Limited Guide - Tarkir: Dragonstorm - Draft, Sealed, Pre-release!

Now that we're past Aetherdrift's events, we have a new challenge in the multiverse: the Dragonstorm!

To face it, we'll need to returno to the plane of Tarkir, and thus comes the new set, Tarkir: Dragonstorm.

Today, we'll talk about the mechanics, archetypes, removals and mana fixing from this Set, focusing on Limited gameplay.

Unlike standard sets, the archetypes in Tarkir are directly linked to the Khans (Khans of Tarkir - KTK), that is, they are based on combinations of three colors and not two, and are limited to enemy color combinations.

Let's start by looking at the mechanics involved in the set. If you to read in more detail about the set's mechanics, we have an excellent article about it!

Mechanics

Behold

Behold is a keyword indicating a cost to be payed in return for an effect.

Omen

Omen is very similar to the Adventure cards from Eldraine, only the card is not exiled after it resolves - instead, it's shuffled back in the deck.

Abzan - Endure

The Abzan have the Endure mechanic, which can either grow your board or your creature, depending on what you need at the time.

Jeskai - Flurry

The Jeskai have the Flurry mechanic, a bonus for casting a second spell on the same turn. Very interesting when paired with low-cost spells.

Sultai - Renew

The Sultai have the Renew mechanic, which works only in the Graveyard. A very effective way to profit from graveyard-feeding cards.

Mardu - Mobilize

The Mardu have the aggressive Mobilize mechanic, which creates more attackers. A must for aggro strategies.

Temur - Harmonize

The Temur have the Harmonize mechanic, an ability that allows you to reuse a spell in your graveyard, with a cost reduction equal to the power of a creature you tap as an optional cost to cast it.

Archetypes

We'll have five main archetypes, centered on each of the clans. For draft, this means a strong focus on synergies when picking your cards.

For example, Abzan shares colors Black and White with Mardu, so take advantage of creatures with Mobilize, to create tokens that can be sacrificed to Unrooted Ancestor.

Abzan Counters

The archetype is focused on putting counters and strengthening your creatures. The best way to do this is with the Endure ability, which allows you to either increase your board or empower a creature, a very flexible mechanic.

Anafenza, Unyielding Lineage, Sinkhole Surveyor and Warden of the Grove are excellent in the archetype.

In addition to the Endure mechanic, we also have a subarchetype of death triggers and sacrifice effects, which also links to token creation and graveyard synergies.

Felothar, Dawn of the Abzan is a premium card, since it really turns on the archetype and strengthens our board. It has great synergy with Barrensteppe Siege when we pick Mardu and Venerated Stormsinger.

Reputable Merchant and Host of the Hereafter are some of the other options we have that take advantage of the sacrifice theme. Also in this plan, you can bring back Endure creatures with cards like Smile at Death, Wail of War and Rite of Renewal.

Elspeth, Storm Slayer has excellent interaction with the archetype, and even on its own it' worth it.

Betor, Kin to All is an insane value card, and it should at least replace itself, and eventually outdraw your opponent. The other effects aren't as valuable or easy to achieve - if you have a board with 40 combined toughness, you've probably won the game already .

Craterhoof Behemoth is a good way to close out games, especially if you used Endure to create tokens. You'll need a plan with lots of ramps and removals to achieve this, though.

Skirmish Rhino is good on its own: relevant effect, good body/mana ratio, and life gain.

Hollowmurk Siege is very useful in either mode, whether for a more value-based game with Sultai, or an aggressive plan with Abzan.

Stalwart Successor accelerates your plan of putting counters on your creatures.

Best Commons

Best Uncommons

Jeskai Second Spell

In Jeskai, the game plan is based on the Flurry mechanic. Look for cards that have synergy for when you cast a second spell, such as Highspire Bell-Ringer, which helps to setup the archetype by reducing the cost of the second spell.

Since the goal is to always cast two spells, we also need ways to replenish our resources.

Jeskai Shrinekeeper is an option, since in addition to evasion, it can immediately gain value if it deals damage. We also have Frostcliff Siege, which allows us to draw cards when dealing damage, if we choose Jeskai.

Another way to increase your resources is Kishla Trawlers, which brings an Instant or Sorcery back to your hand. Equilibrium Adept and Riverwheel Sweep exile the top card of the deck, allowing you to play it until the next turn. Tersa Lightshatter allows you to play cards from the graveyard, which is another way to optimize your resources - and it's great with fetch lands.

