Though recent Magic: The Gathering collaborations with franchises like Final Fantasy and Spider-Man have garnered a lot of attention, the next set on the horizon, Tarkir: Dragonstorm, is already in motion. We have an exclusive first look at five cards that are expected to be popular among players at next month’s draft events. (The expansion is available for preorder on Amazon now).
Check out the gallery below for all five cards, and continue reading for insights from Wizards of the Coast about their design and the set overall.
The five cards in question form a “cycle,” as they share a common design theme across all of Magic’s colors. Each is an inexpensive, common creature tied to one of Tarkir’s three-color clans, featuring a special ability that allows conversion of mana into a clan color.
“In three-color limited environments, mana fixing is essential at every rarity,” explains Adam Prosak, Senior Game Designer at Wizards of the Coast. “To enable plenty of decks to access this mana fixing, we created various designs aimed at addressing these mana challenges. These creatures let you contribute to the game board while simultaneously gathering mana, unlike other options like tapped lands that only produce mana, often leaving players vulnerable.”
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Lauren Bond, Senior Worldbuilding Designer, mentions that while the mechanical aspect was prioritized, they also used common cards to reflect the unique world of the set, illustrating the distinctions in the clans since players last encountered them. “The energetic martial monks of the Jeskai, the Whispers wielding Temur magic, Sultai Nagas acting as jungle stewards, Mardu showcasing military might (with dragons of diverse forms!), and Abzan clerics nurturing the lost kin trees.”
