Will of the Temur: Standard Eshki Dragonclaw

Note: This article was translated from Chinese by AI and may contain errors. Read the original Chinese version.

Before We Start

In “Tarkir: Dragonstorm” Limited, Temur is a quite strong color combination, and the newly risen Khan Eshki Dragonclaw is the standout among them. I believe quite a few players got badly beaten up by this Khan when opening packs. But if you want to play her in Standard, how should you build? Today we offer readers a reference example.

Card Analysis

Eshki Dragonclaw
Legendary Creature | Human Warrior
Vigilance, trample, ward {1}
At the beginning of combat on your turn, if you have cast both a creature spell and a noncreature spell this turn, draw a card and put two +1/+1 counters on Eshki Dragonclaw.

Eshki Dragonclaw requires casting both a creature spell and a noncreature spell during your own turn. In the current Standard card pool, the abilities that can pair with it are adventure from “Wilds of Eldraine” and Omen from the new set. Everyone has played Omen in Limited, and although the two work together with great vigor, once you move to Standard, the high cost of the Omen cards themselves is a major obstacle. As for adventure, although the rare adventure cards in the Temur colors all have low costs, they lack coordination with each other, so much so that “Wilds of Eldraine” has been out until now without a decent adventure-theme deck appearing, and putting Eshki into it would not help either.

Since neither Omen nor adventure can be counted on, we set our goal on satisfying the ability’s condition the turn Eshki enters, which means the deck has plenty of noncreature spells cast for one mana. Another point that fewer people may notice is that Eshki pairs exceptionally well with extra combat phases: not only does the ability trigger repeatedly, the creature itself has vigilance and trample, so it can pummel the opponent without needing to untap. And in Standard there is an archetype that fits Eshki’s conditions very well.

Decklist

I trust readers are all familiar with the delirium archetype: the ratio of creature cards to noncreature cards is similar, and since it uses noncreature spells to filter into creatures to slam down, it can often cast a creature spell and a noncreature spell in the same turn.

The author used the Gruul delirium package as the base and added Patchwork Beastie, Fear of Missing Out, Wildfire Wickerfolk, Omnivorous Flytrap, and Violent Urge. Of these, Fear of Missing Out gives an extra combat phase, and paired with Eshki it has a chance to draw two or three cards in one turn, while beating the opponent silly with her untapped. Omnivorous Flytrap has a chance to double counters, helping Eshki’s body break upward. As for Violent Urge… is there a better target for double strike than a big-fisted trampler?

For the card-filtering spells, we have the traditional green self-mill cards Seed of Hope and Dredger’s Insight, and then add the newly released Harmonize spells Glacial Dragonhunt and Winternight Stories. The latter two are not only filtering plus removal / card draw that can be cast from the graveyard, but the Harmonize cost reduction lets you slam a creature and follow up with a spell more smoothly, satisfying Eshki’s trigger condition.

As for removal picks, besides the Glacial Dragonhunt mentioned above, the author also adds Bounce Off, Bushwhack, Torch the Tower, and Obliterating Bolt. Most are one-mana spells, making it convenient to follow Eshki’s landing directly with removal to trigger her ability.

Gameplay Demo

Since the base is the battle-tested Gruul delirium, its combat power is quite formidable in the early-to-mid game once delirium is achieved. It is only that its staying power and removal are relatively poor, and after mixing in blue there is soft removal and card draw to reinforce it. In testing, Eshki, as the deck’s apex, both refills your hand and drives the offense, using her formidable body for output and the extra cards drawn to moderately top up resources, and in turn deciding the game.

Bonus: Temur Ferocious

Having talked about the new Temur Khan, let’s also chat about the ferocious theme, which represents the old Temur, mentioned in the earlier article Gruul Ferocious. Unsurprisingly, Wizards also added material to ferocious in the new set, namely Temur Battlecrier, Herd Heirloom, and Spectral Denial. The list adjusted to three colors is as follows:

Decklist

The cost reduction of Temur Battlecrier is astonishingly effective in a ferocious-theme deck. Ramping it out off a turn-two accelerant, you can often fill the board by turn three, and following up with Dragonhawk, Fate’s Tempest is not out of the question either, winning big over the red-green version on efficiency alone. Herd Heirloom replaces the two-mana ramp slot, a ramp-and-fixing resource engine that is hard to tear down. And Spectral Denial, which seems not very usable, is not as bad as you might imagine in use, and its counter at a key moment is often the watershed that decides the game. For a gameplay video, please see:

In game two, because the computer tapped the wrong mana, there was no blue available to counter the opponent’s Day of Judgment, and I nearly lost the game because of it. If the mana had been tapped correctly, that game would have ended the moment Day of Judgment was countered.

Conclusion

Since the original Khans of Tarkir, Temur has always been the author’s favorite clan, but back then it truly could not beat the mainstream Jeskai and Abzan, so I am very glad that there are so many archetypes to play in the new set. Of course, there is also a deck for Ureni, the Song Unending, but ramp decks themed around it are quite popular, and including this set’s Standard first look article, you can easily find plenty of versions with a quick Google search, so I will just put up a humble list here as a loose reference for readers. Have fun, everyone!