Sets [DTK] Dragons of Tarkir Spoilers Thread

[Lucre]

Great combat tricks in this set if you love shitty removal. It's too bad so few black creatures block because +1/+2 and deathtouch is like a dream for people willing to disregard how the black section tends to work when they get excited.

selesnya and dragon punch are nuts too if you like your removal to be off colour, conditional and a complete liability.

I'm serious guys I'm pretty sure I'm not being sarcastic right now because I'm actually kinda excited about these cards.

 

[Alfonzo Bonzo]

Thanks Lucre, this looks really quite cool. Am going to give it a whirl.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Went to the prerelease today, had a blast. My opponents made some really bad mistakes as well, there's definitely lots of opportunities to mess up in this set.

Exhibit 1: I cast Taigam's Strike on my Sidisi, Undead Vizier (great card by the way) to attack for lethal over two turns, together with a flyer. My opponent is playing Atarka. I assume I'm still at a healthy life total. Basically only Sarkhan's Rage can burn me out. I just Reality Shifted his most fearsome attacker last turn. Turns out it's a Savage Ventmaw. He attacks, unmorphs because he wants to cast the Sarkhan's Rage, realizes it triggers on attacking, so he should have unmorphed then attack. A moment later he realizes the damage from Rage would have been enough had he simply attacked for 2 with the manifested dragon (and the rest of the creatures). Lucky win!

Exhibit 2: Opponent is slowly but surely grinding me out with Outpost Siege. It's been a back and forth game though, and my removal has emptied the board so far. He attacks with Rakshasa Gravecaller, casts another, exploiting the first, then plays Dragonlord Kolaghan. He moves to his attack step when I point out he already attacked this turn. Next turn I Sidisi for Kolaghan's Command, burn the Dragonlord and return Hooded Assassin, play it and kill Kolaghan. Woo! I got to burn Kolaghan with his own command! Opponent admitted he wanted to get some value out of the first Gravecaller before he exploited it. I still lost that game though. Outpost Siege is so brutal >_>

Anyway. Exploit is an awesome ability, Coat with Venom is a really good combat trick, and I want to change my cube around so I can accomodate both Sidisi's!

 

[shamizy]

Yeah, new Sidisi is awesome. We had one in our 2HG sealed pool and it was awesome. I played a BR deck and exploiting Dragon Fodder tokens was so much value. One time I actually tutored for an Impact Tremors which slowly killed the other team (since it's basically Purphoros in 2HG). Then in another game we got our Arcbond and pulled off a zany combo of blocking with our 1/6 Zombie Turtle, blocked their biggest attacker, burned it with something, then followed it up with Arcbond. It was something like 16 damage to both teams and got us the W. So sweet. Also that one Dash guy, the 5/4, is ridiculously good in this format. So big and dumb.

For the normal prerelease I chose Atarka, opened the crappy Crater Elemental, and basically had a bear deck that got wrecked Round 1. Then I had 30 minutes to make a real deck, so I put together a weird UB splashing white from the rest of the my pool and won the remaining 3 rounds.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Then I had 30 minutes to make a real deck, so I put together a weird UB splashing white from the rest of the my pool and won the remaining 3 rounds.

There's definitely lots of room to misbuild as well. I started out WuB, then went BR, and finally got back to uBR.

Kolaghan's Command was the MVP of my deck though, that card is so awesome! I used all four abilities over the four matches it was in my deck, and they all won me games!

 

[shamizy]

Yeah, agree with you there, definitely not as straightforward w/deck building as I thought it would be. I was also amazed by how much value exploit generated over the course of a game. It is a super super sweet mechanic. Rakshasa Gravecaller and that one that gives -3/-3 to target creature were both really solid.

RB seems like the way to go in Limited on first glance. There's just so much efficient removal and Dash is really good this set.

 

[shamizy]

After the prerelease and giving a more thorough look at the cards in the set, I think there are way more cards that I want to try out that I had thought. Especially after the prerelease:



Definitely way more than the 7 that I had originally.

 

[James Stevenson]

I went to prerelease, but not to play, just so I could go cube in a chinese restaurant with some friends. It was awesome.

 

[shamizy]

Your prereleases are at chinese restaurants? Sweet.

 

[GenericZero]

So I went to two prereleases. We'll ignore the first one. I went Atarka in it & got nothing. Did 3-2. Not interesting though. Today, I played a second prerelease & went atarka again but ended up going Dromoka. If you dislike me not using color pairs instead of brood names, too bad. You've got google, get over it. Anyways, I pulled 2 "vigilance" warriors, green 2 drop that pumps, 2 lightwalkers, the green Dagahtar 3 drop, dragonlord dromoka, the frf 3 drop white outcast fella, & then a bunch of extremely mediocre stuff. Okay, I lied. The 2 Conifer Striders were better than expected. I barely stayed two colors & expected the traditional "lol didn't draw my rares so I lose!" But I guess I undervalued my pool. I went 5-0 on the back of conifer striders & double striking warriors. Dromoka got into play once. I had some fun. This post was a waste of time.

 

[spicewitch]

I went to prerelease, but not to play, just so I could go cube in a chinese restaurant with some friends. It was awesome.

