Zimone And Dina Combos

Zimone And Dina Combos

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In the world of Magic: The Gathering, powerful commander combinations can open the door to highly efficient and creative gameplay strategies. One standout example is the partnership between Zimone and Dina, a legendary creature card released in the March of the Machine: Commander set. This Simic-Golgari duo blends card draw, life gain, and sacrifice into a versatile engine capable of fueling explosive turns. Whether you’re a casual player or a competitive EDH enthusiast, understanding the best Zimone and Dina combos can elevate your deckbuilding and gameplay to the next level.

Understanding Zimone and Dina’s Abilities

What Makes Zimone and Dina Unique?

Zimone and Dina are a hybrid commander pair that excel in synergy. Their combined abilities allow for resource generation in the form of life and card draw, while also enabling land plays and sacrificing creatures. Their most notable ability reads:

  • Whenever you draw your second card each turn, each opponent loses 2 life and you gain 2 life.
  • They also have an activated ability: Tap and sacrifice another creature to draw a card, then you may put a land from your hand onto the battlefield tapped.

This ability opens up a wide range of combo potential, especially when combined with cards that generate tokens, extra card draw, or infinite loops.

Core Synergies for Zimone and Dina

Token Generators

To maximize Zimone and Dina’s activated ability, you need creatures to sacrifice. Token generators are the most efficient way to create expendable bodies for the engine. Great cards include:

  • Avenger of Zendikar– Creates Plant tokens equal to the number of lands you control.
  • Awakening Zone– Provides a constant flow of Eldrazi Spawn tokens.
  • Verdant Force– Produces a 1/1 Saproling at every upkeep.

Draw Engines

Zimone and Dina reward you every time you draw your second card in a turn. Adding cards that enable consistent drawing ensures their passive ability triggers regularly. Key options include:

  • Guardian Project
  • Beast Whisperer
  • The Great Henge

These synergize well with creature-based strategies and keep your hand full, while also triggering Zimone and Dina’s lifegain-drain effect.

Land Ramp and Landfall

Since Zimone and Dina can put lands onto the battlefield directly, adding land ramp effects increases your board advantage and feeds into landfall synergies. Cards to consider include:

  • Exploration
  • Azusa, Lost but Seeking
  • Rampaging Baloths– Combines landfall and token creation.

Best Zimone and Dina Combos

Combo 1: Intruder Alarm + Token Production

This combo involves:

  • Intruder Alarm– Creatures do not untap during their controller’s untap step. Whenever a creature enters the battlefield, untap all creatures.
  • Any free creature sacrifice outlet or token producer, likeSquirrel NestorSpawning Pit.

By combining Intruder Alarm with token generation and Zimone and Dina’s ability to sacrifice creatures to draw cards, you can continuously untap them and loop the ability. This results in infinite card draw, land plays, and life drain if you trigger their second card draw clause each loop.

Combo 2: Peregrine Drake + Deadeye Navigator

This classic mana-positive combo works beautifully here:

  • Peregrine Drake– Untaps five lands when it enters the battlefield.
  • Deadeye Navigator– Soulbond with Drake and blink it for 2U.

Each blink untaps five lands, gaining more mana than spent. With enough mana, you can activate Zimone and Dina repeatedly, draw cards, drain life, and deploy lands at will. Combine this with a payoff likeLaboratory ManiacorPsychic Corrosionfor alternate win conditions.

Combo 3: Pitiless Plunderer + Gravecrawler

This combo takes advantage of sacrifice loops:

  • Pitiless Plunderer– Grants a Treasure token whenever another creature dies.
  • Gravecrawler– Can be cast from your graveyard if you control another Zombie.
  • A Zombie support card– LikeDiregraf CaptainorRelentless Dead.

Use the Treasures from Pitiless Plunderer to recast Gravecrawler infinitely while triggering Zimone and Dina’s activated ability to draw cards and gain lands. This also feeds life-drain effects and potential combo finishes likeBlood Artist.

Supporting Cards for Enhanced Efficiency

Mana Acceleration

To fuel all these combos, you’ll need efficient mana. Include mana dorks and rocks such as:

  • Llanowar Elves
  • Birds of Paradise
  • Sol Ring
  • FarseekandNature’s Lore

Win Conditions

Drawing lots of cards and gaining incremental life is powerful, but you’ll need solid finishers to win. Options include:

  • Aetherflux Reservoir– Gain life and one-shot opponents once over 50 life.
  • Thassa’s Oracle– Win with an empty library if you draw your deck.
  • Exsanguinate– Drain all opponents with large amounts of mana.

Tips for Playing Zimone and Dina in Commander

Balanced Deckbuilding

While it may be tempting to go all-in on combos, building redundancy and flexibility will keep your deck strong. Include removal, board wipes, and interaction to respond to threats while assembling your engine. Cards likeAssassin’s TrophyandBeast Withinare versatile tools for any green-black deck.

Political Presence

Because Zimone and Dina often operate by setting up slow engines rather than quick wins, you can position yourself politically as a non-threat early on. This gives you time to build up value, develop your board, and prepare for a powerful combo turn later in the game. Use this to your advantage in multiplayer formats.

Graveyard Synergy

The ability to sacrifice creatures repeatedly means your graveyard will fill quickly. Use this to your benefit by including recursion and flashback spells. Key cards to consider:

  • Eternal Witness
  • Reanimate
  • Life from the Loam

Zimone and Dina offer a rich toolbox of synergies and combos in the Commander format. Their unique abilities open the door to life drain, card draw, land acceleration, and creature sacrifice strategies all at once. Whether you aim to win with infinite loops, overwhelm the board with tokens, or slowly drain your opponents’ life, the potential for creative deckbuilding is immense. With careful planning, combo optimization, and strategic gameplay, Zimone and Dina can be a dominant and highly enjoyable commander pair in your collection.