Neat deck idea!

Not sure how fast the decks you play againset are, but have you considered some lower to the ground dragons? These seemed somewhat interesting, most have colourless in their cost, for the potential discount. Bhaal's Invoker has 4 power, Silvanus's Invoker could be a maybe, Reckless Barbarian seems interesting, Dragon Egg deters people from wiping the board/attacking with bigger non-flyers, Scaled Nurturer is ramp and life, Korlessa, Scale Singer seems interesting, Chaos Dragon is effectively a 2/4 Haste Flying for 3 (it can't swing half the time, but it can still block), and while it's pricey Shivan Devastator can come down early or late.

I have a Quest for Ula's Temple deck which does some similar things, I liked Dreamscape Artist because it can reshuffle your library as needed, incase you don't have a relevant creature to work with on top. It's technically only 1 mana and a card to Harrow (you get back 2 untapped lands, so it can also helping mana fixing) Blue, and I could be wrong but I think your Commander wants the odd Discard outlet too. A worse (but still potentially useful) piece of Blue ramp is Apprentice Wizard, it's not as good as Dreamscape, it's like Worn Powerstone, which is a good rock if you want bigger ramp to potentially cast a big creature a bit sooner. Thran Dynamo and Gilded Lotus are big ramp rocks with decent ratios. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Cabal Coffers are pretty good together, if you have a lot of devotion to a colour Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx can help, Deserted Temple can untap any land that makes extra mana. Less rampy and more of a big Scry effect, Soothsaying is a neat card if you care about your deck order. Scroll Rack is better but costs more.

Just a general idea, you might throw in things like Reconnaissance Mission, Bident of Thassa, and Coastal Piracy along with some Unblockable or Shadow creatures (Thalakos and Dauthi are the Blue and Black tribes). You can also throw in stuff like Sword of the Animist, Dowsing Dagger  ^Flip, Prying Blade, Goldvein Pick, Grim Hireling, and any other attack payoffs you can find to generate more value over time. I understand you want a sea-monster theme, but you might want a way to draw some cards/get in some chip damage to soften people up. The only drawback to Shadows is that they can't chump block. If you really want your evasive creatures to be able to chump, there are some small flyers like Spectral Sailor and Thousand-Faced Shadow that have other upsides, these are risk free but are way less evasive than Shadows.

On that note, if you're worried about getting attacked you might look at Propaganda, War Tax, Flood, and Fatespinner are all great ways to make you hard to attack. Mass Diminish, Polymorphist's Jest, Sudden Spoiling, AEtherize, Aetherspouts are all great cards for people to fear.

Callous Oppressor is a funny repeatable theft effect, Ritual of the Machine and Helm of Possession can both steal stuff and are great with tokens, Thieving Skydiver can steal an artifact creature fwiw, Sower of Temptation is a so-so theft effect that shines bright if you can flicker or bounce it, Thalakos Deceiver is probably way better since he permanently steals whatever and can be reanimated, Inevitable Betrayal and Bribery are both pretty sweet.

The biggest (and perhaps best) theft effects are Mass Manipulation and Cultural Exchange, exchange requires bodies but can also be used aggressively to just ruin two players' boards.

Inkwell Leviathan, Lochmere Serpent, Spawning Kraken, Stormtide Leviathan, and Wrexial, the Risen Deep are some relevant creatures I use, some are better than others but there is nothing as bad as Sea Serpent or Bog Serpent, both cards I love but don't use.

If you like Whelming Wave, you might like Spectral Deluge as well.

Hope some of this helps, Big Dimir is a fun deck!

SufferFromEDHD I agree, Floodbringer sounds like a solid enough pick for Tatyova decks, I think I forgot about it because my deck is very picky about '1 mana land bounce' that goes infinite more easily.

Here are a few ideas, maybe something will work for you?

