If you’re looking for a Dragon precon to use as a structure to build a new typal deck, the new Temur Roar precon is your best friend. This is a full-send Dragon Typal strategy that brings back the Ferocious 4-power matters effects that Temur has been known for in the past.
Temur Roar offers some interesting new toys for Dragon Typal fans to try. That, combined with a ton of great reprints, makes this a great purchase for any Dragon fan.
The Commanders
Ureni of the Unwritten is the intended Face Commander for Temur Roar. This seven mana behemoth threatens to start deploying big dragons for free as soon as they enter play. Judging from the rest of this deck, Ureni seems like a great lategame Commander for it. You should have no issue getting value out of Ureni’s trigger. Sadly, this isn’t the best Commander for Temur Roar.
While Ureni synergizes with the Dragon portion of the deck, Eshki synergizes with the power four or greater part. Both of these are large themes in the deck, but Eshki needs time to grow while Ureni provides value immediately. The nature of Commander, especially at a precon level, favors massive Commanders that can be redeployed with Command Tax and consistently create a massive board. That’s a big reason why the Hosts of Mordor precon is considered one of the most powerful ones ever: it’s a precon designed to beat other precons.
Deceptive Frostkite
Deceptive Frostkite is a great tiny Dragon for any typal decks that want a smaller Dragon on the curve. Sadly, the Frostkite can only copy your own creatures, which makes it a bit difficult to use. The card also can’t copy Legendary creatures since the Legend rule will kill something off.
Notably, Deceptive Frostkite plays really well with a bunch of other new Dragons appearing in Temur Roar. Of course, Deceptive Frostkite is a great two-mana investment when you’re copying something massive, but using the card that way is a bit win-more ish. In other words, it probably isn’t needed. You may find Deceptive Frostkite does its best work when copying other four-mana creatures in earlier turns.
This card won’t be breaking the bank. Deceptive Frostkite’s four-power requirement makes it a bit difficult to use in scenarios where it will create straight value.
Hammerhead Tyrant
Hammerhead Tyrant is a less powerful version of Hullbreaker Horror and Tidespout Tyrant. The goal when creating this card was to create a Dragon that can double as interaction. Hammerhead Tyrant gives you rewards for casting gigantic spells by bouncing some threats on the board that are a bit cheaper.
Honestly, this card is kind of awful. Hammerhead Tyrant would be interesting if it were able to bounce anything, not just cards and spells your opponents control. The ability to bounce things you control is what pushes Hullbreaker Horror into broken territory.
That, in combination with only being able to bounce things smaller than the card you cast, makes Hammerhead Tyrant feel like it’s a bit too tame. There are stronger, and flashier, things you could be doing for six mana. For example, the next card is a much better payoff for the same cost.
Will of the Temur
The philosophy behind the card design for the Will cycle found in the five Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander precons is really interesting. The idea is to evoke the feeling of each clan gaining the color that they had originally lost in the lore.
Will of the Temur seems decent in a variety of different Commander decks. Because this card can copy any permanent in play, as long as someone has a massive threat, you get a copy of it and refill your hand for six mana. Without your Commander, Will of the Temur is overcosted, but with your Commander, this card catches you right up from any disadvantageous state. As long as you can consistently get both effects of this spell, it should be an asset in any casual Commander deck.
Parapet Thrasher
Parapet Thrasher is a great Dragon for four mana. If you can deal damage to multiple opponents, Parapet Thrasher offers a massive payoff. Should you manage to deal all three opponents damage with this in play, you get to trigger all three abilities that Thresher offers. That’s a great deal for four mana.
Parapet Thresher can also fill a niche spot in the curve for Dragon Typal decks. It’s easy to include all of the massive do-everything Dragons that drop for massive mana values, but it’s a bit harder to find Dragons that can keep up with the table until you get there. Ultimately, you should be including Parapet Thresher in decks that can consistently trigger as many of its abilities as possible. In Dragon Typal, the card is decent if you have a lot of midrange-y Dragons.
