Braids, Arisen Nightmare
Legendary Creature — Nightmare
At the beginning of your end step, you may sacrifice an artifact, creature, enchantment, land, or planeswalker. If you do, each opponent may sacrifice a permanent of their choice that shares a card type with it. For each opponent who doesn't, that player loses 2 life and you draw a card.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Game Day Promos
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #285
Braids, Arisen Nightmare forces every opponent to sacrifice a permanent or hand you a card and lose two life at the start of your end step — that pressure compounds fast in a four-player game. The cost is real: you have to sacrifice a permanent first, so the deck needs cheap, expendable fodder to keep the engine clean, but commanders like Edea, Possessed Sorceress show exactly how to build around that constraint.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Edea, Possessed Sorceress
Edea, Possessed Sorceress generates Horror tokens whenever you cast spells with odd mana values, giving you a steady stream of free sacrifices to feed Braids, Arisen Nightmare every end step without ever touching a permanent you actually want to keep.
Hearthhull, the Worldseed
Hearthhull, the Worldseed cares about permanents entering and leaving play in volume, so pairing it with Braids, Arisen Nightmare turns the forced sacrifice loop into a recursive value engine that refuels both commanders simultaneously.
Szarel, Genesis Shepherd
Szarel, Genesis Shepherd rewards you for creatures dying and returning from the graveyard, which means every token or creature you pitch to Braids, Arisen Nightmare becomes raw material for Szarel's engine rather than a pure cost.
Lynde, Cheerful Tormentor
Lynde, Cheerful Tormentor traffics in Curses, and Braids, Arisen Nightmare gives opponents a recurring choice between losing resources and handing you cards — pressure that layers cleanly on top of Lynde's incremental curse punishment.
Ratadrabik of Urborg
Ratadrabik of Urborg copies legendary creatures as they die, so using legends as Braids, Arisen Nightmare fodder stops being a sacrifice and starts being a token-generation strategy with a backup copy ready on the field.
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 | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Braids, Arisen Nightmare does its best work: three opponents means three separate sacrifice triggers every end step, and the life drain adds up faster than any single player can offset by just taking the card-draw option. In Legacy and Vintage, a four-mana 3/4 with no immediate board impact is too slow for formats where the game can end on turn one or two, so it sees essentially no competitive play there. Modern and Pioneer have the same problem — the card asks you to build around it, and the sacrifice-fodder shells those formats support have faster, more consistent engines available. Braids, Arisen Nightmare is a Commander card through and through, built for the long game where its end-step pressure erodes tables rather than single opponents.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Pricing data for Braids, Arisen Nightmare isn't currently available here, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for the current market rate before buying. It's a heavily played Commander staple in sacrifice and Orzhov-adjacent shells, which tends to keep demand steady — grab it when you see a clean copy at a price you're comfortable with.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Edea, Possessed Sorceress
- Hearthhull, the Worldseed
- Szarel, Genesis Shepherd
- Lynde, Cheerful Tormentor
- Ratadrabik of Urborg
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.