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Marrow-Gnawer

Legendary Creature — Rat Rogue

All Rats have fear.
{T}, Sacrifice a Rat: Create X 1/1 black Rat creature tokens, where X is the number of Rats you control.

CMC
5
Mana cost
{3}{B}{B}
Color identity
B
Rarity
rare
Set
Jumpstart: Historic Horizons
Price
—
EDHREC rank
#2931
Buy on TCGplayer
Marrow-Gnawer card art
Marrow-Gnawer turns any board of Rats into an exponential token engine on the spot — tap it, sacrifice a Rat, and suddenly you have more Rats than you started with, ready to repeat. The cost is a five-mana legendary with no immediate protection, so it folds to instant-speed removal before the ability resolves; pair it with Thornbite Staff and you've got a loop that makes the table concede, but Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm is the cleaner home because it provides redundancy and a rebuy if Marrow-Gnawer eats a removal spell.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm

Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm

86.4% of decks · synergy 0.83

Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm shows up in 86% of its decks with Marrow-Gnawer because Ashcoat's graveyard recursion and anthem effects make the token flood from Marrow-Gnawer immediately lethal rather than just large.

02
Rat King, Verminister

Rat King, Verminister

83.5% of decks · synergy 0.80

Rat King, Verminister wants the highest Rat count possible on the battlefield, and Marrow-Gnawer delivers that faster than any other single card in the tribe — 83% of Rat King pilots agree.

03
Wick, the Whorled Mind

Wick, the Whorled Mind

74.4% of decks · synergy 0.72

Wick, the Whorled Mind's copy effects scale obscenely with Marrow-Gnawer's tap ability, letting you duplicate the token generation and hit critical mass in a single turn cycle.

04
Karumonix, the Rat King

Karumonix, the Rat King

73.7% of decks · synergy 0.70

Karumonix, the Rat King is a poison-counter commander who needs a wide Rat board to distribute Toxic damage, and Marrow-Gnawer is the fastest way to build that board in mono-black.

05
Vren, the Relentless

Vren, the Relentless

68.8% of decks · synergy 0.66

Vren, the Relentless rewards repeated sacrifice and token creation loops, so Marrow-Gnawer's engine feeds Vren's triggers and keeps the hand full while the board keeps growing.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

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

Commander is the only format where Marrow-Gnawer is genuinely powerful — tribal synergy, multiplayer life totals, and the presence of Thornbite Staff and similar equipment make its token loop a real win condition rather than a novelty. It's legal in Legacy, Vintage, and Modern, but Rat tribal has never been a competitive archetype in those formats and Marrow-Gnawer's five-mana cost is disqualifying in 60-card environments where the game ends by turn four. Oathbreaker is the one other format worth noting: as a signature spell pairing is impossible since it's a creature, but it slots cleanly into any black Rat-themed Oathbreaker build as a value piece.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

unknown tier

Current pricing data for Marrow-Gnawer isn't available in this snapshot, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for the live number before buying. Given its presence in 86% of the most popular Rat commander decks, demand is real and copies don't typically sit at bulk pricing.

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Sources

Mentioned

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