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0 Over the last decade or so, Magic: The Gathering has released a plethora of preconstructed commander decks. Once an occasional release, these fully constructed and ready-out-of-the-box decks have become expected by-products of every new set. These “precons”, as they are known among MTG players, are a great Christmas gift for your trade card gaming addicted friend or for yourself.
But which one should you choose from the hundreds of preconstructed commander decks that have come out over the years? Fear not, this short list is here to help. Let’s delve in.
Draw, Untap, Unleash Hell
This list is intended for people who want to get their special one a great (and somewhat within budget) Christmas gift, but are completely clueless about Magic: The Gathering. Commander decks are made of 100 cards, one commander, and 99 cards in the deck. These precons are ready-to-play commander decks that are evaluated for their monetary value, often in the form of valuable reprints, synergy (does the deck actually perform well as a whole), and fun (which can be a bit subjective). Another major factor by which precons are judged is their competitiveness when pulled right out of the box. Here are five decks that firstly fulfil all four requirements and secondly are within a reasonable budget.
5. Quantum Quandrix
Adrix and Nev quite simply double the number of all tokens you generate. This might not seem like a big deal to the newcomer in Magic, but the experienced player knows you’ll soon need to pull out the calculator app on your phone. The longer the game goes on, the stronger Quantum Quandrix gets. This precon snowballs at an absurd rate, quickly overwhelming opponents with the sheer number of creatures it puts out.
Unfortunately, this deck does need a couple of rather pricey upgrades, such as Parallel Lives and Doubling Season, to really go ham. Without them, it’s still a perfectly good deck, and reasonably priced at $70 on tcgplayer.com, $80 on amazon.com, and 60 Euros on cardmarket.com
4. Squirrel Away
Squirrels are secretly everyone’s favourite tribe in Commander. The amusing idea of generating enough squirrel tokens to take down a legendary Eldrazi Titan like Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, is something every MTG player has dreamed of doing.
Don’t let his little size fool you, Hazel is deceivingly powerful. He generates enough mana to cast big splashy spells and helps spawn an army of squirrels from thin air. Golgari is a strong colour combo, giving access to ramp, token generation, and life drain. And that’s exactly what this deck excels at. Hazel may look like a playful rodent, but looks can be deceiving, as this little guy quickly spirals out of control. Additionally, I love to see reprints of strong removal cards like Maelstrom Pulse and Windgrace’s Judgement.
Squirrel Away is currently at a very reasonable price of $50 on Amazon.com, $50 on tcgplayer.com, and 50 Euros on cardmaret.com
3. Vampiric Bloodline
Strefan, Maurer Progenitor turns blood tokens into pure value, letting you cheat massive vampires onto the battlefield for practically nothing. His ability lets you drop a vampire from your hand directly onto the field, tapped and attacking. All those high-cost, top-heavy vampires that normally sit in your hand for half the game now suddenly become free threats. It’s an incredibly explosive effect that rewards you for playing aggressively, effectively turning every combat step into an ambush. My only complaint would be its lack of cards that help trigger Stefan’s first ability. Besides Sanctum Seeker, this deck could really use more sneaky little damage dealers to make sure you’re always generating a fresh new batch of Blood tokens.
If it weren’t for its steep cost, currently $100 on tcgplayer.com, I would probably have placed this deck in first place. Unfortunately, it has a high price tag of around $160 on sites such as Amazon.
2. Abzan Armor
Abzan-colored decks are always powerful in Commander. The combination of White, Black, and Green gives players access to some of the most powerful removal, creatures, and recursion in Magic. That’s exactly what this deck does by beefing up your creatures while gaining life and bringing your dead creatures back from the graveyard. The only drawback of this precon is its focus on defensive wall-type creatures. Creatures with high toughness are always great, but this deck can truly shine when centred around the gain / lose life ability that allows you to bring creatures back from the graveyard every turn.
This is why I recommend running Betor, Ancestor’s Voice over Felothar the Steadfast as the Commander. Unfortunately, that does mean this deck needs quite a few additional cards to shine. But as someone who has seen it in action firsthand, I can testify that it is worth it.
1. Veloci-Ramp-Tor
Caves of Ixalan was a great set that brought players back to the magical and vibrant island of Ixalan. This Naya-colored monstrosity of a precon “cheats” out a bunch of dinosaurs thanks to its commander’s triggered ability. Whenever Pantlaza, Sun-Favoured, or another dinosaur enters the game, the player gets to explore X, where X is the toughness of that creature. For those unfamiliar with the “Explore” mechanic, you basically dig through the top of your deck until you find a card that is not a land that costs the same or less than the dinosaur’s toughness. When you find a card that meets the criteria, you may play it for free. Yup, for free!
As someone who has played against this precon, I was utterly shocked to watch this value engine go wild. The rest of the players seated at the table could not keep up. Currently sitting at $65 on Amazon.com, $60 on tcgplayer.com, and 80 Euros on cardmarket.com, this deck is 100% worth every cent.
I hope this list has helped somewhat narrow down the perfect Magic: The Gathering present for this Christmas. Let us know down below which commander decks you would include here.
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