Distant Melody
Sorcery
Choose a creature type. Draw a card for each permanent you control of that type.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander
- Price
- $0.37
- EDHREC rank
- #627
Distant Melody draws you cards equal to the number of creatures you control that share a type — in a tribal deck with even a modest board, that's routinely five to ten cards for four mana. Millicent, Restless Revenant decks naming Spirit can refill an entire hand in one cast; this is an auto-include, not a consideration.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Millicent, Restless Revenant
Millicent, Restless Revenant generates a Spirit token every time a nontoken Spirit dies, so the board fills fast — Distant Melody naming Spirit then converts that wide presence directly into hand size, often drawing seven or more cards off a single cast.
Tegwyll, Duke of Splendor
Tegwyll, Duke of Splendor draws a card whenever a Faerie you control dies, which means the board is constantly cycling through creatures; Distant Melody names Faerie to reload the hand and keep the engine running through attrition.
Ovika, Enigma Goliath
Ovika, Enigma Goliath produces a Goblin token for every noncreature spell you cast, so a spell-heavy turn can leave you with a wide Goblin board; Distant Melody names Goblin to cash that board presence into cards and keep the gas flowing.
Obyra, Dreaming Duelist
Obyra, Dreaming Duelist cares about Faeries and punishes opponents with direct damage, so running a dense Faerie count is mandatory — Distant Melody naming Faerie turns that density into the draw engine the deck needs to sustain pressure.
Admiral Brass, Unsinkable
Admiral Brass, Unsinkable builds around a wide Pirate board and benefits from attacking with multiple creatures each turn; Distant Melody naming Pirate converts that go-wide strategy into a full grip refill, which is exactly what aggressive tribal decks run out of by the mid-game.
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 | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Distant Melody is a Commander card through and through — the payoff scales with board width, and tribal Commander decks routinely field ten or more creatures of a single type by mid-game. In Pauper it sees real play in Goblin and Faerie shells where common-legal card draw is scarce and a four-mana draw-seven is genuinely broken. Legacy and Vintage have access to far more efficient draw, so Distant Melody doesn't compete there outside niche tribal builds. It's not legal in Pioneer or Standard, but that's irrelevant — the card was designed for the multiplayer tribal context Commander provides.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.37 bulk tier
At $0.37, Distant Melody is bulk by any measure, and the price reflects its narrow-but-powerful profile — it's nearly free to pick up and an easy inclusion in any tribal Commander deck. Don't expect movement; it's been reprinted enough to stay at the floor, and that's fine because the card earns its slot on power alone.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.