As its first full week out in the wild winds down, it’s safe to say that Tarkir: Dragonstorm is a success so far. Not only is it generating record levels of product demand, but it’s also contributing a ton of cards to different decks. It’s not just Cori-Steel Cutter, either: this set is making moves in pretty much every Magic: The Gathering format. In Standard Jeskai Oculus decks, for example, a number of new Tarkir: Dragonstorm cards are propelling the archetype to new heights.
Abhorrent Oculus is, first and foremost, a graveyard deck, and Dragonstorm has a ton of tools to help it out. Between the Harmonize mechanic and a powerful new looter, the deck is, undeniably, eating good right now. Whether these new additions will be enough to take the deck into the top tiers remains to be seen. For now, however, it’s just good to see it performing well again.
New Tarkir: Dragonstorm Tech For Jeskai Oculus
Jeskai Oculus has been lurking in the lower tiers of Standard for a while now, but Tarkir: Dragonstorm may just change that. In yesterday’s MTGO Standard Challenge, two of the top four decks were Jeskai Oculus lists. Sixmp played one to third, while Phoenix_flame came in fourth. Jeskai Oculus also won another Standard Challenge earlier in the week. We’re in the early days of the new format, of course, but it’s still impressive to see a deck claiming so many top slots.
Despite being piloted by different players, these two lists were exactly the same, card for card. Even the ratios of the new Tarkir: Dragonstorm cards included were identical. It’s unusual to see decks settling so quickly, but we have had a week of Challenges and Leagues to iron things out.
Which new cards, specifically, are seeing play here? There are three in total, all of which take advantage of the fact that Oculus plays around a lot with the graveyard. First off there’s Tersa Lightshatter, which has been putting up results elsewhere in Standard too. This is simply a very efficient looter for the cost, with the potential to generate card advantage later on in the game.
On top of Tersa, the deck also runs a pair of new Harmonize spells: Winternight Stories, and Glacial Dragonhunt. These are also looting effects, with the upside of being able to recast from the graveyard later on. Oculus’ five power makes it easy to get the full Harmonize benefit off of these, and they make great cards to dump with Tersa, Fear of Missing Out etc. because of this extra value.
Tried And True
Outside of this new Tarkir: Dragonstorm trio, it’s business as usual for Jeskai Oculus. The deck remains focused on getting its title card out as soon as possible, by discarding it to the graveyard and using Helping Hand or Recommission to pull it out. From there, it essentially plays a tempo game, leveraging the constant Manifest Dread creatures alongside other attackers for speedy wins.
We’ve already talked about all the new looting effects in the deck, but the base version also has plenty of its own. Fear of Missing Out, Inti, Kitsa, and Steamcore Scholar all let you sift through your deck to find Oculus. The deck takes advantage of all this extra draw/discard by throwing in Marauding Mako and Proft’s Eidetic Memory. These cards scale quickly enough to let you win even without Oculus, though both are at their best when the big Eye is in play.
For the most part, that’s the entirety of the deck. It runs a small removal and disruption package, consisting of two Spell Pierce and four Torch the Tower, but other than that it’s a laser-focused looting deck. This makes it pretty consistent overall, since it gets to see more of its deck than most each game.
The new additions from Tarkir: Dragonstorm, while only taking up six of the deck’s slots at present, are very significant. More looting means more consistency for the deck, and more cards with play from the graveyard just smooths things over all the more. Looking at the deck’s overall results from this past week, things look promising. It’s been turning in regular 5-0 results in Leagues, on top of its excellent Challenge performance yesterday. If things carry on this way, we could well be looking at a renaissance for Jeskai Oculus in Standard.
Moving On Up?
Of course, the deck has some stiff competition to overcome if that’s to come to pass. The big players in Standard right now are so good, and so consistent, that new toys from Tarkir: Dragonstorm may not be enough to lift Jeskai Oculus higher.
Mono-Red Aggro is as good as it’s ever been right now, and Oculus doesn’t have a hugely positive matchup against it. Sure you can stabilize against them if you land an early Oculus, but if you slip up even for a turn you’ll find yourself getting run over. Glacial Dragonhunt gives you extra removal against the early Mice, and even Screaming Nemesis, but this is still a tough one for Oculus.
Dimir Midrange is similarly difficult. While it’s not as fast as Mono-Red, it’s much more capable of removing your threats and controlling the game. Anoint with Affliction absolutely ruins Oculus’ day, and Go for the Throat isn’t much better. This is more of an even matchup than Mono-Red, but Dimir’s superior disruption suite will likely edge things out in a lot of games.
In a glimmer of hope, Esper Pixie is actually quite a good matchup for Jeskai Oculus. The constant discard effects hit less hard when so many of your cards work from the graveyard, after all. The deck also struggles to answer an Oculus once it hits play, outside of a well-timed Momentum Breaker or half of This Town Ain’t Big Enough.
Ultimately, while the future is uncertain for Jeskai Oculus, it’s hard to deny how good these new additions are. With a few more tweaks to strengthen the Aggro matchup, the deck could be back up in tier one before the season is out.