The Commander
Whenever you gain life, each opponent loses 1 life.
, Sacrifice another creature: Dina gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is the sacrificed creature's power.
Guide
Gameplan
Dina turns every lifegain trigger into a Drain effect, so you build a board of cheap lifegain engines and recurring sacrifice fodder to bleed all opponents simultaneously. You play a value-oriented Golgari aristocrats game in the early turns, then convert incremental lifegain into lethal damage across the table.
Strengths
- Cheap two-mana commander whose lifegain-to-drain trigger scales hard with go-wide lifegain
- Golgari gives premium recursion, ramp, and sacrifice outlets
- Punishes the whole table at once rather than single-target damage
- Multiple low-cost combo lines exist for fast wins
Weaknesses
- Heavily commander-dependent; Dina dying repeatedly slows the engine and raises tax
- Removal-light colors struggle against fliers and resilient threats
- Needs lifegain triggers to flow—creature-light hate hands can stall the drain
- Combo lines are vulnerable to graveyard hate and instant-speed interaction
Key Cards
- Soul Warden — Each creature entering triggers lifegain, which Dina converts into table-wide drain.
- Essence Warden — A second Soul Warden effect that doubles your per-creature drain triggers.
- Blood Artist — Stacks with Dina so each death drains and gains, multiplying triggers in token decks.
- Cathars' Crusade — Pairs with Soul Sisters and tokens to amplify both bodies and lifegain triggers.
- Bolas's Citadel — Lets you play off the top while paying life, and combos with lifegain loops.
- Pitiless Plunderer — Generates Treasure on each death, fueling sacrifice loops and combo mana.
Upgrade Path
Lean into a dedicated infinite combo such as Kitchen Finks or Murderous Redcap with a persist enabler and a Soul Sister to drain instantly. Add fast mana and tutors (Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Diabolic Intent) to assemble pieces consistently, and include protection like Lightning Greaves to keep Dina online. Tighten the curve with efficient sac outlets (Viscera Seer, Carrion Feeder) and recursion (Phyrexian Reclamation) for a resilient, lower-to-the-ground engine.
Core Cards
The most-played cards for this commander, built from aggregated deck data (the Mythic Graph). Build public decks to seed it.
Win Conditions
- ▸Infinite lifegain loop (e.g., persist creature + sacrifice outlet + Soul Warden) draining all opponents
- ▸Incremental aristocrats drain from Dina, Blood Artist, and Zulaport Cutthroat
- ▸Wide token board converting ETB lifegain into lethal table-wide damage
- ▸Voltron finish pumping Dina via sacrifice with evasion as a backup
Archetypes
- Aristocrats — Sacrifice outlets plus Blood Artist effects and Dina's drain punish the table on every death.
- Combo — Soul Sisters plus token-doublers or persist loops create infinite lifegain that drains everyone out.
- Tokens — Go-wide creatures feed both lifegain-on-ETB triggers and Dina's sacrifice ability.
- Lifegain — Dina rewards stacking incremental lifegain by turning it into multiplied opponent life loss.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (BG), by popularity.
