Silver Border Spotlight: Zimone and Dina in Casual Tournaments

Silver Border Spotlight: Zimone and Dina in Casual Tournaments

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Zimone and Dina card art from Magic: The Gathering (March of the Machine)

Image courtesy of Scryfall.com

Casual Tournaments and the Zimone and Dina Dynamic

Welcome, planeswalkers and casual-connoisseurs alike 🧙‍♂️. The world of silver-border play—where quirky, unofficial formats mingle with bright ideas and bold meme moments—offers a treasure trove of deckbuilding experiments. In that spirit, we turn our spotlight to a three-color powerhouse from March of the Machine: a legendary creature that thrives on card draw, life swing, and a little bit of land-based choreography. Even if you’re not pro-level tournament material, Zimone and Dina shows what happens when a card asks you to stack your draws, keep a lively board, and lean into your mana base with a wink and a nod 🔥💎.

What makes this trio of colors sing?

Set on the Tri-Color axis of Black, Green, and Blue (mana cost {B}{G}{U}), Zimone and Dina is a 3/4 legendary Human Dryad whose power lies as much in how you draw cards as in how you spend them. The core engine is simple on the surface:

  • Whenever you draw your second card each turn, target opponent loses 2 life and you gain 2 life. That I-can-see-two-cards-coming flavor creates a constant, satisfying life swing as the game evolves.
  • Tap: Sacrifice another creature to Draw a card. You may put a land card from your hand onto the battlefield tapped. If you control eight or more lands, repeat this process once.

In casual, silver-border-leaning play or any environment where rules are a touch looser, the second bullet becomes a spellbook for your whole plan. You’re building toward a draw-heavy engine—think of it as an orchestra where each instrument (your hand, your life total, your mana base) plays in harmony. The option to drop a land onto the battlefield tapped while you draw a critical card turns every sacrifice into a calculated exchange: you trade a critter for a card and a land, fueling your mana and your options on future turns. And if you’ve already got eight or more lands, that “repeat” clause feels like a little cheat code for dramatic turns where you chain draws and land drops back-to-back ⚔️🎲.

Flavor and lore fans get a neat breadcrumb trail here too. Zimone and Dina, a dynamic duo from March of the Machine, embody the fusion of cunning, nature, and collaboration. The art and story threads hint at a bond that can bend both the battlefield and the tempo of a match, which nicely mirrors how this card manipulates timing and resources in casual settings. The flavor hits you just as hard as the mana curves do, making a deck built around them feel like a story where every draw has a character moment 🎨.

Play patterns you’ll actually enjoy at your table

In casual play, the beauty of Zimone and Dina is that you don’t need to go full-blown combo to feel successful. You’re rewarded for thoughtful acceleration and careful sequencing more than for executing a single, fragile engine. Here are some actionable patterns to consider:

  • Maximize the “second card drawn” trigger. Pair Zimone and Dina with draw spells or cantrips (think blue cantrips, black rituals that replace themselves, or green card draw that also ramps your land). Each turn becomes a mini-pulse of life swing that pressures opponents and keeps you healthy as the board evolves ⚡.
  • Build toward eight or more lands, then leverage the land-drop loop. The possibility of repeating the “draw and land” portion of the ability fosters a deck that prioritizes land drops, ramp, and cheap fodder creatures to sac. The result is a late-game surge that can transform a board state in a single turn.
  • Include synergy through creature-taxing or creature-enabling elements. Since you’re sacrificing a creature to draw, you’ll want resilient bodies or token generators that don’t mind dying for value. Casual tables reward you for building a resilient, multi-turn plan rather than a one-turn shot.
  • Control elements to protect your engine. In a casual arena where border flavors are celebrated, you’ll want targeted removal, countermagic-lite, or bounce to buy time. The goal is to keep the board tempo comfortable while your plan negotiates the pace of the game.

Art, lore, and strategy collide here in a playful, nerdy way. Zimone and Dina’s three-color identity invites you to weave your mana base with fetches, shock lands, and other tri-color staples—while staying mindful of tempo. The payoff comes from those satisfying turns where you draw the second card, watch an opponent’s life total skid, and then nestle a land onto the battlefield as if you’re planting a serrated seed in the ground. It’s chaotic-but-precise, and that contrast is what casual formats adore 🧙‍♂️🔥.

Deck ideas and practical inclusions for casual tables

While the exact build will depend on your playgroup and how “silver-border” your table feels, here are a few practical anchors you might include if you’re leaning into Zimone and Dina as the centerpiece of a casual, multi-color strategy:

  • Multicolor mana acceleration: fetch lands and duals that smooth the B/G/U identity—or mana rocks that don’t clog your colors. You want to reliably hit {B}{G}{U} mana while keeping options open in the early turns.
  • Card draw engines: cheap cantrips and efficient draw spells that facilitate the second-card trigger without draining your tempo. A mix of draw-and-discard or universal draw helpers can keep your engine humming.
  • Life swing enablers: effects that reward you for gaining life or draining opponents, creating a momentum swing that keeps pressure on rivals.
  • Resilient creatures for sac fodder: bodies that can be sacrificed for value but aren’t essential to your plan on turn one. Tokens, dorks, or utility creatures can provide reliable sacrifice targets.
  • Mission control flavor: sympathy for quirky strategies—elements like non-traditional win conditions, design-space shuffles, and light-hearted sideboard options—help keep the vibe fun in casual play.

In a format that celebrates experimentation, Zimone and Dina offers a compact, flavorful lens into how multi-color design and card-draw economics can coexist with a little bit of risk and reward. The mythic rarity and distinctive art by Lie Setiawan also give collectors something to smile about, even when you’re just testing out ideas with friends. And yes, the price tag is friendlier than you might expect for a mythic—a reminder that cool decks don’t have to cost a fortune to spin big stories at the table 💎.

“Casual formats aren’t a failure arena; they’re a playground. Zimone and Dina is a perfect example of how a card’s text can inspire a whole session’s worth of decisions.”

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Zimone and Dina

Zimone and Dina

{B}{G}{U}
Legendary Creature — Human Dryad

Whenever you draw your second card each turn, target opponent loses 2 life and you gain 2 life.

{T}, Sacrifice another creature: Draw a card. You may put a land card from your hand onto the battlefield tapped. If you control eight or more lands, repeat this process once.

ID: bf2af874-1052-4cad-90ed-d80e49d4c68c

Oracle ID: 5bc66b18-22ac-4138-b527-fa711116e298

Multiverse IDs: 607328

TCGPlayer ID: 490663

Cardmarket ID: 704065

Colors: B, G, U

Color Identity: B, G, U

Keywords:

Rarity: Mythic

Released: 2023-04-21

Artist: Lie Setiawan

Frame: 2015

Border: black

EDHRec Rank: 8269

Penny Rank: 10437

Set: March of the Machine (mom)

Collector #: 257

Legalities

  • Standard — not_legal
  • Future — not_legal
  • Historic — legal
  • Timeless — legal
  • Gladiator — legal
  • Pioneer — legal
  • Modern — legal
  • Legacy — legal
  • Pauper — not_legal
  • Vintage — legal
  • Penny — legal
  • Commander — legal
  • Oathbreaker — legal
  • Standardbrawl — not_legal
  • Brawl — legal
  • Alchemy — not_legal
  • Paupercommander — not_legal
  • Duel — legal
  • Oldschool — not_legal
  • Premodern — not_legal
  • Predh — not_legal

Prices

  • USD: 0.34
  • USD_FOIL: 0.59
  • EUR: 0.50
  • EUR_FOIL: 1.09
  • TIX: 0.02
Last updated: 2025-11-16