Blex, Vexing Pest // Search for Blex MTG Card


Blex enhances creatures like Pests, Bats, and Insects, reducing their casting cost and strengthening the board. ‘Search for Blex’ provides significant card advantage, digging for key creatures and replenishing your hand. Instant casting of ‘Search for Blex’ adds surprise and mana flexibility, enabling end-of-turn plays.
Card setsReleased in 5 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost3
RarityMythic
TypeLegendary Creature — Pest
Power 3
Toughness 2

Text of card

Other Pests, Bats, Insects, Snakes, and Spiders you control get +1/+1. When Blex, Vexing Pest dies, you gain 4 life.

Pests are typically harvested before they outgrow their enclosures. Blex is far from typical.


Cards like Blex, Vexing Pest // Search for Blex

Blex, Vexing Pest stands out in the pantheon of creatures within Magic: The Gathering for its unique relationship with other creature types, particularly Pests, Bats, Insects, Snakes, and Spiders. Akin to lords like Elvish Archdruid or Goblin King, Blex pumps up the specified creature stats, providing players with the strategic advantage of strengthening their swarm of small creatures.

Elvish Archdruid is recognized for not only boosting elves’ power and toughness but also for its capacity to generate a significant amount of mana. While Goblin King grants all Goblins an unblockable edge when mountains are in play, enhancing their assault strategy. Blex diverges by providing lifegain with every death of your tiny critters, an attribute that can shift the health dynamic of a game considerably.

On analyzing these cards, it’s evident that Blex, Vexing Pest’s strength lies in versatility and resilience it brings to your creatures, a valuable asset during prolonged confrontations. While other lords might excel in raw power or niche advantages, Blex serves as a keystone for a diverse family of creatures, fostering a unique bond with the smaller, often overlooked beings in Magic: The Gathering.

Elvish Archdruid - MTG Card versions
Goblin King - MTG Card versions
Elvish Archdruid - MTG Card versions
Goblin King - MTG Card versions

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Blex, Vexing Pest enables you to gain card advantage through card draw and graveyard recursion. Its back side, ‘Search for Blex’, allows you to look at the top five cards of your library, potentially drawing multiple Pest cards you reveal this way, and thus replenishing your hand efficiently.

Resource Acceleration: With Blex, Vexing Pest in play, your creature spells that are Pests, Bats, Insects, Snakes, and Spiders cost one less to cast. This ability increases your resource acceleration by effectively generating an additional mana each time you cast one of these types of creatures, which can be pivotal for deploying multiple threats in a single turn.

Instant Speed: Although Blex, Vexing Pest itself does not operate at instant speed, ‘Search for Blex’ can be cast at the end of your opponent’s turn, which keeps your mana open and may catch an opponent off-guard. This adds a layer of strategy to your game, allowing you to make the most out of your mana and time your plays to disrupt your opponent’s plans while they are low on resources.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: When playing Blex, Vexing Pest, any strategy built around it is hampered by the demand to maintain a creature-rich hand to optimize its passive ability. This can be a major drawback in games where card advantage is crucial, and players find themselves needing to discard to maintain board presence.

Specific Mana Cost: The mana cost of Blex, Vexing Pest is uniquely split between black and green mana. This precise requirement can restrict deck-building, making it less flexible and harder to cast, especially in multi-colored or colorless decks that don’t focus on these colors.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Costing four mana to cast, Blex, Vexing Pest’s ability to boost creature stats and provide other benefits might not contend with other cards at a similar or lower mana cost. Its costliness can slow down the tempo for players who are trying to establish an early-game advantage, which is often crucial in competitive play.


Reasons to Include Blex, Vexing Pest in Your Collection

Versatility: Blex, Vexing Pest thrives in decks that need a boost in power across creature types, particularly those built around Pests, Bats, Insects, Snakes, and Spiders. Its ability to buff these creatures while giving you life gain ensures your swarm is mightier in battle.

Combo Potential: On its flip side, Search for Blex offers you the opportunity to dig deep into your library for key pieces, enabling various combos within ‘Golgari’ graveyard-centric themes or ‘Sultai’ value-oriented playstyles.

Meta-Relevance: In environments where small creature strategies are prevalent, the power pump and life gain from Blex can sway matches in your favor. Integrating well with the current metagame trends can often mean the difference between a mediocre deck and a winning one.


How to beat Blex, Vexing Pest

Blex, Vexing Pest is a unique creature card that brings a blend of support for Pest creatures and life gain. When facing Blex, an effective strategy is to remove him quickly from the battlefield. Direct damage spells or targeted removal like Path to Exile or Doom Blade can efficiently handle Blex before his static abilities and life gain benefits become a deciding factor in a match. Additionally, because Blex can also be a source of card advantage if the backside is cast, graveyard disruption tools can be paramount to inhibit this secondary use. Cards like Rest in Peace or Scavenging Ooze disrupt the graveyard synergy and can hinder your opponent’s ability to utilize Blex to their fullest. Lastly, incorporating board wipes can neutralize the swarm of pests and other creatures that Blex is likely to accompany, paving the way for a cleaner board state and stalling your opponent’s momentum. Adapting these tactics could effectively contain Blex’s pestering presence in your next game.


Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Blex, Vexing Pest // Search for Blex MTG card by a specific set like Magic Online Promos and Strixhaven Art Series, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Blex, Vexing Pest // Search for Blex and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Blex, Vexing Pest // Search for Blex Magic the Gathering card was released in 3 different sets between 2021-04-23 and 2021-04-23. Illustrated by Ekaterina Burmak.

#ReleasedNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12002-06-24Magic Online PromosPRM 903002015Modal DFCBlackEkaterina Burmak
22021-04-23Strixhaven Art SeriesASTX 222015Art seriesBorderlessEkaterina Burmak
32021-04-23Strixhaven: School of MagesSTX 1482015Modal DFCBlackEkaterina Burmak
42021-04-23Strixhaven Art SeriesASTX 22s2015Art seriesBorderlessEkaterina Burmak
52021-04-23Strixhaven: School of MagesSTX 3222015Modal DFCBlackEkaterina Burmak

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Blex, Vexing Pest // Search for Blex has restrictions

FormatLegality
HistoricbrawlLegal
CommanderLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
ExplorerLegal
GladiatorLegal
PioneerLegal
TimelessLegal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Blex, Vexing Pest // Search for Blex card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

Date Text
2021-04-16 If a creature is more than one of the creature types Blex cares about, it may haunt your dreams, but it will get the +1/+1 bonus only once.
2021-04-16 While resolving Search for Blex, you may put any number of the cards into your hand, even if you don’t have enough life to cover it. We’ll assume you have a plan that’s better than “and then I’ll lose the game.”