Magic’s newest expansion takes us back to the plane of Tarkir, as dragonstorms rage out of control after the departure of Ugin and the creation of the Omenpaths. A new set means new mechanics, and we’ve got some good ones. A new set means new cards, and we’re kicking off our review with the multicolor cards that serve as signposts to let you know what direction each color pair is trying to build in.
Tarkir: Dragonstorm will release to Magic: the Gathering Online and Arena on April 8th, 2025, and to the tabletop on April 11th.
Last time we covered the mechanics, and this time as usual we won’t be looking at everything, but what we will be looking at we’ll be looking at primarily but not exclusively with an eye for Commander play.
Barrensteppe Siege
Loxi: It’s a pretty solid selection of abilities: while I think most of the value comes from picking Mardu in sacrifice-focused strategies to push even more value out of killing your dudes, there definitely will be some utility in playing the long game with Abzan. I’d usually pick this if Mardu is what you plan on going for, with Abzan being an occasional extra bonus for when you don’t need to clean house.
BPhillipYork: So for 4 mana it’s okay; the second ability is decently strong. It fits pretty well with red suicide style creatures and things like Sneak Attack, stuff like Ball Lightning, or even red token generation into sacrifice generators like Kari Zev, Skyship Raider. There’s also just standard Orzhov aristocrats which will benefit from this effect, but for 4 mana it’s still pretty hefty. You can get some benefit from it but compare it to Dictate of Erebos, where for only 1 mana more it’s not on an end of turn delay it’s just whenever. The adding +1/+1 tokens is meh, too expensive, too long of delay.
Saffgor: Doom Foretold this is not. I genuinely don’t think there’s a single deck where this is the optimal card, across all formats, but in limited this is going to be a house with all of the Mobilize tokens running around.
FromTheShire: Yeah I suspect the once per turn makes this not worth it for Commander, and in Standard this is too expensive and slow. Maybe once Virtue of Loyalty rotates out? Even then not offering the token generation removes one of the big draws and you may simply be dead already to Monstrous Rage already unless we see bans or something to slow the format down.
Hardened Tactician
Loxi: Whew, sacrificing any token is pretty bonkers. This will definitely shine with Foods and Clues, but I think any token deck can make use of this as a sacrifice outlet; while free tends to be better, one mana is very much worth it to draw a card, and it’s got 4 toughness to dodge a few damage-based removal spells. Good stuff here.
BPhillipYork: Yeah that’s strong. Sacrificing Treasure tokens or Food tokens to draw cards is strong. It’s a 1 mana cost, which is gonna hurt over a long period, but still, if you can generate a lot of tokens various ways this is a decent payoff. 3 is a bit pricey for really a pay draw effect, but it’s a warrior and has an okay stat line.
FromTheShire: I mean we’re all happy to pay 1 for Skullclamp, and while this is certainly not clamp 1 mana per card is something you’ll be delighted to have access to, especially in Standard. I’m not sure this can slot into an Overlord of the Hauntwoods deck but I certainly wouldn’t be surprised, and that’s just scratching the surface of the tokens you might not even be thinking of available for sacrifice. Two relevant creature types as well, both of which are pretty happy to be making tokens. If a mobilize deck materializes this will be the engine of it.
Marshall of the Lost
Loxi: It’s an Orc which has some cool utility for a type of creatures that could really use more loving. A bit clunky at 4 mana, even though it has a high top-end of power. Might be solid in limited if you’re going wide though.
BPhillipYork: This is a bad card.
FromTheShire: This rumbles better than most of this style of card due to both the stats and deathtouch, and it can target itself which is a definite plus. That said it doesn’t have to to get the effect which is also nice. It’s still expensive and win more though, and offers no evasion.
Effortless Master
Loxi: This seems a bit lacking for Commander; the problem is that Commander is a format that thrives off creatures that can grow with the board state or set themselves up for a really explosive turn. Getting one well statted creature off the cuff can be nice, but you have to ask yourself if effectively playing a 4-mana 6/5 Menace + Vigilance creature is worth a deck slot.
BPhillipYork: What. This is midrange junk. 2 or more spells? MORE? So like, 6 mana, minimum, for a 6/4 with menace and vigilance? Not even some crazy upside like a +1/+1 counter for EACH spell you’ve cast?
FromTheShire: Looking forward to playing this at the top end of the eventual Starter Deck Duel deck on Arena. The two spells rider isn’t always going to be achievable but we have plenty of spells like Opt, and this will count itself if it’s the second spell so really it’s 5 mana for a 6/5 with menace and vigilance which is a pretty reasonable threat.
