Blood Curdle
Instant
Destroy target creature. Put a menace counter on a creature you control. (It can't be blocked except by two or more creatures.)
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths
- Price
- $0.25
- EDHREC rank
- #11077
Blood Curdle kills a creature and permanently staples a -1/-1 counter onto something else — two pieces of board impact for one card. Five mana is the honest cost of that package, and in Commander it's a fair rate.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Skullbriar, the Walking Grave
Skullbriar, the Walking Grave accumulates counters as a core mechanic, and Blood Curdle's -1/-1 rider lands on any creature you choose — including Skullbriar itself if you want to keep the counter engine growing while clearing a blocker.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Blood Curdle is a clean role-player: unconditional instant-speed removal that replaces itself with a board effect, which matters in a multiplayer game where every card needs to pull weight. Pauper is where it sees the most concentrated competitive use, since the card pool at common makes five-mana instant removal with upside genuinely competitive. In Modern, Pioneer, and Legacy it's too slow — those formats kill or win before a five-mana sorcery-speed trade matters, and instant-speed doesn't save it when the tempo loss is that steep. Oathbreaker mirrors Commander's calculus closely enough that the same logic applies.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.25 bulk tier
At $0.25, Blood Curdle is bulk — you're paying essentially nothing for functional removal. Bulk commons with consistent Commander demand tend to stay at this floor indefinitely, so there's no price risk in picking up copies.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.