Super Budget Avatar Mana Dork Puts $15 Staple to Shame

Last updated on March 12, 2026

Animal Attendant | Illustration by Phima

In-universe reprints of Universes Beyond cards are something Magic players have been asking Wizards for since Universes Beyond started… although not something that WotC seems too much in a hurry to do, with only a handful of exceptions.

But WotC has sort of printed a dirt-cheap in-universe version of one of Warhammer 40,000 Commander’s priciest cards… although very few Magic players seem to have found out just yet!

Biophagus, from the Tyranid Swarm Commander precon, costs about $18 per regular, near-mint copy, which makes it both one of the most expensive cards from the 40K set, and second only to Delighted Halfling when it comes to mana dorks:

Source: Scryfall

Yet there's a perfectly good, near identical mana dork that costs below $1, hiding in plain sight in Avatar Jumpstart!

Same job, with one catch

Indominus Rex, Alpha (Jurassic World) | Illustration by Miro Petrov

Biophagus is a two-mana mana dork that taps for any color, and if that mana is used on a creature spell, that creature enters with an extra +1/+1 counter. Which is exactly the same effect you can find in Animal Attendant…

… with just one catch: Animal Attendant only does that for non-Human creature spells. 

That means Animal Attendant is not a strict reprint. But in the right shell, it’s close enough that most tables won’t notice the difference unless they’re reading the fine print with a magnifying glass and a grudge.

The difference you're saving for this downgrade? A huge $15–$17 discount!

A Great Replacement in the Right Deck

To be certain, Animal Attendant‘s downgrade is not entirely trivial. A good chunk of the creatures and commanders that care most about +1/+1 counters are Humans.

But here's the good news: several of the competitive budget decks where Biophagus has found success have pretty much no humans other than Biophagus itself.

For example, here's a competitive Indominus Rex, Alpha deck, packed with creatures like Triplicate Titan, Scavenged Brawler, Poison Dart Frog, Tower Winder, Goldvein Hydra, Uchbenbak, the Great Mistake, and Leyline Prowler. In a list like that, the non-Human clause is irrelevant, and Animal Attendant looks like a very reasonable substitue.

Why Is Biophagus So Expensive?

As you've very likely noticed if you follow the MTG card market, the two main factors driving up prices are popularity and scarcity… and Biophagus is pretty scarce.

Source: Scryfall

“Biophagus is only [found] in the tyranid deck and its collector version, nowhere else,” writes u/Impressive_You_817 in a Reddit thread discussing Biophagus' price tag. “There are exactly as many biophaguses as there are precons, and the precons stopped being printed 3 years ago. The only way they enter the market is by someone ripping one out of a deck, and most people want to keep the decks together.”

Even mediocre 40K cards are fairly pricey, and Biophagus is good enough to make it all the way into the Top 10 most expensive in the set:

Wrap Up

Roxanne, Starfall Savant – Illustration by Ina Wong

Last but not least, sometimes you want to replace a good card for an equally good, but cheaper card… but other times you may want BOTH cards in your deck, if the effect is important to your game plan!

All in all, Animal Attendant is not a strict reprint of Biophagus, and the non-Human clause can certainly make it much worse in certain decks.

Still, in creature-heavy lists that barely run Humans in the first place, the cheaper much card gets awfully close if you just need one copy of this effect. And it's a very welcome addition if you need some backup!