Tarkir: Dragonstorm (TDM)

In figures

• 552,428 games analysed
• On the play: 58.0% wins, against 52.1% on the draw
• A game lasts 9.1 turns on average

What players think

The format is seen as slow and greedy: cheap removal, generous fixing and games long enough for value decks to take over. Temur is placed first, along with five-color Dragon piles, then Jeskai and its flurry plan; Abzan is called disappointing by some and flexible by others, and Mardu hard to play, with mobilize underdelivering. Our measured games contradict that last point: the Warrior Horde decks (, mobilize) win the most often and are by far the most played. Counters and Endure () and Token Army () sit in the middle of the ranking, Graveyard in Motion () rather in the lower half. The and pairs are the last.

Colour pairs

Win rate of the decks of each pair, from real games of online draft players.

Pair	Share of games	Win rate	Strong players	Over time
Warrior Horde	9.1 %	58.4 %	57.1 %	59.0 → 58.4 → 56.5
Graveyard in Motion	3.8 %	54.8 %	53.6 %	55.0 → 54.7 → 53.8
Counters and Endure	2.6 %	55.1 %	54.7 %	53.9 → 56.6 → 55.5
Token Army	2.2 %	55.0 %	53.3 %	55.2 → 54.6 → 55.2
Spell Chain	1.9 %	54.9 %	54.9 %	55.1 → 53.6 → 56.7
	0.4 %	55.4 %	55.8 %	54.4 → 56.7 → 56.8
	0.4 %	55.9 %	58.1 %	54.8 → 57.1 → 58.8
	0.2 %	53.2 %	51.8 %	53.8 → 53.8 → —
	0.2 %	53.1 %	47.6 %	53.6 → 52.7 → —
	0.2 %	54.8 %	—	56.9 → 54.1 → —

Archetypes: the gold uncommons

• Warrior Horde

  58.4 % win rate9.1 % of games

  Mobilize

  • 

    86. Cori Mountain Stalwart

    6.2
  • 

    72. Frontline Rush

    6.5

• Graveyard in Motion

  54.8 % win rate3.8 % of games

  Renew

  • 

    77. Kishla Skimmer

    6.4
  • 

    189. Auroral Procession

    4.8

• Counters and Endure

  55.1 % win rate2.6 % of games

  Endure

  • 

    210. Host of the Hereafter

    4.5
  • 

    218. Stalwart Successor

    4.4

• Token Army

  55.0 % win rate2.2 % of games

  Mobilize

  • 

    160. Hardened Tactician

    5.2
  • 

    179. Marshal of the Lost

    5.0

• Spell Chain

  54.9 % win rate1.9 % of games

  Flurry

  • 

    249. Effortless Master

    2.1
  • 

    76. Glacial Dragonhunt

    6.4

Mechanics of the set

• Mobilize

  Whenever the creature attacks, you create N tapped and attacking 1/1 red Warrior tokens, sacrificed at the beginning of the next end step.

• Flurry

  An ability word: the effect triggers whenever you cast your second spell each turn.

• Renew

  An ability word: pay a cost and exile the card from your graveyard to get its effect, only when you could cast a sorcery.

• Endure

  Endure N: you put N +1/+1 counters on the creature or create an N/N white Spirit token.

• Omen

  A Dragon card has a second Omen half (a sorcery or an instant): you may cast either half; if you cast the Omen, the card is then shuffled into your library.

• Harmonize

  You may cast the card from your graveyard for its harmonize cost, tapping one of your creatures to reduce that cost by its power, and then the card is exiled.

• Behold

  To behold a Dragon, you choose a Dragon you control or reveal a Dragon card from your hand.

The best cards

By colour

Rank by our rating, then rank by win rate when the card is in hand.

To remember

• 50 cards have exactly three colours, ten of them with hybrid costs (Temur Tawnyback, for example, payable with 2 mana in place of each colour): settle on two colours first, then add the third.
• The five Monuments cost 2 and fetch a basic land of one of three types: they help set up a splash, like the uncommon tri-lands. The common dual lands enter tapped.
• To make use of the behold cards, play a few Dragons: there are 27, 13 of them Omen cards, which you can cast as the Omen even with no Dragon in play.
• Mobilize tokens are sacrificed at end of turn: 12 cards of the set have Mobilize, and those tokens are for attacking, not for defending.