A few weeks after the release of each premier set, players will have the opportunity to play in their nearby Store Championships. These events are run at local game stores, providing players with a chance to compete in a Standard tournament with all the new cards legal.
Part of what makes these events special is the prize support. Beyond what your local game store usually provides, a variety of promo cards are distributed. If you perform well, you could end up walking away with a rather pricy gem.
Unfortunately, though, the promos for the Tarkir: Dragonstorm Store Championships are downright awful. From a financial perspective, they’re a huge downgrade compared to the promos featured in many recent sets. On top of that, from a competitive standpoint, only one of the three promos sees consistent play. That promo is not only the participation promo; it’s also rotating out of Standard soon.
Participation Promo
This time around, everyone who participates in any Store Championship from May 3-June 1 will receive a promo copy of Gleeful Demolition for their troubles. As is the case with most participation promos, Gleeful Demolition doesn’t hold a ton of reprint value. It’s an uncommon that’s worth under 50 cents in its cheapest non-foil form, according to TCGplayer market price.
The good thing, at least, is that Gleeful Demolition is a Standard staple at the moment. It’s the card that leads to the most explosive draws out of Boros Convoke and makes it possible to cast Knight-Errant of Eos on turn two. Even in the face of board wipes, casting Gleeful Demolition and following up with Imodane’s Recruiter lets you rebuild in no time.
Plus, this is the first time Gleeful Demolition is receiving a new printing of any kind. Making Gleeful Demolition the Store Championship participation promo allows players to add some flare to their decks without spending a huge sum of money. Overall, this is a solid promo choice.
Top 8 Promo
That’s where the good promo choices stop, though. For anyone who makes top eight of their Store Championship, they get to bring home a promo version of Charming Scoundrel. While it is true that this is the first time Charming Scoundrel will be available with alternate art, that doesn’t really make up for the fact that the card just doesn’t see play anywhere.
Charming Scoundrel used to be a decent option for mono-red decks in Standard. However, the release of Bloomburrow quickly made the card irrelevant. Emberheart Challenger and Manifold Mouse are far superior to Charming Scoundrel.
Funnily enough, both of those cards seem like they would have been decent options to highlight as the top eight promo. Instead, we get a card that essentially sees no play in Standard, Commander, or anywhere else, and is valued at under 50 cents.
Winner’s Promo
Well, things aren’t getting any better with our winner’s promo. If you’re the last player standing in your Store Championship, you earn yourself a textless promo variant of Goddric, Cloaked Reveler.
Goddric is in a very similar boat to Charming Scoundrel. It used to be a reasonable hasty three-drop option alongside Squee, Dubious Monarch. Now, neither of those cards can compete with the likes of Screaming Nemesis.
Goddric somehow manages to have the lowest reprint value of all three promos. Clocking in at roughly 10 cents, Goddric is definitively the worst Store Championship winner’s promo we’ve ever had.
Commander Party Promo
Moving now to the Commander Party promo for Tarkir: Dragonstorm, we have Dragonspeaker Shaman. The Commander Party takes place from April 18-24 as well as May 16-22. Commander Party events allow players to come together for some fun Commander games with unique rules, and all players get a copy of Dragonspeaker Shaman as a gift.
Dragonspeaker Shaman is only worth a little under $2 in its cheapest non-foil form, but much like the Store Championship participation promos, these promos are rarely worth much. It’s the Store Championship top eight and winner’s promos that are so disappointing by comparison.
A Massive Step Down
When looking at how the winner’s promos over the last year stack up against each other, it’s clear why this round is so upsetting. Murders at Karlov Manor gave us Dauthi Voidwalker, and Outlaws of Thunder Junction gave us Vengevine. While on the lower end of the spectrum, they at least both hold reprint values of above $9.
Bloomburrow and Duskmourn then brought us textless copies of Urza’s Saga and Void Winnower, respectively. Both cards, especially Urza’s Saga, were praised as elite selections. Both cards in their cheapest forms are still quite valuable ($36 and $29, respectively).
The only complaint some players had was that neither of these cards were Standard legal, which felt a bit awkward given that Store Championships were Standard by default. Wizards then followed up by making the Aetherdrift winner’s promo Virtue of Persistence, which despite not seeing much play in Standard, is still worth over $8 in its cheapest form.
This was considered a disappointing drop-off by many players. Yet, Virtue of Persistence is a monumental upgrade over Goddric. Plus, the top eight promo for Aetherdrift was Preacher of the Schism, which sees ample Standard play and is a godsend compared to Charming Scoundrel.
There’s still a good chance the Store Championship promo version of Goddric retains some value due to low supply. The issue is that the card will almost certainly be in low demand.
The prices of these Store Championship promos can vary a lot. For instance, Urza’s Saga is consistently selling for nearly $300, while Vengevines are selling for under $20 according to TCGplayer sales history. Expect Goddric to be on the cheaper side of things. Hopefully we see an improvement with the promo choices for the next round of Store Championships.