Tarkir: Dragonstorm Promos

 

Tarkir: Dragonstorm is nearly here and there are lots of great promo cards available throughout the coming weeks.

Firstly the prerelease. There will be different prerelease packs this time and where possible we will try and give players the one that they want.

You can book your place on our website now 

For anyone that plays in two events there is again a special pin available.

We will once again be running a Magic Academy event for new players and anyone that attends one of these events will get a special Dragon Hoard promo card.

Standard Showdown is a weekly event where your players can hone their Standard format decks. This event is a structured tournament that rewards the first-place winner with a Cowboy Bebop-themed Snakeskin Veil promo. Our events will continue to run on Sunday afternoons from 2pm.

Next up is the Store Championship which is the culmination of Standard Showdown and FNM events for our players who have refined their Standard decks through competition and are ready for their next-level challenge. The promo cards for this event are...

Event participants will receive promos while supplies last:

• All participants: Gleeful Demolition promo
• Top 8 players: Charming Scoundrel promo
• Store Championship winner: Goddric, Clouded Reveler promo
• 
  

For members of our community that prefer multi player formats we have Commander Party

Bringing together our players for Commander events to experience Tarkir: Dragonstorm story in an exciting way. You will choose a clan alignment (more than one player may choose the same clan), and as you play, the dragonstorm grows in intensity, opening special clan abilities. If the dragonstorm gains too much energy, it releases a powerful effect for all players in the game.

Commander Party events will be between April 18–24 and May 16–22.

Participating players receive Dragonspeaker Shaman promo while supplies last.

Finally, FNM will get a new promo prize pack including cards from this great new set.

MTG Prerelease Dragonfury

There's something a little special—and a lot dragon-y—coming to the Dragons of Tarkir Prerelease.

We're doing something we've never done before. You're going to get to harness the power of a dragon and actually knock over those puny humanoids on the ground.

Are you ready? Introducing: Tarkir Dragonfury!

The board is a Tarkir landscape, and it's filled with pieces for you to knock down! It's up to you to deal with as many as possible.

Here's how it works.

Inside each Prerelease box is a special spindown life counter, themed to the dragon lord you chose.

This represents your breath weapon. Now, it's time to put your breath weapon to use!

You'll get to go up to this board and assess it. Try and figure out the best angle of attack. And then, you roll your special spindown "breath weapon" and try and knock down as many as pieces as possible!

Each piece has a point value on it. You get points equal to the total number you knock down.

But there's also a little bonus. See that circle in the top-middle? If your die ends up in there, you'll double your score! If you can aim just right, you'll rack up a massive score.

Looks like it's time to break out the rulers and talk to your friends who are good at physics to figure out the best way to try and roll at this!

But, of course, not all of us have that kind of patience. So you get two total rolls. (Resetting the board between each roll.) Whichever one you get a higher score on, write it down on the nearby scoresheet! That's the leaderboard.

Oh, and did I mention there are special promo card prizes?

I can't tell you exactly what cards you get just yet, but you can earn up to four alternative-artwork promotional cards depending on how well you roll—one of which is a rare Dragon! The breakdown works like this:

3 points—Land
9 points—Land and Common
12 points—Land, Common, and uncommon
18 points—Land, Common, Uncommon, and Rare

So, in short: you get to roll your spindown breath weapon twice at any point between rounds, then score some nice promos based on how many points you get. 

Dragons of Tarkir Mechanics

With the new MTG set only a few of weeks away here is a breakdown of the mechanics we can expect...

BOLSTER
Bolster is the signature ability of the green-white Dromoka clan. It hasn't changed since its appearance in Fate Reforged.

To bolster, first find the creature you control with the least toughness. If there's a tie, choose one of those creatures. Then put a number of +1/+1 counters on that creature equal to the bolster number. Bolster doesn't target any creature. You don't determine which creature is getting the counters until you're taking the bolster action.

So suppose you control a 2/2 creature and a 1/1 creature and you cast Sandcrafter Mage. When Sandcrafter Mage enters the battlefield, its ability triggers. In response to that ability, your opponent destroys your 1/1 creature. When Sandcrafter Mage's triggered ability resolves, you control two 2/2 creatures. Since both of these creatures are tied for the least toughness, you choose one of them. It gets a +1/+1 counter, and you have a shiny new 3/3 creature.

REBOUND

Rebound is the signature ability of the white-blue Ojutai clan. Rebound is making its return (you all saw this coming, right?) after originally appearing in the Rise of the Eldrazi set. How it works hasn't changed.

Rebound lets you cast an instant or sorcery spell a second time for free. If you cast a spell with rebound from your hand, you exile it instead of putting it into your graveyard. Then, at the beginning of your next upkeep, you can cast the spell again without paying its mana cost. After casting it from exile, it's put into your graveyard. If you manage to have several spells rebound during the same upkeep, you can cast those spells in any order.

