Should we Make That Five Elephants in the Room?

The Top 8 of Players Tour Nagoya featured five — count ‘em five — Inverter of Truth decks! Four of them were of a more “traditional” bent (though they featured a ton of individualized choices), and one sweet hybrid brew.

How does the combo work?

It’s not actually a strict two-card combo, even though it often feels like it. If you have a small number of cards in your graveyard (say, conveniently, only two) you can cast Inverter of Truth. All of a sudden you have a call-it two-card library, and you’re one Thassa’s Oracle away from straight wining the game.

A Great Reason to Play Inverter of Truth? They’re Going to Ban Dig Through Time!

… Probably

Dig Through Time is pretty good at setting up Control decks (it’s a Staple in Pioneer Azorius for instance) but it’s great in this deck.

Basically it turns a small graveyard into a one-card graveyard pretty efficiently. And one card in graveyard is a great place to be if you’re trying to win with Inverter of Truth + Thassa’s Oracle.

Omen of the Sea is an interesting choice — not yet wholly Staple — in Dimir Inverter. It’s a source of devotion to blue (one pip). In tight games where your’e forced to tap out, that one pip might be really important. If you are relying on the UU on Thassa’s Oracle’s top-right, you might not-win if the opponent removes it with an instant speed removal spell like Lighting Strike. Having a single blue pip on the battlefield means that if Thassa’s Oracle goes away, you can still-win immediately (instead of not-winning).

(Of course if you have spare mana you can Opt or Censor your way to zero cards in your library, which will be good enough regardless of how much devotion to blue you have… Or had!)

Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver is a one card plan, man

All the Ashioks got played in Nagoya!

But Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver in particular is not only good against people who are fighting your combo, but great in the mirror.

Especially against other Dimir decks, Planeswalkers are more durable than other creature types.

Inverter of Truth in… Blue Beatdown?

Basically we’re looking at a Leyline of Anticipation deck (that might already have wanted Thassa’s Oracle) splashing double black for Inverter of Truth.

This deck is worse at setting up the combo, has only two copies of Wizard’s Retort to defend itself, but basically adds an instant win to an already viable strategy.

The Dimir “Devotion” deck splashes fourteen sweet Dimir dual lands to get there… And can even lean on Thassa’s Oracle to find double black.

This deck clearly wins the “style points” award for the Players Tour… Because it’s not even clear what is cooler between Gadwick + Nykthos… or instant speed Inverter of Truth!

Additional advantage: This version will probably still be legal after they ban Dig Through Time.

Also…

• Orzhov Enchantments
• Satyr Wayfinder’s big weekend
• All the reasons combo beats up beatdown

Download the Elephant in the Room now!

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