Nightmare Shepherd

Enchantment Creature — Demon

Flying

Whenever another nontoken creature you control dies (is put into the graveyard from the battlefield), you may exile it. If you do, create a token that's a copy of that creature, except it's a 1/1 that's a Nightmare in addition to its other types.

Tokens

• Copy Clone

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Penny Dreadful	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (41)

Kashai on ShdwBrnApstl

1 month ago

jjarmani35

I agree that redundancy for Athreos, God of Passage important, most of these options are listed under Gimmick Support but I love that Nightmare Shepherd is a Demon and a valid Gimmick Target plus I was already considering replacing Desecration Demon so this makes an easy swap! I don't know of many myriad cards so I'll have to look into it more. Soul Foundry and Thrumming Stone look great and I definitely will be trying to find where I can fit them in.

Thanks for the suggestions

jjarmani35 on ShdwBrnApstl

1 month ago

having ways to get them back even if they pay the three or just kill athreos is important, i would say throw in a Nightmare Shepherd would work well, it would exile it, but also give it back to you to reuse. helps with graveyard hate, when you burn it yourself for gain. cards that give myriad would work as well likeBlade of Selves or Legion Loyalty thought legion loyalty is a bit expensive cmc wise. since you can use shadowborns ability at instant speed, you can attack make 2 extra shadowborns in a 4 pod and sac them all for a demon before damage or the end of combat. token generators arent a bad idea either like Soul Foundry or Mimic Vat or even Helm of the Host. last a Thrumming Stone never hurt, ive seen people drop 10+ shadowborns with a thrumming stone.

Grind on Marneus Calgar: Indomitus Crusaders

3 months ago

cool deck!!!
a couple ideas, just thoughts:
Knight-Captain of Eos makes tokens, keeps you alive.
Hero of Bladehold makes tokens,
Grave Titan makes tokens.
Luminarch Ascension is a win con late game if it sticks.
Divine Visitation makes your tokens awesome.
Training Grounds reduces the cost of your commander's ability.
Inkshield can be a big turn around and makes tokens.
Dramatic Finale makes tokens.
Nightmare Shepherd makes tokens
Pawn of Ulamog and Sifter of Skulls make tokens
cheers, have fun!!!

Coward_Token on Nightmare Shepherd & Face down …

8 months ago

I have a Nightmare Shepherd and a manifested card. The manifested card dies, and I choose to exile it with the Shepherd's ability. Will the resulting token just be a 1/1 Nightmare? Or does the manifested card's front side matter at all?

Masterful on Necronomicon | Teysa Karlov | Primer

1 year ago

MilkBreath56 I've been experiencing a similar problem in that the deck has too many high CMC cards that can clog our hand. Now that the format is speeding up, we can't afford to play as many big creatures with redundant effects. For example, Luminous Broodmoth and Nightmare Shepherd are probably not both needed, and neither are both Pitiless Plunderer and Sifter of Skulls. I used to prioritize the infinite combo a lot more back when the format was slower, but now, cheap fodder and card draw are king. The combo should still be accessible with our many tutors even though we'd have less redundancy. I'm working on an update to overall lower the curve of the deck, introduce more cheap fodder and card draw, and cut down on redundant 4+ CMC cards.

Despite the potential of lowering the curve, Teysa will never be as fast as the likes of Lathril, Blade of the Elves who can rely on tons of cheap mana dorks, or Magda, Brazen Outlaw who generates fast treasure from the command zone. Teysa's advantage is that she's a lot more resilient. Aristocrat boards will get a ton of value even if they're destroyed and can sometimes be brought back while elves or Magda just lose everything to a wipe. And if your Magda player is winning too consistently on early turns, their deck might be too strong for your meta.

The balance of death triggers to fodder to sacrifice is definitely a tough one. Thankfully many cards do multiple jobs. I'm glad you've been able to adjust the power level using the tutors. Another easy way to cut power would be cutting cards like Necropotence or Bolas's Citadel or fast ramp like Chrome Mox or Mana Crypt. Even cutting Skullclamp reduces power by a ton. Cards like Sign in Blood (or Marble Diamond/Charcoal Diamond for the ramp) are great replacements. If you ever need to increase power, stax cards like Opposition Agent and Dauthi Voidwalker could do a lot, but it's at the cost of making the deck more oppressive. If you ever find yourself up against precons, this list would need a lot of down-tuning, and some easy downgrades might be to remove Reassembling Skeleton, take out all the ramp, take out all the control cards, etc.