Frostcliff Siege
Loxi: Both versions of this are fantastic, you can either dig for your win conditions and more gas, or you can set yourself up for a powerful and explosive finish. Aggressive U/R decks will absolutely love this and I think it’s likely to be a staple for many decks. Even though you can only draw once per turn off Jeskai compared to cards like Bident of Thassa, the flexibility I think makes it really worth it if you aren’t explicitly in something like The Locust God where you care about wheels.
BPhillipYork: Well okay so there you go, it’s a cheaper version of Coastal Piracy, Reconnaissance Mission clearly wasn’t pushed enough. So it’s new and improved again Coastal Piracy. Trample and haste isn’t bad either. I’m so shocked the blue enchantment is just better.
Saffgor: The fact this card either speeds up a go-wide aggro plan, or refills once you’ve established a board means both modes do what you want, when you want, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see this slot in somewhere. That Temur mode is no joke, especially with combat tricks.
FromTheShire: Now we’re TALKING. Both choices are excellent, and the fact that this isn’t legendary means that drawing a second copy doesn’t even make it a dead card. Ironically you may well be choosing Temur first in the Izzet or Jeskai Prowess decks, getting +2/+1 and trample between the effect and this triggering prowess can really change the clock your opponent is on quickly.
Hollowmurk Siege
Loxi: I think Sultai is really solid – remember this is 2 CMC, drawing at least twice off this is honestly solid value, so anything more than that is a pretty nice inclusion. The Abzan mode is decent enough if you need a little more fighting power, but I’d play this primarily for the Sultai draws.
BPhillipYork: MMMMM it’s okay. I wouldn’t play it in like, a deck full of Magic cards unless… yeah I can’t imagine playing this card.
Saffgor: Dusk Legion Duelist but for any counter, now that’s exciting. In a deck where you’re triggering this on every turn, not just yours, you’ll be able to extract a ton of value for 2 mana, and it does well in multiples to trigger itself from the other mode.
FromTheShire: Again both useful effects, though Sultai is almost always better. Multiples are really nice here too.
Host of the Hereafter
BPhillipYork: Well it’s The Ozolith on a creature, but it costs 4 mana, so if you need this effect (and there are some busted things you can do with this) then yeah, go for it. It’s not generically good, just situationally good.
Loxi: This art goes absolutely crazy. Counter recycling can be really good, and if you have creature synergies it can be better than Oz if you have the ability to recur this if it gets blown up. I don’t hate it but I think I usually prefer the Ozolith because it triggers on any leaving effect, not just deaths. Oz is also pretty expensive right now, so a budget alternative is a phenomenal addition.
FromTheShire: If a counters deck emerges in Standard this feels wildly annoying to deal with. In Commander, more often than not when this dies it’s going to be to a board wipe so you’ll have no targets which makes it significantly worse than Ozolith. Still, extra copies of unique effects are always nice, and maybe you build in some indestructability to always have a safe place for the counters.
Stalwart Successor
Loxi: I dig it, things like Hardened Scales are very good, and unless you plan on going really ham with a lot of counters at once, this effectively is a similar effect that’s slightly more timing restricted.
BPhillipYork: There’s ways this could definitely be good, most of them revolve around having the ability to add counters on other peoples’ turns and really caring about +1/+1s; that’s a fairly narrow set of circumstances, in which case it’s fine. Pretty funny in a +1/+1 Atraxa deck, (which is a bad deck).
FromTheShire: Budget Hardened Scales on an evasive body seems pretty useful, though again the once per turn and being on a creature are both sizeable downgrades.
Cori Mountain Stalwart
Loxi: A solid Guttersnipe effect meets Lightning Helix. I’m on board with it, it means you have to do a bit more spellslinging than usual to get two spells each turn, but it’s solid for any true cantrippy spellslinger deck.
BPhillipYork: Neat. It’s itching to be in some goofy Jeskai spellslinger deck, but the truth is there’s more consistent ways to get damage every time you cast a spell, and generally that’s just much stronger since it means you can set up a wombo-combo and just cast a lot of spells. This is like an annoying grind them down card, you could play it with like Mischievous Chimera but there’s just not enough support for this archetype yet really.
