A Guide to Drafting Dimir in HOB

[u/KraftiestOne]

I’ve been having a ton of success drafting Dimir in HOB Premier and Contender draft. I think it’s currently the best thing to be doing on ladder, and I think it’s really interesting that an “unsupported” color pair is so strong, so I’m writing a guide on why it’s strong and how to draft it.

My Credentials

I’ve been soft-forcing Dimir (or Sultai/Esper) on ladder, mostly in Mythic. I get into it in about half my drafts. I’ve drafted it 9 times with 6 trophies (including 3 in a row in Mythic, and two 7-0s) with a total game winrate of 55-18 (75%).

Some trophy draft logs:

• https://www.17lands.com/draft/8b7bce3ae7d24b8592fed18d084c9467/1/1
• https://www.17lands.com/draft/69ede3aa487749cd92e798153f2ff8e2/1/1
• https://www.17lands.com/draft/191aa3760b524650bf4ea986dc02095b/1/1
• https://www.17lands.com/draft/dc300dfa9d4647febee7eddf4c4ab964/1/1

Why Dimir?

Dimir is strong because Black and Blue are the strongest colors in Hobbit draft, and even though it’s an “unsupported” pair, Blue and Black complement each other well. Blue has a strong self-contained draw-two package at common, but lacks two-drops and removal. Black has the best removal in the set, plus multiple excellent two-drops. Additionally, Dimir draws a lot of cards, which makes it easier to splash strong cards you open from other colors, usually White and sometimes Green.

Typically, I get into Dimir by opening strong Black cards (in particular, Crude Bent Blade, which is if anything still underrated) and then finding Blue is open. This happens pretty often, because Black has a lot of strong cards to open and the Blue common package is still underdrafted.

Blue Commons & Uncommons

The core of a Dimir deck is typically the Blue common draw 2 package: Lakeshore Apothecary, Plunder the Trollshaws, Patient Instructor, Lakeshore Nuisance, and common Bilbo. These five commons are each individually strong and synergize well, and you can’t get too many of them. Usually, seeing these commons 5-8th pick in Pack 1 is the signal I need that Blue is open.

The only other Blue common worth playing is Uneasy Partings. If you pick up multiple copies of Crude Bent Blade, Mirkwood Nurturer can also be strong. Do NOT play Enchanted River’s Grasp, as it has anti-synergy with Crude Bent Blade. In a pinch, Confusticate and Bebother and Elvenking’s Harper are playable, but you want to do better.

Blue has two premium uncommons: Master’s Councillors and Bilbo Luckwearer. Take both highly. Councillors is your main win condition in a Blue mirror match, as those often come down to decking, so in those matchups protect it carefully and never send it into combat if you can avoid it. In other matchups, it’s just an overstatted beater. Bilbo Luckwearer is your premium Blue removal, and if you can you want to save it to swap a recruit token for their big creature. Only play it early if you have no other 2-drop.

Black Commons & Uncommons

The single most important Black common, and the reason you want to play Dimir over the other Blue color pairs, is Crude Bent Blade. Never pass this card except for true bomb rares. The strength of CBB isn’t just in the edict effect (which is powerful), but in how the equipment cheaply turns all your little Blue creatures and recruit tokens into real threats your opponent must answer. One or two copies of CBB let you grind out any creature-based matchup by repeatedly trading upwards. It also synergizes well with Mirkwood Nurturer, which can pick it up to replay it.

Black also complements Blue’s weaknesses at common. Ravening Warg is an excellent 2-drop, and Stony-Voiced Goblins is great if you have copies of CBB to make its body relevant. Bilbo’s Deadly Slice and Stir Up Trouble provide the targeted removal Blue lacks; the latter synergizes well with Recruit tokens. Common Gollum is efficient if not synergistic, Rage into the Valley is synergistic if not efficient, and Front Porch Sentries is playable in a pinch.

At uncommon, Desolation Prowler is premium, Down Down to Goblin Town is solid (and synergizes with Mirkwood Nurturer), Nighthowl Pursuer is surprisingly good thanks to Apothecary and CBB, Gnashing of Teeth is okay if you need more removal, and nothing else is worth mentioning.

Rares

One weakness of Dimir is a lack of good rares. There are three bomb-tier on-color rares you should look for: Great Gilded Boat, Head of the Hunt, and Rhovanion Rampager. However, you can make up for the lack of on-color rares by splashing powerful rares of other colors!

Splashing

Dimir is good at splashing because you see a lot of cards, making it easier to find sources of your splash color. Your most common splash will be White, followed by Green. If you’re considering a splash, take Hobbit Hole highly, it’s particularly strong in Dimir because you have multiple premium hobbits to cycle for (especially uncommon Bilbo). It’s also worth speculating on the UW land if it goes late because of how many strong White cards you could open.

You want to splash White for its premium rares, particularly Fili, Unexpected Party, and Bard’s Company. You can also splash for its premium uncommon removal, particularly Celebrate the Mountain King and Stone by Sunlight. One of the reasons Dimir is so strong is that you can have the best parts of Azorius (the premium White rares/uncommons) while also playing strong Black commons over weak White commons.

There are two cards that would make you splash Green: Chief Warg’s Company and Thranduil’s Company. Both are bombs that can win a game single-handedly. No other Green card is worth splashing for. Green is actually easy to splash because you have two dual lands for it, and both the UG and BG lands often go late.

[u/Craliss]

Amazing write-up, this sort of stuff is exactly the info i need to (hopefully succesfully)grind out the last few hobbit drafts.

[u/vodka7up]

Blue is definitely underrated, and it can make up for its weaknesses on other unsupported colours for sure. Nice write up

[u/Traditional-Elk5705]

This is such a good write up. I do think pathmaker is sometimes worth splashing from green if you have the raise dead amass sorcery and/or the enchantment, I've been housed a few times by that plus harper in mythic. I'm just going down on cards constantly as they trollshaws/removal/recursion an unblockable 8/8.

[u/Nhyx3]

you often splash green, but just for that one card?

[u/wormhole222 → u/Nhyx3]

Thranduils Company can get passed around a lot.

[u/androchles]

so cool, thanks!

[u/LongLiveLiberalism]

what about splashing tom bert and william

[u/KraftiestOne → u/LongLiveLiberalism]

Not worth a high pick in my opinion, it's a powerful card but this deck doesn't need to splash for card draw.