Strax, Sontaran Nurse
Legendary Creature — Alien Cleric
Vigilance, trample
Grenades! — 
, 
, Sacrifice an artifact: Choose a player at random. When you do, Strax fights another target creature that player controls.
Glory of Battle — Whenever Strax deals damage to a creature, put a +1/+1 counter on Strax.
- CMC
- 5
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- GR
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Doctor Who
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #19435
Strax, Sontaran Nurse is a three-mana 3/3 that staples Regenerate onto your other creatures and drains life when those creatures die — a passive survivability engine that compounds value every combat. The catch is color identity: Jenny Flint // Madame Vastra is the natural home, and outside that pairing, Strax, Sontaran Nurse is a niche inclusion rather than a format staple.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Jenny Flint // Madame Vastra
Jenny Flint // Madame Vastra is the definitive shell for Strax, Sontaran Nurse — the Paternoster Gang subtheme wants exactly this kind of redundant death-trigger payoff, and Strax's regeneration keeps your key creatures alive through the board wipes that fuel Vastra's investigation engine.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Strax, Sontaran Nurse is a Commander card through and through — the life-drain-on-death and regeneration text both scale with the longer game and larger board states that define the format. In Legacy and Vintage, where it's technically legal, the rate is far too slow: three mana for a 3/3 with conditional upsides doesn't compete when those formats end on turns one through three. Commander is the only context where Strax, Sontaran Nurse earns its slot, and even there it's almost exclusively a Doctor Who-themed build inclusion rather than a broadly powerful EDH piece.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Pricing data for Strax, Sontaran Nurse isn't currently available, which likely reflects limited secondary market movement on Doctor Who Universe Beyond cards outside their dedicated Commander precon. Check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for a live price before picking up copies — demand is narrow and tied almost entirely to Jenny Flint // Madame Vastra builds.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Jenny Flint // Madame Vastra
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.