To answer your question, I agree with you that running out of fodder is probably this deck's #1 problem. It's mostly the same as our high CMC problem. We don't have enough cheap fodder, and too many of our creatures are 4+ mana. The update I'm working on should hopefully solve some of those problems. If you want to do some tuning yourself, I recommend trying different 1-2 drop creatures with useful death triggers, especially ones that create tokens.

Glad you're enjoying the deck and cheers again!

IHATENAMES on

1 year ago

Doubling death triggers is a powerful effect. However you need to get a good amount of value from it to make it worth it. A Xtra token once is not great (see Hunted Witness). I'd look at that if you are looking where to cut to add any of this.

Open the Graves Xtra token per death trigger.

Nightmare Shepherd double the death with a token to sac as well more helpful when you are going off then early game. A budget Luminous Broodmoth I'd run at least one.

Mask of Griselbrand card draw made for this deck. By far.

Crowded Crypt interesting new card I'd suggest running over the locket

Demon of Dark Schemes boardwipe small guys plus reanimation.

Death Tyrant a little niche but very powerful if doubled.

Fallen Ideal For thatvultron win vs the deck with near infinite health.

Peer into the Abyss underrated card draw or even player removal.

Viscera Seer Carrion Feeder Sadistic Hypnotist I think more creature free sac outlets would help here are 3 that I prefer.

Twilight's CallDread ReturnVictimize Hell's Caretaker you lack reanimation almost entirely. This is a few I'd suggest. In this type of deck saying your board 1ce reanimating and doing it all over again is the general way I see aristocrats win. Adding a few even if it's not these will immensely power up your deck.

Higher budget items that you should look into if you want to increase your budget. Luminous BroodmothLiving Death

Moonbath on Mono Black Devotion

1 year ago

Nykthos, Lashwrithe, and Malakir Rebirth are all 3 I've heard of and/or have considered for this deck. Granted Nykthos is pretty pricey xD but it would be such a great acquisition. I really like the other recommendations Brasslord, I am keeping a list of possible cards to look into and try to figure out how they'll fit into my deck and what direction they'll take them.

I also have my eye on Thoughtseize, Leyline of the Void, Phyrexian Obliterator, though those prices are a big obstacle obviously haha Nightmare Shepherd, Fatal Push, Yarok's Fenlurker, Tymaret, Chosen from Death, Bolas's Citadel, and Ayara, First of Lochthwain are all ones that I've seen, heard of, and various ones have been cards I've been told to look into. So I have my work cut out for me to figure out which are worth it and will actually bump this deck up unless I want just a 100 card deck of all of the above lol...

multimedia on Can I see your...?

1 year ago

Hey, Nightmare Shepherd is a good budget card with Gonti because he's your Commander. When Gonti dies you choose to send him to your graveyard instead of back to the Command Zone. This triggers Shepperd to exile Gonti, but since Gonti is changing yet another zone then when you exile him you can choose to then put Gonti into the Command Zone. When this happens you get a 1/1 legendary Gonti token that triggers his ETB ability when it's created and Gonti goes back to the Command Zone. This interaction is repeatable as long as you can cast Gonti from the Command Zone.

Magus of the Coffers + Sword of the Paruns is a budget way to make infinite black mana if you control at least six Swamps. Use this combo with any sac outlet such as Viscera Seer to infinite cast Gonti from the Command Zone to exile all your opponent libraries or exile tons of opponents cards and cast them all. Bubbling Muck can help to make black mana to assemble this combo.

Strionic Resonator can copy Gonti triggered ability. Profane Tutor is a new budget tutor and Infernal Grasp is new instant creature removal. Morbid Opportunist once on each player's turn cares about any other creature who dies to draw.

Good luck with your deck.