Illness in the Ranks
Enchantment
Creature tokens get -1/-1.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Pioneer Masters
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #13763
Illness in the Ranks kills every token the moment it enters — a one-mana enchantment that shuts off token strategies, aristocrats engines, and go-wide aggro simultaneously. Grismold, the Dreadsower is the canonical home, where it converts the Plant tokens Grismold hands to opponents into immediate counters on him instead of a mounting board presence.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Grismold, the Dreadsower
Grismold, the Dreadsower gives opponents 1/1 Plant tokens every turn, and Illness in the Ranks kills every one of them on arrival — each death grows Grismold and triggers any death-matters payoffs without opponents ever getting the defensive use of the token.
Massacre Girl, Known Killer
Massacre Girl, Known Killer needs creatures to die to fuel her wither triggers and chain kills, and Illness in the Ranks converts any token that enters the battlefield into an instant trigger — a passive engine that generates death events without Massacre Girl needing to attack.
Toshiro Umezawa
Toshiro Umezawa wants creatures to die so he can flash back instants, and Illness in the Ranks turns every token that enters play into a free death trigger — widening the window for Toshiro to recur removal without spending additional resources.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Illness in the Ranks is a one-mana answer to some of the format's most common strategies — token doublers, Ophiomancer, Bitterblossom, and any commander that distributes tokens as part of its engine. The effect is passive and permanent, which means opponents must answer it or route around it entirely. Outside Commander, the card is legal in Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but sees almost no competitive play in those formats because dedicated token decks are uncommon at the top of those metagames and the enchantment does nothing against non-token creature strategies. Illness in the Ranks is a Commander card through and through — the 100-card singleton format's density of token generators is precisely where the one-mana investment pays off.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Pricing data for Illness in the Ranks isn't currently available, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for a live quote. Given that it's a narrow sideboard-style enchantment with a very specific Commander niche, it typically sits at bulk or near-bulk pricing — worth picking up whenever you see it cheap.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Grismold, the Dreadsower
- Massacre Girl, Known Killer
- Toshiro Umezawa
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.