Nighthowler MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 8 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost3
RarityRare
TypeEnchantment Creature — Horror
Abilities Bestow
Power 0
Toughness 0

Key Takeaways

  1. Graveyards fuel Nighthowler’s power, providing significant card advantage as creature count increases.
  2. Bestow mechanic offers flexibility, doubling as a creature or power-boosting aura.
  3. Counters include graveyard management, enchantment removal, and conscious combat decisions.

Text of card

Bestow (If you cast this card for its bestow cost, it's an Aura spell with enchant creature. It becomes a creature again if it's not attached to a creature.) Nighthowler and enchanted creature each get +X/+X, where X is the number of creature cards in all graveyards.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Nighthowler stands out by harnessing the power of the graveyard to increase its own strength. As cards pile up in graveyards, Nighthowler gains +1/+1 for each creature card in all graveyards, which can quickly turn it into a formidable creature. This reality of incremental growth over time can easily shift the balance of power, creating a significant card advantage.

Resource Acceleration: One of the key attributes of Nighthowler is its Bestow mechanic, which allows you to use it as an aura instead of a creature. This flexibility means it can either be a threat on its own or enhance another creature, effectively serving as two cards in one and accelerating your on-board resources.

Instant Speed: While Nighthowler itself is not an instant, its Bestow mechanic interacts favorably in a game filled with instant-speed removal. When the enchanted creature dies, Nighthowler becomes a creature rather than going to the graveyard, providing an immediate response and maintaining board presence in situations where you might otherwise be set back.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: A critical aspect to consider when playing Nighthowler is the potential card disadvantage. Without a reliable way to fill your graveyard, you may not maximize the benefit Nighthowler can offer, hindering its effectiveness in fast-paced games.

Specific Mana Cost: Nighthowler comes with a fixed color identity in black mana, which can restrict deck-building options. Those who run multicolored decks may find it challenging to accommodate Nighthowler without tweaking their mana base, potentially affecting the deck’s consistency.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: While Nighthowler can be a powerhouse, its mana cost can be steep in the early game. Other creatures and enchantments at a lower cost can offer more immediate board presence or quicker synergies, so it’s important to balance Nighthowler’s impact against its mana demands.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Nighthowler offers a dual role as both an aura and a creature, making it a highly adaptable choice for decks built around graveyard strategies. Its strength grows with each creature card in all graveyards, fitting seamlessly into reanimator or self-mill decks.

Combo Potential: This card excels in combination with sacrifice or milling schemes. It can rapidly become a powerhouse on the battlefield, catching opponents off guard when paired with cards that fill graveyards quickly.

Meta-Relevance: In environments where creature-heavy decks prevail, Nighthowler becomes an asset. As opponents fill their graveyards with creatures, either through combat or other means, Nighthowler gains power, often turning the tides of the game.


How to Beat Nighthowler

Nighthowler stands out in Magic: The Gathering for its potential to become a formidable creature card. It thrives in a graveyard-rich environment, gaining strength from the number of creature cards that lie in all graveyards. To counteract the escalating power of Nighthowler, one strategy is to minimize the number of creatures in all graveyards. Cards that exile creatures from the graveyard like Relic of Progenitus or Scavenging Ooze are excellent tools for this task.

Another technique to tackle Nighthowler’s presence is to use enchantment removal spells. Since Nighthowler can also operate as an aura attached to another creature, being equipped with cards such as Return to Nature can dismantle this combo, leaving the opponent without their empowered creature.

Avoiding unnecessary combat that results in a high creature casualty rate on either side of the battlefield will also limit Nighthowler’s power escalation. Essentially, by maintaining tight control over graveyard populations and employing targeted removal, one can keep Nighthowler in check, ensuring it doesn’t turn into an insurmountable threat on the board.


BurnMana Recommendations

Exploring MTG’s depth, Nighthowler emerges as a unique card for graveyard enthusiasts. Its ability to evolve with each fallen creature provides a relentless edge, serving dual purposes as a creature or powering up others. Precision and strategy are key in harnessing its full potential, often requiring a balance between investment and payoff. If you appreciate nuanced play, where the graveyard becomes a resource rather than an endpoint, integrating Nighthowler into your deck can yield surprising victories. Enhance your MTG acumen and collection—dive deeper into the mechanics and strategies around Nighthowler with us.


Cards like Nighthowler

Nighthowler stands out as a unique creature card in MTG, which offers a power and toughness boost in relation to the number of creature cards in all graveyards. An easy comparison is with Lhurgoyf, a card that gets stronger based on the number of creature cards in just one graveyard. While both cards capitalize on graveyard size, Nighthowler can be bestowed onto another creature, giving it a secondary function that Lhurgoyf lacks.

