Thieving Varmint
Creature — Varmint
Deathtouch, lifelink
, Pay 1 life: Add two mana of any one color. Spend this mana only to cast spells you don't own.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Outlaws of Thunder Junction Commander
- Price
- $2.55
- EDHREC rank
- #4413
Thieving Varmint enters the battlefield and immediately mills the opponent for two, then sticks around as a deathtouch body that punishes attacks — all for two mana. In Gonti, Night Minister shells where every card milled is a potential free cast, that front-loaded value makes this a near-auto-include.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Gonti, Night Minister
Gonti, Night Minister turns every card milled into a casting opportunity, and Thieving Varmint's enter-the-battlefield mill feeds that engine the moment it lands — at two mana, it's one of the cheapest ways to stock the exile pile Gonti, Night Minister depends on.
Gonti, Canny Acquisitor
Gonti, Canny Acquisitor rewards casting spells from exile, so Thieving Varmint's immediate mill puts fuel in the tank before you've spent a third mana — the deathtouch body also survives long enough to block and keep opponents from crashing through while you set up.
Rev, Tithe Extractor
Rev, Tithe Extractor cares about taxing and extracting value from opponents' resources, and Thieving Varmint applies that pressure directly to their library while threatening any attacker with deathtouch.
Nathan Drake, Treasure Hunter
Nathan Drake, Treasure Hunter thrives on accumulating incremental advantages, and Thieving Varmint delivers two immediate mills plus a relevant blocker at a cost that doesn't set back the Treasure economy Nathan Drake, Treasure Hunter relies on.
Laughing Jasper Flint
Laughing Jasper Flint often pivots on disrupting opponents and accruing small edges, and Thieving Varmint contributes a chip of mill damage while the deathtouch stat line keeps the board honest against aggressive tables.
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 |
Commander is where Thieving Varmint earns its keep — mill-matters and theft-based strategies run it as a low-cost enabler that does something tangible the turn it arrives. In Legacy and Vintage, two mana for a 1/2 deathtouch plus two mills doesn't clear the bar in formats where early interaction is far more efficient. Oathbreaker is the one other format worth noting, where 20-life totals make incremental mill more relevant and cheap, impactful bodies at two mana matter more per card slot.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$2.55 cheap tier
At $2.55, Thieving Varmint sits in budget-include territory — cheap enough that cutting it for a better card costs you almost nothing, but priced fairly for a card with genuine demand in Gonti-style Commander builds. It's unlikely to spike and unlikely to crater; buy it when you need it.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.