Dust Elemental
Creature — Elemental
Flash (You may cast this spell any time you could cast an instant.)
Flying; fear (This creature can't be blocked except by artifact creatures and/or black creatures.)
When this creature enters, return three creatures you control to their owner's hand.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Planar Chaos
- Price
- $0.39
- EDHREC rank
- #20114
Dust Elemental lands as a 6/6 flash flier for four mana — one of the most undercosted bodies in white — and the cost is that you bounce three of your own creatures when it enters. That downside is real in a vacuum, but in any deck that wants creatures to re-enter the battlefield, it flips into a three-trigger engine on the spot; God-Eternal Oketra decks, for instance, turn the "drawback" into three 4/4 Zombie tokens.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
God-Eternal Oketra
Dust Elemental is a four-mana spell that triggers God-Eternal Oketra three times the moment it resolves — bounce three creatures, make three 4/4 Zombies — while also landing a 6/6 flash blocker that can ambush attackers at end of an opponent's turn.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Dust Elemental is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but in practice it's a Commander card through and through. Legacy and Modern have faster, cleaner ways to abuse enters-the-battlefield effects, and a four-mana creature that bounces your own board is a liability in those formats where tempo is everything. In Commander, the political and value dimensions are different: the flash clause means you hold up mana at end of turn, ambush a threat, and still refuel your enter-the-battlefield triggers — all at once. Dust Elemental specifically rewards decks built around creatures that want to be replayed, and it's nearly invisible on the radar, which means opponents rarely see the blowout coming.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.39 bulk tier
At $0.39, Dust Elemental sits firmly in bulk territory, which understates its impact in the right shell. The price is stable — this isn't a card that spikes — so pick up copies whenever you're already placing an order rather than hunting for it.
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Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.