Pest Infestation

Pest Infestation was released in 2021 as part of the Secrets of Strixhaven Commander set, a collection of supplemental cards designed for the multiplayer Commander format within the Magic: The Gathering ecosystem. The card emerged from the Prismari Performance deck, themed around the expressive and chaotic magic of the Strixhaven University's arts-focused college. It was designed to provide green-aligned players with a versatile tool for both board stabilization and scaling creature production, fitting into the set's broader mechanical focus on manipulating tokens and utilizing graveyard resources.

The card was illustrated by Wisnutanu Tangtrongpiros, who utilized a vivid, painterly aesthetic to capture the swarm-like nature of the pests. The design intent centers on the card's scalability, allowing players to pay additional mana to destroy multiple artifacts or enchantments while simultaneously generating an equivalent number of 1/1 Pest creature tokens. Since its debut, it has been received as a staple utility card in the Commander format, praised for its efficiency in handling diverse threats while maintaining board presence, reflecting the set's overarching design philosophy of rewarding tactical flexibility.