Tarkir Dragonstorm Spoilers: Everything Revealed So Far

Dragon lovers rejoice, because everyone’s favourite fire breathing beasts are storming Magic Madhouse with the latest Magic: The Gathering Set, Tarkir: Dragonstorm!

In true Sultai style, let’s delve into the latest spoilers, new mechanics and key cards from one of Magic: the Gathering’s most beloved sets.

Return to Tarkir – What This Set Means for MTG

We first visited the plane of Tarkir back in Khans block (back when we had three-set blocks), consisting of Khans of Tarkir, Fate Reforged, and Dragons of Tarkir, released over the years 2014 and 2015 – a decade ago! Khans in particular was a huge hit, with players loving the five clans, each featuring three-colour ‘wedge’ cards – The Mardu (red, white and black), The Sultai (black, green, blue), Temur (red, blue, green), Abzan (white, green, black) and Jeskai (red, blue, white), all focused on a different aspect of the dragon. Originally Tarkir was a plane without dragons, with the fire-breathing menaces having died out. Planeswalker Sarkhan engaged in a time travel mission to bring them back, which he eventually did in the final set. The only issue was, fans loved the clans from the first set, which had now been lost to time!

Dragons of Tarkir is said to be a ‘love letter’ to Khans, providing fans with the best of both. Fast forward to today, and Tarkir is causing issues for the multiverse, with dragons popping out of dragonstorms all over the planes, which are ripping through Omenpaths, meaning they are appearing all over the place, including back on Bloomburrow (where visitors to the plane appear as animals)!

Spoilers and Key Reveals in Tarkir Dragonstorm

Before we get into the cards, let’s take a look at the new mechanics:

• Behold – behold is a new keyword that allows you to add an effect to a card if you either reveal a card of that type or choose a permanent you control of that type. In Tarkir Dragonstorm it appears as ‘behold a dragon’, but in future sets we could see ‘behold’ other things too
  
  
• Endure – Endure is the Abzan mechanic, which is a clan all about survival and enduring, often shown as high toughness on the creature cards. Endure gives you the choice of going ‘tall’ by putting +1/+1 counters on a creature, or go ‘wide’ by creating a 1/1 spirit creature, whichever suits your gameplan better. The power here is in the flexibility, and both +1/+1 counter and token synergies
  
  
• Flurry – Flurry is the Jeskai mechanic which gives you an effect whenever you play your second card a turn. Interestingly this isn’t limited to ‘non-creature’ spells, so works with both aggressive creature decks and spellslinger strategies
  
  
• Harmonize – Harmonize is the Temur mechanic, which is a variant of flashback which gets better with bigger creatures. Any spell with harmonize can be cast again from the graveyard for a harmonize cost, and you can reduce the cost by tapping a creature (reducing the cost by the creature’s power)
  
  
• Mobilize – Mardu is all about speed and attacking, so its mechanic puts a token creature into play with haste to attack with, which then is sacrificed at end of turn. As well as enabling ‘when you attack’ strategies, the tokens also work well in a sacrifice deck
  
  
• Renew – Renew is the Sultai mechanic, who are all about bringing things back from the dead. Renew is much like Scavange, where you can pay a cost to exile a creature from your graveyard to put counters mirroring that creature’s abilities onto another creature. Typically this is some amount of +1/+1 counters and an ability counter or two
  
  
• Hybrid mana – while not a mechanic as such, hybrid mana returns, specifically the so called ‘two-brid’, which enables you to either pay a coloured mana or two generic, allowing lots of card plashing between the clans. This one is mainly limited focused, giving lots of flexibility in terms of the gold cards you can play
  
  
• Omen – how can you have a set full of expensive dragons while also having cheap spells players can cast early? Omen is the answer! Many dragons in the set also have omen, which is another spell that can be played, usually at a cheaper cost. If you decide to cast the omen spell, you must shuffle the card back into your deck, which does have certain advantages, but also means you lose immediate access to the dragon-half of the card. And be careful, these cards look identical to adventures, so don’t cast them thinking as much!

Now let’s look at some key cards – big dragons, and those creating some buzz amongst players!

Mox Jasper

Any mox has the potential to be busted, even those that look innocent. Mox Jasper is a dragon mox, only working if you have a dragon in play, but with one-drop changelings out there, that might not be too hard!

Ugin, Eye of the Storms

Oh Ugin! He gives you mana, he gives you cards, and he gets rid of permanents so long as you’ve colourless spells to keep him going. Ugin does a lot for his 7 mana, although perhaps not as universally strong as his first iteration and that powerful boardwipe ability. Still, a new toy for ‘Tron style decks and a great option for colourless commander decks too.

The Sieges

The set has five two-colour sieges in total, with two options as they enter, named after the two guilds it shares a colour with. Powerful flexible cards that are sure to show up.