One of my favorite cards in Tatyova is Oboro Breezecaller, this can easily be made mana positive, which makes it very easy to go infinite with Retreat to Coralhelm, or to just make mana for you (it helps if you can untap a land that taps for 2, be it Temple of the False God, Guildless Commons, Simic Growth Chamber, or Jungle Basin there are better lands but these untap fine. Another old favorite of mine is Soratami Mirror-Mage, this is also mana neutral at worst (1 mana per land to bounce), and you get to bounce a creature via it. For a bit more money (but you require Islands), you could try Flooded Shoreline, this card is bonkers if you can replay lands/count on hitting 2 Islands. Finally, Tatyova probably shouldn't leave home without Gush, even without Mystic Sanctuary shenanigans it's still a very strong draw spell.

I could be wrong, but I feel like Gretchen Titchwillow is a better card than Zimone? Both are decent fits, but it's very hard to combo off with Zimone in my experience as the lands enter tapped, Gretchen lets you use spare mana to ramp/draw cards at the same time. I think you could easily justify both if you wanted.

At the moment Crop Rotation is pretty cheap, it's a very good card in Tatyova, if you replace a land with a 2 mana land like Temple of the False God you actually ramp yourself (right away with Temple).

Stone-Seeder Hierophant is a really good version of Lotus Cobra if you have lands that tap for more than 1, but it's also another budget Lotus Cobra either way. This card is much better on a higher budget (with stuff like Ashaya, Soul of the Wild especially, or Lotus Field/Lotus Vale), but it should do work here too.

A few more budget fetchlands you could run include Bant Panorama, Terminal Moraine, and Warped Landscape, any of these enters untapped and can find whatever land you want if you have nothing better to do with your resources.

If you've got a lot of lands (and tend to put out some tokens, but not an infinite number), The Great Aurora offers a weird-but-useful board wipe option. As long as you've got a decent board (and run more lands), you'll get enough lands that you aren't hurt very much, spikier decks that are thin on lands get hurt badly, while decks with too many tokens just draw themselves to death.

As Tatyova decks tend to have a fair bit of mana, you might look at Curse of the Swine, and/or Mass Manipulation. Another bigger mana card that can do a huge amount of stuff (almost anything you need really) is Primal Command, I use that and Elixir of Immortality to recycle my graveyard, but I tend to end up in infinite loops pretty easily, so YMMV without strong discard outlets like Mind Over Matter.

If you want a high budget card that has ridiculous synergy, you might take a look at the aforementioned Ashaya, Soul of the Wild, this makes all your creatures into lands, meaning any non-token creature that ETBs will draw you a card, but it also forms various combos. It's hard to find a card that Tatyova wants more in my experience.

It was mentioned already, but 40 lands isn't exactly a ton in Tatyova, you've also got a lot of creatures that benefit from having extra lands in hand. At 40 lands you are at a real risk of missing your 5th land drop, let alone your 6th to draw a card. I run 45, and I often feel like I should run more (keep in mind, at 45 lands you still only 'expect' to have 3.2 lands, so if you have even 1 less than normal you almost certainly have to mulligan, 40 means even more mulligans). In my experience, many ramp spells that normally are worthwhile just aren't in Tatyova when you could just run a land instead (and not have to pay mana for your land drop).

In budget decks I always want a Transmogrifying Wand, removal tends to help budget decks a lot more than higher power decks because it's usually harder for a budget deck to just 'go over the top' and win via brute force. GW is really, really good at removing stuff, it's a specialty of both colours at this point.

A few things I use in my Selesnya deck, which is also interested in tokens, might fit in here. Gigantomancer is a lot of mana to get out, but all buffs stack with 7/7 base p/t. Harmonious Archon is an unbelievably good card in a deck that can go reasonably wide, it makes everyone equal, meaning anything that gets even +0/+1 is suddenly terrifying, same with First Strike. Keeper of Fables is a big dumb version of Toski, Bearer of Secrets, but Toski is very much not budget. Soltari Visionary is a weird old card that can remove an enchantment each time it gets in for damage, and most people don't run any Shadows. Hour of Reckoning might work if most people don't run many tokens in your area. Shamanic Revelation is better in decks that don't have very big creatures but tend to have lots, Return of the Wildspeaker and it's ilk are better if you have a very tall creature. Abundance is great in budget decks where you might struggle to find enough card draw, it gets you more consistent value for each draw. Felidar Retreat might be a bit pricey, but getting a free +1/+1 counter on each creature matters more in a deck with tokens. Similarly, Idol of Oblivion isn't super cheap but it's a strong effect with token generation.

