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Dragon Rocks!

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Jason does a great job covering all your spoiler needs for Dragons of Tarkir, but we have some late-breaking spoilers today that I wanted to write a little about. They're big, they're scary, they're... rocks.

But really cool rocks.

K4hNKAl

All of these Dragon monuments function the same way: they add one of two colors to your mana pool, and for six mana of the appropriate colors they can become a 4/4 Dragon (you can find all five here).

So the question is: are they playable? Obviously when we ask this question we're talking about Limited, and I think these pass the test. We haven't seen a ton of success from people playing Cluestones or Banners in the past, but I think the payoff here is much better. Not only do I get a mana rock that ramps me to my big dragons, but for six mana I can get a Dragon at instant speed whenever I need it! That's a lot more payoff than sinking mana into it to draw a card, and I think these will make the cut in the new draft format. I doubt they're a super-high, but you have to be happier about playing these than a Banner.

Right?

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Corbin Hosler

Corbin Hosler is a journalist living in Norman, Oklahoma (also known as the hotbed of Magic). He started playing in Shadowmoor and chased the Pro Tour dream for a few years, culminating in a Star City Games Legacy Open finals appearance in 2011 before deciding to turn to trading and speculation full-time. He writes weekly at QuietSpeculation.com and biweekly for LegitMTG. He also cohosts Brainstorm Brewery, the only financial podcast on the net. He can best be reached @Chosler88 on Twitter.

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6 thoughts on “Dragon Rocks!

  1. I’d say it’s playable in FRF-DTK-DTK limited format because of:

    1. The (mega)morphs spoiled so far are uncommon and rares — morphing a creature on turn 3 isn’t as common as it was on the previous format;
    2. There are so many top-end bombs (read: DRAGONS) in DTK packs that you would like to cast earlier;
    3. Sizable threats that evades sorcery speed removal (i.e. Roast) are really good.

    There’s a reason why these rocks are uncommon and banners/cluestones are of lower rarity, and it will not be unusual to see them be picked higher than some of the rares spoiled so far in DTK.

        1. Reading comprehension is an integral part of card evaluation. My fu is weak.

          Really makes my call of Roast as a modern playable card suspect. Good thing I haven’t bought any yet.

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