I've been waiting half a decade for Sarkhan to
finally have the ultimate ability he does on
this card. Everyone knows this is what his
ultimate would really be - it's kind of funny
that he had to gain blue in his mana cost to get
it, but at least he has it now.
His other abilities aren't too bad either, for
that matter. The eye is immediately drawn to his
middle ability and the prospect of making
dragons at will, but the fact is that his +1
ability gets better the longer the game goes on.
Mana acceleration is good at any stage of the
game - going from five to seven is not really
less important than from one to three,
especially when you see the cards we're
reviewing tomorrow and Friday - and in this case
it's a bonus on a Phyrexian Arena effect.
Welcome back readers today's card of the day is
Sarkhan back and better than ever. Sarkhan
Unbroken is an amazingly powerful planeswalker,
the downside of having to have three different
kinds of mana is lessened by the sheer power of
the card. The +1 provides card advantage mana
fixing and or mana ramping depending on when its
used, the -2 allows Sarkhan to protect himself
and a 4/4 flying dragon is quite impressive in
doing so. The ultimate allows you to search for
any number of dragons and just dump them into
play is an over the top but undeniably powerful
ultimate. In standard this card is powerful in
the decks that can support the color
requirements, most notably Temur decks with a
focus on ramping, making this a powerful
contender in standard. In modern and eternal
formats I don't know if this card will be quite
good enough to see play with its medocire
ultimate and three color requirements. In
limited this card is a bomb most planeswalkers
are but drawing cards, and creating evasive
creatures is a step above most although three
colors could be challenging. In casual and
multiplayer this card is powerful and the dragon
ultimate is sure to have a large variety of
amazing targets. Decks that can handle the mana
requirement are sure to find this a powerful and
flexible planeswalker. Overall a powerful and
fun planeswalker who can protect itself and
generate card advantage.
Today's card of the day is Sarkhan Unbroken
which is a five mana Green, Blue, and Red
planeswalker with four loyalty. The +1 has
you draw a card then add one mana of any color
to your mana pool which works very well together
as the added mana can help in using the gain in
card advantage. The -2 puts a 4/4 Red
dragon with Flying into play that if used even
once is moderate value on the card, but twice
more than covers the casting cost of Sarkhan.
The -8 of searching your library and putting as
many dragons as wanted into play is outright
gamebreaking in Commander with options like
Scourge of Valkas to burn every opponent down
with enough dragons in deck to play.
The biggest hindrance in any format is the Blue
mana added to the Red and Green in the casting
cost as it requires additional support.
While the three effects are each very strong
they work independently of each other and have
little synergy. Overall this is a powerful
card with very specific design choices needed to
build a deck around, but could be a major force
in the right setting.
For Limited the three colors can be an awkward
foundation to build on, though the strength of
the first two effects makes splashing a third
color very reasonable. As a value draft
and the potential power it is worth the first
pick in Booster and can be supported through
later choices to get the value from each color.
In Sealed the splash might be just for Sarkhan
and one or two top cards, but even the two
tokens and one card draw would make this an
incredible bargain and worth forcing as a top
card in the format.
This incarnation of Sarkhan is the lord of the
dragons. His +1 gives you the mana to play any
color dragon (perhaps drawing one, too). His -2
gives you a dragon outright, and his -8 gives
you ALL the dragons.
Realistically, though, how good is he? At 5 mana
in three different colors, he’s not a quick
drop. Having one of those colors be green helps
significantly, but it’s still a consideration.
His +1 is extremely useful. You get to keep the
cards coming and have the mana to play them. Or,
you could just use his -2 twice and pump out 2
dragons.
He certainly is exciting, though I fear his
color combination makes it unlikely that he’s
going to stick around and be a favorite.
If you happen to be playing these three colors
in limited, by all means, feature Sarkhan, but
don’t compromise your deck’s mana base just for
him.
