Nine-Lives Familiar
Mana Cost:
Type: Creature — Cat
Oracle Text:
This creature enters with eight revival counters on it if you cast it.
When this creature dies, if it had a revival counter on it, return it to the battlefield with one fewer revival counter on it at the beginning of the next end step.
Power/Toughness: 1/1
Rarity: rare
Prints: View all prints (1) →
Expansion: Foundations
Public Decks Using This Card
No public decks are currently using this card.
Character Background
Nine-Lives Familiar is pure value and engine design: a 1/1 that thematically embodies the classic “nine lives” cat and literally returns to the battlefield up to eight times after its first death, making it ideal for a value-driven or aristocrats-style deck rather than pure aggro or control. Practically, it shines where death triggers and sacrifice outlets matter—pair it with Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat or Zulaport Cutthroat-style drains and Viscera Seer, Phyrexian Altar, or Ashnod’s Altar to turn each demise into incremental advantage and mana or life swings. Note the recursion is delayed to the next end step, so you can’t instantly loop it within the same turn without additional flicker or instant-return effects; plan around that timing. It’s fragile to exile and counter-magic, so include protection or redundancy, and prioritize ways to extract value from every death (ETB/dies synergies, discard fodder, or sacrifice outlets) to maximize its nine lives.
Generated using gpt-5-mini · Updated at 2026-05-16 17:20:43 UTC