Dread Summons
Sorcery
Each player mills X cards. For each creature card put into a graveyard this way, you create a tapped 2/2 black Zombie creature token. (To mill a card, a player puts the top card of their library into their graveyard.)
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Foundations
- Price
- $0.20
- EDHREC rank
- #3626
Dread Summons puts a Zombie token into play for every card milled — cast it for X=10 and you're looking at a board of ten 2/2s while opponents watch their graveyards fill. The cost is that it mills everyone, which hands graveyard-synergy opponents a free setup; outside of dedicated zombie or self-mill shells, that symmetry is a real liability. In the right deck, Temmet, Naktamun's Will included, it's a one-card army.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Temmet, Naktamun's Will
Temmet, Naktamun's Will wants a wide board of tokens to copy and swing wide with, and Dread Summons delivers a flood of 2/2 Zombies in a single cast — the bigger the X, the more targets Temmet has to duplicate.
The Scarab God
The Scarab God already incentivizes loading up graveyards, and Dread Summons mills all four players simultaneously, giving The Scarab God a deep pool of creatures to reanimate as 4/4s.
Zul Ashur, Lich Lord
Zul Ashur, Lich Lord scales off Zombie count, so Dread Summons functions as both a board-builder and a power spike in a single spell — more Zombies means a bigger Zul Ashur attacking the following turn.
Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver
Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver rewards you every time a non-token Zombie dies, and Dread Summons populates the board with enough bodies to trigger that engine repeatedly through combat or sacrifice outlets.
Anhelo, the Painter
Anhelo, the Painter's casualty mechanic lets you copy Dread Summons by sacrificing a creature, which means a single cast can mill twice as many cards and produce twice as many Zombie tokens for the cost of one body.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Dread Summons is a Commander card through and through — the X cost scales with the mana available in a long game, and the multiplayer mill hits three opponents at once, maximizing token yield in a way that's simply unreproducible in 1v1. In Modern or Pioneer it's too slow and too symmetrical; milling opponents without a reliable kill condition is a liability against graveyard-centric decks, which are everywhere in both formats. Legacy and Vintage have faster, more efficient ways to win through the graveyard, so Dread Summons doesn't find a home there either. Oathbreaker can support it if the planeswalker and signature spell synergize with Zombies or self-mill, but Commander remains the format where Dread Summons actually performs.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.20 bulk tier
At $0.20, Dread Summons is deep bulk — a negligible pickup for any zombie or mill deck. Bulk rares at this price tend to stay flat unless a new commander pushes demand, so buy it for the effect, not for any expectation of appreciation.
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Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.