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Chainer, Dementia Master

Legendary Creature — Human Minion

All Nightmares get +1/+1.
{B}{B}{B}, Pay 3 life: Put target creature card from a graveyard onto the battlefield under your control. That creature is black and is a Nightmare in addition to its other creature types.
When Chainer leaves the battlefield, exile all Nightmares.

CMC
5
Mana cost
{3}{B}{B}
Color identity
B
Rarity
rare
Set
Dominaria Remastered
Price
$0.32
EDHREC rank
#5168
Buy on TCGplayer
Chainer, Dementia Master card art
Chainer, Dementia Master reanimates any creature from any graveyard as a Nightmare at instant speed — every turn, repeatable, no targeting restriction — and the cost is life and mana you pay on your terms. The catch is the upkeep clause: everything he brought back dies and you lose 3 life if he leaves the battlefield, which makes him a glass cannon that wins fast or collapses. K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth turns that life cost into Phyrexian mana, effectively making each activation free on the mana side, which is why the two are nearly inseparable.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth

K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth

56.8% of decks · synergy 0.52

K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth converts every black mana symbol in Chainer, Dementia Master's activation cost to life, slashing the mana requirement and letting you reanimate multiple creatures in a single turn cycle. That combination generates a board wide enough to win the game before opponents can answer both pieces.

02
Mairsil, the Pretender

Mairsil, the Pretender

15.6% of decks · synergy 0.15

Mairsil, the Pretender cages Chainer, Dementia Master to steal his activated ability, then uses it without needing Chainer on the battlefield — sidestepping the upkeep death clause entirely. It's one of the cleaner ways to extract Chainer's value without carrying the liability.

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

Commander is where Chainer, Dementia Master does his best work: the singleton format means every graveyard at the table is a toolbox, and Chainer can pull from any of them. He's legal in Legacy and Vintage as well, but those formats move too fast for a five-mana creature with no immediate board impact — he simply doesn't survive long enough to generate value in a field of Force of Wills and fast mana. Oathbreaker is a plausible home if your signature spell supports a reanimation line, though the 20-life starting total makes his upkeep drain genuinely threatening. Everywhere outside those formats, he's not legal.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$0.32 bulk tier

At $0.32, Chainer, Dementia Master is bulk by any measure — a card with real competitive applications in the format where it's most played, priced as though it were filler. That gap exists because older printings have kept supply high, and it's unlikely to change unless a major reprint cycle dries up.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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