If you like Myriad Landscape, Blighted Woodland also exists, ramp on a land is really sweet, even if it's not the most efficient ramp (it enters untapped). Devout Witness is repeatable removal vs artifacts and enchantments.

There is an old cycle in Selesnya that's really useful in some cases, most of them are budget but the odd one is pricier (though not very). They all work on the principle that you give an opponent back cards from their graveyard to get access to a really strong effect. I've had good results with Spurnmage Advocate, Pulsemage Advocate and Nullmage Advocate, but take a look if you've got a few minutes. They're all from the Judgement set iirc, but some got reprints. One fun thing you can do with these is target something someone else was planning to reanimate/dredge with, there are a decent number of Magic cards that people play in EDH that they want/need in their graveyard.

Hope some of this is relevant/these aren't outside your budget! Good luck and have fun!

There is a 'famous' (by cEDH standards he's famous) named Charles, aka the Mono White Guy, and he often takes Mono-White to tournaments, yet he is a consistent performer, he even placed high with decks that skimp on mana rocks. He has a famous Heliod, God of the Sun deck built around making Vigilance even more useful via Stax. I'm not sure if an average cEDH player could do anything with his list without tons of practice, but obviously skilled players can do well with Mono-White at the most competitive tables.

Yeah, I think we're going to agree to disagree about GAF, but it's not something that's worth carrying on over. I'll leave you guys to your discussion.

FormOverFunction I'm always surprised at how fun it is to play with decks that actually play differently each time, where you might see the same card once or twice in long night, but often get to see the 2nd or 3rd string cards. Cards have to pull their weight in some fashion or they'll really stick out, just like in Gladiator. I'm not sure if I've picked the term '99 driven' up from elsewhere or not, but it wouldn't entirely surprise me at this point. It just seems to fit the bill for that concept I guess, maybe it would be a good Deck Tag someday?

You can always try to make your own meta I guess, and hope other people's interest is piqued in your area/online? In my idea of Casual play there are very few tutors, mostly decks uses them to have a way to close games if their board is consistently insufficient. Not everyone plays casual the same though, so you can still run into people who run very pushed decks (but obviously not cEDH capable) and call that 'casual', hopefully you can explain the situation if it isn't quickly obvious to them and they'll play something else.

In my attempt to build a Commander meta (I built 5 decks to playtest/have variance) I used Legends beaters as Commanders, meaning that you still get to have a figurehead Commander, but you get some of that Gladiator feel as the deck is very 99 driven. Combine unimpressive Commanders with 99 driven decks that don't use tutors (or use a small number of subpar ones, and only if they are absolutely necessary to find a win con for a control deck) and you get a new feeling meta. Technically it doesn't use any special rules or Rule 0 stuff, so I can loan decks for a game (or just play one vs a normal pod, hoping that Tobias Andrion avoids a bit of attention), I guess if your group liked your idea for a meta they might each build a deck to play games that way, who knows?

Not sure I mentioned, but I agree that just throwing in 'must attack' helps the card even if it's not like that in Yugioh, blocking is weird in Magic and it can deter attackers, which isn't entirely on flavor.

Not to be rude, but if you lose Trample on Ball Lightning the card goes from 'played nowhere' to 'what's worse than no play??', I'm pretty sure Trample is more important than Haste on it, you could print a RR 6/1 Trample that auto-dies after attacking, must attack and cannot block and it'd see some play, what you seem to be ignoring is that a turn 2 6/1 haste gets blocked by everyone's 1 drop, and without trample all your Burn deck did turn 2 is play a Red Doom Blade vs a 1 drop. If you're on the play, it's even worse, they might have a 2 drop with First Strike to just kill your Attack Force without risk, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is a pretty popular card in formats where people play Burn, or has been (she's a bit small/slow now).

