Spreading Algae
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant Swamp
When enchanted land becomes tapped, destroy it.
When this Aura is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, return it to its owner's hand.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- G
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Urza's Saga
- Price
- $0.41
- EDHREC rank
- #22494
Spreading Algae destroys a land and reattaches itself every time that land gets tapped — on a Swamp, that's a repeating land-destruction engine for one green mana. The catch is total format dependency: without Swamps on the other side of the table, it's a dead enchantment.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Spreading Algae is a niche weapon against mono-black or heavily black-aligned opponents — tables with multiple Swamp-heavy decks make it genuinely punishing, while four-color pods can leave it stranded. Legacy and Vintage both see enough black mana that the target pool exists, but those formats move too fast for a slow enchantment gameplan to matter. Modern mono-black shells are real, yet Spreading Algae competes against more efficient disruption and rarely earns a slot. It's a Commander card first and last, and even there it belongs in dedicated land-hate or black-hate builds rather than as a general include.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.41 bulk tier
At $0.41, Spreading Algae is firmly bulk — you're paying almost nothing for a card with a narrow but functional use case. The price reflects limited demand and is unlikely to move unless a high-profile Swamp-punishing Commander strategy spikes interest.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.