Pointed Discussion

Why does this have such a low rating?!
With Dredge, this guy is an utter nightmare, letting you summon anything for basically free!

Nice card but it will be better without the last sentence and the artwork is amazing, it looks like a cover of some Death Metal band.

Since sac-ing is part of the activation cost, the sac'd creature is in the graveyard when the ability is "cast", so you could bring the same creature back. Great for a zombie combo, or even an Arcbound one. Every turn I kill and bring back a +2+2 arcbound creature, and every turn another artifact creature gets 2 more counters.
4.5

The upkeep only thing kinda sucks, but the effect (and the art) are so good, it hardly matters.

Looks like the rating is getting closer to where it should be. The ability gets there in casual, and probably made for some evil combos while it was still standard-legal. Personally, I like this + Bladewing the Risen (makes all your dragons keep coming back. Sac Bladewing to it, then use it to return bladewing. Ooooh, look, that dragon you just killed? He's back.) or this + Kokusho, the Evening Star.

With a Shriekmaw in your graveyard and a Mulldrifter on the field you have a constant stream of KILL! DRAW! KILL!

OMG, I just realized yesterday this guy was in Ninth, I LOVED this card. Remember he was in one of my decks...can't remember which one thou...

@psyklone:

No. You choose your targets BEFORE you pay the costs. Therefore you can't bring the same creature back.

@Belz_
if that is true then why can you play the same card returned to your hand with Master Transmuter?

The on your upkeep thing isn't so bad--if you have some way to untap him, you can use him as many times as you want. Perhaps the best example of this is the should-be-banned Intruder Alarm. As someone said before, he's frightening with Kokusho, the Evening Star--now, should you have two of them, one in your graveyard and one on the field, just sacrifice one to get the other, with intruder alarm, he untaps, and you continue as needed until you win.

That said, despite it's potential for use in broken combos or just it's usefulness in any black sacrifice/reanimation deck, I think my favorite thing about it is the art--despite it's seemingly dark flavor, I really like some of the more life-ey imagery in the art--the flowers, especially. It gives it an interesting feel and suggests perhaps another side to it.

If you think about it, it's blacks version of Elvish Piper. While it lacks multiple use, you have a wider variety of creatures to choose from.

@ blimmi

There is a difference between targeting or choosing a card. Targeting must be done and legal before the ability may be played. If there is no targetable creature on the battlefield, you can't play giant growth. On the other hand, choosing a card is done only when the ability is resolved. Master Transmuter or Elvish Piper does not target a card in your hand, you choose a legal card only when the ability has resolved.

OMFG! Reprint, I want this so bad. LIke an evil black version of fauna shaman.

Gavepact

I use Myr Servitor then bring out a whole bunch of things that make everyone sacrifice so I sacrifice and bring out nightmare and platinum angel in a mono black deck and using xathrid demon do monstrous damage every turn and use this to bring my nightmare back by sacrificing the servitors which come back anyway hasn't failed yet >:)

This guy was and still is a very functional and effective way to get creatures out of your graveyard in classic black fashion: get something I want at the cost of losing something I already have.

On top of that he's great Johnny potential, and (again) always has been ever since someone first figured out that having one Rukh Egg in the graveyard and another in play meant you could generate a 4/4 flying Bird token every upkeep.

A little weak, though. Very easy for him to be bolted or even Timmed to death.

@blimmi: because Master Transmuter does not target anything, but instead allows you to choose a card from your hand upon resolution.

@DarthParallax
You can clearly see how Recurring Nightmare would be a fixed version of this when they are both taken at face value. This costs no mana to use each turn, and can sacrifice itself n a pinch for the cost. Nightmare requires each use and requires an additional creature card to sacrifice every time. Now, of course, we all know the nightmare is far more powerful due its interactions, a fact that was obviously completely missed during design, the mark of an inexperienced designer.

You wanna hear a scary joke? Apparently Recurring Nightmare is MaRo's idea of fixing Hell's Caretaker. 0.0

It was around this time he learned his skill set was better suited to design than development.

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/mm/169

@ Atali No actually you have it backwards. Just because a card has a problem, doesn't mean that problem is it's Design. In this case, the problem isn't Design, because the both cards express a cool idea: Sacrifice a creature to bring another one back.
When you talk about power balance based on interactions with cards far removed from the Set you're currently working on, that's Development, not Design. Mechanically, Design only cares mainly if the card works or not- if it delivers what it says it can do. Development then tweaks all the knobs until its ready to be allowed for Tournaments.
Yes, that's an oversimplification. Yes, they've run disambiguation articles in this past. But in this case, the broad assumption happens to be a true one: Recurring Nightmare has a great, cool Design, but it's wierd interactions make it too powerful and Development would change it if it was submitted as a Design today.

MaRo's title is something like Lead Designer or Head of Design or something. He wouldn't have that job if he were bad at Design. Development is different from Design, and that's what that article was about.

great card, fun with tokens

Nightmare is far more dangerous because its far more harder to deal with an enchantment then it is to deal with a pesky 1/1.

It would be sick with evoke if it didn't have the "during your upkeep" thing. Damn.

No one called it?

THRAGTUSK.

Did your thragtusk die? No worries! Just sac a creature (Hey, is that a 3/3 token over there?) and you get your 5/3 back! Don't forget your 5 life now.

4/5 - It's no Recurring nightmare but still fun.
I just picked up 3 for $0.25 each! I love sales. Wish i had thought to look for some Intruder Alarm! While I still want a Recurring Survival deck, I may make a deck with this guy as well instead of just trading him off like I planned. Hmm....

Use with Fervor and Pandemonium to insta kill everyone during your next upkeep.

Infinite Sun Titan combo: This card + Thornbite Staff +Angelic Renewal

Intruder Alarm, Acidic Slime and any other creature in your graveyard for infinite fun.