Dreadful as the Storm
Instant
Target creature has base power and toughness 5/5 until end of turn. The Ring tempts you.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth
- Price
- $0.26
- EDHREC rank
- #15675
Dreadful as the Storm creates a token copy of target creature you control — power and toughness included — for three mana at instant speed, which is a meaningful rate when the creature you're copying costs five or more. It's a tempo play and a threat multiplier in one, and it earns its slot in any deck that wants more copies of a specific creature on the board right now.
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 |
In Commander, Dreadful as the Storm does its best work alongside high-value enters-the-battlefield creatures or recursive threats that reward doubling up — flicker and clone strategies will find it immediately useful. The instant speed is the real selling point at this table size; copying a threat in response to a board wipe or at end of turn before your untap is exactly the kind of flexibility Commander rewards. In Pauper it's legal but competes in a format where three mana at instant speed for a token copy has to fight for space against cheaper tempo options. Legacy and Vintage have access to it but will almost never run it — those formats don't want to spend three mana on a conditional effect that leaves the original creature vulnerable. Oathbreaker is where it can quietly overperform, since copying your planeswalker-supporting creatures compounds loyalty-gain effects fast.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.26 bulk tier
At $0.26, Dreadful as the Storm sits firmly in bulk territory — you're not paying a premium for this effect, which makes it easy to slot in and easy to cut without regret. Bulk rares at this price tend to hold their floor rather than climb unless a clear combo application surfaces, so treat it as a low-risk include rather than a pickup with upside.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.