Dead of Winter
Sorcery
All nonsnow creatures get -X/-X until end of turn, where X is the number of snow permanents you control.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Modern Horizons
- Price
- $0.41
- EDHREC rank
- #10015
Dead of Winter is a -X/-X board wipe where X equals your snow permanent count — in a dedicated snow deck, that number routinely hits five or six, wiping the board for three mana. The catch is real: outside a snow-heavy build, it's a conditional sorcery that might trade down, so Jorn, God of Winter shells are the only place it belongs.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Jorn, God of Winter
Jorn, God of Winter floods the board with snow permanents just by attacking, so Dead of Winter consistently lands at -6 or better by the midgame — that's a three-mana Crux of Fate with upside in the deck that wants it most.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Dead of Winter is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but in practice it's a Commander card. In Legacy and Vintage, unconditional board wipes at three mana — Toxic Deluge chief among them — do the job without requiring a snow manabase, so Dead of Winter doesn't make the cut in those formats. Modern lacks the density of competitive snow-permanent engines that would let it hit meaningful numbers consistently, pushing it to fringe at best. Commander is where it earns its slot: multiplayer games give you time to build a snow board, and the mana efficiency at sorcery speed is strong enough to compete with the format's best sweepers when the conditions are met.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.41 bulk tier
At $0.41, Dead of Winter sits firmly in bulk territory — you're picking this up as a throw-in, not a purchase. For a card that functions as a three-mana board wipe in the right shell, that price is not going anywhere fast; niche role plus low casual demand keeps it there.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Jorn, God of Winter
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.