Shiko, Paragon of the Way immediately casts the second spell and turn on the archetype's synergies.

Breaching Dragonstorm will most likely cast the next spell it finds, which is another way to activate synergies.

Poised Practitioner is a way to strengthen the battlefield and control the top of the deck, giving you card selection.

Cori-Steel Cutter does it all: it's low cost, creates tokens with prowess, and lets you to attack right away if it's attached.

Twinmaw Stormbrood is an excellent removal option for the early turns, helping with board control, and in late turns it will gain life and provide a good body on the board.

Narset, Jeskai Waymaster is another setup card, filling the hand according to how many spells we cast in our turn.

Runescale Stormbrood and creatures with prowess like Jeskai Brushmaster and Meticulous Artisan are best when you have a game plan more focused on cantrips and other non-creature spells.

Rediscover the Way can rapidly close out games with its last chapter.

Taigam, Master Opportunist is a setup for strong future turns, copying your second spell of the turn and exiling it with suspend 4. The copy is exactly like the original spell - for example: Say we have a Lightning Bolt on the stack, targetting a creature. It will be copied, so it keeps the targets, and the original Lightning Bolt will be exiled with 4 suspend counters and cast later, after the last counter is removed.

The best way to play this archetype is to treat it as a tempo deck, delaying or controlling the opponent's threats once you establish your board.

Best Commons

Best Uncommons

Sultai Grave

In Sultai, we have an archetype that takes advantage of graveyard interactions, especially with the Renew mechanic.

There are two gameplans within the archetype: a more midrange approach, trading with the opponent and reusing the cards in the graveyard to strenghten your threats; and a more grave-centric approach, with lots of self-milling to find the pieces you need.

For both game plans, Disruptive Stormbrood is a very good option, managing the opponent's early game while we set up our grave.

Dragon Sniper is an excellent blocker, forcing the opponent to waste a removal or lose a creature, thus buying us time.

Scavenger Regent can be used as a global removal against aggressive opponents or as a creature with evasion and self protection due to Ward.

Dragon's Prey is a cheap and straight targeted removal.

Aegis Sculptor benefits from cards being put into the graveyard, becoming stronger as the game goes on. It is very synergistic with Essence Anchor, allowing us to expand the board with zombie tokens.

Sibsig Appraiser is extremely useful: it is a body that replaces itself and feeds the graveyard.

Fangkeeper's Familiar aids the midrange plan. Its flexibility allows it to deal with several different game states, being very useful.

When considering the self mill plan, be very careful. Since Limited decks are built with 40 cards, you can't afford to mill in excess, so we must be precise.

Glacierwood Siege guarantees you hit your land drops each turn, and if you have fetches, it's even better.

Ainok Wayfarer allows us to keep hands with fewer lands, counting on finding them with its ability while we feed the graveyard.

Teval, Arbiter of Virtue is the best card for the archetype: good body, evasion, life gain and grants delve to our spells, which speeds up our game a lot. But we must be careful with what we cast, because they drain our life - so it is really vital to hit with lifelink damage before casting our spells.

Lie in Wait is an extremely efficient spot removal for the archetype, returning our best creature from the graveyard while we deal with an opponent's creature.

Auroral Procession is a way to reuse whatever we need that is in the graveyard - even lands!

Qarsi Revenant and Naga Fleshcrafter are interesting options, with advantages beyond simply placing counters. The shapeshifter is also a way to develop our board.

Best Commons

Melhores Cards Incomuns

Best Uncommons

Mardu Aggro

In Mardu, we have an aggressive token-based archetype, so we'll look for low-cost spells that create more than one body, especially those with Mobilize.

Zurgo, Thunder's Decree is the best card here, conserving the tokens created by Mobilize, thus enhancing our synergies.

Elspeth, Storm Slayer is another extremely efficient card, doubling the tokens created by Mobilize, increasing our side of the battlefield and removing large creatures.

Salt Road Packbeast can be cast very early, and it is an aggressive body that draws a card.

Static Snare has a very interesting reduction here, being easily cast for two mana.

Voice of Victory guarantees no combat tricks in your combat phase, and also produces more bodies to attack with.

Avenger of the Fallen is a creature for when our graveyard is a little fuller, in order to keep the pressure on the opponent.

War Effort is an enchantment that contributes to the strategy by enhancing the power of our creatures and placing an extra token.

Playing a Stadium Headliner on turn one is excellent, having a very good effect with Shocking Sharpshooter. This basically transforms the tokens your cards' make to face damage directly, which can swoop your opponent's life points if it enters the game early.

