Blade of the Swarm
Creature — Insect Assassin
When this creature enters, choose one —
• Put two +1/+1 counters on this creature.
• Put target exiled card with warp on the bottom of its owner's library.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Edge of Eternities
- Price
- $0.05
- EDHREC rank
- #23276
Blade of the Swarm scales with your insect count and lands as a potentially massive creature for a single black mana — the payoff-to-cost ratio is real in any deck that floods the board with bugs. Run it if you're insect-tribal; skip it if you're not.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Blade of the Swarm is a Commander card through and through — insect-tribal synergies have enough critical mass in the format to make the scaling meaningful, and black insect commanders like Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord adjacent builds or dedicated bug-tribal lists can put a 10/10 on the board for one mana by the mid-game. In 60-card competitive formats like Modern or Pioneer, the tribal density required to make Blade of the Swarm threatening simply isn't there in any established archetype, and one-mana threats in those formats need to be independently powerful rather than reliant on board state. Standard offers the most accessible entry point for casual play, but again, the insect-density ceiling is too low to justify the slot over staples. Stick to Commander.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.05 bulk tier
At $0.05, Blade of the Swarm is deep bulk — the cheapest possible entry into a tribal payoff with genuine ceiling. Bulk rares rarely appreciate unless a new commander breaks them open, but at a nickel there's no reason not to pick up a copy for any insect build.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.