The 34 Best Dimir Cards in Magic Ranked

Last updated on March 16, 2026

Satoru, the Infiltrator | Illustration by Heonhwa Choe

House Dimir is the most secretive of the 10 Ravnica Guilds – so secretive that the majority of Ravnica's population thought that there were nine guilds in total, and most of the few who had heard about the tenth dismissed it as a myth.

Masters of disguise, misdirection, and disinformation, the guild provides assassination services that they carry out with perfect planning and flawless execution.

Depending on the plane they come from, UB cards sometimes lack the ruthless elegance that is House Dimir's signature. In today's ranking, we find horrors, nightmares, and zombies that prefer brute force to an assassin‘s finesse. But at any rate, the best UB cards are always about getting the upper hand and ruthlessly extracting an advantage.

Let's check the best of the best, and find what the Dimir colors have to offer!

What Are Dimir Cards in MTG?

Fallen Shinobi | Illustration by Tomasz Jedruszek

In Magic: The Gathering, Dimir cards are those with blue and black mana symbols in their casting cost, like Baleful Strix. “Dimir” is one of the 10 guilds from Ravnica, each associated with a color pair. Since the guilds' introduction in Ravnica: City of Guilds, their names became the official designation for the color pair that each represents, regardless of whether the card is from a set taking place on Ravnica, or a black-blue card from a different MTG setting.

Specifically for the Commander format, Dimir cards have a wider definition: They are cards with a UB color identity. When you consider both their cost and their rules text, they include both the and mana symbols, but no others. There aren’t many differences between both definitions, but cards such as Rona's Vortex have an identity for EDH purposes.

In this ranking, we stick strictly with color identity. There are of course many amazing black cards, blue cards, or colorless cards that you can include in a Dimir deck, but we won't rank them here.

We will consider colorless artifacts when they generate mana or have in their activated abilities.

#34. Doctor Octopus, Master Planner

I think we could have handled a mana value of 8 with a way to reduce the cost on Doctor Octopus, Master Planner, and I like the cute maximum hand size increase. The real reason I rank this villain card is for the serious draw at your end step. With all the looting and discard outlets available in these colors the extra handfuls of cards will bury opponents.

#33. Krang & Shredder

Mill to exile makes Krang & Shredder especially devious, since it's virtually impossible for opponent's to get those cards back. Then tie it together with free cards that you've exiled for the mere cost of triggering disappear and you have an absolute target for your opponents to rally against or fall to.

#32. Kaito, Bane of Nightmares

Kaito, Bane of Nightmares is the only planeswalker ever with the ninjutsu ability, and one of the few that can attack as a creature, an ability usually present on Gideon planeswalkers. In this card, ninjutsu is a fine way to cheat this planeswalker into play by paying 3 mana and returning a good 1-drop to your hand. Once it’s in play, you can buff your ninjas, draw cards, and much more.

#31. Alela, Cunning Conqueror

Alela, Cunning Conqueror is one of the best possible faerie commanders, and with this card, you get a hell of an incentive to play cards on your opponent’s turns, fitting the faerie style perfectly. You’ll also have a loyal army of Faerie Rogue tokens by your side, so any typal buff is very welcome.

#30. Deceit

Deceit can a convoluted way to remove one permanent from the battlefield, but the incarnations are great in part for their flexibility. This gives you a solid jump on card advantage and is great at nearly any point in the game.

#29. Lim-Dûl's Vault

Lim-Dûl's Vault is one of the best ways to dig through your library and find the cards you need. Not as efficient as something like Vampiric Tutor, but a very good alternative that also lets you arrange your next few draws.

Note that every time you pay 1 life, Lim-Dûl's Vault lets you put the 5-card batch on the bottom of your library and look at the next five cards. That's to say, by paying 3 life you can dig 15 cards down, and keep the last five on the top of your deck in any order.

#28. Ringsight

Ringsight gets played in EDH as a fine way to tutor for a card if you have any legendary creature. And considering that it gets the most play in Commander, just by having your general around, 3 mana gets you anything you wish for (except colorless cards, in most cases).

#27. Singularity Rupture

Singularity Rupture has two powerful halves to it, a clean board wipe, and a massive amount of mill you can cause in the second half. It is an expensive spell, but a hugely impactful one.

#26. Mnemonic Betrayal

Quite often seen serving under Tasha, the Witch Queen‘s command, Mnemonic Betrayal offers a “what's yours is actually mine” effect similar to Thief of Sanity, but without the need to deal combat damage.

