Magic: The Gathering's plane of Ravnica features ten ruling guilds, but some are more secretive than others. Each guild on Ravnica represents a two-color combination, and the House Dimir guild is the tricky mixture of Blue and Black. This guild has all the wits and intelligence of Blue and the scheming and leech-like nature of Black, resulting in a guild that is based on spying, controlling secret information, manipulation, blackmail and insidious plots. The House Dimir guild operates best in the shadows, and in the game, decks based on the group are flexible and make good use of card advantage to slowly get ahead.

Here's what you need to know about the House Dimir guild.

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Secrets And Lies

a dimir wizard in mtg

Blue mages deal with information and knowledge rather than creature power, while Black mages can drain the vitality from their foes in their schemes to gain ultimate power. House Dimir drains its enemies dry through memories and secrets rather than their life force, and this guild would rather not fight hand-to-hand in the process. The Gruul and Boros guilds love a good fight, but for the Dimir, fighting directly means something has gone wrong with the mission. If all goes well, no one will ever even know that House Dimir was on the scene at all.

House Dimir is all about lies and deception, and its leaders have created the very false impression that this guild is a feeble shell of its former self. Most Ravnica denizens dismiss the Dimir as a non-threat, which is the perfect cover for its operations. Everyone has let down their guard, and that allows Dimir rogues, shades, wizards and spectres to infiltrate enemy stronghold and minds alike. Once there, the Dimir can wipe anyone's memory of Dimir activity, or plant false memories to turn the other guilds against each other (or even create in-house strife). The Gruul and Boros would call the Dimir cowardly manipulators, but House Dimir isn't in it for martial glory; that's the business of simple-minded soldiers and thugs.

The Dimir are capable of going on the offensive, however. This guild has some powerful creatures in its ranks, such as vampiric Moroii, ancient vampires (who drain blood and thoughts alike) and large horrors that can take any variety of forms. These creatures can crush their enemies in ambushes and traps, draining their life essence or just eating them entirely. Naturally, not a trace of the victim is left; the Azorious and Boros won't have a paper trail or a blood trail to follow. The Dimir are not strong enough to take over all of Ravnica; no guild is. But they come close when they blackmail other guild leaders and officials, turn allies against each other or just assassinate prominent guild figures. If the Dimir need someone gone, then they're gone.

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Card Tricks

Normal card magic is based on sleight of hand and deception, and that's how Dimir decks play in the game, too. This guild first appeared in 2005's Ravnica: City of Guilds, and its mechanic was Transmute. Any card with that ability can be discarded with a mana cost, and then the player can search their deck for another card of the same converted mana cost (CMC) and put it in their hand. This is a flexible tutor ability that can keep the opponent guessing, embodying Blue and Black seamlessly. Instants, sorceries and creatures are the most common Transmute cards.

Gatecrash introduced the Cipher mechanic. Although this ability fell short in practice, its flavor is very Dimir. A sorcery with Cipher may then be exiled and encoded on a creature, and anytime that creature deals combat damage to a player, the Cipher spell is cast again, no mana required. Cipher cards can do anything from drawing cards to weakening enemy creatures and forcing opponents to discard cards.

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Finally, Guilds of Ravnica rolled out House Dimir's latest trick: Surveil. This mechanic is a graveyard-friendly take on Scry, where the cards that would go on the library's bottom end up in the graveyard instead. This sort of information manipulation is flavorfully Dimir, quite helpful and also a great enabler for just about every graveyard strategy out there. Instants, sorceries and creatures typically have Surveil. Sinister Sabotage, for example, is a counterspell that includes Surveil 1 (a Dimir approach to the Dissolve counterspell). Meanwhile, Dream Eater is a 4/3 flier that allows its controller to Surveil 4 when it enters the battlefield.

Aside from those particular mechanics, Dimir decks play defensively while developing a clever counter-offensive based on card advantage and removal. Counterspells, cantrips, hand control, spot removal and mill cards are all Dimir staples, and ideally, a Dimir deck will have more than one option for victory in the late game. Milling is a slow but inevitable way to win, or a Dimir deck can attack with unblockable creatures while keeping the opponent's own hordes at bay. Wall creatures are another trick of the Dimir, allowing players to frustrate enemy beaters with cheap bodies.

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