Dreadmalkin
Creature — Zombie Cat
Menace (This creature can't be blocked except by two or more creatures.)
, Sacrifice another creature or planeswalker: Put two +1/+1 counters on this creature.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- War of the Spark
- Price
- $0.09
- EDHREC rank
- #18150
Dreadmalkin is a one-mana 1/1 that can grow into a 3/3 menace by sacrificing another creature — solid early presence that turns spare tokens or expendable fodder into a meaningful threat. The cost is real: you need a creature to feed it, which means it competes with aristocrats payoffs rather than supplementing them.
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 |
In Commander, Dreadmalkin slots cleanly into sacrifice and aristocrats builds as cheap, low-investment fodder that can punch above its mana cost when you have tokens to spare. Constructed formats like Modern and Pioneer have more demanding curves — a 1/1 that asks you to spend another creature just to become a 3/3 menace rarely clears the power bar against faster, more consistent threats. Legacy and Vintage barely register it; the bar there is even higher and nothing about Dreadmalkin's ceiling is format-warping. Oathbreaker is functionally similar to Commander here: if your signature spell or planeswalker cares about sacrifice or +1/+1 counters, it earns a slot; otherwise it stays on the bench.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.09 bulk tier
At $0.09, Dreadmalkin is pure bulk — you'll pick it up as a throw-in or out of a bulk bin without a second thought. The price is unlikely to move meaningfully unless a future sacrifice commander pushes demand, which is a thin premise for a card this replaceable.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.