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Ao, the Dawn Sky

Legendary Creature — Dragon Spirit

Flying, vigilance
When Ao dies, choose one —
• Look at the top seven cards of your library. Put any number of nonland permanent cards with total mana value 4 or less from among them onto the battlefield. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
• Put two +1/+1 counters on each permanent you control that's a creature or Vehicle.

CMC
5
Mana cost
{3}{W}{W}
Color identity
W
Rarity
mythic
Set
Secrets of Strixhaven Commander
Price
$0.34
EDHREC rank
#4199
Buy on TCGplayer
Ao, the Dawn Sky card art
Ao, the Dawn Sky hits the table as a 5/4 flier with a death trigger that either dumps permanents onto the battlefield or puts a massive pile of cards on top of your library — real, game-warping value for five mana. The cost is that the trigger fires only when Ao dies, so it needs a shell that kills it repeatedly; pair it with Mortuary or Ratadrabik of Urborg and the engine becomes oppressive.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Ratadrabik of Urborg

Ratadrabik of Urborg

45.2% of decks · synergy 0.43

Ratadrabik of Urborg makes a token copy of Ao, the Dawn Sky whenever it dies, which means every death trigger fires and you immediately have another copy ready to sacrifice again — it's one of the cleanest loops the card enables.

02
Gandalf the White

Gandalf the White

44.1% of decks · synergy 0.42

Gandalf the White flickers or returns legendary permanents from the graveyard, giving Ao, the Dawn Sky repeated death trigger access without needing a dedicated sacrifice outlet.

03
The Jolly Balloon Man

The Jolly Balloon Man

44.0% of decks · synergy 0.41

The Jolly Balloon Man cares about expensive legendary creatures entering the battlefield, and Ao, the Dawn Sky at five mana is exactly the kind of payoff that triggers its cost-reduction and value effects while also threatening a massive death trigger.

04
King of the Oathbreakers

King of the Oathbreakers

21.3% of decks · synergy 0.19

King of the Oathbreakers fills the board with spirit tokens, and Ao, the Dawn Sky's death trigger can mass-deploy permanents onto that already-wide board, compounding the token strategy in a single swing.

05
Quintorius, History Chaser

Quintorius, History Chaser

20.1% of decks · synergy 0.17

Quintorius, History Chaser rewards spells cast from exile and graveyards, and Ao, the Dawn Sky's look-at-the-top trigger feeds that engine by constantly cycling permanents into play or cards into accessible zones.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Commander is where Ao, the Dawn Sky belongs — the death trigger is built for a multiplayer game where you have time to assemble a sacrifice loop and the payoff of putting six or more permanents into play at once can close out the table. In Modern and Pioneer it's a five-mana creature with no immediate impact, which is a near-unplayable rate in those formats outside of fringe reanimator shells. Legacy and Vintage are theoretically legal but the card asks too much setup for formats where games end before the engine gets rolling. Stick it in Commander, find a way to kill it twice, and it earns every slot.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

1 decks
Ao, the Dawn SkyWorkhorseNim DeathmantlePhyrexian AltarDoubling Season

Ao, the Dawn SkyWorkhorseNim DeathmantlePhyrexian AltarDoubling Season

Infinite +1/+1 counters on most creatures you control; Infinite +1/+1 counters on all Vehicles you control; Infinite colored mana; Infinite colorless mana; Infinite death triggers; Infinite ETB; Infinite LTB; Infinite sacrifice triggers; Put a selection of permanent cards from your library onto the battlefield

View on Commander Spellbook ↗

Price Context

Current price

$0.34 bulk tier

At $0.34, Ao, the Dawn Sky is bulk, which undersells how often it shows up as a genuine engine piece in death-trigger and legend-matters builds. It's a safe pickup at this price — the combination of a large flying body and a lottery-ticket death trigger means demand is unlikely to push it lower.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.