Tarkir: Dragonstorm Djinn Revolutionizes Popular MTG Archetype – MTG Rocks
2025-04-19T21:28:55Z
Severance Priest is a sweet disruptive tool that is starting to show up in Modern Birthing Ritual decklists.
Tarkir: Dragonstorm has been out for over a week, and players are still finding ways to maximize the new cards. While some powerful cards like Cori-Steel Cutter proved to be all-stars right out of the gates, others required more tinkering to actually find a home.
Severance Priest is a great example. The card reads quite well, but until recently, failed to make a dent in any strong archetype. Finally, though, it appears the three-drop may have found a new home in Modern in Birthing Ritual shells. Severance Priest is a worthy card to splash and helps shore up some of the deck’s weaknesses.
Abzan Ritual Gameplan
Before we jump into Severance Priest’s role in the deck, we first need to look at the rest of the Abzan Ritual archetype and what the deck is trying to accomplish. At its core, Birthing Ritual decks are focused on generating tons of value with creature enters-the-battlefield effects. While Guide of Souls and Ocelot Pride do provide a fast one-two punch, Abzan Ritual gets its edge in the long game.
This is, in large part, due to the power of Birthing Ritual. Unlike Birthing Pod, Birthing Ritual only costs two mana up front and requires no mana investment to use. You aren’t even required to sacrifice a creature on your end step unless you find something worthwhile to put into play (though that will usually be the case).
Nearly every creature in the deck has a potent triggered ability that allows you to pull ahead. Cards like Eternal Witness and White Orchid Phantom get most of their value up front, so sacrificing them and upgrading them to beefier threats is a great exchange. Threats like Brightglass Gearhulk serve as elite options to cheat into play with Ritual.
Besides Ritual, the other card that gives you a huge edge in the long game is Ephemerate. Blinking White Orchid Phantom versus Eldrazi decks or Solitude versus Boros Energy goes a long way towards winning you the game. The combination of Ephemerate and Eternal Witness is also incredible, since you can buy back Ephemerate and keep the value train rolling.
A New Addition
As strong as this deck’s late game is, there are some matchups where your cards don’t line up perfectly. Against combo strategies or archetypes that look to go way over the top of your incremental advantages, you risk not being able to apply enough early pressure to close games in a timely fashion.
This is where Severance Priest comes into play. Severance Priest gives you the opportunity to strip your opponent of their best resource. Whether you’re taking a combo piece versus Amulet Titan or Belcher or you’re robbing Eldrazi ramp of their top-end payoff, Severance Priest has the potential to buy you a lot of time.
This is especially true if you can pair Severance Priest with Ephemerate. Severance Priest is worded in such a way where your opponent doesn’t get their token until you successfully exile a card from their hand.
Typically, this means that if your opponent goes to kill Severance Priest with the triggered ability on the stack, you still get to permanently exile a card from their hand, and they don’t get rewarded with a token. Of course, if they don’t kill Severance Priest, you can simply take the kill spell away with Severance Priest’s trigger.
Beyond that, though, if you Ephemerate Severance Priest with its first ability on the stack, Severance Priest will leave the battlefield before you’ve selected a card. Then, when it comes back, you’ll be able to take two cards from the opponent’s hand, which can be backbreaking.
Even if the opponent manages to topdeck a removal spell, this deck does a great job flooding the board with blockers. With a full playset of Severance Priest along with a playset of Birthing Ritual, there’s a pretty good chance you’ll be able to find your interactive three-drop in games where you need it.
Matchup Spread
Overall, the printing of Severance Priest does seem to give this deck a better shot at fighting against Modern’s top archetypes. Besides helping versus combo and ramp, Severance Priest does a reasonable job against decks like Prowess that have a low curve. As a 3/3 with Deathtouch, it’s a solid blocker. If they do kill it, they’re likely only getting a 1/1 or 2/2 out of the deal, which isn’t that impactful.
Abzan Ritual is still a very slow strategy, though, so matchups like Ruby Storm can be problematic without sideboard support. Even versus Boros Energy, you risk getting run over. Goblin Bombardment is especially problematic, and you don’t have a high density of removal. Skyclave Apparition is nice but sometimes will be too slow.
The cool thing about this deck, though, is that you can adapt to the metagame at hand. Birthing Ritual gives you a lot of looks for your best creatures in a given matchup. Finding something like Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines versus Amulet Titan or the mirror, for instance, can singlehandedly win you games.
There’s a lot of tools at your disposal. You just have to adjust accordingly, and adding Severance Priest feels like a step in the right direction.
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