Lurking Predators
Enchantment
Whenever an opponent casts a spell, reveal the top card of your library. If it's a creature card, put it onto the battlefield. Otherwise, you may put that card on the bottom of your library.
- CMC
- 6
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- G
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Magic 2010
- Price
- $16.59
- EDHREC rank
- #3070
Lurking Predators turns every spell your opponents cast into a free creature off the top of your library — six mana for a repeating, instant-speed cheat engine that compounds the longer the game goes. It's the backbone of Mayael the Anima and any deck packed with expensive fatties that would rather arrive for free than be cast.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Mayael the Anima
Mayael the Anima and Lurking Predators are pointing at the same thing — a library stacked with five-power creatures — so every trigger is almost guaranteed to land something threatening, and the two effects together can flood the board in a single round of turns.
Kona, Rescue Beastie
Kona, Rescue Beastie wants a steady stream of creatures entering the battlefield to trigger its own abilities, and Lurking Predators supplies them for free every time an opponent so much as plays a land or casts a spell.
Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire
Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire already punishes opponents for having permanents, and Lurking Predators piles on by rewarding their spell-casting — both effects are worst-case scenario for the table and best-case for the pilot.
Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
Ruric Thar, the Unbowed taxes noncreature spells, and Lurking Predators rewards opponents for casting them, so the two together create a situation where every noncreature spell costs six life and hands you a free creature.
Baru, Wurmspeaker
Baru, Wurmspeaker cares specifically about Wurms entering and growing your board, and Lurking Predators fills that role without spending mana whenever opponents cooperate — which in Commander, they always eventually do.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Lurking Predators is a Commander card through and through — the effect scales directly with the number of opponents casting spells, meaning four-player pods generate three to four times the triggers a duel would. In Legacy and Vintage it's technically legal but too slow and parasitic; six mana for a conditional payoff doesn't compete in formats where games end on turn two or three. Oathbreaker is the one other format where it occasionally shows up, since spell-heavy pods at higher power levels still give it enough triggers to matter. Anywhere the game goes long and everyone at the table is casting spells every turn, Lurking Predators becomes oppressive.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Quicksilver Amulet does similar work — paying four mana at instant speed to cheat a creature into play — but it costs mana each time rather than triggering for free, which makes it a slower and more resource-intensive version of the same effect. Selvala's Stampede is the closest cheap alternative for creature-heavy green decks, dumping multiple permanents onto the battlefield at once for six mana, though it's a one-shot sorcery rather than the repeating engine that makes Lurking Predators so punishing.
Price Context
Current price
$16.59 mid tier
At $16.59, Lurking Predators sits in the mid tier — expensive enough to feel like a deliberate inclusion, reasonable enough that any creature-heavy green deck running six-drops can justify it. It's a single-printing card with consistent demand across creature-cheat strategies, so the price reflects actual play rate rather than hype.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Mayael the Anima
- Kona, Rescue Beastie
- Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire
- Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
- Baru, Wurmspeaker
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.