Now that we are close to the release ofMagic: The Gathering’s latest set,Tarkir: Dragonstorm, the full card lists for the set’s Commander decks have now been previewed. Each deck from this set represents one of Tarkir’s five clans, and has a prominent character from that clan and a dragon as possible commanders. The Jeskai deck actually has two prominent characters as commanders in addition to a dragon, since Shiko and Narset appear on the same card.
There’s a lot to be excited about inTarkir: Dragonstorm, fromthe set’s powerful new Planeswalker cards, toMagic’s apparent return to form when it comes to well-realized world building. Personally,I’m most excited to get my hands on the new Temur Roar Commander deck, and spice it up with a few powerful cards of my own. As is common for a pre-constructed Commander deck, the deck isn’t bad in its current state, but there are some obvious additions that can be made to take it to the next level of play.
What Is The Strategy For The Temur Roar Deck
Temur Roar Seeks To Establish A Strong Board Presence With Dragons
As a color identity,Temur tends to focus on creating significant threats on the board while disrupting your opponents' ability to do the same. The Temur RoarCommander deck fromTarkir: Dragonstormfits nicely into this strategy, as its primary commander, Eshki, Temur’s Roar, gives you extra value for playing big threats, and can become quite the threat in its own right. Although I don’t see myself running this deck’s alternate Commmander, Ureni of the Unwritten, it is a nice late-game threat for this build.
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Although Eshki’s card doesn’t name Dragon cards specifically,they are a major focus of how this deck is built out of the box. While you could build around Eshki with any large creatures, I’m going to stick with the dragon theme so you don’t have to make as many changes to the deck. That said, I think Eshki, Temur’s Roar fits nicely into a lot of Temur decks, or could be built around without the use of so many dragons.
Your basic strategy for this deck is toget out your big dragons and do direct damage thanks to flying. You’ll also want to use cards like Reality Shift or Spit Flame to remove other threats on the board and ensure you have the strongest presence with creatures. The deck also includes some additional ways to benefit from playing big spells, similar to Eshki, like Elemental Bond.
What Cards You Should Add To The Temur Roar Deck
Temur Roar Can Be Improved With A Few Additions
When replacing cards for the Temur Roar deck, I avoided including any cards onMagic: The Gathering’s new Game Changers list. I also avoided adding any tutor cards into the deck. This means that, while these upgrades will improve Temur Roar, they shouldn’t change what Commander Bracket the deck falls under. I also avoided making too many changes because, at a certain point, it would be unhelpful to buy the Temur Rage deck if most of the cards were swapped out.To see a full list of changes I’ve made, see the table below:
Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm
Flying, ward 2
Whenever another nontoken Dragon enters the battlefield under your control, create a token that’s a copy of it, except the token isn’t legendary if that Dragon is legendary.
Terror of the Peaks
Flying
Spells your opponents cast that target this creature cost an additional 3 life to cast.
Whenever another creature you control enters, this creature deals damage equal to that creature’s power to any target.
Stormbreath Dragon
Earthquake
Earthquake deals X damage to each creature without flying and each player.
Storm’s Wrath
Warstorm Surge
Whenever a creature you control enters, it deals damage equal to its power to any target.
Breaching Dragonstorm
Carnelian Orb of Dragonkind
Tap to add red mana. If that mana is spent on a Dragon creature spell, it gains haste until end of turn.
Animar, Soul of the Elements
Protection from white and from black
Whenever you cast a creature spell, put a +1/+1 counter on Animar.
Creature spells you cast cost 1 less to cast for each +1/+1 counter on Animar.
Maelstrom of the Spirit Dragon
Tap to add colorless mana.
Tap to add one mana of any color. Spend this mana only to cast a Dragon spell or an Omen spell.
Pay 4, tap, Sacrifice this land: Search your library for a Dragon card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.
Exotic Orchard
Skyshroud Claim
Search your library for up to two Forest cards, put them onto the battlefield, then shuffle.
Kindred Discovery
As this enchantment enters, choose a creature type.
Whenever a creature you control of the chosen type enters or attacks, draw a card.
Draconic Lore
As soon as I saw this deck, I knew I wanted to add a Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm to it.Miirym’s ability to copy dragons is perfect for a dragon-heavy build like this, and will get you a lot of extra value out of your creatures. Although not a dragon, I think Animar, Soul of the Elements fits this deck’s strategy nicely. Its cost-reducing ability will make it much easier to cast some of your bigger creatures.
Cards likeWarstorm Surge and Terror of the Peaks are always nice additions to a deck that cares about high-power creatures. These can be used to pressure your opponents, or as a form of targeted removal. They both also synergize nicely with Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm and Reflections of Littjara (which is already included in the deck), as you’ll get activations off both your original creature and their clone.
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I likedEarthquake as an alternative to Storm’s Wrathbecause this deck runs mostly creatures with flying. This means, for only one cost more, you’re able to deal the same amount of damage to your opponents' creatures while missing most of your own. Earthquake is also more flexible, so you can cast it for less to wipe out an army of weak tokens, or for much more to take out most non-flying creatures.
The rest of the replacements I made were simply toadd better versions of the existing cards. For instance, Skyshroud Claim will let you grab two of the dual Lands in this deck, whereas Migration Path is limited to Basic Lands. I’m also not a fan of cards like Exotic Orchard and Fellwar Stone that rely on your opponents having the right colors to be super useful, so I replaced them with cards that synergize well with this deck’s dragon theme.
The Best New Temur Roar Cards To Build Around
Temur Roar Includes Some Powerful New Magic Cards
If, instead of upgrading the Temur Roar deck, you wanted to build around one of its new commanders,I would pick Eshki, Temur’s Roar. Early-game commanders make more sense to me from a strategic standpoint, and there are better Temur Dragon commanders than Ureni of the Unwritten. That said, I think Ureni slots well into the 99 of any Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm decks.
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As for thenewTarkir: Dragonstormcardsyou could add to the main deck of other Commander decks, Deceptive Frostkite stands out to me. It can copy a big threat and also give it flying for a low mana cost. Thundermane Dragon also seems like a generally good card that you could run in anyMagic: The Gatheringdeck focused on large creatures.
