Vexing Beetle
Creature — Insect
This spell can't be countered.
This creature gets +3/+3 as long as no opponent controls a creature.
- CMC
- 5
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- G
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Legions
- Price
- $0.26
- EDHREC rank
- #30502
Vexing Beetle lands as a 5/5 for five whenever no opponent controls a creature — a clean rate that requires zero setup beyond playing into a board state you'd often find at a table running interaction. The cost is real: against aggressive decks or token strategies, it enters as a vanilla 3/3, which is unplayable at five mana.
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 the natural home for Vexing Beetle — games regularly pass through creature-light phases after board wipes, and a 5/5 for five that arrives into those windows is a legitimate threat. Legacy and Vintage are legal but irrelevant; five mana gets you Emrakul or Griselbrand in those formats, and the conditional body doesn't come close to competing. Oathbreaker is the one fringe format worth mentioning: lower life totals and tighter game states can make the 5/5 clause more reliably active, though the card still needs the right shell to justify inclusion.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.26 bulk tier
At $0.26, Vexing Beetle is deep bulk — the kind of card you pull from a box rather than order. That price is stable; there's no competitive demand pushing it up, and it's widely available enough that a reprint wouldn't matter either way.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.