First Look at Tarkir: Dragonstorm
- Mike Sigrist
- Mar 25
- 5 min read
We had a lot of previews for Tarkir: Dragonstorm. I had my eyes set on Final Fantasy and completely forgot Dragonstorm was in between.
I must say, they are not playing around, and Dragonstorm is shaping up to be one of the more powerful sets in recent memory. So many cards jump off the table at me that it's going to be hard to not leave some out over the next few weeks.
Let's look at some cards that stood out to me for one reason or another. We'll start by addressing the spirit dragon in the room, Ugin.
Ugin, Eye of the Storms is a remarkably powerful card. There are no two ways about it, they wanted this card to be good. At 7 mana you get to exile an opponent's threat even if the spell doesn't resolve. If it does resolve? There are so many varied board states, and it will have a big impact on any of them. Let's say the opponent has nothing on the battlefield and you exiled their only threat. Ugin can tick up loyalty by drawing extra cards. If it takes a full card to kill Ugin after that, it was still a 3 for 1, and that's the best-case scenario for the opponent.
On a battlefield with multiple threats, we can add colorless mana, play a colorless spell from our hand, and use its static ability to neutralize any existing colorful threats.
The most obvious home for this card would be in a Modern Tron deck, but the card would be bad in mirrors, potentially leading to some mixing and matching of Ugins and Karns, as Karn can exile land and colorless threats, and Ugin cannot.
Ugin wants you to support it with other colorless cards, so it will be interesting to see which, if any, shells it fits into in Standard. I would be surprised if we don't see it in Standard since it's an incredibly powerful card.
Ugin is a slam dunk to see play somewhere. I hope we see it do a lot of work in Standard because this is the exact type of card that is fun to play with and interesting to build against.
Taigam stood out for the exact opposite reason of Ugin. Taigam, while a cool card, is fairly weak. The best kinds of interactions I can see with Taigam are playing it with three mana, casting a Treasure Cruise, and trying to play a long attrition battle.
Taigam can't be used in a combo deck, as getting value in four turns isn't enough. If you want value with Taigam, you need to settle in for a long, grindy game. It's a creature that plays better in a midrange or control deck, but even then, waiting four turns for the additional value it provides is too long. Magic games aren't long enough to support that wait, and we're better off playing a two-drop that can have an immediate effect. While flurry is a new mechanic name, it's not really a new mechanic since we've seen this kind of ability before.
Taigam is a miss for me. I'd like to see some toning down of the suspend counter, but even three turns are likely too long. Two is probably the sweet spot where I can see this card seeing some play. Maybe it gets too strong then, but I doubt it.
Teval is an interesting creature. Teval has beefy stats with lifelink. Against some decks that are unprepared for it, Teval can run away with the game without casting any other spells. On the other hand, its ability to give all your spells delve could lead to some disgusting turns if you fill your graveyard while finding ways to gain life.
Imagine casting this and then using 7 life and 7 cards in the graveyard to cast an Ugin. There are many other powerful play patterns you could adopt with this creature, even something like chaining Stock Ups.
Teval has a place in Standard, at least as a creature that can survive cards like Witchstalker Frenzy. It has so many ways to go that it will see play somewhere, even if it's just for its stats as a bigger Baneslayer.
Speaking of Stock Up, it looks as if Stock Up's stock is, indeed, up. Shiko, Paragon of the Way pairs well with the broken card selection spell. Curving Stock Up into a resolved Shiko into another Stock Up is enough of a card engine to never run out of spells. Shiko's stats are nothing to sneeze at either as a sized-up Serra Angel.
Shiko isn't a card that wins the game on its own like an Ugin or Teval, but it allows you to play a longer, grindier game in any matchup. In creature matchups, it can be like Nekrataal by copying a card like Get Lost. On empty boards, it generates raw card advantage or copies a permanent you have in your graveyard like another creature.
Shiko is the kind of card that was a slam dunk to be good a decade ago. While it is quite good, Jeskai will have to be a color trio worth playing for it to see play, as it's on par with what I expect out of a good card these days.
Winternight Stories seems really strong. While it's just a dressed-up Compulsive Research, it seems strong combined with a card like Hollow One, or any other creatures, especially if they return from the graveyard like perhaps Bloodghast, a recent addition to Standard.
Chaining harmonize and the original spell in a single turn is powerful and could lead to explosive turns.
Winternight Stories could be a card for Phoenix, but I'm not interested in taking a turn off from attacking to draw more cards.
Harmonize is a cool ability that I hope we see on more impactful cards. I suspect Winternight Stories will only see play in decks that play cards from the graveyard, or alongside something like Hollow One. It seems like it could be potent in those styles of decks. I'm interested to see if anything shakes out.
Omen is a weird and obnoxious new mechanic. While the idea of it is reasonable, shuffling every time you cast one seems tedious. Imagine a control deck that wins by looping omens to not deck or something of that nature.
It's not that big of a deal since your deck will likely have few omens. Standard has few shuffle effects, so the concept is perplexing.
Marang River Regent is not a super strong card, but it doesn't look terrible. It's an instant-speed sift that, in the late game, turns into a massive threat that can stabilize the board. It's a solid card that could see play in a control deck that doesn't want to waste deck slots on actual threats.
Omen is an interesting mechanic, but I don't see many previewed cards as constructed powerhouses, so we'll have to wait and see if anything stands out when Tarkir is fully released. For now, Marang River Regent looks like the best of the bunch I've seen.
At first look, this set looks incredibly powerful, and there are more than a dozen other cards that I'm excited about. We'll dive more into those next week and continue looking at this powerful set beyond that. I'm excited to try this set in Limited, as the original Tarkir was one of my favorite Limited formats and the format of my first PT T8, which I'm feeling nostalgic for those days. See you next week with more preview reviews.
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