Nightmare's Thirst MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	1
Rarity	Uncommon
Type	Instant
Released	2018-07-13
Set symbol
Set name	Core Set 2019
Set code	M19
Number	111
Frame	2015
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Igor Kieryluk

Key Takeaways

Allows creature removal at the cost of only one black mana, enhancing resource management.
Instant speed casting provides crucial battlefield leverage and tactical options.
Life loss requirement and specific mana needs may limit its utility across varied deck types.

Text of card

You gain 1 life. Target creature gets -X/-X until end of turn, where X is the amount of life you gained this turn.

That feeling of something on your chest is usually sleep paralysis. Occasionally, it's something else.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Nightmare’s Thirst offers a way to handle creatures on the board, doubling as a removal spell while maintaining card parity. Efficient removal can help players maintain or gain advantage over time by dealing with key threats effectively.

Resource Acceleration: Though Nightmare’s Thirst doesn’t directly contribute to mana production, it aids in resource acceleration by allowing you to deal with threats using only one black mana. This efficiency can free up your mana for more pressing spells or to develop your board further.

Instant Speed: This card can be cast at instant speed, offering flexibility and the element of surprise. Whether it’s disrupting an opponent’s combat strategies or removing an attacker or blocker to shift the tide of battle, instant speed spells like this can provide significant tactical advantages.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Nightmare’s Thirst requires you to have lost life this turn to be fully effective, which can be a setback if your strategy doesn’t naturally involve self-harm or you’re unable to trigger this condition consistently.

Specific Mana Cost: This card needs black mana to cast, making it less flexible for decks that don’t run heavily on black or are multicolored without sufficient mana fixing.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Given the necessity for life loss to maximize its potential, the mana investment in Nightmare’s Thirst may seem steep compared to other instant-speed removal spells available in the MTG card pool that offer more immediate and unconditional results.

Reasons to Include Nightmare’s Thirst in Your Collection

Versatility: Nightmare’s Thirst offers flexibility in deck building, fitting seamlessly into lifegain strategies that seek to disrupt opponents while bolstering their own battlefield presence. It serves as an efficient removal spell capable of dealing with early-game threats.

Combo Potential: With cards that increase your life total, Nightmare’s Thirst transforms into a powerful tool, capable of eliminating larger creatures for a minimal mana investment. It synergizes well with decks that focus on incremental life changes to control the board.

Meta-Relevance: In environments where aggressive strategies dominate, Nightmare’s Thirst shines by providing removal that scales with your life gain. It’s particularly effective when combating decks that deploy numerous low-toughness creatures, allowing for favorable and often decisive exchanges on the battlefield.

How to beat

Nightmare’s Thirst is a unique spell within MTG due to its ability to gain you life while potentially destroying an opponent’s creature. It’s a small-scale removal at one black mana that scales with the amount of life you’ve gained in the turn it’s played. The potency of this card lies in the combination with decks that have a strong life gain strategy, enhancing the power of the removal.

To outplay opponents wielding Nightmare’s Thirst, it’s vital to keep their life gain to a minimum. Utilizing cards that restrict or reverse life gain can hamstring the effectiveness of this spell. Additionally, incorporating hexproof for your creatures ensures they remain untouchable by spells like this. It also pays to have a variety of creature sizes on the board. Since Nightmare’s Thirst is dependent on life gained, it will often fall short against more substantial creatures, especially if there’s a cap to the life gain in a particular turn.

Overall, understanding and disrupting an opponent’s life gain tactics or diversifying your creature threats can neutralize the advantage Nightmare’s Thirst offers in a life gain-centric deck, effectively diluting its threat level on the battlefield.

Cards like Nightmare's Thirst

Nightmare’s Thirst subtly carves its niche among life gain and loss spells in Magic: The Gathering. Its analog, Sovereign’s Bite, directly deals 3 damage to the opponent and gains you 3 life, but it doesn’t offer the creature destruction flexibility that Nightmare’s Thirst does. With the right amount of life gain, Nightmare’s Thirst can remove key creatures off the battlefield while still improving your life standings.

Essence Extraction emerges as another peer, offering both life gain and creature removal in one package. Differing in mana cost and impact, Essence Extraction provides a fixed 3 damage to a target creature and 3 life to you at sorcery speed, irrespective of your life gain for the turn, unlike the fluctuating potency of Nightmare’s Thirst. Alms of the Vein, conversely, focuses mainly on life-loss and converting it via the madness mechanic. It does not interact with creatures but can influence life totals significantly.

In weighing these options, Nightmare’s Thirst has its own merit in decks synergistic with life gain triggers and spot removal. While not as straightforward as some alternatives, its potential for massive swings in board presence and life totals makes it a worthy consideration in MTG strategies.

Cards similar to Nightmare's Thirst by color, type and mana cost

March of Wretched Sorrow - MTG Card versions

Foulmire Knight // Profane Insight - MTG Card versions

Aesthetic Consultation - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Nightmare's Thirst MTG card by a specific set like Core Set 2019, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Nightmare's Thirst and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Nightmare's Thirst has restrictions

Format	Legality
Historicbrawl	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Commander	Legal
Modern	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Explorer	Legal
Penny	Legal
Timeless	Legal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Nightmare's Thirst card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

Date	Text
2018-07-13	If the target creature is an illegal target when Nightmare’s Thirst tries to resolve, the spell doesn’t resolve. You won’t gain 1 life.
2018-07-13	Nightmare’s Thirst counts how much life you’ve gained this turn, not how much your life total changed. For example, if you’ve gained 5 life and lost 8 before Nightmare’s Thirst resolves, Nightmare’s Thirst has you gain 1 more life, then it gives the target creature -6/-6.