EsperLegendary Creature — Zombie WizardNevinyrral, Urborg Tyrant
Mana value6Rank#14,997
The Commander
Hexproof from artifacts, creatures, and enchantments
When Nevinyrral enters, create a tapped 2/2 black Zombie creature token for each creature that died this turn.
When Nevinyrral dies, you may pay 
. When you do, destroy all artifacts, creatures, and enchantments.
Guide
Gameplan
Nevinyrral, Urborg Tyrant is an Esper aristocrats/control commander that turns mass death into an army and a board wipe. You sacrifice or kill creatures to flood the board with tapped Zombies on his ETB, then sacrifice Nevinyrral himself to trigger a Nevinyrral's Disk-style wrath that you've stacked to leave your tokens behind. Recur him repeatedly to grind opponents out while building toward a wide finish.
Strengths
- Built-in repeatable board wipe that you can sequence to keep your own tokens
- Generates immediate value/blockers by punishing combat and sweepers
- Hexproof from artifacts, creatures, and enchantments makes him hard to remove via the most common removal
- Esper colors give the best reanimation, tutors, and control tools to abuse his ETB/death triggers
- Excellent at the helm of aristocrats shells that already kill creatures constantly
Weaknesses
- Six mana and fragile to sorcery-speed removal, edicts, exile, and -X/-X effects he isn't hexproof from
- ETB does nothing if no creatures died that turn, so timing matters
- His death trigger destroys YOUR nontoken creatures and artifacts too, requiring careful setup
- Color-intensive three-color manabase
- Indestructible and recursion-heavy opponents blunt the wrath
Key Cards
- Grave Pact — Forces opponents to sacrifice whenever your creatures die, fueling Nevinyrral's ETB and disrupting boards.
- Reveillark — Recurs Nevinyrral and other small creatures, enabling repeated ETB Zombie waves.
- Phyrexian Altar — Lets you freely sacrifice Nevinyrral and creatures to retrigger his abilities and ramp into recursion.
- Dictate of Erebos — Another Grave Pact effect that maximizes creature deaths each turn for bigger Zombie hauls.
- Ashnod's Altar — Free sac outlet that converts dying creatures into mana and triggers Nevinyrral's death wrath on demand.
- Reanimate — Cheaply returns Nevinyrral to replay the ETB after he's been sacrificed for the board wipe.
Upgrade Path
Add free sacrifice outlets (Ashnod's Altar, Phyrexian Altar, Carrion Feeder) and cheap reanimation (Reanimate, Animate Dead, Unearth) to loop his triggers efficiently. Stack Grave Pact effects and aristocrat payoffs (Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat) so every death and wrath drains the table. Tighten the manabase with fast mana and dual lands, and lean on Toxic Deluge and tutors like Demonic Tutor to find your engine pieces faster.
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
- ▸Go wide with Zombie tokens plus an anthem or overrun effect like Cathars' Crusade or Craterhoof Behemoth
- ▸Grind opponents out with repeated board wipes until they run out of resources
- ▸Aristocrats drain via Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat, and Bastion of Remembrance off mass deaths
- ▸Combo with a free sac outlet plus recursion (Reveillark/Phyrexian Altar) for infinite tokens or drains
Archetypes
- Aristocrats — Sacrifice synergies feed his death-counting ETB and let you sequence his wrath while keeping your tokens.
- Reanimator — Esper recursion lets you replay Nevinyrral repeatedly for value ETBs and on-demand sweepers.
- Control — His repeatable board wipe plus Zombie blockers anchors a grindy attrition game.
- Tokens — The tapped Zombies build a wide army that survives his own wrath for a go-wide finish.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (BUW), by popularity.
