House Dimir, the secret guild of counter-intelligence, espionage, and assassination is the next guild I’ll review. A long standing member of The Guildpact members of the House Dimir have had their hand in nearly every major event that has happened on Ravnica, and are a central point to the current story as we return this fall to Guilds of Ravnica.
The House Dimir
If I were to play a Rogue or a Sorcerer in the upcoming Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica Dungeons & Dragons supplement my character would be from House Dimir. This guild reminds me a lot of The Night Masks which were running Westgate until they were found, and driven out. With the guild being tied to blue and black mana the colors are well represented here. Obtaining knowledge, and power at any cost are the two hallmarks of those colors which this guild represents quite well in the new set.
Surveil is the mechanic of the guild this time around, and it allows you to look at cards from the top of your library. and put any number of them into your graveyard with the rest going back on top. While it’s not quite Scry I think this mechanic will be quite powerful in the new Standard at the very least.
Thief of Sanity reminds me a lot of Nightveil Specter from the previous Ravnica set, but this is definitely different. Outside of the mana cost the card you get to select when you connect with this you will be able to cast even after this creature has been removed. The fact the card is face down, and you can cast it by using mana of any color fits the theme of the guild. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this come out of sideboards.
While no Thoughtseize, casting Thought Erasure early (or even a turn after casting Duress) could still really put your opponent behind, and if the card on top of your deck is one you can’t cast soon it can help you sculpt your hand a little. The fact you can pluck any card can help you take cards that may be difficult to handle (such as cards with Hexproof), or nonland permanents that could also be problematic (Planeswalkers for example). I could see this card played in Modern at FNMs to supplement other discard spells.
Control decks always need some type of evasive finisher, and Nightveil Predator is absolutely solid in that role. The only keyword it’s missing is Lifelink, but even without that your opponent may not want to block due to it having Deathtouch. As long as you have removal spells for your opponent’s creatures a few swings of this can put you ahead. This is also not Legendary, and if you want to play a Tribal deck this could support the Vampires from the Ixalan sets.
Control decks also want to draw cards, and while we do have Divination in Standard Notion Rain does a lot more. If the top two cards of your deck are not good you can put them into the graveyard, and draw two cards. For anyone who remembers Read The Bones that card was great for the quality of cards it could draw you, and outside of the mana cost this card is a little better. What this, and other Surveil cards also do, is fuel your Search for Azcanta. In the case of Notion Rain can add three cards to your graveyard getting you closer to finding Azcanta.
Now we get to the card that will be played the most in Standard. Sinister Sabotage, a very thematical card for the guild, comes from a long line of counterspells with similars costs. Cancel, Dissolve, and Disallow are all cards that have a similar cost, and this particular card may be the best among them all. A clean answer to any spell being cast, and the Surveil mechanic helps you fill your graveyard to transform Search For Azcanta as early as possible. For us Azorius Control players we will have to use this Dimir card until this coming winter, and hope we can cleanse our deck of influences from other guilds.
This card is crazy. Unmoored Ego is quite strong, and is another card I expect to see at Modern FNMs at the very least. Here we have a card where you can name ANY CARD. Yes. Even LANDS. So against Tron you can name Urza’s Tower, and get them all. Against multicolored decks that only have a few basics of a certain color you can try to deny that color that way as well. This will be quite a powerful card to watch.
This card may not look like much, but at four mana you can cast Connive, and take your opponent’s Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice as she is a 2/5. However Concoct is the card I’m looking at, even if it’s only a single card. This card can Surveil an Obzedat, Ghost Council to the graveyard, and put it into play for five mana. No granted Obzedat also costs five mana overall, but the Esper deck running Goryo’s Vengeance is mostly a Dimir based deck with a splash of white. Keep in mind in that you can cast one side, and then later on cast the other side with a card like a transformed Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy.
House Dimir has a lot it can offer, and it’s ability to manipulate the top of your library can unlock spells for you to cast when you need them. However unlike Boros this looks to be more of a support guild, but that also seems to fit the guild’s theme as it always tries to infiltrate some of the guilds to force it’s agenda.
There’s a look at the cards from House Dimir. Tomorrow I’ll take a look at the Golgari Swarm, and I’m sure there is a certain card you all are looking for my thoughts on. Until then are there any secrets that the Dimir gave us that I missed? Leave a comment below, and make sure to follow me on both Facebook as well as Twitter.
Until tomorrow…
TAP MORE MANA!!!
Scott Campbell, better known as MTGPackFoils, has been playing Magic since he was 17 (which was in 1993). He’s known for loving decks such as Azorius Control, Jund, and others (especially in Modern). He is a husband, father, and a former nightclub DJ.