It appears that a new cycle of Mythic Rare enchantments is part of Tarkir: Dragonstorm. Each Assault appears to be tied to a different clan from Tarkir. Yesterday, we were introduced to All-Out Assault which, frankly, seemed awful. The Mardu Assault is basically an overpriced anthem that gives a one-time extra combat step. This card doesn’t provide much value on its own and relies on the rest of your board state, making it difficult to justify.
The same, however, cannot be said for the recently spoiled Temur Assault. Dragonback Assault is a bit expensive for a board wipe, but the additional upside makes it a one-card win condition.
Dragonback Assault
Dragonback Assault is far from the most efficient board wipe. Six mana to deal three damage to each creature or Planeswalker is underwhelming. You can easily accomplish the same effect for just three mana. Anger of the Gods even exiles creatures, avoiding annoying dies effects from cards like Heartfire Hero.
Despite this, Dragonback Assault is still worth the cost. That’s because the Landfall ability on this card can easily win a game of Magic. Once in play, every land you drop generates a 4/4 Dragon with Flying. Rampaging Baloths are an incredibly popular Commander card in landfall decks, and this accomplishes a very similar thing.
Considering the Landfall effect, Dragonback Assault becomes the ideal card for a slower ramp strategy to turn the corner. Three damage should be enough to mow down most boards created by faster creature decks. After that, as long as you start generating some Dragons, you have a very high chance of winning the game.
Cards to Pair With Dragonback Assault
Dragonback Assault happens to pair incredibly well with another recently spoiled Dragon. Bloomvine Regent may not be an Adventure creature, but both modes of this card partner incredibly well with Dragonback Assault. The Claim Territory Omen spell is essentially a worse Cultivate. This will, however, allow you to drop Dragonback Assault a turn early. If you need to create more Dragons, Claim Territory can also essentially generate two bodies.
If you’re in need of some life gain, Bloomvine Regent can help there, as well. This will generate three life on entry, and will essentially generate three life every time you drop a land with Dragonback Assault. This should allow you to easily stabilize after you deploy Assault.
Of course, Dragonback Assault is better combined with effects that can drop multiple lands. Loot, Exuberant Explorer seems like a very interesting card to pair with Dragonback Assault in the Standard format. Not only can you start ramping towards your win condition, but the extra lands can covert into extra Dragons.
The recently spoiled Zell Dincht in the upcoming MTG X Final Fantasy crossover is even better. Not only does this creature grant extra land drops, but Zell Dincht’s power will scale with your board state. The card can also bounce lands back to your hand to ensure you hit as many land drops, and create as many Dragons, as possible.
Standard and Commander Only
Dragonback Assault is likely an MTG card that won’t see play past Standard. The card is too expensive for the faster competitive formats despite its power. Despite this, the card is still plenty impressive for Commander.
Any Landfall decks that can run this in their color identity will surely want it. Omnath, Locus of Creation, for example, is a great Commander for Dragonback Assault. That said, the board wipe half of Dragonback Assault is not as good in Commander as it is in constructed. Nonetheless, this can clean up wide token-based boards a lot of the time and will be more difficult to remove compared to traditional Landfall generators.
For a flashy Mythic Rare, Dragonback Assault is pretty good. This card will certainly find its home in Commander and could create a ramp archetype in Standard. Admittedly, that’s more likely to happen after rotation in August, but any hope for Dragons to become competitive is better than none.
