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Plaguemaw Beast

Creature — Phyrexian Beast

{T}, Sacrifice a creature: Proliferate. (Choose any number of permanents and/or players, then give each another counter of each kind already there.)

CMC
5
Mana cost
{3}{G}{G}
Color identity
G
Rarity
uncommon
Set
Mirrodin Besieged
Price
$0.29
EDHREC rank
#12988
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Plaguemaw Beast card art
Plaguemaw Beast puts a repeatable proliferate engine on the board — tap it and sacrifice a creature to spread counters across everything you care about, turn after turn. The cost is real: five mana for a 4/4 that demands fodder and a tap means it does nothing the turn it arrives and folds to interaction before you untap. Pair it with Intruder Alarm and a token generator like Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons and the cost collapses entirely, but outside that shell it's a slow, fragile engine.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons

Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons

22.5% of decks · synergy 0.22

Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons converts every -1/-1 counter placement into a Snake token, and Plaguemaw Beast turns those Snakes into more proliferate triggers — the two cards form a self-feeding loop that can spiral out of control with almost no additional support.

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

Plaguemaw Beast is a Commander card through and through — the format's slower pace and 40-life totals give it the time it needs to generate value, and counter-synergy commanders turn it from a clunky five-drop into a legitimate engine piece. In Legacy and Vintage it's legal but irrelevant; five mana for a tap-and-sac proliferate effect is nowhere near competitive in formats that end the game on turn one or two. Modern is the same story — Plaguemaw Beast is too slow and too fragile for a format that punishes anything without immediate impact. Stick to Commander, and specifically to decks built around -1/-1 counters, +1/+1 counters, or poison, where its repetition actually matters.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

13 decks
Plaguemaw BeastIntruder AlarmScurry Oak

Plaguemaw BeastIntruder AlarmScurry Oak

Infinite +1/+1 counters on a creature; Infinite death triggers; Infinite ETB; Infinite LTB; Infinite proliferate; Infinite sacrifice triggers; Infinite mana creatures you control can produce; Infinite untap of creatures you control

View on Commander Spellbook ↗

Price Context

Current price

$0.29 bulk tier

At $0.29, Plaguemaw Beast is deep bulk — you're picking it out of a commons box or tossing it into a cart as an afterthought. That price is stable; this is a narrow five-drop with a small audience, and nothing about its demand profile suggests it moves.

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Sources

Mentioned

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