At a glance
- Format: Brawl (100-card)
- Commander: Lo and Li, Royal Advisors
- Colors: Blue / Black (UB)
- Archetype: Dimir mill-to-deckout control (budget)
- Power tier: competitive
- Competitive Brawl: ✅ Legal
Strategy
Grind the opponent’s library to zero using The Water Crystal as the one owned multiplier: every opponent-mill instance gets +4, so cheap repeatable triggers balloon. Ruin Crab, Riverchurn Monument, Persistent Petitioners, Millstone, Vedalken Entrancer, Screaming Shield and Ashiok, Dream Render each become 6-8 mill per activation, while Psychic Corrosion plus both Tutelages convert the deck’s dense cheap card-draw (Deduce, Consider, Chart a Course, Night’s Whisper) into repeated opponent mill. One-shot burst mills (Tome Scour, Compelling Argument, Merfolk Secretkeeper, Sweet Oblivion) and ETB bodies (Manic Scribe, Wall of Lost Thoughts, Homarid Explorer, Returned Centaur) close the gap under Water Crystal. Premium cheap UB removal, two owned sweepers (Languish, Malicious Eclipse), and lifegain bodies buy the time this slow plan needs while Consuming Aberration and Kaito provide a beatdown backup.
Upgrade path
This is the PLAYABLE-NOW build: the only rare wildcard spent is the commander Lo and Li, Royal Advisors itself (owned_qty 0), so nonland rare/mythic craft count is 0. Every nonland card is owned or an uncommon/common craft. Substitutions vs the power ceiling: the doublers/bombs (Bruvac, Fraying Sanity, Teferi’s Ageless Insight, Damnation, The Meathook Massacre, Sheoldred, Jace x2) and rare mill payoffs (Glimpse, Traumatize, Maddening Cacophony, Cut Your Losses, Tasha’s, Startled Awake, Drowned Secrets, Nightmares and Daydreams, Search for Azcanta, Archmage’s Charm, Baleful Mastery, Dimir Signet) are swapped for owned/common/uncommon in-role pieces (Languish, Malicious Eclipse, Ashiok Dream Render, Tome Scour, Compelling Argument, Sinister Sabotage, Feed the Swarm, Night’s Whisper, Prophetic Prism, etc.). The ideal upgrade path is the full power version at brawl-loli-mill.json: craft The Water Crystal-doubling multipliers (Bruvac, Fraying Sanity, Teferi’s Ageless Insight) and the big named mill spells first.
Cards
Decklist
Paste straight into MTG Arena (or Moxfield/Archidekt):
Commander
1 Lo and Li, Royal Advisors
Deck
1 The Water Crystal
1 Psychic Corrosion
1 Sphinx's Tutelage
1 Teferi's Tutelage
1 Ruin Crab
1 Riverchurn Monument
1 Mesmeric Orb
1 Persistent Petitioners
1 Manic Scribe
1 Deepmuck Desperado
1 Exhibition Tidecaller
1 Wall of Lost Thoughts
1 Consuming Aberration
1 Kaito, Bane of Nightmares
1 Preacher of the Schism
1 Midnight Reaper
1 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Chart a Course
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Read the Bones
1 Deduce
1 Frantic Search
1 Behold the Multiverse
1 Into the Story
1 Drown in the Loch
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Arcane Signet
1 Mind Stone
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Fatal Push
1 Bloodchief's Thirst
1 Infernal Grasp
1 Heartless Act
1 Bitter Triumph
1 Hero's Downfall
1 Go for the Throat
1 Sheoldred's Edict
1 Counterspell
1 An Offer You Can't Refuse
1 Didn't Say Please
1 Tome Scour
1 Compelling Argument
1 Merfolk Secretkeeper
1 Millstone
1 Vedalken Entrancer
1 Screaming Shield
1 Sweet Oblivion
1 Returned Centaur
1 Homarid Explorer
1 Overwhelmed Apprentice
1 Nimana Skydancer
1 Ashiok, Dream Render
1 Prophetic Prism
1 Sinister Sabotage
1 Feed the Swarm
1 Night's Whisper
1 Consider
1 Languish
1 Malicious Eclipse
1 Mire Triton
1 Command Tower
1 Eden, Seat of the Sanctum
1 Restless Reef
1 Watery Grave
1 Gloomlake Verge
1 Underground River
17 Island
14 Swamp
Ideal build (upgrade target)
The power-ceiling build (multi-agent workflow output) — every premium payoff and the full combo/synergy package. The current list is the playable-now budget version; craft toward this as your wildcards come in.
Crafts to reach the ideal: 21 (6 mythic, 13 rare, 1 uncommon, 1 other)
- Mythic: Bruvac the Grandiloquent, Damnation, Jace, the Perfected Mind, Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, Startled Awake, The Meathook Massacre
- Rare: Archmage’s Charm, Baleful Mastery, Cut Your Losses, Drowned Secrets, Fraying Sanity, Glimpse the Unthinkable, Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Maddening Cacophony, Nightmares and Daydreams, Search for Azcanta, Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, Teferi’s Ageless Insight, Traumatize
- Uncommon: Duskmantle, House of Shadow
- Other: Dimir Signet
Full ideal list (paste into Arena):
Commander
1 Lo and Li, Royal Advisors
Deck
1 The Water Crystal
1 Bruvac the Grandiloquent
1 Fraying Sanity
1 Teferi's Ageless Insight
1 Psychic Corrosion
1 Sphinx's Tutelage
1 Teferi's Tutelage
1 Drowned Secrets
1 Nightmares and Daydreams
1 Ruin Crab
1 Riverchurn Monument
1 Mesmeric Orb
1 Persistent Petitioners
1 Manic Scribe
1 Deepmuck Desperado
1 Exhibition Tidecaller
1 Wall of Lost Thoughts
1 Glimpse the Unthinkable
1 Maddening Cacophony
1 Traumatize
1 Cut Your Losses
1 Tasha's Hideous Laughter
1 Startled Awake
1 Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
1 Jace, the Perfected Mind
1 Into the Story
1 Drown in the Loch
1 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
1 Consuming Aberration
1 Kaito, Bane of Nightmares
1 Preacher of the Schism
1 Midnight Reaper
1 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Chart a Course
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Read the Bones
1 Deduce
1 Frantic Search
1 Behold the Multiverse
1 Search for Azcanta
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Arcane Signet
1 Mind Stone
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Dimir Signet
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Fatal Push
1 Bloodchief's Thirst
1 Infernal Grasp
1 Heartless Act
1 Bitter Triumph
1 Hero's Downfall
1 Go for the Throat
1 Baleful Mastery
1 Sheoldred's Edict
1 Counterspell
1 An Offer You Can't Refuse
1 Didn't Say Please
1 Archmage's Charm
1 Damnation
1 The Meathook Massacre
1 Command Tower
1 Duskmantle, House of Shadow
1 Demolition Field
1 Serpent's Pass
1 Watery Grave
1 Gloomlake Verge
1 Underground River
19 Island
11 Swamp
Card images & data via Scryfall.