Pest Infestation
Sorcery
Destroy up to X target artifacts and/or enchantments. Create twice X 1/1 black and green Pest creature tokens with "When this token dies, you gain 1 life."
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- G
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Secrets of Strixhaven Commander
- Price
- $0.56
- EDHREC rank
- #1215
Pest Infestation destroys any number of target artifacts and enchantments and creates that many 1/1 black and green Pest tokens with lifelink — the X in the cost sets the ceiling, so a single spell can swing board states wildly in your favor. Blech, Loafing Pest decks run it as a core piece, but any Golgari shell that wants redundant token generation alongside interaction should have this in the 99.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Blech, Loafing Pest
Blech, Loafing Pest cares about Pests entering the battlefield, and Pest Infestation can produce a dozen of them in one trigger — it's effectively a finisher disguised as removal, and the 81% inclusion rate reflects that this isn't a cute include, it's mandatory.
Witherbloom, the Balancer
Witherbloom, the Balancer's life-payment engine runs on a steady stream of tokens, and Pest Infestation converts opposing artifacts and enchantments directly into that fuel — clearing a stax piece and refilling your token count in one card is exactly the kind of efficiency the deck needs.
Rosheen, Roaring Prophet
Rosheen, Roaring Prophet taps for four mana usable only on X spells, and Pest Infestation is one of the cleaner targets — Rosheen's four mana alone gives you four Pests and clears up to four permanents, making the token output immediately meaningful without needing additional setup.
Dina, Essence Brewer
Dina, Essence Brewer drains opponents whenever you gain life, and a swarm of lifelink Pests from a single Pest Infestation can represent a burst of drain triggers in the same turn they enter — removal and life-gain payoff stapled together is a clean fit for what Dina wants.
Beledros Witherbloom
Beledros Witherbloom untaps all your lands whenever you pay life, and a board full of Pest tokens from Pest Infestation gives you the life total headroom to keep activating that ability — the lifelink on each token does real work as a long-term resource engine.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Pest Infestation is a Commander card in the truest sense — the X cost scales with the mana available in a 40-life, 100-card format where artifact and enchantment hate is perpetually relevant. In Legacy and Vintage it's legal but sees essentially no play; those formats move too fast for a sorcery-speed X spell that requires valid targets, and dedicated hate pieces there are cheaper and more surgical. Commander is where Pest Infestation earns every slot: late-game mana pools make the X large enough to matter, artifact and enchantment-heavy pods are common, and the Pest tokens turn removal into board presence rather than card disadvantage.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.56 bulk tier
At $0.56, Pest Infestation is firmly bulk, and the price makes sense for a card that's only ever been a format-specific role-player rather than a cross-format staple. It's unlikely to spike — the effect is powerful in Commander but not broken enough to create a demand shock, so pick it up whenever you need it without worrying about timing.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.