How Chainer, Nightmare Adept Reshapes Late-Game Magic

In TCG ·

Chainer, Nightmare Adept artwork from Modern Horizons 2

Image courtesy of Scryfall.com

How a Graveyard-Driven Finisher Changes Late-Game Magic

Chainer, Nightmare Adept arrives with the quiet menace you expect from black-red (B/R) strategies, a legendary creature from Modern Horizons 2 that quietly redefines what late-game pressure can look like. With a mana cost of {2}{B}{R} and a respectable 3/2 body, this card breathes life into graveyard-centric plans while keeping a sharp edge for aggressive setups. The flavor and the numbers align to make Chainer a reliable engine in the right shell 🧙‍♂️🔥.

Core abilities that reshape the late game

  • Discard a card: You may cast a creature spell from your graveyard this turn. Activate only once each turn. This is the kind of effect that turns a seemingly ordinary turn into a potential game-finisher. By paying a single card from your hand, you unlock the ability to pull a creature straight from the graveyard into play, bypassing the usual casting constraints. It’s not an infinite loop, but it is a sturdy toolbox for revival, recasting, and surprise tempo—perfect for catching opponents off guard as the board stabilizes.
  • Whenever a nontoken creature you control enters the battlefield, if you didn't cast it from your hand, it gains haste until your next turn. The haste aura on ETB triggers changes the timing windows in your favor. Reanimated threats or cards you didn’t cast from your hand can push through with aggression the moment they join the battlefield. This makes Chainer a surprisingly potent closer in long grind battles, where a single well-timed reanimation can swing the tempo and cement control of the board 🧭.

Put together, these abilities create a rare synergy: you can convert a discarded card into a fresh, haste-granting threat that scales with each entry. The combination of graveyard access and the automatic haste on re-entering creatures means your late game isn’t a slog of attrition—it’s a cascade of value that can surprise even seasoned players who’ve built their defenses around your deck’s earlier turns. In practical terms, the card rewards patience and planning, while still offering a direct path to rapid payoff when the moment is ripe 🧩.

Deckbuilding notes: dialing in the late-game engine

In a true graveyard-forward shell, Chainer shines when you pair the discard outlet with resilient creatures that answer different threats on the battlefield. Because the reanimation is limited to once per turn, you want to pace your threats and load your graveyard with value creatures that outperform their costs when returned. The haste clause further rewards you for sequencing—time your reanimations to strike just as your opponents commit to blocks or taps, turning a stalemate into decisive damage 💥.

In terms of colors and colors-influence, the B/R identity is a natural fit for disruption and extraction: you can set up a graveyard-centric plan while threatening quick, hot offenses. The rare status from Modern Horizons 2 signals a design that isn’t just a one-trick pull; it’s a layered engine that scales as the game evolves, especially in Commander or casual multi-player formats where the graveyard becomes a sprawling resource. The potential for explosive turns makes Chainer a popular pick for players who enjoy midrange skirmishes that suddenly tilt into the black-red dynamo ⚔️.

From a value and playability perspective, the card sits in a sweet spot for late-game payoff. Its rarity and set (MH2) mark it as part of a draft-innovation era that rewarded creative reuses of the graveyard and non-token ETB dynamics. The card’s market footprint—roughly a few dollars in typical printings, with foil and etched variants often edging slightly higher—reflects its standing as a beloved, puzzle-piece-style card rather than a pure staple. This is the kind of piece that becomes a conversation starter on tables where players chase memorable, clutch moments 🧠💎.

If you’re considering how to fit Chainer into a deck, think about the ways you can maximize those two core abilities. The discarded card should be a resource you’re comfortable moving to the graveyard to unlock value, while your graveyard should host resilient creatures that reward reanimation with immediate impact. The board state at the end of each turn can swing decisively if you land a solid reanimation followed by a haste-granted ETB creature, letting you pressure planeswalkers or builders with the added tempo swing. The result is a late-game engine that feels both thematic and practical—an echo of the necromancer mythos that Chainer embodies 🧙‍♂️⚡.

For collectors and lore fans, the card’s artwork—by Steve Prescott—offers a vivid window into the channeled nightmare of a necromancer who treats the graveyard as a second hand. The MH2 frame and rarity speak to a time when Wizards emphasized quirky, mechanically dense creatures that rewarded experimental play. Even if you’re not drafting, the story whispers through the card’s mechanical text, inviting players to picture the returns of a battlefield where life and death trade places with a single, decisive discard 🔮🎨.

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