When I asked for this on discord, was just looking for a recommendation for which one to buy. Didn't expect such a thorough analysis. You guys made it awesome!
This should be an absolute staple of the channel but any chance you could do it around Black Friday next year so we can use it as an informed gift giving guide?
As someone that works in an LGS and frequently gets the “which of these precons should I get?” Questions, i really appreciate your breakdown of each of these. I really enjoyed both of the kaldheim precons and felt that asking someone to invest 20$ in a functional deck is WAY more well received than asking them to spend 40$
Just a couple of days ago I visited a game shop that wasn’t my normal one, but I learned that the commander 2020 precons there were still at $40. Picked me up a timeless wisdom deck while I was out, or should I say a $5 discount on fierce guardianship and 99 free cards lol
If you get the chance you should go get kalamax too. Deflecting swat is probably the second best version of those cards. Maybe deadly rollick is second, hard to say really
I love osgir. He motivated me to finally Put together a 4 color artifact deck. So many cool new cards and a fun new Boros theme. I like the reanimating value engine
@@NitpickingNerds I found Ranger Class to be an insanely good card for this deck, as it lets you cast creatures from the top of your deck too. (Also Volo, Guide to Monsters is a personal favourite due to having such a wide variety of creature types in the deck)
My personal favorite was the Wilhelt deck. Most of the precons this year were far better than in the past, and Wilhelt is super easy to upgrade to make really powerful.
Sad to see breena in last place, as a precon with 4 or 5 cards added it has a huge win % in my pod, probably 75%. Keep up the good work nerds, I very much enjoy your daily content
Favorite commander of these precons was a lorehold commander, but I chose alibou over osgir. I can’t deny osgir’s power, but the tap artifacts strategy seemed so much more fun for me
I really enjoyed this video format, and the discussion. I don't have an hour of spare time so appreciate the stamps so I can watch the sections of commanders I was interested in.
As someone just now getting into EDH and looking at precons you guys really do the best job of breaking down not just the value but the reasons why you’d want to play these decks. Love your videos!!
Great timing for this video guys. We are starting a league up in January where you have to play one of the precons from this past year. Each week you get to upgrade $14-$22 each week depending on a ranking list that they have. With Coven Counters I would get $22 a week, so that might be a solid choice. Unfortunately Aura of Courage is only $14 per week for upgrades. But it was really good to hear what you guys thought of each of these.
Elven empire is definitely my favorite precon from this year because of how many $2+ elf tribal cards there were. There were a couple elves that I tossed out fast but they were easily replaced. If we’re talking about the deck that can make the cheapest upgrades to be a lot better, then I’d say Elven empire is damn near the top if not #1.
I love watching different RU-vidrs discuss the 2021 Commanders and comparing/contrasting opinions. There seems to be a lot of consensus that there were a lot of great commanders that had total garbage in the 99.
Breena wanted your opponents to kill each other while Breena swoop in for the finisher when it's time. It's been a fun deck without much work but sad it's last in your list.
@@Calpinable , totally understand but the so call duds mentioned inside is actually working on the deck and I would rate other few decks to be more on the lower end. But it's their opinion and totally respect it...just sad
@@francischungfs agreed. When you read the cards they rank as duds, they all have synergy with the +1/+1 counters and politics, or the inkling theme. + Felisa is an amazing b commander and when she’s in command, she plays the deck a lot better imo.
I picked up Galea precon same time as MH2 set booster, swapped a few pulls from the box straight in like Kaldrea compleat, Nettlecryst and Esper Sentinel and it almost felt like a real constructed deck with the great mana land base
I loved the witherbloom precon. Took out all the cards that gave counters and replaced them with more life draining cards and ramp. I also replaced the commander with Beledros. The deck is very effective.
