The Magic: The Gathering card Screaming Nemesis has seen a slow but significant price rise over the past few weeks. This red spirit card cost $9.50 a month ago, but since then it’s gone up 200%, to a far more impressive $28.60.
A Mythic creature card from the recent MTG set Duskmourn, Screaming Nemesis is a brilliant addition to red aggro decks. A three mana 3/3 with haste, Screaming Nemesis has the vengeful ability to reflect any damage dealt to her towards any other target, making blocking a difficult prospect. You don’t really want to let this creature hit you either, though, because the second she makes contact, she shuts down lifegain for the entire rest of the match.
Since release, Screaming Nemesis has found a place in Gruul Prowess, one of the best MTG Arena decks, which has been around for months now and only seems to go from strength to strength. Bloomburrow gave us enough strong red creatures that there’s now also a Mono Red variant that also plays the card. Both decks now run Witchstalker Frenzy, which you can use on your own Nemesis to close games with an instant five damage to the face.
Now that MTG Foundations is out, a Boros Burn deck is picking up steam too, which also has room for this angry ghost. Boros Charm works nicely with the card, making Nemesis indestructible, and able to tank any amount of damage.
On the face of it, Screaming Nemesis’ success is perhaps a little hard to understand. It’s a sweet effect, but surely this is just a hasty 3/3 with the ability to deal a little extra damage? What is attracting so many decks to this card?
Well, it’s easy to underestimate how hard Screaming Nemesis is to play around. If you’ve got a removal spell that deals damage rather than destroying the creature, using it on Screaming Nemesis is never going to feel good. If you’ve got a blocker, then you have to make a difficult decision.
For instance, if it’s a large blocker, you’ll hopefully get to kill Nemesis, but you’ll also take a ton of damage. It might be better just to tank the hit, though you’ll then be in the same spot next turn and permanently lose any incidental lifegain your deck might have.
If you have a smaller blocker, it might be worth trading, but then you’ll still probably lose another creature or take a sizable chunk of damage to the face. And if your opponent has a combat trick to keep Screaming Nemesis alive, then you’re immediately put in an awful position.
Overall, the card has clearly proven its worth, and we’re expecting it to be a consistent part of aggressive red beatdown decks going forwards (at least until the next set has something even more busted).
For more Magic: The Gathering, check out the MTG release schedule to find out about upcoming sets like Aetherdrift and MTG Final Fantasy.
Source: Wargamer
