Price$0.24 – $0.38
Buy on TCGplayerThrummingbird
Creature — Phyrexian Bird Horror
LegalRank #833
Flying
Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, proliferate. (Choose any number of permanents and/or players, then give each another counter of each kind already there.)
1/1
Why is this card good?
Thrummingbird is a humble but reliable engine for proliferate-centric decks. A 2-mana evasive flyer that triggers proliferate every combat means it usually connects, snowballing whatever counter strategy you're built around.
Where it shines:
- +1/+1 counter decks (Ezuri, Skullbriar) to grow your board steadily.
- Superfriends/planeswalker decks (Atraxa, Tezzeret) to tick up loyalty and ultimates faster.
- Infect/toxic builds, where each connection turns one poison into a snowball toward 10.
- Charge counter / saga / oil counter value engines that want repeated proliferate.
The big win is that it's cheap and evasive — proliferate engines like Atraxa cost six mana, while this comes down turn two and starts working immediately, freeing up your curve.
When to skip it: It's fragile (1 toughness, dies to anything) and does nothing without counters already in play. In decks not built around counters, proliferate is a wasted trigger. Don't run it as a generic value card — only when your deck actively cares about accumulating counters.
Related cards
Steady Progress
Instant-speed proliferate, repeatable counter support.
Contagion Clasp
Repeatable proliferate engine with removal attached.
Contagion Engine
Double proliferate each turn for counter snowball.
Inexorable Tide
Proliferates on every spell cast, more reliable trigger.
Fuel for the Cause
Counterspell that also proliferates.
Tezzeret's Gambit
Card draw plus proliferate in blue.
Karn's Bastion
Land that proliferates without combat risk.
Flux Channeler
Proliferates when casting noncreature spells, similar engine role.
Printings (11)
Played by these commanders
Inspirit, Flagship Vessel100% of 1
Atraxa, Praetors' Voice100% of 2
Perrie, the Pulverizer100% of 1
Commodore Guff100% of 1
Combos (8)
- Medomai the Ageless + Idris, Soul of the TARDIS + Thrummingbird + The Flesh Is Weak
→ Infinite turns, Lock
- Medomai the Ageless + Idris, Soul of the TARDIS + Thrummingbird + Memnarch
→ Infinite turns, Lock
- Medomai the Ageless + Idris, Soul of the TARDIS + Thrummingbird + Neurok Transmuter
→ Infinite turns, Lock
- Medomai the Ageless + Idris, Soul of the TARDIS + Thrummingbird + Ygra, Eater of All
→ Infinite turns, Lock
- Medomai the Ageless + Idris, Soul of the TARDIS + Thrummingbird + Liquimetal Coating
→ Infinite turns, Lock
- Medomai the Ageless + Idris, Soul of the TARDIS + Thrummingbird + Liquimetal Torque
→ Infinite turns, Lock
Rulings (6)
- 2023-02-04
To proliferate, you can choose any permanent that has a counter, including ones controlled by opponents. You can choose any player who has a counter, including opponents. You can't choose cards in any zone other than the battlefield, even if they have counters on them.
- 2023-02-04
You don't have to choose every permanent or player that has a counter, only the ones you want to add another counter to. Since "any number" includes zero, you don't have to choose any permanents at all, and you don't have to choose any players at all.
- 2023-02-04
If a player or permanent has more than one kind of counter on it, and you choose for it to get additional counters, it must get one of each kind of counter it already has. You can't have it get just one kind of counter it already has and not the others.
- 2023-02-04
An ability that triggers "Whenever you proliferate" triggers even if you chose no permanents or players while doing so.
- 2023-02-04
Players can respond to a spell or ability whose effect includes proliferating. Once that spell or ability starts to resolve, however, and its controller chooses which permanents and players will get new counters, it's too late for anyone to respond.
- 2023-02-04
If a permanent ever has both +1/+1 counters and -1/-1 counters on it at the same time, they're removed in pairs as a state-based action so that the permanent has only one of those kinds of counters on it.