Nantuko Shade
Creature — Insect Shade
: This creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Magic 2011
- Price
- $0.26
- EDHREC rank
- #20955
Nantuko Shade hits as hard as you're willing to pay — dump your mana into it and it closes games; run it without a mana sink plan and it's a vanilla 2/1. The cost is opportunity: every black mana you funnel into the Shade is mana you're not spending on anything else, which makes it best in decks that flood the board early and want a late-game mana dump.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Nantuko Shade occupies a narrow lane — mono-black or heavily black-pip decks that generate obscene amounts of mana and want a repeatable damage threat that doesn't require a combo setup. Legacy and Vintage are the formats where it historically had a case, slotting into mono-black aggro shells where a two-drop that scales with excess mana actually competed, though it's long since been outclassed by more efficient threats. Modern is legal but irrelevant — the format's two-drop bar is too high for a 2/1 with no enters-the-battlefield effect. Nantuko Shade is, practically speaking, a Commander card now, and even there it earns a slot only if the deck is built to back it up.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.26 bulk tier
At $0.26, Nantuko Shade is deep bulk — no barrier to picking up a copy. It won't appreciate; it's a casual staple with a ceiling defined by the niche it fills, not scarcity.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.