Niambi, Faithful Healer MTG Card


Niambi, Faithful Healer - Dominaria
Mana cost
Converted mana cost3
RarityRare
TypeLegendary Creature — Human Cleric
Released2018-04-27
Set symbol
Set nameDominaria
Set codeDOM
Power 2
Toughness 2
Number272
Frame2015
Layoutnormal
Borderblack
Illustred byGreg Opalinski

Key Takeaways

  1. Niambi excels in card advantage, aiding card flow and game strategy with reusable abilities.
  2. Her mana specificity and cost may limit use in diverse decks or strategies.
  3. Effective countermeasures against Niambi involve disruption and strategic removal.

Text of card

When Niambi, Faithful Healer enters the battlefield, you may search your library and/or graveyard for a card named Teferi, Timebender, reveal it, and put it into your hand. If you search your library this way, shuffle it.

"My father will be happy to see you."


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Niambi, Faithful Healer specializes in recurring key pieces from the graveyard to your hand, offering a consistent mechanism for maintaining card advantage. This ensures a steady flow of options and responses, crucial for outmaneuvering opponents over the course of a match.

Resource Acceleration: This card synergizes well with decks that benefit from legendary spells or creatures, potentially accelerating your board presence significantly. By returning a legendary card with each activation, Niambi can set up powerful plays earlier than usual, creating a tempo that can overwhelm adversaries.

Instant Speed: Niambi’s ability can be activated at instant speed, providing flexibility to react to an opponent’s threats or end-of-turn actions. This gives players the upper hand by making it easier to manage resources efficiently while keeping up defenses against incoming threats.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Niambi, Faithful Healer demands a card to be discarded in order to utilize her secondary ability. This can put players in a difficult position, especially when hand size is crucial to maintaining strategic options throughout the game.

Specific Mana Cost: Niambi’s casting cost requires white and blue mana, which confines her to decks compatible with these colors. If your deck does not support this mana combination, integrating her can be challenging and lessen her overall effectiveness.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a cost of three mana, including one of each of her specific colors, Niambi might be viewed as a costly investment for her stats and abilities. Players often seek out lower cost creatures with similar or better impact on the game, making her a less attractive option in some scenarios.


Reasons to Include Niambi, Faithful Healer in Your Collection

Versatility: Niambi, Faithful Healer swiftly adapts to varied gameplay styles. As a legendary creature, she can serve as your commander or support in a 60-card deck. Her powerful ability to return another target legendary creature to its owner’s hand, such as her father Teferi, allows for protection and reuse of valuable abilities.

Combo Potential: Niambi’s capability to rescue key creatures makes her a linchpin in combo decks, capable of recurring essential pieces for infinite loops or simply thwarting opponents’ removal efforts. This adds depth to your strategies and enables intricate play sequences.

Meta-Relevance: Given the swiftly shifting landscape of MTG metagames, Niambi holds her ground by providing an accessible option for life gain and board control. In a meta teeming with targetable creatures, Niambi’s inherent safeguarding aptitude proves indispensable.


How to Beat Niambi, Faithful Healer

Niambi, Faithful Healer adds a strategic twist to Magic: The Gathering with her unique ability to retrieve the legendary Teferi from your deck. Players who come up against her need to think ahead to counteract her loyalty-boosting capabilities. An effective way to beat Niambi is by limiting her impact through disruptive spells that can counteract creature abilities or by using removal spells that can target her before the player has the chance to take advantage of her ability.

One could consider cards like Essence Scatter to counter Niambi as she hits the battlefield, or even a Doom Blade to remove her from the game swiftly. It’s also beneficial to keep a watchful eye on graveyard interactions since Niambi can potentially return to the fray. Players should plan their strategies with graveyard control cards like Relic of Progenitus or Leyline of the Void to prevent any such occurrences.

Ultimately, when facing Niambi, Faithful Healer, the key to victory lies in proactive disruption and strategic removals to keep Teferi from swinging the game in your opponent’s favor. Assessing the match pace and reacting quickly to Niambi’s presence will play a pivotal role in claiming the upper hand.


Cards like Niambi, Faithful Healer

Niambi, Faithful Healer carves a unique niche within the planeswalker support cards in MTG. A direct comparison can be drawn with Captain Sisay, which similarly fetches legendary cards from the library. However, Niambi focuses explicitly on rescuing planeswalkers, particularly her eternal partner Teferi, while Captain Sisay has a broader approach, able to search for any legendary card.

Another parallel emerges with Thalia’s Lancers, a card that also tutors for legendary cards. Niambi, however, stands out due to her lower mana cost and instant-speed activation possibility, offering a more flexible and timely response in contrast to Thalia’s Lancers’ sorcery speed limitation. Moreover, Niambi provides an additional layer of utility with her ability to return a creature to its owner’s hand, a feature not shared by these other legendary tutors.

Upon examining the capabilities and tactical advantages Niambi, Faithful Healer brings to the table, she is undoubtedly an asset for decks centering around planeswalker synergy and protection in the multiplayer game format, enhancing her prominence in specialized MTG strategies focused on legendary permanents.

Captain Sisay - MTG Card versions
Thalia's Lancers - MTG Card versions
Captain Sisay - Invasion (INV)
Thalia's Lancers - Resale Promos (PRES)

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Soulsworn Jury - Dissension (DIS)
Minister of Impediments - Dissension (DIS)
Court Hussar - Mystery Booster (MB1)
Azorius Herald - RNA Guild Kit (GK2)
Jötun Owl Keeper - Coldsnap (CSP)
Thistledown Duo - Shadowmoor (SHM)
Plumeveil - Modern Masters (MMA)
Silkbind Faerie - Shadowmoor (SHM)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Niambi, Faithful Healer MTG card by a specific set like Dominaria, 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 Niambi, Faithful Healer and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Niambi, Faithful Healer has restrictions

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

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