The new Temur precon seems quite fun and playable right out of the box. However, you could make it even better, and our Temur Roar Upgrade Guide is here to help you with that.
Below you’ll find 10 card swaps, which you can use to have an even more fun experience when playing this deck. The suggestions won’t include generically powerful cards like Heroic Intervention, as you probably already know about these. Instead, the focus will be on the cards that work particularly well in this specific deck.
Before we get to that, let’s first take a look at the deck and what it’s trying to do.
Temur Roar Game Plan
The strategy of Temur Roar is fairly straightforward. Ramp so you can cast your powerful Dragons ahead of schedule. Not too complex, right?
However, you need to make a choice right away when playing with this deck.
Commander Selection
The question is would you rather use Eshki, Temur’s Roar or Ureni of the Unwritten as your commander?
Given that the deck contains a bunch of Dragons, and seems to be built around this creature type, Ureni seems like the better choice. While Eshki could work just fine, it just feels too generic.
The following upgrade suggestions will be made assuming you’re using the dragon as your commander. (Although they’d work fine with Eshki too.)
Temur Decklist
The deck looks pretty solid, as far as the precons go. However, some good Dragons are missing, and there could be a little more ramp. That’s what we’ll focus on with the following ten additions.
Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm
Miirym was the default Temur Dragon commander before this precon was released. It’s an extremely powerful card for this deck, be it as a part of the 99 or as a commander. Doubling all of your Dragon spells can be really cool, plus it gets around the legendary rule.
If you were to add just a single card to the deck, it should probably be this one. It’ll enable so many epic plays, plus if you want a bit different game play experience, you could always swap it for your commander.
Replaces: Stormshriek Feral
For most cards that I’ll recommend you cut, an argument could be made for keeping them. However, that’s not the case with this common Dragon from the new set. It’s simply too weak, and a basic Mountain would already be a better inclusion. Mirrym will surely perform much better.
Dragonspeaker Shaman
This is an iconic part of so many Dragon decks. First printed in Scourge, it still holds its own 22 years later, by providing a relevant cost reduction to all of your Dragon spells.
Temur Roar precon comes with a bunch of expensive Dragons, so ways to cast them ahead of schedule are very welcome.
Replaces: Taurean Mauler
This is technically a cheap Dragon, and it can grow over the course of the game, but it’s still just too vanilla. The three mana spent on it would be much better invested in Dragonspeaker Shaman.
Acolyte of Bahamut
This card reads a bit clunky, but essentially it means that your first Dragon each turn costs 2 mana less if you control your commander. Now that’s a relevant cost reduction, although it comes with a stipulation.
Perhaps Acolyte isn’t quite to your liking or you want to add more similar effects to the deck. In that case you could also consider:
- Urza’s Incubator is cost reduction for everyone’s Dragons.
- Herald’s Horn can also provide card advantage.
- Dracogenesis is an expensive card, meant for the late game. However, it can make for some remarkable games.
Replaces: Spit Flame
Sure, this is a flavorful removal spell, that you can use multiple times in a game, but it’s just too inefficient for most Commander games. There’s plenty of stuff that it doesn’t kill, and that’s just not what you want from your three mana removal spell.
Mox Jasper
One of the most powerful and iconic Magic cards are certainly the Moxen. These zero mana artifacts can provide an insane mana boost, and get you way ahead of schedule. A new one was printed in Tarkir Dragonstorm main set.
To be fair, Mox Jasper is significantly slower, as you need to control a Dragon in order to get mana from it. On the other hand, you’ll still benefit from it in mid to late game. Typically, in a deck like this one, you’ll rarely run out of cards. More often, you’ll be limited on mana. That’s why this zero mana artifact will play really nicely here.
Replaces: Rapacious Dragon
Two Treasures and a 3/3 for five mana is below rate, although it can be useful in certain scenarios. Still, Mox will likely be better, as the card works on a whole different axis
Carnelian Orb of Dragonkind
The final ramp card on this list is Carnelian Orb of Dragonkind. Contrary to the Mox, this one is as cheap as it gets. (It was recently reprinted in Foundations.)
Three cost mana rocks aren’t in a great spot nowadays. They feel kinda clunky most of the time, so they need to provide some sort of an additional benefit. Carnelian Orb does so by giving haste to the Dragons you cast with its mana. There are plenty of Dragons in your deck that will benefit from haste, so the effect is certainly welcome.
If you like this kind of a card, you might also want to consider Jade Orb of Dragonkind and Lapis Orb of Dragonkind. These two are kinda weaker, but can still be serviceable, and are budget friendly.