Mnemonic Betrayal pilfers from all graveyards. You only have until the next end step to cash in on your ill-gotten gains, though.

#25. Consuming Aberration

Consuming Aberration lacks Dimir's usual subtlety, but sometimes all you need to get the job done is something big and scary. And Consuming Aberration is plenty scary!

The first part of is quite straightforward: Our Aberration gets bigger the more crowded our opponents' graveyards are, which works very well with Dimir's tendency for milling its foes.

The second part is what makes Consuming Aberration stand out, though: Every time we cast a spell we mill all of our foes at the same time with an ability that doesn’t target.

#24. Ashiok, Dream Render

Rather than providing some incremental advantage, Ashiok, Dream Render shuts down anything that searches through our foe's library, from ramp spells and fetch lands to tutor effects.

Ashiok, Dream Render is a fairly popular tech card for Pioneer and Modern sideboards, and in Commander it plays very well with Umbris, Fear Manifest.

#23. Satoru, the Infiltrator

Satoru, the Infiltrator offers a new possibility in Dimir decks. You get to draw a card when creatures enter play via blink or ninjutsu, or even by using the plot mechanic. There’s a lot of value in this 2-drop, I’ll tell you that.

#22. Sire of Stagnation

Sire of Stagnation is huge when it hits, and getting to draw two cards whenever your opponent plays a land is huge. That aspect gives this huge Eldrazi a Consecrated Sphinx vibe, and it’s very good in EDH, mostly because you have more ways to draw cards, and people won’t be too keen on spending a removal spell on dealing with this guy.

#21. Diregraf Captain

Zombies are one of blue and black’s most played creature types overall, especially in EDH. Diregraf Captain is one of the best lords available, offering an added benefit each time a zombie dies. It can even be a win condition if you have an infinite sac outlet.

#20. Garland, Royal Kidnapper

Garland, Royal Kidnapper brings monarch into the game which is a fun on its own, but stealing the best creature from the monarch and making it stronger is too delightful for my devious plans. As much as I love steal and sac, this has grown on me.

#19. Fallen Shinobi

Although Dimir is one of Ravnica's guilds, it's a creature type from Kamigama that best embodies Dimir's modus operandi: ninjas.

Fallen Shinobi is among the best of the lot and provides us with a card that’s similar to Thief of Sanity (we get to skim off our foe's library whenever it deals combat damage) but with the ninjutsu twist: Any of our attackers could be swapped for Fallen Shinobi. And in this case, we can cast the pilfered cards without paying the mana costs, which is huge.

Very often seen under Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow's command, Fallen Shinobi is great for putting our opponents into tough spots, forcing them to go out of their way to block our small or elusive threats.

#18. Lord of the Nazgûl

Lord of the Nazgûl is one of the most popular Dimir commanders judging from decklists posted online. Getting 1/1 tokens when you cast instants or sorceries is good, but what about 3/3 tokens with menace? A good turn can yield you two to three tokens, and once you have nine or more, they become giant, game-winning threats. You can also fill your deck with wraith creatures like the Nazgûl and have a cool Mordor-themed deck, or play some boring changelings to fit the nine-wraiths threshold.

#17. Hostage Taker

Ossification, but in good Dimir fashion you get to cast the exiled card!

Hostage Taker is yet another twist in UB's fondness for turning our foe's threats against them. Note that if we cast the exiled card, we'll control the permanent even if our Hostage Taker leaves the battlefield.

#16. Thief of Sanity

Thief of Sanity is a good example of Dimir tools and methods: an evasive flier that provides an incremental advantage while pilfering from our foe's library.

When Thief of Sanity deals combat damage to a player, we can look at the top three cards of our opponent's library and put one of them into exile face down and the others into their graveyard. Adding larceny to milling, we get to cast the exiled card spending mana of any type, and we can do so even if Thief of Sanity leaves the battlefield or leaves our control.

#15. Silas Renn, Seeker Adept

Silas Renn, Seeker Adept is indeed a Dimir card, and a powerhouse in competitive Commander. But neither as a commander themself, nor as part of the regular 99ers: Silas Renn shines when partnered with Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh in Grixis decks. These decks often send Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh to fuel effects like Culling the Weak to work towards Ad Nauseam.

As long as you don't mind a bit of on top of your , Silas Renn, Seeker Adept is a top choice for a competitive EDH deck!

