Is Dragonback Assault good in Commander?

Dragonback Assault

Enchantment

When this enchantment enters, it deals 3 damage to each creature and each planeswalker.
Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, create a 4/4 red Dragon creature token with flying.

CMC: 6
Mana cost
Color identity: GRU
Rarity: mythic
Set: Tarkir: Dragonstorm
Price: $1.79
EDHREC rank: #6183

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Dragonback Assault puts multiple +1/+1 counters and a keyword pile onto your creatures the moment it resolves — the payoff is immediate and board-wide. Commanders like Ureni, the Song Unending and Kodama of the East Tree turn that trigger into a cascade of free permanents, making the three-mana ask trivially cheap for what it delivers.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

Ureni, the Song Unending

56.3% of decks · synergy 0.51

Dragonback Assault is in over half of all Ureni, the Song Unending decks because Ureni rewards stacking keywords and counters on creatures as a core game plan — Dragonback Assault does both in a single card. The width of the effect means every creature Ureni cares about gets upgraded simultaneously, compressing multiple setup steps into one spell.

Omnath, Locus of Creation

19.6% of decks · synergy 0.12

Omnath, Locus of Creation runs Dragonback Assault as an efficient payoff for the landfall-fueled mana advantage the deck generates — turn four lands into a board-wide pump and keyword grant. Nearly 20% of Omnath lists include it, which signals it's pulling real weight rather than filling a slot.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

Format	Verdict
commander	legal
legacy	legal
modern	legal
pioneer	legal
standard	legal
vintage	legal
pauper	not legal
oathbreaker	legal

Dragonback Assault is legal across every major competitive format — Standard, Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage, and Commander — though its home is clearly Commander. In 100-card singleton, the ability to buff an entire board at once scales with the wide creature counts those decks naturally accumulate, and the keyword grants are live the turn it resolves. In 1v1 formats like Modern or Pioneer, it competes in a much faster environment where a three-mana sorcery that doesn't immediately close the game gets outpaced by interaction; you'd need a very specific token or counter synergy shell to justify it there. Commander is where Dragonback Assault does its best work, particularly in decks that can trigger it repeatedly or chain it off free-spell effects.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

982 decks