Replaces: Fellwar Stone
This is probably the best card among the recommended cuts, as it is a 2-cost mana rock. However, we added quite a few cost reduction effects, and Stone isn’t particularly on-theme. Thus, you probably won’t miss it that much.
Old Gnawbone
For seven mana you get a 7/7 flyer, that can provide you with a massive amount of Treasure tokens. It doesn’t even need to do damage itself, so you can benefit from it on the turn you play it. You could even get more than seven mana out of it on that very first turn.
Thus, it shouldn’t be a big surprise that Old Gnawbone is one of the most popular expensive green creatures in Commander and its price reflects that.
If you want a somewhat cheaper suggestion, but still a powerful Dragon card, you might want to consider Terror of the Peaks. A truly budget friendly option would be Wrathful Red Dragon. These cards do vastly different things but are still essentially really good Dragon cards.
Replaces: Verix Bladewing
Getting two Dragons from a single card is useful, but not particularly strong for seven mana. In most games, it just won’t do quite enough, and at four mana, it’s also whatever.
Astral Dragon
Eight mana is a lot to pay, even for a powerful card. However, Astral Dragon certainly delivers. When it comes into play you also get a couple of 3/3 Dragons. However, those won’t be just vanilla creatures. Instead, those are both copies of a target noncreature permanent.
This can make for some wild and unexpected play patters, as you don’t even need to copy your own stuff. Worst case scenario, they’ll be copies of a land, but usually, there will be a lot of juicy stuff out there to get a ton of value.
Replaces: Whirlwing Stormbrood
The Omen part of this card is really bad in Commander, three mana for three +1/+1 counters just isn’t a good rate. (Even if your deck actually cares about counters.)
Ureni, the Song Unending
You’re already using Ureni as a commander, but you could add a different version of it to the 99. Protection from white and black makes it somewhat hard to deal with in – depending on your playgroup.
While it costs 8 mana, that’s not that big of a deal as you want to cast it when you have lots of lands in play already. This way you’ll be able to clear a lot of smaller creatures, or one or two big ones when it comes into play.
Oh, and that’s all tacked onto a 10/10 flyer, which can dominate most board states.
Replaces: Leyline Tyrant
Leyline Tyrant seems like an okay card, but too often its ability just doesn’t matter. Having a bunch of mana leftover just isn’t something that happens in Commander that many times.
Draconic Muralist
Temur Roar precon already contains a bunch of Dragons from the get go, plus you’re likely adding some more while upgrading. Thus, you’ll probably have a Dragon in your hand most of the time. But having the perfect Dragon for the current game state? That’s not always going to happen.
Unless you tutor for it with something like Draconic Muralists, which is a Dragon itself, so it works with all of your other synergies. Sure, it needs to die in order for you to search for the card, but it’s still pretty good nonetheless.
If you want an immediate effect, or just another tutor, Sarkhan’s Triumph is a perfectly fine option.
Replaces: Vengeful Ancestor
This dragon is perfectly fine, but a bit under-powered. Muralists also cost four mana, but also provide you with a perfect Dragon card eventually.
Dragonback Assault
The tenth and therefore last card for today is another one from the Tarkir: Dragonstorm set. A six mana enchantment that does two very different things. First, it clears the board off small creatures. Then, it stays in play and makes Dragons whenever you play a land.
In most games, this card will pull it’s weight, plus it’s a really flavorful one. How good it actually ends up being depends on what your opponents are doing. If the first effect doesn’t deal with a lot of stop, it obviously becomes worse.
Replaces: Storm’s Wrath
This sorcery is cheaper and deals a point of damage more, which are both real upsides. However, the added benefit of getting multiple Dragons in a game, tips the scales into the mythic enchantment’s favor.
Temur Roar Upgrade Recap
So, to quickly recap, here are the suggested additions and cuts.
Cards to add:
As always, if you disagree with any of these recommendations, feel free to ignore them. These are merely ideas that can help you, but you should really make the deck your own, so you’ll have fun when playing.
Mana Base
The mana base is playable. Not too impressive, but it’ll get the job done. Most budget lands are included, but as always there are some omissions. (Particularly with higher priced lands.)
If you want to improve it further, check for Temur lands here.
Conclusion
And that’s the end of our Temur Roar Upgrade Guide. If there’s a great card that would fit in the deck, but we didn’t mention, let our readers know by leaving a comment below.
If you don’t own the deck yet, you can order a copy on Amazon. (If they are sold out, you might need to try your luck on TCGPlayer instead.)
Until next time, have fun with your upgraded Temur Roar precon, and may nothing stop your mighty dragons!