Elspeth, Storm Slayer – Tarkin: Dragonstorm
Date Reviewed: March 26, 2025
Ratings:
Constructed: 4.75
Casual: 4.75
Limited: 4.75
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4.25
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Elspeth’s already slain gods, praetors, and arguably Magic formats, so why not add weather to the list? I’m going to be optimistic in this review, because her new card reminds me a lot of her Sun’s Champion and Elspeth Tirel incarnations. Those cards are remembered fondly or resentfully, depending on your perspective, and the Storm Slayer might be even more versatile. She plays defense as well as either of those cards do, with both her +1 and -3 messing up attacks, but a pseudo-Overrun as a 0 ability sounds quite dangerous to me. And as if that somehow wasn’t enough, that’s a legitimate Doubling Season variant that works on Treasure tokens in every format, and on gigantic Eldrazi in casual play. There’s a lot to work with here, and I suspect we’re going to be seeing her at numerous tables.
Constructed: 4.5
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 4.5
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4
omg woman
Elspeth, Storm Slayer is a pretty “by the books” sort of planeswalker, and she ticks nearly every box you could want in an Elspeth. She makes tokens, she buffs those tokens, and she even kills things. There are twists, of course, but we’ll get there.
There are two things of note here: she lacks a “conventional” ultimate, and her passive effect is bonkers. Token doubling is extremely powerful, and this certainly lives up to it by generating two Soldiers with her +1. She’s even able to go for lethal on an established board with her 0, sending everything skyward to wreak havoc. Her “ultimate” is a simple kill spell, but having a kill spell that sticks around to generate value and demand answer is quite formidable, so even if you have to play this to kill something threatening, it’s still a valuable card.
Honestly, this Elspeth is scary because she doesn’t need to focus on a flashy ultimate. She generates vicious value turn over turn, and having three potent options instead of two is always nice. While five mana is the traditional planeswalker “dead zone”, she might well be one of the strongest five-mana planeswalkers. I suspect she’s going to be one of the set’s chase cards, and for good reason.
Constructed: 5
Casual: 5
Limited: 5 (not quite the bomb Sun’s Champion was, but I do not see you losing many games with her)
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4.5
We would love more volunteers to help us with our Magic the Gathering Card of the Day reviews. If you want to share your ideas on cards with other fans, feel free to drop us an email. We would be happy to link back to your blog / YouTube Channel / etc. 😉
