Secrets of Strixhaven Introduces Unfortunate Change to Popular Creature Token

Last updated on April 10, 2026

Beledros Witherbloom | Illustration by Raymond Swanland

Secrets of Strixhaven has introduced a slew of new mechanics but retains much of the flavor and identity established in Strixhaven: School of Mages. However, Wizards changed a vital element of the Witherbloom cards: They still summon Pest tokens, but pests now gain 1 life when they attack rather than die. The rest of the card is the same, but this change definitely impacts how the mechanic works.

What Are Pests?

Pest Infestation | Illustration by Brian Valeza

Pests are a creature type that appears infrequently, mostly on cards associated with Strixhaven like Blex, Vexing Pest and Overgrown Pest (though the first pest was actually Signal Pest in Mirrodin Besieged). Most commonly, pests appear as 1/1 green-black, or Golgari, creature tokens created by cards associated with the Witherbloom college on Strixhaven.

Pests are small, rather ugly creatures used by Witherbloom mages as a source of life essence to fuel their magic, which was represented mechanically on the original cards: When a pest died, you gained a life. You can’t get a more literal representation of harvesting a creature’s life essence, but Secrets of Strixhaven has changed that (mostly).

Cards in the main set that create pests that gain 1 life when they attack rather than when they die. But, if that change to tokens with the same name and an established ability wasn’t enough, cards from the Secrets of Strixhaven Commander precons make the traditional pests:

What Does This Mean For Gameplay?

Blex, Vexing Pest | Illustration by Ekaterina Burmak

Overall, I expect this to be a nerf to Pests and their utility in most formats because the original Pests are pretty strong. A 1/1 that gains life when it dies fits into so many niches. The most obvious one is sacrifice decks, which was the primary mechanic Witherbloom (and most Golgari decks) utilized. Gaining life whenever you sacrifice a token, independent of any other effects, provides a small but meaningful advantage. Magic is a game of small edges. Gaining two or three life because you cast a Deadly Dispute and activated Viscera Seer a few times might be all it takes to win a game.

The tokens are also incredible defensive cards. A chump blocker that buffs your life total keeps you alive longer than than a token that doesn’t. Heck, chumping blocking with a Pest that gains a life could be the difference between chumping with one token versus two.

Pests also provide pretty on-demand life gain, assuming you have a good sacrifice outlet. That helps decks that care about those synergies—for example, they let you trigger cards like Gourmand's Talent that care about gaining life once a turn on your opponents’ turns. Though small, these pests do a lot.

Much of that utility goes away with pests that gain 1 life when they attack. Admittedly, it’s slightly more reliable life gain; you can always choose to attack with a Pest, but you can’t always have a sacrifice outlet or pressure your opponent into attacking. But a 1/1 token doesn’t line up well against most creatures; you’ll often be forced to hold it back or only attack the one time. That might be worth it to enable infusion or another lifegain synergy, but it feels worse than knowing you have a token ready to sacrifice.

Wrap Up

Pest Summoning | Illustration by Zoltan Boros

While there are many flavors of Golgari, synergistic builds tend towards an aristocrat gameplan that sacrifices creatures. That isn’t to say Golgari can’t attack, but the more midrange oriented Golgari decks, also called The Rock, prefer creatures like Glissa Sunslayer and Sentinel of the Nameless City that individually powerful threats as opposed to building a wide board.

Overall, pests are just a little weaker in Secrets of Strixhaven…which might not be such a big deal if they weren’t also confusing since they share all the characteristics the OG Strixhaven impressed on us while being fundamentally different cards.