FromTheShire: I’m kind of two minds on this. The lifegain can be annoying for aggressive decks in theory at least, and you’re never mad to have chip damage. On the other hand, it’s not a huge amount of life and you’re not getting it until turn 4 at minimum, at which point if you’re an aggro spellslinger deck in Standard you want to be basically empty handed and closing out the game. In my Boros burn deck for instance, would I ever want to be playing this instead of Screaming Nemesis? Unless I’m trying to wait one turn to have Nemesis plus Shock up absolutely not. I certainly won’t be shocked if this pops up in some kind of shell but literally Guttersnipe is Standard legal and seeing no play right now so…
Frontline Rush
BPhillipYork: Yeah, that’s fine. If you want 1/1s for some reason or Goblins and are playing white and or you want to punch someone really hard randomly, instants that generate tokens are sort of rare, though there are better ones.
FromTheShire: This is definitely interesting. The other deck I have been playing a lot of on Arena recently is Goblins, and the faster you can go wide the better. The pump mode also offers you either pseudo removal or helps punch a bunch of damage through. All that said, is this better on 2 than a Searslicer Goblin or Rundvelt Hordemaster? I don’t think so. Plus, this requires you to retool the mana base. Maybe if you have a Hordemaster in hand so you can drop it on 3 to buff the tokens? But ideally you are playing Howlsquad Heavy on 3, and Krenko, Mob Boss on 4, at which point you are going so wide that both the tokens and the pump are kind of unnecessary. It could be that that changes this fall when Hordemaster rotates out though, and maybe a Boros pivot does something to help the deck out.
Windcrag Siege
Loxi: Please WOTC I beg of you, one set without a Panharmonicon effect.
Mardu is, of course, a fabulous choice for any deck that tends to be aggressive as most of those do have a decent chunk of attack triggers. Jeskai is also really good, especially if you’re in either a Goblin or Sacrifice oriented deck, as having an extra token on hand is good for a lot of things beyond just aggro. For three mana this is a steal honestly.
BPhillipYork: So Mardu is fun in a deck that really cares about this, the lone samurai deck Isshin, Two Heavens as One, you could end up with some really hilarious triple and quadriple triggers that do nasty stuff. So solid for that. Generating Goblins is also fine if you need a source of Goblins. Usually Goblin token decks don’t involve white, though they could – white has a lot of token support, and maybe it’s just a deck about 1/1 tokens and you don’t care they are Goblins.
Saffgor: Jokes have been made about how awful the Jeskai mode is for this card, but frankly it’s too funny to see. This card isn’t even good in multiples, really, because the Jeskai mode is an upkeep trigger, but having another way to double combat triggers will get EDH players frothing, especially now that it’s available in Boros, not Gruul or Mardu.
FromTheShire: Yeah you’re here for Mardu all the way, no way do you want to pay 3 for one Goblin token per turn unless it’s sacrifice fodder.
Auroral Procession
BPhillipYork: Okay, so Regrowth but instant speed but UG instead of 1G. Fine. Nice that you can respond to someone exiling something or an exile trigger.
FromTheShire: Instant speed is really nice here, and I will be surprised if this doesn’t see play in some kind of Sultai graveyard deck. Very useful in Commander as well, especially in self mill decks.
Glacierwood Siege
BPhillipYork: This is pretty solid on both sides. Milling decks can be fun, and I really like that you get to choose so this can be used for self mill or opponent mill. Many times you want that flexibility, or even to switch mid game. The lands from graveyard I think is really useful, Wasteland, fetch lands, using retrace, using self mill etc.. Solid all around utility card.
Saffgor: Outside of making Breach loops a bit better in Temur colors, I don’t think this does much, even if you’re more often going to be milling yourself with this effect. Being an enchantment makes it harder to find than creatures which do a similar effect, so it’s probably close to a side grade when it comes to Crucible effects.
FromTheShire: Two useful modes again, though both are more build around than innately useful.
Kishla Skimmer
BPhillipYork: Yeah this is potentially quite strong. A lot of ways cards can leave your yard, and if it’s happening consistently then really solid card. Also a 2/2 flyer so you can just whale on someone.
Saffgor: Similarly to Hollowmurk Siege, if you’re triggering this multiple times in a turn cycle, you’re feeling good. If you’re not, this bear likely doesn’t make the cut.
FromTheShire: Great rate for a flyer to start chipping damage in, and then it has potentially a whole bunch of card draw stapled on? Sign me up.
All-Out Assault
BPhillipYork: Neat. I like this new thing where they turn a sorcery into an enchantment, and then it does the thing but sticks around for another benefit. It’s pretty much on cost and handing out deathtouch can be fairly nasty to make it so they can’t just easily block tokens and such, a bit pricy but a lot packed into one card. You could also do something really goofy like sacrifice and reanimate this over and over, though the easiest way is Ghen, Arcanum Weaver and that is pretty pricy. You’re in Najeela cost territory and Najeela still exists.
