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Pia and Kiran Nalaar

Legendary Creature — Human Artificer

When Pia and Kiran Nalaar enters, create two 1/1 colorless Thopter artifact creature tokens with flying.
{2}{R}, Sacrifice an artifact: Pia and Kiran Nalaar deals 2 damage to any target.

CMC
4
Mana cost
{2}{R}{R}
Color identity
R
Rarity
rare
Set
Pioneer Masters
Price
—
EDHREC rank
#8639
Buy on TCGplayer
Pia and Kiran Nalaar card art
Pia and Kiran Nalaar enters and immediately puts three bodies on the board — two 1/1 Thopters plus the 2/2 humans themselves — and the activated ability turns any artifact into a Shock on demand. The cost is four mana at sorcery speed, which is steep enough that you need a deck built to abuse the enter-the-battlefield trigger or the token count, and shells like Nim Deathmantle loops or Winota, Joiner of Forces attacks make every penny of that cost pay out.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Winota, Joiner of Forces

Winota, Joiner of Forces

25.1% of decks · synergy 0.24

Pia and Kiran Nalaar attack as non-humans, triggering Winota, Joiner of Forces to dig for human payoffs — and because Pia and Kiran themselves are humans, replaying them off a Winota trigger resets the Thopter supply while fueling the next attack step.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

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

In Commander, Pia and Kiran Nalaar is a role-player rather than a headliner — the three-body ETB scales well in token and aristocrats strategies, and the sacrifice outlet on the activated ability matters in combo lines involving Nim Deathmantle or Krenko-style loops. In competitive 1v1 formats like Modern and Pioneer it's too slow for the main deck, but sees fringe play as a value threat in midrange sideboards that want both an artifact producer and incidental reach. Legacy gives it access to more broken shells, though the card has never cracked into that format's top tier. Oathbreaker is its second-best home after Commander — the smaller life totals make the Shock ability more meaningful, and the token density lines up cleanly with aggressive signatures.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

unknown tier

Price data isn't currently available for Pia and Kiran Nalaar, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for the current market price before buying. Historically it's stayed budget-friendly given multiple reprints, and it's rarely worth paying a premium — if your local store has a copy in the bulk rare bin, that's the right price.

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Sources

Mentioned

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