Tarkir: Dragonstorm Vintage Cube Update

Posted on Apr 18, 2025

"The Tarkir: Dragonstorm update of the Magic Online Vintage Cube goes live with Draft Leagues on Wednesday, April 23 at 10:00 a.m. PT (17:00 UTC). Try it out in the free preview league on April 21-22! Get details on how to join in this week's Blog."

Hello Vintage Cube Enthusiasts! It’s time for another update to the Magic Online Vintage Cube and we’re back to let you know all about it. As mentioned in our 2025 outlook article, we are looking to reduce the total number of changes per iteration while still keeping it fresh. For this update, our goal was to cut back on cards that aren’t seeing a lot of play and/or performing well, making room for cool new additions from Tarkir: Dragonstorm and a couple of old favorites as well.

Domain Hosting Change

The fetchable triland cycle makes the Domain archetype naturally supportable in Vintage Cube. Unlike Leyline Binding and Territorial Kavu, however, Tribal Flames, Nishoba Brawler, and Scion of Draco require consistent access to full domain to shine, which makes them see less play. We are moving away from the “full domain required” payoffs to try some other multicolored cards for both variety and to further support recent addition General Ferrous Rokiric. Play rates suggest some skepticism around the general, but win rates suggest he’s worth it for the single slot he asks of the curation. He is difficult to get rid of, and can take over a game quickly with a decent density of multicolored cards. Hybrid cards are a fantastic way to trigger Rokiric without stressing the mana base!

Hogaak, Benched Necropolis

We supported this archetype a lot throughout a majority of last year and have been cutting back on it step-by-step due to it not seeing a lot of play. While we still feel it to be very competitive in Vintage Cube when well supported, cutting back on it has left it in an even more narrow place. Thus, we decided to cut it completely with plans to bring it back in the future with more support.

Ramping Things Up

As mentioned earlier, the available space has us bringing back a couple of old favorites. Even if these green rampers don’t rank among the winningest Cube cards anymore, they aren’t traps, and they offer some familiar, crystal-clear directions to head toward. Ramp on!

The New Guard

Every iteration of the Vintage Cube involves assessing all the cards that have been printed since the last iteration and deciding what deserves a shot. We are always on the lookout for cards that fit into existing archetypes at an appealing rate, and cards that could spawn new archetypes without having to add direct support for it, such as:

Elspeth, Storm Slayer

Elspeth gets the nod for the stand-alone threat she represents. Making two bodies is great self-protection and can help snowball cards like Ocelot Pride and Adeline, Resplendent Cathar in aggressive strategies. And that’s not all - she’s also a powerful alpha-strike tool to kill your opponent out of nowhere, much like top-performer Headliner Scarlett. That said, five mana and a double pip is steep for Vintage Cube, so she has to prove herself to stick around.

Voice of Victory

This one has a lot of potential. The baseline stats are already pretty great, and the Grand Abolisher effect is nothing to scoff at. Vintage Cube is full of powerful 3-drops these days that Voice of Victory can simultaneously force through and protect—top prospects being Broadside Bombardiers and Gut, True Soul Zealot, as Voice also provides fodder tokens for their respective abilities. In addition to all that, the tokens aren’t sacrificed until the end of your turn, so they can get copied by Ocelot Pride, fed to Skullclamp, trigger Guide of Souls, and provide red permanents for Ajani’s flipside, even when you’re just Mono White. We believe this to be a great addition to the already powerful Boros army!

Tersa Lightshatter

We suspect this to be an amazing role-player with high potential to be a future mainstay. Red loves discarding cards, especially when combined with Black for reanimation effects. Because a lot of the good discard outlets are printed on creatures these days, the Rakdos decks are especially good at doing the splits between being both an effective combo and midrange deck at the same time. A 3/3 haste usually doesn’t demand an immediate answer but also can’t be left unchecked for long. If you discard an Archon behind it, your opponents are going to get really dizzy, really quickly.

Ugin, Eye of the Storms

Now don’t get it twisted, seven mana is a lot, but this card can do some serious work. First of all, it gets rid of something immediately, then either boosts itself to 9 loyalty, gaining you 3 life and drawing a card in the process or adds {C}{C}{C}, allowing you to cast more spells and blow up more things, not to mention any free colorless spells you could play after it. Ugin feels like a spell worth ramping to!

Thanks for reading, and check out the changelist below for thoughts on all the swaps. We'll see you in the queues!

