Perilous Shadow
Creature — Insect Shade
: This creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Return to Ravnica
- Price
- $0.05
- EDHREC rank
- #27148
Perilous Shadow is a late-game beater that scales its power and toughness by paying any amount of black mana — the bigger your mana pool, the bigger your threat. The cost is real: you're sinking resources into a vanilla pump every attack rather than a card with built-in evasion or a persistent bonus.
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 |
Perilous Shadow finds its best home in Commander, specifically black-heavy decks that generate absurd amounts of black mana — Cabal Coffers plus Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth setups can funnel a dozen or more mana into a single swing. In Pauper it's a legal common, but creature-pump payoffs at that mana cost face stiff competition from cards that provide value beyond raw stats. Legacy, Modern, and Pioneer are too fast and removal-dense for a creature that requires open mana to matter; Perilous Shadow simply dies before it ever threatens lethal.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.05 bulk tier
At $0.05, Perilous Shadow is deep bulk — you're picking it out of a commons box, not a binder. That price is a ceiling as much as a floor; there's no competitive demand driving it higher.
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Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.