Deception, mistrust, betrayal, and greed are all traits to avoid in the real world. But in Magic: The Gathering, they're the backbone of Dimir strategies, one of the game's most ruthless and efficient color combinations. Popular archetypes include mill, control, Zombies, and Rogues.
Equally powerful at controlling the board and establishing dominance through combat, Dimir plays host to many deadly commanders that opponents dread playing against. But as always, for those who are looking to bring an underappreciated commander to the table, there are still some amazing options.
7 Szadek, Lord Of Secrets
For all the flak that mill decks get, they really do epitomize the Dimir coloring. They achieve victory by depriving players of key pieces, slowly whittling down their resources, and often using their own cards against them. Szadek, Lord of Secrets is an incredibly powerful commander that can very quickly deplete a player's library.
Instead of dealing damage, any damage Szadek would deal instead causes a player to mill that many cards, and then Szadek gets that many +1/+1 counters, doubling how many cards will be milled the next turn. So by the fourth time this ability triggers, he would force an opponent to mill forty cards! With so many cards in Dimir that can help make Szadek unblockable, you'll have no trouble increasing his power and forcing opponents to mill out. If you're feeling extra devious, you could even give him double strike with cards like Fireshrieker to speed up the process.
6 Dragonlord Silumgar
Rather than being the engine of this deck, Dragonord Silumgar is an important piece of the overall theme of this build. The main focus is, of course, gaining control of your opponent's permanents using cards like Agent of Treachery and Sower of Temptation. However, another ability you can add to this deck is blinking creatures to repeat their control effects. Cards like Displacer Kitten will allow you to reliably blink your permanents to get multiple triggers off their enter the battlefield abilities.
Of course, if you use that ability on Silumgar, you'll lose control of the creature you originally stole when they entered the battlefield. The main way around this would be to include some sacrifice outlets like Ashnod's Altar or Viscera Seer. Before you blink Silumgar to take control of another creature, sacrifice the one you already control to generate some extra mana or scry through your deck. It's a multi-layered strategy but produces a very efficient strategy when all the pieces fall into place.
5 Ramirez DePietro, Pillager
The plane of Ixalan and Commander Legends brought Pirates into the fray of Magic: The Gathering, with a number of commander options for any players looking to pillage their way to victory. Fitting for a Pirate commander, Ramirez DePietro, Pillager is all about generating treasure tokens, creating two of them and forcing you to lose two life when he enters the battlefield. Similarly to the Silumgar deck, you'll want to have ways to blink out Ramirez and other Pirates, such as Hostage Taker, to get multiple triggers from their enter the battlefield abilities.
Ramirez's second ability lets you exile the top card of a player's library when one or more pirates deal them damage, and then you get to cast that card as long as it's exiled. Normally, mana coloring would be an issue here, but seeing as you'll be generating treasure tokens, you can get whatever type of mana you need to pillage your opponents' best spells.
4 Ludevic, Necro Genius And Olag, Ludevic’s Hubris
One of the nice things about Zombie decks is that they can operate more around the 99 cards in the deck rather than the commander itself. This leaves the commander spot open to whatever creature you like the best. Ludevic, Necrogenius is the legendary necro-alchemist from Innistrad who uses science to bring monstrosities to life. In this case, the monstrosity is Olag, Ludevic's Hubris. As with any Zombie deck, you'll likely end up with a lot of creatures in your graveyard, which is where Ludevic's true power comes in.
By exiling X creatures from your graveyard, Ludevic transforms onto Olag, becoming a copy of one of the creatures exiled with it in addition to getting a number of +1/+1 counters equal to the number of creatures you exile. While you could just stack this deck full of powerful Dimir Creatures like Wrexial, the Risen Deep, a zombie theme is much more fitting as it will help get cards in your graveyard and ensures there will be synergy with whatever creature you choose to copy.
3 Zareth San, The Trickster
Although typically within the 99 to take advantage of his first ability, Zareth San, the Trickster is nonetheless a powerful commander option for anyone looking to steal permanents from their opponents. When Zareth San deals unblocked combat damage to a player, you get to take control of a permanent from that player's graveyard. You'll want to mill your opponents to force their most powerful cards into their graveyard, which Dimir specializes in and also works if you want to go with a Rogue theme.
Furthermore, blue offers a variety of ways to circumvent your opponents' defenses, such as Aqueous Form, allowing you to consistently trigger Zareth San's ability. Or you can use a card like Netherborn Altar to put him into your hand from the command zone, then pay for his first ability in tandem with an unblockable creature like Triton Shorestalker.
2 Taigam, Sidisi’s Hand
In a coloring that heavily specializes in control (such as Dimir), you want to have as many options as possible. Forcing you to skip your draw step, Taigam, Sidisi's Hand instead allows you to look at the top three cards of your library, put two in your graveyard and one into your hand. This greatly increases your chances of finding what you need to respond to the flow of the game. You can double this effect with the enchantment Paradox Haze, which gives you an additional upkeep step.
To make use of all the cards you'll be putting in your graveyard, include reanimation spells like Stitch Together and Animate Dead, so your creatures don't go to waste. Additionally, any cards in your graveyard you don't need can be exiled using Taigam's activated ability, offering removal that can come in handy in a pinch.
1 Ertai Resurrected
Another Dimir commander that focuses on enter the battlefield effects, Ertai Resurrected allows you to either counter a spell or destroy a target creature or planeswalker when he enters the battlefield. This comes with the downside of the player owning that spell drawing a card, but it's a small price to pay to remove big threats or prevent your most important spells from being targeted. The rest of this deck should also focus on enter the battlefield abilities to make use of blink spells like Ghostly Flicker.
Another benefit of Ertai Resurrected is that he has flash. Although your opponents may see the counter or removal coming from the command zone, it's still a valuable trick to have at the ready. Use Notion Thief to limit your opponents to drawing only in their draw step, and making any other effects that would give them extra card draw reward you with it instead.