Nissa, Ascended Animist MTG Card

Card setsReleased in 9 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost7
RarityMythic
TypeLegendary Planeswalker — Nissa
Abilities Compleated
Loyalty 7

Key Takeaways

  1. Nissa enhances deck consistency and power by turning lands into both mana sources and creatures.
  2. Flexible instant-speed abilities allow players to alter the game dynamics unexpectedly, gaining the upper hand.
  3. High mana cost and green-specific requirements limit Nissa’s versatility in multicolored decks.

Text of card

Compleated ({G/P} can be paid with or 2 life. For each {G/P} paid with life, this planeswalker enters with two fewer loyalty counters.)
+1: Create an X/X green Phyrexian Horror creature token, where X is Nissa, Ascended Animist's loyalty.
-1: Destroy target artifact or enchantment.
-7: Until end of turn, creatures you control get +1/+1 for each Forest you control and gain trample.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Nissa, Ascended Animist offers a strategic edge through its ability to search your library for a land card and put it onto the battlefield tapped. This not only thins your deck, enhancing the probability of drawing impactful spells, but also supplements your hand by turning top-decked lands into potential creatures, maximizing your resources with each draw.

Resource Acceleration: This dynamic card, with its potent land animation feature, propels your resource acceleration forward. Each land turned into a creature can be a formidable force in combat or serve as a defense, while still providing mana for spell casting or further board development. This multipurpose utility leverages both your mana base and battlefield presence simultaneously.

Instant Speed: The ultimate ability of Nissa, Ascended Animist can be activated at instant speed, giving you the flexibility to make decisive moves on your opponent’s turn. This reactive capability allows you to adapt to the game’s ebb and flow, utilizing your animated lands for blocking or making crucial game-altering plays when your opponent least expects it.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: This card requires discarding another card, potentially putting you at a card disadvantage or forcing you to lose a valuable resource you might need later in the game.

Specific Mana Cost: Nissa, Ascended Animist comes with a specific mana cost that includes green, which could be restrictive in multicolor decks that might struggle with the necessary mana fixing.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a higher casting cost, this card necessitates a significant mana investment, which could slow down your game plan, especially when compared to other options in the same mana range that could provide a more immediate impact on the board state.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Nissa, Ascended Animist offers a broad spectrum of utility across various deck archetypes due to her ability to generate mana, card advantage, and powerful creatures. This flexibility can be a significant asset in building decks that adapt to an ever-changing game environment.

Combo Potential: Her abilities synergize well with strategies that capitalize on landfall triggers or the underpinning of green’s affinity for big creatures and ramp. Nissa can significantly amplify the effectiveness of such combos, making her a formidable addition to decks designed around these mechanics.

Meta-Relevance: Given the card’s alignment with strategies that leverage land-based synergies, Nissa, Ascended Animist maintains relevance in metas where resource acceleration is crucial. Her capacity to alter the state of the game with her elemental creatures confers an edge in various competitive scenarios.

How to Beat Nissa, Ascended Animist

Nissa, Ascended Animist emerges as a formidable planeswalker in Magic: The Gathering, adept at summoning a multitude of lands onto the battlefield with her potent abilities. Her power to animate lands and strengthen them can overwhelm opponents if left unchecked. To counter this green magic icon, focus on direct disruption strategies.

Negating her abilities before they take effect is crucial. Consider using counterspells to prevent Nissa from entering the field. Once she’s in play, aim for removal spells to keep her loyalty counters in check and prevent ultimate ability activation. Instant-speed removal, such as Hero’s Downfall or Murder, can be effective against her animated lands. Lastly, board wipes and land destruction cards create harsh setbacks for her land-centric tactics, ensuring the balance of power remains in your favor.

Strategizing against Nissa, Ascended Animist requires a blend of foresight and responsive play. Steady control of the board, resource denial, and interfering with land strategies create a pathway to victory against this resilient planeswalker’s ascendancy.

