The pre-release of Dragons of Tarkir is this weekend. This pre-release, like others, is a sealed pool format where you build your deck from a pool of 5 booster packs, and one seeded booster for the dragon lord you pledge allegiance to.
There are five dragons to pick from, all of which are modeled after the legendary dragons from Fate Reforged. They are as follows: Atarka, Ojutai, Silumgar, Dramoka, and Kolaghan. Each dragon has its own unique attributes and color combination, like the control-centric Ojutai build, or the aggro-heavy Kolaghan build.
Like other clan pledge prereleases there is a promotional item included. This time it happens to be a spin down 20-sided life counter in your chosen dragon’s color, all of which look fabulous. Now diving into the flavor of the set, history has been altered and this is the alternate reality Tarkir where dragons still freely roam the skies. People have become accustomed and pledge their allegiance to different dragons, forming the new clans.
The dragons themselves have also undergone a change. All of the legendary dragons from Fates Reforged, at that time rather young dragons, are all elder dragons. Elder dragon is a sub-type that hasn’t been seen in a rather long time and is making a welcome return to form, indicating high cost powerful creatures with potential game winning effects. This change in the flow of history has also influenced the planeswalkers from Tarkir,
Sarkhan has undergone a color change to Temur, or red-blue-green and is a potent planeswalker, but is rather underpowered effect wise. His counterpart, however, has become much better than her previous creature iteration, Narset Transcendent is an extremely efficient planeswalker and likely to see play in formats other than standard, with a relatively low casting cost of 4 and a high base loyalty she will make a welcome addition to many control based decks, especially when paired with a mirror match due to her final ability. Prerelease Dragons of Tarkir is looking to be rather interesting.