Dream Eater
Creature — Nightmare Sphinx
Flash
Flying
When this creature enters, surveil 4. When you do, you may return target nonland permanent an opponent controls to its owner's hand. (To surveil 4, look at the top four cards of your library, then put any number of them into your graveyard and the rest on top of your library in any order.)
- CMC
- 6
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- mythic
- Set
- Duskmourn: House of Horror Commander
- Price
- $0.28
- EDHREC rank
- #8809
Dream Eater lands as a 4/3 flash flyer that bounces a nonland permanent and lets you surveil 4 — that's a tempo swing and a library filter stapled to a relevant body, all at instant speed. Six mana is the real cost, and in most blue shells that's the ceiling, but Mirko, Obsessive Theorist turns the surveil trigger into a milling engine that makes six mana feel like a bargain.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Mirko, Obsessive Theorist
Mirko, Obsessive Theorist mills opponents equal to the cards you surveil away, so Dream Eater's surveil 4 on entry translates directly into four cards milled per opponent — that's the core loop, and it's why nearly half of all Mirko decks include it.
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 Dream Eater earns its slot: surveil 4 on a flash body is exactly the kind of card-selection plus interaction that blue control and graveyard-matters decks want at instant speed, and bouncing a threat at end of turn before untapping is a legitimate tempo play even at six mana. In competitive 60-card formats the story is different — Modern and Pioneer have Snapcaster Mage, Subtlety, and a dozen cheaper threats that make a six-mana 4/3 hard to justify outside of very specific brews. Legacy and Vintage have even less patience for it. Dream Eater is a Commander card through and through, best in decks that can exploit the surveil repeatedly or care about what ends up in the graveyard.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.28 bulk tier
At $0.28, Dream Eater is deep bulk — easy to pick up as a throw-in or cheap acquisition for any Mirko, Obsessive Theorist or surveil-matters build. Bulk rares with narrow Commander homes tend to stay in this range, so don't expect movement unless a high-profile deck pushes demand.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.