BlackLegendary Creature — Elf WarriorNadier, Agent of the Duskenel
Mana value6Rank#11,167PartnerYes
The Commander
Whenever a token you control leaves the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on Nadier.
When Nadier leaves the battlefield, create a number of 1/1 green Elf Warrior creature tokens equal to its power.
Partner (You can have two commanders if both have partner.)
Guide
Gameplan
Nadier turns expendable tokens into a growing threat and a sacrifice engine: feed him tokens via aristocrats payoffs, grow him huge as they die, then when he leaves play he refunds an army of Elf Warriors. As a Partner commander he's almost always paired with a token-maker (most famously Brallin/Krark/Halana etc., but in mono-black he leans aristocrats). Turn to turn you spit out tokens, sac them for value and counters, and convert that engine into incremental damage and card advantage.
Strengths
- Built-in payoff for sacrificing tokens, doubling up with aristocrats drains
- Hard to truly remove since he replaces himself with a swarm equal to his power
- Partner lets you bolt on a second color and a dedicated token generator
- Rewards go-wide and grind-heavy strategies that opponents struggle to fully answer
Weaknesses
- Mono-black on his own lacks reliable token production—he wants a partner
- 6 mana and does nothing the turn he enters without a sac outlet online
- Counter growth is irrelevant if you aren't actually attacking or have no payoffs for big power
- Vulnerable to graveyard hate and exile-based removal that skips the death trigger
Key Cards
- Pitiless Plunderer — Each sacrificed token makes a Treasure, fueling explosive aristocrats loops alongside Nadier's counters.
- Bastion of Remembrance — Turns every token death into life drain, converting Nadier's sacrifice engine into a wincon.
- Skullclamp — Draws two cards off every 1/1 token while triggering Nadier, the best card engine in the deck.
- Ashnod's Altar — Free sac outlet that ramps and feeds counters onto Nadier every turn.
- Pawn of Ulamog — Replaces sacrificed tokens with more tokens, snowballing both Nadier and your board.
Upgrade Path
Pick a strong Partner that floods the board cheaply (a token producer in a second color) so Nadier always has fuel. Add free sacrifice outlets (Ashnod's Altar, Phyrexian Altar, Viscera Seer) and drain payoffs (Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat) to convert deaths into wins, then tighten the curve with cheap token engines and tutors like Diabolic Intent. For top-end power, build toward a deterministic loop—Pitiless Plunderer plus a free sac outlet and a token-replacement effect—to generate infinite death triggers.
Core Cards
The most-played cards for this commander, built from aggregated deck data (the Mythic Graph). Build public decks to seed it.
Win Conditions
- ▸Aristocrats drain via Blood Artist effects as tokens die en masse
- ▸Beating down with a massively oversized Nadier and his token army
- ▸Combo loops (e.g. infinite token sac with Plunderer/Bastion) for one-shot drain
- ▸Recurring board presence overwhelming opponents through grindy attrition
Archetypes
- Aristocrats — He's a free sacrifice payoff, gaining counters every time a token dies to your altars and drains.
- Tokens — Go-wide token armies feed his counters and rebuild after his death trigger.
- Partner Goodstuff — His Partner slot pairs with a token-generating commander to supply the bodies mono-black lacks.
- Combo — With sac outlets plus token-replacement effects he enables persistent aristocrats drain loops.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (B), by popularity.
