Quest for the Nihil Stone
Enchantment
Whenever an opponent discards a card, you may put a quest counter on this enchantment.
At the beginning of each opponent's upkeep, if that player has no cards in hand and this enchantment has two or more quest counters on it, you may have that player lose 5 life.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Worldwake
- Price
- $1.63
- EDHREC rank
- #10238
Quest for the Nihil Stone threatens a repeatable 5-life drain every upkeep once opponents are empty-handed — a closing condition that costs one black mana to deploy. In any deck that strips hands consistently, Tinybones, Trinket Thief turns the Stone live by turn three with regularity, making it a genuine win condition dressed as an enchantment.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Tinybones, Trinket Thief
Tinybones, Trinket Thief triggers on every opponent's end step when that opponent discarded, meaning Quest for the Nihil Stone hits its two-counter threshold faster than in almost any other deck — and Tinybones's own late-game ability to empty hands pairs directly with the Stone's drain trigger.
Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal
Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal forces discard through combat damage and creates Bat tokens when opponents have no cards, so Quest for the Nihil Stone is draining life at the same moment the token engine fires — both payoffs feed off the same empty-hand condition.
Tinybones, Bauble Burglar
Tinybones, Bauble Burglar accumulates loot triggers and punishes opponents for cycling and drawing, pushing hand sizes down steadily; Quest for the Nihil Stone converts that pressure into a life-drain clock that closes games the combat damage alone might not.
Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger
Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger forces a discard every time it attacks or enters, steadily depleting hands across the table; Quest for the Nihil Stone turns that attrition into a damage source that scales with how many opponents hit zero cards simultaneously.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Quest for the Nihil Stone is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but it's a Commander card in practice. The four-player environment means three opponents are constantly losing cards to your effects, and the Stone's drain scales with each empty hand independently — a ceiling that simply doesn't exist in one-on-one formats. In Legacy and Modern, dedicated discard strategies like 8-Rack run it occasionally, but the two-counter setup requirement and the lack of guaranteed multi-opponent targets make it a fringe inclusion at best in those formats. Commander is where Quest for the Nihil Stone earns its slot.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$1.63 cheap tier
At $1.63, Quest for the Nihil Stone sits in the budget-staple tier — cheap enough to slot into any discard build without a second thought. It's a niche card with a stable price ceiling, so don't expect movement in either direction.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Tinybones, Trinket Thief
- Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal
- Tinybones, Bauble Burglar
- Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.