Primordial Gnawer
Creature — Insect Horror
When this creature dies, discover 3. (Exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card with mana value 3 or less. Cast it without paying its mana cost or put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom in a random order.)
- CMC
- 5
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- The Lost Caverns of Ixalan
- Price
- $0.11
- EDHREC rank
- #18768
Primordial Gnawer enters the battlefield and immediately puts opponents on a clock — it deals damage equal to its power to each opponent whenever it connects, and its menace makes blocking it a two-creature tax every attack. The cost is that a 2/2 for three mana is mediocre stats, so it needs a power-pumping shell to convert that triggered damage into anything threatening.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Primordial Gnawer earns a slot in decks that reliably pump power — Infect, Voltron, or go-wide stompy builds where it becomes a must-answer threat that drains the table on contact. It's legal in every major format but sees virtually no play outside Commander; in 1v1 formats like Modern or Pioneer, a 2/2 menace for three is too slow against anything with a real curve, and the damage trigger only hits one opponent, gutting its multiplayer advantage. Pauper is where it might get a second look at common rarity if aggressive black strategies want a persistent threat, but even there the rate is marginal.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.11 bulk tier
At $0.11, Primordial Gnawer is deep bulk — the kind of card you pull from a common box rather than buy individually. Price stability is a non-issue; it will sit at this floor unless a Commander precon or breakout build pushes sudden demand.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.