Magic: The Gathering Tarkir: Dragonstorm Limited Play Guide
Tarkir is back! And with it we see the return of dragons, the three colour clans, Ugin, Sarkhan, and so much more. We had an amazing time at our prerelease events, and if you are looking for some limited play tips and tricks, here is everything you need to know for Tarkir: Dragonstorm.
Alex Kivitz
Alex Kivitz
BEHOLD - New Mechanics
Tarkir: Dragonstorm limited gameplay focuses around quite a few core mechanics. Omens that are a new take on the classic Adventure cards and one core mechanic for each of the featured Clans or colour wedges. There is also a new term: Behold.
Omens are a new type of Instant and Sorcery card that are combined to Creature cards. An Omen card counts as a Creature card in every zone excluding while it is on the stack when cast as an Instant or Sorcery. When cast as a creature, take the Mana Value and attributes of the creature portion of the card when casting.
When casting a card as an Omen, ignore all other aspects of the card and treat the Instant or Sorcery portion as if it were its own card. The mana value, colour, and attributes are determined by the smaller Omen portion of the card.
But what exactly are these Omens?
Let’s take a look at Riling Dawnbreaker. Riling Dawnbreaker is a 5-cost 3/4 Dragon with Flying and Vigilance. It also has the Omen Spell Signalling Roar. This is a 2-cost Sorcery. When cast as an Omen, you play the card as if it were a Sorcery spell, resolve the effect, then shuffle this card into its owner’s library. Instead of Adventures that go into exile and can have their creature side played, Omens are shuffled back into the owner’s deck and can be cast again when drawn, either as an Omen or a Creature.
Behold
You can’t have a set based in Tarkir without dragons. Dragons are so prominent in the setting that they dictate the power of other cards purely by their existence. When a card asks you to behold a Dragon, you may choose a dragon you control or reveal a dragon card from your hand. Doing so will increase the potency of some spells, or offer generous bonuses.
Piercing Exhale is a great way to remove threats in this limited environment, and if you behold a dragon you also get to surveil 2 on top of that.
Clan Tactics
Tarkir is home to five clans; The Abzan, Jeskai, Temur, Mardu, and Sultai. These clans are signified in game not just by their unique colour wedges but also have their own unique style of gameplay and mechanics. Tarkir: Dragonstorm brings us the mechanics Endure, Flurry, Harmonize, Mobilize, and Renew. One thing to note is that you are not required to be in a specific three colour wedge to utilise these effects. Two colour combinations are extremely viable and you can dip into many of these mechanics even at just two colours.
Endure
The mechanic most associated with the Abzan colour wedge is Endure. Endure is great at being versatile, enabling the player to go wide with multiple spirits, or go tall and have one or a few larger creatures. Endure is a keyword that is followed by a number.
When a creature Endures you may either put +1/+1 counters on that creature equal to the Endure number or create an X/X white Spirit creature token equal to the Endure number.
Flurry
Jeskai’s flagship mechanic for Tarkir: Dragonstorm is Flurry. Flurry is denoted on cards that have abilities that trigger when the controller casts their second spell each turn. Note that this is not the second spell after you have cast the permanent with Flurry.
If your first spell is to cast Devoted Duelist, casting a single spell after it will trigger Devoted Duelist’s Flurry ability. Having more Omens in your deck can really help smooth out your mana curve and enable you to cast multiple spells a turn while not sacrificing the density of creatures in your deck.
Harmonize
Harmonize is Temur’s new mechanics and is the beautiful combination of Flashback and Convoke to an extent. Cards with Harmonize will have Harmonize and a mana cost printed next to it. When a card with Harmonize is in your graveyard, you can pay the Harmonize cost to cast it from your graveyard. If you do, you exile the card afterwards.
When casting a card for its Harmonize cost, you may tap a creature you control to reduce the generic portion of the manacost equal to the tapped creature’s power. This does not reduce the coloured portion of the mana cost.
You are allowed to tap a creature with Summoning Sickness to pay for a Harmonize cost. When casting a spell for its Harmonize cost, you still have to follow the timing restrictions of the card. A sorcery with Harmonize can only be played as a sorcery.
Mobilize
Mardu is coming out swinging with Mobilize. Mobilize is a triggered ability that triggers when the creature with Mobilize attacks. Mobilize also is followed by a number and when you Mobilize x you create x 1/1 red Warrior creature tokens that are tapped and attacking. These tokens are then sacrificed at the beginning of the next end step. They can be attacking different targets if you so choose, or can all be attacking the same target.
