Nahiri's Machinations
Enchantment
At the beginning of combat on your turn, target creature you control gains indestructible until end of turn.
: This enchantment deals 1 damage to target blocking creature.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- RW
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Shadows over Innistrad
- Price
- $0.20
- EDHREC rank
- #16107
Nahiri's Machinations gives a creature indestructible during combat for free each turn — no mana, just tap it — and staples on a damage-prevention rider for your attacking creatures as a secondary mode. The catch is that it does nothing outside of combat and asks you to build around creatures you want swinging every turn, which makes it a role-player, not a staple.
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 |
Nahiri's Machinations is a Commander card through and through — the free-tap protection scales well when you have one prized attacker you're committing to the board for multiple turns, and the low mana cost means it comes down early. In Modern and Pioneer it's too slow and too narrow; aggressive decks don't want enchantments that ask them to tap a creature before combat when that creature could just be dealing damage, and control decks don't want it at all. Legacy and Vintage have access to far more efficient protection in Diplomatic Immunity or Lightning Greaves effects, so Machinations doesn't register there. Stick to Commander, specifically combat-centric or voltron lists where the enchanted creature is doing something valuable every single turn.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.20 bulk tier
At $0.20, Nahiri's Machinations is firmly bulk — you're buying it out of a commons bin or throwing it in a cart filler slot. Bulk enchantments with narrow applications rarely appreciate, so treat this as a pickup for a specific deck rather than a spec.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.