The first deck I ever build was Dina, Soul Steeper. Over the year(s) I changed the deck constantly, especially since aristocrat decks are hard to balance. It also didn’t help I just started to learn deckbuilding. However, in its current state, playing the deck creates enormous amounts of fun. Constantly pinging your opponents feels amazing and you always feel like you have something to do. In this deck tech I will go over the deck as usually and give you an overview of my thought processes when deciding which cards to add or remove.

Before we go over the specific cards to include we need to introduce the commander itself. There are roughly three ways you can build her, two of which are focused on her first ability (whenever you gain life, each opponent loses one life). These are lifegain and aristocrat strategies. The third strategy focuses on her second ability and thus on +1/+1 counters. My deck is built around the aristocrat strategy, so when you read this guide keep that in your mind.

So, to damage our opponents we want to gain small increments of life. Therefore we include creatures that gain us life when other creatures die. They are especially powerful when they also drain your opponents, since in essence, this will double the effect of your commander. Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat, Vengeful Bloodwitch and Deathgreater are all perfect inclusions which are also not that expensive to buy as a bonus. In addition to the creatures I also included bastion of remembrance because it is a non-creature variant of this effect and it even makes a body to sacrifice later.

What we need next is a collection of cards that create repeatable fodder, so that we can sacrifice them. There are many options too choose from, but I searched for cards that make multiple tokens so that we can keep triggering Dina’s ability. Keep in mind that we do at most 2 damage each time, so a lot of tokens need to be made before we kill our opponents. Lately I start to like Ozox, the Clattering King for sacrifice decks. It keeps returning to the battlefield when you kill the token it makes. Another card that seemed to be made for Dina is Pest Rescuer. This card makes pests that you can sacrifice. Pestst are perfect tokens for Diana since they will drain your opponents. In the high-end category we have Beledros Witherbloom, it makes you pests each upkeep and will generate you lots and lots of mana.

And now for the cards that will let stuff die! Viscera Seer and Carrion Feeder are both instant inclusions since they give us an instant and free way of sacrificing our creatures. Of course the other Dina needed to be in the deck, first of all because I love strixhaven, but mainly because it gives us repeatable card draw while it also functions as a sac outlet. Another card that literally gives us anything we want is Ayara, First of Locthwain. When we talk about sacrifice outlets and card draw a card we definitely can not leave out is Skullclamp. In these weeny strategies it draws you so much cards that it seems a game changer, absolutely worth the cost.

There were a few slots open for cards that gain you life. Essence Warden drains your opponents faster than you would think. (do not forget it triggers with your opponents creatures as well). The card Greenhouse Propagator also functions as mana dork. Another fun addition in this category is Profane Memento, a simple 1 mana artifact that shines if your opponents are playing graveyard decks but even if they aren’t it is useful, especially since nobody wants to spend a removal spell on it. Combine this with the amount of tokens out there it will result in a lot of damage (Keep in mind that tokens go into a graveyard before they disappear).

Although the commander is cheap, it is good to have some back ups when it is removed once or twice and it becomes expensive to recast it. Starscape cleric drains your opponents and can come in with a copy of itself. Or you can choose to cast it when the commander is already doing its thing. When each lifegain trigger will do three damage to each opponent it won’t take long until you win the game. Bloodchief ascension is absolutely worth its money with Dina. That card does everything you want an is an absolute powerhouse. And, for some reason, it is one mana

Removal is relatively straightforward in this deck and depends on your preferance for edicts or removal spells. However, there are two cards that you should include for synergy, these are Witch of the Moors and Pest Infestation. Witch of the Moors is a relatively expensive 1 for 3 however, it can repeat the process each end step. If nobody has removal, it will basically wipe the board of players that play relatively few creatures. Pest Infestation is useful since it removes card types that usually are harder to remove in black and it creates pests you can sacrifice.

Deck Downsides

This Deck will trigger your sanity with the thousands of triggers to track. Be prepared to use your brain here!

Recent removal and feature adds

I recently removed Grim Haruspex from the deck. The main reason behind it was the fact that it did not trigger on creature tokens, which are the main creatures to die in my build. My feature adds are quite boring, as I wanted to include more and better duo lands.

Aristocrat decks are fun and I definitely would recommend building one. Do you have a favorite aristocrat commander?, let me know! The whole deck-list can be found here and I will see you in the next one :).