Mortivore is another familiar face, its power and toughness dynamically changing with the graveyard contents as well. However, Mortivore’s regeneration ability provides it with some resilience that Nighthowler doesn’t inherently have. Lastly, we consider Wight of Precinct Six, which, similar to Lhurgoyf, counts only your opponents’ creature cards in graveyards for its size increase, thereby limiting its potential in comparison to Nighthowler’s full graveyard scope.

Assessing these comparisons helps to highlight Nighthowler’s versatile role, especially in decks where graveyard manipulation is pivotal. Its capability to impart substantial stat boosts on any creature, coupled with its own scaling power, makes it a formidable card in MTG, especially in the right deck setup focused on graveyard strategies.

Lhurgoyf - MTG Card versions
Mortivore - MTG Card versions
Wight of Precinct Six - MTG Card versions
Lhurgoyf - Ice Age (ICE)
Mortivore - Odyssey (ODY)
Wight of Precinct Six - Gatecrash (GTC)

Cards similar to Nighthowler by color, type and mana cost

Gloom - MTG Card versions
Season of the Witch - MTG Card versions
Tourach's Gate - MTG Card versions
Withering Wisps - MTG Card versions
Funeral March - MTG Card versions
Casting of Bones - MTG Card versions
Blanket of Night - MTG Card versions
Necropotence - MTG Card versions
Hecatomb - MTG Card versions
Megrim - MTG Card versions
Recurring Nightmare - MTG Card versions
Contamination - MTG Card versions
Oppression - MTG Card versions
Maggot Therapy - MTG Card versions
Murderous Betrayal - MTG Card versions
Noxious Field - MTG Card versions
Tainted Well - MTG Card versions
Phyrexian Arena - MTG Card versions
Gravestorm - MTG Card versions
Mortiphobia - MTG Card versions
Gloom - Masters Edition IV (ME4)
Season of the Witch - The Dark (DRK)
Tourach's Gate - Fallen Empires (FEM)
Withering Wisps - Masters Edition II (ME2)
Funeral March - Homelands (HML)
Casting of Bones - Alliances (ALL)
Blanket of Night - Visions (VIS)
Necropotence - Wilds of Eldraine: Enchanting Tales (WOT)
Hecatomb - Masters Edition (ME1)
Megrim - Stronghold (STH)
Recurring Nightmare - Exodus (EXO)
Contamination - Urza's Saga (USG)
Oppression - Urza's Saga (USG)
Maggot Therapy - Mercadian Masques (MMQ)
Murderous Betrayal - Nemesis (NEM)
Noxious Field - Prophecy (PCY)
Tainted Well - Invasion (INV)
Phyrexian Arena - Phyrexia: All Will Be One (ONE)
Gravestorm - Hachette UK (PHUK)
Mortiphobia - Torment (TOR)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Nighthowler MTG card by a specific set like Magic Online Promos and Theros Promos, 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 Nighthowler and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Nighthowler Magic the Gathering card was released in 8 different sets between 2013-09-21 and 2022-06-10. Illustrated by 2 different artists.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12002-06-24Magic Online PromosPRM 501222003normalblackSeb McKinnon
22013-09-21Theros PromosPTHS 982003normalblackSeb McKinnon
32013-09-27TherosTHS 982003normalblackNils Hamm
42015-11-13Commander 2015C15 1292015normalblackNils Hamm
52019-11-07Mystery BoosterMB1 7222015normalblackNils Hamm
62020-09-25Zendikar Rising CommanderZNC 492015normalblackNils Hamm
72020-09-26The ListPLST C15-1292015normalblackNils Hamm
82022-06-10Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's GateCLB 7642015normalblackNils Hamm

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Nighthowler has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PioneerLegal
PennyLegal

Rules and information

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

DateText
2013-09-15 Auras attached to a creature don't become tapped when the creature becomes tapped. Except in some rare cases, an Aura with bestow remains untapped when it becomes unattached and becomes a creature.
2013-09-15 If a permanent with bestow enters the battlefield by any method other than being cast, it will be an enchantment creature. You can't choose to pay the bestow cost and have it become an Aura.
2013-09-15 Nighthowler's last ability functions only from the battlefield. In other zones, Nighthowler is a 0/0 enchantment creature.
2013-09-15 On the stack, a spell with bestow is either a creature spell or an Aura spell. It's never both, although it's an enchantment spell in either case.
2013-09-15 Unlike other Aura spells, an Aura spell with bestow isn't countered if its target is illegal as it begins to resolve. Rather, the effect making it an Aura spell ends, it loses enchant creature, it returns to being an enchantment creature spell, and it resolves and enters the battlefield as an enchantment creature.
2013-09-15 Unlike other Auras, an Aura with bestow isn't put into its owner's graveyard if it becomes unattached. Rather, the effect making it an Aura ends, it loses enchant creature, and it remains on the battlefield as an enchantment creature. It can attack (and its abilities can be activated, if it has any) on the turn it becomes unattached if it's been under your control continuously, even as an Aura, since your most recent turn began.

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