Nivmagus Elemental
Creature — Elemental
Exile an instant or sorcery spell you control: Put two +1/+1 counters on this creature. (That spell won't resolve.)
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- RU
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Return to Ravnica
- Price
- $0.18
- EDHREC rank
- #25138
Nivmagus Elemental turns exiled instants and sorceries into raw stat growth, but you're paying in spells — the same resources you need to stay alive. It's a build-around that asks a lot and rewards you mostly with a big creature, which is rarely enough on its own.
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 |
In Commander, Nivmagus Elemental is a fringe piece in storm or spell-slinger shells, where you can feed it copies generated by cards like Thousand-Year Storm — but even there, a large vanilla creature rarely closes a four-player game. Legacy and Vintage are the formats where it has historically seen the most interest, pairing with free spells and cantrips to grow quickly in aggressive shells, though it never cracked into top-tier play. Modern and Pioneer offer it legal status but no compelling home; the payoff of a big beater doesn't compete with what those formats' creature threats already do. Across the board, Nivmagus Elemental is a build-around novelty rather than a staple.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.18 bulk tier
At $0.18, Nivmagus Elemental is firmly bulk — easy to acquire and easy to cut without regret. Its niche demand keeps it from disappearing entirely, but don't expect the price to move in either direction.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.