Sphere of Influence: April 18, 2025

Welcome to Sphere of Influence, a pre-FNM look at some potential movers and shakers that are worth picking up before their prices increase.

Tarkir: Dragonstorm is breathing its fire all over multiple formats upon its release; and many of the cards remain pretty cheap, despite the hype. Now is a great time to pick up Commander goodies for current and even future decks; the set's quite popular and I can't imagine prices will stay at their current rate for too long. Here are a few to consider.

Nature's Rhythm - $3

This card rocks to the familiar rhythm found in Finale of Devastation, Chord of Calling and Green Sun's Zenith, all of which have their place. Nature's Rhythm has no restriction on the color of the creature you grab and offers an easy two-for-one in the form of its harmonize mechanic. The fact that you can tap the creature you find to pay for the next activation puts this one over the top.

Add to this the fact that those other cards are all much more expensive than Nature's Rhythm; Chord runs about $5 while the others are comfortably more than $20. The financial cost-per-tutor rate can't be beat!

Temur Battlecrier - $2

I can't stop thinking about how good this card is. If its power were less than four, I could understand it being relegated to only situational uses, but for three mana you'll get a guaranteed reduction of one colorless mana on every spell - not just of a certain type - you cast during your turn. And the savings only grow from there.

Temur Battlecrier's color identity is one of its most limiting factors, but there are still plenty of decks that stand to experience a mana-saving windfall. Its $2 price is a steal, and the opportunity cost of picking one up now in case of a spike versus at bulk rare prices isn't too high.

United Battlefront - $0.50

Wizards finally printed a Collected Company for non-creature permanents, and it feels appropriate to gift such a treasure to white, where cheap nonland permanents are the norm.

I wish this had been playable at instant speed, but digging an additional card into your library makes up for it; plus, popping a stax piece onto the battlefield on an opponent's turn is probably too oppressive an action for the company to facilitate. This card is only going to become more expensive as power creep intensifies.

Avenger of the Fallen - $0.50

This creature is pretty slow and a bit fragile, but Avenger of the Fallen represents a strict upgrade to Kessig Cagebreakers, a super-fun card whose mana value has rendered it mostly unplayable in Commander. While the tokens it creates don't stick around, Avenger comes down early and has deathtouch to discourage getting chumped by an opponent's large creature.

Black feels like the right color for this one, as well. I'm cautiously optimistic, and $0.50 is a fair price to find out.

Eshki Dragonclaw - $0.50

While Eshki would make for a fun and powerful Commander in their own right, they'll shine in the 99 of any average Temur deck. For four mana, they can come down for four mana, boasting three relevant keywords, and can easily become a 6/6 and draw you a card right away. (The spell itself counts as the creature spell, so there's only one additional spell required.)

This is another card whose upside is large enough to warrant taking the $0.50 dive.

Storm's Coming…

Which Tarkir: Dragonstorm cards are you excited to sleeve up? Let me know how they're faring in your decks, too!