Nicanzil, Current Conductor
Legendary Creature — Merfolk Scout
Whenever a creature you control explores a land card, you may put a land card from your hand onto the battlefield tapped.
Whenever a creature you control explores a nonland card, put a +1/+1 counter on Nicanzil.
"This water can guide you anywhere, if you know how to ask."
2 / 3
- Set
- The Lost Caverns of Ixalan (LCI #236)
- Rarity
- Uncommon
- Mana value
- 2
- Released
- 2023-11-17
- Artist
- Fariba Khamseh
- EDHREC rank
- #5,452
- Colour identity
- Finishes
- Nonfoil, Foil
- Served from
- Local database
Commander bracket
Derived from card traits, not a ruling — bracket rules turn on how a deck intends to use a card. Bracket rules
EDHREC
Combos
Not part of any combo on Commander Spellbook.
Commander recommendations
Top synergy 50
Played far more in this commander's decks than elsewhere.
- Jadelight Spelunker
- Over the Edge
- Cenote Scout
- Deepfathom Echo
- Path of Discovery
- Glowcap Lantern
- River Herald Scout
- Jadelight Ranger
- Hakbal of the Surging Soul
- Seeker of Sunlight
- Twists and Turns
- Sentinel of the Nameless City
- Topography Tracker
- Enter the Unknown
- River Herald Guide
- Merfolk Branchwalker
- Wildgrowth Walker
- Waterwind Scout
- Subterranean Schooner
- Tishana's Wayfinder
- Brackish Blunder
- Merfolk Cave-Diver
- Tatyova, Benthic Druid
- Spyglass Siren
- Lodestone Needle
- Herald of Secret Streams
- Emperor Mihail II
- Svyelun of Sea and Sky
- Ixalli's Diviner
- Storm Fleet Negotiator
- Inspiring Call
- Deeproot Waters
- Deeproot Pilgrimage
- Hardened Scales
- Kopala, Warden of Waves
- Zegana, Utopian Speaker
- Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca
- Forerunner of the Heralds
- Path of Ancestry
- Siren Lookout
- Spelunking
- Evolution Sage
- Master of the Pearl Trident
- Merfolk Sovereign
- Merrow Reejerey
- Deeproot Elite
- Shadowed Caravel
- Seafloor Oracle
- Deeproot Historian
- Stonybrook Banneret
Most included 50
Highest share of decks running them, distinctive or not.
- Forest
- Island
- Jadelight Spelunker
- Over the Edge
- Cenote Scout
- Deepfathom Echo
- Path of Discovery
- Hakbal of the Surging Soul
- Glowcap Lantern
- Jadelight Ranger
- River Herald Scout
- Topography Tracker
- Twists and Turns
- Seeker of Sunlight
- Sentinel of the Nameless City
- Command Tower
- Tatyova, Benthic Druid
- Enter the Unknown
- River Herald Guide
- Merfolk Branchwalker
- Hinterland Harbor
- Wildgrowth Walker
- Waterwind Scout
- Subterranean Schooner
- Tishana's Wayfinder
- Herald of Secret Streams
- Sol Ring
- Hardened Scales
- Brackish Blunder
- Simic Growth Chamber
- Inspiring Call
- Merfolk Cave-Diver
- Path of Ancestry
- Emperor Mihail II
- Temple of Mystery
- Svyelun of Sea and Sky
- Arcane Signet
- Dreamroot Cascade
- Vineglimmer Snarl
- Spyglass Siren
- Deeproot Waters
- Lodestone Needle
- Growth Spiral
- Kopala, Warden of Waves
- Deeproot Pilgrimage
- Counterspell
- Reliquary Tower
- Evolution Sage
- Zegana, Utopian Speaker
- Master of the Pearl Trident
Format legality
Rulings
- 2023-11-10
If a creature leaves the battlefield before an effect instructs it to explore, it still explores. Abilities like Nicanzil's that trigger whenever a creature you control explores will still trigger.
- 2023-11-10
If a resolving spell or ability instructs a specific creature to explore but that creature has left the battlefield, the creature still explores. If you reveal a nonland card this way, you won't put a +1/+1 counter on anything, but you may put the revealed card into your graveyard. Effects that trigger "whenever a creature explores" trigger as appropriate.
- 2023-11-10
If an ability instructs a creature to explore, its controller reveals the top card of their library. If it's a land card, they'll put it into their hand. Otherwise, they'll put a +1/+1 counter on that creature, then choose to either leave that card on top of their library or put it into their graveyard.
- 2023-11-10
If no card is revealed, most likely because that player's library is empty, the exploring creature receives a +1/+1 counter.
- 2023-11-10
In some unusual cases, noncreature permanents may explore. For example, if the creature card returned by Defossilize is somehow not a creature once it's on the battlefield, it can still explore. You'll take all the same actions, and you may end up putting a +1/+1 counter on the permanent. (Note that some effects target a creature, and those effects would still require a legal target to have it explore.)
- 2023-11-10
Nicanzil's first ability won't resolve until after you're done exploring. You may put any land card from your hand onto the battlefield, including the land card you explored (if it's still in your hand) or one that was already in your hand.
- 2023-11-10
Nicanzil, Current Conductor's triggered abilities care about the characteristics of the card as it was revealed while a creature explored. It doesn't matter what happened to the card after that.
- 2023-11-10
Once an ability that causes a creature to explore begins to resolve, no player may take any other actions until it's done. Notably, opponents can't try to remove the exploring creature after you reveal a nonland card but before it receives a counter.
- 2023-11-10
Some spells or abilities might cause a creature to explore multiple times in a row. If you reveal a nonland card when a creature explores and leave it on top of your library, then the creature explores again immediately afterwards, you'll reveal the same card again.