There is a storm brewing now that Tarkir: Dragonstorm preview season is in full force. The debut video revealed the mechanics and some key cards while the Weekly MTG stream that followed offered a deluge of previews to get everyone excited for the next Standard-legal release for Magic: The Gathering.
Let’s kick things off with two of the most-anticipated previews — the planeswalkers!
Tarkir: Dragonstorm is based on the three-color clans of Khans of Tarkir so you know there will be come mana fixing. The gain lands return with new art. We will have to wait to see if any tri-color lands are included in the set.
Check out the two sets of full-art basic lands. First up, the Dragon’s Presence basics that will always remind you to keep an eye on the sky.
The Dragon’s Eye basics give you a glimpse of what you might see if you happen to come face-to-face with a mighty dragon.
Mechanics
Prepare to learn a handful of new mechanics that offer new takes on previous fan-favorites.
Omen
Some of the dragons in the set have omens attached to them. While the cards look like creatures with adventures, when you cast the omen half of the spell you get the effect then shuffle the card into your library as an omen of what is to come later. By requiring you to shuffle the card back into your library for playing the omen half, the dragons get to be much larger and have splashy abilities unlike creatures with adventures. If the omen gets countered the card won’t shuffle back in, but otherwise the card works the way you’d expect.
Renew
Renew shows up on Sultai cards as activated abilities that can only be activated from the graveyard. Each renew ability grants a counter of some kind.
Behold
Behold is an additional cost to cast some cards, meaning if you reveal a dragon card from your hand or choose a dragon you control on the battlefield when you play it. Some cards get cheaper than their printed mana value or provide additional bonuses.
Mobilize
Mobilize will appear on some Mardu cards. It is a triggered ability that triggers whenever a creature with the ability attacks. The number of 1/1 red Warrior creature tokens the ability creates will vary from card to card.
Harmonize
Some Temur cards will have harmonize, a new take on flashback. These cards can be played from the graveyard for their harmonize cost, but the twist is you can tap a creature to reduce the harmonize cost for X where X is the creature’s power.
Flurry
Flurry is an ability word that will show up on some Jeskai cards. A flurry ability will trigger when you cast your second spell each turn, often granting creatures a nice bonus effect.
Endure
Endure is a keyword action that creatures take when they enter the battlefield or another action takes place, like with Anafenza, Unyielding Lineage below. Endure allows you to put +1/+1 counters on a creature or make a white Spirit creature token equal to its endure number. This ability will appear on cards from the Abzan clan.
Hybrid Mana
Hybrid mana returns as a way to cast spells for differing mana values. If you pay the specific color pips on a card it will be at its cheapest, but you can pay two generic mana for any one pip to cast it in a pinch.
Clans
Abzan, Jeskai, Mardu, Sultai, and Temur will be represented once again in Tarkir: Dragonstorm. Check out some of the stars from each clan, whether that be a Spirit Dragon, legendary creature, saga, or enchantment.
Additional Main Set Previews
The previews keep coming! Take a look at a new dragon land, a new take on Sieges, legendary creatures, and a whole bunch more.
Booster Fun
Tarkir: Dragonstorm is loaded with Booster Fun treatments. The Headliner of the set, Mox Jasper, comes in a serialized retro foil version, a double rainbow foil variant, and non-foil retro versions of the new Mox.
Special Ghostfire and Halo Foil Ghostfire treatments will pop up on 10 cards in Tarkir: Dragonstorm. Ugin, Sarkhan, Skirmish Rhino, and seven others will receive the flashy treatment.
Borderless Clan treatments will appear on 57 cards across all five clans. These black-out styles make the character on each card standout.
The Draconic treatment will show up on all cards dragon or dragon-related.
Borderless reversible cards will also be available for many of the dragons in the set. Rock a cute or fearsome version of your favorite dragons or dragon planeswalker.
Commander Decks
The five clan-aligned Commander Decks were previewed along with their face card and alternate Commander, both in borderless variants.
A handful of Commander staples will get new Tarkir-themed illustrations, too.
Special Guests
Ten of the Special Guests for Tarkir: Dragonstorm were shown off in their borderless glory. The first five are the original Ultimatums from Shards of Alara but now with dragon-themed art on the world of Tarkir.
The next five are the enemy-color fetch lands with new plane-appropriate art.
The fetch lands also come in a special Dragonscale Foil version available only in Tarkir: Dragonstorm Collector Boosters.
Play Promo
The official Play Promo card will be a Dragon’s Eye Wastes. More details on how to get the awesome full-art land will be available soon.
Secret Lair
Weekly MTG also revealed the They Grow Up So Fast Secret Lair drop that features the original five Dragonlords from Dragons of Tarkir with stunning new reversible art — one side showing them as babies and the other as adults.
The drop will be included in the Our Bosses Are on Vacation Superdrop and will come in foil and non-foil. The foil drop will cost $39.99 and the non-foil drop cost $29.99. The drop will go on sale March 24 on the Secret Lair website.
Tarkir: Dragonstorm releases on April 11. You can view our official preview gallery here.
