Budget Tarkir: Dragonstorm Cards for Commander

Tarkir: Dragonstorm has pretty much been put on the back burner thanks to all of the cards we are seeing from Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy is looking like a great set when it comes to Commander, but don't forget to check your bulk from Dragonstorm. Here is a list of very playable budget cards for your next Commander deck that come straight out of the heart of the storm on Tarkir!

Frontline Rush is a Krenko's Command type of effect with a little bit of utility. Token decks love to play as many cards that create tokens as possible, and Frontline Rush creates two creature tokens or allows us to pump one of our creatures equal to the number of creatures we control. As our board grows wider with tokens, the pump effect could become very relevant. It serves as an excellent combat trick, especially for Commanders like Baylen, the Haymaker, that can give himself trample.

Thunder of Unity is an excellent drain effect for Mardu go wide decks. It immediately draws us two cards when it enters and then is an Impact Tremors for the next two turns. This card is sadly much more fragile than Impact Tremors, but it makes up for it by giving us two cards. The lifegain aspect of this card can be relevant if you are playing in more casual situations where combat matters more. A Mardu Aristocrat strategy would love to get their hands on this card, and they can for only a couple pennies!

Bitterblossom is a great token generator that you can get down insanely early, however, it does hold a hefty price tag. Sinkhole Surveyor has a very similar effect with a little bit of utility to bat. Sinkhole Surveyor is a 2 mana flyer that endures 1 whenever it attacks. Endures will create a 1/1 spirit token or put a +1/+1 counter on our Surveyor. Essentially this is a two mana token generator, making a creature token each turn. These effects are amazing for Aristocrat decks and the earlier you can get these generators down the better. This card only happens to be 2 mana which checks all of our boxes! We could even get it back from our graveyard with an Unearth, we can't even do that with a Bitterblossom.

White needed more ways to protect its boardstate... well, not really. Duty Beyond Death is a brand new way to protect your creatures by giving them all indestructible for two mana. We have seen this effect a lot, however, this one also puts a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control. This effect makes this card a lot more worthwhile to play. There has been quite a rise of +1/+1 counter decks on the prowl in the Commander format. We are even getting a lot of new cards focused on +1 counters from Final Fantasy. Commanders like Felisa, Fang of Silverquill are a perfect match for a card like this one. Most White Commander decks will play at least one way to protect their boards, now they have a new option that also helps lean into a strategy of +1/+1 counters.

United Battlefront is a new type of Collected Company. United Battlefront will get two noncreature nonland permanents into play off the top seven cards of our library. This seems like a great card in low mana artifact decks in White. Once again, we are getting some new White Artifact support from the Final Fantasy set, which might make this card see more play. I think this card is mainly held back because of the fact that it is a sorcery instead of an instant. Seven cards is a lot of cards to look at for the low cost of less than a dollar. This card is worth picking up, especially if you are planning on building Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle anytime soon!

Voltron players rejoice! You have a brand new sword to play with. Dragonfire Blade is a one-mana equipment that gives equipped creature hexproof from monocolored and +2/+2. Hexproof from monocolored is such a great effect to give a creature, especially your Commander. Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Pongify, Unsummon, Lightning Bolt, Beast Within, Generous Gift, or even Murder can't remove a creature that is equipped with this new sword. Hexproof also allows you to cast your own spells on the creature, which allows you to still cast Temur-Battle Rage and things of that sort. This sword also has a reduced equip cost based on the number of colors the creature has that we are targeting. Most of the time this will reduce the cost to two mana, but sometimes it can be lower.

Nature's Rhythm is the best budget card to come out of Tarkir: Dragonstorm. I am surprised it is even able to make it on this list since I could see it spiking in price, but here we are. Nature's Rhythm is a Green Sun's Zenith that isn't limited by the color of creature it gets to search for and is a fraction of the price. Ever since Green Sun's unbanning in Modern, the card has held a pretty high price tag, this new version from Tarkir however, is under $2! It also has the extra bonus of being able to be cast from your graveyard. If you are looking for an excellent budget tutor that isn't Diabolic Tutor, look no further than this amazing new card, Nature's Rhythm!

That wraps it up for the best budget cards from Tarkir: Dragonstorm! I hope this list is helpful when clearing off your sorting space for all the new Final Fantasy cards or maybe add a couple of these cards to your next card purchase. Whatever the case, I hope you have enjoyed reading this!

See you on the battlefield!

-Nigel