Saffgor: This is potentially very loopable with blink effects, or worth cycling using Ghen, Arcanum Weaver, but oddly I’m not that afraid of this card. 5 mana and 3 colors means it’s a bit of a bomb, but not something that spirals out of control without some serious support.
FromTheShire: Really like this in Commander, mass deathtouch is really aggravating for your opponents to deal with.
Bone-Cairn Butcher
BPhillipYork: Well, it’s okay. 4 for a 4/4 that gives deathtouch and generates 2 tokens on attack, it’s not overwhelming, it’s not really underwhelming. If you have some trick to use those tokens with or really need your tokens to have deathtouch or something like that. Kind of funny with Hooded Blightfang.
FromTheShire: On the pricey side for Standard but it really boosts the value of your tokens by a lot. In Commander they still remain more ignorable in the short term, but if you can start layering up anthems it turns into a problem again.
Defibrillating Current
FromTheShire: 3 mana to deal 4 with some life gain attached isn’t a bad rate, but sorcery speed and not being able to target a player really hurt here. There isn’t much stuff sitting at 4 toughness or loyalty right now that you want to board this in against, at most like Zur, Eternal Schemer in Domain Overlords and Preacher of the Schism in Dimir and maybe some of the planeswalkers? Even then you have access to black if you’re able to cast this, so you should have much better removal options.
BPhillipYork: This card name sucks and this card sucks.
Inevitable Defeat
FromTheShire: Hitting any nonland permanent without being able to be countered means I could see this seeing at least sideboard play if the meta shakes out a certain way. The Lightning Helix tacked on for fun is pretty sweet.
BPhillipYork: Well, it’s exile, okay it’s okay. Too expensive but unstoppable interaction is at least funny. Having life loss and life gain bolted on is kind of an okay sop, but who really cares about 3 life? It costs 4 mana.
Mardu Siegebreaker
BPhillipYork: This card is potentially hilarious with something that generates a tons of ETB triggers, Solemn Simulacrum for example. Not hugely strong but generating 3 sad robots each turn, 3 lands into play and draw 3, that’s enormous value. You have to be careful not to exile something with a “when attacks” trigger because this drops the tokens in attacking. 4 mana, but you get a 4/4 deathtouch and haste that does this, and you even get your creature back when the Siegebreaker leaves. Fun card.
Saffgor: In my eyes, this is the most exciting Mardu card of the set. Not only does it go infinite in a number of ways, it helps to “protect” vulnerable creatures similarly to Phantom Steed, but with haste, deathtouch, and scaling for 4 player. Honestly, I just wish this was Legendary, the card’s great.
FromTheShire: Absolutely begging for shenanigans, insert your favorite combo here.
Neriv, Heart of the Storm
Loxi: The neat thing here is that the creature doesn’t have to deal combat damage, just deal damage. I’m not sure that makes this useful, but it could be funny to slug someone with a double damage ability of some kind.
BPhillipYork: So the big use would be for things that generate a token each turn and give them haste or make them attack, but it’s 4 mana for a conditional doubler and red has other, better, non-conditional doublers. I guess it’s a 4/5 flyer too, but it doesn’t even have haste or like, blink itself or something weird.
Saffgor: A way to double damage that does nothing else, and nothing new, incredible. The fact this lacks haste means it isn’t even threatening on its own, what a letdown.
FromTheShire: See I actually love this as opening up an interesting enters space in Mardu, an alternative Purphoros, God of the Forge if you will. Warstorm Surge, Dragon Tempest, Dragonhawk, Fate’s Tempest, Terror of the Peaks… there are a bunch of ways to fling significant damage around. And that’s not even counting all of the ways to swing hasty threats, either natively or with things like Anger and Ogre Battledriver.
On top of that, this also loves Myriad creatures as well as Sneak Attack and effects like Ilharg, the Raze Boar, or anything else that can create tapped and attacking threats. Hell, just Ball Lightning them for 12. Is it the most competitive deck in the set? Certainly not, but there is both a lot of power and a lot of fun to be had here.
Thunder of Unity
BPhillipYork: This seems borderline reasonable for a saga, draw 2 lose 2 is a standard black sorcery, and then you get 2 turns of your creature ETBs causing life loss and you to gain. Potentially something you could play into, but there’s creatures that do similar things, don’t go away, and cost the same, so why?
