Teacher's Pest
Creature — Skeleton Pest
Menace (This creature can't be blocked except by two or more creatures.)
Whenever this creature attacks, you gain 1 life.
: Return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- BG
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Secrets of Strixhaven
- Price
- $0.29
- EDHREC rank
- #10081
Teacher's Pest enters the battlefield and immediately drains each opponent for 1 while gaining you that life back — two points of life swing per opponent before you've spent a single mana on anything else. At one mana, it's a near-free trigger for any deck that cares about life loss, lifegain, or sacrifice fodder, and Blech, Loafing Pest makes it a staple.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Blech, Loafing Pest
Blech, Loafing Pest rewards you for playing Pests, and Teacher's Pest is one of the cheapest ways to put one on the board while draining the table — 85% of Blech decks run it for exactly that reason.
Dina, Essence Brewer
Dina, Essence Brewer triggers off lifegain, so Teacher's Pest's drain-and-gain enters as both a payoff and a setup piece — cheap enough to cast early and sacrifice later for additional value.
Savra, Queen of the Golgari
Savra, Queen of the Golgari demands a steady supply of black and green creatures to sacrifice, and Teacher's Pest fills that role at the lowest possible mana investment while draining opponents in the process.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Teacher's Pest is a Commander card through and through — the drain-each-opponent clause scales directly with player count, turning a one-mana 1/1 into a three-life swing in a four-player pod. In competitive 60-card formats like Modern and Pioneer, draining a single opponent for 1 off an ETB rarely moves the needle, and the 1/1 body doesn't threaten anything. Legacy and Vintage have access to far more powerful one-drops, so Teacher's Pest won't see play there either. Stick to Commander and Oathbreaker, where the multiplayer math makes every drain trigger worth counting.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.29 bulk tier
At $0.29, Teacher's Pest is deep bulk — a card you should be able to pull from a dollar bin or trade binder without thinking twice. Bulk commons and uncommons at this price point don't appreciate, but that's irrelevant: it earns its slot on rate, not scarcity.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Blech, Loafing Pest
- Dina, Essence Brewer
- Savra, Queen of the Golgari
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.