In the MTG universe, Planeswalkers are often some of the most powerful, game-breaking bombs to face down. If you ever get to land a Planeswalker on an empty board, you’ll often feel unstoppable. Some options, like Dihada, Binder of Wills, even have abilities that open the door for combo kills.
Maximizing Treasure Production
Instead of filling the deck with Legends, cEDH Dihada decks only care about the Planeswalker’s -3 ability. Abusing the Treasures and mill, this archetype is really a dedicated Underworld Breach combo deck. There are multiple three-card combos involving Dihada and Breach, like using Flicker to mill your whole deck and create near-infinite mana.
After Milling four cards and making four Treasures with Dihada, Blinking Dihada with Flicker sets you up to reactivate the -3 ability, emptying your library. There are numerous avenues to victory from there, like stealing an opponent’s Thassa’s Oracle with Praetor’s Grasp, or just using Mayhem Devil. You can also use Magda, Brazen Outlaw to tutor Hoarding Broodlord, enabling some convoluted Saw in Half combo lines.
There are combos available that don’t involve Breach, too, such as using Dualcaster Mage and Molten Duplication to make infinite Hasty tokens. With access to a variety of tutors like Diabolic Intent and Gamble, finding a way to win isn’t difficult. Mass card advantage engines like Bolas’s Citadel and Ad Nauseam also give you a good chance to rebuild should your first combo get disrupted.
Explosive but Fragile
As a whole, Dihada is such a strong Commander choice thanks to its explosiveness. With the help of Mox Diamond, Dark Ritual, and other bursts of mana, this deck is designed to close games quickly.
Unfortunately, though, Dihada decks have a fair share of hate cards that it’s vulnerable to. The biggest struggle comes against Rest in Peace and other brutal forms of graveyard hate, which shut down Dihada’s Treasure production and all Breach combos. Additionally, cards like Rule of Law that stop your ability to chain spells together are a major problem.
The good news, at least, is that this deck doesn’t struggle as much versus taxing effects thanks to the excess Treasures Dihada makes. Counterspells are also easily beatable with anti-disruption tools like Grand Abolisher and Silence.
In this sense, Dihada decks definitely have their fair share of tradeoffs compared to more traditional Breach/Brain Freeze combo decks. Depending on the forms of hate you expect to play against, Dihada could range from a great choice to a very poor one. Nonetheless, there’s no denying that this Planeswalker Commander’s power and speed make it a scary option.
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