Magic: The Gathering’s latest set,Takir: Dragonstorm, will be starting its Prerelease events soon, and they are slightly different from usual. Instead of every player getting an identical Prerelease Pack, there are now five differently-themed packs, one for each of Tarkir’s clans. Each pack includes five booster packs, and then a special clan-themed booster featuring cards from your chosen clan’s color identity.
You can choose tobuild around one of Tarkir’s five clans, relying on the new mechanics each one has inTarkir: Dragonstorm. Alternatively, you can choose to build your deck around a two-color pair that may be a bit weaker, but will have a more reliable mana base.Tarkir: Dragonstorm’s Prerelease events start April 4, and since you can’t really choose what cards you’ll open, you’ll want to get acquainted with each Draft archetype before then.
10Abzan Endure Gives You Options To Go Wide Or Tall
Jeskai Decks Uses Green, Black, And White Mana
Abzan’s Draft archetype inTarkir: Dragonstormisbuilt around the clan’s new Endure mechanic. Endure abilities are found on creature cards and have a number associated with them. When you use an Endure ability, you choose whether to put that number of +1/+1 counters on the Enduring creature, or to create a white Spirit creature token whose power and toughness are equal to the number associated with the Endure ability.
Magic: The Gathering’s New Deadpool Secret Lair Is Appropriately Meta
Magic: The Gathering just announced a new Deadpool Secret Lair, and it perfectly captures Marvel’s Merc with a Mouth and his meta sense of humor.
When playing Abzan Endure,you’ll want to focus on buffing your creatures and profiting from abilities that synergize with the countersyou get from Endure. For example, the card Synchronized Charge gives all creatures you control with counters on them vigilance and trample for a turn. Warden of the Grove works especially well in an Abzan Endure deck, as it both gives itself +1/+1 counters, and lets other creatures Endure as they enter.
9Jeskai Flurry Focuses On Spellcasting
Jeskai Decks Uses Red, Blue, And White Mana
Jeskai’s Flurry mechanic works slightly differently than Abzan’s Endure. Instead of being one ability,Flurry is a blanket ability word that refers to various effects that trigger when you cast your second spell during the same turn. For example, Jeskai Devotee gets a temporary buff when you cast your second spell on a turn. To make the most of Flurry abilities, you may want to look for cheap spells that make it easier to cast multiple in a turn.
Like Jeskai Devotee, you will see other cards in Tarkir: Dragonstorm whose name includes one of the clans.This is always a hint that it belongs in that clan’s Draft archetype, even if it isn’t all three colors. These cards can still work in builds for other clans in some instances.
Another good option arespells that give you some mana back after casting them. Iridescent Tiger costs five mana, but gives you five back, making it much easier to then cast another spell and activate your Flurry abilities. Meticulous Artisan’s Prowess ability also comes in handy in a Jeskai Deck focused on casting a lot of spells, and the treasure it gives you may be used to help pay for more.
8Sultai Renew Uses Your Graveyard To Strengthen Your Creatures
Jeskai Decks Uses Green, Blue, And Black Mana
Sultai’s new Renew mechanic allows you to get some extra value out of cards in your graveyard. Like Flurry, the abilities vary somewhat from card to card, but all involve exiling the Renew card from your graveyard and placing some type of counter on a creature. For instance, Sage of the Fang puts a +1/+1 counter on a creature when its Renew ability is activated, and it will then double the number of +1/+1 counters on that creature, giving it a significant boost.
How To Upgrade Magic: The Gathering’s Temur Roar Commander Deck
Magic: The Gathering’s latest set, Tarkir Dragonstorm, includes five new Commander decks, and I’ve made some simple upgrades to the Temur Roar deck.
Some counters won’t make your creatures any tougher, but will give them powerful abilities. Qarsi Revenant can give a creature Flying, Deathtouch, and Lifelink, making it a much bigger threat. Additionally, some creatures like Rot-Curse Rakshasa - on ofMagic’s newly redesigned Rakshasa- willhurt your opponent’s creatures instead of helping yours. In this case, by making your opponent’s creatures Decayed, severely limiting their usefulness.
7Mardu Mobilize Helps Make Extra Creatures
Jeskai Decks Uses Red, Black, And White Mana
Mardu’s Draft archetype for this set focuses on the Mobilize mechanic.Mobilize is an ability that triggers when a creature with it attacks, creating a certain number of 1/1 red Warrior creature tokens that are also tapped and attacking. Although these additional tokens are sacrificed at your end step, they can add some extra punch to your attacks. Avenger of the Fallen can have a particulalry strong Mobilize effect later in the game.
Several of the cards I mention here are rare, but you won’t want to rely on a single good rare to build around.Consistency is better in a Prerelease event, so you’ll want to build around colors where you have multiple copies of the same card, instead of just one powerful card.
you may also find ways to benefit from your tokens' short lifespan. Barrensteppe Siege will make it so that each turn you activate a Mobilize ability, your opponent will have to sacrifice one of their creatures. You can also sacrifice these tokens to activate effects on cards like Unrooted Ancestor, since you know that token is going to die at the end of your turn anyway.
6Temur Harmonize Focuses On Using Spells Twice
Temur Decks Uses Red, Blue, And Green Mana
Temur’s new Harmonize ability isa way for you to cast spells again from your graveyard, possibly at a reduced price. Harmonize allows you to pay an alternate cost to cast a card from your graveyard, and you can tap creatures to help pay for the generic mana cost. For instance, if you cast Mammoth Bellow to create a five-power Elephant, on your next turn you can tap that Elephant to pay five into Mammoth Bellow’s Hamronize cost, casting it again for only three mana.
