Images courtesy of Wizards of the Coast

Hello everyone, and welcome back. I’m Command Zoe, and this week I’m here to speculate on some new commanders for Brawl that I’m excited about. With the imminent release of Tarkir: Dragonstorm ahead of us, let’s dive into what looks to be the most powerful Standard set in a long while.

There are five clans that control the plane of Tarkir, and we’ve been given a Dragon and a Khan for each of them, as well as several other story-relevant characters that can also be our commander in Brawl.

The five types of dragons of old Tarkir. Wonder what’s changed with the storm?

Ureni, the Song Unending

Ureni is just an incredible card. Its protection covers all of the other clans, it has evasion, its stats are enormous, and it’s mass-interaction on an enters ability. There’s no text on this card that’s not incredibly powerful.

There is literally no direction this card can’t be taken in. You can build it as a ramp deck to take full advantage of all the powerful ramp cards offered by Temur. A viable strategy for ramp could utilize cards like Cultivate, Explore, and Into the North to help push Ureni onto the battlefield quickly, then Traverse the Outlands to take full advantage of those massive stats.

It would also be a great win-con in a control deck. Blue and red offer ways to proactively and reactively handle opponents’ threats with cards like Mana Drain and Molten Impact, and green allows for some of the strongest utility in the game. Control the board, use Ureni to board wipe and attack. And if they kill it, just do it again.

Teval, Arbiter of Virtue

My goodness, what an incredibly powerful effect. Every spell I cast has delve? That means most colorless spells in my deck can be free if I have cards in my graveyard. I can dream up so many different ways to play this card, but I’m going to stick to the most obvious.

The first thing any deck that uses delve needs is a way to fill its graveyard. Sultai just so happens to be the ideal color combination to do that in. Black has the strongest ways to do this in cards like Stitcher’s Supplier, Ripples of Undeath, and Undead Butler, all of which provide ample cards in graveyard at a very reasonable rate.

The descend mechanic and its supporting pieces in Lost Caverns of Ixalan give ample ways to add cards to graveyard. Also Cruel Somnophage, The Everflowing Well, and Chitinous Crawler are all incredible ways to fill a grave while still providing their own utility.

Once the grave is full, what are the best things to do with delve? Well, I covered that it can make colorless spells free, but it also allows for spells with an X cost to be paid at huge numbers with very few mana sources. Torment of Hailfire, Hangarback Walker, and Finale of Devastation all become monstrous threats very early with the right combination of support.

High-cost spells like Verdant Rejuvenation also become quite potent earlier in the game with delve, especially given that Teval, Arbiter of Virtue has a high power as well. If the deck is constructed with only six targets for the Verdant Rejuvenation then it will always hit all six, which should be enough to instantly win the game.

Add a Marauding Blight-Priest to clinch it.

Elspeth, Storm Slayer

Wow, what a card! Anointed Procession with other abilities. This has got to be one of the most versatile and powerful commanders I have seen yet on Arena. There are so many ways to take this, but the first that comes to mind is a tokens deck. With cards like Mondrak, Glory Dominus and Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation, tokens can flood the board faster than they can be killed.

Elspeth would be an excellent curve topper for a white-weenie aggro deck. Small-cost creatures like Garrison Cat and Haazda Marshal and cards that flood the board with tokens, like History of Benalia and Three Blind Mice, alongside anthem effects like Benalish Marshal and Intangible Virtue, have historically been very powerful in Brawl.

The last wrinkle about Elspeth I think is exciting is that she makes Soldier tokens. Brother’s War gave Brawl tons of very interesting Soldier support cards such as Siege Veteran, Valiant Veteran, and Myrel, Shield of Argive. There’s a powerful token-based white weenie deck with a sub-theme of Soldiers just waiting for us to unlock its power.

No opponent is heartless enough to kill a dog, right?

Narset, Jeskai Waymaster

As a huge fan of Rielle, the Everwise, this is the card I am the most excited for in Brawl. Throw in a Psychosis Crawler and a ton of effects similar to Faithless Looting and you can burn your opponents to ashes in no time at all.

There are a few cards that trigger on the second card drawn each turn from Throne of Eldraine that slot perfectly in along side this strategy. Improbable Alliance, Irencrag Pyromancer, and Mad Ratter in particular seem quite powerful with all this repeatable card draw.

I can also see a burn deck that tries to continuously play its entire hand every turn. Direct damage cards like Lightning Bolt and Shock that cost one mana all turn into cantrips at end of turn if Narset is on the board, so she never runs out of gas. Madness cards like Blazing Rootwalla and Fiery Temper can take advantage of the discard trigger at end of turn. 

You know who else has madness?

Sidisi, Regent of the Mire

Every set needs its reanimator effect. Sidisi offers a fresh take on this common strategy. It’s like catnip for brewers due to the fact that every card needs to have a path to a higher mana cost in the graveyard. So not only does the graveyard need filling, but also what goes into it needs to have something one-smaller on the battlefield.

I see two very different strategies being viable with her. The first is a deck with mostly lower cost creatures. It would use Sidisi to continuously replay creatures that return other creatures to hand or battlefield from the graveyard, like Gixian Puppeteer and Cadaver Imp. It could recycle the value of all the creatures you use to generate more resources than its opponents. Throw in some cards like Bloodghast and Reassembling Skeleton that can bring themselves back on the lower-cost end and never run out of cards to play.

The other strategy I could see would use cards that reduce mana cost, like Writhing Necromass, Huskburster Swarm and Defiler of Flesh to cheat out huge creatures early. 

Lotta cost reducers at seven mana. Are there any good cards in black that cost eight?

Brawling in Tarkir: Dragonstorm

I hope looking through these upcoming cards has you as hyped up about the new set as I am. The story, characters, and cards have coalesced to feel like an old set created with a new perspective.

If you didn’t get the chance to check out my Building for MtG Brawl on a Budget article from last time, go give it a peek. It just might help you save up enough to put together one of these new commanders!

Remember to follow me across the various socials so you can catch all my latest articles as well as the rest of the content I create. Until next time, see you all out in the storm. Maybe pack an umbrella.