MagicTheGathering.fyi

Hornet Queen

Creature — Insect

Flying, deathtouch
When this creature enters, create four 1/1 green Insect creature tokens with flying and deathtouch.

CMC
7
Mana cost
{4}{G}{G}{G}
Color identity
G
Rarity
rare
Set
Commander 2021
Price
$0.34
EDHREC rank
#1663
Buy on TCGplayer
Hornet Queen card art
Hornet Queen enters and immediately puts five bodies on the board — four of them flying, all of them deathtouch — which stops most combat math cold and trades up against anything that tries to block. Seven mana is real, but the board state it creates is so punishing that decks like Esix, Fractal Bloom will clone the token payload and end the conversation before opponents can recover.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Esix, Fractal Bloom

Esix, Fractal Bloom

73.8% of decks · synergy 0.69

Esix, Fractal Bloom replaces the first token you create each turn with a copy of any creature on the battlefield, so Hornet Queen's four 1/1 deathtouch tokens each become something far nastier — drop a Hornet Queen, name an Eldrazi or a Craterhoof Behemoth, and four copies hit the table instead.

02
Zask, Skittering Swarmlord

Zask, Skittering Swarmlord

74.3% of decks · synergy 0.68

Zask, Skittering Swarmlord cares about Insects dying and lets you cast them from your graveyard, which means Hornet Queen's tokens become a repeatable resource — each one that trades in combat can chain into more value off the top of your deck.

03
Fynn, the Fangbearer

Fynn, the Fangbearer

72.3% of decks · synergy 0.66

Fynn, the Fangbearer deals two poison counters whenever a deathtouch creature deals combat damage to a player, so Hornet Queen's four flying deathtouch tokens represent eight poison counters across two opponents — one swing can eliminate a player at five poison.

04
Grist, the Hunger Tide

Grist, the Hunger Tide

68.4% of decks · synergy 0.62

Grist, the Hunger Tide mills and reanimates Insects, and Hornet Queen is the highest-impact Insect in any graveyard — getting one back from the bin with Grist's -2 can stabilize a board that looked completely lost.

05
Xira, the Golden Sting

Xira, the Golden Sting

49.3% of decks · synergy 0.48

Xira, the Golden Sting rewards you for having Insects in play and attacking, and Hornet Queen floods the board with evasive deathtouch bodies that make every attack both profitable and terrifying to block.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

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

Commander is where Hornet Queen earns its keep — five bodies with deathtouch and flying at instant-speed resets the threat math for an entire table, and the card is ubiquitous in Insect, token, and deathtouch-matters builds. In Legacy and Vintage it's legal but irrelevant; seven mana for a creature that doesn't win the game on the spot can't compete with the format's density of broken plays. Modern and Pioneer are the same story — Hornet Queen is too slow and too fair, and any deck that wants this effect can find it cheaper or faster. Stick to Commander and Oathbreaker, where the multiplayer board state makes every one of those tokens count.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$0.34 bulk tier

At $0.34, Hornet Queen is deep bulk — one of the most impactful seven-drops in Commander available for less than a pack of sleeves. That price is stable and unlikely to move; it's been reprinted enough times that supply far outpaces demand even as the card sees consistent play.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

← All cards

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