Hello and welcome back! Tarkir Dragonstorm is about to prerelease and I couldn’t be more excited! The set has strong cards, interesting new takes on old favorites, cool interpretations of abilities and effects, nostalgia thrown in for good measure.
In this article today, I’m going to pick 10 non-legendary* cards from the main set that might be a good pickup for your commander decks. This was not an easy task, and while some cards might be specifically better in certain strategies, I’m going to try and pick ones with a broad appeal between many decks. Let’s go!
HONORABLE MENTIONS — The Sieges, Dragonstorm Style
A new cycle of enchantments comes out with Tarkir Dragonstorm, and those are the variously named Siege enchantments. Each has two modes to choose from, and some of those modes are decent to very, very good. It all depends on how a deck would use them, and each mode compliments the other a little.
Each enchantment being only two colors instead of three also helps them find more homes in decks with some of those synergies. For instance, Frostcliff Siege might work well in my Xyris deck since my snakes need evasion or I need more card draw. It all depends on when you might get to cast the enchantment during a game of commander.
CRATERHOOF BEHEMOTH
THE game-ender, Craterhoof Behemoth gets a notable reprint in the set. Not much else does what this creature does to help put the hurt on your opponents in one turn, helping go wide decks get up and over almost any defenses your opponents have.
It also comes with a reputation besides its strength. Many find and dismiss the card as a “boring” way to win. Regardless, you cannot deny its potential to win the game when it comes down on a table.
SMILE AT DEATH
I guess in the case of this enchantment what does kill you makes you a little stronger.
This card is a great value engine without being broken. That will be measured by what you get back. Easy repeatable tutoring with Imperiale Recruiter? Extra big recursion after a Karmic Guide? Gray Merchant coming for collection? Much like Alesha in her first interaction, this card helps bring all that value back.
This will easily go into decks with smaller creatures, or possibly lower power higher toughness decks we’re all about to experience playing or playing against. Oh, and on top of that, the enchantment gives +1/+1 counters, so synergies there as well.
FANGKEEPER’S FAMILIAR
Ironically, I did try to stay away from the three colored cards because they DON’T fit into a generic good stuff theme I tried for in these articles, but that ran into a few problems. One, this is Tarkir. There are going to be a LOT of good three colored cards, and two, this card is nuts.
Anyway, for those unfamiliar, this card is basically a power crept Mystic Snake, which was always a good card in my opinion. This one just brings a LOT more with it, including a counter ability. It doesn’t however counter everything, so there is some loss to gain ratio here, being you get to have life gain and surveil or destroy an enchantment. While the modes are a bit narrow, the flexibility you gain is worth it in most cases.
HERD HEIRLOOM
It grants fixing mana to cast creatures, gives a decent sized one evasion and you get card draw if the creature connects. Kind of everything you want in Green. It’s such goodstuff I didn’t even want to mention it but here it is, and that’s all I really have to say about it.
MARDU SIEGEBREAKER
The mightiest warriors with the greatest skills ride the battle chicken.
In all seriousness, this card stocks itself by exiling a creature you control and gives itself a weird version of Myriad when it attacks, making copies of the exiled card. The difference here is you get a copy also attacking whomever you are already attacking with the Siegetbreaker, and the creature itself has haste and deathtouch to get you immediate value both on swing and if it gets blocked.
So, the value is there. A possible leaves trigger, three possible enters triggers, three possible death/leaves triggers from the tokens, another possible enters trigger if Siegebreaker dies or leaves the field and your exiled creature comes back, and it can be combined into blink combos and burn combos by itself. That’s just this card and a creature to exile alone. Might want to add Elspeth here to make things even dumber.
Honestly I wish it had been legendary so I could build around it.
MISTRISE VILLAGE
Hate counter magic but play Blue anyway? Settle in Mistrise Village for all your uncounterable needs!
Seriously this card being a repeatable, better Overmaster is kinda dumb. Not as good as Cavern of Souls per se, but definitely serves in a similar role as that land does. This one will likely be a bit expensive, so if you open it up, keep it for a while and/or use it. cEDH MIGHT want this (disclaimer, I don’t play cEDH). I say might because it does potentially come into play tapped and telegraphs a bit by needing to be activated before you cast your spell, but it is an activated ability on a land which itself is hard to counter. Regardless, best of the Village cycle hands down in a vacuum. Meta may vary.
THE SIBSIG CEREMONY
Okay, I know I said non-legendary cards, but what I really meant was no legendary creatures. This card here is a really, really good card and an easy infinite with the right creatures. It is slightly harder to pull off the combo in commander, but a deck built around artifacts creatures might be doing something like recycling them anyway.
Beyond cycling colorless creatures for infinite zombos, its cost reduction to cast creatures spells is not to be overlooked if you have some excellent death trigger and reanimation to do.
ELSPETH, STORM SLAYER
Is this card nuts? Well, no, but it sure is strong as hell. Elspeth’s static ability alone can turn the game in a few turns, and her zero makes sure you can win most games as flying is surprisingly relevant most of the time, not to mention your creatures also get the +1/+1 counter.
Honestly, the free stuff from Elspeth makes the card, which lends to her strength. Her making two soldiers is fine, and her removal will help clear the way, but I don’t think that’s what will happen most when she shines bright on the field.
CORI-STEEL CUTTER
Okay, lend me your ears here. The thing about Flurry is that it doesn’t care what kind of spell you cast, as long as you cast two a turn. So, there is some flexibility in what you cast but a restriction on how many times the effect can trigger, namely once a turn per turn (unless you go infinite turns, then it doesn’t matter).
The reason I pick this card is because it can go in just about anything with Red, and provides bodies when triggered and Trample and Haste AND a buff. Not to mention that it can auto-equip to the token it makes. It’s a number of small effects that can add up really quickly in decks like Goblins or spellslinger where you might need the extra bodies and comes down early and cheap.
WORTHY COST
It may be sorcery speed, but this removal permanently gets rid of some of the most obnoxious things in the game. The additional cost in Black is also negligible since you might want your creature dying or in the graveyard anyway. Definitely a card for the casual table only if you consider it.
TOPPLE THE TOP TEN
Alright, so that is my very short list of cards to consider. There are many more cards I wanted to put here but as I mentioned in the blurb for Fangkeeper’s Familiar I tried to stay away from the three colored cards as much as possible, some of which are amazing but can’t be run outside the decks of the colors they have.
There are also some amazing legends as well, even some great mono-colored ones like Surrak Elusive Hunter that you should check out if three colored legends aren’t you thing. There’s a bit of something for everyone in this set. It will probably go down as one of the best sets this year in my opinion.
Tell what you think though in the comments below. I’m super hyped and already have cards pulled to make new Commander decks.
Until next time, travel the Salt Road safely.
