Arcane Foundry › Commanders › Nikara, Lair Scavenger
Nikara, Lair Scavenger
Legendary Creature — Human Cleric · {2}{B} · Black commander
Partner with Yannik, Scavenging Sentinel (When this creature enters, target player may put Yannik into their hand from their library, then shuffle.)
Menace
Whenever another creature you control leaves the battlefield, if it had one or more counters on it, you draw a card and you lose 1 life.
Build a Nikara, Lair Scavenger deck →
What Nikara, Lair Scavenger actually does
Read off the card by the same engine the Forge and Analyzer use — this is the mechanical classification, not a summary.
- Triggered ability · otherWhenever another creature you control leaves the battlefield, if it had one or more counters on it, you draw a card and you lose 1 life.
- Keyword · menacemenace
What a Nikara, Lair Scavenger deck needs
Plays as counters. What the commander asks of the other 99 — read from the card and checked by hand.
- +1/+1 counters on your creatures, then sacrifice or blink them (each one leaving with a counter draws)
- its partner Yannik, Scavenging Sentinel
The Nikara, Lair Scavenger deck plan
The roles the Forge fills for this commander, and how many cards of each.
- 16× A permanent that does something every turn it is on the battlefield — the deck's body, for a commander whose text asks for nothing specific
- 7× Actually remove one problem permanent — preventing its damage is not removing it
- 10× Find the exact card the plan needs
- 3× Answer a whole board at once
- 9× Refill your hand
- 3× Keep a permanent you control alive through removal
- 11× Get ahead on mana
- 18× Put +1/+1 counters on creatures you control, or multiply the ones already there
- 8× Sacrifice a creature for no mana, repeatably
Best cards for Nikara, Lair Scavenger
Ranked by an engine that reads what each card does — its real cost, its delay and how reliably it works — rather than counting how often other people play it.
A permanent that does something every turn it is on the battlefield — the deck's body, for a commander whose text asks for nothing specific
- Crashing Drawbridge2 mana
- Bontu's Monument3 mana
- Oketra's Monument3 mana
- Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose3 mana
- Nightscape Familiar2 mana
- Hazoret's Monument3 mana
- Rhonas's Monument3 mana
- Twinning Staff3 mana
Actually remove one problem permanent — preventing its damage is not removing it
- Defile1 mana
- Tragic Slip1 mana
- Infernal Grasp2 mana
- Fatal Push1 mana
- Bitter Triumph2 mana
- Black Sun's Twilight1 mana
- Cut Down1 mana
- Erebos's Intervention1 mana
Find the exact card the plan needs
- Demonic Tutor2 mana
- Diabolic Intent2 mana
- Vampiric Tutor1 mana
- Imperial Seal1 mana
- Demonic Consultation1 mana
- Grim Tutor3 mana
- Tainted Pact2 mana
- Scheming Symmetry1 mana
Answer a whole board at once
- Toxic Deluge3 mana
- Damnation4 mana
- Bontu's Last Reckoning3 mana
- Sickening Dreams2 mana
- Crypt Rats3 mana
- Extinction Event4 mana
- Endemic Plague4 mana
- The Meathook Massacre2 mana
Refill your hand
- Skullclamp1 mana
- Black Market Connections3 mana
- Braids, Arisen Nightmare3 mana
- Morbid Opportunist3 mana
- Phyrexian Arena3 mana
- The One Ring4 mana
- Vexing Bauble1 mana
- Ayara, First of Locthwain3 mana
Keep a permanent you control alive through removal
- Lightning Greaves2 mana
- Swiftfoot Boots2 mana
- Eldrazi Monument5 mana
- Commander's Plate1 mana
- Mithril Coat3 mana
- Akroma's Memorial7 mana
- The Walls of Ba Sing Se8 mana
- Brotherhood Regalia2 mana
Get ahead on mana
- Sol Ring1 mana
- Palladium Myr3 mana
- Worn Powerstone3 mana
- Chrome Mox0 mana
- Everflowing Chalice0 mana
- Mox Diamond0 mana
- Mana Vault1 mana
- Wayfarer's Bauble1 mana
Put +1/+1 counters on creatures you control, or multiply the ones already there
- Blightbelly Rat2 mana
- Scheming Aspirant2 mana
- Glistening Sphere3 mana
- Walking Ballista0 mana
- Forge of Heroes0 mana
- Hangarback Walker0 mana
- Stonecoil Serpent0 mana
- Opal Palace0 mana
Sacrifice a creature for no mana, repeatably
- Carrion Feeder1 mana
- Viscera Seer1 mana
- Altar of Dementia2 mana
- Spawning Pit2 mana
- Umbral Collar Zealot2 mana
- Bloodthrone Vampire2 mana
- Dark Privilege2 mana
- Ashnod's Altar3 mana