Infected Defector
Creature — Phyrexian Knight
When this creature dies, incubate 3. (Create an Incubator token with three +1/+1 counters on it and "
: Transform this token." It transforms into a 0/0 Phyrexian artifact creature.)
- CMC
- 5
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- March of the Machine
- Price
- $0.11
- EDHREC rank
- #17951
Infected Defector hands your opponent a ticking clock — when it dies, they lose half their life total, and Elesh Norn's anthem means it hits the board as a 3/3 that demands an answer. The cost is real: you're trusting an opponent to finish the job, which makes it a political tool first and a win condition second.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Elesh Norn
Elesh Norn's static buff turns Infected Defector into a 3/3 from the jump, making it harder to ignore while still forcing the opponent who receives it into a death-timer they can't easily escape — that combination of pressure and politics fits cleanly into Norn's punisher gameplan.
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 | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Infected Defector is a political card that rewards threat assessment — you give it to the player best positioned to threaten you, and suddenly they're incentivized to trade it away or die trying to keep it alive. Pauper is the other format worth watching, where cheap bodies that create must-answer situations can punch above their cost in a creature-light meta. In competitive formats like Modern or Legacy, the effect is too slow and too dependent on opponent behavior to compete with direct threats, so it stays on the bench there. Pioneer and Oathbreaker follow the same logic: it's a Commander toy, not a constructed threat.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.11 bulk tier
At $0.11, Infected Defector is deep bulk — you're not buying this for value, you're buying it because it does something unusual at a price where there's no reason not to try it. Bulk commons rarely recover from that floor, so treat it as a gameplay pick, not a financial one.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Elesh Norn
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.