Bow of NyleaHow it works & interactions with other cards

Lethal Offense

The first ability of Bow of Nylea is a static effect that grants deathtouch to all attacking creatures you control. This makes even your smallest creatures a lethal threat, as any amount of damage they deal to a creature is considered lethal. Note that this only applies while your creatures are declared as attackers during the combat phase.

The Toolkit Activated

By paying one green mana and one generic mana and tapping the Bow, you choose one of four distinct modes. You can grow your forces with +1/+1 counters, shoot down flying blockers for 2 damage, gain life to stabilize your total, or recycle up to four cards from your graveyard to the bottom of your library. You must choose the mode and all targets as you activate the ability.

Common Mistakes

A frequent error is forgetting that the deathtouch only applies to attacking creatures; your creatures will not have deathtouch when they are blocking. Additionally, when using the fourth mode to recycle cards, you can choose any number from zero to four cards, and they go to the bottom of the library in any order of your choice.

When to Play It

Bow of Nylea is best played in decks that utilize many small creatures or creatures with trample. It acts as a continuous source of utility that can adapt to your opponent's strategy, whether they are playing a fast aggressive deck or a slow control deck that tries to deck you out.

Interaction examples

Trampling Through Defense

Garruk's Uprising

When you control both Bow of Nylea and Garruk's Uprising, your attacking creatures have both deathtouch and trample. Because of the deathtouch rules, you only need to assign 1 damage to a blocker to count as lethal damage, allowing the rest of the creature's power to trample over to the defending player.

Recycling Resources

Sylvan Library

If you use Sylvan Library to draw extra cards and find yourself low on life or running out of deck space, you can use Bow of Nylea. The Bow can gain you 3 life to help pay for Sylvan Library's costs, or it can put key cards you discarded back into your library so you don't lose the game from an empty library.

Targeted Takedown

If your opponent controls a creature with flying, you can activate Bow of Nylea's second mode. The Bow deals 2 damage to that flyer. If that damage is enough to reduce its toughness to 0, the creature is destroyed, clearing the path for your other attackers.