Would you guys review the old precons for fun? I just want to hear you talk trash about some of the duds they used to toss into them. We’re honestly spoiled now by comparison, not necessarily as a whole, but nowadays the precons play much better out of the box
I run twenty sources of card draw/selection in my wilhelt deck. It's purely a combo deck(no thoracle though I have self respect) that aims to combo off by turn seven in the absolute worst situations, but usually hits 4-6. Rooftop Storm+Acererak/(gravecrawler and a payoff), or poppet sticher with a payoff and wilhelt, but if all else fails ashnods altar getting extra mama off wilhelt to cast a Torment of Hailfire. Definitely my most powerful deck, i call it Zombo Combo
My favorite is actually the silverquil one. A post on Facebook was saying they played all against each other and it was top 4 as well. It's probably my deck with the highest win rate. No one says oh this deck. It's fun for you and for other people playing. The Ghostly Prison effects are nice when it gets down to 1v1 but the commander makes a fun game of oh I'll hit that player I get cards.
Just bought the #1 on your list at my LGS yesterday (before seeing this video) and it seems kinda lackluster in comparison to the 5-color deck (not on this list) I bought along side it. In play testing of the two, the equipments are very slow. Maybe the strategy is to get your commander out as fast as possible? Probably just RNG but the deck kept being mana-starved while precon 5-color deck I bought just went nuts with lands and could consistently bring out its 5-7 cost creatures.
I build a deck from the Galea precon, with Storvald in command. That giant brought so many great ideas in my head while I discarded the idea of a seven mana commander at the time of spoilers I started going the giant adventure tribal in the end. Stonehewer cares about equipment and Boonweaver cares for auras. Then I thought it cool to bring in intrepid hero to whack opposing creatures, and pump em with the giant if they’re not big enough, or throw a rancor/bloodthirsty blade on them to make valid targets. Then I came up with the adventure cards from Eldraine, starting with Giant Killer and Realm-Cloaked Giant. I think that deck was one of the greatest to go different routes and still do synergistic stuff every turn. What a casual commander gem!
I grabbed up Phantom Premonitions week one of release. Every time I bring it to the table as is or with the suggested $50 upgrade, people are always so impressed with how it plays for such a cheap base of cost. I enjoy playing it and so glad it took the better half of this list. Grab it if you haven't it is fun even at base
I’m haven’t played mtg in 2 years and plan to come back this year Do you still recommend the phantom premonitions deck? And if so can you tell me what the $50 upgrade for the deck is or link me a website/ video that has the upgrade list please and thank you!
Top 3 precons: 1:Prosper 2: Osgir 3: Lathril I never actually played lathril, but i like elf tribal and bought her to upgrade a deck. I do wanna rebuild her though. On a side note, i do have Eloise and Shadrix (and previously beledros) built as commanders, so i enjoyed those as well, even if not directly related
@@malmasterson3890 oh no, i agree, un upgraded, these two are definitely low on the list because they were not built very well out of box, but they have great potential
The best Precon deck was Zombies but the best Commander was Osgir. His ability to recur and copy artifacts is so damn power is absurd! Especially when it's mana artifacts like Grim Monolith and Mana crypt. It's really cool when it gets going
Wilhelt definitely has a great CEILING for what you can BUILD. I have a friend who has been playing Wilhelt out of the box, and it tends to do a lot of nothing in our games because it's fragile. He'll dump 4 or 5 zombies out... then they'll all die to a boardwipe. Rinse and repeat.
I think you guys are undervalued undead alchemist. Exiling your opponents creatures before they even hit the field, and making a bunch of zombie tokens is great.
Coven counters is my favorite. I bought that and undead unleashed at the same time, and after playing with both, I found Coven Counters and Leinore so great and fun. Sadly because it didn’t have as much “value” as when that and the undead unleashed were announced, most of the players at my lgs went with zombies instead of experiencing the greatness of leinore.
Leinore is such an amazing commander! I recently bought her precon and I wasn't dissapointed. She is such a flavorful commander. I went human tribal btw.
How do you feel about Kyler? At first glance at the cards, Kyler seems like it does a little more for providing an insane amount of counters paired with other cards in the deck. Leinore just provides a single counter and card draw. Just curious why I see more praise for one over the other.
@@bensouder8648 Leinore is still more of an underdog, Kyler while great just paints a target on your back. Although I think is great that both of them make for a great human tribal commander.
