Firing Up Commander Parties With Tarkir: Dragonstorm

Last updated on April 15, 2025

The Ur-Dragon – illus. Jaime Jones

Looks like this week it's Party Season in Magic – not only are Commander fans tracking clues to find out when the “Everyone's Invited” Secret Lair Commander deck should drop (Later today? Tomorrow? Nobody knows for sure!), but there's also a Commander Party chock full of dragons coming up.

And we do know exactly when this Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander Party happens: This weekend!

Source: WPN – Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander Party

Hosted at stores from the WPN network, Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander Party will let you play as your favorite clan, and comes with special rules. Let's check all the info!

What Are Commander Parties?

Narset, Jeskai Waymaster – Illus. Randy Vargas

A Commander Party is a 1-day casual event held by LGS from the Wizard Play Network (WPN) that uses special rules for each specific MTG set, usually focused on a bit of storytelling. You can bring any Commander deck to the party, but expect to play Commander with a twist!

Each Commander Party has special rules, to keep things fresh and varied. For example, for Aetherdrift players would race along a racetrack, while in Duskmourn players had to explore the haunted house, with extra cards representing different rooms you could explore. You can bring any Commander deck to the party, although of course some decks will work better with the specific rules of each Party.

Source: WPN

Commander Parties have been a thing since 2022, with Innistrad and Dominaria United. Originally they used to happen once per set, but it looks like WotC thinks they are popular enough that, since Bloomburrow last year, Commander Parties are offered twice per set.

Understanding the Dragon House Rules

For the Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander Party, WotC has cast aside gimmicks like racetracks, haunted houses, and narrative elements (that arguably made some past Parties a bit clunky…), and has stuck to the basics that makes this set such a great Magic experience: You choose one of the iconic Tarkir clans, and tap into the power of the Dragonstorm to unleash a flock of flying firebreathing dragons.

But beware: With great power comes great chaos, unleashed across the whole battlefield!

Here's how it works:

Source: WPN – Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander Party

First, players place the Dragonstorm in easy reach of all players, and choose their favorite clan. More than one player can choose the same clan, but they still play separately (that's to say, this is not Two-Headed Clan Clash – it's still played like regular commander even if half the pod chooses to join the Mardu clan, and the other half the Jeskai clan).

Whenever a player:

• Casts a commander or Dragon spell, or
• Deal combat damage to an opponent with one or more creatures, or
• Cast a noncreature spell with mana value 4 or greater from their hand…

… they place a faction counter on the Dragonstorm.

During your turn, you get to activate one of your clan's abilities (more about them in a second!) by removing a specified number of your counters from the Dragonstorm. You can do this at sorcery speed.

And here's where this Party really gets going: At the beginning of each end step, if there are fifteen or more counters on the Dragonstorm, each player who has counters on the Dragonstorm activates their last faction ability without paying its cost. Then remove all counters from the Dragonstorm.

Clash of Powers, Stand by Your Clan

All clans have access to three abilities that cost either 1, 3, or 6 counters from the Dragonstorm to activate.

The 1-cost ability is the same in all cases, providing ramp in your clan's colors. The 3-cost ability is pretty unique to each clan (Abzan likes counters, but Sultai loves milling). And the 6-cost ability, the one that everybody can activate for free if there are 15 counters by any end step, spawns dragons with special abilities.

Here's the full detail:

Source: WPN – Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander Party

As noted, you can bring any Commander deck you want to the Commander Party, but goes without saying that it won't hurt your game if your deck synergizes well with your favorite clan!

Awesome Dragonspeaker Shaman Promo

Commander Parties are for-fun casual events, so there are no competitive prizes to be won. But they still have some goodies for attending players!

In this case, participants will get (while supplies last) a Dragonspeaker Shaman promo card, illustrated by Yigit Koroglu.

How do I get Involved?

Zurgo Stormrender – Illustration by Lie Setiawan

Commander Parties take place in LGS from the WPN network – check WPN's Store & Event Locator if you want to find who's throwing this Tarkir: Dragonstorm Party near you. 

There will be one TDM party this coming weekend, April 18–24.

Bear in mind that TDM prerelease events last weekend were packed full, with many LGS being sold out. While Commander Parties are nowhere as popular as prerelease events,Tarkir: Dragonstorm seems like an overwhelming success as far as popularity goes, so you may want to make sure to reserve your spot before showing up.

But if for any reason you can't attend this weekend, worry not: There will be a second TDM Commander party on May 16–22.

Bring your Commander deck, join your clan, and party on!