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Nim Deathmantle

Artifact — Equipment

Equipped creature gets +2/+2, has intimidate, and is a black Zombie. (A creature with intimidate can't be blocked except by artifact creatures and/or creatures that share a color with it.)
Whenever a nontoken creature is put into your graveyard from the battlefield, you may pay {4}. If you do, return that card to the battlefield and attach this Equipment to it.
Equip {4}

CMC
2
Mana cost
{2}
Color identity
C
Rarity
rare
Set
Scars of Mirrodin
Price
$4.63
EDHREC rank
#3375
Buy on TCGplayer
Nim Deathmantle card art
Nim Deathmantle turns any sacrifice outlet into a recursion loop — pay four mana when a creature dies and it comes back swinging with +2/+2 and intimidate, ready to die again. Paired with Ashnod's Altar generating the mana and a token-producing death trigger, the engine becomes infinite; Imotekh the Stormlord is the cleanest example of a commander that makes this loop trivial to assemble.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Imotekh the Stormlord

Imotekh the Stormlord

47.1% of decks · synergy 0.44

Imotekh the Stormlord creates Necron Warrior tokens when creatures die, which means each sacrifice feeds the next loop — Nim Deathmantle and a free sacrifice outlet let Imotekh generate infinite tokens and drain the table.

02
Glissa, the Traitor

Glissa, the Traitor

17.7% of decks · synergy 0.17

Glissa, the Traitor triggers artifact recursion whenever an opponent's creature dies, and Nim Deathmantle gives Glissa herself — and every other creature — a way to survive board wipes and targeted removal, keeping the artifact-recursion engine live through almost any disruption.

03
Breya, Etherium Shaper

Breya, Etherium Shaper

29.7% of decks · synergy 0.15

Breya, Etherium Shaper sacrifices her own Thopter tokens for removal or life drain, and Nim Deathmantle closes the loop by returning Breya the moment Ashnod's Altar floats enough mana — infinite sacrifice triggers, infinite damage.

04
Elenda, the Dusk Rose

Elenda, the Dusk Rose

9.6% of decks · synergy 0.09

Elenda, the Dusk Rose grows a counter every time another creature dies, and Nim Deathmantle lets her re-enter the battlefield before she can be exiled, resetting her counter accumulation while keeping all the Vampire tokens she already produced.

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

Nim Deathmantle is a Commander staple and almost nothing outside it. The four-mana equip cost is punishing in faster formats — Legacy and Vintage have the mana to pay it but no incentive to, since those formats kill before recursion loops matter. Modern is legal but similarly uninterested; the card sees virtually zero play there. Commander is where Nim Deathmantle earns its slot: the slower pace gives you time to set up the altar, the token producer, and the mantle together, and the payoff is often an outright game-winning loop rather than a tempo gain.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

5,701 decks
Nim DeathmantleAshnod's AltarBreya, Etherium Shaper

Nim DeathmantleAshnod's AltarBreya, Etherium Shaper

Infinite colorless mana; Infinite death triggers; Infinite ETB; Infinite LTB; Infinite sacrifice triggers; Infinite creature tokens

View on Commander Spellbook ↗

Price Context

Current price

$4.63 cheap tier

At $4.63, Nim Deathmantle sits in a comfortable range — cheap enough to slot into a budget build, not so cheap that supply pressure will crater it. It's a staple in a narrow but dedicated audience, so the price has been stable; don't expect it to spike, but don't expect it to drop much either.

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Sources

Mentioned

← All cards

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