Tarkir: Dragonstorm preview season has officially begun. As usual we have a ton to take in right off the bat. The new cards are looking great, and there are some very tasty reprints in there as well. Just as interesting as the cards themselves, however, are the styles in which they’re presented. As with all post-Booster Fun Magic: The Gathering sets, Tarkir: Dragonstorm is packed with novel art treatments for its cards.
Magic’s last set, Aetherdrift, sparked a fair bit of player controversy with its alternate art treatments. For those who didn’t enjoy them, Tarkir: Dragonstorm is looking like a return to more traditional MTG Showcase styles. There are still bold innovations here mind you, including reversible cards with two pieces of art, and some bold Borderless treatments. For the collectors and Commander deck blingers, Tarkir: Dragonstorm is looking like a slam-dunk set.
Borderless And Borderless Clan
We’ll start by looking at the simplest art treatments in Tarkir: Dragonstorm: Borderless and Borderless Clan. The former is nothing new for Magic: The Gathering. We’ve seen Borderless art in the majority of recent sets, and it’s the same as ever here. The art here extends all the way to the edges of the card, and is visible through the text boxes too.
Borderless Clan is brand-new, and very distinct from what’s come before. It uses wide swathes of black for the text box and background, forming the shape of one of the five Tarkir Clan symbols. The Clan colors are also visible in the background, with the character in question wedged somewhere in the middle. This treatment will, naturally, be exclusive to cards associated with one of the five Clans. I’d also expect this one to get a lot of players talking, given how different it is to the usual Magic style.
Both of these treatments, Borderless and Borderless Clan, are available in both foil and non-foil versions. You can find them in both Play and Collector Boosters, so you have a chance to run into these cards no matter which products you purchase.
Borderless Reversible
Next up we have probably the most radical of the art treatments in Tarkir: Dragonstorm. Borderless Reversible is a new treatment which gives cards a second side, featuring different art on the reverse. These aren’t double-faced cards mechanically, so what this treatment offers is the chance for players to customize their experience by flipping their cards onto the side they’re feeling the most.
In the example above, you can see a normal-looking Ugin on the left and a cutesy version on the right. This is similar to what we saw in the Secret Lair: From Cute to Brute Commander deck, but in a mainline MTG set. All the cards with this treatment will follow the same pattern: they’ll feature Dragons as their subject, and they’ll have normal versions on one side and cute versions on the other.
This is a pretty experimental move on Wizards’ part, and I’m excited to see how player reception pans out. Getting two art treatments on a single card makes these much more valuable than the average showcase card. I’d expect the market price of these cards to reflect that down the line. As with the Borderless cards above, you can find these Reversible cards in foil and non-foil, in Play Boosters and Collector Boosters. In theory, these will be rather popular since players can adjust the art to their personal liking.
Showcase Draconic
Back to something a little more traditional, next up we have the Showcase Draconic treatment. This wraps a series of Dragon wings and claws around the frame, alongside brand-new art for each card involved. Of all the art treatments in Tarkir: Dragonstorm, this one feels like it fits the plane the best.
From the examples we’ve seen so far, it looks like this treatment isn’t restricted to just Dragons like Borderless Reversible. It does, however, seem to be restricted to Dragon-related cards. The initial batch includes a number of legendary Dragons and some Dragon support pieces like Mox Jasper, for example. Given the name and style, this makes perfect sense. Of course, we cannot confirm this.
As with the treatments above, you can find Showcase Draconic cards in both foil and non-foil in Play and Collector Boosters. Alongside the Borderless Clan treatment, I’d expect this to be the most prevalent alternate style in the set, in order to reflect the duality of Tarkir as a plane.
Showcase Ghostfire And Halo Ghostfire
It’s time to get a little more exclusive. So far, everything we’ve looked at has been available in both Play and Collector Boosters. The Showcase Ghostfire cards in Tarkir: Dragonstorm, however, are Collector Booster exclusives. This means you won’t be unpacking these at your Prerelease unless you pick up some extra product afterwards.
These cards feature a spooky, Ugin-inspired aesthetic, reminding players of the importance of the character to the story. They’re also very limited in number. Overall, only 10 cards in the set will be receiving this treatment. So far, they’ve all been big hitters, like Ugin, Eye of the Storms, and Craterhoof Behemoth above, and I’d expect the rest to be of similar quality.
On top of the regular Ghostfire treatment, you’ll also be able to open these 10 cards in a Halo Foil Ghostfire treatment. Exact ratios haven’t been confirmed just yet, but you can expect these to be substantially rarer than the regular versions. All of the Ghostfire cards, much like the Japan Showcase cards of the past, are only available in foil.
Full-Art Basic Lands
It wouldn’t be a new Magic: The Gathering set without some Full-Art Basic lands, and Tarkir: Dragonstorm certainly delivers in this regard. Similar to Aetherdrift, there are two different sets of Full-Art Basics here, each showing a different perspective.
The Dragon’s Presence lands show sections of Tarkir with Dragons flying overhead, their shadows cast across the ground. These are fairly subtle as far as Full-Art Basics go, especially compared to the other style at play here. You’ll find these lands in both Play and Collector Boosters, in foil and non-foil.
The other Full-Art Basics here are the Dragon’s Eye lands. As the name suggests, each of these shows an extreme close-up of a Dragon’s eye, the appropriate MTG mana symbol at its center. These are all visually striking, with art from long-time Magic artist Ron Spencer lending them some serious gravitas. You’ll only find these lands in Collector Boosters, so expect them to be highly sought-after upon release.
Dragonscale Foil Fetch Lands
Speaking of lands, Tarkir: Dragonstorm also features a land-exclusive art treatment for the high rollers. Five of the sought-after MTG Fetch Lands are being reprinted here, in the Special Guest slot. These will be available in both Play and Collector Boosters as usual, but in this set, there’s a chance you pull an even more Special Guest in the latter.
The five Fetch Lands are also available in a new treatment called Dragonscale Foil, which applies a scaly look to the full surface of the card. This treatment also comes with new art, making these versions of the Fetch Lands even more unique.
Similar to the Mana Foils from Foundations, these are super-rare, super-premium versions of the cards in question. Given that Fetch Lands command a decent price no matter what version they come in, you can expect these to be worth a hefty sum. As befits this high potential value, you’ll only find Dragonscale Foil cards in Collector Boosters.
Serialized Mox Jasper
Finally, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the Headliner for Tarkir: Dragonstorm while we’re talking about its art treatments. Just as Aetherdrift had The Aetherspark, Tarkir: Dragonstorm has Mox Jasper. You’ll be able to open this card in both normal and Draconic versions in either Play or Collector Boosters. The Serialized version above, however, is Collector Booster exclusive.
Did I say exclusive? I meant hyper-exclusive. There will only be 500 copies of this version period, which means it’s the Holy Grail as far as pulls from this set go. Interestingly, Wizards has chosen to go for an existing treatment here, creating a Retro Frame version of the card, complete with slick Dan Frazier artwork, just for the Serialized version.
The Retro Frame, particularly in foil, is very popular with a lot of Magic players. This version will likely be incredibly sought after as a result, selling for even more than the Serialized Aetherspark has to date. While it’s always exciting to think that you might open a Serialized card, the chances of doing so are so low that you really shouldn’t factor it into your product purchasing decisions. No matter how nice that new Mox looks.
