What a time to be playing Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver!

Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver had quite a weekend at the TCGPlayer Invitational:

Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa continued his historic run with Esper Dragons, using an updated list (including main-deck Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver):

Esper Dragons by Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa

1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

3 Bile Blight
2 Crux of Fate
2 Foul-Tongue Invocation
4 Hero’s Downfall
3 Thoughtseize

2 Anticipate
4 Dig Through Time
2 Dissolve
4 Silumgar’s Scorn

1 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
4 Dragonlord Ojutai
1 Dragonlord Silumgar

2 Caves of Koilos
4 Dismal Backwater
1 Flooded Strand
2 Haven of the Spirit Dragon
3 Island
4 Polluted Delta
2 Swamp
4 Temple of Deceit
4 Temple of Enlightenment
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Sideboard
3 Drown in Sorrow
1 Foul-Tongue Invocation
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1 Thoughtseize
2 Ultimate Price
2 Disdainful Stroke
2 Dragonlord’s Prerogative
2 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver

In Paulo’s deck, Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver shifts from being a main-deck trump in the Control mirror to a way to gain advantage against midrange decks with Courser of Kruphix.

As you probably know, Patrick and Michael recently joined Team Ultra PRO. Their Team Ultra PRO teammate Adrian Sullivan continued his epic performance with Dimir Control… This time packing all four copies of Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver main deck!

Dimir Control by Adrian Sullivan

3 Perilous Vault
2 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

2 Bile Blight
1 Crux of Fate
4 Hero’s Downfall
1 Liliana Vess
2 Silence the Believers

1 AEtherspouts
3 Dig Through Time
1 Dissipate
4 Dissolve
1 Dragonlord’s Prerogative
1 Interpret the Signs
2 Jace’s Ingenuity
1 Negate

4 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver

4 Dismal Backwater
3 Island
1 Opulent Palace
4 Polluted Delta
3 Radiant Fountain
3 Swamp
4 Temple of Deceit
1 Temple of Enlightenment
3 Temple of Malady
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Sideboard
1 AEtherspouts
2 Bile Blight
1 Cranial Archive
2 Disdainful Stroke
3 Drown in Sorrow
1 Negate
1 Pearl Lake Ancient
1 Pharika’s Cure
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
2 Thoughtseize

Adrian’s deck occupies a strange, wonderful, and potentially advantageous place in the metagame. With literally no creatures main deck, Adrian’s Dimir Control can exploit a peerless amount of “dead” card advantage. Imagine a deck like Mardu Dragons, that usually gains an advantage by compacting value into cards like Draconic Roar and Foul-Tongue Invocation: Any such decks with lots of cards to make creatures dead… Will itself be stuck with dead draw after dead draw.

One of the unique features of Adrian’s deck is its Temple splashing with cards like Opulent Palace and Temple of Malady.

Opulent Palace is kind of a “dual land” here (tapping for both blue and black), but Temple of Malady is a carefully-chosen scry land that actually taps for green.

Remember: This is a deck with the Maximum Number of copies of Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver! Green mana access is perfect here! If Adrian steals your Polukranos, World Eater, he can actually use it to gobble up your Elvish Mystics.

In addition to discussing Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa’s Esper Dragons and Adrian Sullivan’s Dimir Control, Patrick and Michael discuss GR Devotion and other recent top finishers.

Patrick and (last week’s guest) Christine Sprankle will be the celebrity guests at the Star City Games event Grand Prix Charlotte next week!

Patrick will be signing Next Level Deckbuilding!

Christine has launched a Patreon! We couldn’t talk about it last week but we’re happy to point it out this week! If you love Christine’s cosplay make sure to check it out (and contribute)!

All this and more in “Time to be Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver!”

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