Tarkir: Dragonstorm Enchantment Turns Your Draconic Army into an Auto-Win

Last updated on March 24, 2025

Call the Spirit Dragons | Illustration by Liiga Smilshkalne

The developers behind Tarkir: Dragonstorm wanted it to be very, very clear that the set would be just as much about dragons as it would be about the return of the 3-color clans. If a new cycle of mythic rare Spirit Dragons and an actual dragon-themed Mox weren't enough to drive that home, how about Call the Spirit Dragons, a new alternate wincon that works exclusively with dragons?

Who You Gonna Call?

Tarkir's really not messing around! Here we have an enchantment that's a bit reminiscent of Liliana's Contract, another alternate wincon that requires a field full of a creature type usually associated with clunky, expensive creatures.

Of course, there's more to it than just the auto-win ability. At a base level your dragons all get indestructible, and you'll get some number of +1/+1 counters each turn if you have any sort of board presence.

But how achievable is that alternate wincon? The first thing to note is that you must have minimum five dragons in play for it to work. Simply controlling a single 5-color dragon will still net you all five +1/+1 counters, but the game will check that you distributed counters across five different dragons in order for the wincon to take effect.

It's also relevant that this is an upkeep trigger, which are notoriously easy to break up. Other alternate wincons like Felidar Sovereign, Simic Ascendancy, and Revel in Riches rarely actually end the game since they telegraph a win to the opponents and they can react accordingly. Being an enchantment helps to some extent, but savvy players should be packing answers to this sort of thing.

Where Will This Be Played?

Commander's the obvious, braindead answer. Every 5-color dragon player this side of Tarkir will want this. Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm misses out due to color identity restrictions, but The Ur-Dragon and Tiamat are thrilled. Of course, there's a sort of “win-more” aspect to a card like this in those styles of decks, since having 5+ dragons in play is already something of a wincon.

Standard seems highly unlikely with a dearth of cheap, playable dragons in the format, though maybe there's a consideration for this in Modern with a changeling-style deck. Those decks can probably make Mox Jasper work well enough, but the color set-up on Call the Spirit Dragons means it's probably not worth the trouble. It'd be very cool to see someone brew up a “dragon” deck in Constructed that could make this pop off though.

Which Dragons Work Best?

Tiamat | Illustration by Chris Rahn

For EDH, there's a clear best dragon commander if winning with this enchantment is your goal: Tiamat. Tiamat's ability to just tutor up whatever combination of creatures makes this win seems obvious, almost to the point of being cheesy and repetitive. Sure, any 5-color dragon legend will do, since they'll always fill in at least one missing color when the enchantment triggers.

Another consideration would be Kyodai, Soul of Kamigawa. White dragons are the least common by far, and it's neat that this can protect the enchantment while you're still setting up. Both cards giving each other indestructible is going to make it hard to break up the board, though some timely exile or bounce effects still get the job done.

Aside from the commander, you'll also probably want to push your curve a little lower than you normally would for a dragon deck. Cheap plays like Korlessa, Scale Singer, Scaled Nurturer, and Unsettled Mariner can get some key colors into play early and set up an easier win.

However you end up building towards Call the Spirit Dragons, it's clear that this is a very Timmy card aimed at perhaps the most Timmy creature type in the game. Did dragons need an alternate wincon in this day and age? Certainly not, but you can bet that this is the card some dragon Commander players will be after when the set releases.