Everything you need to know about MTG Tarkir: Dragonstorm, from mechanics to story

A storm is brewing with MTG Tarkir: Dragonstorm. The dragon-themed Magic: The Gathering set is great news for long-time players, as it’s the first set centred around the plane of Tarkir since 2015. Crucially, it's out right now.

With heated clan feuds and plenty of dragons, MTG Tarkir: Dragonstorm is an exciting addition to one of the best card games. To help you on your trip back to Tarkir, we’ve put together a full lowdown on everything you need to know about the set. From the product lineup to mechanics and story, you’ll be totally primed to tackle our favorite dragon-dominated plane.

What is MTG Tarkir: Dragonstorm?

• The second Standard-legal set of 2025
• A return to the dragon-dominated plane of Tarkir
• Draws from the original Tarkir Block (2014-15)

While technically the third release of this year (due to the fact that MTG Innistrad Remastered is part of the Masters series of reprint sets), Dragonstorm: Tarkir is the second Standard-legal set launched in 2025. The first was MTG Aetherdrift, but following on from that racing-themed set, we're seeing a slight change of gear and a return to more classic Magic themes, aesthetics, and storylines. Dragonstorm is designed around a dramatic return to the dragon-dominated plane of Tarkir, so the storyline and cards themselves are jampacked with dragons, clan rivalry, and of course, more dragons.

The mainline set consists of Play Boosters and Collector Boosters, which can be bought as singular packs, in larger display boxes, in bundles, or as part of a prerelease box. If MTG Bloomburrow was your first experience with Magic: The Gathering, you might also be expecting a Starter Kit; but there isn't one included in this Tarkir release.

Tarkir: Dragonstorm was released with five preconstructed decks meant for playing in the Commander format. Commander decks that are linked to a larger Standard-legal set are usually a mix of cards from the main release and some cards that are only authorized for play in the Commander format, so you can expect that to be the case with Dragonstorm's precons too.

MTG Tarkir: Dragonstorm release date

The tabletop release date for MTG Tarkir: Dragonstorm was April 11, 2025. (In other words, it's out now.) In addition, MTG Arena players got to experience the set early in digital form from April 8.

If you want a better picture of how it all shook out, here's the full list of important dates on the set's release schedule.

• MTG Story: March 3-17
• Debut and previews begin: March 18
• Full card image gallery: March 28
• Prerelease events: April 4-10
• MTG Arena release date: April 8
• Tabletop release: April 11

MTG Tarkir: Dragonstorm products

• Five Commander decks
• Play Boosters & Collector Boosters
• Booster display boxes & bundles
• Five different varieties of prerelease box

As per usual with major, Standard-legal sets, MTG Tarkir: Dragonstorm features a wealth of content that allow you to play your way. Booster packs are available for adding to or making new decks you can use in Standard or Limited games, while its many pre-made Commander decks let you get straight into the action.

Here's everything you can expect.

Commander decks

The five Commander precon decks releasing as part of Dragonstorm each represent the clans from the plane of Tarkir, which in turn reflect the wedges of the MTG color pie. As they're specifically designed with the singleton format in mind, they contain 100 unique cards, including Legendary Creatures that are meant to serve as your Commander in-game. If you haven't played this format before but are planning on picking up one of these decks, check out our guide on how to play MTG Commander for a quick crash course.

Sultai Arisen | View at Amazon
Teval, the Balanced Scale is the first Commander we've seen from this black-green-blue deck so far. Its mix of milling and land graveyard recursion with token generation is sure to help you build up a thriving horde of the undead and the reanimated.

Jeskai Striker | View at Amazon
Shiko, Paragon of the Way and Narset, Jeskai Waymaster are the Face and Alternate Commanders for this white-blue-red precon. With Narset's card draw and Shiko's copying abilities, you can be sure to keep the spells coming while you play this deck.

Abzan Armor | View at Amazon
This white-black-green deck is led by the Face Commander Felothar the Steadfast from the House of Zanhar. Its focus is transforming defenders (creatures who can't attack) and high-toughness creatures into those who can bring a powerful offensive to your opponents.

