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Wrexial, the Risen Deep

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Wrexial, the Risen Deep

At a glance

  • Commander: Wrexial, the Risen Deep
  • Colors: Dimir
  • Archetype: Dimir mill control
  • Power tier: mid-high

Cards

Commander

Wrexial, the Risen Deep — Legendary Creature — Kraken (5/8)

Islandwalk, swampwalk (This creature can’t be blocked as long as defending player controls an Island or a Swamp.) Whenever Wrexial deals combat damage to a player, you may cast target instant or sorcery card from that player’s graveyard without paying its mana cost. If that spell would be put into a graveyard, exile it instead.

The printed text is accurate. Wrexial is a 5/8 body with near-universal evasion in a meta full of Islands and Swamps, and his combat trigger lets you steal a free instant/sorcery out of a player’s graveyard — which is exactly the kind of card our own mill plan keeps stocking those graveyards with. He’s a strong value engine and a real beater, but he isn’t the only path to victory: the drain clock and the mill both close games on their own.

Gameplan

This is a draw-go control deck with two co-primary closers: a recurring life-drain clock and incremental mill. We do three things:

  1. Survive. Cheap spot removal, edicts, counters, and bounce keep our life total and board intact. Three true multi-target sweepers (Drown in Sorrow, Psychotic Haze, Crypt Rats) plus two repeatable damage engines (Pestilence, Evincar’s Justice) handle go-wide.
  2. Drain + grind. Pestilence, Evincar’s Justice, and Crypt Rats turn our creature-light board into a slow table-wide damage clock, while a dense mill package chips every opponent’s library. With 3-4 opponents we don’t need to deck any one player alone — we pressure everyone on both axes at once.
  3. Convert with Wrexial. Our own mill fills opponents’ yards with instants/sorceries; Wrexial connects (islandwalk/swampwalk) and recasts their best one for free. Jace’s Phantasm flips to a 5/5 flyer once a graveyard hits ten — both a clock and a Wrexial enabler.

The deck wants to reach the mid-game with rocks down, then convert every turn into drain + mill + interaction until opponents fall to the damage clock or draw from an empty library.

Key synergy lines

  • Wrexial + our own mill: every Tome Scour / Stream of Thought / Dampen Thought dumps instants and sorceries into opponents’ yards. Connect with Wrexial and recast the best one for free (their Counterspell, their removal, their draw spell). Islandwalk/swampwalk means he usually connects.
  • The drain sweep package: Pestilence (: 1 damage to each creature and player), Crypt Rats (<i class="ms ms-x ms-cost"></i>: X damage to each creature and player, black mana only), and Evincar’s Justice (2 to each creature/player with buyback) all do double duty — they clear go-wide boards and tick everyone’s life total down. With few-to-no creatures on our side these are nearly one-sided, and they are the deck’s most reliable kill, not the mill.
  • Sweeper coverage vs aggro: Drown in Sorrow (-2/-2 to all), Psychotic Haze (1 to each creature/player, with madness), and Crypt Rats give three real multi-target answers to the go-wide starts the deck is otherwise soft to.
  • Jace’s Phantasm + Jace’s Erasure + Curse of the Bloody Tome: passive mill that ticks every upkeep/draw and turns the Phantasm on as a 5/5 evasive beater.

Role breakdown (with counts)

  • Lands — 36: 15 Island, 16 Swamp, Dimir Aqueduct, plus four artifact lands (Seat of the Synod, Vault of Whispers, Mistvault Bridge, Darksteel Citadel) that double as artifact-count fodder and fix colors.
  • Ramp — 10: Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Dimir Signet, Mind Stone, Dimir Cluestone, Prophetic Prism, Commander’s Sphere, Charcoal Diamond, Sky Diamond, Dimir Locket. Now squarely in band — the rocks reliably accelerate to the 5-mana commander and fuel double-spell control turns.
  • Card advantage — 11: Sign in Blood, Night’s Whisper, Read the Bones, Divination, Behold the Multiverse, Forbidden Alchemy, Deduce, Think Twice, Deep Analysis, Pilfered Plans, Thought Scour. Pilfered Plans and Thought Scour also mill, so the draw suite still advances the wincon.
  • Spot interaction — 18: Edicts (Diabolic Edict, Cruel Edict, Geth’s Verdict, Devour Flesh); -X/-X removal (Disfigure, Tragic Slip, Last Gasp, Grasp of Darkness, Agony Warp); destroy (Feed the Swarm, Murder, Doom Blade); counters (Counterspell, Psychic Strike, Didn’t Say Please, Countermand — the last three also mill); bounce (Into the Roil, Vapor Snag). High by raw count because counters/bounce double as a control deck’s primary interaction.
  • Mass damage / sweepers — 5: Drown in Sorrow, Psychotic Haze, Crypt Rats (three true multi-target sweepers), plus Evincar’s Justice and Pestilence (repeatable scalable drain-sweeps that also close games).
  • Mill payoffs / enablers — remaining: Tome Scour, Mind Sculpt, Compelling Argument, Stream of Thought, Dampen Thought, Paranoid Delusions, Cathartic Adept, Merfolk Mesmerist, Vedalken Entrancer, Persistent Petitioners, Merfolk Secretkeeper, Armored Skaab, Homarid Explorer, Shriekgeist, Curse of the Bloody Tome, Jace’s Erasure, Shriekhorn, Jace’s Phantasm. Soul Salvage rebuys our engine creatures.

Note on Persistent Petitioners: in singleton EDH its “tap four Advisors → mill 12” mode is unreachable (it’s the only Advisor in the deck). It functions here as a plain , : mill 1` single-target tapper, not a mass-mill engine.

Win condition

Two co-primary closers. The damage clock — Pestilence, Crypt Rats, and Evincar’s Justice draining all opponents 1-2+ per turn while sweeping their boards — does the heavier lifting against 3-4 full 99-card libraries, where raw common-rate mill is genuinely slow. Mill is the second axis: stacked + repeatable mill backstopped by a recurring Wrexial/Jace’s Phantasm beatdown finishes players who are already low or who deck on their own draw step. We win by attrition on both fronts, never by racing.

Pilot notes

  • The drain package is your main kill — count damage, not just cards. Pestilence/Crypt Rats want a creature-light board; spend X big when your side is empty and theirs is wide.
  • Don’t over-mill a single opponent early — spread it, then burst one player below their draw count when they’re already low. You want a player to deck on their draw step.
  • Beware milling graveyard-matters decks (reanimator, flashback, delve). Against those, hold mill, lean on counters/removal, and win with the drain clock or Wrexial beats instead.
  • Use Wrexial’s trigger greedily: snapping up an opponent’s counterspell or board wipe for free swings games. Send him at the player whose graveyard has the juiciest instant/sorcery.
  • Save edicts for hexproof/shroud or token-light boards; they’re your answer to threats removal can’t target.

Weaknesses

  • Graveyard synergy decks punish our mill — it can feed their plan. Pivot to the drain clock there.
  • Lifegain / big-mana ramp decks can outpace a slow drain; we rely on grinding them down before they stabilize.
  • Low creature count means the drain sweeps are our main board-presence wincon if combat stalls; an early Wrexial death to removal slows the value engine.
  • Commons-only means no true tutors or fast combo finish — games go long, and an aggressive go-wide start can pressure us, though three real sweepers (Drown in Sorrow, Psychotic Haze, Crypt Rats) are the relief valve now.

Decklist

⬇ Download as .txt — paste into Moxfield, Archidekt, or MTG Arena.

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