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Feral Ghoul

Creature — Zombie Mutant

Menace
Whenever another creature you control dies, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.
When this creature dies, each opponent gets a number of rad counters equal to its power.

CMC
3
Mana cost
{2}{B}
Color identity
B
Rarity
rare
Set
Fallout
Price
$5.23
EDHREC rank
#3851
Buy on TCGplayer
Feral Ghoul card art
Feral Ghoul turns every food token into a damage ping and a body, making it the grease that keeps counter-and-token engines running. Animation Module pairs with it to snowball those triggers, and The Wise Mothman decks run it in over 67% of builds because the radiation-plus-food loop is simply too efficient to skip.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
The Wise Mothman

The Wise Mothman

67.1% of decks · synergy 0.60

The Wise Mothman's radiation triggers hand opponents counters that simultaneously feed Feral Ghoul's food-sacrifice payoff, creating a damage clock the opponent is actively fueling. At 67% inclusion across Mothman builds, Feral Ghoul is less a choice and more a staple.

02
Jenova, Ancient Calamity

Jenova, Ancient Calamity

40.9% of decks · synergy 0.40

Jenova, Ancient Calamity generates enough incidental tokens and sacrifice fodder that Feral Ghoul converts that churn into chip damage without needing a dedicated food package. The two pieces reward the same resource-positive gameplan Jenova already wants.

03
The Master, Transcendent

The Master, Transcendent

33.5% of decks · synergy 0.26

The Master, Transcendent wants a wide board and incremental advantages, and Feral Ghoul delivers both by trading food tokens for a 2/2 and a damage ping in one motion. That efficiency fits neatly into the aristocrats-adjacent lines the deck runs.

04
Agent Frank Horrigan

Agent Frank Horrigan

23.8% of decks · synergy 0.23

Agent Frank Horrigan's aggressive gameplan benefits from Feral Ghoul adding free damage every time the deck churns through food, turning incidental token generation into real life-total pressure. The Ghoul pulls double duty as a sacrifice outlet and a clock.

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

Feral Ghoul is a Commander card through and through — its value is cumulative, built over many turns of token generation, and Commander is the format that gives it time and tablewide targets to matter. In Legacy and Vintage, where it's technically legal, food synergies don't have the critical mass to make it competitive, and the card simply isn't fast enough to belong in those contexts. Oathbreaker can support it in the right shells, particularly any build with a food-generating planeswalker, but the games are shorter and the engine slower to assemble. Play Feral Ghoul in Commander, and specifically in decks already generating food or radiation tokens — anywhere else it's a 2/2 for two that does very little.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

Marauding Ghoul offers a similar Zombie-subtype body at a lower price point but loses the food-sacrifice trigger entirely, making it a pure downgrade if your deck cares about the engine rather than just the creature type. If the goal is draining opponents through token sacrifice, Weaponize the Monsters and Blood Artist cover the damage-ping role for pennies and scale better across a wide board — though neither replaces Feral Ghoul exactly in radiation-specific builds.

Price Context

Current price

$5.23 mid tier

At $5.23, Feral Ghoul sits in the mid tier — justified if you're building around The Wise Mothman or any dedicated food engine, but hard to recommend for decks that only incidentally generate food. It's a set-specific card with a narrow home, so the price is stable rather than growing.

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Sources

Mentioned

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