Invasion of Tarkir // Defiant Thundermaw
Battle — Siege // Creature — Dragon
(As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When this Siege enters, reveal any number of Dragon cards from your hand. When you do, this Siege deals X plus 2 damage to any other target, where X is the number of cards revealed this way. (X can be 0.)
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- mythic
- Set
- March of the Machine Promos
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #7638
Invasion of Tarkir // Defiant Thundermaw deals damage to each non-Dragon your opponents control and replaces itself with card selection on the front half, then flips into a 5/4 flying Dragon that grants your attackers firebreathing — the whole package arrives at three mana with a battle's worth of upside stapled on. In Rivaz of the Claw and similar Dragon-tribal shells, the front half is a clean sweeper for smaller blockers and the back half is another Dragon body that keeps the aggro pressure going.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Rivaz of the Claw
Rivaz of the Claw can cast Invasion of Tarkir // Defiant Thundermaw from the graveyard for free, meaning you can deploy it, use the damage trigger to clear blockers, and if it hits the bin you get another crack at it — the recursion loop makes the card disproportionately good here.
Lathliss, Dragon Queen
Lathliss, Dragon Queen triggers off every Dragon that enters the battlefield, so when Defiant Thundermaw flips and lands as a Dragon creature, Lathliss immediately generates a 5/5 token — Invasion of Tarkir // Defiant Thundermaw is quietly two Dragon-triggers in one card for this deck.
Dragonhawk, Fate's Tempest
Dragonhawk, Fate's Tempest draws a card whenever a Dragon enters, so flipping to Defiant Thundermaw nets immediate card advantage on top of the battle's built-in filtering — Invasion of Tarkir // Defiant Thundermaw pulls double duty as both threat and card engine in that shell.
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 | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Invasion of Tarkir // Defiant Thundermaw sees the most play, specifically in Dragon-tribal decks where the front half clears utility creatures and tokens that would chump your Dragons and the back half adds a relevant flying body to your board. In Modern and Pioneer, the card has seen fringe exploration in Dragon-tempo strategies, but three mana for a battle that requires attacking to flip is slow against efficient interactive decks, and it hasn't broken through as a staple in either format. Legacy and Vintage have access to it but the power ceiling of those formats makes a 3-mana battle with conditional upside uncompetitive. Oathbreaker is a reasonable home if your planeswalker and signature spell are Dragon-adjacent, but the format is niche enough that Commander remains the primary context for evaluating it.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Pricing data for Invasion of Tarkir // Defiant Thundermaw isn't currently available in the system, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for a live number before buying. As a rare from a recent set with meaningful Dragon-tribal applications, it tends to sit in the budget-to-mid range — worth confirming current market price before picking up copies for multiple decks.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.