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Bjorna, Nightfall Alchemist

Legendary Creature — Human

{T}, Sacrifice an artifact: Bjorna, Nightfall Alchemist deals 1 damage to target creature. Goad that creature. (Until your next turn, that creature attacks each combat if able and attacks a player other than you if able.)
Partner—Friends forever (You can have two commanders if both have this ability.)

CMC
2
Mana cost
{U}{R}
Color identity
RU
Rarity
rare
Set
Secret Lair Drop
Price
$5.16
EDHREC rank
#11354
Buy on TCGplayer
Bjorna, Nightfall Alchemist card art
Bjorna, Nightfall Alchemist puts a repeatable tap-to-counter threat on the board — pair it with Othelm, Sigardian Outcast and you have a loop that answers resolved threats while recycling creatures from your graveyard. The cost is running two-card background partners, which demands dedicated deck construction, but The Rani decks have already done that math and land on Bjorna at nearly 40% inclusion.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
The Rani

The Rani

39.3% of decks · synergy 0.39

The Rani's blink and proliferate gameplan turns Bjorna, Nightfall Alchemist into a recursive threat-neutralizer — every time The Rani bounces or proliferates, Bjorna's tap ability resets, letting you hold up countermagic on a creature that also synergizes with the Doctor's Companion partner structure.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern not legal
pioneer not legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Bjorna, Nightfall Alchemist is a Commander card, full stop. The background partner mechanic only functions in a format where you can run two commanders, which limits the design space to Commander and Oathbreaker — and Oathbreaker's faster clock rarely supports a three-mana utility creature with conditional impact. In Legacy and Vintage, where Bjorna is technically legal, it has no competitive role; the tap-to-counter ability is too slow and too conditional to matter in those formats. Commander is where the card earns its slot, specifically in decks built around the partner pairing.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

Bjorna, Nightfall Alchemist occupies a narrow enough design space — background partner, tap-to-counter — that no direct replacement exists at a lower price. Glen Elendra Archmage offers a similar repeatable counterspell on a creature body for roughly the same price range and doesn't require a partner pairing to function, making it a cleaner include in most blue-black decks that just want the effect. If the partner synergy with Othelm is the draw, there's no true substitute; that specific loop requires both pieces.

Price Context

Current price

$5.16 mid tier

At $5.16, Bjorna, Nightfall Alchemist sits in the mid tier — expensive enough to feel like a real slot commitment, cheap enough that it's not a barrier in most budgets. Demand is tied almost entirely to The Rani decks, so price stability tracks with that commander's continued popularity; niche staples at this price tend to hold unless a reprint hits.

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Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.