Bloatfly Swarm
Creature — Insect Mutant
Flying
This creature enters with five +1/+1 counters on it.
If damage would be dealt to this creature while it has a +1/+1 counter on it, prevent that damage, remove that many +1/+1 counters from it, then give each player a rad counter for each +1/+1 counter removed this way.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Fallout
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #5013
Bloatfly Swarm is a self-replacing token engine that punishes opponents for using -1/-1 counters — every creature that dies with one triggers a new Swarm token, which itself arrives with a -1/-1 counter ready to spread. The cost of building around it is real: you need a dedicated counter-placement shell to get the chain moving, but The Wise Mothman makes that trivially easy.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
The Wise Mothman
The Wise Mothman's radiation mechanic scatters -1/-1 counters across every creature at the table, and Bloatfly Swarm turns each resulting death into a fresh token that perpetuates the cycle — it's the closest thing the deck has to a self-sustaining board presence.
The Master, Transcendent
The Master, Transcendent generates Dalek tokens and cares about proliferate, and Bloatfly Swarm fits as a recursive threat that multiplies whenever the counters the deck is already pushing around happen to kill something.
Agent Frank Horrigan
Agent Frank Horrigan deals damage as a byproduct of attacking, and Bloatfly Swarm adds a creature-death subgame on top — any board with -1/-1 counter synergies benefits from a card that keeps replacing itself when those counters do their job.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Bloatfly Swarm is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but Commander is the only format where it sees meaningful play. Legacy and Vintage have no competitive home for a five-mana 4/4 that requires setup to generate value, and the card is outclassed by faster threats in those formats. In Commander, the -1/-1 counter theme has enough critical mass — especially in Universes Beyond Fallout builds — to make Bloatfly Swarm a legitimate engine piece rather than a novelty. Oathbreaker is technically an option for dedicated radiation or Wither builds, but the smaller starting life total compresses games in ways that make five-mana payoffs risky.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Pricing data for Bloatfly Swarm isn't currently available, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for the current market rate before buying. Given its narrow niche in -1/-1 counter Commander decks, it's unlikely to command a premium outside of Fallout Commander precon demand.
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Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.