Sets (TDM) Tarkir: Dragonstorm Previews!
- Thread starter TrainmasterGT
- Start date
That's why. I always wondered.
Joke’s aside, it is because you become the Dragon. Not the card.
Smile At Death and Slight Rhino feel so phoned-in.
A five mana enchantment that reanimates small creatures
is Potentially Interesting For Certain Cubes.
i suspect i'll stick with Recomission and Abiding Grace though.
A five mana enchantment that reanimates small creatures
(and then makes those creatures incompatible with Delney and the like)
i suspect i'll stick with Recomission and Abiding Grace though.
Q: what's the sum of those two cards's mana costs?
A: This card!
A: This card!
Chris Taylor
Contributor
TBH according to Safra who's been on Elemental Eruption for a while it's the great "not all in" storm card where you can just like, free spell, seething song, either of these on turn 3/4 and just jam
Someone at WotC remembered that Dragonstorm was a deck at one point, but didn't quite remember how it worked.
Nah, you just need Dragon Tempest out, storm into Stormscale Scion, swing out, cast Dragonrage to get a ton of mana, and then Quicken Dragonstorm for the win. This is an entirely reasonable gameplan, and not a Sarkhan-tier dragon meltdown.
To be fair, I think this is exactly the card people wanted. I was concerned the "Siege Rhino Reference" was going to be some eight mana legendary creature with 8 lines of text that amounted to nothing. Skirmish Rhino, by contrast, is a highly functional and awesome game peice.
this makes it seem exceedingly fair!!->
Today WotC posted the Planeswalker's Guide to Tarkir Part 2 and it looks like they defanged Sultai quite a bit. I'm not too mad about it, because the aesthetic is extremely strong and good, but I didn't hate the prior one either, even if it was a little one-note. I appreciate not having one of the Clans on Tarkir be "straightforwardly and wholly evil" but also, they don't seem evil at all anymore?
It does seem like a preventative measure regarding a wholly-negative depiction of the people who descended from the Khemer, which I get, but whitewashing history, particularly fictionalized history that only alludes to the real places and people that inspired it, tends to rub me the wrong way. Not the biggest deal in the world, but a bit unfortunate (even if, like I said, the art is sweet).
I mean... the "new" Sultai culture is actually pretty realistic. Consider:
Khans of Tarkir Sultai: The Naga took control at some point in the past, and were running everything on brutal oppression and propaganda. The humans explicitly used ancestral necromancy in an attempt to keep in touch with a pre-Naga culture that wasn't shit.
Fate Reforged Sultai: We see the Sultai before the Naga took control. The Sultai ruling class started to make devil deals to stay in power, which lead to the weak little shithead Tasigur pissing off the Nagas (which probably lead to the Nagas taking over the clan in the Khans timeline, but lead to Silumgar taking them over instead in the Dragons timeline).
Dragons of Tarkir Sultai: We see the (former) Sultai as still being a predominantly human clan (like they were in Fate Reforged). There's still a bunch of brutal oppression and propaganda, but now it's done by dragons (Sarkhan says yay) and Rakshasa. As far as they're concerned, Tasigur being a weak little demon-pact-making jerk was directly what lead to their current oppression state (I wouldn't even be surprised if, over literally 1,000 years, the story mutated to "everything bad about our culture is a result of Tasigur being the worst").
The Sultai are probably the only clan that legitimately couldn't look like its original version in the new set, because Silumgar took over the role the Nagas played and "try to pick up where we left off" is going to look supremely unappetizing since it would involve making deals with the same demons that you literally just overthrew. But hey, "Sultai" is still going to be a compelling cultural identity to try to reclaim and build yourselves around, so...
(Outside of the game, it gives me decolonization vibes.)
Khans of Tarkir Sultai: The Naga took control at some point in the past, and were running everything on brutal oppression and propaganda. The humans explicitly used ancestral necromancy in an attempt to keep in touch with a pre-Naga culture that wasn't shit.
Fate Reforged Sultai: We see the Sultai before the Naga took control. The Sultai ruling class started to make devil deals to stay in power, which lead to the weak little shithead Tasigur pissing off the Nagas (which probably lead to the Nagas taking over the clan in the Khans timeline, but lead to Silumgar taking them over instead in the Dragons timeline).
Dragons of Tarkir Sultai: We see the (former) Sultai as still being a predominantly human clan (like they were in Fate Reforged). There's still a bunch of brutal oppression and propaganda, but now it's done by dragons (Sarkhan says yay) and Rakshasa. As far as they're concerned, Tasigur being a weak little demon-pact-making jerk was directly what lead to their current oppression state (I wouldn't even be surprised if, over literally 1,000 years, the story mutated to "everything bad about our culture is a result of Tasigur being the worst").
The Sultai are probably the only clan that legitimately couldn't look like its original version in the new set, because Silumgar took over the role the Nagas played and "try to pick up where we left off" is going to look supremely unappetizing since it would involve making deals with the same demons that you literally just overthrew. But hey, "Sultai" is still going to be a compelling cultural identity to try to reclaim and build yourselves around, so...
(Outside of the game, it gives me decolonization vibes.)
I like the new art for Jeskai a lot. They're my favorite clan but I thought a lot of their cards looked a little too samey in the original.
I've got to say the new Abzan look is a major downgrade in my opinion. I could accept the purple metallic armor with gold trim on Neon Kamigawa or something, but I thought Abzan had the most coherent, cool-looking armor and stuff in the old block.
Meanwhile Temur just effortlessly looks great.
I've got to say the new Abzan look is a major downgrade in my opinion. I could accept the purple metallic armor with gold trim on Neon Kamigawa or something, but I thought Abzan had the most coherent, cool-looking armor and stuff in the old block.
Meanwhile Temur just effortlessly looks great.