Skirmish Rhino

Seige Rhino was a major deal ten years ago, dominating Standard and winning almost everything (including Worlds, I believe twice if memory serves). A decade on, and we’ve a smaller version – it costs one less, but also does one less damage when it enters, and also one less power and toughness. A strong card for sure, but the hit to its stats do make this card weaker – especially considering the general power creep that’s happened since Khans.

Songcrafter Mage

The card I’m most hoping will be good, but probably isn’t, Songcrafter Mage is a Temur Snapcaster Mage, enabling you to give an instant or sorcery in your graveyard harmonize to be played again, at instant speed. While there is a bonus here in that the Songcrafter Mage can be used to reduce the cost by 3 by tapping itself, annoyingly that only counts the generic mana costs, so you’d really be wanting to take advantage of higher cost spells, where Snappy really shone was replaying cheap spells for tempo.

Fangkeeper’s Familiar

I LOVE this card, but maybe because I’m a boomer who loved Mystic Snake back in the day. This surprise 3/3 can do a lot of work, coming down as a surprise blocker while fuelling the graveyard or destroying an enchantment, or even countering a creature spell. Hopefully its flexibility will help it find a home

Call the Spirit Dragons

A super fun alternative win con for 5-colour commander decks, that makes all your huge beasts indestructible too. Who knows if it’ll make the cut, but it sure is worth a try!

Craterhoof Behemoth

THE premier win-con for green decks stretching all the way from Standard in the 2013 era (‘Hoof-there-it-is!’), to Commander and Cube, the Behemoth is a much loved/hated card that needed a reprint, and is going to win a lot of games on the spot.

Stormscale Scion

A lot of jokes here for the well-invested magic player, making reference to both Mark Rosewater’s Stromscale (how likely an ability is to be reprinted, with Strom infamously the least likely), while also giving a dragon the ‘storm’ ability, much like the iconic ‘Dragonstorm’ card of Magic’s past. It’s hard to work out exactly how good this card is, but it looks awesome, and dangerous.

 Dracogenesis

Possibly THE casual card of the set, this costs a whopping 8 mana, but from there you can go nuts, dropping dragons like there’s no tomorrow. If I were to guess, this is too much mana even for Dragon focused commander decks, given the average cost of dragons generally bumping up the mana curve, but it’s one a lot of people are going to test! Cheating it into play somehow may be the best way forward

Elspeth, Storm Slayer

Elspeth’s real power is in her static ‘doubling season’ type ability, giving you twice the number of tokens each time you create one. This is a must for any white commander decks.

How Tarkir Dragonstorm Will Impact MTG Formats

In terms of the Standard format, Cori-Steel Cutter is looking like the breakout card on the set for Standard, creating a new Izzet Prowess archetype with plenty of cheap spells to keep the creature pump going. People are also trying the card in Grixis Bounce, splashing red instead of white in Dimir Bounce/Esper Pixie. If you’re sticking with white, then Sunpearl Kirin is a new self-bounce option. The Oculus decks get a new draw/discard option in Winternight Stories and Rakshasha’s Bargain could see play in Domain Overlords, triggering Beanstalk and setting up Analyze the Pollen.  

As for Commander, there are 26 new legends to try out, and it goes without saying that decks in the three-colour ‘wedges’ will have a few new toys to consider. The big impact here, though, is dragons. Already one of the most popular archetypes, dragon decks get plenty more of their namesake creatures, but also thanks to both Behold and Omen, lots of new options to get on the board early too. Then there’s the super splashy cards like Dracogenesis and Call the Spirit Dragons which are reasons why players play the format in the first place!

The Most Valuable Cards for Collectors

When looking at value, the serialised 500 Mox Jaspers with art from Dan Frazier will be the most valuable in the set – and you’ll be very lucky if you pull on from a Collector Booster! Ten cards feature the ‘ghostfire’ treatment, featuring both in foil and halo foil, and will be much sought-after. And although we’ve seen them fall in price recently, the fetchlands appear as special guest cards with full-art versions, which again are always going to be in demand. Lastly, the Dragon Eye basic lands, only found in Collector Boosters, may not carry the highest value like the other cards mentioned, but they will always be worth something.

Deck-Building Potential: How to Use Tarkir Dragonstorm Cards

What Tarkir Dragonstorm does especially well is make dragons very playable. The Omen ability means you don’t have to load up your deck with expensive dragons, but also get access to cheaper spells you may need earlier instead to make sure you last until the late game. Of course, dragon decks will benefit the most, but who doesn’t want a big flying monster with cheap interaction attached? It’s the dragons that have omens that either are removal/counter spells or draw cards I’m especially keen to try out.
 

Where to Buy Tarkir Dragonstorm Cards

Tarkir Dragonstorm is waiting for you right here at Magic Madhouse! You can buy singles, as well as the sealed product if you just want to crack packs and see what you get. There are plenty of deals, sales, strategy articles and fast shipping too, so get yourself a spirit dragon and let’s go!