Molt Tender
Creature — Insect Druid
: Mill a card. (Put the top card of your library into your graveyard.), Exile a card from your graveyard: Add one mana of any color.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- G
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Aetherdrift
- Price
- $0.33
- EDHREC rank
- #6535
Molt Tender turns every insect you control into a mana source, making it a functional dork in any insect-heavy shell and an outright engine piece alongside Aatchik, Emerald Radian. The cost is narrow applicability — outside bug tribal, it's a blank.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Aatchik, Emerald Radian
Aatchik, Emerald Radian cares about tapping insects for mana, and Molt Tender converts every bug on board into a producer — the more insects Aatchik generates, the more mana Molt Tender enables on the following turn.
Grist, the Hunger Tide
Grist, the Hunger Tide builds up insect tokens naturally through its activated ability, and Molt Tender turns that accumulating board into a mana engine that funds the next activation.
Zask, Skittering Swarmlord
Zask, Skittering Swarmlord puts insects into play from the graveyard, and Molt Tender converts that stream of creatures directly into the mana needed to keep casting and recurring them.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Molt Tender lives — insect tribal decks routinely hit the density of bugs needed to make it outperform a basic two-mana ramp spell. In competitive non-rotating formats like Legacy and Modern, it's legal but irrelevant; insect synergy decks don't exist at those power levels, and a conditional mana dork that requires board presence loses badly to a one-mana unconditional producer. Pioneer and Standard offer the same story: legal, but the tribal density and supported payoffs aren't there to justify the slot.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.33 bulk tier
At $0.33, Molt Tender is deep bulk — easy to pick up without a second thought for any insect build. Bulk rares with narrow tribal applications rarely climb unless a pushed new commander spikes demand, so treat it as a cheap include, not a hold.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Aatchik, Emerald Radian
- Grist, the Hunger Tide
- Zask, Skittering Swarmlord
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.