Swarmyard
Land
: Add 
.: Regenerate target Insect, Rat, Spider, or Squirrel. (The next time it would be destroyed this turn, instead tap it, remove it from combat, and heal all damage on it.)
- CMC
- 0
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- C
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Secret Lair Drop
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #1047
Swarmyard regenerates any Insect, Rat, Spider, or Squirrel for free, turning your tribal creature into a recursive threat that trades up indefinitely. The only cost is running it over a basic land — a trivially easy ask in any deck built around those creature types.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Hazel of the Rootbloom
Hazel of the Rootbloom is a Squirrel commander, and Swarmyard slots in as a free regeneration engine that keeps key Squirrels alive through board wipes and targeted removal, letting Hazel's token-doubling ability keep running without interruption.
Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm
Ashcoat of the Shadow Swarm wants Rats on the battlefield to trigger and stack buffs, and Swarmyard protects those Rats from the removal spells that would otherwise reset the board state and stall the engine.
Marrow-Gnawer
Marrow-Gnawer generates Rats exponentially and needs the original Rats alive long enough to untap and activate again — Swarmyard provides exactly the regeneration shield that keeps the combo pieces on the table.
Chatterfang, Squirrel General
Chatterfang, Squirrel General makes Squirrel tokens off every other token you produce, and Swarmyard ensures Chatterfang itself survives spot removal so the engine never goes offline.
Rat King, Verminister
Rat King, Verminister scales with the number of Rats in play, making each individual Rat's survival matter — Swarmyard turns opponent removal spells into blanks against your most important pieces.
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 |
Swarmyard is a niche land in every format it's legal in, and Commander is by far its best home. In Commander, tribal synergies are deep enough and games last long enough that regenerating a key Rat or Squirrel repeatedly pays off across a full game arc. In Legacy and Vintage, the creature types it protects don't have the kind of tournament-defining presence that would make a colorless utility land worth the slot over fetchable basics. Swarmyard is essentially a Commander card that happens to have wider legality on paper.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Pricing data for Swarmyard isn't currently available in this context, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for a live number before buying. Given its narrow tribal application and the number of printings it has received over the years, it has historically stayed in the affordable range for a utility land.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.