Tarkir: Dragonstorm Equipment is Quickly Approaching Format All-Star Status

Last updated on April 11, 2025

Cori-Steel Cutter – Illustration by Xabi Gaztelua

Turns out there's not just Dragons in Tarkir: Dragonstorm – Cori-Steel Cutter, an equipment warm off the forge from the latest Magic set, has been putting in some interesting results across a variety of MTG formats, from Standard to Modern and even Legacy.

It also doesn't hurt that this card's quite the looker, garnering a lot of praise for its Avatar: The Last Airbender vibes. “The Art could be a firebending scroll from Avatar,” notes u/JeSuisBasti in a heavily upvoted comment. 

The Magic market has taken due notice of this red artifact's blend of aggressive stats, token generation, and striking artwork:  Cori-Steel Cutter‘s price has gone up roughly 600% this week for the regular print, shooting from about $2.50 to nearly $15 according to MTGStocks, and with the borderless version showing a similar pattern.

Source: MTGStocks

This spike aligns with high demand, with posts on X reporting the card being out of stock around the world.

Shining Steel Multiplies Your Board

Monastery Mentor – Illustration by Brian Valeza

Cori-Steel Cutter’s strength lies in its versatility and immediate impact. Your equipped creature gets +1/+1, trample, and haste, which is perfect for aggressive strategies that aim to close games quickly. But that's just the appetizer: the standout feature is the new “Flurry” ability, which triggers on casting your second spell each turn, creating a 1/1 white Monk token with prowess that the Cutter auto-equips for free.

While there's an implicit clause here that you can only use this equipment once per turn (because it triggers on your second spell, not every two spells – if you have an infinite combo, you still only get to trigger Cori-Steel Cutter once), notice that:

• It's not limited to your turn – you can fire it off during your opponents',
• It works for any type of spell, including permanents – this is in contrast with the prowess keyword from the Monk token, that only works with noncreature spells (although prowess has no once-per-turn limit).

Depending on what you your deck wants to do, all this juicy text is reminiscent of:

• Monastery Mentor: the Cutter generates prowess-wielding Monk tokens, thriving in decks that cast multiple spells per turn,
• Token generators: some players have compared the Cutter with Bitterblossom incremental value, although perhaps the better comparison is with Urabrask's Forge, another cards with an impact in Standard. Both the Forge and the Cutter are red artifacts that are able to create a threat every turn, and are fairly difficult to get rid of.

A Flurry of Formats

Cori-Steel Cutter hasn't broken any Magic format just yet, but is already making waves in Modern, Standard, and even Legacy, on top of being quite a solid card in Tarkir: Dragonstorm Drafts.

Modern

Modern looks like where most of the Cori-Steel Cutter‘s innovation are taking place, with players successfully experimenting with Izzet prowess…

Source: Post on X

… and Murktide.

Source: Post on X

Standard

Non-mice Izzet prowess seems like a promising shell for Cori-Steel Cutter in Standard.

“Been my pet deck since Aetherdrift gave us Riverpyre Verge,” notes u/11000-111, “but Cori-Steel Cutter definitely launches it from pet deck to legitimate contender.”

Others are going the more tried-and-true route of adding the card to one of the best current decks, Red Mice.

The Future is Full of Fantasy

Another reason for why Cori-Steel Cutter may be spiking in price is that Final Fantasy is right around the corner, in what may end up being this year's best-selling set.

And from recent leaks we know that FIN will have an equipment theme, on top of having a mechanic (“Get a Job”) that will be about creating 1/1 tokens.

All in all, while still too early to tell, it would seem Cori-Steel Cutter would fit this go-wide fantasy perfectly!

What Will Happen with Cori-Steel Cutter's Price?

Monastery Swiftspear – Illustration by Steve Argyle

As always with these articles, this is not financial advice, folks – always do your own research!

One thing that seems certain is that Tarkir: Dragonstorm is a blast to play. Players are reporting completely sold-out prerelease events, and by all reports everybody is happy with the set. Which means a lot of Play Boosters and Collector Boosters will be open, which in turn means there's going to be a lot of supply of TDM cards.

In fact, TCGplayer is already showing a lot of offers for half the spike's price:

Source: TCGplayer

And while it has a shown a lot of potential this early on, Cori-Steel Cutter still hasn't become the next Beanstalk, not even close.

Then again, it is making waves across different formats.

Will Cori-Steel Cutter live up to this early hype? We'll soon see!