Nissa of Shadowed Boughs MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 5 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost4
RarityMythic
TypeLegendary Planeswalker — Nissa
Abilities Landfall
Loyalty 4

Key Takeaways

  1. Nissa offers substantial card advantage with land-based creature deployment and +1/+1 counters.
  2. Demands precise mana and graveyard setup, posing risks to deck synergy and tempo.
  3. A distinct asset for land-centric and graveyard strategies, enhancing deck versatility.

Text of card

Landfall — Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, put a loyalty counter on Nissa of Shadowed Boughs.
+1: Untap target land you control. You may have it become a 3/3 Elemental creature with haste and menace until end of turn. It's still a land.
-5: You may put a creature card with mana value less than or equal to the number of lands you control onto the battlefield from your hand or graveyard with two +1/+1 counters on it.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Nissa of Shadowed Boughs provides a consistent advantage by allowing you to put a creature card from your hand or graveyard onto the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it every time a land enters the battlefield under your control. This ability effectively bypasses mana costs, effectively garnering you substantial card advantage as the game progresses.

Resource Acceleration: This planeswalker aids in resource acceleration by incentivizing land drops, which can potentially trigger landfall abilities multiple times in a single turn. Additionally, the creatures brought back with Nissa’s +1 ability gain an additional counter, effectively amping up your board presence and resources without additional mana investment.

Instant Speed: While Nissa of Shadowed Boughs herself doesn’t operate at instant speed, her landfall-triggered ability can be activated during any turn where a land enters the battlefield under your control. This includes instant-speed land drops from effects such as ‘Growth Spiral,’ allowing for unexpected swings during an opponent’s turn and giving you a lever to pull that they must always consider.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Playing Nissa of Shadowed Boughs often requires you to have a robust graveyard setup due to her loyalty abilities, which can be a frequent hurdle in matches where your creatures aren’t quickly filling the graveyard.

Specific Mana Cost: Nissa of Shadowed Boughs demands a precise blend of black and green mana to cast, potentially complicating her inclusion in multicolored decks or in games where mana fixing is not optimal.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a four-mana requirement that includes two specific colors, Nissa of Shadowed Boughs can come into play later than other impactful planeswalkers or creatures, which might hinder your tempo and give opponents a chance to establish a stronger board presence.


Reasons to Include Nissa of Shadowed Boughs in Your Collection

Versatility: Nissa of Shadowed Boughs has a unique place in decks that exploit land mechanics or play with graveyard strategies. Her abilities allow her to animate lands and benefit from creatures dying, making her a multifaceted card for various deck archetypes.

Combo Potential: This planeswalker can synergize with effects that put cards into the graveyard, providing a consistent way to gain loyalty counters. In combination with cards that recur creatures from the graveyard, you can create powerful board states quickly and effectively.

Meta-Relevance: In an environment where controlling the board is key, Nissa of Shadowed Boughs provides resilience against removal by returning creatures from the grave. Her potential to impact games in midrange and graveyard-centric decks makes her a valuable addition against an array of current meta strategies.


How to beat

The strategic allure of Nissa of Shadowed Boughs lies in her robust versatility on the battlefield. As a planeswalker card in MTG, her innate ability to ramp up lands and reanimate creatures presents a formidable challenge. However, there are tried and tested methods to counter her impact on the game.

Direct damage spells, such as Lightning Bolt or Shatter the Sky, can significantly reduce Nissa’s loyalty counters, potentially removing her from play before her abilities become overwhelming. Control decks focused on counter spells also stand a good chance at suppressing her activation by blocking key spells essential for her success. Deploying graveyard hate cards like Grafdigger’s Cage can stifle her reanimation strategy, cutting off a major tactic used to dominate the field.

Lastly, continuously applying pressure through aggro strategies can prevent a player from stabilizing long enough to capitalize on Nissa’s strengths. By attacking early and often, the window for leveraging her full potential narrows, allowing you to maintain the upper hand. Understanding these strategies positions players to handle the challenge Nissa of Shadowed Boughs presents outsmarting opponents who deploy this mighty walker.


BurnMana Recommendations

As we’ve delved into the abilities and strategic nuances of Nissa of Shadowed Boughs, it’s clear that this card creates opportunities for inventive gameplay in MTG. The synergy with landfall and graveyard mechanics makes Nissa a versatile choice for numerous deck builds. If you’re intrigued by the potential to enhance your land-based strategies or maximize graveyard synergies, learning more about optimizing Nissa in your deck can give you an edge in your matches. Keep refining your strategy and expanding your collection to harness the full power of Nissa of Shadowed Boughs. Embark on this journey with us to master your deck-building skills and conquer the battlefield.