That sounds suspiciously like enjoying things that will last instead of paying the big bucks for an ephemeral moment with strangers! I'm not sure you're a real Magic player!

 

[ahadabans]

This is a good set, no doubt. I'm probably going to test 9 cards (8 in shammy's list above plus Coat with Venom). I'm especially excited about getting a playable green dragon. I've been waiting a long time for one of those.

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

I'm kind of surprised this isn't getting more attention:



Its essentially an upgraded quirion dryad. Its nice to have a vertical grow piece to compliment the horizontal pieces we already have.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

I'm kind of surprised this isn't getting more attention:

Come on man, you've got to give us more credits. I even used CAPS LOCK!



This card has impressed me in the post-prerelease "open prize boosters and build limited decks to play against each other to evaluate cards" games. I think I'm going to try it out in my cube!

 

[Lucre]

This is a good set, no doubt. I'm probably going to test 9 cards (8 in shammy's list above plus Coat with Venom). I'm especially excited about getting a playable green dragon. I've been waiting a long time for one of those.

Do you mean the 7 mana one?

I am still pretty dubious about the +1/+2, black is so bad at having diverse and favorable blocking anyway.

Come on man, you've got to give us more credits. I even used CAPS LOCK!



This card has impressed me in the post-prerelease "open prize boosters and build limited decks to play against each other to evaluate cards" games. I think I'm going to try it out in my cube!

+2/+1 sorcery seems so narrow though.

 

[safra]

?

 

[Onderzeeboot]

?

That's two mana more and in two colors though. And it doesn't increase toughness. Great Teacher's Decree is an impressive anthem effect at a relatively low cost that also triggers all the prowess effects twice. Who knows, it might not be good enough, but that's something I'm only going to find out if I try it!

 

[Lucre]

Its hard for me to consider things anthem effects if they don't help you against removal or while blocking. This is basically an over run that wants you to have your force be able to alpha twice and maybe have evasion too.

There's gotta be a broader version of alpha bonus in white already right?

I mean this is a fine 2 card combo with any army in a can.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Well, there is



That's the closest there is I think, but the difference between four mana and five mana in an aggressive deck is real. The fact that Decree pumps twice is also very relevant. Usually one-shot anthems are, well, really that. One shot. That's what makes them so unplayable in general (Overrun excepted). Anthem effects are often iffy because they only grant +1/+1, which isn't really enough to be worth the slot. If you run a weenie deck though, and get three or four men onto the battlefield by turn four, you get six to eight power. And the next turn again! That's really an insane amount if you think about it. Of course it won't help you if your behind, but this card is really good at pushing through a lot of damage at exactly the right spot in the curve.

 

[Diakonov]

There's gotta be a broader version of alpha bonus in white already right?

I can't think of one at the same cost. This might be the strongest white overrun effect printed yet. Goes well with first strike, double strike, lifelink, tokens, prowess, etc. Easy to splash, too.

 

[safra]

looks like I have another Khans include! Thanks, it's totally worth testing.

 

[Lucre]

I can't think of one at the same cost. This might be the strongest white overrun effect printed yet. Goes well with first strike, double strike, lifelink, tokens, prowess, etc. Easy to splash, too.

So what you're saying is it goes well with being ahead on board? I guess theros avatar is more complicated to use but I gotta assume heliods dictate is like 2x as interesting as this is. I do generally agree on the difference between 4-5, I rarely have even a single 5 in my aggressive decks, but I also very rarely play a stupid alpha strike enabler right on curve but who knows with this thing.

I guess I'm also just sick of seeing cards in drafts that are only for particular aggro decks / have no defensive use outside of racing. Like so much of your (one's) cube is devoted to / useful to aggressive strategies over midranged and control decks anyway.

If you want to make cube more about combat when enabling the midgame and control strategies, instead of tempo efficient trades, I feel like people need to start thinking more about creating advantageous blocks and good stabilizing creatures than privileging attacking so hard (something I notice a lot in various cubes). 4 mana for say 8 damage or so is pretty good, I guess it depends on how many attacks it actually enables with that +1 toughness and how many matches in your cube result in racing alpha strike wars.

 

[James Stevenson]

That's two mana more and in two colors though. And it doesn't increase toughness. Great Teacher's Decree is an impressive anthem effect at a relatively low cost that also triggers all the prowess effects twice. Who knows, it might not be good enough, but that's something I'm only going to find out if I try it!

Rally the Peasants has a huge upside though. Instant speed is very good here, and the potential to cast and flashback during the same combat is very powerful!

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

Another problem, besides the narrowness which Lucre pointed out, is that its essentially a limited card being ran in cubes pushing constructed quality cards.

Dictate of heliod I found too expensive at 5 mana. You need a slower environment for it to be good i.m.o.

 

[Chris Taylor]

Another problem, besides the narrowness which Lucre pointed out, is that its essentially a limited card being ran in cubes pushing constructed quality cards.

Dictate of heliod I found too expensive at 5 mana. You need a slower environment for it to be good i.m.o.

It's been fine for me.

I actually thought great teacher's decree costed 5, but I still think I prefer dictate. Flash is awesome and it working while you're blocking is also awesome. Can't have your opponent on the back foot all the time after all