Hello happy folks! Happiest of days to you all! Today I wanted to look at my favorite new cards from the Commander decks just released with Tarkir: Dragonstorm for casual formats like Commander, multiplayer, Highlander, Type Four, Five Color, Peasant and Pauper too. Because this is a much bigger set of five decks, we'll come back and finish this off next week.

Alons-y!

Honorable Mention #1 - Floral Evoker

This 3-drop Green landfall lover is first! It'll turn land drops into +1/+1 counters for himself and then you can spend a Green to discard a dork and then bring back a land tapped from the graveyard. That's great for growing him and also ramping out some lands tapped! Fetch lands or Wasteland effects get the shoutout here.

#15. Neriv, Crackling Vanguard

This Mardu legendary leader with flying and deathtouch on a 4/4 body enters with a pair of 1/1 Goblins. Then when Neriv swings you'll exile a number of cards from your library equal to the number of differently named tokens you control. You'll be able to play cards exiled that way on any turn you attacked with a Commander! I love that a lot, and deathtouch means people might not want to block it and trade down with stuff. Enjoy!

#14. Steward of the Harvest

This Hill Giant in Green has an enters ability to exile up to a trio of lands from your graveyard and then your creatures have the activated abilities of lands exiled with Steward. Gaea's Cradle? Maze of Ith? Even Karoo lands like Simic Growth Chamber et all can just explode your mana in a going wide brew. Everything can be a Llanowar Elves or better! The only issue here is that all of those lands are exiled, so if your foes bounce, flicker, or kill her, those lands are gone forever.

#13. Parapet Thrasher

This four-cost flying 4/3 Dragon is next! It's got a combat damage trigger for Dragons, which lets you choose one that hasn't already been chosen this turn - Shatter, shoot all opponents for 4, or exile and cast the top card of your library. Removal and card flow and player kill is a great combo while swinging and killing!

#12. Eshki, Temur's Roar

Next up is Eshki, Temur's Roar! When you cast a creature spell you toss a +1/+1 counter here. Then, if that creature spell has at least 4 power, you draw a card. If it has at least 6 power, you can shoot foes for damage equal its power. Note that's a cast trigger not an enters trigger, so even if the spell is countered you'll get the effect. Love her potential!

#11. Colossal Grave-Reaver

This eight-mana Dragon with Golgari colors is a powerhouse for Five-Color, Type Four, and multiplayer in general. It's on an okay 7/6 flyer with an enters and attack trigger to mill three, and then when one or more creatures are milled or put there from your library another way (like surveil) then you can Zombify one of those creatures to the battlefield! No brakes on this value train! That's a first-turn play in Type Four with its infinite mana but just one spell per turn. Love it in all of the places that I care about, and even in Commander if you've got the mana.

#10. Broodcaller Scourge

This seven-drop 5/7 Green Dragon with flying has a combat trigger that lets you drop a free permanent with mana value less than or equal to the combat damage dealt by your dragons. If this dealt 5? You'd get a free 5-drop or less like The One Ring or Sylvan Library. Even lands! Free stuff while smashing face is brilliantly good. Love it much!

#9. Caldera Pyremaw

This 5-drop 3/3 Red Dragon is next! It gets a +1/+1 counter every time you cast an instant or sorcery, and then it deals damage to target opponent equal to its power! It outclasses Guttersnipe and Spellslinger is a beloved archetype.

#8. Teval's Judgment

This three-cost mono-Black enchantment is next, with a trigger for when one or more cards leave your graveyard! First you can draw, with no life loss. Next? Make a Treasure to ramp! Then third? Make a 2/2 Zombie Druid token! Every time the ability triggers on a turn, you have to choose a new option, but that resets every turn. Flashback spells? Delve? Reanimate? Regrowth? Putting back from your graveyard to your library like Academy Ruins? All of them trigger this, and it could be nasty good!

#7. Transcendent Dragon

This six-cost flying 4/3 Dragon with Flash will counter a spell when it arrives like Draining Whelk, and then instead of gaining +1/+1 counters equal to the spell's cost you can instead cast the spell, like Spelljack!

#6. Ureni of the Unwritten

This is our final card before the Top Five! Who doesn't love a seven-mana, three color 7/7 with flying and trample? Ureni rocks an enters or attack trigger to dig eight cards into your library, and then you get to drop a Dragon for free from among them! Nasty stuff. We know how powerful and broken free stuff is, so just insert Lightning Greaves to get in two free Dragons on our first turn. This is very strong when built around, so my suggestion is to use something else as the Commander. I think he's much fairer in the 99.

#5. Arbor Adherent

This 2/4 four-cost Green Birds of Paradise can also tap for mana equal to your greatest toughness among other creatures you control! That's a minimum of one if all you have is this Doggie out, but this could tap for a lot more in the right deck!

#4. Afterlife from the Loam

Our fourth scoring card is this Black delving mass recursion spell for eight mana. This will bring back one dork per player, and then they are Zombies. The more players the more you can bring back! I love this for so many decks, so run it and play it all up and down block.

#3. Reunion of the House

We have another mass recursion spell next, and this one lets you bring back any number of dorks with a total power of 10 or less. I love this in midrange with Eternal Witness and Mulldrifter, in my Bear Beats, in Hate Bears, in Aggro and loads of other places! Note that unlike the first one, this is exiled on resolution so no casting it again. Sorry! Makes sense, but sorry.

#2. Hammerhead Tyrant

Ever since it was printed, way back in the first Ravnica Block in Dissension, Tidespout Tyrant has dominated casual play turning the casting of... any spell... into a bounce of anything. Even lands. From Five-Color to Commander to Type Four, it's broken everywhere. But a cost of eight mana, and triple Blue at that, and small body meant it was often relegated to the hand unable to be cast. But here we have a six-drop, only two Blue to cast, and then a bigger 6/6 flying body that does the same thing! Well, you can't bounce lands and you can't bounce your own stuff to save it from removal, to chump block or reuse enters triggers. But It's still worth it! It's incredibly good in all multiplayer decks once resolved, and in Type Four with infinite mana but just one spell per turn it's a first turn play. Only a powerhouse could be higher!

#1. The Will Cycle

This is a remake of the broken Will cycle from Commander Legends. You get two great abilites, and then both if you control your Commander, like Jeska's Will. The White one-costs three at instant speed and then makes 1/1 Warriors equal to your creature count of a player, and then shoots a dork equal to your creature count. That's nasty together, in that order. The Blue one-costs six, sorcery speed, and makes a token copy of any permanent anyone controls except it's a 4/4 flying Dragon. Then you can draw cards equal to your biggest costed thing. Great stuff!

The Black one-costs four at sorcery speed to make your foes sac their biggest power dork and they'll lose some life. Or you can Zombify. The Red sorcery costs four as well, and then has everyone discard and draw five and then gives your spells flashback in your graveyad this turn. The last one is the five-mana sorcery in Green that mills three and then returns all lands to play tapped from your graveyard. Or you can toss +1/+1 counters on your dork equal to your land count. This is a nasty, pushed cycle.

And there we are! We'll check back in next week for another run around the block and then leave the Tarkir: Dragonstorm altogether! Since these decks and cards were made for Commander and casual play, we may not have as many options to choose from, but they are pretty good! I hope you enjoyed this deep dive! What are your top cards from the set?