Welcome Magic lovers!
Yes, it's spoiler season once again, and as we get increasingly inundated with card previews from the upcoming Tarkir: Dragonstorm set, the excitement for the new cards is rising more quickly than even the wind speeds on the tempest-wracked plane.
With a multitude of iconic dragons soaring the skies, in addition to myriad multicolored spells and creatures, with plenty of legends and recurring characters thrown in, Tarkir: Dragonstorm promises to be a return to Magic: the Gathering's roots, at least until the upcoming Universes Beyond sets take us far, far from our home planes.
Despite the entire set not yet being previewed as of the time of this writing, let's go over what we have been given to see if we can't pick out any Standard format diamonds from this storm-ravaged rough.
5. Avenger of the Fallen
Our first entry on the list is a card that's reminiscent in many ways of another rare, black, three-mana creature that has seen plenty of Standard constructed play since its printing, Preacher of the Schism. A 2/4 body that not only shrugs off commonly played removal spells such as Cut Down and Nowhere to Run, but also has deathtouch, making it a rather annoying threat to deal with in combat.
Sporting the powerful new mobilize mechanic means that it can swing and produce a ton of cardboard for its controller, at no cost, and all of it enters tapped and attacking no less! Milling oneself is trivially easy in the current Standard format, with bangers like Overlord of the Balemurk and Picklock Prankster floating around, so getting this to produce two or three tokens when it attacks on turn four shouldn't be very difficult to achieve. Throw in a good sacrifice outlet to feed those 1/1 Warrior creature tokens to, and you've got a recipe for something very potent indeed.
This is one of several cards from Tarkir: Dragonstorm previewed thus far that go right into an 'aristocrats-style' self-sacrifice deck in Standard, so watch for this archetype to pop up, at least initially, at your local tournament tables post-release.
4. Rare Utility Land Cycle
Next, we have not one, but five cards spoiled that are all part of the same cycle: lands that have spells attached.
Having access to a land that not only produces colored mana for one's deck, but can also be used to cast a spell later in the game has historically proven to be incredibly powerful. From creature-lands, to cards like Plaza of Heroes, these often carry very little deck-building downside in exchange for the value they generate in-game.
While not all five in this cycle are equally powerful, they are diverse and powerful enough to almost certainly earn a slot or two in many archetypes in Standard. Let's run down where each one may find a home, at least with the way Standard currently looks.
Dalkovan Encampment seems perfect in the white-black, 'aristocrats-style' self-sacrifice deck that we touched on when speaking about Avenger of the Fallen. A basic Plains that very infrequently comes into play tapped, but can repeatedly produce not one, but two pieces of cardboard later in the game is exactly what the sacrifice deck needs. The cost being one white mana and two colorless isn't very steep, and can easily be activated in the mid-game if the pilot runs out of gas.
In an aggressive archetype like Boros, it's also the perfect follow up to an opponent's sweeper, meaning that decks relying on Sunfall or Day of Judgment to solve all of their problems are in for a rude awakening once Dalkovan Encampment is staring at them from across the field. Unlike Fountainport or Mirrex, the Encampment produces twice the number of creatures, plus they have haste, making it a far more aggressive way to end the game post-sweeper. Throw in a Vengeful Bloodwitch or Elas il-Kor, and one doesn't even have to attack to quickly finish off the opponent.
I expect this to show up in sacrifice decks, red-white aggressive decks, and perhaps more.
In almost the same vein, Great Arashin City is another utility land that slots nicely into a white-black sacrifice deck, producing free creature fodder for a very cheap cost.
It also plays perfectly in the Ketramose, the New Dawn decks that have been growing in popularity in Standard, allowing one to repeatedly and efficiently trigger the indestructible god each turn.
Mistrise Village is one that will be very powerful in older formats, but even in Standard, there are a few decks that may want it.
The white-blue Omniscience Combo deck is the first one that springs to mind, as forcing one's combo spell, Abuelo's Awakening, to resolve through an opponent's countermagic means the game is just over. However, playing a comes-into-play-tapped basic Island is a fairly large downside that the deck may not want to engage with, and post-sideboard, the combo deck can already bring in Grand Abolisher to accomplish the same task.
