DimirLegendary Creature — Rat Ninja WizardNashi, Searcher in the Dark
Mana value2Rank#9,119
The Commander
Menace
Whenever Nashi deals combat damage to a player, you mill that many cards. You may put any number of legendary and/or enchantment cards from among them into your hand. If you put no cards into your hand this way, put a +1/+1 counter on Nashi.
Guide
Gameplan
Cheat Nashi into play with ninjutsu off evasive early creatures, connect for combat damage, and mill yourself to dig out legendary permanents and enchantments while growing if the mill whiffs. You build a self-mill/value engine that snowballs into a wide legendary/enchantment-matters board, then close with a big menacing Nashi or assembled combo.
Strengths
- Two-mana commander that can recast cheaply and provides repeatable card advantage off combat damage
- Menace plus ninjutsu makes connecting reliable and dodges single blockers
- Rewards a high density of legendary creatures, planeswalkers, and enchantments with free recursion from your graveyard-bin mill
- Self-mill enables reanimator and graveyard synergies as a bonus payoff
Weaknesses
- Card advantage is gated behind connecting in combat, so good blockers or sweepers shut it off
- Mill can dump bombs you can't easily get back if you lack reanimation
- Fragile body (2/2) that dies to most removal and must be redeployed
- Two-color Dimir lacks efficient ramp and struggles against fast combo without interaction
Key Cards
- Yuriko, the Tenured Humanoid — Another evasive ninja that loves the same shell and adds a punishing damage clock alongside Nashi.
- Ornithopter — Free flier that enables turn-two ninjutsu to drop Nashi in early and start milling.
- Enter the God-Eternals — High-value enchantment-adjacent payoff; more broadly, you want fat legendary/enchantment hits to recur from mill.
- The One Ring — A legendary artifact you can repeatedly return to hand off mills for protection and card draw engine value.
- Reanimate — Turns the cards Nashi mills that you can't grab into early battlefield bombs.
Upgrade Path
Prioritize cheap evasive enablers (Ornithopter, Faerie Seer, Slither Blade, Changeling Outcast) and protection (Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots) so Nashi connects every turn. Lean into the legendary/enchantment density with high-impact hits and add reanimation (Animate Dead, Necromancy) to capitalize on whiffed mills. Top-end the curve with tutors, The One Ring, and strong Dimir interaction to keep the engine online against faster tables.
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
- ▸Commander damage from a buffed, menacing Nashi or fellow ninjas
- ▸Grinding card advantage into a controlling, inevitable board state
- ▸Reanimating a finisher like a large evasive threat
- ▸Assembling a value or combo engine off recurred legendaries
Archetypes
- Ninjas / Tempo — Nashi is a ninja that wants cheap evasive creatures to bounce and reuse for repeated triggers.
- Reanimator — Self-mill fuels cheating big creatures back from the graveyard.
- Enchantress / Legends-matter — His ability specifically recurs legendary and enchantment cards, rewarding building around them.
- Value Control — Dimir interaction plus repeatable card advantage lets you grind opponents out.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (BU), by popularity.
