Dust Corona MTG Card
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 1 |
| Rarity | Common |
| Type | Enchantment — Aura |
| Abilities | Enchant |
| Released | 2007-02-02 |
| Set symbol | |
| Set name | Planar Chaos |
| Set code | PLC |
| Number | 97 |
| Frame | 2003 |
| Layout | Normal |
| Border | Black |
| Illustred by | Luca Zontini |
Key Takeaways
- Dust Corona can maintain card advantage and disrupt opponents with its instant speed playability.
- Its discard requirement and specific mana cost may limit its utility in varied decks.
- Versatile and meta-relevant, Dust Corona can potentiate flying creatures in your arsenal.
Text of card
Enchant creature Enchanted creature gets +2/+0 and can't be blocked by creatures with flying.
"They infiltrated deep into the enemy camp under cover of darkness . . . and dirt." —Corus, viashino warrior
Card Pros
Card Advantage: When Dust Corona hits the battlefield, the card’s abilities help ensure that you stay ahead of your opponent by providing options to disrupt their plays or safeguard your key creatures, contributing to maintaining a healthy card advantage.
Resource Acceleration: Although not directly a resource accelerator, Dust Corona can effectively slow down the opponent’s momentum, giving you more time to deploy your resources and potentially leading to acceleration in your game plan as your opponents are set back.
Instant Speed: The ability to play Dust Corona at instant speed offers a strategic advantage. It allows you to react immediately to your opponent’s actions or end-of-turn plays, making it a versatile tool in both offense and defense, all while not compromising your mana usage during your turn.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: The Dust Corona card necessitates that you discard another card to activate its ability. This can be particularly taxing during moments when your hand is already depleted or when every card you hold is crucial to your strategy.
Specific Mana Cost: Dust Corona requires a precise combination of mana to cast, including one red mana. This requirement restricts its inclusion mainly to decks that are based on red mana or those that can reliably generate a mix of colors, potentially excluding it from other strategic builds.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: The casting cost for Dust Corona might be considered steep when compared to other aura spells or abilities with similar effects. As players often seek the most efficient use of their mana, Dust Corona’s cost may deter some from including it in their decks, favoring lower-cost alternatives that perform similar functions.
Reasons to Include Dust Corona in Your Collection
Versatility: Dust Corona is a flexible card that can adapt to a variety of strategies. It shines in decks that seek to maximize the power of quick and evasive creatures, plus it’s a low-cost enhancement that provides a notable advantage in combat scenarios.
Combo Potential: This card can be a key piece in synergistic builds that revolve around flying creatures or those that benefit from power boosts. Given its low mana cost, it’s easy to weave into a combo chain, making it a handy tool in an intricate gameplay sequence.
Meta-Relevance: As metagames evolve, some may favor decks that rely on speed and evasion. In such environments, Dust Corona can emerge as a valuable piece to tip the scales in your favor, making it a useful inclusion to stay competitive.
How to beat
Dust Corona is a unique enchantment aura in the landscape of Magic: The Gathering, where the ability to push creatures for that extra reach in flying combat can tip scales in your favor. However, this very strength can be cleverly turned into a vulnerability. When facing an opponent who utilizes Dust Corona, one effective strategy is to lean on spells or abilities that target enchantments. Cards like Naturalize or Disenchant can clear Dust Corona from the battlefield, instantly negating its benefits.
It’s also wise to manage the battlefield preemptively with creatures that have reach or spells that can counter flying abilities, such as Windstorm or Spidersilk Armor. Moreover, keeping a keen eye on board control and knowing when to hold back your creatures for defense rather than offensive play can stave off the threat that Dust Corona presents. Lastly, emphasizing versatile removal spells in your deck that can handle a range of threats, including enchantments, ensures that you’re not caught off guard by this or any other enhancing auras your opponent might cast.
By including enchantment removal, reach creatures, and versatile responses in your build, Dust Corona can be effectively overcome, maintaining the delicate balance of power on the battlefield.
Cards like Dust Corona
Dust Corona stands out in the realm of enchantment spells in Magic: The Gathering. It’s somewhat akin to cards like Glorious Anthem, which gives creatures you control a boost in attack power. Dust Corona, specifically, gives your creatures +2 attack power during your turn which can be a significant advantage during offensive plays. However, what sets Dust Corona apart is its ability to only affect flying creatures, making it quite niche.
Another enchantment with parallels to Dust Corona is Favorable Winds. This aura also buffs creatures with flying, but it provides a constant +1/+1 to power and toughness instead of just a power boost. This makes Favorable Winds more versatile as it improves both offensive and defensive capabilities of flying creatures. Additionally, the continuous nature of the buff can be more reliable than the turn-based boost from Dust Corona.
To summarize, while Dust Corona can be a strong play during the attack phase for airborne creatures, it faces competition from other enchantments that offer more permanent or defensive benefits to flyers in Magic: The Gathering. Its specificity to offense might appeal to certain strategies seeking a temporary boost to clinch aerial victory.
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Dust Corona MTG card by a specific set like Planar Chaos, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.
For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.
Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.
Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Dust Corona and other MTG cards:
- eBay
- TCG Player
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
- MTGO Traders Magic Online
See MTG Products
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Dust Corona has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Commander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Paupercommander | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Pauper | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Predh | Legal |
| Penny | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Dust Corona card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2007-05-01 | Creatures with the Reach ability (such as Giant Spider) can block this because they don’t actually have Flying. |