FromTheShire: Seems pretty good for the card draw, and if you happen to chip some damage in as well more’s the better. Can it replace Warleader’s Call? For 2 turns at least which might be all you need.
Zurgo, Thunder’s Decree
BPhillipYork: I think there’s funny things you could do with this, turn everything into Warriors or something like that, but it’s a lot of steps for … profit? Zurgo seems to have lost considerable bulk, did he stop eating protein, go vegan or something? I kind of love how much this is a non-bo with Zurgo Stormrender. Anyway, uh, I mean, if you want to somehow build around Warriors that exist, more power to you. I won’t.
Saffgor: Had to say Warrior tokens, unfortunately. This would have been an adorable Twinflame-style Commander with all of the temporary copy effects in Red, but being limited to Warriors makes it far less exciting. Still, if you want to give this Zurgo a run, treat him like a Sundial of the Infinite in practice, for Warriors, and you’ll go far.
FromTheShire: Pretty solid token engine, and I’m curious to see if this is a seed for something else coming down the line, or if it’s just for the value printed on the tin.
Dragonback Assault
Loxi: Let’s face it, if you’re in landfall you’ll have this out by like turn 3-4 anyway with the amount of ramp you have. It’s a solid way to start crashing out a board, like a mini-Omnath but with Dragons. It’s a Timmy card for sure, but it can do some work.
BPhillipYork: Well that’s 6 mana. SIX. For like, a sort of board clear then a landfall trigger that’s pretty solid, generating 4/4 flying Dragons every time you play a land is quite something. But on turn.. let’s call it 4 and that’s aggressive. If you’re playing like 3 lands per turn, starting on turn 4, generating 3 dragons per turn, then you deal, 12, then 24, then 36, then 48, 60 damage, assuming none die, and there’s no flying blockers, and they don’t even have haste, so there’s a turn delay, so you win on like turn 11, and you have to have all the pieces (and draw into) 3 lands per turn. So, uh, no. That’s a no from me.
FromTheShire: Wiping out a whole bunch of utility creatures and tokens and then giving you incidental tokens? I don’t hate it. You don’t need it to win the game on its own, and if you’re buffing and synergizing with the tokens like you should be the extra damage adds up quick.
Dragonclaw Strike
BPhillipYork: For 3 mana it’s too much, but just barely. There’s things you could do with this, use it to kill a couple of people, and that’s fun, but it’s also a sorcery, and the time you’d probably most want it is like mid combat to suddenly smoosh something in the way so it’s not gonna be blocked or something or wipe out a blocker so trample goes through.
FromTheShire: I dig it for Dragon decks, double your biggest threat and wipe out their flying blocker so you can swing in for the win.
Eshki Dragonclaw
FromTheShire: Good rate, vigilance and trample is a great combo to get aggressive with, and it both grows and draws you cards to further grow itself? It’s not too bad. Even just being a 4/4 stymies a lot of aggressive decks, and then you can punch right through their little prowess dependent chump blockers.
BPhillipYork: Uh, if, at the beginning of combat on your turn, you’ve cast both a creature spell and a noncreature spell this turn, then draw a card and put two +1/+1 counters on this 4/4 vigilance, trample, ward 1 creature. Okay. So, that is the point of this. What does it have to do with dragons, or dragon claws. Like it’s a value card if you are just, value playing I guess? Maybe for some… I dunno Temur Elf, something. You’d really have to build something mediocre around this mediocre commander to make it at all worthwhile.
Karakyk Guardian
FromTheShire: This seems like a sick Limited bomb, guaranteed to connect at least once and hopefully end the game.
BPhillipYork: No, 6 mana, weird to say but there are way better dragons now. Terror of the Peaks compared to this, just, no.
Roar of Endless Song
BPhillipYork: Too slow and expensive and telegraphed and bad.
FromTheShire: It’s a lot of power, eventually and briefly. Maybe if you’re ramping into it with Llanowar Elf in Standard? No trample though.
Songcrafter Mage
BPhillipYork: Oh this is uh, Snapcaster Mage. Which was busted, so this is probably busted, since you can tap it to pay for the spell. It’s just value busted not interesting busted, but even so.
Saffgor: For 2 more colors and 1 more mana, you have potentially a better Snapcaster Mage. The color requirement is a real issue outside of formats with pools as deep as Modern, at least, but shaving 3 generic cost from a spell the turn he comes down is potent. This reads to me as a great card in something like Legacy Delver, and there could even be cute interactions with Stiflenaut. Be on the lookout, someone’s gonna break this.