There are other creatures you can compare it to in Red, and it doesn't compare well, vs pure creatureless control you'd rather have Goblin Guide, it's almost impossible to counter a 1 drop creature for most Control decks, so it gets on board and starts doing damage, and it'll quickly do more than 6 if they can't remove it for some reason. Vs a deck that uses creatures, Burn might want Vexing Devil, this is a 4/3 body (which is exactly as much total stats as a 6/1 btw) for only R, and many people are stuck vs it and just pay the 4 life, meaning WotC very much printed a R spell that deals 4 a lot of the time to players.

At 3 mana, if you wanted a better blocker than a 6/1 Haste for 2 mana, there is Mijae Djinn, which is a 6/3 blocker so it'll actually survive blocking some stuff, and it can technically swing for 3 on average which is fine for RRR if you're playing it mostly as a blocker, it trades with some fairly big drops. As an attacker, there was Ydwen Efreet, which gives you a super-beefy 3/6 attacker that isn't a great blocker, this sees no play either. Red doesn't want blockers, and cards need to be shockingly good to see play in Red Burn lists when stuff like Monastery Swiftspear can swing big turn 2 and 3 to just win the game, and that card costs under $.5 a copy.

Finally, there was also Keldon Marauders, a 2 drop that is a useful blocker the turn it comes out, but it hits for 2 just for coming and going, meaning you're getting a blocker, an attacker, and a shock for 1R, and this card is not a problem in any metas it's legal in, it's rarely played in Budget lists even.

For the record, actual Lightning Bolt is more or less a design mistake, but it's one that was so popular (and printed at common, and people had to pay serious money for that common in lots of cases because they were so popular) they couldn't quite get rid of it. As noted, Red can do more damage than that turn 1 sometimes, so while it's not obsolete they have printed higher ceiling stuff.

I would just use TCGplayer.com if I you want to search any Yugioh card. I leave a tab open because I search stuff so often.

Daveslab2022 While I certainly agree that Goblin Attack Force wouldn't fit into every meta, it's functionally pretty similar to Ball Lightning, only it's way, way worse without Trample, that's worth a full mana easily. Ball Lightning sees little (any?) competitive play in Modern I understand, so why would there be no card pools that you could print a 2 mana 6/1 Haste with a brutal downside when a 6/1 Haste Trample that also sacrifices itself if it didn't die somehow is probably not good enough. I don't even see Burn decks running Ball Lightning, I know I fiddle with it, but it's a swingy card that can cost you as many games as it wins, but I'm still not sure if I'd run Goblin Attack Force as suggested in my RDW/Burn Legacy deck, where I already have Ball Lightning, this can be chumped to death by anything, and while it can trade up it's also very easily neutralized due to 1 toughness, so any First Strike/Double Strike creatures just ice the thing, any pingers kill it, the smallest wipes kill it. I totally could agree that as a Standard card it couldn't be printed. I'd also agree that it wouldn't be improper if the card tapped itself when you attacked, incase you give it Vigilance in Boros which would be a huge flavor fail.

Ha! Ninja'd while posting! I agree with shadow63, it's very Ball Lightning-esque, and that's not a busted card.

Huh, I feel like Goblin Attack Force should be more durable while attacking, in Yugioh it might be a complete liability on defense, but it doesn't die easily on attacks, maybe it could start smaller and get a buff when it swings, or maybe even give it First Strike while attacking? Very cool idea though, a nice alternative to old staple Ball Lightning, with Goblin synergy instead of Trample.

It's really hard to think of 'on flavor' abilities for cards that openly had no abilities other than 'big dumb beatstick', most things that would reflect an especially brutal/effective creature are potentially out.

