Best Commanders from Tarkir: Dragonstorm - with decklists!

Even though I've really enjoyed the themes from Magic's latest sets — like Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, with the cyberpunk atmosphere — I've been missing “Magic” sets. Outlaws of Thunder Junction and Duskmourn are incredible and, for the most part, have really fun cards, but they feel like many of their arts and designs choices are just there as a reminder: “Hey! Don't forget we have a theme!”.

Fortunately, with Tarkir: Dragonstorm, we can feel that a little bit of Magic is back, in a lore-filled Tarkir with throwbacks to the previous sets released 10 years ago.

In today's article, we'll review the best legendary creatures to build your Commander deck, and enjoy ourselves with one of the best blocks in Magic history.

The reviewed Commanders aren't organized in a quality order, like “from worst to best”, but rather according to their set number. The idea is to offer some insights and interesting ideas for your play group.

Also worth noting, we will only talk about commanders from Tarkir: Dragonstorm's main set, and not those from the pre-constructed Commander theme decks.

Tersa Lightshatter is a good way to start our review: an aggressive commander for a graveyard-focused Mono Red. Her first effect allows you to filter your hand on ETB, which Mono Red needs so much in this format, in addition to also filling the graveyard. This fits well into discard-spell strategies, in addition to synergizing with mechanics like Madness and Flashback.

Her second effect rewards a well-stocked graveyard and directly benefits from the first effect. Whenever Tersa attacks, you can exile a random card from your graveyard and play it that turn, which allows you to reuse even lands.

And, of course, haste is the icing on the cake, allowing her second effect to activate on the same turn she enters, generating immediate value and not being punished by non-instant removals, since you don't need to wait for your next turn.

My favorite human character from Khans of Tarkir, Surrak, Elusive Hunter is back, but in a new version. Just like in Dragons of Tarkir, we have a low-cost Mono Green commander, with well-balanced offensive and defensive options.

Both his stats and abilities look promising: a 4/3 body, trample and the uncounterable clause. Also, Surrak, Elusive Hunter is a somewhat "fixed" version of the problematic Nadu, Winged Wisdom, one of the biggest design mistakes in legendary creatures. Surrak can generate card advantage whenever one of your creatures or creature spells are targeted by enemy interactions — so it's a way to replenish resources and also a disincentive to spot removal.

While Surrak, Elusive Hunter isn't a complete innovation on Green's role in EDH, this commander offers a reliable alternative for green players who want to mitigate removal's burden on their board, by maintaining a good flow of resources.

And here I go, with another Khan from the Temur clan — if Yasova Dragonclaw comes by, it's three of a kind. Eshki Dragonclaw is an interesting commander, because of its condition: you need to cast a creature spell and a noncreature spell on the same turn to activate the ability. The reward is to draw a card and put two +1/+1 counters on Eshki.

This type of restriction requires attention both on deckbuilding and also on your game plan, since you need to have a good mana curve and choose spells that maximize the consistent use of the commander’s ability. The condition for the ability also isn't clearly aligned with a specific approach — archetypes like Voltron or Spellslinger, which could fit well in other circumstances, are not obvious choices here. In fact, cards with Omens and Adventures work perfectly in this context.

Eshki Dragonclaw stands out precisely because it is not an obvious deck to build or play, which gives the commander a special flair within the set.

Moving on to another Khan, this time Sultai, let's talk about Kotis, the Fangkeeper — a commander I really see in a Voltron archetype, something unusual for this color combination. Whenever he deals damage to a player, you can exile that number of cards from the top of your opponent's library and cast for free spells with mana value equal to or less than the amount of damage dealt.

Kotis begins as a modest 2-power creature - this means that, when you first deal damage to a player, you'll look at the top two cards of their deck and cast spells that cost 2 or less for free. By using equipments and auras that make your commander unblockable, increase power, or even grant double strike, it is possible to enhance the outcome of Kotis' ability, exploring this offensive potential to the fullest.

Also, Kotis, the Fangkeeper is indestructible — an incredible ability for a commander — which means he can only be removed with exile effects, or -X/-X effects, making him a very resilient creature - perfect to build a deck around.

Neriv, Heart of the Storm is the Mardu spirit dragon, whose best quality is, without a doubt, uniting both the clan's old mechanic, Raid, and the Mardu's new mechanic: Mobilize. Neriv does this through his static ability, which stands out even in face of the 4/5 body and flying. When Neriv, Heart of the Storm is on the battlefield, the damage caused by creatures that entered on the same turn is doubled.

Abilities like Blitz, Unearth and effects like Mass Hysteria are very welcome in this deck. And, when we look at the clan's mechanics, we realize how everything fits perfectly. Raid allows you to put creatures on the battlefield with haste, returning them to your hand at the end of the turn; while Mobilize creates attacking tokens, which are sacrificed at the end of the turn. We can even extend this to the previous Mardu Khan, Alesha, Who Smiles at Death, who revives a creature upon attacking.

Although Neriv, Heart of the Storm relies on good tempo and keeping pressure on the opponents, it's a very straightforward game plan. He's a commander who can end games quickly if opponents aren't prepared to deal with multiple and sudden threats.

Just as Neriv, Heart of the Storm was tailor-made for both old and new Mardu clan, Teval, Arbiter of Virtue is perfect for Sultai — or, at least, for their old version. Well, there's been a lot of changes in Sultai colors...

As defined in the lore, the old Sultai were very focused on the idea of ​​risk and reward: lose resources, like life points and creatures, to activate effects and interactions with the graveyard. That's exactly what Teval brings with his ability to grant Delve to all your cards. Delve allows you to exile cards from the graveyard to pay generic mana costs, which makes it possible to cast colorless artifacts for free, or expensive spells needing only colored mana — all depends, of course, on your graveyard management.

But, as mentioned before, if the Sultai give you something, they will also take something away. Teval, Arbiter of Virtue's second ability causes you to lose life based on the mana value of spells you cast—not just with Delve, but any spell. This adds depth to this commander, as Delve is a very strong mechanic that can make spells like Dig Through Time and Treasure Cruise extremely problematic. Finally, Teval also has lifelink, which is a big help if you don't cast that many spells and want to recover some health.

Zurgo, Thunder’s Decree is very focused on the aforementioned Mobilize ability. Zurgo has Mobilize 2, which means that upon attacking, he creates two red 1/1 Warrior tokens that are also attacking. Normally, the tokens would be sacrificed at the beginning of the end step, but Zurgo has a static ability: during your end step, Warrior tokens have “This token cannot be sacrificed”, which allows them to remain on the battlefield, thus generating value.

This ability, similar to the one we see in The Master, Multiplied — another good addition to the deck — transforms Mobilize from a temporary effect into a true army-creation engine. In archetypes that already abuse tokens, as is common in Mardu colors, this creates opportunities for both mass attacks and synergies with global buff effects, or with mechanics like Convoke, common in white. In addition, Zurgo's passive ability requires careful timing, since tokens only gain protection from sacrifice during the end step, which can influence combat decisions and usage of removals.

Tarkir is a set where Wizards made good of their promise to be less focused on Commander, with both a lower number of legends and also less overall utility for the format. Legendaries like Ureni, the Song Unending are clearly aimed at 1v1 constructed formats, such as Standard and Pioneer.

This works as a breath of fresh air for new sets, which were being suffocated by so many cards made exclusively for Commander — such as the infamous Nadu, Winged Wisdom in Modern Horizons 3. This approach, personally, pleases me a lot, since I value the well-being of the 1v1 competitive formats.

See you in the next article!