Pointed Discussion

one of my favorite black card and one of the most powerful "rez" in the game. i use it with sengir autocrat,buried alive and the baddest beast black has to offer,to top it off i use grave pact so my army have no opposition. really a great card 5/5

I used to play this thing with Corpse Dance.

Stupidly broken. A necessity for any EDH deck with Black in it.

This was insanely strong with Survival of the Fittest back in the day. Key component to one of the best control decks. Just have one of each utility creature you can find, go get whatever creature you want, discard it then recur it up. AWESOME!!

Too bad this card is banned in EDH. It's so good! Well, that is, if you follow the EDH site rules.

Definitely deserves its high rating.

5/5

I run this in a BR deck with Magma Phoenix. It's nice to be able to abuse its death effect even by itself (you can res the creature you just sacrificed).

@NoobOfLore: you can't chose to both sac it and return it to your hand. the sacing happens first and when it says "Return Recurring Nightmare to it's owner's hand" it's referring to the permanent named Recurring Nightmare, not the card itself. So you can't pay the full cost of the activated ability that way.

i too have entertained dreams of many lulz with Opalescence, Pandemonium, and this card. Fortunately there are much more OP cards to play with all the aforementioned.

good luck with your shenanigans! hope u have as much fun with those cards as i have XD

Let's not forget the infinite 2x Priest of Gix coming into play combo. Pair with Soul Warden or Deathgreeter.

Well this card surely is broken. When I first played against it my opponent combined it with Skinrender and that allready was annoying.

I might go so far as to say that this is the most powerful reanimator card ever. Not necessarily the best reanimator because you need 3 mana and a creature in play, but definitely the most powerful. Once this card gets going in the correct deck, you win. CIP abilities, leave play abilities, or just straight up scary fatties. The possibilities are endless :D

Oh hello Great Whale, oh yes I would love infinite mana for my turn. Auto killing people with an infinite Comet Storm? I would love that too! :D

I love you Recurring Nightmare.. :3

@ JaxsonBateman

Your explanation is good, but the differences to Master Transmuter - who can bounce itself and choose itself as the returned creature is tricky: While Recurring Nightmare TARGETS a creature, the Transmuter speaks of "a" creature. THAT'S the difference that matters and a reason why I blame R&D for ruined Glen Elendra Pranksters by using the "target" reading instead of "a creature you control".

The deck was Nightmare Survival - as I remember it, lots of Birds to get this and Survival of the Fittest out early, then you'd just be picking and choosing the creatures you need from your deck, eventually finishing the game with usually, Spirit of the Night

Broke as a joke, this thing makes Rise from the Grave eat it's socks for breakfast!

first of all, this is banned in edh. second, what's wrong with hell's caretaker?

Use with Primeval Titan and Kokusho, the Evening Star.

I use this in my mon-black Zombie deck. It's especially annoying with Grave Pact!

Why is the first instance of the word "Return" capitalized in the Oracle wording?

Hello Morbid!

Looks like we found another way to abuse Recurring Nightmare, sac a creature to bring back a creature with morbid, instantly satisfying the condition, repeatedly.

Use Insidious Dreams to get some cards into your graveyard and for ultimate flavor.

Edit: after having made another deck with this card in it (to try and take advantage of the casual-sexiness that is Ulvenwald Tracker), it just boggles the mind how broken this card is in casual circles, with the main culprit this time around being Acidic Slime. Acidic Slime on the field and in the grave = repeatable Stone Rain. Stone Rain should not be so easy to achieve. Throw in Ulvenwald Tracker and you have another source of repeatable removal. Love the card so I'll keep playing it, but it does make me feel a little dirty knowing how difficult it can prove to be at times.



@WhiteMcFly: no, you can't bring back the creature you just sacrificed. While players often shortcut their way around casting spells and activating abilities, doing the steps in any order to reach the final goal, technically costs are always paid AFTER targets are selected. That is, the creature won't be in the graveyard by the time you're choosing a target.

Personally, I didn't know this card existed until I did a random search on Gatherer. Glad I found it. Can't wait to combo it up with some token generation and some ETB/LTB madness. Would also go quite well with Grave Pact to pile up the pain - oh, not only do I get my best creature back, but you also have to sac one. Sorry!

@Cheza - you'll notice my explanation specifically said targetting was the problem. ^^ It's not a tricky difference at all with Master Transmuter either; Master Transmuter doesn't target (and spells and abilities never target cards within hidden zones), so it doesn't target.

Just made another deck with this, and it's just absurd how good it is. I was concerned with my first test game being against treefolk (and my only way of dealing with indestructibility being a single Duplicant), but fortunately, a single Shriekmaw + Solemn Simulacrum meant I kept hitting their creatures down so that they could never get 2 Timber Protectors out, and the Simulacrum meant I was generating a wad of card advantage at the same time.

Just love it

grave titan plus recurring nightmare equals 2x 2/2 zombies a turn where x is the number of times you can play recurring nightmare a turn with the mana you have

Bladewing Thrall to get a dragon out of your graveyard?

Ballin' flavor text for a broken card.

3 mana for any creature in my deck? Seems good.

Deranged hermit, Phyrexian Delver are my two favorites.

One of my favorite cards of all time. Part of the reason I got back into Magic was so that I could build a deck with it and it's BFF Survival of the Fittest. They made a monster deck back during Exodus and Urza; it's become almost more viable due to how crazy creatures have become.

@Kitty_the_Kat; I'd rather combo this with Great Whale and Kokusho, the Evening Star but that's because I could wipe out a group of 20 people in one turn, and I'm a bad person. :)

I'm convinced they were doing cocaine throughout the entirety of Exodus.

The only real downside in comparison to other enchantments is that it's one of the select few that is very vulnerable to being countered seeing as you have to repeatedly cast it. Not to mention someone could force you to discard it after you return it to your hand.
The plus side to this situation is that is someone tries to downright destroy it while it's in play you can always sac it and return it you your hand.
Good card, though.

There are many things to say about Recurring Nightmare, like how it combos with everything and is totally broken, but I will say the following instead:

The only way to sacrifice Underworld Cerberus to Recurring Nightmare is to spoil it, humble it/teach it some humility, turn it into a sheep, or change it from a Hound into something else.

Just learned something about this card on Magic Online that should be included in the rulings section: If Nightmare makes for the 5th black regarding Erebos' devotion, then Nightmare will return before Erebos can be sacced. Interesting lesson and an amazing card.

My favorite pairing with this is Bloodghast. Every turn you drop a land you get a creature back for 3-mana. Fetches give you Ghast + a creature! Kitchen Finks are fun too :)

Banned in EDH? But I've seen it in recent Oloro decks on MTGTOP8. I suppose it may not be recognized.