Chthonian Nightmare
Tracked across real Commander games played through TurnZero HQ.
What it does
When this enchantment enters, you get EEE (three energy counters).
Pay X E, Sacrifice a creature, Return this enchantment to its owner's hand: Return target creature card with mana value X from your graveyard to the battlefield. Activate only as a sorcery.
Combos with Chthonian Nightmare
The lines this card is part of, what it needs alongside it, and what the cards do together. An infinite result is the one that moves a deck's bracket.
- Kodama of the East Tree Infinite
- Infinite creature LTB
- Infinite creature ETB
- Infinite creature sacrifice triggers
- Infinite death triggers
- Infinite energy counters
- Peregrine Drake Infinite
- Infinite death triggers
- Infinite creature ETB
- Infinite creature LTB
- Infinite mana lands you control can produce
- Infinite creature sacrifice triggers
- Infinite storm count
- Infinite untap of lands you control
- Dockside Extortionist Infinite
- Infinite artifact ETB
- Infinite artifact LTB
- Infinite artifact sacrifice triggers
- Infinite artifact tokens
- Infinite colored mana
- Infinite death triggers
- Infinite energy counters
- Infinite creature ETB
- Infinite creature LTB
- Infinite creature sacrifice triggers
- Infinite storm count
- Infinite Treasure tokens
- Phyrexian Altar Weaponcraft Enthusiast Infinite
- Infinite creature LTB
- Infinite creature ETB
- Infinite creature sacrifice triggers
- Infinite death triggers
- Infinite storm count
- Patron of the Arts Cathodion Infinite
- Infinite creature LTB
- Infinite creature ETB
- Infinite creature sacrifice triggers
- Infinite death triggers
- Infinite storm count
- Infinite colorless mana
- Songs of the Damned Pinnacle Monk // Mystic Peak Infinite
- Infinite energy counters
- Infinite creature LTB
- Infinite creature ETB
- Infinite creature sacrifice triggers
- Infinite death triggers
- Infinite storm count
- Infinite magecraft triggers
- Infinite black mana
- Priest of Gix Priest of Urabrask Infinite
- Infinite black mana
- Infinite death triggers
- Infinite creature ETB
- Infinite creature LTB
- Infinite red mana
- Infinite creature sacrifice triggers
- Infinite storm count
- Akiri, Line-Slinger Ruthless Technomancer Infinite
- Infinite artifact ETB
- Infinite artifact LTB
- Infinite artifact sacrifice triggers
- Infinite artifact tokens
- Infinite creature LTB
- Infinite creature ETB
- Infinite colored mana
- Infinite creature sacrifice triggers
- Infinite death triggers
- Infinite storm count
- Infinite Treasure tokens
- Return all creature cards from your graveyard to the battlefield
- Infinite recursion of creature cards in your graveyard
Showing the 8 shortest and most explosive. This card appears in more than these. Follow any of them through to Commander Spellbook to browse the rest.
Combo data from Commander Spellbook, the community-maintained database of Magic combos. Mirrored nightly.
Rulings
11 official rulings, in the order Wizards published them.
- 2024-06-07
Some spells and abilities that give you E may require targets. If each target chosen is an illegal target as that spell or ability tries to resolve, it won't resolve. You won't get any E.
- 2024-06-07
Energy counters aren't mana. They don't go away as steps, phases, and turns end, and effects that add mana "of any type" can't give you energy counters.
- 2024-06-07
Some triggered abilities state that you "may pay" a certain amount of E. You can't pay that amount multiple times to multiply the effect. You simply choose whether or not to pay that amount of E as the ability resolves.
- 2024-06-07
If an effect says you get one or more E, you get that many energy counters. To pay one or more E, you lose that many energy counters. You can't pay more energy counters than you have. Any effects that interact with counters a player gets, has, or loses can interact with energy counters.
- 2024-06-07
Keep track of how many energy counters each player has. Potential ways to track this include writing theme down on paper or using dice, but any method that is clear and mutually agreeable is fine. (At higher levels of tournament play, dice may not be allowed for tracking counters that players have.)
- 2024-06-07
Energy counters are a kind of counter that a player may have. They're not associated with any specific permanents.
- 2024-06-07
Some triggered abilities that state that you "may pay" a certain amount of E describe an effect that happens "If you do." In that case, no player may take actions to try to stop the ability's effect after you make your choice. If the payment is followed by the phrase "When you do," then you'll choose any targets for that reflexive triggered ability and put it on the stack before players can take actions.
