After four years, we’re returning to the plane where it all began: Dominaria! Dominaria United spoilers are officially over, and we’ve seen both exciting new designs and key reprints. Below, we have compiled our early picks to shake up your favorite MTG formats.
The Best Dominaria United Spoilers
Not every card in a new set will see play in constructed formats. Most cards are meant for limited or kitchen-table play, but every set has a few key cards worth running. Check out our picks for the top spoilers in each format and come back to this article as more spoilers are revealed!
Standard
Standard will rotate with Dominaria United, but Boros Aggro will remain more or less intact. Luminarch Aspirant will be a huge loss, but the set features some powerful new two drops to lead the charge.
My personal favorite is Radha’s Firebrand. Preventing a creature from blocking every combat is amazing for aggressive decks, and there are powerful pump effects like Thundering Raiju to make its ability even stronger. The card’s biggest weakness is that with just one toughness, it’s highly susceptible to removal.
| Pros | Cons |
| Prevents a creature from blocking | Low toughness |
Quirion Beastcaller is another excellent two-drop for Standard. Mono-Green Stompy is an existing archetype built around big, beefy green creatures, and Quirion Beastcaller fits that strategy perfectly. It’s a two-drop that scales with the game, and it can spread its +1/+1 counters to other creatures once it dies. This creature is a threat on its own, and it keeps your
| Pros | Cons |
| Cheap | No immediate value |
| Scales with the game | |
| Resilient against removal |
Lastly, the biggest problem that aggro decks face is the late game. They don’t have many ways to draw cards, so aggressive decks can run out of steam if they don’t win fast enough. A curve-topper like Serra Paragon, however, alleviates that problem. It’s a solid body on its own, but it also lets you recur any creatures your opponent has killed. I wouldn’t be surprised to see white-based aggro decks rely on Serra Paragon for some staying power.
| Pros | Cons |
| Recurs cards | Relies on your graveyard |
Pioneer
Not all of the best spoilers are new: Liliana of the Veil is a classic from over a decade ago, and it’s a huge reprint for both Standard and Pioneer. Rakdos Midrange is already one of the top decks in Pioneer, and Liliana of the Veil provides a new way to disrupt your opponent.
This planeswalker is a removal machine. It can strip cards from your opponent’s hand and their battlefield, and it does so from early on in the game. Even the card’s biggest “downside,” that you also have to discard cards, can synergize well with graveyard mechanics and reanimation spells.
| Pros | Cons |
| Cheap | Can make you discard |
| Highly disruptive |
Pioneer is a format with many impactful, low-mana value cards. Whether they’re mana dorks like Llanowar Elves or aggressive creatures like Monastery Swiftspear, many decks rely on these cheap permanents to accelerate their gameplan.
RELATED: 2022 Pioneer Challenger Decks and Decklists
As a result, Temporary Lockdown has the potential to be an excellent sideboard option against certain archetypes. There are some decks which this card completely shuts down, such as Mono Blue Spirits or Boros Aggro. Against those decks, Temporary Lockdown comes out early and can deal with multiple threats at once.
| Pros | Cons |
| Cheap | Only hits low mana value permanents |
| Board wipe | Could be temporary |
Modern
Four and five color Omnath decks are already a staple of Modern’s metagame, and Dominaria United is giving them more efficient removal. Leyline Binding will often get the full mana reduction in these decks, especially since a single shock land can reduce its cost by two. This is also an incredibly flexible removal spell, both because it can handle any nonland permanent and because you can play it at instant speed!
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| Pros | |
| Usually cheap | Requires many basic land types |
| Has flash | Could be temporary |
| Removes any nonland permanent |
Legacy
We’ve seen many class creature types receive new lords during this set’s spoilers, but perhaps the most powerful is Leaf-Crowned Visionary. Elves is already one of, if not the best tribal deck in Magic, and Leaf-Crowned Visionary gives the archetype another powerful tool.
Elf decks generate a ton of extra mana, so spending that mana to draw more cards while pumping up your
| Pros | Cons |
| Cheap | Vulnerable to removal |
| Gives elves +1/+1 | |
| Card advantage |
Historic
Goblins are already the strongest tribe in Historic. Rakdos Goblins is one the best decks in the format, and Rundvelt Hordemaster will likely be one of the best cards in that archetype.
In just about any format, goblin decks focus on sacrificing their creatures for value and swarming the
| Pros | Cons |
| Cheap | Vulnerable to removal |
| Gives goblins +1/+1 | |
| Card advantage |
Commander
Land ramp is one of the most powerful things you can do in EDH. It’s already efficient and difficult to interact with, and Tiller Engine makes it even stronger. Most ramp spells, like Rampant Growth, force your lands to enter tapped. Tiller Engine lets you untap them, though, so you can use that mana right away. You can also use this to make you shock lands and trilands enter untapped!
| Pros | Cons |
| Cheap | Does nothing on its own |
| Makes land ramp better | |
| Lets you tap permanents |
Next, we have another card that uses land ramp: Soul of Windgrace. Of course, repeatable ramp is hard to beat. Getting any land out of any graveyard is already a strong effect, especially when it’s attached to such a strong body. Getting this effect turn after turn, though, can give you a ton of value and
| Pros | Cons |
| Repeatable ramp | Card disadvantage |
| Protects itself |
End Step
We’ve seen all of the spoilers, so these are my picks for the most likely to shake up the meta. Are there other spoilers you’re excited to play with, or are you just looking forward to the Dominaria United prerelease? Let us know, and have fun with the set!