Other decks, like Domain Overlords, already have the potent Cavern of Souls to force their large threats through enemy countermagic, making Mistrise Village largely unnecessary, so I'm not sure how many other decks will actually want this land in Standard.
Cori Mountain Monastery is a land that may see play in a Jeskai control shell as a way to keep the gas flowing later in the game, though at five mana invested (four to activate, plus the Monastery itself), I'm not sure if it's efficient enough to warrant a slot. It's almost certainly too expensive to justify putting in something like Boros aggro, though it would be a nice way to get back into the game after an opponent stabilizes by dealing with all of one's threats.
I expect this to see very limited play in Standard.
Kishla Village is the final land in the cycle and, like Cori Mountain Monastery, it's a late-game card-advantage engine for decks that may lack a way to keep the gas flowing. Surveil 2 is very close in power to drawing an extra card, though again, for five mana (four to activate, plus the Village itself), its cost is rather steep. Unlike the red-based decks, however, heavy green lists often have a ton of extra mana lying around in the late game, so it may not be as painful a cost as it would be in other decks.
I expect this to see more play than the Monastery, but less than the other lands in the cycle.
3. Ureni, the Song Unending
At number three on our list, we finally get to a powerful dragon lord! While there is a whole cycle of multicolor, legendary spirit dragons that have been previewed, only one immediately stands out as being powerful enough to compete for the hotly-contested 'late-game finisher' slot in the ramp decks in Standard, alongside bangers like Atraxa, Grand Unifier and Valgavoth, Terror Eater. Let's break down exactly why.
Ureni, the Song Unending not only provides a massive 10/10 flying body to kill the opponent from full health in only two swings, but more importantly, this beefy dragon also has protection from not only white but also black.
Let that sink in for a second.
All of the unconditional removal spells currently seeing play in Standard are either white or black. Ride's End, Leyline Binding, Go for the Throat, Get Lost, Bitter Triumph, Shoot the Sheriff, and more, can't get near Ureni. Of the other three colors that can interact, red and green removal spells, like burn and fight spells, are totally ineffectual against the 10/10 body, making this massive dragon nigh unkillable.
As if that wasn't enough, Ureni, the Song Unending also enters the battlefield and deals damage to any number of creatures and/or planeswalkers equal to the number of lands one controls. That will often be enough damage to single-handedly wipe out the opponent's entire board, making bouncing him with something like This Town Ain't Big Enough or Into the Floodmaw not a very appealing option. With Cavern of Souls in the format, counterspells aren't even going to cut it.
This leaves many decks with very few good ways to deal with Ureni. Sweepers exist, it's true, as well as sacrifice effects, but playing around Sheoldred's Edict or Momentum Breaker is easy enough to do by ensuring Ureni isn't the only creature one controls. Only a spell like Blot Out will be enough to trade evenly with this spirit dragon, not counting the two or three creatures that Ureni blew up when he arrived on the battlefield.
I expect this card to be one of the premier finishers in any multicolor ramp deck in Standard, perhaps coming out of the sideboard, or even seeing play in the main deck.
2. Elspeth, Storm Slayer
It shouldn't be too surprising to see a planeswalker this high on the list, and Elspeth, Storm Slayer has definitely been pushed in terms of design.
Not only is it a planeswalker with three very relevant and powerful abilities, but it also comes with an attached static ability that has many players salivating. Getting the more robust half of Doubling Season stapled to an already solid planeswalker is difficult to overstate.
Elspeth, Storm Slayer comes into play and immediately creates two more pieces of cardboard to either protect itself, or be used as fuel for some other purpose. Triggering Caretaker's Talent, for example, or creating bodies to be sacrificed for value in the 'aristocrats' deck. If the opponent takes Elspeth out with a Get Lost, it produces a full four map tokens for the planeswalker's controller.
The 'zero' loyalty ability can come out of nowhere to simply end the game, if one curves into Elspeth with any sort of creature that produces multiple bodies and goes wide. Beza, Bounding Spring producing two fish tokens on turn four, into Elspeth, Storm Slayer's 'zero' ability on turn five results in nine points of flying damage coming across the field. Even if one casts a card like Beza after Elspeth, it produces up to four fish and two treasure tokens. That's insane value, and it's just the tip of the iceberg. Something like Urabrask's Forge becomes an incredible threat with an Elspeth in play, as do many other token-producing spells.
