Dismiss into Dream is an Enchantment card from Magic the Gathering’s 2014 Core Set, which introduced a great many new Enchantments into the game. While its seven mana casting cost made it extremely clunky for competitive play, it has a powerful effect that Commander players can easily take advantage of, especially now in 2022. What does it do?

Each creature your opponents control is an Illusion in addition to its other types and has “When this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability, sacrifice it. 

You’re never going to see this card anywhere outside of a Commander deck, as it doesn’t actually affect the board itself in any way. But, its static ability to make every opponent’s creature instantly sacrificed to any targeted spell or ability makes it a key component to several Commander strategies.

Very early in this card’s life, Dismiss into Dream found a home in Commander decks that have a Commander with a targeted ability. These included the very popular Red/Blue Commanders Nin, the Pain Artist and Niv-Mizzet the Firemind. Niche Mono-Blue Commanders such as Blind Seer, Aboshan, Cephalid Emperor, and Reveka, Wizard Savant all saw their typically under-powered target abilities become instant removal. 

The most popular Commander deck choice for Dismiss into Dream back in 2013 was Derevi, Empyrial Tactician, whose ability to tap opponent’s creatures made it a popular choice for tempo style decks. Now, Derevi’s ability would remove the targeted creature instead, dramatically increasing that Commander’s power level.

Most importantly, because the creature is sacrificed, indestructibility doesn’t matter. Best of all, any attempt to give a creature shroud or hexproof would fail if it were a spell that targeted. Only cards that give all of your creatures protection from spells can stop Dismiss into Dream’s powerful effect.

Of course, having a mana value of seven, it’s so high on pretty much any deck’s mana curve to be a consistent part of any strategy. So, it’s unsurprising that many players truly did Dismiss this Enchantment. 

In 2022, however, there are two recently released Commanders who immediately began to include Dismiss into Dream into their decks. The first is Kros, Defense Contractor, a new Legendary Creature exclusive to the New Capenna Commander products. His ability allows you to put a shield counter on a creature an opponent controls. With Dismiss into Dream in play, that creature will immediately be sacrificed instead. 

However, Kros’ ability with shield counters is good enough without Dismiss into Dream in play. Whenever you put one or more counters on a creature you don’t control, you tap that creature and goad it, as well as gaining trample until your next turn. Essentially, if you don’t have Dismiss into Dream in play, you’re going to be using opponent’s creatures against them. Also, Kros has creatures with many targeted abilities in the deck; plus, effects that trigger whenever you put a counter on a creature you don’t control still activate even if Dismiss into Dream then sacrifices that creature.

The other perfect home for Dismiss into Dream are decks led by Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty’s Hinata, Dawn- Crowned. This Blue/Red/White Legendary Creature has an ability that makes spells you cast cost one generic mana less for each target, while also increasing the cost of opponent’s spells by one generic mana for each target. Naturally, the entire deck is based on spells and abilities able to target multiple creatures. With Dismiss into Dream in play, every one of those spells and abilities literally read “sacrifice those targets.”

Of course, there’s one problem with Dismiss into Dream in either of these strategies. While it’s a perfect card for those strategies, you’ll have to spend seven mana at some point to put the Enchantment into play. That often means taking an entire one of your turns just to put it out, and without some way to protect it, Dismiss into Dream becomes an easy target for opponent’s removal. Granted, Hinata makes it a bit more costly for opponents to remove anything, Enchantments included; Kros and his decks don’t have that synergy.

Although Dismiss into Dream is not a cheap card to put into play, it’s a relatively cheap card to acquire for your collection. Near-mint copies have sold for as much as $3 USD in June of 2022, although lightly played copies can be had for much less. While it doesn’t win the game on its own, it gives some decks, particularly Kros and Hinata decks, a powerful tool in taking over the board state. Dismiss into Dream may not come down every game in these decks. But, if your opponents don’t have an immediate answer for it when it does, suddenly a seven-mana investment will look cheap for the amount of creatures your opponents will have to sacrifice.

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