Cards like Nissa, Ascended Animist

Nissa, Ascended Animist finds its niche in Magic: The Gathering as a powerful planeswalker with a unique set of abilities. Its closest resemblance might be to Nissa, Who Shakes the World, which also revolves around land interaction. Both walk the path of ramping up mana by leveraging lands, but Nissa, Ascended Animist takes it a step further by turning lands into creatures with vigilance and haste, providing an immediate board presence.

Tapping into a similar design space, Nissa, Vital Force is also worth comparing. This earlier version of Nissa offers land animation too, albeit with a different twist, conferring haste to the land creature and potential card draw through its emblem. The distinctions in activation cost and ultimate abilities between these cards cater to varying strategic planning and deck build diversity.

With MTG’s focus on planeswalkers that manipulate lands, the introduction of Nissa, Ascended Animist enhances the archetype by offering multipurpose abilities, reinforcing both defense and attack strategies. Her role in evolving the land-centric deck archetype within the game’s meta cannot be understated, representing an evolutionary leap in terms of planeswalker utility and versatility in Magic: The Gathering.

Nissa, Who Shakes the World - MTG Card versions
Nissa, Vital Force - MTG Card versions
Nissa, Who Shakes the World - MTG Card versions
Nissa, Vital Force - MTG Card versions

Cards similar to Nissa, Ascended Animist by color, type and mana cost

Nissa, Genesis Mage - MTG Card versions
Nissa, Genesis Mage - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Nissa, Ascended Animist MTG card by a specific set like Phyrexia: All Will Be One and Phyrexia: All Will Be One 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 Nissa, Ascended Animist and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Nissa, Ascended Animist Magic the Gathering card was released in 3 different sets between 2023-02-03 and 2023-02-03. Illustrated by 3 different artists.

#ReleasedNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12023-02-03Phyrexia: All Will Be OneONE 4542015NormalBorderlessGou Tanabe
22023-02-03Phyrexia: All Will Be One PromosPONE 175p2015NormalBlackChase Stone
32023-02-03Phyrexia: All Will Be OneONE 1752015NormalBlackChase Stone
42023-02-03Phyrexia: All Will Be OneONE 3272015NormalBlackChase Stone
52023-02-03Phyrexia: All Will Be OneONE 4532015NormalBlackChase Stone
62023-02-03Phyrexia: All Will Be One Art SeriesAONE 742015Art seriesBorderless
72023-02-03Phyrexia: All Will Be One PromosPONE 175s2015NormalBlackChase Stone
82023-02-03Phyrexia: All Will Be OneONE 3392015NormalBorderlessGou Tanabe
92023-02-03Phyrexia: All Will Be OneONE 3622015NormalBorderlessCabrol

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Nissa, Ascended Animist has restrictions

FormatLegality
StandardLegal
HistoricbrawlLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
OathbreakerLegal
GladiatorLegal
AlchemyLegal
PioneerLegal
CommanderLegal
ModernLegal
FutureLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
ExplorerLegal
BrawlLegal
TimelessLegal

Rules and information

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

Date Text
2023-02-04 A Phyrexian mana symbol contributes 1 toward the mana value of a card, even if life is paid for it. Specifically, Nissa's mana value is always 7.
2023-02-04 If Nissa is no longer on the battlefield at the time her first ability resolves, use the number of loyalty counters she had when she last existed on the battlefield to determine the value of X.
2023-02-04 Other replacement effects that would change the number of loyalty counters Nissa enters with will apply as normal.
2023-02-04 The compleated ability looks only at whether a player chose to pay 2 life for a Phyrexian mana symbol as they were casting the spell. If a player paid life for some other reason while casting the spell, that will not reduce the number of loyalty counters the planeswalker enters the battlefield with.
2023-02-04 The power and toughness bonus granted to creatures by Nissa's last ability is determined only once, as that ability resolves. It won't increase or decrease if the number of Forests you control later changes. Similarly, it applies only to creatures you control at the time it resolves. Creatures that come under your control after it resolves will not have the bonus.
2023-02-04 The token created by Nissa's first ability has its power and toughness set only once, at the time the ability resolves. It doesn't change later as loyalty counters are added to or removed from Nissa.