Dreadhorde Arcanist
Creature — Zombie Wizard
Trample
Whenever this creature attacks, you may cast target instant or sorcery card with mana value less than or equal to this creature's power from your graveyard without paying its mana cost. If that spell would be put into your graveyard, exile it instead.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- War of the Spark
- Price
- $0.59
- EDHREC rank
- #7817
Dreadhorde Arcanist lets you cast instants and sorceries from your graveyard for free every time it attacks — the catch is that the spell's mana value has to be less than or equal to its power, which starts at 1 and grows with pump effects. In spell-slinger and go-wide shells, especially Zada, Hedron Grinder, it snowballs fast enough to be a genuine engine piece rather than a cute trick.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | banned |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
The one restriction on Dreadhorde Arcanist is the power-ceiling on which spells you can rebuy — at base power 1, you're limited to cantrips and one-mana interaction, so the card rewards any investment in +1/+1 counters or pump effects. Legacy banned it because that restriction collapses quickly with free spells and fetchlands, making it a turn-two engine that was simply too consistent. Commander gives it a pass for two reasons: the 100-card singleton format means fewer redundant enablers, and the multiplayer clock is slow enough that opponents have time to answer a 1/3 before it runs away. It's fully legal in Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, and irrelevant in Standard and Pauper.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Zada, Hedron Grinder
Zada, Hedron Grinder copies every single-target instant or sorcery you cast targeting Zada onto every creature you control, and Dreadhorde Arcanist lets you replay those same spells from the graveyard for free on every attack — the two cards form a self-reinforcing loop that floods the board with triggers.
Balmor, Battlemage Captain
Balmor, Battlemage Captain gives each creature you control +1/+0 and trample until end of turn whenever you cast an instant or sorcery, so Dreadhorde Arcanist's free recast on attack pumps the whole team and simultaneously raises its own power threshold for future attacks.
Bria, Riptide Rogue
Bria, Riptide Rogue cares about casting spells from zones other than your hand, which makes Dreadhorde Arcanist's graveyard recursion a natural fit — every free spell cast off the Arcanist triggers Bria's abilities and pushes the deck's core mechanic forward.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.59 bulk tier
At $0.59, Dreadhorde Arcanist is firmly bulk — easy to pick up as a throw-in or cheap singles order. The price reflects wide reprint availability rather than low power, so it's unlikely to spike without a format ban reversal, but equally unlikely to drop further.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.