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Engineered Plague

Enchantment

As this enchantment enters, choose a creature type.
All creatures of the chosen type get -1/-1.

CMC
3
Mana cost
{2}{B}
Color identity
B
Rarity
uncommon
Set
World Championship Decks 2001
Price
$8.25
EDHREC rank
#20558
Buy on TCGplayer
Engineered Plague card art
Engineered Plague enters and immediately shrinks every creature of the named type by -1/-1 permanently, turning tribal strategies into a slow death sentence for as long as the enchantment sticks. Three mana for a continuous anthem-in-reverse is an exceptional rate — naming Zombies kills Gravecrawler recursion loops outright, and in Grismold, the Dreadsower lists it doubles as a token-killer that feeds the commander's grow mechanic.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Grismold, the Dreadsower

Grismold, the Dreadsower

13.8% of decks · synergy 0.14

Grismold, the Dreadsower hands tokens to opponents each upkeep, and Engineered Plague set to the token's creature type kills them on arrival — every death triggers Grismold's counter and draw, turning a hate piece into a self-fueling engine.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern not legal
pioneer not legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

In Commander, Engineered Plague is at its ceiling — multiplayer tables almost always feature at least one tribal deck, and naming the right type shuts down an entire player's gameplan for three mana. Legacy is the only competitive format where it sees occasional sideboard play, mainly as a silver bullet against Elves and Goblins, though more flexible hate like Plague Engineer has largely eclipsed it there. Vintage has access to it but rarely wants a three-mana enchantment when faster options exist. Outside those formats, Engineered Plague is simply not legal.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

Plague Engineer is the cleanest functional upgrade rather than substitute — it costs more financially but trades the enchantment type for a creature body, which matters in formats with enchantment removal. If budget is the actual constraint, Virulent Plague hits tokens specifically for two mana and covers the same Grismold-style token-killing role, though it loses the flexibility of naming any creature type that Engineered Plague provides.

Price Context

Current price

$8.25 mid tier

At $8.25, Engineered Plague sits in mid-tier pricing — not a casual impulse buy, but well within reach for a dedicated Commander slot. It's a Reserved List-adjacent-era enchantment with a narrow but loyal audience, so the price is stable rather than speculative; you're paying for proven utility, not hype.

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Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.