While they’re not to everyone’s tastes, the final Tarkir: Dragonstorm cards are releasing today. Exclusively available on MTG Arena, Alchemy: Tarkir is bringing a bunch of interesting cards and legends to digital formats. This time around, we’re not getting any revolutionary new mechanics or truly groundbreaking designs, so it’s all so far, so straightforward.
That being said, it appears a mistake was made during the spoiler season for Alchemy: Tarkir. Some of the set’s cards were previewed incorrectly, so they’re technically getting day zero changes on MTG Arena. Whether these are spoiler slip-ups or just last-minute MTG changes is technically unconfirmed; however, the results are nonetheless impactful.
Xho Cai, Flickering Talon
As one of three legendary creatures in Alchemy: Tarkir, there was a good deal of excitement toward Xho Cai, Flickering Talon. We were so excited for this card ourselves, in fact, that we wrote an entire article all about Xho Cai’s flickering antics. At the time, they seemed like a compelling choice for Boros decks that would benefit from bounce antics, and a shoo-in for Brawl.
Following the latest WeeklyMTG Arena announcements, however, it seems we’ll have to change our assessment. Within this article from Wizards, the card image gallery for Tarkir: Dragonstorm was updated to include Alchemy cards. Usually, most MTG players aren’t fussed about this since it just provides nice high-resolution images of cards.
This time around, however, the card image gallery was hiding a sneaky update. As you can see above, Xho Cai, Flickering Talon is actually meant to be a Jeskai card. Given Xho Cai had the Jeskai watermark and a gold border, we perhaps should have seen this coming, especially with all the blue in the art. That said, this was an official spoiler from Wizards, so it made sense to trust it.
Sadly for fans of Xho Cai, Flickering Talon, this is quite the substantial nerf to their playability. Not only do they now cost more mana, but you’ll have to use more colors to cast them. This pushes them out of contention for Boros Energy decks, and honestly, makes them a hard sell elsewhere too.
Thankfully, even if Xho Cai’s competitive appeal has been crushed, they’ll still be good in Brawl. If anything, this expanded color identity may be an upgrade in that format, especially since it gives you more bounce-focused toys.
Hardened Bonds
As if a small change to a mana cost wasn’t bad enough, the change to Hardened Bonds completely changes how this MTG card plays. Originally, this card was a true value engine that synergized with itself effortlessly. All you had to do was cast the creature you Seek-ed, and it’ll find another thanks to the added +1/+1 counter.
Now, however, Hardened Bonds doesn’t give +1/+1 counters at all. Instead, the creature you Seek will Perpetually get +1/+1 in typical Alchemy fashion. While an opponent can’t Suncleanser this counter away, this is an absolutely massive nerf to the card’s effectiveness.
For starters, not being able to trigger off itself now means you need a +1/+1 counter-generating engine alongside Hardened Bonds. While cards that give +1/+1 counters are hardly rare, needing extra cards to make it work is definitely disappointing. Since it’s limited by its once per turn clause, the original spoiler really seemed to be a self-contained value engine.
As if needing extra cards wasn’t bad enough, you now can’t enjoy token-based synergies with Hardened Bonds. This means no Doubling Season antics or The Ozolith shenanigans, and less synergy overall for +1/+1 counter-focused Brawl decks. As if losing its footing in Brawl wasn’t bad enough, this change also crushes Hardened Bonds’ competitive appeal.
Once again, it’s currently unclear why exactly this change has happened. All we’ve heard so far is that “it shouldn’t have given a counter, it was a miscommunication,” according to WotC_Ian on Discord. Sadly, this statement doesn’t explain what caused this miscommunication in the first place.
Fixable Mistakes
At the end of the day, we can be thankful that these changes can be implemented at a moment’s notice on MTG Arena. Rather than needing a confusing errata that isn’t reflected on the printed cards, Wizards can simply update them digitally. While this is better than paper Magic, some MTG players will still be in for a shock today.
Thankfully, while some of the Alchemy cards are arriving a little bit differently, Arena is also getting the Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commanders today. In total, Arena players are getting each of the ten legendary creatures from the set, which is great to see. While these cards did take a little longer than usual to arrive, hopefully, this trend will continue into the future.
Looking slightly further ahead, Alchemy is getting a pair of Qualifier Weekends on May 3rd and the 10th to 11th. Not only should these events inject some life into the format, but they should showcase the format’s metagame. Ideally, this will allow the MTG Arena team to implement interesting rebalances once the dust settles. Whether or not this will happen, however, remains to be seen.