Sludge Strider

Artifact Creature — Insect

Whenever another artifact you control enters or leaves the battlefield, you may pay {1}. If you do, target player loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.

CMC
4
Mana cost
{1}{W}{U}{B}
Color identity
BUW
Rarity
uncommon
Set
Conflux
Price
$0.13
EDHREC rank
#27704
Buy on TCGplayer
Sludge Strider card art
Sludge Strider turns every artifact entering or leaving the battlefield into a drain trigger — which is exactly as punishing as it sounds in artifact-heavy shells. The cost is a four-mana 3/3 body with no evasion, so it earns its slot only when Ratchet, Field Medic // Ratchet, Rescue Racer or a similar artifact-cycling engine keeps the triggers flowing.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander
legacy
modern
pioneer
standard
vintage
pauper
oathbreaker

Sludge Strider is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but it's a Commander card through and through. Competitive Legacy and Modern have faster, more redundant ways to drain opponents, and a four-mana 3/3 with no immediate board impact won't survive the cut. In Commander, artifact-matters decks with high artifact turnover — think Breya, Sharuum, or any Esper blink shell — can stack enough triggers off a single turn to close out the game.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$0.13 bulk tier

At $0.13, Sludge Strider is deep bulk — you're paying for cardboard, not scarcity. Given its narrow home in artifact combo shells, that price is unlikely to move unless a new commander pushes artifact-drain strategies into the mainstream.

Explore

Mentioned

← All cards

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