After the race of Aetherdrift comes the return of the dragons in Tarkir: Dragonstorm. It’s a set that promises to show off some of the most beloved characters in all of Magic, give Dragons even more ways to win the game and show how the plane itself changed in the wake of the Phyrexian Invasion of the multiverse.
The Story of Tarkir: Dragonstorm
Things have changed since the last time we saw Tarkir. While some dragons are working alongside the clans, helping them rebuild the world, others have become such a massive threat that they risk the entire multiverse. Post Phyrexian Invasion, rebellion managed to enact a ritual at the Spirit Nexus. It worked, summoning five spirit dragons to stop them, but it also created new wild dragons, and new threats for the clans to face.
New Cards And Reprints You Should Be Very Excited For
Elspeth, Storm Slayer
As somebody who messes around with tokens a lot, Elspeth, Storm Slayer is a Planeswalker that feels designed specifically for me, with its inherent ability to double the amount of tokens created under your control.
The loyalty abilities are a bonus too - as a +1 you get to create a 1/1 white Soldier creature token (or rather, you get to create two thanks to Elspeth itself). As a 0 ability, each creature you control gains flying until the end of the turn, while also receiving a +1/+1 counter. The -3 ability might be slightly underwhelming, only destroying one creature an opponent controls with a mana value of three or greater, but with a static ability like this, who really cares?
Mox Jasper
I’m not entirely sure Mox Jasper needs an explanation as to why it’s so incredibly good. For those new to Magic - the Mox’s are a cycle of cards, all of which essentially provide free mana, several of which are banned and several of which are extremely expensive cards. Mox Jasper, while markedly weaker than the rest of them due to the type restriction of needing to control a dragon to use it, is still an incredible card, and in the right deck could win games on its own.
Ugin, Eye of the Storms
Ugin, Eye of the Storms has the potential to be disgustingly broken, especially in Commander. Though perhaps that’s not much of a surprise, especially considering the lineage it has to live up to.
So first off, as an inherent ability, Ugin has the ability to exile a card that is one of more colors on cast. Then, whenever you cast another colorless spell it can do the same thing again, meaning you can just wipe the board with a few simple cheap artifacts.
Then there’s the loyalty abilities for the card. As a +2 you gain three life and draw a card, a fairly benign ability. As a 0 ability, however, you get three colorless mana that you can spend however you want. The Ult for the card, a -11, is the real kicker though - you get to exile any number of colorless nonland cards from your library and cast them from your exile zone without paying their mana costs until the end of turn. The term ‘cast’ here is very important - you can grab cards like Emrakul, The Promised End or Ulamog, The Defiler just to really hurt your opponent.
Craterhoof Behemoth
Introducing Craterhoof Behemoth feels like a fools errand considering how synonymous it is with Magic as a game, but I’ll try anyway. The card is a win condition in and of itself - all you really need to do is control a few creatures to get value out of the ability the card has to buff your creatures by +X/+X, where X is the number of creatures you control, and in a token generation deck? The game is as good as over, especially when you factor in the trample it affords the cards.
It’s a costly card, so seeing a reprint here is a huge deal, and it’s likely to be one of the chase cards of the set.
The Full Enemy Fetchland Cycle
It cannot be understated how nice it is to see the Enemy Fetchland cycle reprinted. While other Fetchlands have recently seen reprints in Modern Horizons 3, these complete the set and allow players looking to thin their decks more options. While they won’t be Standard legal, it just wouldn’t be a Tarkir set without the legendary Fetchland cycle. They’re also brilliant cards themselves, allowing for double landfall triggers in decks that care about that sort of thing.
New Mechanics
Behold
Behold is an interesting new mechanic. While we only currently have one example of it, in the form of Sarkhan, Dragon Ascendant, it works with multiple different creature types (though Sarkhan himself is specifically Dragon cards). You must either choose a dragon you control or reveal one from your hand, and if you do so you get a treasure token. That’s Sarkhan’s specific reward for Behold, however, with other cards likely offering up different incentives.
Harmonize
Harmonize, not to be confused with Harmonize, is a mechanic that acts similar to flashback, but with cost reduction options. As an example, Urieni’s Rebuff can be cast for six mana from your graveyard as part of the Harmonize cost. However, if you tap a creature you control then you get to reduce the cost of the spell by X where X is the power of the tapped creature, meaning you can get some extremely cheap and easy removal if you play your cards right.
Mobilize
Mobilize is a mechanic specifically given to creature spells, and one that creates extra bodies for you to play around with. Voice of Victory has Mobilize 2, which means that whenever it attacks you get two tapped and attacking 1/1 red Warrior creature tokens. Sure, they’re sacrificed at the beginning of the next end step, but in the right deck they suddenly become fodder for something like Ashnod’s Altar
Flurry
Flurry is a mechanic that allows for a variety of effects, depending on what it actually written on the card, but the effect itself always triggers under one specific condition - casting your second spell each turn. Equilibrium Adept gains double strike whenever you cast your second spell each turn, as an example.
Endure
Endure allows for an ability to trigger whenever a non-token creature other than the creature with Endure dies. It allows the controller of the dead creature to either create a White spirit creature token equal to the number written next to endure (in the case of Anafenza, Unyielding Lineage, it’s two), or put a number of +1/+1 counters onto itself equal to the number written next to Endure.
Renew
Renew is an interesting ability. It offers various different counters to creatures based on what a card does in the graveyard - Qarsi Revenant, for example, puts a flying, deathtouch and lifelink counter on a target creature once the Renew cost is paid.
Some cards will put +1/+1 counters on creatures if they have Renew, while others will offer keywords.
Card Treatments
As with most core Magic The Gathering sets, Tarkir: Dragonstorm has a series of special treatments that make your cardboard shine. There’s the usual Serialized variants of cards (here, it’s Mox Jasper that gets the treatment), the normal Borderless art, but several other treatments are also making an appearance.
Borderless Clan Variants
Reversible Borderless Variants
Draconic
Ghostfire
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