One powerful example of Harmonize’s potential is Nature’s Rhythm, which you can use to get out a very powerful creature with the help of the ones you already have on the battlefield. Casting it a first time from your hand and getting a high-power creautre then makes it easier to cast it with Harmonize for something even stronger.A card like Wild Ride that buffs creatures can also be seen as a way to help pay for Harmonize costs, not just a way to make your attacks stronger.
5Sacrifice Gives You A Bonus At A Cost
White And Black Cards Have Benefits For Sacrificing Your Creatures
BecauseTarkir: Dragonstorm’s clans have some crossover in their two-color pairings, there are enough cards within these two-color pairings that work well together to create additional Draft archetypes. One example is black and white builds that focus on cards like Worthy Cost thatallow you to sacrifice a creature for a beneficial effect.
Magic: The Gathering’s Upcoming Set Could Solve Its Story Problems, But It Might Be Too Late
Magic: The Gathering’s upcoming Tarkir: Dragonstorm set looks promising after several gimmicky set themes, but it might be too late to save the IP.
You’ll be able to grab some Mobilize cards from Mardu, like Dalkovan Packbeasts, and use their tokens as sacrifice fodder. Endure cards from Abzan can also help make you new token creatures to sacrifice.Both original clans have some built-in synergy with sacrifice and death triggers, like how Anafenza, Unyielding Lineage will give you an extra creature token each time you sacrifice a nontoken creature. This helps keep your battlefield populated while also allowing you to benefit from sacrifice abilities, and it gives you new creatures to sacrifice if need be.
4Two Spells Keeps The Pressure Up
You Can Build Around Flurry With Just Red And Blue
When looking at the Flurry cards inTarkir: Dragonstorm, you’ll notice that only three out of the nine cards require you to have white mana in your deck. You also have a few options for getting Prowess creatures, like Cori-Steel Cutter, without including white, allowing you tobuild a blue and red deck with a similar theme to Jeskai Flurry.
Prowess creatures work well with decks that cast a lot of spells because they receive a +1/+1 buff whenever a noncreature spell is cast.
There are also some options for Harmonize cards that are just in red and/or blue, like Winternight Stories.Having Harmonize cards you can cast from your graveyard gives you more possibilities to cast a second spell each turnand gain benefits from your Flurry cards. A cheap spell like Channeled Dragonfire can be useful in a deck looking to cast a lot of spells, even if its Harmonize cost might be hard to get off.
3Counters Buff Your Creatures In Various Ways
Black And Green Cards Can Give Your Creatures Different Beneficial Counters
A black and green build focused on counters that buff your creaturescan easily include cards from three ofTarkir: Dragonstorm’s clans. Renew abilities on Sultai cards like Champions of Dusan are a good source of buffs for your creatures, and you can also take advantage of some of the aforementioned cards like Rot-Curse Rakshasa to hinder your opponents. You actually only miss out on four of the 13 Renew cards by dropping blue mana from your deck.
Endure cards from Abzan, like Dusyut Earthcarver, are another way you can get counters to help buff your creatures.Endure effects can also give you additional creatures to place counters on if you need them. Attuned Hunter, which visibly looks like a Temur card, can also help with your counter strategy, and goes just as well with Sultai’s Renew abilities as Temur’s Harmonize ones, since they both cause cards to leave your graveyard.
2Go Wide Tokens Helps You Get Around Blockers
Red And White Has A Lot Of Token Generation
Similar to a counters build,a red and white tokens build can draw cards from several clans. The goal of this draft archetype is to create a wide board state with inexpensive token creatures, allowing you to overwhelm your opponent’s defenses. A good source of tokens could be the Abzan creature Descendant of Storms, which gives you the option to pay for an Endure ability each time it attacks. This build can be especially good if you luck intoTarkir: Dragonstorm’s powerful Elspeth Planeswalker.
Shock Brigade will give you a Mobilize trigger, and is also good at getting around enemy defenses thanks to its Menace ability. The spell Frontline Rush can be very helpful in a tokens build, because it can either be used to create more token creatures, or it can be a nice payoff for having a wide board state. At uncommon,you may even hope to score two of these for a red and white tokens deck.
1Leaves The Graveyard Gives You Additional Resources
Blue And Green Has A Lot Of Ways To Get Cards Out Of Graveyards
Temur and Sultai both have blue and green in their color identity, and both of the clans' mechanics from this set involve cards leaving the graveyard.You can take advantage of this crossover by including a mixture of cards with these mechanics, as well as some blue and green cards that give you benefits for cards leaving your graveyard. For instance, Kishla Skimmer will allow you to draw a card once per turn when a card leaves your graveyard.
After Playing Monster Hunter Wilds, I’m Convinced We Absolutely Need A Magic: The Gathering Collaboration
From exciting monsters to unique mechanics, the Monster Hunter franchise has everything it needs for a worthwhile Magic: The Gathering collaboration.
Blue and green also have ways to remove cards from your graveyard, like Auroral Procession, which returns a card to your hand. This will still trigger any “leaves your graveyard” effects while also giving you an extra card to cast. Kishla Trawlers will actually cause two cards to leave your graveyard, as it will exile one, and add another to your hand from your graveyard.
If you’re looking for even more guidance on yourTarkir: DragonstormPrerelease,Magic’s websitehas a guide you can see. I’ve tried to use different example cards than they’ve used, so you can use both guides to help you when building your deck. If you’re new to playing one ofMagic: The Gathering’s Limited formats, these types of guides can be a helpful way to get started.