I wonder about something like Godsend, where its super good at killing anything that it damages, reflecting it's combat supremacy from LOB era, but it's not like Blue-Eyes does anything special with dead creatures, so I don't love it. That's why I like keywords, at least these are 'French vanilla', maybe just throw on a bunch of keywords to supplement? Dragon Tyrant was kind of the Magic equivalent of Blue-Eyes when it came out, it's incredibly big and comes with built in sacrifice (like Blue-Eyes). Tyrant combines Flying, Trample, Doublestrike and Firebreathing to make an extremely dangerous creature that still feels very 'French vanilla'. In Magic, there are Waterbreathing creatures (that use mana to gain +x/+0), and White has the odd one kicking around (I think every colour does ultimately), you could throw something like that on. I think First Strike would be more on flavor than Doublestrike for Blue-Eyes, but I like combining Menace with Flying (and the pro-weenies), it makes Blue-Eyes very hard and costly to block, but like in Yugioh it doesn't come with Fairy Meteor Crush stapled to it, so no Trample is on theme. Your Pro-Weenies reminds me of good old White card Infinite Authority, this card sees essentially zero play but it reminds me of the effect, since it's so hard on weenies. Authority as an ability would be pretty useful on a creature, definitely not sure if that'd be more printable than Pro-Weenies as you originally posted, but it'd be a nice ability that ends up feeling fairly simple/straightforward.

As for Legendary, the rules/lore there in Magic is very... irregular, and it doesn't make complete sense. IIRC in Yugioh there is only a certain number of Blue-Eyes (from the show?), so you could put a rule on the card 'there may only be X Blue-Eyes on the battlefield at any time', Star Wars CCG used to have permanents that you could have 2 or 3 copies of in play, in addition to stuff you could only have 1 of, the concept would work fine here too, only this could care about both players' boards. Too much hassles?

In regards to Dark Magician, there is a very big concern in regards to the second ability, with spells that either use more than 1 variable, don't use mana for one or more variables (and involve paying a non-mana cost for X), and that re-use the variable (spells costing XX or XXX) are all busted beyond words with it. I like the idea, but there are a lot of X spells that just giving them X=3 wouldn't work. I like the first ability to an extent, but I wish it was smaller/less mana, but it's a clunky Yugioh card so you're stuck making it huge.

I think I'd look for a Commander that comes with some card draw stapled to it in some way if you are starting out and want to limit budget, but one that also avoids undue attention. Good card draw tends to be very $$$, but stuff like Sygg, River Cutthroat can draw lots of cards even if people are just swinging regularly, the Commander rewards you for people losing life, a thing that happens as a matter of course. Dimir is really good at drawing cards, creature removal, and Blue is full of spells that can save your butt very easily, it's not just about casting a Counterspell, sometimes you want Aetherspouts. Blue can solve almost any problem (in theory), and do it at instant speed, I know when I was a new Commander player it bothered me quite a bit if I lost to a deck because I couldn't deal with some vulnerable lynchpin in their strategy, much more so if I don't run anything that solves it (and thus will always lose in that situation). Blue avoids that feeling better than any colour I'd argue, but it's also the hardest colour to play 'optimally'. The biggest weakness of Dimir is that your creatures tend to be smaller weenies or utility dorks, so you can't just go taller than a Gruul or Naya deck, especially on a budget, if you have an inner Timmy (a player who likes big, splashy cards to excess) Green is probably more your speed. Green also has lots of card draw, and has stupid cards like Squallmonger that are pretty budget, give that Deathtouch or Lifelink and you're in incredibly good shape, but what if you throw a Keen Sense or Snake Umbra on it? 2 mana and 1 life for 3 cards isn't bad for a budget deck, having something that'll clear out flying weenies can be priceless in Green.

Vs Burning Rune I guess you might not have a match, but you might look at the cards you can include to improve that situation. You might look at different piles even, but I honestly don't know what you're on so idk, I just know that a lot of decks can make more use out of Burning Rune vs Rune Scarred because the graveyard isn't a prison.

The difference between Rune-Scarred and Eternal Witness is that E-Wit is very little total mana, and you can use it reliably early, but using Rune is awkward and always late, there is not a situation in which you can use it early period, it doesn't have Cycling, it doesn't have anything but 7 mana Demonic Tutor and body that will almost certainly not matter by the time people have 7 mana. If Rune-Scarred came on a 1/1 body, it might be a good spell, but on a 6/6 flyer you almost certainly want to be doing something else.

