Demonic Dread
Demonic Dread: Sorcery, Alara Reborn. Cascade Target creature can't block this turn. Printings, market prices, rulings, and format legality on Mana Grove.
- Mana cost
- {1}{B}{R}
- Mana value
- 3
- Type
- Sorcery
- Colour identity
- Black and red (BR)
- Rarity
- Common
- Set
- Alara Reborn (ARB)
- Released
- 2009-04-30
- Collector number
- 38
- Artist
- Thomas M. Baxa
- Keywords
- Cascade
About Demonic Dread
Demonic Dread is a Magic: The Gathering card, a common black and red sorcery from Alara Reborn (ARB), an expansion set released in April 2009. It is collector number 38 in that set, with art by Thomas M. Baxa. It costs {1}{B}{R} (one generic, one black and one red mana) to cast, for a mana value of 3. Its colour identity is black and red. It is legal in Modern, Legacy, Vintage, Pauper, Commander, Duel Commander, Oathbreaker, Pauper Commander, PreDH and Penny Dreadful. Alara Reborn is its only printing so far. The latest aggregated market price for this printing is $0.27 (normal finish, as of 2026-10-18).
Card text
Cascade (When you cast this spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom in a random order.)
Target creature can't block this turn.
Market price
Latest aggregated market price for the normal finish of this printing: $0.27 (as of 2026-10-18).
The figure covers this printing only; other printings carry their own price on their own page.
Format legality
Legality of Demonic Dread by format. Formats in which it is not legal are not listed.
| Modern | Legal |
|---|---|
| Legacy | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Pauper | Legal |
| Commander | Legal |
| Duel Commander | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Pauper Commander | Legal |
| PreDH | Legal |
| Penny Dreadful | Legal |
Official rulings
The 8 most recent official rulings for Demonic Dread, newest first.
- The mana value of a split card is determined by the combined mana cost of its two halves. If cascade allows you to cast a split card, you may cast either half but not both halves.
- When the cascade ability resolves, you must exile cards. The only optional part of the ability is whether or not you cast the last card exiled.
- Cascade triggers when you cast the spell, meaning that it resolves before that spell. If you end up casting the exiled card, it will go on the stack above the spell with cascade.
- Due to a 2021 rules change to cascade, not only do you stop exiling cards if you exile a nonland card with lesser mana value than the spell with cascade, but the resulting spell you cast must also have lesser mana value. Previously, in cases where a card's mana value differed from the resulting spell, such as with some modal double-faced cards or cards with an Adventure, you could cast a spell with a higher mana value than the exiled card.
- If you cast a card "without paying its mana cost," you can't choose to cast it for any alternative costs. You can, however, pay additional costs. If the card has any mandatory additional costs, you must pay those to cast the card.
- If the card has {X} in its mana cost, you must choose 0 as the value of X when casting it without paying its mana cost.
- You exile the cards face up. All players will be able to see them.
- If a spell with cascade is countered, the cascade ability will still resolve normally.
Similar cards
Other sorcery cards with a black and red colour identity, ranked by how often they appear in Commander decks.