Magic: The Gathering has a very busy year. With six collections on its roadmap for 2025, that means we have a new collection every two months. Very little rest for players, even less for their wallets. And the next collection promises us something that always returns in Magic, one way or another, and that gave us one of the most memorable moments in the history of the game’s competitive scene: dragons. Many dragons.
We return to Tarkir and that means three things: dragons, clans, and three colors
The next Magic: The Gathering collection is called Tarkir: Dragonstorm and as it is easy to guess, it will take us back to the plane of Tarkir. A world inspired by the steppes of Mongolia, where five clans defined by the five possible combinations of the three colors of mana in the game try to seize power over their hostile lands. All of this while they attempt to gain power from, or cooperate with, the dragons that inhabit those same lands that existed long before they were born.
Since both Tarkir collections are considered some of the best modern collections, both mechanically and narratively and artistically, this sets a very high bar for Tarkir: Dragonstorm. And from what we have seen, it still has to prove that it will indeed live up to it. Even if it already has some elements that suggest we are facing a collection that is, at the very least, interesting.
To begin with, the five clans will play a major role. This means there will be a strong emphasis on three-color cards, to the point that even in the presentations of the collection or when choosing a commander deck, we will have to choose an affiliation. With five possible collection boxes, each from a different clan, and five distinct commander decks, one for each clan again, everything in this collection thematically revolves around this battle. Even regarding how players will have to interact with each other when it comes to playing the collection itself. A good start in terms of thematic elements.
Strong identities, many different mechanics
But the other very present thing in Tarkir is dragons. And in Tarkir: Dragonstorm it will not be the exception. Whether it’s with a cycle of themed basic lands featuring dragons, a land specifically designed for us to play dragons and even search for them in our deck from a certain point in the game, or enchantments and spells that have extra effects when we cast dragons, playing dragons in Tarkir has great mechanical importance. Especially with the return of Behold, a mechanic that, if we have a dragon and show it to the other players, extra effects described on the card will occur.
All of this, moreover, comes with a great return. Because Ugin, the second most famous dragon of Magic: The Gathering and the most played, returns with a new planeswalker card: Ugin, Eye of the Storm. Colorless, able to give us a lot of mana, tutoring colorless cards and able to exile colored cards, it is a great threat if we manage to cast it. And it leaves us with a big question. If Ugin was the jailer of his even more famous brother, Nicol Bolas, what has become of him? It seems we will still have to wait to find out.
Outside of dragons and clans, there are quite a few mechanics. Flurry is a mechanic where, when we cast our second spell, a card effect is triggered. Mobilize allows us to create a certain number of 1/1 soldier tokens that must be sacrificed at the end of the combat phase. Renew allows us to cast the spell that has it for that alternative cost from the graveyard, being able to tap a creature and paying as much less mana as the power of the tapped creature. And renew will allow us to give the keywords of a card in our graveyard to another card on the battlefield. So it seems we will have no shortage of mechanics to play with.
Special Guest Stars
In addition, there will be Special Guests as in all collections. This time, the special guests are the Ultimatum card cycle and the land cycle known as fetchlands, which were originally published in Modern Horizons 2. A much-appreciated reprint, as both card cycles are currently reaching very high prices in the market.
In turn, the big surprise of the collection is that there is a second planeswalker in the collection. Because we have Elspeth, Storm Slayer. What Elspeth is doing in Tarkir is something we don’t know, but what we do know is that, like most of her cards, what matters to Elspeth is creating tokens and producing as many of them as possible. Being tremendously efficient at doing so. Why she will be in this collection and whether it makes sense for her to be is something we will have to discover through the game’s story, but it is undeniable that, at least, her card is interesting.
Until we see the entirety of the cards and determine if they have managed to capture the flavor of the original Tarkir, it is difficult to say that it lives up to the original collections. But it is also hard to deny that it could reach that level if the rest of the collection supports it. It will all depend on whether everything else they show is as interesting or more so than what we have already seen, which means Wizards of the Coast now has the toughest job: to prove that these foundations also have very good walls. But, without a doubt, the pillars are there to create a good collection.