FromTheShire: Yup, I will be shocked if we don’t see this doing things in Standard and or Pioneer. For Modern and Legacy I’m less sure, being in these colors isn’t necessarily where you want to be, and Snapcaster is already surprisingly fringe at the moment.
Temur Battlecrier
BPhillipYork: Well, there are some pretty gross sort of things you could do with this, the biggest IMO would just be to have enough +1/+1 to all your creatures that all creatures you have are 4/4s, and then cast spells that generate X 1/1s so suddenly each time you do it you are adding more and more creatures. The trouble is most of those are white, and even most of the easy +1/+1s are white, so this just seems kind of meh. Maybe for a Temur Hydra deck.
Saffgor: Spells. Not creature spells, but all of them, and for 3 mana that includes itself as a discounter. Aside from being a personal Helm of Awakening, this enables a truly obnoxious amount of combos and storm, especially with colorless artifacts in shells like Mystic Forge. Sojourner’s Companion has 4 power, and so does Myr Enforcer, so there’s a world where a new…Ferocious Affinity list emerges.
FromTheShire: That is a wild cost reducer on an aggressively costed body.
Ureni, the Song Unending
FromTheShire: This seems like a pretty great Reanimator target but it’s probably just a 1 of in place of something like Koma, World Eater for the upgraded protection and flying, as well as nuking any potential threat. I don’t think it replaces the Atraxa, Grand Unifier or Valgavoth, Terror Eater the decks are currently running.
BPhillipYork: Bad. 8 mana wtf. For 8 mana you should win the game, not deal 8 damage.
Saffgor: This is only notable for having the protection Animar does, after having admitted that protection was a mistake in Commander Chronicles’ review of the original products.
Betor, Kin to All
FromTheShire: Toughness based shenanigans combined with a Mayael’s Aria style scaling effect, I like it. Opens up the design space from Arcades, the Strategist some which is also cool.
BPhillipYork: This is fun, Abzan toughness deck is fun to me. 5 mana is a bit expensive but deals damage with toughness is funny and there’s lots of really lopsided creatures. It’s not really good per se, drawing cards is solid but slow, untapping is whatever, and losing half their life is dangerous but not game winning, but still kind of a fun deck.
Felothar, Dawn of the Abzan
BPhillipYork: Well, for token generator or whatever decks this will ramp up your tokens fairly quickly but you’ll also be eating them, which gets dangerous. Abzan has basically no way to do extra combats or this could actually be a thing. Otherwise it’s just kind of meh. More solid to get permanents that give +1/1 to creatures than to distribute tokens unless you have a plan to move them around for profit in some way.
Saffgor: Unlike Betor, this card makes the new Abzan aesthetic look extremely plastic, so while the colors and background are gorgeous, Felothar looks like a discarded Power Ranger.
FromTheShire: It’s a slow but building anthem effect, and at least it sticks around if Felothar gets killed. Better for Standard for sure.
Kin-Tree Severance
Loxi: If you’re specifically in Abzan colors I like this as a cheap-ish exile based removal spell, but I wouldn’t play this if you ever expect to pay the 2-colorless mana in 4-5 color decks.
BPhillipYork: It’s okay but too expensive, but right on the borderline. More interaction is good though. Flexible and exiles instead of destroy, which is nice.
FromTheShire: Assuming an Abzan deck comes together this is going to have tons of targets in all of the midrange, control, and domain decks at the very least. Exiling can be super relevant as well against things like reanimator. Excellent.
Perennation
BPhillipYork: 6 mana is a lot but if you are returning something that is a game winning combo piece then giving it hexproof and indestructible seems quite useful.
FromTheShire: Yeah people are already trying to brew combos with this.
Revival of the Ancestors
FromTheShire: There would have to be something surprising pop up for this to see much play I think. Maaaaybe it gums up the board enough for midrange or something but I can’t picture it right now.
BPhillipYork: No, too slow, too expensive, too mediocre. There’s nothing shiny nor chrome about this.
Severance Priest
FromTheShire: Seems like a solid body with an effect reminiscent of Skyclave Apparition. Might well be perfect for Abzan as it comes down fairly early, gives you information and shreds their hand while also pressuring their life total, and that feels about right for midrange.
BPhillipYork: Weird card, but not good.
Skirmish Rhino
FromTheShire: I can picture the Saffron Olive video already. Rhino is back baby, with slightly less pushed stats. I suspect this ends up being less meta defining with the shift in the amount of life gain and drain.
BPhillipYork: This is like a variant on another rhino right, so it’s really just a callback, and in that sense I guess the rhinos are evolving.
