Sarkhan, Dragonsoul

The version of Sarkhan stripped down to his most elemental obsession: dragons, and the fire that comes with them. Most of the planeswalker's incarnations have split his loyalty across his anger, his clan politics, his time-twisting heroics; this one carries none of that baggage. The plus is pure board attrition, pinging every opposing creature and chipping at every opponent at once, a slow pressure valve that rewards a defensive posture while ticking toward the only thing that matters. The minus-three is a dragon's breath aimed squarely at a face or a rival walker, four damage that cannot touch the ground troops (it only reaches players and planeswalkers), so it is a reach spell and a walker-killer, not a way to fend off the creatures swinging at Sarkhan himself. And then the ceiling: a minus-nine that empties the library of every Dragon in it onto the battlefield, an ultimate that does not bother pretending to be subtle. The loyalty math is the tell about who this was built for. Starting at five and gaining two a turn, the dragon tutor is several turns out under normal play, so the card is less an engine you assemble than a finish line you race toward in a deck already stuffed with fliers. It is a tribal payoff wearing planeswalker clothes, built for the player who wants the dragon-horde fantasy paid in full rather than the toolbox flexibility most of red's planeswalkers offer.