Plague Engineer
Creature — Phyrexian Carrier
Deathtouch
As this creature enters, choose a creature type.
Creatures of the chosen type your opponents control get -1/-1.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- The List
- Price
- $0.31
- EDHREC rank
- #15292
Plague Engineer enters and immediately shrinks every creature of the named type by -1/-1 for as long as it stays in play — a static anthem for your opponents' graveyards that doubles as a tribal board wipe against token strategies. Three mana for a 2/2 deathtouch is the honest cost, and commanders like Grismold, the Dreadsower that flood the board with Plant tokens will kill those tokens the moment Engineer names the type, turning a symmetrical effect into a one-sided massacre. Run it whenever your meta has even one tribal deck worth hating.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Grismold, the Dreadsower
Grismold, the Dreadsower hands every opponent a Plant token each upkeep, and Plague Engineer naming Plant kills those tokens on arrival — so Grismold gets the +1/+1 counter from each death without the board ever threatening to stabilize against him.
Massacre Girl, Known Killer
Massacre Girl, Known Killer needs creatures to die on a chain, and Plague Engineer naming the dominant creature type on board can drop enough toughness to start that cascade — turning a passive static effect into the trigger that sets Massacre Girl's engine in motion.
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 |
In Commander, Plague Engineer is a staple-tier hate piece: it punishes Elves, Goblins, Humans, Soldiers, and any other tribal strategy that floods the board, and naming a token type can invalidate entire win conditions. Legacy sees real play, primarily as a sideboard answer to Death and Taxes and Elves where the -1/-1 aura either kills the whole army or blanks utility creatures. Modern runs it in similar hate-bear and Jund-style shells when the meta calls for it, though its impact is narrower as creature sizes scale up. Plague Engineer is not legal in Pioneer or Standard, and Pauper can't touch it either — its home is the eternal formats where tribal synergies are dense enough to justify a three-mana 2/2.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Yavimaya, Cradle of GrowthLife and LimbPlague Engineer
Destroy all lands opponents control; Destroy all lands that enter the battlefield under an opponent's control; Lock; Mass Land Denial
View combo details →Price Context
Current price
$0.31 bulk tier
At $0.31, Plague Engineer sits firmly in bulk territory despite being a legitimate competitive card in Legacy and a Commander staple. That price reflects heavy reprint availability, so there's no reason to expect it to climb — pick up copies freely knowing you're getting full value at essentially no cost.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.