The Temur Roar Commander preconstructed deck from the Tarkir: Dragonstorm expansion brings the untamed ferocity of the frontier straight to your table. While the deck package naturally highlights Ureni of the Unwritten to drop massive winged lizards from the sky, switching your commander to Eshki, Temur’s Roar unlocks a completely different, lightning-fast „Stompy-Storm“ sub-archetype.
Eshki is a sleek, 3-mana engine that rewards you exponentially for casting high-power creature spells:
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Every creature spell you cast places a +1/+1 counter on Eshki.
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If that spell has 4 or greater power, you draw a card.
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If it has 6 or greater power, Eshki immediately deals damage equal to her total power to each opponent.
In this PreconForge Guide, we will break down how to optimize Temur Roar specifically for Eshki. We’ll swap out overcosted dragons for dirt-cheap, high-power threats, lower your overall mana curve, and turn your deck into a card-drawing, face-melting engine.
The Strategy: Power Threshold Blitzing
Out of the box, the precon is designed around expensive Dragons to support Ureni. However, if Eshki is your commander, paying 5 or 6 mana per creature is way too slow to create an explosive chain reaction.
To turn Eshki into an active threat, we want to play under-costed creatures with massive power stats but severe drawbacks (like vanishing, cumulative upkeep, or restriction conditions). Because Eshki triggers on cast, it doesn’t matter if your creature is immediately countered, has to be sacrificed, or enters the battlefield tapped—you will always draw your card and trigger her burn ability first!
Top 5 Cards to Cut Immediately
To pave the way for a highly optimized, power-focused build, strip these high-mana or slow pieces from the base decklist:
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Ureni of the Unwritten: While amazing at leading her own dedicated dragon build, a 7-mana creature sitting in your main deck completely ruins the low-to-the-ground velocity Eshki demands.
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Temple of the False God: A classic trap land in active three-color decks. It does nothing for you in the early turns when you need to be fixing your colors to cast Eshki on turn three.
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Deceptive Frostkite: A slow, overcosted creature that doesn’t natively cross the 4-power threshold without assistance, making it dead weight for your draw engine.
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Harbinger of the Hunt: A 5-mana dragon whose activated ability targets small creatures. It clogs up your mana pool when you should be spending that mana on casting more power-efficient spells.
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Frontier Siege: A slow 4-mana enchantment. While the extra mana is fine, we can run direct, creature-based ramp that scales with our power-matters payoffs instead.
Budget Upgrades (Under $3 per card)
These budget additions will allow you to cycle through your deck seamlessly while keeping your mana requirements low.
The Cheap „Beefcake“ Package
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Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma: An absolute must-have. Goreclaw discounts all of your 4+ power creature spells by 2 generic mana, meaning you can cast massive threats for next to nothing.
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Garruk’s Uprising: It duplicates your commander’s draw triggers whenever a 4+ power creature enters the battlefield and grants your entire army trample to close out games.
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Anzrag, the Quake-Mole: A 4-mana creature that boasts a massive 8 power. Casting this instantly satisfies both of Eshki’s power thresholds, drawing you a card and burning the table for massive damage.
Draw and Value Utility
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Temur Battlecrier: A perfect thematic addition that scales your creature discount based on how many high-power threats you currently control on your turn.
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Beast Whisperer: Adds a secondary layer of card draw for every creature spell you cast, ensuring your hand stays completely stocked even if you cast lower-power utility cards.
Premium Upgrades (The Relic Weapons)
If you want to spend extra resources at the forge to make your local playground fear the roar of the Temur clan, look out for these elite pieces:
High-Value Power Stat Anchors
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Phyrexian Dreadnought: The ultimate secret weapon for Eshki. For just a single generic mana, you cast a 12-power creature. This triggers Eshki’s maximum 6-power threshold immediately, letting you draw a card and blast the entire table for massive damage on turn four. Even when you choose to sacrifice it to its own enter-the-battlefield trigger, the cast value is already secured!
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The Great Henge: Because your creatures have such high natural power stats, this legendary artifact will almost always cost just 2 green mana to cast. It provides mana ramp, puts counters on everything, and draws you extra cards.
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Animar, Soul of Elements: This legendary elemental acts as a secondary cost-reduction powerhouse. It grows alongside Eshki and reduces the casting cost of your massive creatures down to zero.
Unstoppable Finishers and Protection
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Chandra’s Ignition: Target a heavily buffed Eshki or another giant creature to deal damage equal to its power to every other creature and opponent, acting as both a board wipe and a win condition.
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Deflecting Swat: Since Eshki lacks innate protection and can be soft to targeted removal early on, having a free defensive spell while your commander is on the field is crucial.
PreconForge Verdict: Is it worth it?
The Temur Roar precon undergoes a complete structural evolution when you shift the focus from traditional high-mana dragons to a dedicated Eshki, Temur’s Roar engine. By lowering your mana curve, weaponizing under-costed high-power anomalies, and layering explosive draw effects, you transform a standard battlecruiser precon into a relentless tactical avalanche.
Stoke the fires of the forge, gather your strongest warriors, and let us know in the comments below what the highest amount of direct burn damage you managed to throw at your opponents in a single turn cycle was!
Are you running Eshki as a lightning-fast stompy engine, or sticking with Ureni for classic dragon dominance? Drop a comment down below and share your custom tech list!
