Nahiri, the Unforgiving – Phyrexia: All Will Be One
Date Reviewed: March 7, 2023
Ratings:
Constructed: 3.63
Casual: 4.75
Limited: 4.25
Multiplayer: 3.75
Commander [EDH]: 3.88
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
“There is nothing I do better than revenge . . .”
Those mana symbols with the two colors and the Phyrexian glyph still give me seizures, but that doesn’t mean Nahiri doesn’t offer something interesting. We’ve seen the “impulsive reanimator” ability on red cards as far back as Feldon of the Third Path, and I think it’s really the main attraction here. The rest of her stats are about how you set it up and how fast; most decks are probably going to want to use her discard-and-draw +1 more than the forced attack one, though I should note that the latter shines in limited games where people are hanging back from unfavorable blocks or Kill Shot-style conditional effects. Even when you cast her for three mana and two life, you can set up to copy something costing up to four the next turn – that’s a range that includes some very dangerous cards indeed, and I can see this version of Nahiri getting out of hand very quickly.
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 4.5
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4
omg woman
Joining the ranks of Phyrexia, the new Nahiri gives me Gideon vibes in a sense; her abilities are all very utility-focused, and while she lacks an ultimate in a conventional sense, she does have plenty of use for her loyalty.
She has two +1 abilities: looting, and forcing attacks. I think the wording of her first +1 is interesting as a sort of soft protective ability, as the targeted creature is unable to attack her, and so her loyalty can keep ticking up (and you can ideally force suboptimal attack decisions. Her looting ability isn’t a straight-up loot, as you can just draw if you’re using it with no cards in hand, and that’s honestly great for Boros (and even the looting is solid enough).
As for her 0, that’s where her loyalty kicks in, giving a creature or an Equipment a second chance out of your graveyard…if she has the loyalty at least as high as that spell’s mana value. Reanimation can always throw things into chaos if you get something scary, and this is actually where the value of paying four mana for Nahiri is good; fishing back a five-drop, or following her looting with fishing back something bigger, can swing the game open in a hurry. So this makes for an interesting bit of tension: play her on turn 3 at 3 loyalty for value, or wait to cast her for four and get something big back. I think the former is better earlier, while the ability of the latter to crack a game open immediately isn’t minor.
Nahiri’s pretty subtle. I don’t think she’s an unstoppable ace, but she’s a value machine that can swing a game in a single turn with the right set-up. She’s a pretty acceptable top-deck so long as you can cast her (even at three mana), and I think she’ll be quite nice for her Standard run.
Constructed: 3.75 (possibly playable in Modern/Legacy, but I’m not sure yet)
Casual: 5
Limited: 4 (not going to win a game on her own, but a good way to get a lost game back on track in a pinch)
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 3.75
We would love more volunteers to help us with our Magic the Gathering Card of the Day reviews. If you want to share your ideas on cards with other fans, feel free to drop us an email. We would be happy to link back to your blog / YouTube Channel / etc. 😉