Temur Roar | View at Amazon
In true green-blue fashion, Temur Roar is focused on ramping and shutting down opponent aggression in the early game. However, the red-green element of this deck shines once you start filling your board with overwhelming creatures that are properly primed for damage dealing.

Mardu Surge | View at Amazon
This black-white-red deck generates tokens and then duplicates them thanks to the inclusion of the Myriad ability. While Myriad copies are exiled at the end of turn, Mardu Surge ensures that you get as much value out of your tokens as you can with its card draw and damage-dealing effects.

Play boosters

As usual, the backbone of the MTG Tarkir: Dragonstorm set is its Play booster packs. These are available individually (though those can be a bit harder to find online) and massive boxes that contain dozens of cards.

Play Booster | View at TCGPlayer
Each Tarkir Play Booster contains 14 cards of the following rarity: 7 Commons, 3 Uncommons, 1 Wildcard of any rarity, 1 Rare or mythic rare card, 1 Traditional foil card of any rarity, and 1 Land card. An art card or double-sided token is also included. If you want a little taste of this Draconic set for less than $6, this is the way to go.

Play Booster Display Box | View at Amazon
If you're looking to go wild on cracking the packs or are hoping to arrange a little Dragonstorm draft night with your friends, a Play Booster Display Box is definitely worth popping in your cart. You'll benefit from a decent bulk discount by purchasing 30 Booster Packs in one go.

Collector boosters

Designed for collectors and dedicated fans, the Collector booster packs follow the same format as Play - they are available individually or in a massive box. Just be aware that they're significantly more expensive.

Collector Booster | View at Amazon
If rarity is what gets you going, Collector Boosters are where it's at. A Collector Booster contains 15 cards, including 7 Traditional foil commons/uncommons, 1 Land card, 1 Booster Fun common or uncommon, 1 Traditional foil rare or mythic rare, 1 Booster Fun Commander card, 2 Non-foil Booster Fun rares/mythic rares, and 1 Foil Booster Fun rare or mythic rare. For context, Booster Fun is the alternate art or extended art treatments that get collectors all googly-eyed.

Collector Booster Display Box | View at Amazon
To really maximize your shot at getting your hands on the serialized Mox Jasper card, you might want to pick a Collector Booster Display Box. With this 12-Booster Pack box, you'll not only up your chances of coming across something special, you'll also save yourself some moola by buying at scale.

Bundles and prerelease

If you want to bulk up your collection without spending a small fortune on booster boxes, set bundles and prerelease boxes are your best bet. While you can normally get just one prerelease box, this time there are five to represent each faction on Tarkir.

Bundle | View at Amazon
This box set contains 9 Tarkir: Dragonstorm Play Boosters, a traditional foil alternate-art promo card, 40 basic land cards, a spindown die, and a nifty cardboard storage box. Not only is this a handy way to stock up on Play Boosters, it's also a route to some fun little extras that sweeten the deal.

Prerelease
This time around, you have a choice of five different prerelease boxes. For the most part, their contents are identical: 5 Play Boosters, a traditional foil rare or mythic rare card stamped with the year, a cardboard deck box, and a spindown die. However, the prereleases also include a 14-card prerelease seeded booster that contains cards specifically suited to your chosen clan. Oh, and of course, the packaging and die are color coordinated to your clan colors too.

Prerelease (Abzan) | View at TCGPlayer
Prerelease (Jeskai) | View at TCGPlayer
Prerelease (Sultai) | View at TCGPlayer
Prerelease (Mardu) | View at TCGPlayer
Prerelease (Temur) | View at TCGPlayer

MTG Tarkir: Dragonstorm mechanics

• The set puts the Storm in Dragonstorm
• Sarkhan Vol is predictably keen to Behold a Dragon
• Each wedge of the MTG color wheel gets a proper shout-out

The card gallery for MTG Dragonstorm: Tarkir isn't anywhere near complete just yet but we have gotten a nice little preview of some of the creatures and non-creature spells that'll fly our way come release. By the looks of it, the set will be a healthy mix of old reliable mechanics and fresh inclusions that work to replicate the play styles of each of Tarkir's five clans. However, there are two mechanics that really take center stage at the moment: Storm and Behold.

