Tarkir 101: Don't Make Enemies of the Dragons
Welcome to the Tarkir: Dragonstorm review for enemy-colored cards! While Dragonstorm is focused mostly on the three-color clans of Tarkir, there are a handful of two-colored cards that can benefit the clans that share two overlapping colors in their identity (e.g. like how Mardu and Jeskai both have red and white in their color identity) that we'll be covering today.
Notably, there are no new two-color mythics or commons in either Tarkir: Dragonstorm nor Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander, so our set review will be heavily skewed towards the middle. That said, there are some POWERFUL rares and uncommons that we got in this set, so we've got plenty of cards to talk about. Let's get to it!
Rares
Our first card, Barrensteppe Siege, lets you choose between a slightly worse Cathars' Crusade and a slightly worse Grave Pact, two incredibly powerful cards that can steal the game with little help. It seems like a great addition to grindy Orzhov aristocrats decks that make tokens or recur creatures easily.
Barrensteppe Siege seems like a slam dunk for Teysa Karlov and Elenda, the Dusk Rose decks that will make use of either Abzan or Mardu options, but I think it'll be amazing in Athreos, God of Passage-style decks. Being able to make your opponents sacrifice creatures and pay life to keep you from recurring your own creatures when they die is a powerful one-two punch.
This might be my favorite card from either Tarkir: Dragonstorm or the associated Commander decks. Yes, it costs eight mana to cast, but you have a solid chance to get a second creature for free when it enters or attacks. As a Golgari mage at heart who loves to cast creature spells and tinker with graveyards, this card does everything I want to do.
It seems like a great value engine for Dragon decks, like Tiamat and The Ur-Dragon, that are full of high mana value creatures we can hit for free, but I imagine it will also find a home in decks like Meren of Clan Nel Toth and Old Stickfingers that want a high density of creatures and care about their graveyard. There's so much value to be had!
Our second Siege is arguably the best, dabbling in the same territory as Temur Ascendancy from the original Khans of Tarkir. I don't think you can go wrong with either the Jeskai or Temur options on Frostcliff Siege as the Jeskai side allows you to draw extra card(s) and the Temur side will help you close out the game with hasty, trampling threats.
To make the most of Frostcliff Siege, you'll want to go wide or employ evasive threats. Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer, Magnus the Red, and Ovika, Enigma Goliath all feel like natural homes for Frostcliff Siege, but don't sleep on something like Sauron, the Dark Lord as it's Orc token would love trample.
Glacierwood Siege looks unassuming at first glance, but it does a lot of powerful things in graveyard decks. Being able to mill yourself for four cards seems amazing in a Slime Against Humanity deck, and I'm sure there's some Simic mill brewers out there salivating over this card.
This seems solid in decks like Muldrotha, the Gravetide and The Mimeoplasm, and I'm definitely intrigued to see it paired up with spellslinger decks that care about the number of instants and sorceries in your graveyard. Glacierwood Siege seems like a great engine to fuel cards like Crackling Drake and Haughty Djinn.
To me, the Sultai half of Hollowmurk Siege is the better choice in most instances. I'm sure that the evasion and +1/+1 counter from the Abzan option will come up sometimes and be powerful in Limited, but being able to repeatedly draw an extra card every turn for two mana is a very powerful effect for most counters-matter decks.
Hollowmurk Siege will slot easily into Tayam, Luminous Enigma, Atraxa, Praetors' Voice, Skullbriar, the Walking Grave, and more commanders that care about adding counters. I'm very curious to add it to Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons and Volrath, the Shapestealer-style decks where we can use it as a way to gain extra benefit from putting -1/-1 counters on our own creatures.
The final Siege we're looking at, Windcrag Siege, is another strong contender for the best of the cycle. The Mardu option acts as a duplicate of Isshin, Two Heavens as One, while the Jeskai side will generate a hasty, 1/1 lifelinking token for us every turn. The Mardu side seems like the stronger of the two in the abstract, but the Jeskai side can be really strong in the right token deck.
I definitely think Windcrag Siege slides into Isshin, Two Heavens as One right away to give players a functional second copy of their commander, but it will also be amazing with Arabella, Abandoned Doll, Caesar, Legion's Emperor, and Zurgo, Thunder's Decree. This effect just gets better and better the more creatures that get printed.
