The Commander
When Nihiloor enters, for each opponent, tap up to one untapped creature you control. When you do, gain control of target creature that player controls with power less than or equal to the tapped creature's power for as long as you control Nihiloor.
Whenever you attack with a creature an opponent owns, you gain 2 life and that player loses 2 life.
Guide
Gameplan
Nihiloor steals your opponents' best creatures and turns them against their owners. You weaponize stolen bodies for combat and value, draining 2 life per attacking opponent-owned creature, while a steal subtheme keeps you grinding away their boards.
Strengths
- Repeatable theft on every recast, denying threats while building your own army
- Built-in life drain that scales with how many stolen creatures you attack with
- Esper colors give access to premium removal, card draw, and protection
- Punishes go-tall and reanimator opponents by hijacking their payoffs
Weaknesses
- Steals are tied to Nihiloor staying in play, so removal returns everything
- High curve and reliance on opponents having good targets
- Vulnerable to board wipes that erase your borrowed army
- Power-restricted theft (must tap an equal-or-greater creature) can whiff against big threats
Key Cards
- Agent of Treachery — Doubles down on the theft plan and can repeatedly steal with blink effects.
- Gimli, Mood Maker — Synergizes with attacking opponent-owned creatures by punishing those opponents further.
- Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer — Turns your stolen creatures and tokens into copies of your best threat for explosive attacks.
- Kindred Discovery — Naming Horror or a token type fuels card advantage as you swing stolen bodies.
- Captivating Crew — Adds repeatable threaten effects to steal creatures and swing them into their owners.
Upgrade Path
Add more recurring steal effects (Agent of Treachery, Thieving Skydiver, Hostage Taker) and blink/flicker like Conjurer's Closet to re-trigger Nihiloor and other ETB thieves. Layer in sacrifice outlets and drain payoffs so stolen creatures still net value, and tighten the mana with fast rocks and dual lands to deploy the high curve 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
- ▸Incremental life drain from attacking with stolen opponent-owned creatures
- ▸Beating down with a hijacked army assembled from across the table
- ▸Sacrifice payoffs (Blood Artist effects) draining the table as you flicker theft and sac stolen bodies
Archetypes
- Theft/Control — Nihiloor's ETB and Esper's removal suite let you commandeer the table's best permanents.
- Aristocrats — Stolen creatures can be sacrificed for value before they revert to owners.
- Lifedrain Midrange — His attack trigger drains opponents whenever borrowed creatures swing in.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (BUW), by popularity.
