Tarkir: Dragonstorm Standard's Top Ten Cards

Tarkir: Dragonstorm has been a bit of a revelation. It's just good, clean Magic: The Gathering the way it's meant to be, and I know I'm not the only one loving the set. Dragonstorm has also shaken the Standard format more than I would have anticipated, giving us a couple of new decks (like Izzet Prowess and Jeskai Control) while shoring up some of the old decks (like Orzhov Pixie). Now that a handful of the Regional Championships have taken place, it's time to check in on the best cards in the format.

Honorable Mention: The Overlord cycle

Yeah, this is a cheat, but it's my list and I'll cheat if I want! The Overlord cycle from Duskmourn: House of Horror are always lurking in the background as potentially the most powerful thing to be doing in the format, and unless we get something extremely busted in a future set, I expect them to keep popping up in decks the entire time that Duskmourn is legal.

10. Hopeless Nightmare

It's the life loss that really makes this so good. I've lost games to the Pixie/Bounce decks where this card dealt me 10+ damage. Possibly the most annoying card in the format, this isn't strong enough to be banned, but will probably exist as a glue card for a Tier 1-Tier 2 deck while it's legal.

9. Shiko, Paragon of the Way

Big fan of this card, and continue to be impressed the more I play it. It's the most Jund card to ever Jeskai if that makes sense, a great two-for-one card that can also close out a game in a hurry.

8. Marang River Regent

After the Azorius Omniscient deck adopted this as it's main combo piece I began to experiment with it in a variety of decks. I've found it to be a good, strong card if you build your deck in a way that you get to live long enough for it to hit the board (which means you probably have to pair it with White cards). Both the card draw and the dragon itself are good, not great, but stapling them together makes them greater than the sum of the parts. It's starting to pop up in the Jeskai control decks and I expect to see it here and there going forward.

7. Up the Beanstalk

The only card keeping the color Green in the format. Beanstalk is powerful (and maybe banworthy) but it's barely enough to make Green cards playable. It's a tough time out here for us Green mages.

6. Monstrous Rage

I still think there's a strong chance that this is banned before the year is out. It takes the decks that are already strong and pushes them just enough to make them format defining. I've mentioned multiple times that the Red decks need to slow down by about a turn, and getting rid of Rage is the easiest way to do that.

5. Beza, the Bounding Spring

An essential card for combatting the aggressive decks, Beza is slowly growing from a sideboard all star into a main deck staple. The best card in the format for recovering from a fast onslaught we've had since Timely Reinforcements. I expect this card to continue to be relevant going forward.

4. Stormchaser's Talent

This innocuous looking 1-drop is a format powerhouse, providing reach to the top deck in the format and a flood of creatures for the Dimir/Esper bounce decks. Hell, I've even slammed this and its partner in crime, This Town Ain't Big Enough, into my Temur ramp decks at this point. The card does so much and provides so much versatility that I'm pretty sure it will be an essential Standard card the entire time it's in the format.

3. Cori-Steel Cutter

I'm not saying that this card defines the current Standard format, but I'm not not saying it either. I've already written a mea culpa article on this one, about how badly I missed the boat when evaluating it. It's turned Izzet Prowess into a powerhouse and into the most played deck in the format. And, it's possible we're still just scratching the surface with it.

2. Stock Up

There's a strong case to be made that this is the best card in Standard, but I'm not quite ready to put it there (the top card sort of opens the door for this card to step through). Every time I cast Stock Up I just get the feeling that I'm going to find the cards I need and it's all going to work out.

1. Temporary Lockdown

This isn't the first time Temporary Lockdown has made my list as the most important card in Standard. The card feels like the lynchpin, holding the format together for decks that want to play cards that cost more than 3 mana, and its importance has only grown strong with the printing of Cori-Steel Cutter. In fact, this card has become so essential to Standard, that I worry what the format will look like when it rotates later this year.

And that's the Tarkir top ten! Up next, Final Fantasy arrives to change the Standard format forever! From the previews, it looks like it's going to blow our minds.

You can find more of my Magic musings on Twitter/X @travishall456 and on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/anakinsdad.bsky.social