Tarkir’s Abzan Commander Precon Showcases the Toughest Spoilers Yet

Last updated on March 24, 2025

Betor, Kin to All | Illustration by Alexander Ostrowski

Each Tarkir: Dragonstorm precon comes with 10 entirely new cards for Commander players to pore over. The Abzan decklist was spoiled today, showing off one of the more novel themes from among the decks revealed so far.

Before we get into the thick of it, it's worth remembering the deck's two Commanders: Felothar the Steadfast and the backup, Betor, Ancestor's Voice. Felothar clearly likes big butts and may or may not lie, while Betor wants to play with a lifegain and life loss theme. You can also review the full list for the precon here if you'd like to see what reprints are included. Now to the new stuff!

Protector of the Wastes

The first card is a sweet dragon that provides a ton of potential enchantment and artifact removal. Two things worth noting for this one:

• The trigger occurs both when it enters and when it becomes monstrous, meaning this one dragon could remove up to four permanents!
• There is a slight catch though, as they must be controlled by different players, though this makes it a better card for politics anyways.

It's also excellent with flicker effects, as doing so will not only retrigger the enters ability, but also allow you to monstrous it again! This looks like a potential staple, as it has a good rate, strong utility, and a great creature type. The only knock against it is that it doesn't directly relate to either theme for its precon commanders.

Reunion of the House

Reunion of the House is a clunker, though it is certainly powerful. This can either be played fairly for value, or as a combo card with a specific set of creatures in the graveyard. One neat aspect to it is that it plays well with toughness-slanted creatures, as cards like Wall of Omens and Wall of Blossoms are totally free to return with this.

You might also be familiar with this text on Nethroi, Apex of Death, and the combo with Scourge of the Skyclaves. If Scourge's power is in the negatives while it's in your graveyard, that actually adds to the total power of creatures you can bring back!

Jaws of Defeat

This is another sweet card for the “butts matter” theme, as this can deal an obscene amount of damage if your creatures are thicc enough! The key point is it cares about the difference between toughness and power though, so simply playing large things won't deal much damage. It's also worth noting that this can work in a power slanted deck as well, as something like Yargle and Multani would deal 12 with this!

Tip the Scales

Another great toughness card! This one actually prefers the butt to be a bit smaller, and plays perfectly with something like Wall of Omens (which results in a cheaper Languish). Having large rears only increases your options with this though, so this is of course a great fit with Felothar, the Steadfast.

Will of the Abzan

Will of the Abzan is the fourth of five Wills that will be coming with the new set. It's basically a “super edict” + Zombify split card, and you'll of course get both if you control your commander. The edict aspect is especially impressive since it's power-based and targets any number of opponents. This seems like an awesome value inclusion for just about any black deck, especially one that plays out of its graveyard.

Arbor Adherent

Arbor Adherent is an expensive dork on its own, but quickly adds obscene amounts of mana with mild support. Even a simple Wall of Blossoms will have this cranking out 4 mana each turn, making this a potential staple for commanders like Felothar, the Steadfast, Doran, the Siege Tower, and Arcades, the Strategist. It's also quite possible to go infinite with it once it's tapping for 4+ mana!

Canopy Gargantuan

The toughness hits continue, as Canopy Gargantuan will pile counters onto your walls each upkeep. It's certainly not terrible, though it does seem a bit underwhelming for 7 mana considering you'll have to untap with it first. Of the payoffs so far, this is probably the most mild, and an easy cut if you want to switch your precon commander to Betor, Ancestor's Voice.

Rampart Architect

The final card is probably the coolest of the bunch, as getting a bunch of 1/3 Wall tokens really appeals to the durdler in us all. The second line is where most of the power level is though, as it works for any defender creatures. This makes Rampart Architect a weird but cool form of wrath insurance, as you'll at least get a ton of free lands when all your walls get blown up. Creating Wall tokens will also draw cards with Arcades, the Strategist, so this is a must have card there!

The Abzan Armor precon is certainly one of the more novel additions to the Tarkir line-up, and should offer plenty of support to existing toughness-matters decks. Some of the tools here are just generically strong too, so it looks to be one of the more exciting decks in the batch.