Carrion Ants
Creature — Insect
: This creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Legends
- Price
- $20.59
- EDHREC rank
- #27228
Carrion Ants is a 0/1 that grows by paying one mana per +1/+1 counter — a mana sink that scales across a long game but demands significant investment to become a real threat. The synergy ceiling spikes hard with Ashaya, Soul of the Wild, which turns it into a land creature and opens up landfall and untap loops that make the mana cost irrelevant.
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 |
Carrion Ants is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, and that's where the relevant conversation starts and ends — it sees no play in any competitive format. In Commander, Carrion Ants occupies a narrow niche in mana-sink or +1/+1 counter decks where you can exploit the repeatable activation across multiple turns. Legacy and Vintage have far more efficient threats, so the card doesn't register there. Oathbreaker shares Commander's casual axis, making it the one other format where a dedicated build could make use of it.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Ashaya, Soul of the WildBlossoming TortoiseCarrion Ants
Infinitely large creature until end of turn
View on Commander Spellbook ↗Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Hangarback Walker and Walking Ballista both function as mana-sink threats that scale with investment and cost a fraction of what Carrion Ants demands, with the added benefit of being generically powerful rather than dependent on support pieces. Neither replicates the creature type or the specific Ashaya interaction, but for raw payoff-per-dollar they outclass Carrion Ants in most shells.
Price Context
Current price
$20.59 premium tier
At $20.59, Carrion Ants sits in premium territory almost entirely on the back of its age and scarcity rather than competitive demand. That price is unlikely to reflect play value for most buyers — newer mana-sink creatures do the job for under a dollar.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.