If you have any creatures from the last two sets with prowess, casting a spell with rebound will give you two bonuses, once for each time you cast the spell. (Prowess doesn't appear in Dragons of Tarkir.)

Rebound works only if the spell resolves. If it's countered for any reason, either because your opponent casts a spell like Negate or because all of the spell's targets became illegal, it won't rebound. It will just be put into your graveyard with no effect. If you can't cast the spell from exile, perhaps because it requires a target and none are available at that time, then the spell just stays in exile.

EXPLOIT

Exploit is the signature ability of the blue-black Silumgar clan. When a creature with exploit enters the battlefield, you may sacrifice a creature you control.

But you're not just sacrificing your loyal minions for fun. Each creature with exploit has another ability that gives you a benefit when it "exploits a creature." This means when you sacrifice a creature because of its exploit ability. That ability doesn't trigger if you sacrifice a creature for any other reason, including the exploit ability of a different creature.

You can sacrifice any creature you control when the exploit ability resolves, including the creature with exploit itself. You don't have to sacrifice a creature if you don't want to. If you do, you choose which one as the exploit ability resolves. To get the most out of your minions, look for creatures with abilities that give you an added benefit when they die.

DASH

Dash is the signature mechanic of the black-red Kolaghan clan. Dash allows your creatures to strike and disappear before your opponent knows what's happened. It hasn't changed since its appearance in Fate Reforged.

Dash is an alternative cost found on creature spells. As you cast a spell with dash, you can pay its dash cost instead of paying its mana cost. If you do, the creature will have haste, so it can attack that turn. At the beginning of the next end step, you'll return the creature from the battlefield to its owner's hand.

If you choose to pay the dash cost, you're still casting the spell, so it goes on the stack and can be countered. Dash doesn't change when you can cast creature spells, usually only during your main phase. If you cast a creature spell using its dash cost, it will return to your hand only if it's still on the battlefield at the beginning of the next end step. If it leaves the battlefield before that point, it'll just stay wherever it is.

Some dash costs are lower than the mana costs of the creature cards they're on. So, if you have four mana available you can cast Sprinting Warbrute a bit earlier than you otherwise could and get an extra attack in. On the next turn, you can cast it for its mana cost and it'll stay on the battlefield like normal. Other cards have dash costs that are the same or higher than their mana costs. Attacking with such a creature right away can be powerful, so you may want to cast such a creature using it dash cost even if you could pay its mana cost.

FORMIDABLE

Formidable is the signature mechanic of the red-green Atarka clan. Formidable is an ability word, so every formidable ability is different, but they all care in some way about controlling creatures with total power 8 or greater. Read each one carefully to see exactly what it does.

When calculating the total power of creatures you control, use their actual powers, even if they're less than 0. For example, say you control creatures that are 0/3, 4/4, and 8/8. The total power of creatures you control is 12. But if your opponent cast a spell that gave the 4/4 creature -6/-0, you'd have an 0/3, a -2/4 and an 8/8. Their total power is 6.

Stampeding Elk Herd's ability has an "intervening 'if'" clause, which is basically a condition of a triggered ability sandwiched in the middle. Abilities like this check the condition two times: once when the ability would trigger. If you don't control creatures with total power 8 or greater at that time, the ability doesn't even trigger. If the ability does trigger, it checks whether you still control creatures with power 8 or greater to see if it resolves. If you don't, the ability does nothing.

Other formidable abilities are activated abilities. You must control creatures with total power 8 or greater in order to activate them. However, once you activate such an ability, it doesn't matter what happens to your creatures. Even if their total power dips below 8, the activated ability will be unaffected.

MEGAMORPH

Think of everything you loved about the morph ability from Khans of Tarkir. Megamorph is all of that, but bigger!

If you understand how morph works, megamorph is almost exactly the same. The only difference is that if you turn a face-down creature with megamorph face up by paying its megamorph cost, not only will it suddenly have its normal characteristics, but you'll put a +1/+1 counter on it as well! Note that if you turn a face-down creature face up some other way (for example, say you manifest a card with megamorph and turn it face up by paying its mana cost), it doesn’t get the counter.

Turning a creature face-up doesn't use the stack and it can't be responded to. So if I controlled a face-down Aerie Bowmasters and turned it face up, it would be a 4/5 (3/4 with the +1/+1 counter) before any player could do anything.

The morph overlay returns in Dragons of Tarkir booster packs to place on face-down creatures with megamorph. It's not necessary to distinguish between creatures you cast face down (although distinguishing between them and manifested cards is still required). This accessory is optional. You don’t have to use them, but look how cool they make your face-down creatures look! They're also a good way to remember to show your opponent what your face-down creature was if it leaves the battlefield or the game ends.