Thundermane Dragon
Thundermane Dragon is a great card advantage tool in red in any deck that can consistently meet its requirement. Granting the creatures Haste pressures the table quickly and heavily rewards decks that can satisfy the deckbuilding cost that Thundermane Dragon promotes.
Thundermane Dragon may be one of the most popular new cards from this precon because it can see play in places outside of Dragon Typal, but still fills a strong role there. As long as you meet the four-power requirement, Thundermane Dragon becomes an auto-include.
Zenith Festival
Zenith Festival is an interesting draw spell that synergizes strongly with decks that use high-power creatures. Harmonize can notably tap summoning sick creatures, so if you can’t use your creature in a useful way, tap it to cast Zenith Festival and refill your hand.
Zenith Festival is only going to be a decent inclusion in decks that can take advantage of its Harmonize costs. One particular spot for this card is in ‘X spells matters’ decks. Those typically create gigantic creatures to abuse Harmonize and will likely be able to copy Zenith Festival as well. The card could also synergize in exile-matters strategies. If you don’t have an extreme amount of synergy with Zenith Festival, its payoff won’t be worth what you pay for it.
Become the Avalanche
Become the Avalanche is a new win condition that doubles as card draw. This won’t always refill your hand, but it should easily replace itself while threatening to kill one person at the table. If you’re trying to end the game on the spot, Become the Avalanche may not be the card you’re looking for. If you want an interesting spell that does a bit of a few different things, this card does that.
This card seems to fill multiple requirements in a deck, but if you’re looking for a card that does one thing very well, Become the Avalanche won’t be that card. This isn’t too impressive, in my opinion, as I would rather have a card that’s very capable of doing one thing in this slot, but there will be spots where this does a lot of work.
Broodcaller Scourge
Broodcaller Scourge threatens to flood the board in one fell swoop. Notably, Broodcaller Scourge does not need to attack itself in order to trigger its ability. Any Dragons dealing damage are going to allow them to start dumping cards into play.
Obviously, Broodcaller Scourge is powerful in Dragon Typal decks but not anywhere else. There are also a ton of massive spells in those decks that do big things, so Broodcaller Scourge needs to be properly supported in order to pull this off. It isn’t a necessary addition to Dragon Typal decks, but it’s certainly a fun one.
The good news is that, in Temur Roar, Broodcaller Scourge is right at home.
Best Reprints
As far as reprint value goes, Temur Roar has the other decks beat, but that’s because of the trends of the secondary market. For Dragon fans, there’s a grand total of 21 different creatures that are either Dragons or support Dragons in this precon. Many of the cards in this precon have made waves in past competitive formats, meaning that these Dragons are no slouch.
Selvala’s Stampede has never seen a reprint before and threatens to instantly create a board for six mana. This $9 reprint from Conspiracy: Take the Crown either cheats cards from your deck or your hand into play.
Perhaps the most exciting reprint in this deck is Sarkhan, Soul Aflame. The March of the Machine: Aftermath Dragon Typal card has been increasing in price as players have been picking it up for their Dragon Typal brews. No need to do that now. The card’s price is a bit difficult to determine, but it has sold for as much as $15 in recent days.
Nogi, Dragon-Zealot also gets its first nonfoil printing in Temur Roar. This card was exclusively available in the Magic Game Night product up to this point. The card spiked from $15 to $26 recently, so this reprint is direly needed.
A Great Base for a Miirym Deck
Perhaps the saddest part about the Temur Roar deck is that, ultimately, the best way to upgrade it is to change the Commander. Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm was specifically discussed when spoiling this deck. The card was ultimately excluded from the Precon for two reasons: it would function as a Secret Commander that is better than the two Commanders you can choose from, and Miirym is generally too powerful for a precon.
That doesn’t take away from the fact that this is probably the best easily accessible Dragon Typal starter pack for anyone looking to build that deck for themselves. You can take this deck, remove the Ferocious elements, and have a great way to send flying lizards all over the place.
Whatever you end up using Temur Roar for, this will likely be the easiest way for many MTG players to start building a Dragon Typal deck.
