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Scion of the Swarm

Creature — Vampire Cleric

Flying
Whenever you gain life, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.

CMC
5
Mana cost
{3}{B}{B}
Color identity
B
Rarity
uncommon
Set
Zendikar Rising
Price
$0.08
EDHREC rank
#16738
Buy on TCGplayer
Scion of the Swarm card art
Scion of the Swarm puts a permanent counter on any target creature or planeswalker every time another creature you control dies — free, repeatable, on-board. The catch is a five-mana 3/3 body that does nothing unless your sacrifice engine is already running, and it pairs best with counter-doubling effects like Agatha's Soul Cauldron to make the payoff worth the slot.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

In Commander, Scion of the Swarm earns its seat in any aristocrats shell that's already sacrificing creatures for value — the trigger is free and unconditional, so it scales with the size of your engine rather than requiring extra setup. Outside Commander, the competitive formats don't have much patience for a five-mana 3/3 with a passive trigger; Modern and Pioneer have faster, cheaper ways to convert deaths into pressure, and Scion of the Swarm doesn't break any of those parity thresholds. Legacy and Vintage are similarly indifferent — the card's ceiling is just too low for those formats. It's a Commander card, cleanly and specifically.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$0.08 bulk tier

At $0.08, Scion of the Swarm is deep bulk — you're paying for cardboard and postage, not the card itself. Bulk rares that fill narrow but genuine roles rarely spike, so don't expect movement; grab copies freely whenever you're building aristocrats.

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Sources

Mentioned

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