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Nick Valentine, Private Eye

Nick Valentine, Private Eye

Legendary Artifact Creature — Synth Detective

Nick Valentine wants a deck that sacrifices its own creatures to drain opponents' life. It also suits a deck that makes an army of small creatures and attacks with all of them.

  • Mana cost2 genericblue
  • Blue ()
  • Power / toughness2 / 2
  • RarityRare

Nick Valentine can't be blocked except by artifact creatures.

Whenever Nick Valentine or another artifact creature you control dies, you may investigate. (To investigate, create a Clue token. It's an artifact with "2 generic, Sacrifice this token: Draw a card.")

Build a deck with Nick Valentine Find it in the app

Archetypes
Themes

Cards That Fit Nick Valentine, Private Eye

Picked for what they do in Nick Valentine's deck. When two cards do the same job, the one with the lower comes first. All of them fit Nick Valentine'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

plan6

The 6 Cards

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The 6 Cards

plan6

The 6 Cards

plan6

The 6 Cards

Rulings for Nick Valentine, Private Eye

explain how Nick Valentine 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 8 Mar 2024

Once Nick Valentine has been blocked, making the blocking creature stop being an artifact won't cause Nick Valentine to become unblocked.

1 ruling, all written by Wizards of the Coast. Read the originals on Gatherer ↗

Similar Commanders

Commanders that share the most with Nick Valentine, 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 glossaryUPlayers write colors as letters: U for blue. Blue is U because B was already taken by black.AristocratsAristocrats decks sacrifice their own creatures on purpose and profit every time one dies, often by draining life from each opponent. A sacrifice outlet, a card that lets you sacrifice whenever you like, decides when that happens.Open the Aristocrats pageToken EngineMakes tokens again and again rather than once. A token is a creature or other permanent created by a card, with no card of its own. Something that makes one token gives you a body; something that makes them every turn gives you a board you can keep rebuilding after it is cleared. Grave Titan, Bitterblossom, OphiomancerOpen the Token Engine pageToken MakerCreates one or more tokens. Different cards make very different ones: creatures Grave Titan, Treasures Smothering Tithe, Clues Tireless Tracker or Food Gilded Goose. This is one of our largest tags, so pair it with an archetype or theme when you are hunting a specific kind.Open the Token Maker pageDeath TriggerTriggers when a creature dies, whether it is this creature, one of yours or an opponent's. These are the cards that pay you in an Aristocrats deck: something else makes creatures die, and these decide what you get each time. Blood Artist, Solemn SimulacrumOpen the Death Trigger pageEvasionAn ability that makes a creature hard to block, so its attacks reach the player. Flying, menace, landwalk and plain 'can't be blocked' are the common kinds.Open the Evasion pageTokensToken decks fill the battlefield with small creatures made by their cards, then attack with all of them or make them all bigger at once. A token is a creature (or other object) that a card creates, not a card from your deck.Open the Tokens pageArtifact CreaturesCreatures that are also artifacts, like constructs and little flying Thopters, so they count as both. Most are colorless, so they fit in any deck.Open the Artifact Creatures pageClues MatterClue tokens are artifacts you can pay 2 mana and sacrifice to draw a card. Making one is called investigate.Open the Clues Matter page