Her final ability is probably the one that will be used least often; however, it is worth mentioning that this version of Elspeth can protect herself if one finds their board empty when they play her, either by killing an opponent’s last threat, or by producing two 1/1 bodies to block for her.
With powerful, 'tokens' shells built around either Caretaker's Talent or Collector's Cage already existing in Standard, it should be very easy to slot a couple of Elspeth, Storm Slayer into the existing lists to elevate them to new heights. I expect this card to see plenty of play in Standard the entire time it's legal.
1. Ugin, Eye of the Storms
It's fitting that our final card on this list is not only the other planeswalker in the set, but also the most iconic character from Tarkir (sorry, Sarkhan), Ugin, Eye of the Storms.
A massive, seven-loyalty planeswalker for seven mana already has many players sitting up and paying attention, but the fact that he's colorless means he can be played in almost any shell, from mono-green ramp to Domain to multicolor artifacts decks. In older formats with the Urza lands and eldrazi running around, he's obviously extremely powerful, but even in Standard, Ugin is going to be a contender for the 'finisher' slot in many ramp decks.
At worst, he's a three-for-one, as he not only eats an opponent's best card when Ugin is cast, he then threatens to either eat one more by generating an additional three mana to cast another artifact with, or by using his +2-loyalty ability to draw a card and gain three life. Then, if the opponent is lucky enough to have one of the few removal spells seeing play in Standard that can actually hit a planeswalker, it trades for one more card. That's quite a solid return no matter which way one slices it.
His -11-loyalty ability is obviously game-winning if one has stacked their deck with colorless threats, but in current Standard, there aren't that many worth mentioning.
However, what many players tend to forget is that Ugin, Eye of the Storms only gets more and more powerful with each set that enters the format, as every set will contain some number of colorless artifacts that may work nicely with him. Artifacts are an evergreen card type that show up in every set, and when we inevitably get another set like Brothers' War or Lost Caverns of Ixalan, that are extremely artifact-dense, Ugin's value skyrockets. If the eldrazi happen to make a return, as we know they inevitably will, the colorless planeswalker's stonks go to the moon.
I don't imagine Ugin, Eye of the Storms to see significant play initially, but I fully expect him to see play in Standard at some point during his tenure, perhaps sooner rather than later.
That's it for the most powerful new cards previewed from the upcoming Tarkir: Dragonstorm set! Did I miss any bangers that you thought deserveCertainly! Let's wrap up the discussion on the Tarkir: Dragonstorm set with some honorable mentions and final thoughts. ### Honorable Mentions While the top five cards we've discussed are likely to make a significant impact in Standard, there are a few other cards that are worth keeping an eye on as the meta evolves. #### **1. Sarkhan, Unleashed Fury** Sarkhan makes a return in this set, and his new iteration focuses heavily on dragon synergy. With abilities that can pump dragons and provide card advantage, he might find a home in dragon tribal decks, especially if more dragon support cards are released. #### **2. Dromoka's Command** A reimagining of the classic command cycle, Dromoka's Command offers flexible utility that can be used both offensively and defensively. Its ability to counter removal spells or enhance combat tricks could make it a staple in green-white decks. #### **3. Stormwing Invocation** This instant spell allows players to create a token copy of a dragon they control. In the right deck, this can lead to explosive turns, especially when paired with legendary dragons or those with powerful enter-the-battlefield effects. #### **4. Ojutai's Insight** A blue enchantment that provides card draw and manipulation over time, Ojutai's Insight could be a powerful tool for control decks looking to maintain card advantage in longer games. ### Final Thoughts The Tarkir: Dragonstorm set is shaping up to be an exciting addition to Magic: the Gathering's ever-evolving landscape. With its focus on dragons, multicolored spells, and powerful legendary creatures, it offers players a wealth of new strategies and synergies to explore. As always, the true impact of these cards will become clearer once players have had a chance to test them in competitive environments. Keep an eye on upcoming tournaments and decklists to see how these new cards are utilized and how they shape the meta. Whether you're a fan of dragons, control decks, or aggressive strategies, Tarkir: Dragonstorm has something for everyone. Thank you for joining me in this exploration of the upcoming set. May your draws be ever in your favor, and may your dragons always fly true!
