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Dread

Creature — Elemental Incarnation

Fear (This creature can't be blocked except by artifact creatures and/or black creatures.)
Whenever a creature deals damage to you, destroy it.
When Dread is put into a graveyard from anywhere, shuffle it into its owner's library.

CMC
6
Mana cost
{3}{B}{B}{B}
Color identity
B
Rarity
rare
Set
Lorwyn
Price
$7.96
EDHREC rank
#12631
Buy on TCGplayer
Dread card art
Dread turns every creature an opponent controls into a liability — anything that attacks into it dies, and anything that blocks it dies, making combat a losing proposition on both sides. Six mana is real, but Lich's Mastery and Thantis, the Warweaver shells that want creatures swinging recklessly will never strand it in hand.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Thantis, the Warweaver

Thantis, the Warweaver

13.1% of decks · synergy 0.13

Thantis, the Warweaver forces all creatures to attack each combat, and Dread punishes every creature that does — opponents either swing into a wall of death or sit on a commander that won't let them stay home.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer not legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Commander is where Dread lives. Six mana is acceptable in a 40-life format where games go long, and the political weight of a creature that kills on contact scales with the number of opponents at the table. In Legacy and Vintage it's a curiosity at best — six mana for a must-answer threat is far too slow against those formats' interaction density, and Dread offers no immediate board impact on arrival. Oathbreaker is theoretically legal but shares the same problem: the format moves too fast for a six-drop that doesn't win immediately.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

Irresistible Prey and similar forced-attack spells replicate parts of the Dread gameplan for a fraction of the cost, but they're one-shots rather than a persistent deterrent. No single cheap permanent fully replicates Dread's combination of Fear and the death-on-damage clause — if the effect matters to your strategy, the card is largely irreplaceable at any price.

Price Context

Current price

$7.96 mid tier

At $7.96, Dread sits in the mid tier — expensive enough to feel like a deliberate include, cheap enough that it won't break a reasonably budgeted Commander deck. The price is stable given its narrow appeal; it's not rising, and it's not a target for reprint pressure.

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Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.