1. Storm – You may have heard of the Storm Scale, which MTG Lead Mark Rosewater uses to rank the likelihood of a given mechanic's return to Standard. I imagine it's called that in part because the name sounds cool but also because Storm is one of those mechanics which Rosewater has deemed very, very unlikely to make a comeback. Storm allows you to create a token copy of a given spell for each spell cast before it on a turn. I'm sure you can imagine the kind of chaos you could weave with that, especially in a super spell-slinging deck. That said, you really can't make a return to Tarkir and call it Dragonstorm without going all in on the Storm mechanic. As a result, early previews have already shown a handful of cards that feature the mechanic but really, the most iconic of these is the cheekily-named Stormscale Scion.
2. Behold – This new mechanic requires you to choose a creature (from the battlefield or failing that, revealed from your hand) and just … look at it. Simply acknowledging a card's existence doesn't do too much on its own of course; but it looks like it will provide some nice triggered abilities, as in the case of Sarkhan, Dragon Ascendant. Sarkhan's enter-the-battlefield effect allows you to behold a Dragon and provided you've done so, you create a Treasure token. Most importantly of all though, the Behold mechanic provides you with the opportunity to dramatically bellow "BEHOLD, A DRAGON" at your opponent every time it comes into play.

MTG Tarkir: Dragonstorm story

• Revisits the dragon-infested plane of Tarkir
• Dragons are tearing into multiversal Omenpaths
• Clans that represent the MTG colors rise to stop them

Tarkir is one of the most beloved Magic: The Gathering planes, and since its appearance in the Tarkir Block around a decade ago, its lore has had an enduring impact on the face of the game – especially in the way that we discuss color identity. That's because alongside Ravnica and Alara, the land of Tarkir features clans that embody the values and characteristics of each MTG color combo across WBURG (White, Black, Blue, Red, and Green). These wedge-themed clans are The Azban (WBG), The Jeskai (URW), The Sultai (BGU), The Mardu (RWB), and The Temur (GUR).

Interestingly, each of these broods are inspired by a number of historical and cultural groups across Asia including the Persian Empire and the Shaolin Monks. However, there is a pretty notable fantasy twist on how they function; these clans initially adapted to living alongside the fearsome dragons that also called Tarkir home. As the plane's dragons were born from a dragonstorm – a meteorological event carefully manipulated by Ugin's wings – when Ugin was forced into hibernation (though technically he was also killed, it uhh … depends on the timeline), their numbers surged out of control. This led to extremely powerful dragonlords cruelly quashing the five clans and dominating the humanoid inhabitants of the plane. Their reign was ended by a rebellion and the clans formed anew; but still many dragons across Tarkir remained wild and hostile.

Tarkir: Dragonstorm - Official Trailer | Magic: The Gathering - YouTube

Watch On

As the story for Dragonstorm: Tarkir begins, we're faced with the pretty pressing existential threat of Tarkir dragons' wings tearing into the fabric of the Omenpaths. These planar portals have been an essential part of the last couple of MTG sets, as they provide links across the Multiverse that even non-Planeswalkers can access. From the information we have, it's unclear whether the destructive force of these dragons will lead to them spreading to other planes, disrupting the balance of the Omenpaths, or even demolishing them entirely. What we do know is that the five resurgent clans – alongside famed dragon stan, Sarkhan Vol and the now-awake-but-presumably-still-rather-sleepy Ugin – will be working to undo this catastrophe.

If you want to read more about the extensive in-game history of Tarkir, including some really cool worldbuilding about how each clan's culture operates, the Planeswalker's Guide to Tarkir: Dragonstorm has you covered.

MTG Tarkir: Dragonstorm deals

To help you score some savings on the Tarkir: Dragonstorm set, we've put together some of the best MTG deals we can find on everything from Play Boosters to Commander precons. With the help of our price-checking software, we scour the web for the lowest prices out there for all the products across the release, so you can enjoy your adventures in Tarkir for less.

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