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Welcome back for some more Tarkir: Dragonstorm cards that are getting me excited! If you missed the first two articles covering the new set, be sure and check those out by clicking on my byline above.
This time we're covering previews that have been revealed as of my writing this on 3/26. Being in the full swing of Dragonstorm, the previews are spilling out rather quickly, and honestly, I feel like I've been more excited for this set than I have been for a set in a long time.
Let's begin!
Severance Priest
Severance Priest is another in the cycle of rare clan creatures. It's doing its best Oildeep Gearhulk and Thought-Knot Seer impression, while also doing a good Skyclave Apparition impression. I think the opponent getting a creature here really lowers the value.
The reason the free token works well on Skyclave Apparition is because the opponent paid the mana for the card you exile, so they're just getting their initial investment back. If you kill the Priest, however, the opponent gets a free creature that they never had to sink any mana into. It's a significant difference and, coupled with the fact that the creature could be huge, might be the main reason this doesn't see a ton of play.
Clarion Conqueror
This has to be one of the best rates and stats for a "hate bear" that we've seen. A 3/3 flier for three mana that shuts off the abilities of all artifacts, creatures, and planeswalkers is such a good deal. But it's worth noting that the Conqueror shuts off all abilities, which includes abilities controlled by the owner of the Dragon. While you can easily engineer your deck to not be affected by this, it's unlikely you'll see this guy in decks with traditional hate bear cards like Aether Vial.
Dragonologist
Augur of Bolas got an upgrade! I don't love this at three mana, but it's still very good thanks to that last line. Not being limited to only finding Dragons means this can find a home in a control deck with only a few Draconic win conditions. Traditionally two- to three-mana creatures that let you dig and find a card for free see some amount of play (a la Sea Gate Oracle). I think giving all your untapped Dragons hexproof absolutely makes this a bit better.
Herd Heirloom
Herd Heirloom reminds me a lot of Orb of Dragonkind, which was another cool Dragon-based mana rock. While Herd Heirloom doesn't specifically mention Dragons on it, we kind of know what we're expected to target with its second ability. The nice thing is that this is a two-mana accelerant that can help you cast any creature, not just Dragons. The other nice thing is that, later in the game, when you no longer need the mana, you can just draw cards with this by attacking with creatures you were already planning to. Win-win!
Songcrafter Mage
The harmonize ability seems like if flashback and convoke had a baby. Songcrafter Mage seems like one of the closest variants of Snapcaster Mage that we've ever seen. It has flash and hits both instants and sorceries the same way Snapcaster does. It costs one more mana, but does have +1/+1. Giving the card harmonize, which immediately reduces the targeted card's cost by three mana if you only tap the Songcrafter Mage itself, is kind of a sizable upgrade.
Jeskai Revelation
This seems like one of the set's "Ultimatum" spells, which looks like it could potentially be a cycle? It looks like there are big, splashy mythic spells for each clan that all cost six or more mana. Some of the other potential options might be Death Begets Life (our next card), Dragonback Assault, and Perennation.
Now that that's out of the way, holy smokes do I love Jeskai Revelation. As someone who Top 8'ed multiple Pioneer RCQs with Magma Opus, this card is exactly what I love. It costs one less than Opus, but you can't make a Treasure token with it. This is kind of a bummer, since the Treasure would often get you to four mana, but that's okay. You also can't divide the damage the way you can with Opus. Instead of tapping two permanents, you get to return a spell or permanent, which seems a bit better. You gain four life here instead of none, but your tokens are worse as 1/1s with prowess instead of simply being 4/4s.
Ultimately, I do think Magma Opus is a bit better, but that likely won't stop me from giving the Revelation a try, especially when all I want to do is flash it back with a Torrential Gearhulk.
Death Begets Life
As mentioned, this is likely another one of the "Ultimatum" spells of the set. I wasn't going to include this, because it's just... a lot. This effect is really cool, and admittedly pretty powerful, despite the high mana cost, but this really feels like a card that wants the classic "You have no maximum hand size for the rest of the game" text. Depending on the number of players in a game, you could end up drawing something like 20 cards from this. That's kind of nuts, and could actually just kill you, depending on how many cards you have left in your deck. Maybe this should have the classic "Then if your library has no cards in it, you win the game" text instead, but I guess Decree of Pain has been getting along just fine without the textual additions.
Anyway, thanks for reading and I'll catch ya next time!
Frank Lepore