#14. Drown in the Loch

Whether in need of killing something off the board or sniping it while on the stack, Drown in the Loch’s got you covered.

Drown in the Loch becomes more and more powerful the longer the game goes and shines in Dimir EDH decks that plan to mill their foes, such as those under Captain N'ghathrod’s command.

#13. Notion Thief

One of the best rogues in MTG, Notion Thief is back-breaking against any deck that plays a big card draw spell by hammering home Dimir's “what's yours is in fact mine” motto.

#12. Baleful Strix

The cantrip-of-death bird, Baleful Strix is an amazing 2-drop for Dimir decks: One of those cards that’ll never flat-out win you the game, but will always come in handy.

It's also an artifact, offering synergies with the likes of Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge.

#11. Umbris, Fear Manifest

Umbris, Fear Manifest is one of the best horror commanders in MTG. It works nicely with Ashiok, Dream Render and other cards that exile our opponent's cards, like Leyline of the Void. But Umbris, Fear Manifest isn’t afraid of doing the heavy lifting itself by exiling from an opponent's library every time you play a horror or nightmare.

Black is known to be willing to pay any cost for power. In Umbris, Fear Manifest‘s case that would be about $8-$10, since it’s only been printed in Crimson Vow Commander.

#10. Satoru Umezawa

If you've watched one too many episodes of Naruto and wished you could run your own Ninja school… well, now you can!

Satoru Umezawa loves it when you fill your deck chock-full of ninjas; in that scenario, they provide a good amount of card filtering every time you activate a ninjutsu ability.

But Satoru's main trick is turning everybody else into rookie ninjas, letting you cheat huge threats just by paying . Load your deck with cheap and evasive threats like Slither Blade or Siren Stormtamer, sprinkle with the biggest Eldrazi bombs you have in stock, and just let Satoru Umezawa teach your foes what “cheap trick” really looks like.

#9. Captain N'ghathrod

If you want a horrific EDH deck, Captain N'ghathrod is your slam-dunk commander of choice. They buff your other horrors and turn them into horrifying thieves, also cheating mana in the process. Enough to turn any foe into Colonel Kurtz as you steamroll them!

#8. Anowon, the Ruin Thief

Lord effects are often enough to make a card worthy of consideration. Anowon, the Ruin Thief also turns your rogues into milling saboteurs and fuels your “opponents' graveyards matter” effects like Consuming Aberration.

Anowon, the Ruin Thief also provides us with Dimir's usual incremental advantage, but this time with a sort of Curiosity effect rather than letting us cast our enemies' spells. Note that you draw only one card regardless of how much damage your rogues deal to a player, though the ability triggers once per player dealt damage.

Anowon, the Ruin Thief sees nearly zero play outside of EDH, but in the multiplayer format it’s among the top 100 most popular commanders in any color combination, and close to top 5 among Dimir commanders.

#7. Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver

Shambling zombies, and a commander that loves sending fodder to their slaughter – name a more iconic duo!

Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver is one of the most popular commanders of any color combination, and the second most-popular in Dimir. The reason it’s not ranked higher is because Wilhelt sees no competitive play in any format (EDH excluded), but a zombie commander that can both generate sacrifice fodder and provide a sacrifice outlet for said fodder offers a lot of flexibility for casual decks.

#6. The Scarab God

Speaking of zombies, The Scarab God is a very flexible option for all your zombifying needs: One of the most popular Dimir commanders, an excellent team player as part of your 99ers (often letting Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver take the wheel), and as of late with some showings in major tournaments in Pioneer, Explorer, and Historic.

Graveyard hate (its activated ability can target any graveyard), card selection, recursion, life loss… The Scarab God has it all. Oh, and it's nigh-impossible to kill for good!

The only thing this bug-headed deity can't offer you is a cheap deal: A Commander Masters reprint has managed to drive The Scarab God‘s price a bit below $8-$9, but that's as low as it goes, and most other versions are a lot more expensive.

#5. Talisman of Dominance

Lands are obviously crucial to any MTG deck, but you'll often need some extra juice. Mana rocks are the most common way to squeeze that extra bit of mana to cast your big spells ASAP, and Talisman of Dominance is literally Underground River in artifact form.

#4. Dimir Signet

Dimir Signet’s no Arcane Signet. But as long as you have any other mana source lying around, Dimir Signet does such a good impersonation that it might just as well be!

