Cards In Tarkir: Dragonstorm That Could See Play in Modern
Today we’re digging into the cards with the highest potential for Modern playability from
Tarkir offers a lot of new toys for many formats, and some (discussed in this article) are probably overemphasized in formats other than Modern, but still possess potential for entering into the Modern landscape.
Let’s dig in!
Voice of Victory
Starting things off, we have Voice of Victory. This lovely Bard is effectively
The main value this creature provides is that it mostly enables you to take unimpeachable game actions on your turn. Typically,
Decks like Orzhov Blink, Boros Energy, and Azorius Control all, in theory, can benefit from Voice in some way. Particularly in Boros Energy, Voice not only allows you to take protected game actions, but it possesses the Mobilize triggered ability that allows you to make two 1/1 Warriors attacking when it attacks.
These tokens represent not only additional damage and pressure that can be put on board, they also represent enter triggers for
Finally, for Boros decks still on
In many ways, Voice represents a playable card more than it represents a card that will immediately impact the metagame, though its value and the ease at which it can be slotted into many shells warrants some evaluation and experimentation within the format.
Currently, this single is one of the more commanding price-wise, sitting at a market price of $10 (subject to change after release). Will it be run as four-of? Nope, but one or two between the mainboard or sideboard doesn’t seem unrealistic. I see this card falling a little bit more in price and settling between $3.5 and $5.
| Voice of Victory | ||
| Voice of Victory (Borderless) |
Nature's Rhythm
Nature’s Rhythm is another XGG tutor in the same vein as
While GGGG is a steep baseline cost to pay even before tapping a creature to partially pay for the X value in the cost, there is one deck that can quite easily make four green pips, while also possessing a six-power creature to pay the remaining Harmonize costs… This shouldn’t come as a surprise, but Nature’s Rhythm feels like it’s most playable and at its best in an Amulet Titan shell. Making 6GG and casting Nature’s Rhythm finds you
What sets Rhythm apart from its substitutes is that it represents two tutors on one card, meaning that even slotting in one or two Rhythms rather than a full play set will likely be as good as a full playset without the Harmonize mechanic. In cases like Amulet Titan, Harmonize ends up being GGGG to find Primeval Titan if you already have one in play, which will likely be good enough for it to see some relevant Modern play at the very least.
| Nature's Rhythm | ||
| Nature's Rhythm (Borderless) |
Mistrise Village
As with most land cycles, there’s usually one land that stands out from the rest by a fair margin. And most of the time, that land also happens to be in the blue part of the color pie. In theory Mistrise is included as a utility land in Temur shells, which sounds a lot less enticing with the banning of
Realistically, the downside of this land entering tapped is small and easy to mitigate. Modern has access to all the fetchlands, all the shocklands, and most recently, the Surveil lands, which make it fairly easy to ensure that Mistrise enters primed and ready to be put to use. The effect of Mistrise or its utility lies in its ability to make a spell uncounterable by paying one blue pip and tapping Mistrise itself - effectively, for expending two resources, you guarantee that the next spell you want to resolve does, in fact, resolve.
This card likely has more potential in more eternal formats like cEDh or Vintage, but don’t let that fool you; it is certainly Modern-playable. Murktide shells, Twin shells, and even decks like Amulet Titan that must always consider each newly previewed land as potentially includable in their decks benefit from the ability that Mistrise provides.
Right now, Mistrise’s potential reflects its price at around $15. It’s probably closer to a $7 or $8 card given the size of print runs for most contemporary sets. Nevertheless, it’s financial potential in Modern only grows as new combos not unlike Breach find prominence in the meta - what the next Breach will be is up for WotC to decide, but rest assured, Mistrise may be an obvious bomb in cEDH or even Legacy, but has explosive potential as Modern continues to evolve.
| Mistrise Village | ||
| Mistrise Village (Borderless) |
Ugin, Eye of the Storms
If this card were eight generic mana instead of seven, it probably wouldn’t even be on this list. The fact that it’s seven makes it exceedingly powerful in Tron-type builds, which most recently have taken on the form of Eldrazi Ramp. Seven-mana new Ugin (Nugin?) implies that each of the Tron lands being in play makes this spell playable with just three lands:
So what does this new planeswalker do? A better question is “what doesn’t it do?” Upon cast, Ugin exiles a permanent that’s one or more colors, and then possesses a triggered ability that allows you upon the cast of any colorless spell to exile a permanent that’s one or more colors. In any non-mirror match, these two abilities on their own are indescribably powerful. Its +2 allows you to gain two life points and draw a card, which is not irrelevant. Colorless Eldrazi doesn’t have access to the most reliable draw engines (we can’t have
The lifegain turn-over-turn also helps against more aggressive matchups where two to four life represents an additional turn where you may otherwise have already lost. Its 0-ability gives you three colorless mana, which feeds colorless spells for you to cast, which triggers its ability, and so on.
Finally, it’s ultimate at -11 just kind of wins you the game. I don’t know a world where exiling all your best Eldrazis and getting their cast triggers and putting them into play (usually) doesn’t just spell “game over,” but I could be wrong. Given that Ugin starts at seven loyalty, it only takes two +2 activations to get you to ult range.
Realistically, the cast trigger, triggered ability, and first two loyalty abilities will be where this card shines - and shine it likely will. Right now, Ugin is preordering at almost $80, and if it’s enough to push Eldrazi back to the top of the meta (again), I genuinely wouldn’t be surprised if it goes higher. Time will only tell if this is what carves out Eldrazi’s part of the meta in full force.
| Ugin, Eye of the Storms | ||
| Ugin, Eye of the Storms (Showcase) | ||
| Ugin, Eye of the Storms (Borderless) |
Final Thoughts
With this in mind, speculate safely and let’s see where the chips fall!
Further Reading
Commander Collections and Signature Spellbooks - What Happened?
Corey Williams
Corey Williams is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Shippensburg University in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. He considers himself a macroeconometrician with his research body reflecting work in applied macroeconomics and econometrics. Corey is an L1 Judge who started playing Magic around Eighth Edition. He enjoys Modern, Commander, cEDH, and cube drafting. Outside of Magic, he loves running, teaching, and the occasional cult movie.