Nikara, Lair Scavenger

Card text

Partner with Yannik, Scavenging Sentinel (When this creature enters, target player may put Yannik into their hand from their library, then shuffle.)

Menace

Whenever another creature you control leaves the battlefield, if it had one or more counters on it, you draw a card and you lose 1 life.

Market price

Latest aggregated market price for the normal finish of this printing: $1.30 (as of 2026-11-12).

The figure covers this printing only; other printings carry their own price on their own page.

Format legality

Legality of Nikara, Lair Scavenger by format. Formats in which it is not legal are not listed.

Official rulings

The 8 most recent official rulings for Nikara, Lair Scavenger, newest first.

• 2020-04-17 "Partner with [name]" represents two abilities. The first is a triggered ability: "When this permanent enters the battlefield, target player may search their library for a card named [name], reveal it, put it into their hand, then shuffle their library."
• 2020-04-17 A creature with a "partner with" ability can't partner with any creature other than its designated partner. Losing a partner ability during the game doesn't cause either to cease to be your commander.
• 2020-04-17 Both commanders start in the command zone, and the remaining 98 cards of your deck are shuffled to become your library.
• 2020-04-17 If a creature with +1/+1 counters on it receives an equal number of -1/-1 counters and this causes it to be destroyed by lethal damage or put into its owner's graveyard for having 0 or less toughness, Nikara's last ability triggers. That's because the ability checks the creature as it last existed on the battlefield, and it still had those counters on it at that point.
• 2020-04-17 If a creature with counters on it leaves the battlefield at the same time as Nikara, Nikara's ability triggers for that creature.
• 2020-04-17 If your Commander deck has two commanders, you can only include cards whose own color identities are also found in your commanders' combined color identities. If Haldan and Pako are your commanders, your deck may contain cards with blue, red, and/or green in their color identity, but not cards with white or black.
• 2020-04-17 Nikara's last ability causes you to draw only one card and lose only 1 life, no matter how many counters or kinds of counters that creature had on it.
• 2020-04-17 Note that the target player searches their library (which may be affected by effects such as that of Stranglehold) and that the card they find is revealed, even though these words aren't included in the ability's reminder text.

Similar cards

Other creature cards with a black colour identity, ranked by how often they appear in Commander decks.

• Blood Artist
• Pitiless Plunderer
• Mirkwood Bats
• Zulaport Cutthroat
• Gray Merchant of Asphodel