@@bensouder8648 I got the precon and swapped to Kyle as my commander, added some cards that give trample and now everyone's scared to play against him. Deck is still weak to flying but man if you can get Kyle out, give creatures trample, and get sigardian zealot or wild beast master its game over provided you can keep him alive. The card that gives him indestructible is good and so is swift foot boots giving him hexproof. I feel like he's more consistent than Lenoire and her ability is good but in a mostly human deck Kyler just makes more sense
I've had my Prosper's commander tax up to 14 and still had no problem getting him out. Crazy value engine and I don't even run any infinites in my build. One of my favorite commanders in my collection and I've been playing since 2003.
Yeah I picked up the Galea and the Adrix and Nev precons this year, switch Adrix and Nev out for Esix, and both have served me REALLY well as my reintroduction to MTG after being out for like 7 years. Esix helped me learn all of the mechanics again and how to order triggers, and Galea got me my first introduction to Voltron and how important it is to be able to cheat equip costs and storm off the top of a deck. Really impressed with both.
Breena is probably my favorite this time around. The commander itself, not so much the precon. It makes me play differently from how I typically would. Plus, it's current year, soooooo yay politics, I guess.
As far as the precon decks themselves... I purchased 10/15. I agree with the strength of the Coven deck... but I ultimately bought it to scrap for parts. Out of the box, I'm straight up a Sefris or Osgir fan. But Leinore itself is probably the best commander of 2021 from the precons.
I need someone to explain why Silverquill statement is the worst of these 15 precons. I don't play the deck, my friend does, and he has a consistent and high winrate against anyone at our table who are playing decks, from mono red burn, r/u combo, b/w lifegain, b/u zombie or mono red dragon tribal. The significant change's he made to it is changing the commander to Shadrix Silverquill.
I think people missed Robe of stars at first but it's definitely the final piece Voltron decks needs. Because after hexproof and indestructible, the next thing you need is protection from edict effects and cyclonic rift
I play a bunch of Voltron decks and this is going in every one I can put it in. I bought like 10 of the Galea Precons because a lot of those cards are going to be worth money.
Thank you for this great video and the time you have put in. Maybe you can show at the end a small sheet with all decks and ratings for every topic and overall rating? I love your content.
I get that the precon is a bit underwhelming, but my upgraded Breena deck is my favorite deck. Built with politics, +1 counters, and board wipe resilience as themes in that order. It's also fairly strong. Won me quite a few games.
@@tempestandacomputer6951 things like Felisa, Fang of Silverquill, Basri's Lieutenant, Selfless Spirit, Guardian of Faith, and multi-reanimator effects like Sun Titan and Incarnation Technique. The idea is that if the board ever gets wiped (usually by me), I'm either protected, or the quickest to recover.
Osgir for me is nr.1 :) Its a deck that i play A LOT - change a lot in it in time. From simple big artifacts "reanimate" deck with more "discard" outlet - to some fast draw/combo deck - eding now to amazing PL9 deck with STAX staregy and super fast mana... Gaela of me is nr.2 ... its my Favorite deck to play. I tried it in few builds too - but here i one was totaly the most fun and best. You build it as super fast pure equip deck ( Exept ramp Auras - they are amazing !!!) with super low cost for equipments and a lot creatures that lower cost of playing them. So the startegy is to put Gelea in game, and then really CHAIN 10+ cards from top - its amazing FUN :D What is best - even if i build this deck reallllyyy good (Great mana base - fetches etc. - all best equipments like Swords - and all best stuff to manipulate library + a lot Tutors) its not OP , and you can play it even in "lower" PL table - sure you can like make Galea 11/11 with DS in turn 4-5 ... but thats is still easy to STOP, and in best case scenario can kill 1 player... Nr.3 is elf deck... i love the deck i build based on the Pre-Con... problem is after all my upgrades and cards i want to run... i end up with may 20 cards from orginal deck ;P I still love my elf deck - but i could just buy the cards i needed - not the full Pre-Con... ;P
My personal top 2021 precon (only referencing those I own): (1) Osgir - made boros great again (2) Prosper - cool mechanics (3) Vrondiss - dice rolling is fun (4) Lathril - elves, easy to upgrade (5) Wilhelt - doesn’t even need upgrades (6) Ranar - unique feel (7) Leinore - GW humans, lots of synergies (8) Esix / Adrix and Nev - simic goodness, kind of generic (9) Galea - wanted to love but plays like a dud most games
@TemurTimmy for sure. I couldn’t believe it when Galea was their #1. Value aside, it’s one of the biggest letdowns in terms of gameplay of any precon I’ve bought (and I’ve been buying precons since the OG 2011 set).
the Wilhelt deck literally just needs minimal tweaking and it's great. I actually switched Gisa and Geralf to be my commander with Wilhelt in the 99, and it already works significantly better in terms of just amassing zombies. They're definitely right about the weird amount of non-zombies though, but there's TONS of amazing zombies to just swap in.
