Dread Presence
Creature — Nightmare
Whenever a Swamp you control enters, choose one —
• You draw a card and you lose 1 life.
• This creature deals 2 damage to any target and you gain 2 life.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Jumpstart 2022
- Price
- $3.17
- EDHREC rank
- #2475
Every Swamp you play deals 2 damage to any target or draws you a card and costs 2 life — on a 3/3 body for four mana, Dread Presence turns your land drops into a repeating engine that most black decks are happy to run indefinitely. The only real cost is the mono-black constraint: splash another color and the trigger stops firing, which is why you see it almost exclusively in lists like Phage the Untouchable that commit fully to Swamps.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Phage the Untouchable
Phage the Untouchable runs entirely on Swamps, so Dread Presence triggers on every land drop while doubling as a way to ping opponents or refuel hand — two things a slow Phage deck desperately needs while it assembles its protection package.
Massacre Girl, Known Killer
Massacre Girl, Known Killer wants cheap ways to put -1/-1 counters and deal incidental damage to keep her trigger active, and Dread Presence delivers that on every Swamp drop without spending a card or a mana in the moment.
Valgavoth, Terror Eater
Valgavoth, Terror Eater cares about opponents losing life, and Dread Presence converts every Swamp into a free damage ping that feeds Valgavoth's counter accumulation even before combat.
Zenos yae Galvus
Zenos yae Galvus rewards consistent life-loss pressure across the table, and Dread Presence provides a reliable, low-investment source of that pressure stapled to the land drops the deck was making anyway.
Umbris, Fear Manifest
Umbris, Fear Manifest is mono-black by default, so Dread Presence fits cleanly and offers both a damage mode to close out games and a draw mode to find more exile effects as the library runs low.
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 Dread Presence earns its keep — 40 life means opponents can absorb a few hits, but over a full game of land drops across multiple opponents the damage and card advantage stack into a decisive edge. In mono-black Commander shells it's nearly automatic; the question is never whether to run it but whether your land base is Swamp-dense enough to fire the trigger consistently. In Modern and Pioneer it's seen fringe play in mono-black devotion and midrange lists, but four mana is a steep ask in those formats and the payoff rarely outpaces cheaper options. Legacy and Vintage have access to fast mana that could theoretically accelerate it, but the competition at four mana in those formats is brutal and Dread Presence doesn't see meaningful play there.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$3.17 cheap tier
At $3.17, Dread Presence sits in the cheap tier and is an easy include for the value it delivers. It's a staple in enough Commander archetypes that the price is unlikely to fall much further, making it a low-risk pickup whenever you're building mono-black.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Phage the Untouchable
- Massacre Girl, Known Killer
- Valgavoth, Terror Eater
- Zenos yae Galvus
- Umbris, Fear Manifest
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.