Cards like Nissa of Shadowed Boughs

Nissa of Shadowed Boughs holds a unique place among planeswalker cards in MTG, blending land interaction with creature perks. When analyzing her alongside other planeswalkers like Garruk, Cursed Huntsman, similarities emerge such as both having a loyalty ability that creates creature tokens. However, Nissa’s land animation ability sets her apart, offering a multifaceted strategy as it turns lands into threats while also boosting them with +1/+1 counters.

Another analog is Liliana, Death’s Majesty, which also boasts the power to create creature tokens and has graveyard interaction. Nonetheless, Nissa’s emphasis on lands and her formidability in accelerating landfall strategies give her a leg up in decks that rely heavily on land mechanics. Additionally, her final ability can turn the tide of the game by bringing back creatures with an added advantage, a feature Liliana lacks.

Ultimately, for MTG deck builders who favor a strategy that weaves exploit land and graveyard synergy, Nissa of Shadowed Boughs offers qualities that her kin can’t quite replicate, making her a potent choice in the right deck configuration.

Garruk, Cursed Huntsman - MTG Card versions
Liliana, Death's Majesty - MTG Card versions
Garruk, Cursed Huntsman - Throne of Eldraine Promos (PELD)
Liliana, Death's Majesty - Amonkhet (AKH)

Cards similar to Nissa of Shadowed Boughs by color, type and mana cost

Vraska, Swarm's Eminence - MTG Card versions
Tyvar Kell - MTG Card versions
Vraska, Golgari Queen - MTG Card versions
Garruk Relentless // Garruk, the Veil-Cursed - MTG Card versions
A-Tyvar Kell - MTG Card versions
Vraska, Swarm's Eminence - Secret Lair Drop (SLD)
Tyvar Kell - Kaldheim Promos (PKHM)
Vraska, Golgari Queen - Secret Lair Drop (SLD)
Garruk Relentless // Garruk, the Veil-Cursed - From Cute to Brute (PCTB)
A-Tyvar Kell - Kaldheim (KHM)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Nissa of Shadowed Boughs MTG card by a specific set like Magic Online Promos and Zendikar Rising 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 of Shadowed Boughs and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Nissa of Shadowed Boughs Magic the Gathering card was released in 3 different sets between 2020-09-25 and 2020-09-25. Illustrated by 2 different artists.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12002-06-24Magic Online PromosPRM 838422015normalblackDavid Rapoza
22020-09-25Zendikar Rising PromosPZNR 231p2015normalblackYongjae Choi
32020-09-25Zendikar RisingZNR 2312015normalblackYongjae Choi
42020-09-25Zendikar Rising PromosPZNR 231s2015normalblackYongjae Choi
52020-09-25Zendikar RisingZNR 2832015normalborderlessDavid Rapoza

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Nissa of Shadowed Boughs has restrictions

FormatLegality
HistoricbrawlLegal
CommanderLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
ExplorerLegal
GladiatorLegal
PioneerLegal
TimelessLegal

Rules and information

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

DateText
2020-09-25 A landfall ability doesn’t trigger if a permanent already on the battlefield becomes a land.
2020-09-25 A landfall ability triggers whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control for any reason. It triggers whenever you play a land, as well as whenever a spell or ability puts a land onto the battlefield under your control.
2020-09-25 Effects that modify the power or toughness of the land creature without setting it will apply to its new base power and toughness no matter when they started to take effect. The same is true for counters that change its power and toughness.
2020-09-25 If a card in a player’s hand or graveyard has in its mana cost, X is considered to be 0.
2020-09-25 Nissa’s middle ability can target a land that’s already untapped or that’s already a creature.
2020-09-25 Nissa’s middle ability doesn’t remove any abilities the land creature has.
2020-09-25 Nissa’s middle ability overwrites any previous effects that set the land creature’s power and/or toughness to specific values. Other effects that set these characteristics to specific values that start to apply after the ability resolves will overwrite that part of the effect.
2020-09-25 The creature card’s converted mana cost is checked only in your hand or graveyard. You may put a creature card onto the battlefield whose converted mana cost becomes greater than the number of lands you control once it’s on the battlefield, most likely because it enters as a copy of another permanent.
2020-09-25 Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, each landfall ability of the permanents you control will trigger. You can put them on the stack in any order. The last ability you put on the stack will be the first one to resolve.

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