DemonDragonJ honest question, but would you seriously play a 5 mana 6/6 Flyer with no other abilities in Commander? And it's got a subtype that doesn't have oodles of payoffs/synergies, it's not an Elf/Goblin/Zombie? Probably not, we want more than just a body usually, even if a cheap 6/6 would be worth 'a card' in an average meta, there are still much better cards. So, if that 5 mana card probably isn't worth it, does the card get better when you tack on a Demonic Tutor for full cost? 7 mana for both effects sounds like a bad card to me, one that I'd expect to pay under $1 for, not one that's closer to $10. As noted, it's hard to cast early (and most people want tutors in decks that are fairly competitive), while also being hard to follow up with another spell as it's 7 mana, so whatever you tutored could end up discarded depending on your meta, and if it's a 'has an effect next turn' type card then you're going to be waiting 2 turns to get actual value. Why wouldn't you just run something that actually changes the board state for 7 mana, like Necromantic Selection? You get a wipe and you get back the best body, that's usually better than a 6/6 flyer in my book, ymmv and if it does you can certainly run Rune-Scarred. I feel like it's a lot easier to build around board states happening where you care about a Wipe Plus vs care about a 6/6 Flyer.

Out of curiosity, why run Rune-Scarred Demon over Burning-Rune Demon? You get access to 2 cards, lots of decks care a bunch about the graveyard, it's quite possible to dig out two cards where both are good wherever they end up, and it's less mana for the same 6/6 Flyer, why run Rune-Scarred and have to wait yet another turn hoping for another land drop?

I will say, I often prefer 'do more' tutors like Primal Command (I literally play it in my Legacy Elves deck as a 'solve the problem' type card), but I'm not sure getting a 6/6 flyer for 5 more mana is really a great deal on that scale, especially when you could get either 2 cards or a Deathtouch creature for less mana. It might be overstating things to call Rune-Scarred a 'bad card', but I don't think it's an especially good one, and if I spend more than $2 for a card I expect some pretty impressive stuff at this point! What qualifies as impressive varies by format obviously, but even in Legacy there are budget cards that make the cut. What doesn't make the cut though, even in Reanimator decks, is Rune-Scarred Demon, there are wildly better things you can be doing, and Commander has almost all of them in it's card pool.

Your Blue-Eyes is neat, but in this age and day 8 mana for an 8/6 Flying Menace is pretty 'meh', Baneslayer is a joke in Commander, 8 drops see play in Commander if anywhere, and I feel like this isn't impactful enough for a 'play and wait' card. I feel like you ought to throw something else in, but I'm not sure what. Akroma Angel of Wrath is a circa 2003 8 mana 6/6 that comes with 7 keywords, including 2 Protection From effects that cover a lot of removal, Blue-Eyes costs 8 as well, is harder to cast, and you get an 8/6, but you only get Flying and Menace with Pro <4 Creatures only, I suspect even when Blue-Eyes was a new Yugioh card his Magic equivalent should do something more. Maybe Ward or Protection from Instants/Sorceries?

I mostly talk about Blue-Eyes because I used to play a Blue-Eyes deck, it was lots of fun and eventually was one of the best decks in my small meta (I played until Paladin of Blue Eyes was new). That said, the cards I loved the most from Yugioh were the big juicy 'pay life' cards, stuff like Mirror Wall could be devastating (better than Mirror Force if you have a reasonable board!), Solemn Judgement was insane, both were cards people in my meta hated because you paid life (they never noticed that Mirror Wall was a Trap card or something idk, I had played Magic before at least), these were among my favorite cards, at least I got my Judgement really easily, they thought it was a terrible card, I mean, half your life for a better Force of Will, who would play THAT poop tier card (I obviously would lol)? Also, we need Goblin Attack Force as a Magic card, I refuse to settle for a mere Muxus, I want a hardcore gang of Goblin shock troopers that come in and beat serious face, then get lost on the way back home, I guess we'll always have Spectral Bears?

Vessiliana it's always a treat to take a look at your decks, it's clear a lot of effort goes into them!