Plague Boiler
Artifact
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a plague counter on this artifact.
: Put a plague counter on this artifact or remove a plague counter from it.
When this artifact has three or more plague counters on it, sacrifice it. If you do, destroy all nonland permanents.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- BG
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Commander 2013
- Price
- $0.26
- EDHREC rank
- #21392
Plague Boiler is a slow-building board wipe on a stick — given enough time, it nukes every nonland permanent on the table, no mana required at activation. The catch is three full upkeeps of telegraphed setup, which gives opponents every chance to answer it or play around it.
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 |
Commander is where Plague Boiler actually earns a slot — four-player pods mean the three-upkeep delay is less punishing because at least one opponent will often lack the removal to answer it before it fires. In Legacy and Vintage, it's a legal curiosity at best; those formats move far too fast for a six-mana artifact that takes three more turns to do anything. Modern is theoretically legal but the card sees no play there for the same reason. Oathbreaker is the one other 60-card-adjacent format where it might find a niche, specifically in superfriends-style stax builds that want colorless mass removal their planeswalkers survive.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.26 bulk tier
At $0.26, Plague Boiler is deep bulk — you're picking it out of a dollar bin, not tracking it down. That price is stable by definition; there's no competitive demand to spike it, and its Commander niche is narrow enough that a reprint wouldn't even matter.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.