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Tend the Pests
Instant
uncommon
As an additional cost to cast this spell, sacrifice a creature. Create X 1/1 black and green Pest creature tokens with "When this token dies, you gain 1 life," where X is the sacrificed creature's power.
Card Kingdom
CardmarketSemantic Tags
Benefits from creatures or permanents dying — death triggers, blood artist effects.
A keyword ability that lets a player cast a spell for less by sacrificing a creature. See rule 702.119, “Emerge.”
Gains you life. Relevant for lifegain-matters strategies and general survivability.
Broadly benefits from sacrificing permanents — overlaps aristocrats but includes non-creature sacrifice.
Lets you sacrifice your own creatures or permanents for value. Key enabler for aristocrats strategies.
Rewards casting instants and sorceries. Includes magecraft, prowess triggers, and spell-count payoffs.
Creates creature tokens, Treasure tokens, Food tokens, Clue tokens, or other token types.
Format Legality
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Printings (1)
| Set | Rarity | TCGplayer | Card Kingdom | Cardmarket |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strixhaven: School of Mages#242 | uncommon | · | · | · |
Related Rules
Emerge
Emerge represents two static abilities that function while the spell with emerge is on the stack. “Emerge [cost]” means “You may cast this spell by paying [cost] and sacrificing a creature rather than paying its mana cost” and “If you chose to pay this spell’s emerge cost, its total cost is reduced by an amount of generic mana equal to the sacrificed creature’s mana value.” Casting a spell using its emerge ability follows the rules for paying alternative costs in rules 601.2b and 601.2f–h.
Emerge from [quality] is a variant of emerge. “Emerge from [quality] [cost]” means “You may cast this spell by paying [cost] and sacrificing a [quality] permanent rather than paying its mana cost” and “If you pay this spell’s emerge cost, its total cost is reduced by an amount of generic mana equal to the sacrificed permanent’s mana value.”
You choose which permanent to sacrifice as you choose to pay a spell’s emerge cost (see rule 601.2b), and you sacrifice that permanent as you pay the total cost (see rule 601.2h).
Rulings
Copies of Tend the Pests will use the power of the creature sacrificed for the original spell to determine the number of Pests each copy creates. Because the copies aren't cast, you won't sacrifice additional creatures for them.