Tarkir Draft - First Impressions

Dragonstorm finally hit the digital shelves, and I've spent some time watching and playing the format. It's a breath of fresh air after an unexciting Aetherdrift Limited format. Aetherdrift was fine but not one we'll remember.

So far, I'm quite pleased with Dragonstorm Limited. The gameplay and draft experience are interesting and exciting. There's a lot of room to bounce around, and especially on Arena, it's easy to get into five-color decks. I caution that this may not be replicable in stronger draft pods. It may hurt you to try drafting powerful four-color or more soup decks when events like the Arena Open roll around, as the powerful cards and fixing will be more heavily contested. I'm eager to see how that all plays out.

I've noticed that the set is grindy, but you can die quickly if you stumble around too much. Cheap interaction is excellent, and removal is important. Generally, games get bogged down at some point, and it's all about keeping the largest threats in play. Small creatures tend to get picked off. I've played quite a few games where my opponent puts a plethora of 2/2s into play but all that mattered was what was going on in the skies. Between large creatures, lots of reach, and tons of value creatures, the board can quickly stall out.

The set, truly, is about the dragons.

Top-end is exceptionally easy to get because of the omen mechanic. From common to rare, there are a lot of late-game options, and some players aren't making relevant adjustments in their picks. There's so much good top-end that your normal solid-rate common top-end isn't good enough unless it's coming attached with a cheap cantrip omen.

I don't have enough reps yet to be sure, but my suspicion is that the fixing is better than usual, so you should also slightly downgrade lands and such in pick orders. This is especially true in softer draft pods like you'll find in an open setting on Arena. We have the common dual lands, Evolving Wilds, tri-lands, and monuments at uncommon. There's also your typical green fixing, as well as a Manalith with upside.

While the format is grindy, you want to play to the board early and often and set yourself up for the grind. In general, I want my two-drops to scale into the game better than usual or, at the very least, solve a problem the deck is facing. For example, if fixing is off, I'm happy to play a copy or two of Embermouth Sentinel. Its ability to ramp in the midgame is relevant, but ideally smoothing your mana and curve on early turns sets you up to play any kind of game.

There is no shortage of playables, so jumping around early in the draft is highly recommended. Take the best cards and figure it out later. If you start in Sultai, it's not that hard to pivot into Jeskai after a few picks.

I like to start in two colors but specifically enemy colors, so that I get gold cards. You can easily play a base UG deck splashing both Sultai and Temur gold cards.

There aren't many actual mana sinks in the format. Instead, they're replaced with value cards and two-for-ones. Because of this, I like blue thus far. Blue has a lot of value cards that keep cards flowing and make it difficult to run out of gas. Spending mana is important. If you take turns off, it will be difficult to come back because there's so much value in the set that it snowballs quickly. Try to make sure you draft a plan for long games.

As I said before, the best commons are removal. I think Piercing Exhale is overrated, despite my chat telling me otherwise. There's a lot of recency bias from this effect because of Run Over, which was legitimately great. Piercing Exhale costs more mana, as Run Over often costs only a single mana, and it doesn't kill everything. The format is more about grinding, so I want my removal to always kill the biggest creature or have it castable early, so I don't get run over.

Having to play tapped lands, drop a creature, have it stick, and then kill an opposing creature is too much setup. That's not to say I won't play it, but my experience so far has been lukewarm.

Here are a couple of decks I've drafted.

This looks like a typical early-in-the-format Sultai deck. I recognized the open lane and got paid with a variety of Sultai gold cards. One thing I like about the monuments and Embermouth Sentinel is I can get away with playing 16 lands if I have a couple because both cards don't want you to be flooded.

I like my curve nice and lean, but I want enough value to also have inevitability if possible. I won all of my games in the air by stabilizing the ground and going to the skies. I think most blue decks will win this way, while Abzan and Mardu will win by being lower to the ground.

The other deck I took a screenshot of is also Sultai. This one is more focused on putting stuff in my graveyard. This deck is exceptionally good. There is a lot of synergy and power, and it's consistent thanks to Gurmag Nightwatch setting up my midgame.

Worthy Cost is out of place, but my deck had so much value and a variety of renew creatures that will serve me better in the graveyard in the middle of the game. Having access to an exile effect is relatively decent.

I'm enjoying Dragonstorm Limited. This format will likely have a lot of ebb and flow as people adjust pick orders and we stop wheeling great gold uncommons and lands. I will be back with a more informed opinion next time.

For anyone going to Denver for the Spotlight event, this is a set you'll enjoy and should work on since there's a lot of value to be gained with reps. The 17lands data will be harder to parse in a set like this.

Personally, I can't wait for my matches to end so I can hop back into the queue. The drafts are exciting, and the games are tight.