Changelist

Color	In	Color	Out	Design Comment
White	Clarion Conqueror	White	Steel Seraph	Historically “Hate Bears” (or in this case Hate Dragons) have been an effective way for “fair” to fight "broken" in Vintage Cube, so we want to give Clarion Conqueror a chance to muck up the busted stuff.
White	Descendant of Storms	White	Usher of the Fallen	A slight upgrade in the “2/1 for 1 with upside” category.
White	Elspeth, Storm Slayer	White	Sevinne's Reclamation	Sevinne's Reclamation is one of those interesting-but-niche cards mentioned in the article above. It's making room for a new Elspeth that does a bit of everything, with its token-doubling static ability and the powerful alpha-strike option to finish off your opponents.
White	Get Lost	White	Skyseer's Chariot	Skyseer's Chariot proved too narrow in last update so we are swapping it for a broadly applicable removal spell in Get Lost.
White	Voice of Victory	White	Esper Sentinel	We have high hopes for the Voice. It's one of the best things to play before Gut or Broadside Bombardiers, and the tokens provide red permanents for Ajani that can be fed to Skullclamp.
Blue	Floodpits Drowner	Blue	Kitsa, Otterball Elite	Floodpits Drowner is another nod to the tempo-focused Ninjas archetype that especially shines with evasive low-drop creatures with enters-the-battlefield effects.
Blue	True-Name Nemesis	Blue	Kiora, the Rising Tide	Much like Floodpits Drowner, we believe True-Name Nemesis will work well in the creature-centric Blue decks that have been having good success lately, so we're bringing it back.
Blue	Turnabout	Blue	Proft's Eidetic Memory	We're bringing back Turnabout while we let people ride the High Tide.
Black	Qarsi Revenant	Black	Evolved Sleeper	Black decks are often looking for life-gain effects, and Qarsi Revenant is strictly better than Vampire Nighthawk, which used to be a Vintage Cube regular!
Red	Cori-Steel Cutter	Red	Grim Lavamancer	Grim Lavamancer has seen a sharp decline in its play rate over the last couple of years, so we're swapping it out for the hot new equipment from Tarkir: Dragonstorm.
Red	Embereth Shieldbreaker	Red	Goblin Cratermaker	These two cards have come in and out of the Vintage Cube as role players in a similar space, but Embereth Shieldbreaker is a bit more well-known and thus will see more play than the Cratermaker.
Red	Tersa Lightshatter	Red	Tribal Flames	Tersa Lightshatter is very promising, boasting solid base stats as an aggressive threat while offering a discard outlet and some bonus late-game power to boot.
Green	Courser of Kruphix	Green	Nishoba Brawler	Fastbond is a beloved classic with ridiculous abstract power, but it needs support to turn that potential into wins, so we're bringing back Courser of Kruphix as a solid value play for green that shines with the ‘bond.
Green	Fyndhorn Elves	Green	Satyr Wayfinder	With Hogaak leaving, Satyr Wayfinder has lost part of its purpose, so we're swapping it out for the functional reprint of Llanowar Elves.
Green	Heritage Reclamation	Green	Force of Vigor	Force of Vigor has a powerful effect, but it is often relegated to the sideboard. We feel Heritage Reclamation will see much more broad play.
Green	Nature's Lore	Green	Survival of the Fittest	Nature's Lore is coming in to search for all kinds of tri-color Forests, fitting the boosted ramp theme and the extra multicolored cards in Green.
Green	Primeval Titan	Green	Agonasaur Rex	Prime Time is back! Whether searching up land combos or just doing ramp like a champ while beating your opponent's face in, a resolved Primeval Titan must be answered, if it isn’t already too late!
Green	Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary	Green	Sylvan Library	One old-timer coming in for another. While Sylvan Library still sees frequent play, it has one of the lowest win rates in the Cube, so it is functioning like a trap card. Paying 4 life to draw a card is not what it used to be, and spending a turn without any direct impact on the board is a steep cost as well these days, so we're letting it ride the bench, at least for now. Meanwhile, while Rofellos dies to a stiff breeze and demands devotion to forests, he’s easy to understand and build around, and if there’s no breeze when he arrives, he ramps you with the best of them.
Boros	Figure of Destiny	Green	Up the Beanstalk	We're felling the Beanstalk for now. It Does a Thing reasonably well and with a low opportunity cost, but not enough players are doing the thing to warrant keeping it over trying some other cards.
Boros	Sunbillow Verge	Boros	Elegant Parlor	With a bunch of Domain cards leaving, we felt like a dual that enters untapped would benefit the speedy Boros archetype more.
Dimir	Ertai Resurrected	Blue	Duelist of the Mind	Ertai plays well with what Dimir is frequently doing these days, so we figured we'd bring him back for a run.
Golgari	Pillage the Bog	Golgari	Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis	Pillage the Bog is back to support Golgari combos such as Dark Depths and Chain of Smog, while Hogaak will wait to rise again in another iteration of the Cube.
Izzet	Lutri, the Spellchaser	Orzhov	Ketramose, the New Dawn	Ketramose was fun to play around with for a season, but it was ultimately too narrow to last. Lutri, the Spellchaser is making its debut in the Magic Online Vintage Cube. Lutri is always “companionable” in Vintage Cube, and an eighth card to start the game with is powerful, but where should it be taken? We’re going to find out what you think!
Simic	Restless Vinestalk	Black	Bazaar of Baghdad	Between Sowing Mycospawn, Golos and Primeval Titan, we felt like another avenue for finding a threat from a land tutor would be nice.
Multicolor	Leovold, Emissary of Trest	Multicolor	Bring to Light	Draw-seven is an evergreen archetype in Vintage Cube with mainstays Timetwister, Wheel of Fortune, Time Spiral, and Memory Jar, but Bring to Light is neither seeing much play nor success. So we're throwing it back on the bench and bringing back an old favorite in Leovold who will support Draw Seven decks better than Bring to Light.
Multicolor	Slimefoot and Squee	Rakdos	Valki, God of Lies	Valki takes a seat to give Slimefoot and Squee a chance to impact the Cube.
Colorless	Soul-Guide Lantern	Colorless	Relic of Progenitus	Reverting a swap originally made to support Ketramose.
Colorless	Ugin, Eye of the Storms	Colorless	Scion of Draco	The new Ugin is looking exciting and powerful for Vintage Cube; we feel like this one has staying potential.

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