Magic: The Gathering has released its most recent expansion to the long-running card game: Tarkir Dragonstorm. This set brings us back to the realm of Dragons, where roaring is most commonplace. As a player, you are going to bring the storm to your decks as you add more warriors, dragons, and more with new and returning Subtypes, Ability Words, and Glossary Entries.
Name: Magic: The Gathering
Expansion: Tarkir: Dragonstorm
Cards in Set: 452
Products Available: Play Boosters, Collectors Boosters, Bundles, Boxes
Release Date: April 11, 2025
We heard You Like Dragons…
There’s nothing like the feeling of cracking packs, the mystery of opening something and hitting the jackpot, or just adding to that ever-growing pile of commons that sits in the cupboard waiting for the day they become useful.
With Tarkir Dragonstorm, I found that there was little “jank” (pointless cards) in each pack, with some of the “hits” (high value cards) being more prevalent than usual… Either I got really lucky with my pack openings, or I pleased the right RNJesus. The big pull for me was getting a foil “Ugin, Eye of the Storm” in my first Collectors Booster pack. From there, it was a random mish-mash of good to ok pulls, a lot of which you can see below.
If there is one thing I’ll praise Tarkir Dragonstorm for, is the best thing about Magic: The Gathering in general: The card art. Not only did we get some amazing action scenes, characters, and of course, Dragons in this set, but we got one of the best-looking card borders that I have seen in a long time: Dragon Scales. These borders look amazing with any card that they are on, and even better with the “Dragon’s Eye” lands… Which I got none of. But I got a few of the dragon border cards themselves, such as the pretty cool “Stormscale Scion,” which is going to be going right into a Dragon-themed Commander deck down the line.
However, there is one complaint I have with this set, and that is the return of Saga cards. These cards never really clicked with me as a player, as you need to be able to use them multiple times to get anything good to happen. I’ve found these cards to be ultimately pointless in Commander games, as you won’t get a chance to use all the abilities before it gets wiped off the board. Why Wizards of the Coast keeps trying to make these a thing baffles me.
New Cards, New Rules for Magic: The Gathering
As with every other Magic: The Gathering set released, a bunch of new abilities and other things are brought into the game that will either confuse players or be accepted and used to great victory with those who understand.
For me, this adds more things that I need to remember when making a Commander deck or even a Standard Deck. Luckily, if you don’t understand things right away, you can always jump online and play these new abilities with MTG Arena. If you have enough time and money to get what you want in MTG Arena, then you will get to see how these abilities play without needing to bother a judge or knowledgeable person at your local card shop next time you’re there to play Friday Night Magic.
But for those of you who are interested in knowing what abilities and such that is available in Magic: The Gathering – Tarkir Dragonstorm, then I’ve provided the updated notes that are available through the official website below.
New Subset: Omen Cards
These are the rules for Omen cards. Each Omen is an instant or sorcery spell inset in the lower-left part of the card’s frame. When an Omen spell resolves, its controller shuffles it into its owner’s library instead of putting it into its owner’s graveyard. Otherwise, cards with Omens are mechanically very similar to adventurer cards. Adding this rule also caused us to renumber some subsequent rules and clean up some references.
New Ability Words
- Behold
Gentlefolk, behold! This rule and its subrules define behold, a new keyword action that instructs you to reveal a card from your hand or choose a permanent you control that has a specific quality. Tarkir: Dragonstorm cards using this keyword action allow you to behold Dragons, so enjoy basking in their glory in Limited and Constructed alike. - Endure
Endure is the other keyword action introduced in this release. Some effects instruct a permanent to “endure N,” and this rule and its subrules tell you how that works. Specifically, you create an N/N white Spirit creature token unless you put N +1/+1 counters on that permanent. There’s also a rule that tells you what happens when a permanent is instructed to endure 0. I’ll save you the search: nothing happens. - Harmonize
This rule and its subrules define harmonize, one of two keyword abilities in this release. Don’t worry if you can’t carry a tune, because harmonize doesn’t require you to sing at all. It’s an ability that allows you to cast a spell from your graveyard by paying its harmonize cost. You can also tap a creature you control to reduce the harmonize cost by an amount of generic mana equal to that creature’s power. - Mobilize
Marshal your forces for our second and final keyword ability in this set: mobilize! You can go read this rule and its subrule to find out what that means, but I’ll tell you anyway. Mobilize N means “Whenever this creature attacks, create N 1/1 red Warrior creature tokens. Those tokens enter tapped and attacking. Sacrifice them at the beginning of the next end step.”
Shiny Math Rock is Pretty
Ok, I’m not going to review a whole single dice here… I just wanted to point out how pretty this one looks. This 20-sided dice is done with a metallic blue with nice white swirls and a sparkling finish, accented by the silver numbering. A lot of Magic: The Gathering dice usually just come in the basic five-color setup, so having something with this much detail really needs to be pointed out. This dice is another reason why you should be going out there and grabbing the Bundle for Tarkir Dragonstorm, as it’s the only way you can get these special dice.
Magic: The Gathering brings the storm to all
While I got to spend time with a sampling of the Magic: The Gathering – Tarkir Dragonstorm set, I walked away with some interesting pulls. Out of the first collectors booster I opened, I pulled a Ugin, one of the most valuable cards in the set. It now sits in my collection with 2 card protectors on it, thus why you don’t see it in the photos (I forgot to grab it when taking photos).
As a fan of dragons and triple color decks, I am starting to mess around with the Dragons so I can build a nice and damaging red/black/green deck that is going to go crazy if everything works the way I hope it does… After finding some specific cards online, if I can’t find them in the thousands of Magic: The Gathering cards I have floating around my house.
Tarkir Dragonstorm is a good return for some of the community’s favorite expansions, with a lot of new cards available to keep players going till the next set that comes out… Which is the set that everyone is going to be fighting over to get: FINAL FANTASY… And with that release, may the card gods be in your favor and may the scalpers not get their hands on too much product.
For more information on Tarkir: Dragonstorm, visit: https://magic.wizards.com/en/products/tarkir-dragonstorm. To find Magic: The Gathering products, you can look up your local WPN store via this link: https://locator.wizards.com/
Review Disclosure Statement: Magic: The Gathering – Tarkir Dragonstorm was provided to us by Wizards of the Coast for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy for more details.