Zurgo's Vanguard has considerable damage potential, forcing the opponent to remove it as soon as possible.

Barrensteppe Siege combined with Mobilize works as a removal spell every turn, forcing the opponent to sacrifice their creatures.

Bone-Cairn Butcher, besides being a creature with a very relevant body, makes blocking very difficult for the opponent, since it would be just trading 1-for-1.

Hardened Tactician guarantees the deck doesn't run out of fuel, taking advantage of the many tokens created.

Sonic Shrieker is another option at the top of the curve, and can also close out a game with direct damage to the face. If it doesn't, it should at least force the opponent to lose a card. It can also deal damage to creatures, working as removal.

Windcrag Siege doubles the effects of attacks when we choose Mardu, causing the abilities to trigger again.

Thunder of Unity replaces itself and even drains the opponent. If you save creatures for it, you can easily close out the game.

Worthy Cost is the best removal of the archetype, taking advantage of the tokens that will be sacrificed in the end step. Unburied Earthcarver is another way to make use of the tokens before they are sacrificed.

Venerated Stormsinger can both develop our board and drain the opponent.

Best Commons

Best Uncommons

Temur Harmonize

In Temur, we have a strategy around spells with Harmonize. In order to take advantage of it, we need creatures with great power in order to reduce the cost of the spells in our graveyard.

There are two main paths: a Ramp Control plan, holding out aggressive decks until midgame, when we reach our larger bodies and take over; or a fast strategy, with small ramps and fixings to accelerate 5 and 6 drops.

Ureni, the Song Unending is a very strong creature, enough for us to go for the cost reduction and ramp strategy. Its protection against White and Black holds back a lot of spot removals, and its body is too big for red or green removals. Basically, if it stays on the board, you will probably win the game.

Temur Battlecrier is a key card for the archetype, allowing creatures to reduce the cost of spells and accelerating the gameplan.

Mammoth Bellow sets up a strong following play: use the first token to reduce the cost with Harmonize, and with 3 mana, put another 5/5 on the board.

Frostcliff Siege on Temur allows us to immediately pass damage through, putting us ahead in the damage race.

To ramp, we have Rainveil Rejuvenator, which grows our available mana by two, or even more if its power increases, and at the same time, also works as a blocker.

Herd Heirloom provides us with more resources, keeping our hand full of cards to continue with the game plan.

Other available ramps are Encroaching Dragonstorm and Sunset Strikemaster.

On a more synergistic pick, we have Aegis Sculptor, which uses the graveyard to grow stronger, and thus helps to pay for Harmonize costs.

Winternight Stories is an option to feed the graveyard, in addition to being another Harmonize card to boot.

Eshki Dragonclaw grows stronger by combining creature and noncreature spells, all the while replenishing our hand.

Dragonback Assault needs a continuous stream of land drops to be effective, so we will need cards that find lands, such as Roamer’s Routine, Sagu Wildling and Temur Monument.

Karakyk Guardian, Craterhoof Behemoth and Marang River Regent are some examples of other cards we want.

Another option for top of curve is Stormscale Scion, even though it can be difficult to make much of the Storm ability, we can use it in conjunction with Whirlwing Stormbrood - which grants flash to our dragons -, so we can use our opponents' spells to up the Storm count.

For the early game, it is important to use Channeled Dragonfire, Molten Exhale, Twin Bolt and Glacial Dragonhunt.

Best Commons

Best Uncommons

Sub-Archetypes

Within the set, there are some two-color combinations that will mix effects from two major archetypes.

I will touch on the ones within the color wedges, considering that the creatures will be those that fit the archetypes those two colors are a part of.

Orzhov - Tokens and Sacrifice

The combination of Endure, from Abzan, and Mobilize, from Mardu, gives us an archetype focused on token generation and value when they are sacrificed.

Izzet Second Spell

This combination seeks to incorporate Harmonize cards to reap the benefits of cards with Flurry, and thus use less resources from hand.

Golgari Counters

Here we have a mix of counters from Endure and Renew, which means lots of different effects to take advantage of in the battlefield.

Boros Aggro

This is straightforward aggro, going for the opponent's life points. Focus on double spells each turn, using mobilize to increase the number of attackers and Flurry to strenghten them all.

Simic Grave

Combining the Temur and Sultai strategies, the Simic version tries to gain value with effects that trigger when cards leave the graveyard.