I HATED my vrondiss deck until I switched to klauth. Now it’s one of my favorites. The precon was meh in general. I ended up putting a lot of ramp and changing the creatures around. Throwing in eldrazi, etali, ilharg, etc. Lots of damage doublers and extra combat spells, heroic intervention, wrap in vigor, cauldron of souls, soul of new phyrexia, lots of green card draw, and some removal and x spells. It’s a force now. Not the most powerful but it’s extremely explosive and can win the game seemingly out of nowhere. It’s a lot of fun to play.
Really cool video guys! Helped me filter through some junk in the vampire deck, you should do these kinds of videos every year! Maybe a little earlier in december though so you have time to order one as a gift hehe
osgir is literaly my first commander.if i were to grab another one of these decks i would pick prosper from afr zombies frommidnight hunt spirits from crimson vow.from strixhaven the quandrix precon the elf one from kaldheim
Prosper player here, if you want a few ideas let me know. He is really fun and it is great if you want to one shot an opponent due to how high his ramping can get.
I recommend monologue tax, it is very good. Nearly always you get the mana out of it the first round it’s down, and I play it in a token synergy deck, so it really goes off. But since it’s not super insane it often stays around for quite a while since there are better removal targets
This video' was great. I played out of the box coven counters, and this pointed out the issues I had. Couldn't draw cards after consecutive board wipes, and not enough removal
Great video and great subject 👍 keep it up guys I’m an idiot and buy every commander deck no matter what lol those reprints and new cards get me every time
New idea for the Grease card, a spoof of Lightning Greaves, Lightning Grease. Equipped creature is unblockable, make it a callback to the meme card Hot Soup
Still playing Prosper and Osgir, very happy with those decks. I bought the Galea deck, converted it to a Tuvasa enchantments deck, and now I have a pile of equipment support.
Big D & D nerd, I got both prosper and Gaelia. I love them both, but Prosper is crazy. Threw birgi in and Laelia blade reforged, and with maybe five other additions, it has been going crazy
I actually disagree heavily with galea and leinore being the best 2021 precons out of the box. Leinore needs a pretty significant rebuild to be a half decent deck and galea is extremely unfocussed since its aura and equipment matters. Osgir, prosper and wilhelt eat these 2 decks for lunch, and its really not even close
@@joshholmes1372 Tbh i think the vrondiss precon is among the worst of this year, its a slow clunky mess. The average CMC of that deck is far, far too high, and it lacks the ramp to make the stompy theme actually work.
Surprised to see Wilhelt so low...he very quickly eclipsed 2k decks on edhrec (really really popular), and when the deck was spoiled, it represented the most value of any precon to date. Interesting to see what the value is NOW though...on preview, cards like rooftop storm & endless ranks (which sucks, but still...haha) were like $15 & $20 reprints. For my vote, the Propser deck was the best. So fun, even when it was just spinning its wheel it was fun, haha. Such a cool take on Rakdos. Osgir was probably the strongest overall though...
Proper is my favorite for sure. Because wilhelt was probably the most popular of all these decks the market was flooded with reprints for him. Driving the value waay down.
I was really hoping Galea would get it. As a longtime fan of Bant Voltron, super cool to see a natural upgrade/evolution to my boy Rafiq. That deck truly was stacked!
Breena was by far my most favorite commander of this year and what prompted me to pre-order the deck, Silverquill Statement literally worst deck I've ever seen and I spent 50 dollars on 3 cards lol At least I have this dope orzhov aggro deck now
I started playing commander a few months ago and my first deck was to be the Wilhelt one. I bought the pre-order, but that same day I was invited to play with some friends, so I had to buy a deck to play right away if I wanted to participate. I ended up picking Silverquill Statement cuz it looked interesting. To this day, my Breena deck is feared among our casual table and Wilhelt is still waiting to get the cards it needs to keep up with some of the stuff I get to play against. Breena, by far, my most beloved commander, even if she isnt crazy good by herself.
