that sort of plan.

The Sideboard

The sideboard contains all the usual suspects a good control deck may want, with additional copies of Duress and Dreams of Steel and Oil, as well as more counter magic in Spell Pierce and Negate. Large, life-gaining creatures, such as Sheoldred, the Apocalypse and Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal, come in against aggro decks, while powerful graveyard-hate card Unlicensed Hearse acts as a great way to stifle Temur Analyst or the Four-Color Legends decks. Faerie Mastermind is an excellent tool against other decks looking to draw a lot of cards, such as Esper Raffine, while also providing a cheap, flash threat in the control mirror once both decks have sideboarded out all of their small creature removal spells. Outrageous Robbery can also come in as an additional haymaker against the other late-game decks like Domain Ramp, Temur Analyst and the control mirror match.

Get Brewing!

With a veritable cornucopia of amazing options across several different colors, the sky is the limit when it comes to filling out the Micromancer toolbox! One could play Esper, adding white in order to be able to fetch up a powerful sweeper like Final Showdown or a potent sideboard card like Requisition Raid. How about a Temur list, touching red and green for a more aggressive/combo oriented version of the deck, which can utilize Micromancer to tutor up something back-breaking like Smuggler's Surprise or Great Train Heist? With all the insanely powerful spree spells available to us in Standard, as well as the other excellent one-mana spells which already exist, its not hard to envision a powerful shell forming around the combination of Micromancer and Three Steps Ahead, especially once the format rotates, so get out there are start brewing!

Rate this article
Hi, I'm Damien! I'm a Canadian television and voice actor turned streamer! I've been playing Magic: the Gathering since the early 1990's when the game first released, and was heavily involved in competitive Magic for many years.

Check out more content by DamienF16

Explore the latest updates to the Omniscience Combo deck in Magic: The Gathering's Standard format with new strategies from Tarkir: Dragonstorm.
Popular
Omni-Combo Updates from Tarkir!
Welcome Magic lovers!  As we enter the last round of major Standard-format tournaments, the Regional Championships, its clear that the meta game is anything but stable. With the release of Tarkir: Dragonstorm, the final piece of the Standard format puzzle leading up to the culmination of the most recent Regional Championship Qualifier season, there have been a bevy of new takes on existing decks, as well as a couple of newly-minted archetypes having success on Magic Online and Arena.
Explore the power of Jeskai Control in Tarkir MTG Standard! Featuring Shiko, Paragon of the Way, dominate MTG with strategic plays and robust defense.
Featured
Controlling Tarkir Standard with Jeskai!
Welcome Magic lovers!  With the release of Tarkir: Dragonstorm, the dragons have landed in Standard, and several of them have begun tentatively seeing play, sprinkled among the top decks and top contenders. One such dragon that's gotten plenty of buzz is Shiko, Paragon of the Way, with its high flexibility and power to match. It plays perfectly alongside cards like Split Up and Stock Up, which make it a perfect fit at the top of the curve in a control deck. One such list placed in the top 4 of the first bout of Magic Online Challenges that occurred this past weekend, so let's start there as we dive into Jeskai Control in Standard.
Explore the top 5 cards from Tarkir: Dragonstorm for Magic: The Gathering's Standard format. Uncover dragons, utility lands, and planeswalkers!
Tarkir: Dragonstorm Top 5 Cards for Standard!
Welcome Magic lovers! Yes, it's spoiler season once again, and as we get increasingly inundated with card previews from the upcoming Tarkir: Dragonstorm set, the excitement for the new cards is rising more quickly than even the wind speeds on the tempest-wracked plane. With a multitude of iconic dragons soaring the skies, in addition to myriad multicolored spells and creatures, with plenty of legends and recurring characters thrown in, Tarkir: Dragonstorm promises to be a return to Magic: the Gathering's roots, at least until the upcoming Universes Beyond sets take us far, far from our home planes.
Explore the rise of Ketramose, the New Dawn in Standard's competitive scene. Discover how this powerhouse card shapes the meta in Magic: The Gathering.
A New Dawn Rises in Standard!
Welcome Magic lovers!   During the last spoiler season, when Aetherdrift was fully revealed before its release in February, the card that immediately stood out to me as a powerful engine that could be built around, was Ketramose, the New Dawn. In fact, I wrote an entire article about it here. 
Explore the evolution of the Omniscience Combo deck in Magic: The Gathering Standard. Discover new strategies and key cards for competitive success!
Top
The Ongoing Evolution of Omniscience Combo in Standard!
Welcome Magic lovers!    
Discover why Esper Pixie is dominating Standard in Magic: The Gathering. Analyze top strategies and innovations shaping the competitive meta now.
Popular
Is Esper Pixie the Best Deck in Standard?
Welcome Magic lovers! As the Standard Regional Championship Qualifier season hurtles on, racing through Aetherdrift and setting its sights on the gathering storm on Tarkir, one may think the format has started to become stale. After all, tired, old Domain won the Pro Tour again, a Standard deck that's existed in one form or another for a full two years now, while Dimir Midrange and Gruul Aggro have been around since before last year's rotation, yet combined, they still manage to make up almost 50% of the metagame. However, as this past weekend's Standard Showcase Challenge on Magic Online has shown us, the metagame changes as often as the weather, with innovations and tweaks being made to several new archetypes, in particular Esper Pixie. A dominant performance by the Esper players put three copies of the deck into the top four of the tournament, with another copy just missing top eight, in no small part due to the work that incredible deck-builders, like the infamous 'cftsoc' on Magic Online (who ended up taking down the whole tournament), are putting into the deck.
Explore the latest updates to the Omniscience Combo deck in Magic: The Gathering's Standard format with new strategies from Tarkir: Dragonstorm.
Popular
Omni-Combo Updates from Tarkir!
Welcome Magic lovers!  As we enter the last round of major Standard-format tournaments, the Regional Championships, its clear that the meta game is anything but stable. With the release of Tarkir: Dragonstorm, the final piece of the Standard format puzzle leading up to the culmination of the most recent Regional Championship Qualifier season, there have been a bevy of new takes on existing decks, as well as a couple of newly-minted archetypes having success on Magic Online and Arena.
logo

By joining our community, you can immerse yourself in MTG Arena gameplay. Watch matches, engage with content, comment, share thoughts, and rate videos for an interactive experience.

Follow Us

LATEST VIDEOS