Walking Sponge
Creature — Sponge
: Target creature loses your choice of flying, first strike, or trample until end of turn.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Urza's Legacy
- Price
- $0.25
- EDHREC rank
- #26350
Walking Sponge removes all abilities from a creature for a single blue mana and a tap — an effect so cheap it borders on broken if the right target is sitting across the table. In practice the creature has to survive to your next turn to matter, which is the entire problem.
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 |
Walking Sponge sees essentially no competitive play in Legacy or Vintage, where creatures die too fast and one blue mana buys better interaction. Commander is its only realistic home, and even there it occupies a narrow niche — stripping abilities from a single creature is a tempo play, not a threat, and it wears off if the Sponge dies or gets bounced. It earns consideration in stax or pillow-fort shells where locking down a commander's activated ability every turn is a repeatable soft answer, but most blue decks would rather run removal or counterspells that don't require babysitting a 1/1.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.25 bulk tier
At $0.25, Walking Sponge is pure bulk — the price reflects honest demand, which is low. It won't climb without a dedicated combo shell that makes the tap effect broken, and none exists at a high enough profile to move the needle.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.