#3. Psychic Frog

Psychic Frog is so good at what it does that it’s been banned in Legacy. It helps reanimator decks because it’s a free discard outlet while hitting your opponents with evasion and drawing cards. It’s also hard to block Psychic Frog due to the possibilities of pumping it, so it tends to get unblocked most of the time.

#2. Toxrill, the Corrosive

Toxrill, the Corrosive is another horror commander, although unlike Captain N'ghathrod it doesn't care too much about other horrors in your deck.

That doesn't stop Toxrill, the Corrosive from being a very versatile commander even in competitive settings, a very popular 99er, and able to make some forays into Pioneer and Standard.

Toxrill, the Corrosive‘s abilities provides a form of slow-burn board wipe that can do double duty as sacrifice fodder and card draw; notice that Toxrill creates a 1/1 slug whenever a slimed enemy creature dies for any reason, not just when the slime counters kill it.

#1. Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow

Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow is the fourth most popular Commander in the entire format, and has made some successful forays into Legacy.

Yuriko comes with a special variant of ninjutsu called “commander ninjutsu” that can be activated from the command zone: Since commander ninjutsu isn't the same as casting Yuriko as a spell, you don't need to pay the commander tax in this case, and playing Yuriko via ninjutsu won't increase commander tax to pay later.

In short, Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow will keep coming back for 2 mana, no matter how many times you think you've killed them.

And, needless to say, that second skill is devastating: Life loss to all other players plus card draw every time one of your ninjas connects will make quick work of any foes that cross Yuriko's path.

Best Dimir Card Payoffs

“Dimir cards” is so wide a category that we can’t really talk about “Dimir payoffs” other than pointing out the obvious: you get to play Dimir cards.

On the other hand, a Dimir deck doesn’t need to be composed entirely of Dimir cards. Most Dimir decks will have lots of black cards and blue cards, and those will tend to be the deck's win condition.  Culling the Weak, Ad Nauseam, Rhystic Study, Demonic Tutor, and Thassa's Oracle, for example, are among the strongest cards in Commander, and Dimir decks have access to all of them.

There’s an old saying that blue is so dominant in Legacy that being a blue or blue/black card is automatically good, because it can be pitched to Force of Will / Force of Negation. Similarly, Grief and Force of Despair are incentives to play black cards.

As a color pair with little natural ramp, The Darkness Crystal and The Water Crystal represent cost reduction with the theme of getting rid of opponent's options.

Cards like Bident of Thassa, Access Tunnel, and Aqueous Form are key in saboteur decks/faerie decks that want to attack with small and disruptive creatures. This way, you get a steady stream of card advantage.

What Is Dimir Good At in MTG?

In an article about the intricacies of designing MTG cards for the Dimir color pair, Magic's head designer Mark Rosewater wrote: “The thing that ties together blue-black is this sense is that it's getting incremental advantage at every turn. If any color combination is the poster child for the two-for-one, it's blue-black. What this means is that when you build a blue-black theme, you have to figure out how it's getting its incremental advantage.”

Black and blue also have access to a lot of evasive creatures, and Dimir excels at milling and exiling their opponent's library… often putting those cards to better use.

Last but not least, black-blue decks are adept at stopping enemy plans before they can hatch. Blue specializes in neutralizing threats while they're still on the stack (via counterspells). Black specializes in taking care of threats while they’re still in our foe's hands (via forced discards). And Dimir often takes things one step further by stealing enemy threats from the top of their library.

In fact, the Thassa's Oracle combo usually needs black cards like Demonic Consultation, Ad Nauseam, Vampiric Tutor, and the like.

Dimir is often seen as a Storm combo deck in Eternal formats, putting together cards like Ad Nauseam, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, and storm win conditions like Brain Freeze and Tendrils of Agony. Blue cantrips like Brainstorm and Ponder help you to dig the combo pieces you need, as well as up the storm count.

In most formats, Dimir is a control deck, or a “faeries tempo” deck. You’ll usually see this color pair together with blue’s counterspells and black removal/discard. You’ll need a good win condition or two to claim victory.

Another deck that Dimir is increasingly good at is theft. We can see that with cards like Xanathar, Guild Kingpin and Thief of Sanity.  

Wrap Up

Toxrill, the Corrosive | Illustration by Simon Dominic

And that concludes our ranking of best Dimir cards in MTG. I hope you've found the article interesting and inspiring for your upcoming black-blue plots and schemes.

If you have comments or questions about these rankings, do stop by the Draftsim Discord for a chat or ping me on the social network formerly known as Twitter.

And good luck out there!