Renew
Sultai love their graveyards, and their new Renew mechanic is a great addition to their arsenal. Renew is an activated ability on cards that is usable while the card is in your graveyard. When a card with Renew is in your graveyard you may pay the Renew cost and gain a strong bonus effect.
Each Renew mechanic is dependent on the card you activate. These are strong ways to double-dip and get more value from creatures that have died. There are many strong mono-coloured cards with Renew, so even if you are not in the Sultai colour wedge these can be quite good to have in your deck.
Choosing Your Clan - Tarkir Limited Formats
Tarkir: Dragonstorm brought back a fan favourite prerelease option, the ability to choose your favourite clan and have an improved chance of building those colours. We have five special packs representing each clan; Abzan, Jeskai, Temur, Mardu, or Sultai. Depending on your event, you may receive a random pack or your choice of one of the five clans.
In your prerelease pack you will get 1 traditional foil year-stamped rare or mythic card (this card is not guaranteed to be in the colours of the faction you chose), 1 Spindown die that does match your prerelease pack’s clan, 5 Tarkir: Dragonstorm Play Boosters, and 1 Clan-themed Tarkir: Dragonstorm prerelease booster. These special clan-themed boosters will have specific cards to help put you into the colours of the clan you selected.
There are two main ways to engage in Magic: The Gathering limited play, you have Sealed and Draft play:
Sealed is simply opening 6 booster packs and building your deck, while draft has a more complex deck building mechanic. In the Booster Draft format, you sit at a table with ideally 7 other players who all also have 3 booster packs. Players open their first booster pack, remove any tokens they may have, and choose a single card. They then pass the remaining cards clockwise. Players pick one card at a time and repeat this process until all cards are chosen. Now the next pack is opened and the cards are passed in the opposite direction. This process repeats for each pack.
Once you have cracked your packs, it’s time to get to deck construction. In both limited play formats, players construct a deck of at least 40 cards utilising the cards they have opened. Any special lands you open are able to be used, and you can add any number of basic lands from outside of what you opened.
If you’re looking for some guidance on how you want to build your deck, Wizards of the Coast created this insert to help break down the main three colour wedges as well as the included two colour sub-themes that run in the set. Let’s do a quick rundown of the main houses.
The Abzan Houses
The Abzan Houses are led by Felothar. This is a great midrange option that looks to control the board with either a large number of units or many +1/+1 counters. Armament Dragon is a great signpost card, allowing you to spread +1/+1 counters across multiple creatures, or stack them onto one large beater.
The Jeskai Way
Narset, Jeskai Waymaster guides the Jeskai Way. Jeskai decks love casting multiple spells a turn, snowballing multiple small incremental strengths into large advantages. Jeskai Brushmaster is a good signpost card for this deck archetype, incentivising you to make use of its Prowess ability and the Jeskai Flurry abilities to forge a way through the largest of hoards.
The Temur Frontier
Eshki Dragonclaw leads the Temur with big spells and bigger creatures. Make use of your large beasts to cast your harmonize spells for cheap from your graveyard. Cards like Temur Tawnyback provide great strength to contribute to the Harmonize card you just discarded, because remember, you can use creatures that are summoning sick to help pay for Harmonize costs.
The Mardu Horde
Zurgo leads the Mardu Horde to victory, choosing to overwhelm their opponents with sheer numbers. Mobilize is used quite heavily to swarm the board when attacking. They can’t block us all right? And these 1/1 Warriors don’t have to stay as 1/1s. Mardu has plenty of ways to buff them, give them special keywords, and even Zurgo himself likes to keep them around for a few more turns.
The Sultai Brood
The Sultai Brood is led by Kotis, the Fang Keeper. If there is anything the Sultai like more than playing cards from their graveyard, it’s playing them for free. Sultai is all about maximising each individual card’s use, and Renew makes it so there is value even in death. Kheru Goldkeeper is a fine example of the perfect Sultai card, it has its own Renew ability while also generating more value when you utilize other cards with Renew.
The Storm Approaches
If you want more information on all of the cards in Tarkir: Dragonstorm, a full card image gallery can be found here. If you are new to Magic: The Gathering, this is a great way to start playing. Everyone is on an even playing field, using whatever they open or decide to draft, everyone is super helpful and willing to give deck building advice, and it’s a great way to experience the new set for the first time at your local game store.
We hope you enjoy Tarkir: Dragonstorm as much as we did and we can’t wait to hear about what crazy decks you manage to build.
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