5 Underrated Commander Cards in Khans of Tarkir

Right now in the Magic story we’re in the midst of what Wizards calls “The Dragon Storm Arc.” While we don’t know all the details of what this story entails, we do know that the arc will culminate with a return to Tarkir – a plane with more dragons than any other. We saw our first hint of this in the Duskmourn story, when Kaito had a vision of dragons decimating a plane.

From a business perspective, it makes a lot of sense to return to Tarkir. We’ve only made one visit to the plane and it was incredibly well-received with its focus on three-color wedges and dragons. It’s even the set that introduced the short-hand names for those wedges. Abzan, Sultai, Jeskai, Mardu and Temur are the names of each of the eponymous Khans.

All this talk about the coming Tarkir set got me thinking about our first visit to Tarkir in 2014’s Khans of Tarkir. Overall, it’s a set that has made some significant contribution to EDH. For example, Sidisi, Brood Tyrant and Narset, Enlightened Master are incredibly popular Commanders, the set’s tri-lands are staples, and Hardened Scales is one of the best +1/+1 counter payoffs in the game.

However, there are plenty of cards in Khans of Tarkir that are currently being overlooked by Commander players. In this article, I’m going to take a look at five of those cards.

DUNEBLAST

Duneblast sees significantly more play than most cards that show up in these articles, but it’s still being really underrated. Board sweepers are great because they can entirely reshape the board and help you pull ahead even if you’re incredibly far behind all of your opponents.

You know what makes a sweeper even better? It lets you keep your best creature in play. That’s exactly what Duneblast does, and you don’t even have to jump through any hoops to make it happen. You just need the mana. Once the dust settles from this powerful Sorcery, you’re almost always going to be in a commanding position.

If you have an Abzan commander, you should really take a serious look at Duneblast. Because it’s good in virtually every deck that can cast it.

CLEVER IMPERSONATOR

Like Duneblast, Clever Impersonator is more widely played in Commander than most cards that appear in these articles, but it deserves to be played in far more than just 3% of all Blue decks on EDHRec.

Clones can perform quite well in Commander because there are typically plenty of creatures to choose for them to copy. But Clever Impersonator does something that no other clone in the game can do – it can copy any nonland permanent on the battlefield!  

That’s a massive upgrade, and makes it even more likely that you get your mana’s worth out of this clone. Copying planeswalkers can be especially spicy, but the Impersonators flexibility is such that you’ll be surprised by the number of insane things it can do.

While I think it warrants serious consideration in any Blue Commander deck, it can get particularly interesting if you’re playing a Commander with a powerful ETB ability. This is because the Impersonator can give you the trigger when it enters. This also lets you return your Commander to the command zone, which means you can cast it again and get the trigger.

So if you’re playing a commander like Gyruda or Hidetsugu and Kairi, Clever Impersonator should really be in your deck. In the latter case, the Impersonator can even help you trigger their death trigger at an ideal time.

ASHCLOUD PHOENIX

Morph was a heavily featured mechanic in Tarkir Block and every card that can be played face-down has recently gotten a lot better. This is because Murders at Karlov Manor and Duskmourn: House of Shadows both heavily feature their own face-down mechanics. And in designing the cards that work with those mechanics, Wizards made sure that they would interact well with other face-down mechanics.

Ashcloud Phoenix is great in any deck built around those types of mechanics, because unlike most Morph creatures it can go back and forth between being face up and face down. Like most Phoenixes, Ashcloud doesn’t stay dead, and any time it comes back, it returns face down.

Kaust, Eyes of the Glade and Yarus, Roar of the Gods can both thrive with a creature like Aschloud Phoenix, as both of them can draw you cards with face-down creatures and turn creatures face up for free.

PEARL LAKE ANCIENT

Today, Prowess is an evergreen mechanic that we see on at least a few cards in almost every set. But did you know it was originally introduced as the Jeskai mechanic in Khans of Tarkir?

Pearl Lake Ancient is one of many cards in the set to sport the noncreature spell-loving keyword. Even with that keyword, Pearl Lake Ancient isn’t the most imposing threat in the multiverse, especially when you factor in paying 7 mana for it. But it is big and it comes with Flash, so you can produce some blowouts out of nowhere. Its activated ability also makes it difficult to kill entirely.

So, the Ancient is definitely worth consideration in any “Sea Monster” deck – that is, decks built around the typal grouping of Krakens, Leviathans, Octopuses, and Serpents. There are only so many creatures with those types out there, but there are several popular Commanders that care about them.

For example, if you’re using Kiora, Sovereign of the Deep or Kenessos, Priest of Thassa – you should probably be using Pearl Lake Ancient. With Kiora, you can even get yourself a free spell at instant speed when you Flash in the Ancient.

SEE THE UNWRITTEN

Ferocious is the Temur mechanic, and like Prowess, it has ended up having a lasting impact on Magic. While it isn’t always given the keyword “Ferocious,” many sets since Tarkir have had a “power 4 or greater” theme in Green. For example, this is something we’ve seen in Core Set 2019, Wilds of Eldraine and Outlaws of Thunder Junction.

See the Unwritten is great in that style of deck. If you’ve got Ferocious active, it lets you cheat two creatures from the top 8 cards of your library onto the battlefield. Given that you’re playing a deck that cares about 4 or more power, the creatures you get to put into play are sure to be pretty impactful.

If you’re in a deck built around the Ferocious theme, See the Unwritten should be an auto-include. The most popular of these commanders is Goreclaw, who itself can fulfill the Ferocious requirement, while also making all of your power 4 or greater creatures better attackers, while also making them easier to cast. 

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So, those are my picks for 5 underrated cards in Khans of Tarkir. Will you be adding any of these cards to your deck? Or do you think I left out some other hidden gems? Let me know about it over on X.