Welcome back!
Thanks for reading. Today, on the highest of holy days, we’ll be reviewing Dina, Essence Brewer.
Dina, Essence Brewer
{1}{G}{B}
Legendary Creature - Dryad Druid
Whenever you sacrifice a creature, draw a card. This ability triggers only once each turn.
(2),(T), Sacrifice another creature: You gain X life and put X +1/+1 counters on target creature you control, where X is the sacrificed creature’s power.
Power: 2 Toughness: 3
Dina is very interesting to me because of the incredible similarities between her Secrets of Strixhaven and Original Strixhaven versions. Most of the other Strixhaven Five (a polite nod to the Llorwyn Five, the original planeswalkers that dropped in the first Llorwyn set: Liliana, Jace, Chandra, Garruk, and Ajani) are completely distinct from their old versions. Sure, they might have a mechanic or two, but the tale of two Dinas needs to be studied. So, in this card review, instead of reviewing what pieces you should play in the Dina, Essence Brewer deck, I’ll break down the difference between the two cards and what that means for play.
But to do that, let’s take a quick look at Dina, Soul Steeper:
Dina, Soul Steeper
{G}{B}
Legendary Creature - Dryad Druid
Whenever you gain life, each opponent loses 1 life.
{1}, Sacrifice another creature: Dina gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is the sacrificed creature’s power.
Power: 1 Toughness: 3
What is so interesting to me about the two Dinas is how they both manage to maintain the same archetypes, yet accomplish them in very different ways. It allows for either card to exist in the 99 of the other, or they could swap in for each other as the Commander. A real parent trap for any deckbuilders expecting to craft around her. To cut through the similarities, here are the most immediate differences:
EB Dina requires commitment to use her ability: not only does her ability require tapping her down, making her attacking and using her ability a non-option, but tying card draw to sacrificed creatures demands a more Aristocrats archetype, whereas SS Dina can enable Aristocrats as a sac outlet, but otherwise doesn’t provide much value.
While EB Dina and SS Dina can both theoretically engage in a Voltron backup strategy, SS Dina is the clear choice. Not only does she allow you to bring down the life total of the entire table, but her ability also doesn’t require her to be tapped, meaning it can be activated while she’s attacking. I think this is hinted at by having SS Dina empower herself with the activated ability, while EB Dina can give counters to anyone.
The difference in mana costs causes EB Dina and SS Dina to have somewhat different play patterns. Because SS Dina is only two mana, ideally, you can cast a two-mana creature to sacrifice to her ability and have enough mana left over to use the ability in the same turn. Meanwhile, EB Dina requires two mana on top of her 3 cost, meaning you are incentivized to do more setup to make sure you a) have enough mana to use the ability once summoning sickness wears off, and b) can cast creatures to sacrifice to Dina AND have a creature to give counters to. You could just give them to Dina, but if she’s going to be tapped after using her ability, it might not always make sense to do that.
I feel like I’ve been heavily critical of EB Dina, so let me give her some flattery: the addition of +1/+1 counters to the Dina repertoire is huge. Not only does it provide a more permanent boost in power, but it also opens the door to a ton of toys that both Black and Green enjoy when it comes to +1/+1 counters.
Those are the key differences I noticed, and I think they can be summarized as follows:
Dina, Essence Brewer, is a Commander that provides you more options for power and effect, whereas Dina, Soul Steeper, is a Commander that provides more flexibility in timing and commitment to the board.
As for what cards to pick for EB Dina, something I want to see more of is not lifegain synergies or +1/+1 counters strats, but something to do with self-death triggers. This was the rich vein I really enjoyed playing into with Henzie “Toolbox” Torre (here’s the decklist for my modified precon) because it meant that your sacrifice triggers always came with goodies. But don’t trawl through the EDHREC page for Henzie, just use this Scryfall link instead > > >
That’s all for this post. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next week with a review of the next Secrets of Strixhaven commander!