Niambi, Esteemed Speaker is a Rare 2-drop revealed in Magic: The Gathering Core Set 2021 spoilers. It is a 2/1 Legendary Human Cleric Creature with flash that can be cast for 1 white and 1 blue. When Niambi, Esteemed Speaker enters the battlefield, you may choose to bounce a creature you control. If you do, you gain life equal to the bounced creature’s CMC. You may tap Niambi and pay 1 generic, 1 blue, and 1 white mana to discard a legendary card in order to draw 2 cards.
A particularly fun card in Magic: The Gathering Core Set 2021 spoilers
Niambi seems like an extremely fun card to play with. It has the potential to be played in a wide variety of decks; however, I doubt we will see it in the competitive scene unless Blue Tempo makes a miraculous return with an additional color, which is not too far fetched considering the support that blue got with Theros. This is because it simply does not do enough. It can be flashed in to protect your creature and has the potential to get you some card advantage. The question is if that will be enough for the new Standard format that is in front of us.
Niambi, Esteemed Speaker in other formats
Even though Niambi, Esteemed Speaker opens up interesting gameplay options, it just does not fit into any competitive Modern deck. In Legacy she might see some play in “Humans” where it offers a level of protection to the deck that does not slow down your attack tempo and has plenty of legendary creatures to discard.
As a Commander, I do not see this card being fun to build around or play with. It doesn’t do anything unique as a commander and does not impact the game enough on its own. As one of your 99, it is a decent way to protect your bombs, synergizing with commanders like Oloro, Ageless Ascetic. It can also see a bit of value in decks that have a lot of legendary creatures.
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