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Nazgûl

Creature — Wraith Knight

Deathtouch
When this creature enters, the Ring tempts you.
Whenever the Ring tempts you, put a +1/+1 counter on each Wraith you control.
A deck can have up to nine cards named Nazgûl.

CMC
3
Mana cost
{2}{B}
Color identity
B
Rarity
uncommon
Set
The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth
Price
$49.18
EDHREC rank
#3006
Buy on TCGplayer
Nazgûl card art
Nazgûl puts a 2/3 menace body on the board that pumps every other Nazgûl you control — and the rules let you run up to nine copies, so the anthem effect stacks fast. Commanders like Lord of the Nazgûl and Ratadrabik of Urborg exist specifically to exploit that swarm, and the payoff is a wide board that threatens lethal through blockers before opponents can stabilize.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Lord of the Nazgûl

Lord of the Nazgûl

82.0% of decks · synergy 0.79

Lord of the Nazgûl is the dedicated Nazgûl tribal commander, and Nazgûl is its primary payoff — every Wraith token Lord of the Nazgûl creates is another body stacking the +1/+1 anthem, so the engine is self-reinforcing from turn one.

02
Frodo, Sauron's Bane

Frodo, Sauron's Bane

68.5% of decks · synergy 0.67

Frodo, Sauron's Bane wants a dense Wraith package to keep the Ring tempting you repeatedly, and Nazgûl fills that role while also threatening combat damage through the menace clause Frodo's corruption track rewards.

03
Sméagol, Helpful Guide

Sméagol, Helpful Guide

67.3% of decks · synergy 0.66

Sméagol, Helpful Guide runs a heavy Wraith subtheme, and Nazgûl slots in as both a tribal piece and a recursive threat — the multiple-copy rule means Sméagol decks can assemble a board that grows in power whenever a new Nazgûl hits.

04
Sauron, the Dark Lord

Sauron, the Dark Lord

57.2% of decks · synergy 0.52

Sauron, the Dark Lord generates Orc Army tokens off Amass and rewards the Ring mechanic, and Nazgûl slots in as a tribal Wraith that buffs itself while feeding the Ring temptation trigger Sauron needs to keep churning value.

05
Ratadrabik of Urborg

Ratadrabik of Urborg

25.1% of decks · synergy 0.24

Ratadrabik of Urborg copies legendary creatures as non-legendary tokens when they die, so a single Nazgûl in the graveyard becomes a permanent non-legendary duplicate that still counts toward the anthem — a clean two-card engine that scales with every additional Nazgûl you resolve.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

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

Commander is the natural home for Nazgûl — the nine-copy exception is a Commander-rules accommodation, and outside of a Wraith-tribal 99 the card has almost no reason to exist. In Legacy and Vintage it's legal but unplayable competitively; three mana for a 2/3 that does nothing without its own multiples isn't close to format-viable. Modern follows the same logic: Nazgûl's power scales with density, and neither format has a shell that wants to dedicate four or more slots to a synergy-dependent three-drop with no immediate impact. Stay in Commander.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

There's no true budget replacement for Nazgûl because the nine-copy rule and the self-referential anthem are unique — what you can substitute is the role it fills. Shadow Summoning or similar token-doubling effects approximate the board-wide menace presence at a fraction of the price, though you lose the stacking anthem that makes a full Nazgûl package genuinely threatening. If the budget constraint is specifically about buying multiple copies of Nazgûl, prioritize four copies first; the incremental value of copies five through nine is real but not mandatory for the engine to function.

Price Context

Current price

$49.18 premium tier

At $49.18, Nazgûl sits firmly in premium territory — a price driven almost entirely by demand from a single Commander archetype rather than broad cross-format play. That concentration makes it a stable hold within Wraith-tribal circles but an easy skip if your deck isn't built around the nine-copy engine.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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