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Nirkana Revenant

Creature — Vampire Shade

Whenever you tap a Swamp for mana, add an additional {B}.
{B}: This creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.

CMC
6
Mana cost
{4}{B}{B}
Color identity
B
Rarity
mythic
Set
Secret Lair Drop
Price
$8.11
EDHREC rank
#2798
Buy on TCGplayer
Nirkana Revenant card art
Nirkana Revenant doubles the mana your Swamps produce and then pumps itself with every black spell you cast — that's two relevant abilities on one body that can close games the turn it resolves. The six-mana ask is real, but in any black deck that wants to sink mana into activated abilities, Magus of the Candelabra rarely competes; Nirkana Revenant is simply the better engine, and commanders like Strefan, Maurer Progenitor make the case obvious.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Strefan, Maurer Progenitor

Strefan, Maurer Progenitor

57.2% of decks · synergy 0.55

Strefan, Maurer Progenitor runs a Vampire tribal shell that wants to dump mana into activated abilities each turn, and Nirkana Revenant's Swamp-doubling feeds that demand while growing into a legitimate beatdown threat — the 57% inclusion rate across over 7,000 decks is the market's verdict.

02
Phage the Untouchable

Phage the Untouchable

61.4% of decks · synergy 0.50

Getting Phage the Untouchable onto the battlefield without losing the game requires specific infrastructure, and Nirkana Revenant provides the black mana density to support the reanimation or Torpor Orb lines those decks rely on.

03
Valgavoth, Terror Eater

Valgavoth, Terror Eater

51.7% of decks · synergy 0.41

Valgavoth, Terror Eater is a high-cost black threat that wants the game to go long and needs mana to keep feeding its triggers; Nirkana Revenant accelerates that mana production and hits hard enough to be a secondary win condition.

04
Olivia Voldaren

Olivia Voldaren

36.6% of decks · synergy 0.35

Olivia Voldaren's activated abilities — stealing creatures, growing herself — consume enormous amounts of mana, and Nirkana Revenant's Swamp-doubling is the most efficient way to fund them on a single card.

05
Olivia, Crimson Bride

Olivia, Crimson Bride

21.5% of decks · synergy 0.20

Olivia, Crimson Bride wants to reanimate large Vampires and swing out; Nirkana Revenant fills both the mana accelerant and the reanimation target roles in the same slot.

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 where Nirkana Revenant lives — mono-black and heavily black decks run enough basic Swamps that the doubling ability consistently generates four or more extra mana, and 60-card formats rarely give a six-mana 4/4 the time it needs to matter. In Legacy and Vintage, faster combo and interaction clocks make Nirkana Revenant too slow to see competitive play. Oathbreaker is a reasonable home for the same reasons as Commander: the 20-life starting total means games end faster, but black mana-doubling is still the clearest path to powering out a game-ending spell early.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

Crypt Ghast does almost the same job at a lower price point — it also doubles Swamp mana and adds extort as a secondary pressure valve, though it's a softer body at 2/2 and dies to far more removal. If you want the pump-on-black-spells angle without the six-mana entry fee, Leshrac's Rite turns any land into a black producer but loses the mana doubling entirely, which is honestly the main reason to run Nirkana Revenant in the first place.

Price Context

Current price

$8.11 mid tier

At $8.11, Nirkana Revenant sits in the mid tier — expensive enough to feel like a deliberate include, cheap enough that it belongs in most black decks that can use it. It's a staple with steady demand across Vampire and mono-black shells, so the price reflects real play rate rather than hype.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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