Spoiler season for Tarkir: Dragonstorm has arrived, and there’s a lot to be excited about. With tons of powerful cards and new booster fun treatments, this set looks like a blast.
On top of what we get from the main set, one really cool aspect of Tarkir: Dragonstorm is that we’re blessed with five new Commander decks. Each clan gets its own Precon.
Today, we’re here to show off the face Commanders and secondary Commanders for each deck. Some were already previewed or leaked ahead of schedule, but now we know all 10 new legends. To kick things off, let’s take a look at one of the strongest token-themed Commanders ever printed.
Zurgo Stormrender
First up, Zurgo Stormrender is also an excellent Commander to construct a deck around. On its own, Zurgo gives you a 1/1 when it attacks. If it gets blocked down, you get to draw a card. If it doesn’t, you’ll sacrifice it at the beginning of your end step and each opponent will lose a life.
Where things get really exciting is when you pair Zurgo with lots of token production and ways to sacrifice them. Cards like Song of Totentanz give you a slew of tokens to attack with. Then, any free sacrifice outlet becomes devastating.
With enough tokens in play, you can just sacrifice them right away, and Zurgo will win you the game. Otherwise, you can attack with your tokens, and any tokens that don’t get blocked, you can sacrifice during the end of combat step to draw a card. Zurgo truly is a great leader for a Mardu tokens deck.
Felothar the Steadfast
Next, we have the non-Dragon Commander for the Abzan clan. Felothar the Steadfast is absolutely awesome. It’s reminiscent of Doran, the Siege Tower, but with a couple key bonuses.
First, your Defenders get to attack at will. This opens the door for cards like Wall of Omens to actually start connecting in combat. The really juicy part of the card, though, comes from Felothar’s final ability.
Felothar has the ability to draw a boatload of cards if you construct your deck with high-toughness creatures. Landing Tree of Perdition or Tree of Redemption, then sacrificing the Tree to draw 13 cards is a recipe for success. Felothar is one of the most exciting legends in Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander hands down.
Eshki, Temur’s Roar
Eshki, Temur’s Roar is a rather simple design. The goal is to play a high density of creatures with high power. If you do, Eshki acts as a card advantage machine and a win condition all at once.
It’s in your best interest to make sure your six-power creatures are as efficient as possible. Being able to immediately follow up Eshki with large monsters that trigger it is important. Creatures like Anzrag, the Quake-Mole, and Ghalta, Primal Hunger come to mind.
All things considered, Eshki isn’t insanely strong, but it is a nice build-around.
Ureni of the Unwritten
The Dragon Commander for the Temur deck is Ureni of the Unwritten. Ureni is also very simple, but can put a lot of power and toughness onto the board at once if you’re playing enough Dragons.
Beyond simply filling your deck with Dragons, Ureni incentivizes you to play with haste enablers. Ureni is a bit clunky, though if you can play it and attack on the same turn and get multiple triggers, you can get your mana’s worth.
Ureni also synergizes with cards that manipulate the top of your deck. Worldly Tutor-style effects ensure Ureni puts exactly what you want directly into play. As far as Umeni’s overall power level is concerned, the card seems decent. Unfortunately, competing with Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm as a Temur Dragon legend is very difficult. Ureni will likely end up as a Dragon in the 99 of other Dragon Commander decks, which many players will be ecstatic about.
Kotis, Sibsig Champion
Kotis is the Sultai non-Dragon Commander, and it has the potential to offer a decent amount of value. Getting to cast creatures from your graveyard is powerful. However, because you need to exile three other cards from your graveyard to do so, you need a lot of self-mill effects to make this card worthwhile.
This isn’t asking too much, however, and by milling yourself, you’re more likely to find some of your best creatures to cast out of your graveyard with Kotis. Spells such as Entomb become creature tutors in conjunction with Kotis, which is cool.
While Kotis’ final ability to grow when creatures enter from your graveyard isn’t usually too scary, this does open the door for some combo kills. For example, because Kotis is a Zombie, if you can assemble Phyrexian Altar plus Gravecrawler, you can grow Kotis infinitely in the process. You just need to cast Gravecrawler infinite times by sacrificing it to Phyrexian Altar, floating a black mana, and using that mana to keep recasting it from your graveyard.
Shiko and Narset, Unified
Shiko and Narset, Unified is the Jeskai Dragon, and there’s a lot to like here. Casting two spells in one turn is not difficult, and the payoff is pretty big. Even if you’re just drawing an extra card, you’re happy with the exchange.
If your second spell does happen to target a permanent or player, though, getting to copy it and choose new targets is very strong. At minimum, this can mean doubling up on removal spells.
Spells that target your own creatures in a beneficial manner become appealing, too. Irenicus’s Vile Duplication, for example, goes hard with Shiko and Narset, Unified.
If Irenicus’s Duplication is your second spell, you can make two non-legendary copies of Shiko and Narset, Unified. From there, the second spell you cast on future turns will generate an absurd amount of value. It’s hard to go wrong with this Dragon, so long as you have lots of cheap spells in your deck.
The Rest
The last four legends from the Tarkir: Dragonstorm Precons have actually already been either officially revealed or leaked ahead of schedule. For a more in-depth analysis on what the Sultai Dragon Teval, the Balanced Scale brings to the table, you can take a look here.
For info on the Abzan Dragon Betor, Ancestor’s Voice, check it out here. Finally, Neriv, Crackling Vanguard and Eisha, Threefold Master are described in more detail here.
Receiving five Commander Precons at once is really cool, especially following Aetherdrift which only featured two Precons. Make sure to mark your calendars for Tarkir: Dragonstorm’s official release on April 11.
