Judge's Den: Dragons of Tarkir

Spoilers are done, now it's time for the new set. This means it is time to return to the Judge's Den series here at Wizardden.com. Today we are taking a look at the new mechanics and a few things to keep in mind when playing with the new cards.

Dash and Bolster both make an appearance in this set. Neither have anything super complicated about them in the set though.

 Rebound also makes a return, but it has been years since we last saw it so it is worth breaking down. The concept is very simple, as the spell resolves (yes it has to successfully resolve in order to rebound) it is put into exile as part of it's effect. Then at the beginning of your next upkeep you may cast the spell again, if you do not (perhaps there is no legal target) the spell will stay in exile for the rest of the game. Keep in mind that spell only rebound if you cast them from your hand.

Exploit is a brand new mechanic that gives you the option to sacrifice a creature for some benefit. It is worth noting that you will indeed get the benefit even if you sacrifice the creature with exploit. When playing with exploit remember that you do not make your choice of what to sacrifice if anything until the ability resolves so wait for your opponent to respond before making a choice.

Formidable also makes its debut in Dragons. The concept is simple, if your creatures total eight power or more then you get the bonus. This is one of the instances where negative numbers matter greatly. If one of your creatures has -8 power for whatever reason your other creatures would have to total 16 power in order to bring your total up to the necessary 8 for formidable. Some abilities only require eight power in order to activate the. Others have an "if" in them that will require you have eight both when they trigger and in order to resolve.

Megamorph is kinda new. It is basically just morph but the creature will flip up with an additional +1/+1 counter placed on it as part of the special action of flipping them face up for their megamorph cost.

Dragon's brought us a new cycle of commands. These are spells with four modes that allow two to be used when they are cast. There are two main things I want to highlight about them. First, a spell whose targets become invalid is countered. So if you choose to return a creature from your graveyard and gain 4 life with Ojutai's Command for example, and the your opponent removes that creature from your graveyard before your spell resolves you will not get any of the effects because it's only target was made invalid. The second thing I want to highlight is that if you copy a command that has been cast you will have to use the same modes that were chosen on the original spell.

Gate Smasher can try to equip to any creature but will only become and stay equipped to a creatures whose's toughness stays four or greater.

There are of course many other new interactions, but the rest are all pretty simple to work with. This has been Ariel with Wizardden.com.