Tarkir: Dragonstorm released on 4/8 to online platforms, so I’ll be breaking down each card to help you get accquainted! Much like it’s predecessor, TDM is a “wedge” set, that encourages you to play one of the supported color combinations; Abzan, Jeskai, Mardu, Sultai, or Temur. While 1-2 color decks are supported, the most powerful cards are often three colors, so you will be incentivized to support them.
5.0: Disgustingly powerful and basically unbeatable. Either answer it the turn it comes down or just pack up your cards. (Gruff Triplets, Virtue of Persistence, The Eternal Wanderer)
4.5: Incredible bomb that still gives your opponent a slim chance. (Virtue of Loyalty, Imodane's Recruiter, Realm-Scorcher Hellkite)
4.0: Great rare or the absolute best uncommons and removal. (Faunsbane Troll, Gumdrop Poisoner, Talion’s Messenger)
3.5: Great role filler or removal that you never cut. (Candy Grapple, Hearth Elemental, Torch the Tower)
3.0: Good playable that I’m basically never cutting. (Shrouded Shepherd, Spellscorn Coven, Sharae of Numbing Depths)
2.5: Decent playable and the bar I hope nearly every card in my deck to reach. (Evolving Wilds, Archon's Glory, Flick a Coin)
2.0: Mediocre filler that normally is your 20-23rd card(s). (Mintstrosity, Ice Out, Grabby Giant)
1.5: Replaceable, overall bad filler. Could also be decent sideboard cards. (Titanic Growth, Scarecrow Guide, Territorial Witchstalker)
1.0: Bad filler. Gets cut most of the time. (Dark Tutelage, Kindled Heroism, Impact Tremors)
0.5: Very unhappy to main deck this, but maybe it has fringe sideboard applications. Cards that “could” be situationally decent, but bad in most situations. (Smothering Tithe, Rhystic Study, Mana Flare)
0.0: Unplayable in every possible situation. They rarely print cards this bad these days. (Hew the Entwood, One with Nothing)
This is a great top-end finisher for Mardu. If you have a few creatures out when you drop this it makes for a very powerful swing. It obviously has a low floor, as you need creatures in play to be impactful.
5 for a 5/7 flyer is a brutal set of stats. It’s pretty easy to draw a card the turn it comes down, you only need 3 toughness, so it at least replaces itself if it dies the following turn.
Obviously this is designed for mobilize creatures, but there’s quite a few other tokens as well. The monument cycle produces tokens, the endure mechanic does, and many other miscelaneous cards do as well.
This is a difficult spell to cast for no immediate effect. There are quite a few cheaper dragons, that could be nice to have in play when you drop this, and it’s not out of the question to win the game with multicolored dragons.
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Rating: 2.5 // 5.0
I really like this guy for direct damage to close out games. If the board gets stalled, you can rely on pairing this with something like Fleeting Effigy to grind out the last life points.
This is expensive, but it’s played during the end game, when players have very few, if any cards left in hand. Clearing the board and refilling your hand is incredibly powerful, even if you have a bit of a board advantage at the time. You do need to be careful you don’t deck yourself on big boards, however.
This card is extremely difficult to overcome if you don’t already have a huge advantage. All of your opponents top decks are live, and you will soon face a swarm of dragons.
This often doesn’t do too much, but it can do work in certain circumstances. I believe you can stack the trigger with mobilize, so you can sacrifice the mobilize token to grow your team.
This is a versatile card, you can use the tokens as surprise blockers, or help win combat with the pump option. This is at its best when used as a finisher, pumping an ublocked creature.
Both options of this are good, depending on your deck. I do think the Temur option is very powerful, especially if you have bigger creatures, or lots of small ones.
I misread this card at first, and the discard is completely optional, which makes this a lot better than I initially had estimated. This works well with other harmonize and renew cards.
This is one of the weakest sieges, with Temur being the only decent option. It can be a win condition in specific decks with plenty of harmonize spells to mill your opponent out.
This is another underwhelming siege, but not unplayable. Sultai is typically the better option, but keep in mind you do need to have this trigger at least a couple of times to justify playing it.
Not only is this a solid creature on its own, but the ability is extremely easy to trigger in this set. Aside from harmonize and renew, Ainok Wayfarer is a cheap, efficient creature that will net you a card as well as fill your graveyard.
This is a nice 2-for-1 removal spell, but it doesn’t always line up perfectly that you can kill the creature you want and return the creature you want.
This card is really situational for how expensive it is, but as long as your not too far behind, it can flip the game around, as well as randomly kill an opponent.
This is a pretty expensive reanimate, but there are certain creatures that can be extremely problematic with a hexproof/indestructible counter on them.
Another very impactful saga, that grows your battlefield and enables a giant attack on the third chapter. This can be pretty sick with Dragonclaw Strike making a 20/20 elephant.
This looks a bit better than it actually is. You really don’t want to exile anything with mana value > 3, because the token will be significant when this guy dies.
It’s pretty easy for this to get a free card by turn 5. A 4/5 flyer is a really nice stat line for vigilance as well, making it a big problem in combat.
This is one of the weaker sagas, but can help win games that may have been out of reach. You want to play it later in the game, with mobilize creatures already in play to make the most of the drain effects.
The majority of the time you will be casting the Jeskai portion of the card, which has some awesome synergies with cards like Shocking Sharpshooter, or Bone-Cairn Butcher
Andy "Icky" Ferguson is a long time limited grinder, with his first draft in 1999 at the age of 11. 22 years later, you can still find him streaming drafts, achieving the top ranks, including rank #1 5 months of 2021. Seasoned member of the Draft Lab squad and appointed "zen master", Andy lives by the motto; "lose and learn, learn and win".
