Festergloom
Sorcery
Nonblack creatures get -1/-1 until end of turn.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Magic 2015
- Price
- $0.08
- EDHREC rank
- #21068
Festergloom drains every non-black creature for -1/-1 until end of turn — a one-sided sweeper in a mono-black or heavily black shell for just two mana. Maha, Its Feathers Night runs it at nearly 15% inclusion because the effect lines up perfectly with commanders that want small creatures dead without touching their own board.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Maha, Its Feathers Night
Maha, Its Feathers Night cares about non-black creatures dying, and Festergloom is one of the cheapest ways to kill tokens and x/1s at instant speed while leaving a black board untouched — the synergy is structural, not incidental.
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 | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Festergloom occupies a narrow but reliable role: mono-black and black-heavy decks use it to clear out token boards and utility creatures without touching their own stuff, all for two mana. It's legal in Pauper, where it can pull real work against white weenie or elf strategies, though three toughness creatures dodge it entirely. Modern and Pioneer have access to far cleaner options at the same cost, so Festergloom doesn't make the cut competitively. Legacy and Vintage won't touch it. This is a Commander card first, a Pauper card occasionally, and irrelevant everywhere else.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.08 bulk tier
At $0.08, Festergloom is deep bulk — pick it up from any commons box without thinking twice. There's no price pressure here and no reason to expect any; it does exactly one thing, and the decks that want it need one copy.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.