I totally agree with you guys, Aura of courage is by far the most powerful deck that was released this year. I bought it and builded around it to a point that it is ridiculous to play. Sure, equipments are expensive (Swords of..) but it get to a level that nobody can match. The only problem is that it is so good, my friends don't want me to use it anymore..
Yea. I wish they'd bring them back too. I managed to get all 6. Sadly I think that WOTC won't bother with the £20 any more as people will buy the higher price ones
Great video! I still think prosper is the best deck this year, I've played against the top 5 quite a bit and prosper consistently wins more. I did upgrade it quite extensively like 25ish cards but that's also part of it, such a high ceiling for upgrading
My main deck currently is Galea Enchantress deck and going into this video, I'm ready to expect Galea to be on the low number, maybe around 9. Didn't expect her precon to be number 1 lmao.
My favorite precon was Prosper. I upgraded it and have so much fun playing with it. It did so well the first couple of times that he now gets targeted by my play group.
I had a very explosive game with the Vrondiss deck. Basically hit all the good stuff there was to have and ended the game in 5 turns with the damage doubling effects and overruning everyone with imaginary dragons. I doubt it can do that regularly, but it felt good :)
I have to say, I really disagree with the idea that basic lands are themselves a problem. I’d much rather have basics in my Precon than too many ETB taplands that I draw late and have to sit with. Now, if land count is too high, that’s a different story, but I think that’s a different argument to be had
why is windborne muse and ghostly prison considered bad or a dud? from my perspective it is pretty good right? stop people from attacking you or at least discourage it
The four Innistrad decks are just awesome, one of the best worlds from MtG loaded with tried and true themes. I also think Kaldheim moving MtG into Norse Mythology is a great direction, but the set felt very lackluster... they spread their Gods too thin when a mono-colored Odin, Frigg, Thor, Loki, and Heimdall would have been more than enough. The uncommon Kaldheim legends though pretty weak are just far more cool and interesting. (Ranar also feels more like Odin than Alrund) :^)
With all due respect, I personally don't wanna watch over an hour of content ranking precons. I would've appreciated a tierlist at the end or something with them in order so I could take a peek and maybe skip around to things I disagree with to see your justifications. I know it's extra work and you probably don't want people skipping around but, still love the content
I ended up swapping Adrix and Nev for Esix as commander and added a few more go wide spells in place of some counter cards and i think it makes the deck so much more interesting to play
In my experience playing & upgrading quantum quandrix, it has more potential than people give it credit for. I’d say it’s better to make a ton of smaller tokens than big beefy ones and then find ways to give them abilities like flying or trample to ram through. If you get A&N and esix out you’re basically playing on easy mode. I’m still looking for good token generators but the main 3 I get the most use out of (after doing some upgrades) are avenger of zendikar, scute swarm, and hornet queen. As previously mentioned, esix + a&n is absurd cause with aoz you could turn 7 0/1 plants into 14 avengers of zendikar plus 98 0/1 plants. The main and INCREDIBLY fatal flaws of the deck are that you are a major target once you actually get going, it comes with little interaction, and for a simic deck the ramp is PITIFUL.
Ghostly Prison in a stax deck when playing against agro decks works very well. So can you please cut the hate. You complain once and drop it like you do when mentioning Sol Ring as a reprint. Wait, you didn’t quite drop it. It gets old. If you do bring it back, got have good timing. Watch comedians and how they bring back a joke from the start of their set and then end with it. Prosper is a very strong commander. Lots of interesting things you can do with exile casting shenanigans.
I replaced a bunch of cards with 5 cmc and X spells, and that deck is a lot of fun. A bit slow to ramp, but then always triggering the 5 and 10 cmc effects. I think the other strategy of cheating out big spells might be more powerful for its ability to combo, but X-spells hold up decently in a combat meta. It’s too bad you can’t mix strategies since cheating out an X spell is almost always a waste.
