Khans of Tarkir

Khans of Tarkir is the 65th Magic expansion, and the first in the Khans of Tarkir block. It was released on September 26, 2014. Khans of Tarkir is a large expansion.

Set details
Raise your Banner Khans of Tarkir is part of the Khans of Tarkir block, which is Large-Small-Large with a unique draft structure (the small set is drafted with both large sets, but the large sets are never drafted together) and a time traveling element. The draft structure is the first thing from which Khans of Tarkir set was built.

Khans of Tarkir contains 269 cards (20 basic lands, 101 commons, 80 uncommons, 53 rares, 15 mythic rares), and includes randomly inserted premium versions of all cards. It is also the first set since Dragon's Maze to not have any Dragon creature cards. The expansion symbol depicts crossed swords on a shield, similar to the symbol of Legions.

Because of post-release changes in the block structure in 2015, Khans of Tarkir was only played in Standard for 18 months.

Storyline
Tarkir is an embattled world of ambitious warlords and powerful clans that wage eternal war for supremacy over their plane in a conflict that spans a thousand years. Tarkir is also the home plane of Sarkhan Vol. The plane was previously inhabited by dragons, all of whom were killed long before Sarkhan's time. The clans each worship one aspect of the extinct dragons.

The clans
The clans are represented through enemy wedge colors and aspects as follows:

Notice that while the shards of Alara were centered around the color that had both allies, the wedges of Tarkir are not built around the color that has the two enemies. When the design team built the clans to match the flavor of the dragon attributes and the creative take on the clans, they found that they centered not on the enemy color but one of the ally colors. It was said that everything worked so naturally, that they felt it was best to leave it be and not force it another way. By shifting the mana costs such that the enemy pairs were sitting next to each other in mana costs, it became a little easier to recognize that each wedge was made up of two enemy-color combinations. When the third set of the block was released, it became clear that the parallel of the alternate timeline clans were ally-colored. This was achieved by dropping the enemy color and appeared to be the real reason that the wedges of Khans were centered on an ally color.

The clans are recognized by the use of watermarks on the cards.

Marketing
A preview of the set's artwork was aired during Pro Tour Journey into Nyx, following the quarterfinal rounds. In it Mark Rosewater (Magic head designer) announced the return of something "that people have been asking [ Wizards ] to do for quite a while [...] after a long absence from magic" as well as the introduction of something that has been requested for a long time but had never been done before. These elements turned out to be morph and wedges, respectively, when the set was previewed at San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday, July 26, 2014. Mark Rosewater moderated a panel featuring Mark Purvis (Magic director of global brand marketing), Doug Beyer (Magic senior creative designer), and Gavin Verhey (Magic designer).

Khans of Tarkir is sold in 16-card boosters (one card being a marketing card), five intro packs, one event deck and a fat pack. The boosters feature artwork from Sidisi, Brood Tyrant, Narset, Enlightened Master, Unyielding Krumar, War-Name Aspirant and Dragon Grip. As of Khans of Tarkir, the face cards in Intro Packs will not just be premium rare cards, but alternate art premium rare cards that won't be found in booster packs.

Prerelease
The Khans of Tarkir prerelease encourages the player to affiliate with their clan. You choose your clan for the prerelease. Each clan prerelease pack comes with a clan button and a clan sticker. The prerelease pack further contains 5 regular booster packs, 1 seeded booster pack, 1 premium promo card, 1 clan information card, 1 activity insert and 1 Spindown life counter. Khans of Tarkir will feature 40 prerelease cards one dated and stamped prerelease card random from a pool of eight for each Clan pack. One of which will be the Khan. "Raise your banner": when a game is won, players can put their sticker on the clan banner in the store, to show off how many battles each clan has won.

Promotional cards

 * Launch promo: Dragon Throne of Tarkir
 * Game Day: full-art Heir of the Wilds
 * Game Day (Top 8): full-art Utter End
 * Buy-a-Box: Rattleclaw Mystic</c>
 * Prerelease, one of forty according to the chosen clan:

Tokens, emblems and overlay cards
The sixteenth card in the boosters can be a token, emblem or overlay card, with an advertisement on the back side. The overlay card can be used on face-down Morph cards to remind players of their power and toughness and that it can be turned face-up for its Morph cost.


 * 1)  3/4 Bird for Wingmate Roc</c>
 * 2)  1/1 Spirit with flying for Abzan Ascendancy</c>
 * 3)  1/1 Warrior for Herald of Anafenza</c>, Mardu Charm</c>, Mardu Hordechief</c> and Take Up Arms</c>
 * 4)  1/1 Warrior (alternate art) for the same
 * 5)  2/2 Vampire with flying for Sorin, Solemn Visitor</c>
 * 6)  2/2 Zombie for Sidisi, Brood Tyrant</c> and Empty the Pits</c>
 * 7)  1/1 Goblin for Goblinslide</c>, Hordeling Outburst</c>, Mardu Ascendancy</c> and Ponyback Brigade</c>
 * 8)  4/4 Bear for Bear's Companion</c>
 * 9)  1/1 Snake for Hooded Hydra</c> and <c>Rite of the Serpent</c>
 * 10)  */* Spirit Warrior for <c>Kin-Tree Invocation</c>
 * 11)  overlay card

