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The Skullspore Nexus

Legendary Artifact

This spell costs {X} less to cast, where X is the greatest power among creatures you control.
Whenever one or more nontoken creatures you control die, create a green Fungus Dinosaur creature token with base power and toughness each equal to the total power of those creatures.
{2}, {T}: Double target creature's power until end of turn.

CMC
8
Mana cost
{6}{G}{G}
Color identity
G
Rarity
mythic
Set
The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Promos
Price
$7.27
EDHREC rank
#1522
Buy on TCGplayer
The Skullspore Nexus card art
The Skullspore Nexus doubles the power of any creature entering play, then lets you cash in that power as counters on a fresh token — an immediate, repeatable board presence engine stapled to a six-mana artifact. The cost is real, but commanders like The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride and Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis that routinely deploy massive creatures for cheap make the math lopsided fast.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride

The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride

60.6% of decks · synergy 0.57

The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride triggers The Skullspore Nexus every time it saddles up and flings a large creature into the red zone — the power-doubling fires before the sacrifice, so the token minted afterward inherits the full inflated count and keeps the board state alive after the ride.

02
Owen Grady, Raptor TrainerBlue, Loyal Raptor

Owen Grady, Raptor Trainer // Blue, Loyal Raptor

45.5% of decks · synergy 0.44

Owen Grady, Raptor Trainer // Blue, Loyal Raptor builds a wide board of Dinosaurs that keep growing, and The Skullspore Nexus converts each new entry's power into an even larger token, accelerating the counter-stacking loop Owen Grady is already trying to run.

03
Ziatora, the Incinerator

Ziatora, the Incinerator

44.8% of decks · synergy 0.39

Ziatora, the Incinerator wants the biggest creature on board to fling, and The Skullspore Nexus ensures every new entrant arrives doubled — meaning Ziatora always has a fresh, oversized target to sacrifice for damage without depleting the board.

04
Zilortha, Strength Incarnate

Zilortha, Strength Incarnate

37.2% of decks · synergy 0.35

Zilortha, Strength Incarnate makes power matter for combat damage, and The Skullspore Nexus compounds that advantage by doubling every creature's power on entry, turning each new threat into an even more disproportionate attacker under Zilortha's replacement effect.

05
Ghalta, Primal Hunger

Ghalta, Primal Hunger

33.8% of decks · synergy 0.28

Ghalta, Primal Hunger already demands high power on board to reduce its own cost, and The Skullspore Nexus doubles each creature's power on arrival — meaning Ghalta gets cheaper faster while also leaving behind a large Fungus Beast token to maintain the board presence that enables the next Ghalta.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer legal
standard legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Commander is where The Skullspore Nexus lives — the singleton format's slower pace gives it time to land, and the 40-life totals mean the large tokens it produces translate into real closing pressure. In Modern and Pioneer the six-mana cost is a near-disqualifier; competitive creature decks in those formats want payoffs that win the game on the spot, not a value engine that takes a turn to set up. Legacy and Vintage have the same problem compounded by the raw power of their threat pools. Standard is the one constructed format where The Skullspore Nexus is at least theoretically viable — if a midrange creature deck can protect it through the turn cycle, the doubling effect snowballs quickly — but it still asks a lot for six mana in a format with cheaper threats.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

Battleball and Primal Vigor overlap with The Skullspore Nexus's counter-generation angle but neither doubles power on entry or produces a body — they're cheaper precisely because they do less. If the token-generation half is the priority, Ghalta and Mavren or Esix, Fractal Bloom can fill a similar role in the right colors for two to four dollars, though they require more setup and lack the raw doubling effect that makes The Skullspore Nexus a one-card engine.

Price Context

Current price

$7.27 mid tier

At $7.27, The Skullspore Nexus sits in the mid tier — expensive enough to feel deliberate in a budget build, cheap enough that it's not a meaningful barrier in most 75–100 dollar Commander decks. The inclusion rate across Gitrog, Ziatora, and similar high-power-matters commanders is high enough that demand is stable, so the price reflects genuine play value rather than speculative hype.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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