Dust Elemental MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	4
Rarity	Rare
Type	Creature — Elemental
Abilities	Fear,Flying, Flash
Released	2007-02-02
Set symbol
Set name	Planar Chaos
Set code	PLC
Power	6
Toughness	6
Number	5
Frame	2003
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	rk post

Key Takeaways

Dust Elemental is a tactical game-changer with flash and versatile enter-the-battlefield interactions.
Requiring specific mana and self-discard can be restrictive, yet strategically potent in gameplay.
While powerful, Dust Elemental’s impact can be mitigated with targeted removal or counterspells.

Guide to Flash card ability

Explore the dynamic Flash ability in Magic: The Gathering (MTG), a feature that allows you to cast spells at lightning speed, often leaving your opponents reeling and your strategy several steps ahead. This versatile ability can turn the tide of a game, providing the element of surprise and tactical advantage. It places a premium on timing and foresight, transforming an ordinary deck into a formidable arsenal of instant threats and responses.

Text of card

Flash (You may play this spell any time you could play an instant.) Flying, fear When Dust Elemental comes into play, return three creatures you control to their owner's hand.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Dust Elemental offers the ability to return up to three creatures you control to your hand. This can be incredibly beneficial for reusing creatures with valuable enter-the-battlefield abilities, essentially giving you multiple uses out of a single card and swinging the balance of card advantage in your favor over the course of the game.

Resource Acceleration: By strategically returning tapped creatures or tokens with no further use to your hand, Dust Elemental can serve as a form of resource acceleration. This allows you to play more mana-efficiently, potentially recasting creatures with lower converted mana costs or simply saving your more valuable creatures from board wipes or targeted removals.

Instant Speed: The Flash ability of Dust Elemental allows it to be played at instant speed, meaning you can summon it at the end of your opponent’s turn or in response to their actions. This element of surprise can shift the game in your favor, saving key creatures from removal or blocking an unexpected assault.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Dust Elemental’s flash ability does not come without its downsides. To make use of its surprise factor and save it from being a sitting duck during your opponent’s turn, you must return three creatures you control to their owner’s hand, a form of self-discard that can seriously set back your board presence.

Specific Mana Cost: While Dust Elemental’s power and abilities are not to be underestimated, its summoning demands specific mana colors, requiring two white mana sources. This can prove to be restrictive, limiting the card’s inclusion to decks with a strong white mana base, potentially excluding it from more flexible or diverse mana strategies.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: At a substantial four mana to bring Dust Elemental into play, you might find yourself at a strategic disadvantage. This is particularly true when considering other options available that may offer more immediate impact or value to your game plan without requiring the significant mana investment and the drawback of returning creatures to your hand.

Reasons to Include Dust Elemental in Your Collection

Versatility: Dust Elemental offers a unique ability to bounce three creatures while providing a significant power boost, making it a flexible choice for decks that benefit from reusing enter-the-battlefield effects or need a swift evasive threat.

Combo Potential: With its Flash ability, Dust Elemental can be paired with cards to create sudden, impactful plays, such as rescuing key creatures from removal or resetting permanents for additional advantage, fitting perfectly in strategies that exploit creature synergies.

Meta-Relevance: Within the ever-shifting tides of MTG meta, Dust Elemental has the potential to disrupt opponent strategies, by offering both a surprise blocker and a way to reuse your own creatures’ abilities, it maintains a niche in various formats whenever the need arises.

How to beat

Dust Elemental brings a unique twist to the battlefield with its power to disrupt the board and save your creatures from unfavorable situations. Wielding the ability to bounce three creatures back to their owner’s hand, it offers strategic flexibility in Magic: The Gathering games. However, countering this powerful card can be straightforward—targeted removal spells or effects that restrict the activation of abilities can effectively neutralize Dust Elemental’s impact. Consider using instant-speed removal such as Path to Exile or Fatal Push to take it down before the return-three effect is utilized.

It’s also wise to limit the creatures you commit to the board when Dust Elemental could be played. By maintaining card advantage and board presence, you’ll be less affected by its potential to reset the field. Cards like Torpor Orb that prevent creatures’ abilities from triggering upon entering the battlefield can also cripple Dust Elemental’s primary advantage. Finally, countering it directly with spells like Counterspell ensures Dust Elemental never gets the chance to unsettle your game plan.

In essence, while Dust Elemental poses a challenge, the key to overcoming it lies in choosing the right moment to act and deploying the right responses to this whirlwind of sand and surprise.

Cards like Dust Elemental

The unique characteristics of Dust Elemental make it a standout creature within Magic: The Gathering. When considering other creatures with flash and evasion, Dust Elemental closely resembles Galepowder Mage. Both enable strategic repositioning of creatures on the battlefield, yet Dust Elemental demands the return of three creatures to the player’s hand as the cost for its own deployment. Galepowder Mage, while having a lesser power and toughness, offers a more controlled yet repeatable creature blinking effect at the start of combat.

Another interesting comparator is Restoration Angel. This card also presents the theme of blink and evasion but does so selectively for one non-angel creature when it enters the battlefield. The angel’s singular, more focused blink effect contrasts with Dust Elemental’s sweeping board impact. Additionally, Restoration Angel is limited to a creature, while Dust Elemental provides a broader range reset, with the potential downside of returning multiple valuable creatures to hand.

Finally, Stormfront Riders shares some synergy, creating 1/1 tokens upon returning creatures to the hand. However, Dust Elemental is more aggressive with higher power and the ability to rapidly alter the battlefield state at instant speed, offering both offensive and defensive utility.

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Dust Elemental 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 Elemental and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Dust Elemental has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Predh	Legal
Penny	Legal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Dust Elemental card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

Date	Text
2016-06-08	The ability of Dust Elemental doesn’t target any creature. Because of this, no player may take action between the time you choose the creature to return and the time you return it.
2016-06-08	You may return Dust Elemental creature itself to its owner’s hand as its triggered ability resolves. If you don’t control three other creatures, you must return it.