Yathan Roadwatcher
BPhillipYork: 4 mana to return a creature with mana value 3 or less to the yard is okay, but not great.
FromTheShire: It’s nice that this hits anything in the yard, not just something out of the packet of 4. Great value piece.
Flamehold Grappler
Loxi: This almost plays like a weird variation of Dualcaster Mage, and while it might have a little less combo potential it has a hell of a lot of value potential. It’s basically a copy-anything spell that leaves an extra body behind. It’s a good way to make your top-end even more lethal but have the flexibility to let you have an extra copy of whatever you need at the time.
BPhillipYork: I’m not really sure what you’d cast after paying 3 mana that’s worth copying, but there are some useful things it’s just an insane amount of mana. Otherwise it’s just a 3/3 first striker which isn’t worth a slot.
Saffgor: This copying any spell, permanents included, is what makes it interesting, especially given unlike Yathan Roadwatcher, it can do so on any Enters, not just if it was cast.
Jeskai Brushmaster
FromTheShire: Another one I’m torn on, double strike and prowess is wildly good but this is no Mantis Rider.
BPhillipYork: Well it’s a fairly standard prowess monk but it costs 4 mana which is way too slow.
Jeskai Revelation
FromTheShire: This is doing the most but also the least. For 7 this could be a Cyclonic Rift instead. At least you can bluff that’s what you actually have I guess. Ultimatums have gotten there in Standard before so it’s not impossible, but in Jeskai I’m pretty sure you want to have closed the game out before you’re sitting there with 7 mana.
BPhillipYork: Yeah it does a ton of things no-one really cares about for 7 mana. I guess you can use this to bounce a huge spell or a game winner from an opponent because you’re definitely holding up 7 mana to interact right.
Jeskai Shrinekeeper
FromTheShire: Feels like another good Limited card. Not bad if you’re in these colors on Commander though.
BPhillipYork: The evolution of Thieving Magpie
Narset, Jeskai Waymaster
Loxi: This being 3 mana and having the option to skip on the trigger makes it really powerful, both graveyard focused decks and aggressive decks will benefit from this, let alone the spellslinger archetype Jeskai tends to push towards. Having a commander to entirely solve your draw issues gives you a lot of deckbuilding freedom, and that makes this a solid contender for a variety of strategies.
BPhillipYork: Yeah this is a super fun commander IMO. Spam your spells, dump your hand, more spam, lather rinse repeat. Tons of cheap stuff that does a little and draw into more exciting things, artifact ramp and artifact cost reduction. Fun.
New Way Forward
BPhillipYork: I guess preventing 5 damage to draw 5 for 5 mana is okay. If you’re getting hit with huge creatures could be okay, but again, holding up 5 mana to interact is a lot.
FromTheShire: Seems fine in a Jeskai deck in Commander that is already holding mana open for counterspells and the like.
Rediscover the Way
FromTheShire: Solid card selection and then supercharges your prowess creatures on your go turn to close out the game. Probably still too slow but I can at least see the plan.
BPhillipYork: Ah, yet another bad saga on the weird Khans saga of mediocre sagas.
Shiko, Paragon of the Way
Loxi: I think this definitely is something you want to blink/reanimate to re-use that effect, as using it just once is good value, but not quite build-around worthy. That being said, getting the spell for free is really nice and effectively gives you 8 mana of value from a 5 mana card, which is nothing to scoff at.
BPhillipYork: I guess you could use this to cast spells that are suspend with no casting cost and do nuts things.
FromTheShire: Interesting curve topper maybe? Free spells are never bad at least.
Awaken the Honored Dead
FromTheShire: Cut Down into Go for the Throat into this, I’m already annoyed. Black isn’t exactly hurting for removal in general, but this hits any nonland which is actually pretty helpful for all of the Up the Beanstalk and Leyline Bindings of the world, and then I assume you’re doing graveyard nonsense on top of it for extra value.
BPhillipYork: What, I mean no, are you kidding.
Death Begets Life
Loxi: I get that artifacts don’t really “die” which beats the theme of the card but I really don’t want to play an 8-drop board wipe that misses artifacts. If there is one at the table, this might just hose everyone but that player. It’s genuinely not bad value for the cost, I just would rather play a cheaper sweeper if you have the option, and Black isn’t short of those.
BPhillipYork: Well, I mean it costs way too much but at least it would refill your hand.
FromTheShire: As someone who is still proudly casting Decree of Pain with some regularity, I’m a big fan. It’s pretty common to get to 8 mana in Commander and you can get some insane value here.
