Thanks to Commander’s snowbally nature, board wipes are necessary at almost all brackets in the format. With everyone constantly building up for a big turn, a mass reset prevents whoever got out of the gate quickest from just winning the game outright. On top of this, when multiple players start to get their game plans going, board wipes are the only way an individual can deal with one problem without dying to another.
That said, especially against tuned decks, one well-timed board wipe usually isn’t enough. Since most players expect to be reset at some point, rebuilding as quickly as possible has become a core part of the Commander experience. For exactly that reason, Nevinnyral, Urborg Tyrant can become an extremely powerful and annoying Commander.
MTG Nevinnyral, Urborg Tyrant
Nevinyrral, Urborg Tyrant comes with a variety of different abilities, all of which are worth building around. Selective Hexproof does mean that this card will randomly stonewall some of your opponent’s strategies, giving this a sort of counter-esque vibe to certain tables. As nasty as this is, Nevinyrral’s two subsequent abilities are far worse. Wiping the board, only to fill it with Zombies after, is an absolutely disgusting synergy.
While destroying Nevinyrral and recasting him will often be worth the mana investment, a whole suite of cards can make this a lot cheaper. Utilizing Scam effects, like Not Dead After All, allows Nevinyrral to wipe the board and profit from his own destruction. If your opponents allow you to set it up, attaching Gift of Immortality onto Nevinyrral allows you to wipe the board every turn. Just pair these effects with cards like Village Rites, and you can blow up Nevinyrral on command while drawing cards.
While even a small collection of Zombies is deadly on an empty board, a wide variety of cards can make these 2/2s do even more work. Death Baron and Diregraf Captain, in particular, ensure that you can close the game quickly after a board reset. When you’re ready to deploy all your Zombies, a well-timed Rooftop Storm can let you hold your Zombies to dump them all on one turn. You can even recast Nevinyrral on the cheap, only paying the Command tax you’ve racked up.
All of that said, as strong as these cards are, Nevinyrral does blow them up on death. While the board wipe is optional, there are plenty of ways to turn your Commander into a one-sided blowout. Gerard’s Hourglass Pendant and Faith’s Reward can return everything that Nevinyrral blew up back to play. You can also use Eldrazi Monument and The Walls of Ba Sing Se to make your board Indestructible.
Really, with any one of these synergy pieces in place, Nevinyrral becomes a blowout. So long as you can capitalize on a refreshed boardstate, most bracket 3 Commander decks won’t keep up with you. Even a simple Harmonized Crescendo with a bunch of Zombie Tokens should draw enough cards to run away with the game.
Infinite Boardwipes and Zombies
Despite a one-sided boardwipe often being enough to close out a game of Commander, some players will want to win while doing cartwheels around the rest of the table. Should you want to win as efficiently as possible with this Commander, it’s quite easy to create infinite Zombies with it.
Phyrexian Altar, on its own, can go infinite with Nevinyrral, depending on how many creatures died. Since this Commander counts the Zombies it creates towards its own entry trigger, Phyrexian Altar can sacrifice all of your Zombies, recreating them on each subsequent Commander cast. So long as the number of creatures that have died matches the cost of your Commander, you can go infinite. Notably, when Nevinyrral dies, you need to decline the board wipe so you don’t blow up your own Phyrexian Altar.
When using three-card combos, you can reduce the number of dead creatures required to go infinite to just two. Ashnod’s Altar and Nim Deathmantle will allow you to sacrifice Nevinyrral and return him to play repetitively. Since you’ll create more Zombies each time, you can easily create infinite tokens and colorless mana.
While completely unnecessary, it is possible to start wiping the board infinitely while you do this. All you need to do is make your artifacts indestructible so they won’t blow up when you activate Nevinyrral’s ability. Walls of Ba Sing Se and Avacyn, Angel of Hope can pull this off thanks to being brought back by Nim Deathmantle each time they die. Since these creatures create one-sided wipes anyway, including them in your deck is a surprisingly small cost.
Criminally Underplayed
A walking board wipe that hits artifacts, enchantments and creatures easily has the potential to shut down the vast majority of Commander strategies. In a way, this makes Nevinyrral the anti-Bracket 3 Commander, capable of beating any strategy that can’t assemble quick infinite combos. This makes Nevinyrral a strong pick for a newer player who’s trying to play up to a Bracket 3 level.
On top of being powerful, Nevinyrral is extremely affordable. For the low cost of $0.50, you can start nuking the board on repeat while growing your Zombie army. This price is likely, in part, due to how little play the Commander sees, appearing in only 1818 decks, according to EDHREC. Considering that this can easily beat some of the most popular Commanders in the format, Nevinyrral could afford to see more play.
The only downside to playing this Commander is that it’s rather annoying to play against. Having all of your cards repetitively destroyed isn’t the most fun mechanic in the world for your opponents. That said, so long as you don’t mind being the villain, Nevinyrral, Urborg Tyrant offers an affordable way to build a powerful deck.
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