Renew allows us to increase a creature's power, and them use it to Harmonize. It's important to have card draw or self mill to set up the game plan.

Removals

This is a pivotal point in any Limited, so let's talk about each color's main removals.

White

White has Static Snare and Coordinated Maneuver, both effective and very good in aggressive decks.

Blue

In blue, we have the traditional tempo plays, like tapping, putting Stun counters, returning to hand, and putting on top or bottom of the library. Since they are not de facto removals, I won't count them.

The closest thing to removal in Blue is Fresh Start, which although it doesn't really take out the creature, the fact that it loses its abilities can be significant in this format.

As for Ringing Strike Mastery, even though it is a 1-cost card that certainly helps with second-spell synergies, it feels lacking and probably not worth the slot.

Black

In black, the biggest highlight is Scavenger Regent's Omen, Exude Toxin, which works as global removal against non-dragons.

Caustic Exhale is a -3/-3 removal that, if we have a dragon in hand or if we control one, can be cast for only 1 mana. It is one of the best removals available in the format.

Wail of War has an interesting design because it only affects the opponent's creatures, which can prove effective as a combat trick.

Red

In red, the relevant ones are Channeled Dragonfire - which can be cast from the graveyard - and Narset’s Rebuke - which gives back 3 mana and exiles the target, its problem being the high cost, but it is somewhat on-par for the set.

Twin Bolt is an excellent removal against aggressive decks.

And finally, Twinmaw Stormbrood's Omen, Charring Bite, which deals 5 damage for 2 mana, even though it does not hit flyers, is still a very good removal.

Green

Not much news for Green, Piercing Exhale has synergy with dragons and both the Sultai and Temur mechanics.

Knockout Maneuver, in turn, is also tied to the Abzan and Sultai.

Sarkhan’s Resolve is the classic removal for flyers, but also a combat trick, which makes it stand out in Green's removals.

Multicolored

Multicolored removals are very effective, with the exception of Jeskai Revelation, which requires a lot of mana in return for a very medium effect. Magma Opus from Strixhaven was more efficient, had more versatility and still had the possibility of discarding it, creating a treasure to ramp up our game.

Kin-Tree Severance is very interesting because there are lots of combinations to cast it, even if we're stuck on colors. It's a very good removal and it exiles, which is very helpful due to lots of cards that can be used from the graveyard.

Inevitable Defeat is the best removal in the format: it drains 3 life from the opponent, can't be countered, and exiles anything.

Creature's Stats

These are the percentage of creatures in the set separated by their Toughness. I'm only considering the base toughness, disregarding additional effects or counters.

1 Toughness - 12,84% of the set;

2 Toughness - 19,59% of the set;

3 Toughness - 34,46% of the set;

4 Toughness - 19,59% of the set;

5 Toughness - 08,78% of the set;

5+ Toughness - 4,73% of the set;

Adding up:

1 Toughness - 12,84% of the set;

2 Toughness - 32,43% of the set;

3 Toughness - 66,89% of the set;

4 Toughness - 86,49% of the set;

5 Toughness - 95,27% of the set;

5+ Toughness - 100% of the set;

Thus, we can conclude that 4-power is enough to hold back most creatures from the Set, and 5-damage removals are as good as any spot removal.

Since the set focuses on 3-Colored Archetypes, mana fixing is very needed - thankfully, there's plenty cards with it.

Mana Filtering

There's a creature cycle to correct the mana colors for each particular clan.

Artifacts

We have a cycle of monuments, for each clan, that search for a basic land in the clan's colors, fixing the manabase.

Dragonstorm Globe allows us to ramp and fix mana for whatever color we need.

Embermouth Sentinel is the worst mana-fixer, but it is still better than none, since it puts the land on top of the deck.

Lands

Here we have Evolving Wilds, the 2-color gainlands, and the 3-color taplands - which is more than enough for good mana fixing.

The mechanics are very interesting! I believe Abzan and Mardu are very strong and full of synergy, while the Jeskai mechanic feels a little subpar for Limited play.

The two-color archetypes are viable, but not necessarily the best, since we have many 3-color payoffs on each archetype. Don't be afraid to go 3-colors!

Which archetype seems most interesting to you?

Remember, Tarkir: Dragonstorm prerelease is themed - you'll choose your clan before playing. It was a tough call between Abzan and Mardu for me, but in the end I chose Mardu - we'll see if I can run with it!

Any questions, suggestions or feedback, feel free to use the comments section below!

See you in the next article. Cheers!