Call of the Nightwing
Sorcery
Create a 1/1 blue and black Horror creature token with flying.
Cipher (Then you may exile this spell card encoded on a creature you control. Whenever that creature deals combat damage to a player, its controller may cast a copy of the encoded card without paying its mana cost.)
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- BU
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- The List
- Price
- $0.15
- EDHREC rank
- #16705
Call of the Nightwing puts two 1/1 flying tokens on the board and sets up a cipher trigger that keeps the engine running every time an encoded creature connects. The cost is steep — four mana at sorcery speed for a card that does nothing if your attackers get chump-blocked — but in a deck built around evasive threats, Umbris, Fear Manifest being the obvious home, the recurring value justifies the ask.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Umbris, Fear Manifest
Umbris, Fear Manifest exiles cards from opponents' libraries whenever a Horror or Nightmare enters under your control, and Call of the Nightwing's cipher trigger generates exactly that: each connection puts another 1/1 Horror token into play, stacking more exile triggers on top of each other and growing Umbris every step of the way.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Call of the Nightwing is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but competitive constructed formats have long since moved past a four-mana sorcery that requires attacking to generate value. Commander is the card's real home — the singleton format rewards synergy over raw efficiency, and the cipher mechanic compounds over multiple turns in a way that a 40-life game can actually accommodate. Outside of dedicated cipher or token-tribal builds in Commander, there is no meaningful reason to reach for it.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.15 bulk tier
At $0.15, Call of the Nightwing is deep bulk — the kind of card you pull from a bulk box rather than buy individually. That price is stable by definition; there is no competitive demand to push it, and casual demand alone keeps it from disappearing entirely.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Umbris, Fear Manifest
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.