Tarkrir: Dragonstorm Brings Familiar Faces, Mighty Draconic Power To Standard In April

Magic: The Gathering is going back to the legendary plane of Tarkir next month with the next Standard legal set, Tarkir: Dragonstorm. The new set is poised to bring back some fan favorites, such as the Spirit Dragon himself, Ugin, as well as the iconic Clans that have helped define Magic’s color wheel combinations ever since. 

Here are some of the highlights from today’s Tarkir: Dragonstorm stream.

Clan Spirit Dragons

We saw initial reveals of these Spirit Dragons back at MagicCon Chicago last month, but today Wizards unveiled a few of them in all their glory today. The Dragons embody the spirit and vibe of their clan, and each looks to be a powerful addition to your deck, whether you're playing limited, Commander, or anything in between. 

Clan-Specific Mechanics

Each clan has its own specific mechanic that synergizes with their clan identity. From the Mardu’s relentless attacking nature to the Sultai’s affinity for spirits and the beyond, each mechanic looks to bring a bit more flair and personality to each of Tarkir’s five clans.  Also, for some added fun, the Clans are getting their own card treatments with Borderless Clan Cards, so that's cool.

Abzan - Endure

Endure aims to capture the vibe of the Abzan, who are bought tough and enduring. Endures gives players a choice: you can either slap a few +1/+1 counters on a creature, or you can get a Spirit creature token.

An example of this in action is Anafenza, Unyielding Lineage. With Endure 2, whenever another nontoken creature dies, Anafenza will Endure by either putting 2 +1/+1 counters on her, or she can create a 2/2 white Spirit Creature token. 

Jeskai - Flurry

The Jeskai’s Flurry mechanic aims to help players build to a giant turn. Flurry means that when you cast your second spell each turn, you get a boon. This mechanic can appear on any card from a Sorcery to a Creature, and can take the form of bolstering a creature’s attack, such as we see on the Dog Monk Equilibrium Adept.

When Flurry is triggered, Equilibrium Adept gains double strike, And since this can be triggered at instant speed, its a great way to sneak an unblocked Monk in to deal double damage by casting your second spell before the phase is concluded.

Mardu - Mobilize

Mardu is all about the relentless attack. This is a clan that likes to play cardboard and turn it sideways. This is represented by the Mobilize mechanic, which sees Mardu players create attacking creature tokens whenever a creature with Mobilize attacks.

This is seen on Voice of Victory, a 1/3  Human Bard creature that has Mobilize 2, which when it attacks, the attacking player will create 2 tapped and attacking 1/1 red Warrior creature tokens that are sacrificed at the beginning of the end step.

Sultai - Renew

As senior narrative designer Lauren Bond described on a call with press last week, Sultai are all about the cycle of life and death. This is showcased beautifully in their mechanic Renew, which sees player effectively create a counter by casting the ability from the graveyard. 

Renew is best seen on the card Qarsi Revenant, which, for 2 and a Black mana, as well as exiling Qarsi Revenant from the graveyard, you can put either a flying counter, lifelink counter, or a deathtouch counter on target creature. The type of counter syncs with the mechanic keywords inherent on the creature.

Temur - Harmonize

Harmonize is another mechanic you cast from your graveyard. Harmonize allows you to recast a spell from your graveyard, much like Flashback has done in the past. However, Harmonize allows you to tap untapped creatures to use their Power to help shave some of the mana cost. 

This mechanic will only feature on Instants and Sorceries and is showcased by Ureni’s Rebuff, which can be played for its Harmonize cost in the graveyard by paying 5 and a Blue. However, you can get away with paying much less if your creatures have a large power, as tapping it will shave off X from the mana cost, where X is the tapped creature’s power.

New Card Types, Treatments, and Reprints

Tarkir: Dragonstorm will introduce a new card type, Omen. This appears on Dragon cards and looks much like the old Adventure cards from Throne of Eldraine. When you cast an Omen spell, you cast it for the Omen cost instead of the Dragon creature card’s cost. However, unlike an Adventure card where you would exile the cast card only to cast the creature half at a later time, Omen cards are shuffled back into the deck, allowing you to cast the Dragon card (or in theory, the Omen once again) later on. 

It is, in a way, a reason to put high-cost Dragon creature cards into your deck as, in theory, you’ll get some use out of the Omen side while you’re building up your mana resources to eventually cast the Dragon side later on in the game. 

In addition to new card types, Wizards continues its trend of alternate art and border cards in what they call “Booster Fun.” This includes the Ghostfire Treatment as seen on the new Ugin, Eye of Storms Planeswalker card. 

Additionally, land cards are getting their usual treatment of beautiful full art lands, but with a Draconic twist. Two different treatments, Dragon’s Presence and Dragon’s Eye basic lands look incredible. Dragon’s Presence lands highlight landscapes from Tarkir with the shadow of one of the Dragons looming large over the land, while the Dragon’s Eye lands see close-up looks at the Dagon’s eye itself, themed around the mana symbol of the land. They both look incredible, and I can’t wait to get a full set of each land for my upcoming Dragon-themed decks.

In addition to these new types and treatments, we see some incredible reprints with this set. Tarkir: Dragonstorm will bring Craterhoof Behemoth’s return to Standard, creating a giant menace and threat players will have to respond to; otherwise, the game will get out of hand.

Additionally, it wouldn’t be a Tarkir set without the iconic Fetchland cycle. While these won’t be standard legal, the special guest Enemy Fetchlands will very likely become some of the chase cards in the set, despite seeing relatively recent reprints in Modern Horizons 3. Finally, the Ultimatum cycle from Ikoria: Lair of Behemoth is reprinted with Tarkir: Dragonstorm as special guest cards alongside the Fetchland cycles.

Tarkir: Dragonstorm is poised to bring a ton of Draconic-themed fun to Standard when it launches next month. Stay tuned for card previews from your favorite Magic sites and creators in the coming weeks as we head into the maelstrom toward release.