Uncommons & Commons
This card is Regrowth at instant speed for the same mana value, and while that doesn't alone make Auroral Procession a standout card, it does provide some needed recursion in two colors that you don't have to telegraph ahead of time. It's a particularly nice effect to have access to in blue since a lot of blue's recursion is limited to cards that get back instants and sorceries, like Archaeomancer.
Auroral Procession feels like a natural fit for both Niv-Mizzet Reborn and Niv-Mizzet, Guildpact since they care a lot about two-color cards. Don't sleep on using it in graveyard decks like Slogurk, the Overslime or Sidisi, Brood Tyrant as another way to buy back a crucial piece that gets milled over.
Frontline Rush lives in a really interesting design space as a modal card because it can make two 1/1 tokens or pump a creature +X/+X where X is equal to the number of creatures you control, allowing the caster to flex between going wide and going tall at instant speed. It's going to be right at home in Arabella, Abandoned Doll and Baylen, the Haymaker decks.
I particularly like it in Baylen decks because Baylen allows you to immediately tap the two tokens to make mana, draw a card, or also pump Baylen, all at instant speed. Plus, sometimes you'll just be able to knock out the table's archenemy with some surprise commander damage.
The Ozolith is very good, so having yet another Ozolith in Host of the Hereafter surely must be better! While Host of the Hereafter leaves you more susceptible to board wipes than The Ozolith does, I'm certain pilots of Skullbriar, the Walking Grave and Ghave, Guru of Spores will be just fine.
What an interesting design space Kishla Skimmer lives in. It works well with everything from Regrowth and Ramunap Excavator to and delve spells, like Treasure Cruise, and dredgers, like Golgari Grave-Troll. Being able to draw an extra card per turn in a graveyard-centric deck just for moving cards out of your graveyard seems like pure gas.
Kishla Skimmer seems tailor-made for commanders like Grolnok, the Omnivore and, of course, Muldrotha, the Gravetide, where it will be yet another value engine. I imagine it'll be insane in Slogurk, the Overslime and Teval, the Balanced Scale decks and just thinking about the math with both of those commanders is making my head hurt.
Runescale Stormbrood feels like another Charmbreaker Devils or Crackling Cyclops to add to decks like Veyran, Voice of Duality or Bria, Riptide Rogue. I like it a lot in Bria and Balmor, Battlemage Captain since the power buffs Runescale Stormbrood gets will stack with the bonuses from your commander.
Don't sleep on Runescale Stormbrood being a counterspell that you can use to defend your commander from a Swords to Plowshares or stop a cheap threat like Ledger Shredder. Since omens shuffle back into your library, you can deploy Runescale Stormbrood as a threat later or reuse it as a counterspell, too!
When Stalwart Successor was spoiled, I immediately thought of Tayam, Luminous Enigma. Since Tayam runs so many weird counters, being able to get a free counter on, say, your Wall of Roots every time you activate it is downright busted.
Of course, Stalwart Successor also works with +1/+1 counter commanders, like The Wise Mothman and Atraxa, Praetors' Voice, as another Hardened Scales-style effect on a creature. I like it a lot for The Wise Mothman in particular since Mothman can only put one counter on X target creatures, so Stalwart Successor can both double the counters we put down AND be a target for Mothman's ability.
While the Omen half of Whirlwing Stormbrood is rather medium, being able to cast sorceries and Dragon spells as though they had flash is gas. Dragon decks from Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm to Tiamat and The Ur-Dragon are going to love having a Dragon that lets them play at instant speed.
Don't sleep on using Whirlwing Stormbrood for spellslinger decks like Storm, Force of Nature and Zaxara, the Exemplary as a way to play powerful sorceries on your opponents' turns. This card seems tailor-made to work with Slime Against Humanity decks.
A Roar for More
That's a wrap on the enemy colored cards from Tarkir: Dragonstorm! While there weren't too many cards to look through in the two-colored pairs (unsurprising given it's a set that cares about three-color clans), this set has some real hits led by the Siege cycle. Overall, Tarkir: Dragonstorm has so many interesting cards that suggest directions and themes without being too prescriptive and feels like it'll make an impact on multiple formats for years to come.
Let me know which enemy-colored cards you're most excited about in the comments below, and share any spicy tech I might've missed.
