Pendrell Mists
Enchantment
All creatures have "At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice this creature unless you pay 
."
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Weatherlight
- Price
- $10.97
- EDHREC rank
- #16829
Pendrell Mists taxes every creature on the battlefield one mana per upkeep — including your opponents' — which turns even a modest board into a resource drain that most tables can't sustain past turn three or four of its presence. The catch is symmetry: if you're running creatures yourself, you either need a way to exempt your side or plan to have fewer creatures than everyone else.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Pendrell Mists earns its slot — four or five creature-heavy opponents multiplies the pressure and makes the enchantment feel one-sided even when it technically isn't. Decks built around noncreature permanents (stax shells, superfriends, Aura-based strategies) treat it as near one-sided lockdown, while anyone leaning on token swarms or utility creatures finds their mana eaten alive. In Vintage and Legacy it's legal but irrelevant; the formats move too fast for a four-mana enchantment that doesn't immediately close the game. Oathbreaker is the one other format where it has a plausible home, given the smaller life totals and focused game plans that make taxing effects punishing fast.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Propagandist effects like Ghostly Prison and Sphere of Safety cover a similar space at lower cost, though they tax attacks rather than upkeeps — a meaningful difference if your goal is strangling mana rather than protecting life total. Pendrell Mists has no true budget substitute for the upkeep-tax angle specifically; the closest approximation is Magus of the Tabernacle, which hits the same pain point on a creature body that's easier to remove but also easier to tutor.
Price Context
Current price
$10.97 mid tier
At $10.97, Pendrell Mists sits in mid-tier pricing for a Reserved List enchantment with a narrow but dedicated audience. Supply is fixed and demand among stax and control brewers is consistent, so the floor is unlikely to drop significantly — but at this price it's a deliberate inclusion, not a casual pickup.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.