It’s just over a week now since Magic: The Gathering players worldwide got their hands on the new Tarkir: Dragonstorm cards. Already, some key players are emerging, such as Cori-Steel Cutter and Rakshasa’s Bargain. As the days wear on, some additional surprises are coming to the surface, too. Few had Tersa Lightshatter pegged for MTG potential during previews, but now it’s putting up results in Standard.
Given that Standard is in a state of flux right now, it’s best not to read too much into early results. That said, a full playset of a new card appearing in a first-place deck is a pretty compelling argument for ignoring that advice. Tersa looks to be the real deal in aggressive red decks, with scattered appearances in other formats hinting at much broader potential to boot. Between this, Mardu Siegebreaker, and Desperate Measures, the Mardu are eating very well so far this season.
Tersa Lightshatter MTG
- Mana Value: 2R
- Rarity: Rare
- Type: Legendary Creature – Orc Wizard
- Stats: 3/3
- Card Text: Haste.
When Tersa Lightshatter enters, discard up to two cards, then draw that many cards.
Whenever Tersa Lightshatter attacks, if there are seven or more cards in your graveyard, exile a card at random from your graveyard. You may play that card this turn.
Tersa Lightshatter didn’t get a ton of attention from MTG players right away. This might have had something to do with the fact that it was revealed pretty much slap-bang in the middle of Tarkir: Dragonstorm preview season. A quick glance over the card doesn’t make it look hugely exciting, either. Hasty 3/3s for three are old hat these days unless they’re Screaming Nemesis-level good, and the abilities seem minor at best. That said, a deeper look reveals a card well-suited for aggressive red decks.
Tersa’s rummaging ability, for starters, is better than it looks. You do have to discard before you draw, which isn’t great, but the ability specifies ‘up to’ two cards, so you can modulate it to your precise needs. If you only have two cards in hand, but you like both of them, there’s no obligation to pitch them to Tersa’s trigger.
You may want to consider such a line, however, given Tersa’s last ability. If it attacks while you have seven or more cards in your ‘yard (or if you have Threshold active, for the veterans out there), you get to exile one at random and play it that turn. This sounds like a pretty steep cost, but you’d be surprised at how quickly graveyards fill up in a game. This is doubly true thanks to Tersa itself, thanks to her discard ability. If you’re casting cheap removal spells and losing creatures to your opponent, which pretty much every deck in Standard is doing right now, then Tersa will be a reliable card advantage engine early on in the game.
A Striking Debut
Based on the above, the ideal home for Tersa Lightshatter is in an MTG deck with a lot of cheap spells and a lot of redundancy. The fact that the extra cards you grab are random doesn’t matter when all of your cards work towards the same end, after all. Matching these criteria perfectly, LuffyDoChapeuDePalha piloted a Mono-Red Aggro deck featuring a full playset of Tersa to a first-place finish in Friday’s MTGO Standard Challenge.
What’s interesting about this list is how little it deviates from the established Mono-Red playbook. You might expect a list running four Tersa to dip into graveyard synergies, throwing in pieces like Fear of Missing Out or Harmonize cards like Channeled Dragonfire. Instead, this deck is pretty much Mono-Red 101. LuffyDoChapeuDePalha starts out with the classic Mouse package and Hired Claw on the low end, caps things off with Screaming Nemesis creature-wise, and then throws in the usual burn and combat tricks. In fact, Tersa aside, there’s really no change from the Mono-Red decks that have been crushing Standard for months here.
This doesn’t sound like a mark in Tersa’s favor, but I believe it absolutely is. That a new card was able to slot into such an established deck, with no other support pieces, and deliver great results is fantastic. This proves both how good the card is in Mono-Red Aggro as an archetype, and how solid it is in a vacuum. A Hasty threat that can recast your burn or cheap creatures later gives Mono-Red a kind of longevity it never had before. While it’s not guaranteed, having the chance to rip a Burst Lightning out of the graveyard to close the game is pretty exciting. The option to filter out unnecessary lands early on is great too.
More Roads To Run
Tersa Lightshatter has made a solid MTG debut, then, in Standard at least. Topping a Challenge is no guarantee of longevity in the format, of course, but it’s a pretty great start. Beyond Standard, the card is already seeing testing in older formats. Despite the praise I’ve heaped on Tersa above, this is a development even I found unexpected.
For starters, Mono-Red Aggro decks in Pioneer are trialing the card too. This isn’t hugely surprising, given how similar these decks are to their Standard counterparts. The card has also cropped up in Rakdos Prowess, including this 5-0 League list from DB_IlGorzone. There’s a bit more synergy here thanks to Claim/Fame, but for the most part it’s just an efficient card in the list. Where I really think the card could shine in Pioneer is in Rakdos Midrange, alongside Fear of Missing Out, Kroxa, etc. With actual graveyard synergies, the potential for Tersa would exceed it’s already-impressive early performances.
Perfectly proving this point, the card has also shown up in a number of Grixis Tempo decks in Legacy, of all places. DLCabelo took a list running Tersa to a 5-0 finish in Friday’s Legacy League. Granted they only included a single copy of the card, but it’s still impressive to see it on such an esteemed stage. Tersa offers a lot of synergy to the deck, helping out cards like Snapcaster Mage and Barrowgoyf. Its second ability is also much more consistent in Legacy, thanks to Fetchlands and spells like Brainstorm and Force of Will filling the ‘yard early.
While this high-end success may be a flash in the pan, I expect Tersa to become a mainstay of Standard for some time to come.
