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Commander Nexus
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  3. Chainer, Nightmare Adept

Command zone

Chainer, Nightmare Adept

Chainer, Nightmare Adept

Legendary Creature — Human Minion

Chainer wants a deck that fills its discard pile and plays cards back out of it. It also suits a deck that brings big creatures back from the discard pile.

  • Mana cost2 genericblackred
  • Black, Red ()
  • Power / toughness3 / 2
  • RarityMythic

Discard a card: You may cast a creature spell from your graveyard this turn. Activate only once each turn.

Whenever a nontoken creature you control enters, if you didn't cast it from your hand, it gains haste until your next turn.

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Themes
  • Humans
  • Minions

Cards That Fit Chainer, Nightmare Adept

Picked for what they do in Chainer's deck. When two cards do the same job, the one with the lower comes first. All of them fit Chainer's color identity.Mana ValueThe total amount of mana a card costs, all added up. A card costing two generic and one green has a mana value of three. Wizards renamed this from "converted mana cost" in 2021, so older cards and articles may still use the old name.Sol RingOpen the full glossary

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The 6 Cards

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The 6 Cards

plan6

The 6 Cards

Rulings for Chainer, Nightmare Adept

explain how Chainer works in tricky situations. They come from Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic.RulingThe official answer to how a card works in a tricky situation. Most rulings are written by Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic, and a few are notes from Scryfall, the card database Magic players use. A ruling explains a card. It does not change what the card says.Open the full glossary

Wizards of the Coast 23 Aug 2019

Chainer's first ability doesn't change when you can cast the creature card. You can normally only cast it during your turn while the stack is empty, but if the creature card has flash, you can cast it at other times.

Wizards of the Coast 23 Aug 2019

Chainer's last ability triggers if Chainer enters the battlefield without being cast from your hand.

Wizards of the Coast 23 Aug 2019

Chainer's last ability triggers if the entering creature was cast from a zone other than your hand, or if it wasn't cast at all and is entering the battlefield from anywhere (including from your hand).

Wizards of the Coast 23 Aug 2019

If you somehow activate Chainer's first ability more than once during a turn (perhaps because Chainer left the battlefield and returned), you can cast a creature card for each ability's permission. Similarly, if another effect allows you to cast a creature card from your graveyard, you may use that permission and later use Chainer's permission to cast another creature card.

Wizards of the Coast 23 Aug 2019

You don't choose a creature card to cast while activating or resolving Chainer's first ability. The ability creates a permission for you to cast a creature card from your graveyard later in the turn.

5 rulings, all written by Wizards of the Coast. Read the originals on Gatherer ↗

Similar Commanders

Commanders that share the most with Chainer, and what they share.

Color identityEvery color of mana symbol on a card, in its cost and in its rules text. Your commander's color identity sets the limit for your whole deck: every other card has to fit inside it. A deck led by a green and white commander cannot play a card with any blue in its color identity.Open the full glossaryBRPlayers write colors as letters: B for black, R for red.Graveyard/Self-MillGraveyard decks fill their own graveyard on purpose, then play cards from it as if it were a second hand. Moving cards from the top of your own deck straight into the graveyard is called self-mill.Open the Graveyard/Self-Mill pageCast from GraveyardLets you cast spells or play lands straight from your graveyard, so the graveyard becomes a second hand. This is different from Reanimation, which puts a creature card onto the battlefield without casting it. Karador, Ghost Chieftain, Muldrotha, the Gravetide, Yawgmoth's WillOpen the Cast from Graveyard pageSelf-DiscardDiscards your own cards as a cost or an effect. Filling your own graveyard on purpose is the point: it feeds cards that bring things back, madness and channel abilities, and some cards are worth more there than in hand. Faithless Looting, Boseiju, Who EnduresOpen the Self-Discard pageRecursionBrings cards back from the graveyard: to your hand, to the battlefield, or letting them be cast again from where they lie. Eternal Witness, Reanimate, VictimizeOpen the Recursion pageReanimatorReanimator decks put big creatures into their own graveyard early, then bring them back onto the battlefield without paying their cost. It gets a huge creature into play far sooner than you could afford to cast it.Open the Reanimator pageAggroAggro decks play cheap creatures early and attack every turn, trying to knock opponents out before their bigger plans come together.Open the Aggro pageHaste EnablerLets your creatures attack or use tap abilities the turn they arrive, instead of waiting out summoning sickness. Rhythm of the Wild, AngerOpen the Haste Enabler page