Skrelv's Hive
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 1 life and create a 1/1 colorless Phyrexian Mite artifact creature token with toxic 1 and "This token can't block."
Corrupted — As long as an opponent has three or more poison counters, creatures you control with toxic have lifelink.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Phyrexia: All Will Be One
- Price
- $2.13
- EDHREC rank
- #1985
Skrelv's Hive generates a free 1/1 Mite with toxic 1 every upkeep — that's a token engine on a two-mana enchantment that also drains one life per turn if you can pay the Phyrexian mana. Vishgraz, the Doomhive makes it a near-auto-include, since every Mite off the Hive feeds directly into Vishgraz's power and toughness while stacking toxic triggers across the board.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Vishgraz, the Doomhive
Vishgraz, the Doomhive scales directly off the number of Mites in play, and Skrelv's Hive produces one every upkeep on autopilot — it's one of the cleanest engine pieces in the deck, pushing Vishgraz bigger while flooding the board with toxic bodies.
Elesh Norn
Elesh Norn's proliferate-on-attack trigger turns every poison counter the Hive's Mites stack up into a race-ender, and Skrelv's Hive keeps supplying the toxic attackers that make each combat step matter.
Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa
Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa rewards you for dealing poison damage, and Skrelv's Hive provides a steady stream of toxic 1 Mites to do exactly that — each combat step is another trigger toward poison thresholds and Ixhel's exile-and-cast effect.
Brimaz, Blight of Oreskos
Brimaz, Blight of Oreskos runs a Mite-centric token strategy, and Skrelv's Hive is one of the best standalone Mite producers in the format — it fills the board without requiring any additional pieces beyond the two-mana investment.
Mondrak, Glory Dominus
Mondrak, Glory Dominus doubles every token you create, which turns Skrelv's Hive's one-per-upkeep into two — a passive doubling effect on a card that already generates value for free is exactly the kind of interaction Mondrak is built to exploit.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Skrelv's Hive does its best work — the multiplayer environment gives the Mite trickle enough time to matter, and toxic 1 stacks meaningfully across three opponents. In Modern and Pioneer, the enchantment is legal but too slow; aggro and midrange decks want immediate board impact, and a one-per-upkeep token engine at two mana can't compete with the format's clock. Legacy and Vintage have the tools to make it absurd in theory, but neither format is hungry for this kind of incremental poison plan when faster routes to victory exist. Oathbreaker is a sleeper home — the faster game speed is a drawback, but poison-focused Oathbreaker builds can leverage Skrelv's Hive as a low-cost engine that demands an answer or snowballs.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$2.13 cheap tier
At $2.13, Skrelv's Hive sits in the sweet spot where it's cheap enough to throw into any toxic or Phyrexian token build without deliberation. Inclusion rates above 70% in the most synergistic commanders suggest demand is consistent — this isn't a bulk rare waiting to crater.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.