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Shard of the Nightbringer

Creature — C'tan

Flying
Drain Life — When this creature enters, if you cast it, target opponent loses half their life, rounded up. You gain life equal to the life lost this way.

CMC
8
Mana cost
{5}{B}{B}{B}
Color identity
B
Rarity
rare
Set
Warhammer 40,000 Commander
Price
$6.57
EDHREC rank
#5293
Buy on TCGplayer
Shard of the Nightbringer card art
Shard of the Nightbringer turns every life payment into a drain trigger, making it a direct engine piece in any deck that wants to spend life to win — and in Marvo, Deep Operative or Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose shells, that's exactly the role it fills. The cost is real: you're actively paying life, which means it punishes you in attrition games if the drain never closes the loop.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Marvo, Deep Operative

Marvo, Deep Operative

50.5% of decks · synergy 0.49

Marvo, Deep Operative shows up in over half of all Marvo decks because Shard of the Nightbringer converts the life Marvo spends on foretell and activated abilities into drain damage, turning a resource cost into a win condition. The synergy score of 0.49 is one of the highest you'll see on a single card, and it's earned.

02
Gwenom, Remorseless

Gwenom, Remorseless

33.2% of decks · synergy 0.29

Gwenom, Remorseless plays aggressively with life totals, and Shard of the Nightbringer rewards that aggression by draining opponents every time the life total moves — so spending life to fuel Gwenom, Remorseless's abilities doubles as a clock on the table.

03
Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose

Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose

22.3% of decks · synergy 0.18

Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose already converts lifegain into damage, and Shard of the Nightbringer adds the other side of the ledger: life loss triggers drain as well, giving the deck a second redundant axis that's much harder to interact with.

05
Rowan, Scion of War

Rowan, Scion of War

18.4% of decks · synergy 0.17

Rowan, Scion of War discounts spells based on life paid, and Shard of the Nightbringer makes every discount cost a drain trigger, so the deck is simultaneously ramping its spell output and closing the game at the same time.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

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

Commander is clearly where Shard of the Nightbringer lives — 100-card decks with dedicated life-payment commanders turn it into a consistent engine rather than a situational payoff. In Vintage and Legacy it's technically legal, but those formats move too fast and compete with too many busted alternatives for a slow enchantment engine to matter. Oathbreaker is worth a mention: a life-spending planeswalker as your signature spell lines up cleanly with what Shard of the Nightbringer does, and the lower starting life total makes the drain more threatening sooner.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

If Shard of the Nightbringer is out of reach, Whip of Erebos and Sanguine Bond cover adjacent ground — Sanguine Bond in particular mirrors the drain-when-you-gain side, though it misses the life-payment trigger entirely. Neither replicates the full effect, but in most life-matters builds one of the two will slot into the same role at a lower price point.

Price Context

Current price

$6.57 mid tier

At $6.57, Shard of the Nightbringer sits in the mid tier — affordable enough to include without budget anxiety, but high enough that you want to be sure your deck actually uses the life-payment trigger and isn't just running it as a generic lifegain payoff. It's a new card with a narrow but dedicated home, so the price reflects real demand rather than hype.

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Sources

Mentioned

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