Nocturnal Hunger
Instant
Gift a Food (You may promise an opponent a gift as you cast this spell. If you do, they create a Food token before its other effects. It's an artifact with "
, 
, Sacrifice this token: You gain 3 life.")
Destroy target creature. If the gift wasn't promised, you lose 2 life.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Bloomburrow
- Price
- $0.06
- EDHREC rank
- #12049
Nocturnal Hunger drains a target for life and hands you the gain — instant speed, no setup required. The cost is real, but in Zoraline, Cosmos Caller shells that care about life totals and night/day cycling, that rate is exactly what the deck wants.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Zoraline, Cosmos Caller
Zoraline, Cosmos Caller rewards you for manipulating life totals and triggering nightbound conditions, and Nocturnal Hunger delivers both a life swing and an instant-speed spell to pressure the day/night axis on your opponents' turns.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Nocturnal Hunger is a pure Commander card — the life drain matters most in a multiplayer game where closing gaps between 40-life opponents adds up and instant-speed interaction fits naturally into reactive strategies. In 1v1 formats like Modern, Pioneer, or Legacy, a three-mana sorcery-speed-equivalent effect that only drains for a small amount is well below rate, and it won't show up in any competitive lists. Pauper is the one place it could theoretically see fringe play in a life-gain synergy shell, but even there the competition at this slot is stiff.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.06 bulk tier
At $0.06, Nocturnal Hunger is deep bulk — pick it up in any common bin without thinking twice. There is no price floor to fall through here, so treat it as a free inclusion if the deck wants it.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.