Themes and mechanics
The set centers around wedge colors. Each clan features their own mechanic. In addition all clans feature morph. The set also features a minor warrior tribal theme.
 * The Abzan keyword is Outlast ((cost), undefined: Put a +1/+1 counter on this creature. Outlast only as a sorcery.). Cards may have an additional ability whenever you activate the outlast ability.
 * The Jeskai keyword is Prowess: (whenever you cast a noncreature spell, this creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn).
 * The Sultai keyword is the alternative payment method Delve, introduced in Future Sight (changed, like convoke, from previous rules as a cost reduction): (Each card you exile from your graveyard while casting this spell pays for ).
 * The Mardu ability word Raid and related cards are all based around a very fast, aggressive strategy for winning. Raid gives an advantageous effect if you have attacked with a creature the same turn.
 * The Temur ability word is Ferocious, which gives the player an advantageous effect if they control a creature with power 4 or greater while attacking with a creature with Ferocious or casting a spell with it.

Phooey and "Borph"
During design, an alternate version of Khans of Tarkir (nicknamed "Phooey" ) was considered. It featured a new mechanic that was very similar to morph but instead of three mana to cast the 2/2 face-down creature it cost two mana. R&D nicknamed that mechanic "borph" as in "bear morph" because Bears are slang for a vanilla 2/2 with a converted mana cost of 2. With some modifications, "borph" eventually became the effect megamorph for Dragons of Tarkir.

Cycles
Khans of Tarkir has thirteen cycles.

Pairs
Khans of Tarkir has one matched pair.

Reprinted cards

 * <c>Act of Treason</c>, first printed in Magic 2010, last seen in Duel Decks: Speed vs. Cunning.
 * <c>Arc Lightning</c>, first printed in Urza's Saga, last seen in Planechase.
 * <c>Bloodstained Mire</c>, first printed in Onslaught.
 * <c>Cancel</c>, first printed in Time Spiral, last seen in Magic 2015.
 * <c>Crippling Chill</c>, first printed in Avacyn Restored.
 * <c>Despise</c>, first printed in New Phyrexia.
 * <c>Erase</c>, first printed in Urza's Legacy, last seen in Magic 2013.
 * <c>Flooded Strand</c>, first printed in Onslaught.
 * <c>Incremental Growth</c>, first printed in Lorwyn, last seen in Modern Masters.
 * <c>Naturalize</c>, first printed in Onslaught, last seen in Magic 2015.
 * <c>Polluted Delta</c>, first printed in Onslaught.
 * <c>Seek the Horizon</c>, first printed in Saviors of Kamigawa, last seen in Return to Ravnica.
 * <c>Shatter</c>, first printed in Alpha, last seen in Scars of Mirrodin.
 * <c>Smite the Monstrous</c>, first printed in Innistrad, last seen in Duel Decks: Heroes vs. Monsters.
 * <c>Trumpet Blast</c>, first printed in Urza's Destiny, last seen in Conspiracy.
 * <c>Windstorm</c>, first printed in Magic 2010, last seen in Magic 2014 and for the first time in an expert-level expansion.
 * <c>Windswept Heath</c>, first printed in Onslaught.
 * <c>Wooded Foothills</c>, first printed in Onslaught.

Functional reprints

 * <c>Alabaster Kirin</c> is a functional reprint of <c>Armored Griffin</c>.
 * <c>Bloodfell Caves</c> is a functional reprint of <c>Akoum Refuge</c>.
 * <c>Blossoming Sands</c> is a functional reprint of <c>Graypelt Refuge</c>.
 * <c>Dismal Backwater</c> is a functional reprint of <c>Jwar Isle Refuge</c>.
 * <c>Dutiful Return</c> is a functional reprint of <c>March of the Returned</c>.
 * <c>Kill Shot</c> is a functional reprint of <c>Rebuke</c>.
 * <c>Summit Prowler</c> is a functional reprint of <c>Lowland Giant</c>, <c>Ogre Resister</c>, <c>Shatterskull Giant</c> and <c>Borderland Minotaur</c>, save for creature types.
 * <c>Rugged Highlands</c> is a functional reprint of <c>Kazandu Refuge</c>.
 * <c>Throttle</c> is a functional reprint of <c>Lash of the Whip</c>.
 * <c>Tranquil Cove</c> is a functional reprint of <c>Sejiri Refuge</c>.

Notable cards

 * <c>Dig Through Time</c> and <c>Treasure Cruise</c> are two very powerful spells banned from almost every format they could be legal. Because in Modern and Legacy the graveyard can be filled very early thanks to fetch lands and low cost spells and because of their delve ability, both the spells can be cast for a very low cost. <c>Dig Through Time</c> helps combo decks to get the cards they need. <c>Treasure Cruise</c> most of times was an <c>Ancestral Recall</c> and, in Modern and Pauper, all the metagame was shifted towards blue to play it for as long as it was legal.

Intro packs
Khans of Tarkir has five tricolored intro packs:

Event deck
Khans of Tarkir has one event deck.