- 2024-06-07
If a spell or ability with one or more targets states that you "may pay" some amount of E, and each permanent that it targets has become an illegal target, the spell or ability won't resolve. You can't pay any E even if you want to.
- 2024-06-07
E is the energy symbol. It represents one energy counter.
- 2024-06-07
Chthonian Nightmare's last ability must have a target to be activated. You can't activate it without a target in order to return Chthonian Nightmare to your hand.
- 2024-06-07
If a card in your graveyard has X in its mana cost, X is 0 when determining its mana value.
Rulings are Wizards of the Coast's own, mirrored from Scryfall and refreshed nightly.
In the 99
Every deck whose current list includes Chthonian Nightmare, whatever its commander.
Most played under
| Commander | Decks | Games | Win rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bjorna, Nightfall Alchemist | 1 | 0 | — |
| Wernog, Rider's Chaplain | 1 | 0 | — |
Colors it shows up in
- Four-Color (no Green) 1 deck
Chthonian Nightmare price history
The Modern Horizons 3 #83 printing, as Scryfall reports the TCGplayer market. Updated nightly. Click any version below to chart its price.
Every recorded price change
| Date | Non-foil | Foil |
|---|---|---|
| Nov 7, 2026 | $0.84 | $1.01 |
| Nov 6, 2026 | $0.83 | $1.01 |
| Nov 5, 2026 | $0.82 | $0.98 |
| Nov 4, 2026 | $0.79 | $0.98 |
| Nov 3, 2026 | $0.77 | $0.98 |
| Nov 2, 2026 | $0.76 | $0.98 |
| Oct 31, 2026 | $0.69 | $0.98 |
| Oct 30, 2026 | $0.70 | $0.97 |
| Oct 29, 2026 | $0.69 | $0.97 |
| Oct 27, 2026 | $0.74 | $0.97 |
| Oct 26, 2026 | $0.82 | $0.97 |
| Oct 25, 2026 | $0.81 | $0.94 |
| Oct 24, 2026 | $0.82 | $0.94 |
| Oct 23, 2026 | $0.86 | $0.90 |
| Oct 22, 2026 | $0.83 | $0.87 |
| Oct 21, 2026 | $0.82 | $0.87 |
| Oct 20, 2026 | $0.79 | $0.87 |
| Oct 19, 2026 | $0.81 | $0.87 |
| Oct 18, 2026 | $0.80 | $0.87 |
| Oct 17, 2026 | $0.79 | $0.81 |
| Oct 16, 2026 | $0.78 | $0.81 |
| Oct 15, 2026 | $0.80 | $0.80 |
| Oct 13, 2026 | $0.81 | $0.80 |
| Oct 12, 2026 | $0.82 | $0.80 |
| Oct 11, 2026 | $0.72 | $0.78 |
| Oct 10, 2026 | $0.67 | $0.78 |
| Oct 9, 2026 | $0.63 | $0.78 |
| Oct 8, 2026 | $0.62 | $0.78 |
| Oct 7, 2026 | $0.60 | $0.76 |
| Oct 6, 2026 | $0.63 | $0.76 |
| Oct 5, 2026 | $0.71 | $0.75 |
| Oct 4, 2026 | $0.72 | $0.76 |
| Oct 3, 2026 | $0.76 | $0.73 |
| Oct 2, 2026 | $0.78 | $0.70 |
| Oct 1, 2026 | $0.79 | $0.70 |
| Sep 29, 2026 | $0.77 | $0.70 |
| Sep 28, 2026 | $0.69 | $0.71 |
A row is recorded only on nights the price moved, so each price held until the row above it.
Every version of Chthonian Nightmare
4 printings, newest first. Prices are the market figures Scryfall publishes, refreshed nightly. A printing with no figure shows a dash rather than a zero, because Scryfall publishes none for some of them. Click a card's art to chart that version's price above.
Inverted
- Normal
- $5.81
- Foil
- $14.95
- Normal
- $1.64
- Foil
- $5.32
- Normal
- $0.84
- Foil
- $1.01
Promo
Modern Horizons 3 Promos
- Foil
- $3.40
Prices from Scryfall, which tracks the TCGplayer and Cardmarket markets. They move daily and are a guide rather than a quote. Search TCGplayer for Chthonian Nightmare. It runs a name search across every version, which covers the printings TCGplayer publishes no direct link to.
Aggregated from Commander games tracked in TurnZero HQ. Every figure counts decks and games only. No individual deck list, player or playgroup is identified. Win rates are withheld below 5 completed games, where the sample is too small to mean anything.
