Last week, Wizards of the Coast gave us a first look at the next Standard release, Tarkir: Dragonstorm, and that gives us an opportunity to analyze, overreact, and wildly speculate on what the future holds, which is an opportunity I rarely pass up. This first look was only nine cards from the Standard set itself, but it includes some eye-catching mechanics, so let's get into it.
For this article, I plan to analyze how these cards will impact Standard first and foremost.
The Headliner
If The Aetherspark was any indication, it's clear Wizards of the Coast loves making splashy artifacts that may or may not be playable into chase mythics to sell packs. For Dragonstorm, this card is going to be Mox Jasper, a new zero-drop artifact that can produce mana of any color but only if you control a dragon.
Moxen are insanely powerful and even “fixed” versions like Chrome Mox often catch bans for defining whatever formats they're legal in. Mox Jasper, though, feels more balanced than past attempts because having a dragon on the battlefield is a potentially tall order. Dragons are rarely inexpensive, so a free mana rock once you've already mobilized a large creature isn't a lot of value, so the only way Mox Jasper is good is to either have cheap dragons or a need to cast multiple spells in a turn.
Standard has a few dragons at three mana (Firespitter Whelp and Phyrexian Dragon Engine), but the only one that can drop before then is Shivan Devastator which will rotate out later this year. If your deck is trying to ramp past six mana, this could be helpful, but I doubt that kind of deck will ever be competitive given how fast the format's become.
Basically, I don’t believe playing this card fairly is going to be worth it. That said, unfair things with it could absolutely happen.
The Head Turners
A dragon with storm in a set called Dragonstorm? You don't say! The only thing more on the nose than what the card is is the fact that they managed to justify naming it after the Storm Scale (Mark Rosewater's tool to measure how unlikely a mechanic is to return to Standard).
Storm as a mechanic is historically problematic for being overpowered, unfun to play against, and difficult to disrupt, so including it here is a bold choice by Wizards. As a six-drop that doesn't have flash, actually generating a decent storm count in Standard will be difficult, but this only needs to storm once or twice to mobilize a pretty impressive army of dragons. This honestly looks like the best companion to Mox Jasper as it gives you a free spell and makes this six-drop two 5/5 dragons by itself.
Stormscale Scion will likely be a janky dream, but combining it with free spells and haste enablers like Enduring Courage could prove a fun challenge on Magic Arena even if it doesn't win any pro tours.
Sarkhan is once again here and once again loving dragons more than one person should be able to. As a 2/2 for two, he’s behind the modern mana curve, especially in red, but his ability to create a treasure on entering is notable value. He also can become a flying threat if you have other dragons showing up later.
I honestly don't think this card is going to be good in Standard even though it will be a valuable two-drop in a red-heavy dragon list. I just doubt any red-heavy dragon lists are going to be good in Standard without Tarkir bringing in an absolute ton of support. Given that this set will include both dragons and every established clan the plane has, it's not likely there will be enough slots in the set to carry a full Standard deck.
That said, dragons appear in most sets these days, so maybe some asteroid-dwelling space dragons from Edge of Eternity will crack this wide open.
Smile at Death is a beautiful homage to Alesha, Magic's first transgender character who showed her clan and this game's audience that strength and power can be achieved by being true to yourself and lifting up others. Alesha, Who Smiles at Death is a classic card for any deck that wants to reanimate hordes of small-bodied threats, and this card performs that same function but as an incorporeal ideal rather than a physical creature.
As much as I love this card's flavor and narrative, I fear a five-mana enchantment that provides zero value until the upkeep is stone unplayable in Standard. It will be fun for Commander players, certainly, but I wouldn't craft this one on Arena, especially when Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate just came out in Foundations.
Classics Return
As an Abzan fan, (an Abzfan if you will) I'm unreasonably excited to be playing in a Standard alongside Siege Rhino Jr. Siege Rhino is an obvious classic for being overstatted, difficult to deal with, and having an ETB that helps close out the game. Skirmish Rhino will do all of those exact same things for one fewer mana cost.
Paradoxically, making the card weaker will probably make it better since it will come down a turn faster than its bigger predecessor while still being big enough to make an impact.
The sieges are classic value enchantments that represent two warring sides. In this case, you're choosing between the clans whose two colors are included in the card's casting cost. In the case of Barrensteppe Siege, I feel these effects are different enough that you'd rarely put this in a deck intending to use both. Given that any deck would only want one side or the other, the flexibility these kinds of modal spells give isn't really worth much, so it's a shame the mana cost appears high to reflect it. I'm not sold on this card yet, but I could see a world in which some midrange deck includes one or two copies.
Conclusion
Tarkir: Dragonstorm isn't set to drop until April 11th, so we’re a long way off from having a proper opinion of the set itself, but this first look definitely has me hungry for more. I’ll definitely cover them here and over at my Twitch channel as we learn more.