Fangkeeper’s Familiar
Loxi: Not that Simic is in desperate need of help in Commander, but I wish it was Simic colors purely because those tend to lean harder into the bouncing-your-own-dudes strategies than Sultai will, although it’s still decent value even just casting it once or twice with recursion.
BPhillipYork: Oh cool the latest in the snakes that are counterspells theme. Well this one is very flexible, so that’s neat, solid modal abilities. Slightly pricy but okay there.
FromTheShire: 3 super useful modes, I’m all about it.
Kotis, the Fangkeeper
Loxi: Indestructible is great, but this starts pretty weak and still eats exile-based removal like a champion. I think you have to run a lot of ways to give this hexproof if you’re planning on going for it as a commander, as it’s definitely going to be a removal machine. It also needs evasion to really get the job done. I think it has a really high potential ceiling, but you can’t just run it out willy-nilly, make sure you have some good setup. It’s a fun take on Voltron though besides just going to commander damage beatdown strategies.
BPhillipYork: Okay this is like, not great but pretty funny if you have a solid way to make Kotis huge and then all of a sudden it’s scary. Like imagine getting to cast 10 spells for free. Assuming your opponents play huge bad spells they shouldn’t this could be hilarious.
FromTheShire: I’m here for the spiritual successor to Villainous Wealth, go off king.
Lie in Wait
FromTheShire: Will kind of depend on what the potential Sultai self mill deck looks like, but this returns to hand so not a reanimator spell, and it deals damage so not as clean removal as a Cut Down.
BPhillipYork: Too expensive for an upgraded Regrowth that only hits creatures.
Lotuslight Dancers
Loxi: I’m torn in that I think this is a bit expensive for what it does, but I understand why they wouldn’t want to make this cheaper as it could be a little bonkers at the right casting cost. Overall, it’s fine. It’s a good way to have this effect tied to a creature though, which is a nice bonus.
BPhillipYork: Okay, this is neat kind of, but soo pricy. For like 3 mana it’d be amazing, for 4 solid, 5 is soo much. But it’s probably for a mill / reanimate deck, in which case you are cheating it out anyway, and then it’s pretty okay, but it kind of has that feel of tutoring for a tutor. If there’s a specific game winning pile this enables though it might be solid.
Saffgor: Dread Return and Narcomoeba seem like obvious picks, with Hulk as a third piece, but really I think this is too telegraphed for serious play.
FromTheShire: Graveyard combo enabler.
Raskshasa’s Bargain
FromTheShire: Seems decent for the self mill decks.
BPhillipYork: This is an okay surveil card, a bit overcost though.
Teval, Arbiter of Virtue
Loxi: Delve is great but this definitely will kill on on speed dial if you aren’t careful. I almost see it as a great way to enable storm/spellslinger archetypes to set up for a few really crazy pop-off turns where you can ignore the life loss because you’ll end up just winning after your casts anyway.
BPhillipYork: Yeah this is fun, though I think it’s less crazy than people think. Like, yes, you can delve out some huge fatties or do something crazy but you’re going to have to fill your yard and then also eat up your life total really fast.
Saffgor: My body tells me to cast Eternal Scourge by delving away 3 more Scourges. This particular line isn’t good, but some kind of combo likely exists with the various exile-cast pieces. Expect to see this a lot at Commander tables.
Call the Spirit Dragons
Loxi: Getting indestructible on your board in 5c dragons is scary enough, the extra win condition and free counters is just extra sauce to boot. The only thing is that those decks didn’t really need this to close out games, so it feels a bit win-more. It’s great if you want a big splashy way to clean up a game, it can just make your board unstoppable and give you a way to win if damage is out of the question for whatever reason.
BPhillipYork: Okay, sure, if this is like the turbo win Tiamat deck I love it. I do like alternate win conditions, I think they make Commander more bearable. This one has huge oh well I’m going to win on my turn energy since it’s one of the upkeep ones, and all they have to do is kill you or one of your Dragons, but like, it sounds cool.
FromTheShire: The fact you have to put the counters on 5 separate Dragons means this is absolutely win more. This card is super cool and I am happy for people to be excited to slam it in their decks, while also knowing there is maybe no better way to unite a table against you and get immediately bounced from the game.
Next Time: The Set’s White, Blue, and Black Cards
That wraps up our look at the multicolored cards of Tarkir: Dragonstorm. Join us next time as we begin reviewing the monocolor cards, picking out our favorites, and talking about the future build-arounds.
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