Dragons of Tarkir was the star of the show during MagicCon: Chicago’s preview panel. This set looks incredibly powerful from its first look. Whether you want uncounterable removal that drains your opponent for life, or a new Mox, Tarkir Dragonstorm has everything.
Clans and Dragons alike have returned to create, what appears to be, one of the most impressive Standard sets in recent times. Take a look at nine new cards coming our way!
Tarkir Dragonstorm
Yep, there’s a new Mox in town, and it is exclusively for Dragon users. Mox Jasper adds a mana of any color as long as you control a Dragon. Of course, this also applies to Changelings that have every creature type.
Moxes are among the most powerful types of Magic cards ever printed. They routinely break other cards and create massive metagame shifts. This is essentially a free land drop that can sometimes synergize with other strategies.
Sadly, this Mox has the biggest drawback we’ve seen yet. Mox Amber was a good example of what’s needed to keep a Mox card under control, but this may go a step too far. Obviously, this card is bound to see plenty of play in Commander, but elsewhere it may struggle. Right now, Dragon Typal is hardly the most powerful archetype in competitive Magic, after all.
Despite likely being competitively lackluster, Dragon fans are going to absolutely love this card. Notably, Wizards seems to love this card too, as Mox Jasper is the Tarkir: Dragonstorm Headliner card. This means there will be serialized copies up for grabs, which will surely sell for a pretty penny.
Sarkhan, Dragon Ascendant
Sarkhan, Dragon Ascendant may not be a Dragon himself, but he also helps accelerate into your winged beasts. Behold is a new mechanic that, essentially, means you need to reveal a card in your hand, or a card in play, in order to gain a benefit. Sarkhan specifically wants to Behold a Dragon. If you do, you’re rewarded with a Treasure.
This isn’t exactly a new mechanic. Cards like Dragon’s Fire already require you to do exactly what Sarkhan is asking. Behold simply seems like a new name for the established mechanic.
Otherwise, Sarkhan grows as Dragons enter play. He’ll also gain Flying for the turn and temporarily turn into a Dragon himself. This is a great tool to ramp into larger Dragons for constructed and Commander decks alike.
Siege Rhino Returns… Kind of
It appears that, even by 2025 standards, Siege Rhino was too powerful.
Jokes aside, Siege Rhino is one of the most beloved and iconic cards from the Tarkir era, and having a callback to the beast just makes sense. Skirmish Rhino is one mana less than its predecessor, but the creature is weakened in every other aspect. The card has one less power, toughness, and drains one less health.
One detail that many players may miss upon first glance, however, is that Skirmish Rhino is an uncommon. This shows off more than anything how far Siege Rhino has dropped off since 2014. The rare creature used to dominate competitive play in multiple formats. Now, it’s an uncommon signpost card in Limited.
Narset, Jeskai Waymaster
While Narset, Jeskai Waymaster was already revealed via a leak earlier today, she is still a great card. Any deck that wants to wheel consistently will want to have Narset at their side. This card will definitely appear in Commander and could be a terrifying engine in constructed, as well.
Any decks that have graveyard synergies may want to try Narset. Imagine dumping five cards in your hand, only to Underworld Breach them all back. Other strategies that return cards from the graveyard constantly, like Asmo Food, could also want to experiment with Narset.
Narset needs a home in order to work, but if that home is found, she is likely going to become a very memorable card.
Shiko, Paragon of the Way
Shiko, Paragon of the Way appears to be the Dragon that the Jeskai clan is partnered with. This card is absolutely disgusting. Exiling a spell from your graveyard to cast a copy of it is an absolutely ridiculous ability to be stamped on a five-mana dragon. With just a little setup, Shiko could easily create new archetypes in multiple formats. Narset can help get your copyable spells into the graveyard, as well!
Teval, the Balanced Scale
Thanks to its incredible synergy with Insidious Roots, Teval has some scary implications for the Commander format. Both cards want to remove creatures from your graveyard to create tokens. They even share the same color identity. There is absolutely no chance that this is a lucky coincidence.
To sweeten the deal slightly, Teval can ramp you up while filling your graveyard. This can help start the Insidious Roots engine a bit easier, especially if you’re using Osteomancer Adept to try and combo kill your opponent in one turn. Expect this to see a lot of Standard experimentation.
To reiterate, this is not a Standard-legal card but instead a Face Commander for the upcoming set.
Smile at Death
Smile at Death certainly seems like a Commander all-star. The card is a little bit harder to use in constructed thanks to its mana value, but as long as you have creatures to resurrect, Smile at Death will reanimate endless armies of tiny creatures to slaughter your opponent.
The biggest thing that sticks out to me about Smile at Death is that there are no Finality Counters involved. This means that your reanimated creatures can die just to come back on the next turn. This seems impossible to beat in Limited, and will definitely appear on some tables once Dragonstorm Tarkir hits shelves.
Inevitable Defeat
This is a really expensive removal spell, but you’re rewarded with an uncounterable omni-answer that drains three life. Four mana, if you’re able to stretch your colors, is definitely worth the exchange, and is an absolutely massive reason to try Mardu in competitive Magic.
Besides appearing in literally every Mardu Commander deck ever, this card is certainly powerful enough to see competitive play. A removal spell that immediately drains for three gives you a lot of space to use against fast and slow strategies alike.
Barrensteppe Siege
Siege enchantments are also back from the Tarkir sets of old. These enchantments make players choose one of two abilities to use.
Both of Barrensteppe Siege’s abilities are quite powerful. Buffing your entire board is fantastic for go-wide decks, and forcing your opponents to sacrifice creatures is great for aristocrat gameplans. Sadly, this card needs other pieces to generate value – which means that it may struggle to see play outside Commander. In that format, however, Barrensteppe Siege is quite powerful.
That’s All For Tarkir: Dragonstorm!
While the First Look at Tarkir: Dragonstorm may have been brief, it was very impressive. This looks like a very powerful Standard-legal set of cards – more so than recent releases like Aetherdrift. The mix of creating spells to enable fan-favorite archetypes, as well as the flavorful callbacks to a fan-favorite era of Magic makes this set special for a lot of people.
Notably, prereleases for Tarkir: Dragonstorm will have a seeded pack to support a certain clan of choice. This is also reminiscent of other tri-colored set releases like Streets of New Capenna and the original Tarkir series. If you’re a bit nostalgic, and love Dragons, this set will be something you cannot afford to miss.
