Dragons of Tarkir made its debut this weekend at the high-power SCG Invitational, where strings of ringers showed up to battle for novelty oversized checks.

While we're all still unsure of DTK's lasting impact, the set was decently represented in this weekend's event. While the upcoming Pro Tour and subsequent events will cement the format, this is our first glimpse of the power.

Let's take a tour of its impact on Standard.

Roast: Is This the Best Doom Blade We've Got?

We've seen many different cards jockeying for the slot of spot removal. Hero's Demise is great if you've got three mana and Utter End is the utter best at 4. But what fills in at two mana?

Ultimate Price saw a few spots in Abzan control, but Murderous Cut remains the premiere removal for GWB. Champion Jacob Wilson had a 1/1 split, while Jason Coleman (on aggro) and Joe Bass had zero. Dromoka's Command turned out to be a little more popular in the spot. Coleman used it to amp up his attackers and fight opponents.

Roast has limits on its application, just like Ultimate Price--neither are exactly going to pick off a flying golden dragon. On the other hand, Roast can fight all kinds of aggro and the ever-present Courser, so it's got a good home in the mono-red and RG decks that Top 8'ed.

Action: Ultimate Price and Roast are both uncommons, but Ultimate Price already saw a previous printing in Return to Ravnica. Pass on that. On the other hand, Roast has got a lot of legs on it. It's at a dollar now and that's a decent price to get in at. The foils are a little rich at $5, but these are good trade targets. With Roast in mind, let's take a look at...

Mono-Red Aggro, Scourge of First-Week Formats

Since Tom Sligh strung together Dwarven Warriors and Goblins of the Flarg (read 'em and cry at the dis-synergy), mono-red has been shredding unsure formats.

If there're cheap red drops, your inefficient deck is going to get torn apart. Red tends to get dealt with by decks with sweepers and lifegain, but those do best in a more stable metagame. While there's no wrong threat, drawing the End Hostilities against a grip full of fire sucks.

Michael Braverman brought his badass last name and efficient mono-red deck to an 8-0 performance in Standard. Let that sink in--undefeated with little red dudes. His rampage was stopped by W/G Devotion, as Whisperwood Elemental is still that good. However, take a moment to look at his deck.

Is it fun? Yep, Hordeling Outburst is always fun.

Does it have power? Yep, 8-0 against an intense field speaks to that.

Is it cheap? You bet! Stoke the Flames is quasi-rare at $4, Eidolon is $7 and Zurgo Bellstriker is $2.50--but that's the money rares.

This deck is going to tear up FNM for awhile and I want to be in on Zurgo.

SCG has raised the price to $5 at printing, but there are still a bunch of copies on TCG Player at $2.15 or so. There's a significant segment of Magic players who want to run the "good" budget deck and it's hard to beat this one. You just crank out guys and attack. The single Rabblemaster can be cut for budgetary reasons and the deck will still function decently.

Action: When you see a cheap deck do well, step in and pick up the pieces. It's very rare for a Magic deck to wind up less than $100 and this one is both tempting and cheap. Zurgo is the action card here, seeing as he can hit $6 with relative ease. Hordeling Outburst is still about a dollar; I've been saying it's primed to go up for five months now, so I don't think I'm a great judge of this card right now. I presume that as soon as I lose faith, it'll go up in price - it happened with Whip of Erebos, after all.

Tasigur: Still Bananas?

Tasigur. Is he an attractive necklace or still a real threat?

Fully half of the T8 ran a pair of him. It seems that if you've got black mana on hand, a duo of the clan leader is called for. Tasigur is still overhyped in Modern, but he seems to do good work as a cheap beater in Standard. I have rarely seen his ability really matter, but he comes down on a good turn for a lot of decks.

Action: Tasigur hasn't broken his original spike to $12 and sits, lounging, at $7 or so at the moment. I don't love trading for him but he's a good hold; when you see a staple pop up in each deck that can run it, that should tell you something.

Dragonlord Ojutai Made a Brief Appearance

The QS Staff was pretty high on Ojutai coming into the Invitational. He's a giant Hexproof body that draws cards, and that's cool in its own right.

Shaheen Soorani thought so too and cruised 6-2 with his dragon-based control deck. He ended up in 12th place with the dragon thanks to a similarly strong Legacy performance. While Ojutai was about $8 going into the weekend, he's comfortably selling at $13 now. If you ordered some, I hope they ship.

Ojutai also popped up in Todd Anderson's Jeskai Tokens deck. While many lists will bring in sweepers like Drown in Sorrow, there's not a lot they can do against the flying dragon. Brad Nelson pointed out that combined with Jeskai Ascendancy, the lord is nearly unkillable. That's because it'll untap as soon as you whisper "in response..." and regain Hexproof.

Action: Ojutai's star is rising. He is priced correctly now but can also become a $30 mythic on the basis of a great Pro Tour showing. If he's absent from control lists, get rid of him. I don't advocate buying right now, but this is a great card to watch for the PT.

Rhino Hunting On An Exotic Abzan Safari

I detest the idea of shooting rhinos here on Earth, but Tarkir seems overrun with them.

Twelve copies showed up to the surprise of nobody in the T8. The tri-color rares from Khans have had a hard time breaking $8 and sustaining it. Mantis Rider is nowhere right now, for example.

Siege Rhino has a shot at climbing back to $8 and beyond because Khans will not be opened in the same quantities as it was before. If your LGS hands out packs of the latest set for prize, then this will sustain a higher price for KTK. If your LGS lets you choose, then the obvious pick is KTK because of higher set value--but this is uncommon.

Action: Siege Rhino continues to kill people off the top of the deck and it'll be a major force for the next year. Don't trade them away if you have them. If you're looking to get rid of cards and your trade partner has Siege Rhinos, they're a safe card to pick up through summer. The manabase is there, the effect is huge and Whip will stick around for the time being.

This is how is DTK doing as a set

Dealers aren't exactly racing to pick up DTK cards. Part of this is because we're not sure where they'll end up. Prices stay low in an uncertain market and they should firm up much more after the Pro Tour.

You can check the QS Price Chart for DTK, which shows you the highest buylist prices and average sell prices on dynamic, sortable tables. Right now, only Damnable Pact, Sarkhan Unbroken and Deathmist Raptor have spreads under 30%.

 

That means that those are the only three cards that dealers are so confident in that they'll pay very close to retail to pick up.

Quick hits:

• Silumgar's Command joins Ojutai's Command as "least likely to see play."
• Shorecrasher Elemental wasn't enough to make Monoblue Devotion kick back up.
• There's no base-blue control in the T8, which is common for a new format.
• Thank goodness that there was only one GW Devotion deck in the T8, sparing us from untimed mirrors.

Let me know what you thought of the Invitational!

Until next week,

-Doug