Zoanthrope
Creature — Tyranid
Ravenous (This creature enters with X +1/+1 counters on it. If X is 5 or more, draw a card when it enters.)
Flying, ward 
Warp Blast — When this creature enters, it deals X damage to any target.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- RU
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Warhammer 40,000 Commander
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #6540
Zoanthrope grows proportionally to the amount of mana you sink into X spells, turning every big payoff you cast into a permanent stat investment on the board. Magus Lucea Kane is the natural home — copying your X spells doubles the counters Zoanthrope accumulates, and it snowballs faster than opponents expect.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Magus Lucea Kane
Magus Lucea Kane's copy trigger effectively doubles every X spell's counter output on Zoanthrope, turning a modest investment into a creature that threatens lethal in just a few turns.
The Swarmlord
The Swarmlord cares about proliferating +1/+1 counters across a Tyranid board, and Zoanthrope enters that web perfectly — every proliferate trigger from a Gaunt Summoner or similar scales Zoanthrope alongside the rest of the swarm.
Animar, Soul of Elements
Animar, Soul of Elements decks flood the board with creature-based X spells and cost reducers, giving Zoanthrope repeated opportunities to grow as you chain through the deck — the synergy is lower than the Tyranid builds but still meaningfully present.
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 |
Zoanthrope is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but its real home is Commander — the 100-card singleton format gives it the density of X spells it needs to matter. In Legacy and Vintage it's theoretically castable but competes with formats where a 4-mana creature that doesn't immediately win the game rarely makes the cut. Oathbreaker shares Commander's multiplayer dynamics and X-spell density, so the card functions similarly there, though the smaller deck size slightly reduces redundancy.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Pricing data for Zoanthrope isn't currently available in the tracker, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for a live number before buying. Given its narrow application in Tyranid and X-spell Commander builds, expect it to sit at a modest price point rather than a staple premium.
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Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.