Khans of Tarkir released in 2014 asMagic: The Gathering’s65th expansion, but didn’t make its way toMagic Arenauntil December 2023. It’s considered one of the best and most beloved Limited formats of all time, near-perfect in the hearts of many drafters due to its setting, mechanics, factions, and generally slow, grindy gameplay.
Despite having quite a few powerful and historically relevant cards, the Limited format isn’t considered ‘bomby’. While Siege Rhino, Monastery Swiftspear, delve spells and fetch lands redefined Constructed formats, a different batch of cards rose to the top of Tarkir’s Limited.
10Sagu Mauler
Might Morphin Power… Beast
The title of ‘King of the Morphs’ went to an innocuous little common called Wooly Loxodon, purely because it outsized every other morph creature in the set. That title only fits the commons though, as it’s clear that Sagu Mauler is the morph who truly wears the crown.
Khans of Tarkir has a number of powerful morphs at rare. Master of Pearls, Thousand Winds, and even Ponyback Brigade left their mark on the format, but thehexproofon Mauler made this a beast of a card, especially when backed up with any number of combat tricks.
9Ghostfire Blade
Equipment For Morphs
The alternate equip cost on Ghostfire Blade is anything but throwaway text in a format brimming with colorless morph creatures. An investment of just two mana doubles the effectiveness of any morph, and it’s just a single mana to move it between different colorless creatures once in play.
Even better, morphing a creature face-up doesn’t remove that creature from play, it simply changes the card’s attributes. That means +1/+1 counters, auras orequipmentstay right where they were post-morph. A morph equipped with Ghostfire Blade will assuredly be the strongest creature on board when turned face-up.
8Icy Blast
Refills For $0.99
Icy Blast can be lackluster depending on the texture of the game, or, more frequently, it just wins on the spot. Khans can produce some stalemate boardstates, and Icy Blast is the perfect way to break through your opponent’s defenses.
Notably, you don’t have to fulfill the ferocious clause to cast this card, but you’re cutting its effectiveness in half if you don’t. If you start a draft off with an early Icy Blast, bias towards 4+ power creatures like Alpine Grizzly, Whirlwind Adept and Summit Prowler
A three-power Prowess is usually good enough for ferocious, since it’ll become a 4-power creature when you cast the spell!
7Armament Corp
Armed, And Certainly Dangerous
Anuncommon? That can’t be right, can it? Two things to remember about Armament Corp: first, Khans is toned-down by today’s power standards, so the best uncommons stack up quite well. Second, Armament Corp is a ridiculous powerhouse in this format.
With no other creatures on board, it’s a five-mana 6/6 in an era where over-stated creatures aren’t the norm, and the counters it provides can be spread out to other creatures, which is usually even better. Factor in the +1/+1 counter synergies present in the set and you’ve got an absolute haymaker of an uncommon here.
6Abzan Falconer
To The Skies!
Abzan Falconer’s another ‘mythic uncommon’ rivaling the power of Armament Corp, and it’s no coincidence they’re both part of the sameAbzan (black-white-green) clan. You can play Falconer in any white deck, but Abzan is the optimal home for it. It’s in the name.
This is what’s referred to as an ‘outlast lord,’ a creature that benefits all your creatures with +1/+1 counters. There are a number of these spread across white and black in this set, but flying is the most immediate way to take your creatures with +1/+1 counters and punch straight through any board stall.
5Sarkhan, The Dragonspeaker + Sorin, Solemn Visitor
Powerhouse Planeswalkers
Khans of Tarkir existed at a time when Limited formats still hadn’t quite grasped how to incorporate planeswalkers into their environments. Nowadays, you’d expect half the removal in a given set to deal with planeswalkers, but that’s not the case in Khans.
Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker and Sorin, Solemn Visitor thrive as planeswalkers in a format that lends itself to long, stalled-out games. Sorin has the more devastating ultimate, while Sarkhan applies the most immediate pressure. Either way, you’ll be thrilled to pick up either one while drafting.
4High Sentinels of Arashin
Birds Of A Feather Kill Together
There was this brief era in Magic where white always seemed to have some of the best rares in any given set, and Khans is no exception. High Sentinels of Arashin isn’t flashy, but it’s downright murderous in the format.
The starting rate is already great, the format welcomes late-game mana sinks, evasion is essential to victory, and Khans has built-in +1/+1 counter synergies. It’s possible for High Sentinels to hit the board as a 4-mana 5/6 flyer or larger with no extra work, and if not it gets to that point on its own anyway.
3Duneblast
May The Strongest Survive
There are only two traditional board wipes in KTK, with a smattering of smallball one-damage or -2/-2 effects floating around. End Hostilities is already an effective sweeper in Limited, but Duneblast takes it to the next level, both in terms of effectiveness and mana value.
Seven mana is expensive for any board wipe, but Khans is the type of format where you reach seven mana often, and Duneblast rewards you for your patience. You’ll clear everything off the board except your best creature, which will enable an immediate attack and leave you in a winning position.
2Flying Crane Technique
Six Mana: Game Over
Flying Crane Technique is the type of card that almost completely invalidates anything that happened in the game before it and makes the receiving player feel like they had no real agency in determining the outcome of the game.
Board stalls are a feature of the format, which means you’ll often need some sort of board-breaker to push through. How about a card that takes the 15-20 power you’ve accumulated on board, jumps it all into the air, and doubles your damage output closer to 30-40 damage instead? Throw in some prowess triggers for good measure.
1Wingmate Roc
Roc Solid
Khans isn’t well-equipped to deal with Wingmate Roc. There are rare instances where you can’t enable raid, but you’re usually paying five mana for two 3/4 flyers. At a time where players were still happily paying five mana for 3/3 flying commons.
Sometimes you can pressure an opponent enough to invalidate their big, splashy rare. Wingmate Roc shrugs this strategy off bygaining lifeon attacks and making it effectively impossible to race. The removal’s pretty poor in KTK, which you’ll feel if you’re ever sitting across from this mythic.
