Planeswalkers are often the best sellers of brand new sets and Dragons of Tarkir is no exception.  Before the Dragons of Tarkir Prerelease, there were two clear front runners from the set that were selling head and shoulders above the rest: Narset Transcendent and Sarkhan Unbroken. Aside from having an entire host of playable new cards, Wizards of the Coast's Dragons of Tarkir release for Magic: The Gathering is historic in that it’s the last "third set" in a block that will ever be printed (for the foreseeable future) due to the recent change in set release structures.

During the preorder season for Dragons of Tarkir (which ran up through March 27) a number of cards stood out as the chase cards for the set.

Top 10 'M:TG--Dragons of Tarkir' Cards by Dollar Volume [Preview Season thru Prerelease]
$ Vol. Rank	Card Name	Average Price
1	Narset Transcendent	$38.03
2	Sarkhan Unbroken	$22.34
3	Thunderbreak Regent	$5.19
4	Atarka's Command	$4.48
5	Deathmist Raptor	$6.75
6	Collected Company	$4.56
7	Ojutai's Command	$4.52
8	Shorecrasher Elemental	$5.88
9	Myth Realized	$4.03
10	Dromoka's Command	$3.03

If you remember our data on Fate Reforged, seven of the top ten cards were mythics.  This, however, is not the case with Dragons of Tarkir.  Before the Prerelease, a mere four mythics were present on the list with six rares taking up the remaining slots.  In addition to the aforementioned Planeswalkers, Deathmist Raptor and Shorecrasher Elemental were the accompanying mythics gracing the list: two cards that should have no trouble finding a home in competitive decks as players have already begun to consider where they might fit in.

After players had a chance to play with some of these cards at the Prerelease and some of the first events where they were allowed to construct their own decks had concluded, one shift in position was extremely notable.

Top 10 'M:TG--Dragons of Tarkir' Cards by Dollar Volume [After Prerelease]
$ Vol. Rank	Card Name	Average Price
1	Narset Transcendent	$34.76
2	Thunderbreak Regent	$5.59
3	Sarkhan Unbroken	$20.61
4	Surrak, the Hunt Caller	$2.21
5	Collected Company	$4.25
6	Deathmist Raptor	$13.89
7	Dromoka's Command	$3.98
8	Atarka's Command	$4.76
9	Dragon Whisperer	$6.36
10	Ojutai Exemplars	$6.67

Thunderbreak Regent, a card that was hovering in third place before the prerelease, managed to shoot past Sarkhan Unbroken, a planeswalker, to take the second spot on the list!  This was not the only huge jump, however.  Surrak, Hunt Caller jumped all the way up to the number four position... from out of nowhere! He wasn’t even on the first list, which is a huge change.

The seven cards that were present on both lists were Narset Transcendent, Sarkhan Unbroken, Thunderbreak Regent, Collected Company, Deathmist Raptor, Dromoka’s Command, and Atarka’s Command.  There were three cards from each list that traded places. Myth Realized, Shorecrasher Elemental, and Ojutai’s Command left the preorder list and were replaced (in a somewhat different order) by Surrak, Hunt Caller, Dragon Whisperer, and Ojutai Exemplars on the post-Prerelease list.

Dragons of Tarkir is a large set by Magic standards, which includes nearly 249 new cards for the Standard format.  While it’s a safe bet that a lot of these cards will show up en masse in the next couple of months, with the TCGplayer Modern State Championships being held on April 4-5 and April 11-12, even the older, more powerful Modern format could be impacted by these cards.  Atarka’s Command specifically has been the focus of much discussion, for example, and we haven’t even scratched the surface yet.

--Frank Lepore is the editor of Magic.TCGPlayer.com.  TCGPlayer.com is the largest collectible card marketplace on the web, with hundreds of brick and mortar sellers listed.

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.