Is It Worth It To Buy A Crimson Vow Commander Deck | A Magic: The Gathering Product Review 

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Many magic the gathering players ask the question, will they ever make more $20 commander precons?

I appreciated the Bojack reference.

It would be amazing - if before the end of 2021 - The Professor made a video comparing the commander decks of the year

I would really love for these videos to go more in depth into the gameplay of the decks, highlighting their key cards/combos/synergies, etc.

Miniature Market has the pair of CV commander decks available for preorder for $60 ($30ea). This is the lowest price I've seen so far and you can already get these below MSRP. Looks like good value in these though!

Dear Professor, Thank you for your amazing videos as well as your helpful advice. Not only am I new to the channel, but I'm also a new Magic player. I started playing MTG in June and when I found out about your channel, I just instantly loved it. Thank you so much for the great content and all the work you put in these videos: we can tell it's both serious AND passionate. A French MTG player looking forward to your next video!

I love the addition of the Gameplay and Deck Analysis section, Prof!

JUST got the spirit deck...like 10 minutes ago...the professor is always watching 👀

This is one of my favorite "Is It Worth It" videos you've done. Great segments and information given. Vampires are my pet tribe and I think I know why this precon is lackluster. The best Vampire payoffs are very expensive. They did a great service in reprinting Revenant (which I've paid $28 for in the past) but the best cards like both Kalitas' and Baron Sengir are too pricey to be included. If only Wizards would take control of the secondary market and crush those prices, they could sell even more sealed product...

I have to say, straight out of the box, the Spirit Squadron pre-con can be absolutely backbreaking at a mid-level EDH table. I managed to pick up a copy at my LGS for $32 earlier today and played it straight out of the box. While not on the level of my usual decks, I was able to just completely overrun the table without having to try very hard. I have a small list of upgrades that I plan to make, but just the way it is from the box, this deck is one of the strongest commander pre-cons that WotC has released in the last couple of years. Conversely, I have to agree with the Prof that the Vampiric Bloodline deck is just trying to do too many things and needs significantly more modifications to be brought up to the same level. Also, when played head-to-head by two players of roughly equivalent experience levels, the Vampiric Bloodline deck was completely outshined by the Spirit Squadron deck. When a deck can be board wiped on an opponents turn and then swing for nearly 300 damage on the following turn (thank you white weenie all-star Mirror Entity), you can definitely agree that there is a clear winner in power and synergy.

Thank you for all your hard work Prof! You are always my go to when I need to catch up on what is happening in MtG. Working on my on opening my own FLGS too!

Imagine midnight hunt / crimson vow not including a Werewolf tribal precon, especially after Kaldheim giving us a spirits deck quite recently, im not complaining, its just missed opportunities man :(

Thanks for the great information, as always. More importantly, I appreciate your efforts to watch out for all, but especially the beginner and/or returning players and our wallets.

Thank you for another insightful take on the latest precons! Ever since I found your channel your advice has been invaluable to me as both a fan and as a consumer.

I was really glad to hear your comments on both the build quality on the Vampire deck and the odd non-reprint choices (i.e. Talisman).

i'm happy to see such wonderful evaluation consistently. thank you!

I do like that they’re improving some aspects of these gradually, though I agree they can still do better with mana bases. I do wish they would go back to selling them for a bit cheaper, but it is what it is. That said, if I didn’t already upgrade Ranar a few months ago I’d definitely consider the spirit deck.

Yay! I've been looking forward to your take on these decks.

Great video! My local game store has these decks for very cheap - glad to have the insight on how they play, thanks!

Excellent Vid as always Prof! Your evaluation of these, and the writing you used to make this script is, as always, incredible. Thank you for the evaluation - I'll probably pick up the coven counters, now that it's gone down, and potentially get the zombie MID deck for a friend of mine! Thank you for the advice to wait on these until they go down in price - still, seeing that WOTC are putting higher value but not scalpable value cards in these decks is always great, especially when a number of them have new art!! I adore the new art on Ninkara Rev, it is a very welcome addition.

This actually helped me decide on what Vampire deck I should get. Thank you so much for the help

It was so awesome meeting you at Vegas, even if it was just to say hi and get that photo, keep up the great work!!!

Shadows Over Innistrad was my first set and I bought the spirits standard pre-con. I thought Rattlechains was the coolest card ever (it's still up there) and I was hooked on spirits. I was so excited to buy this new commander pre-con and get taken back to my early days of magic with amazing flavor. The deck is pretty sweet and I can't wait to tune it up. Sadly the foils are complete pringles already, but it's still awesome overall.

Great as always! I always appreciate these reviews. Looking forward to playing the decks.

Been appreciating your videos like this for years!

I jumped over to FAB and never looked back. Just shows how enticing these videos of yours are that I keep watching :)

Thanks for the overview, the best as always!

That was cool how you threw that card and caught it...classy. I love your videos, I recently got back into MTG after a 7 year hiatus and your videos have got me all caught up in no time. Particularly enjoying the rise of commander at the moment.

I started Magic way back in the 90s but always on/off. 10 years ago at Uni I got bacl into it with the Spectral Legion precon deck and enjoyed it a lot. Now, after huge breaks and selling off everything I had again I bought the Spirit Squadron deck for funsies. Nicely full circle :)

Thanks Prof. I really like these videos and seeing breakdowns that go beyond the most basic price.

found your channel a few months ago, and consistently the best magic tuber :)

Good thing I had four new videos to watch. And I watched them all. Thank you for the content Professor.

Definitely got my eye on grabbing Prosper, Prismari or Silverquil decks if I can. Thanks Prof!

Been out of mtg for a while but still love the vids. Just commenting for Professor, good dude and I appreciate him being a good sport with Post

Thanks for the good info, I’m looking forward to playing Spirit Squadron.

For the alligator rhythm! Really though thank you for another top quality video, Professor. Whenever I see a new one pop up, it brings a smile to my face.

Thank you Prof for the in depth review !!!

Always watch your reviews on new stuff

Well... Honestly, a very good thing of having so many new decks... Is that the old ones get cheaper and cheaper and that's... Honestly tempting

I bought three previous precons for sub $16 each. Sneak Attack, Armed for Battle, and Land's Wrath. Super happy with them. Thinking of getting the Kaldheim Foretell Azorius deck after Prof's glowing review.

I've been using the precons more since playing with friends less entrenched in magic. The part of your reviews on how the decks play has been really helpful and insightful into what I should look at for what's fun to play with, thank you for the work you do!

always appreciate these videos, i used to buy all of the precons as soon as I could but I'm much pickier now and waste a lot less money!

It is always cool seeing these new commander decks for me

I know this would be a lot more work, but would you ever think of adding to the end these videos talking about the 5~ cards you should replace first or few spells/land that would really help them out? The mention of the amulet is a good help in knowing where to start to improve the decks

Was watching this and catching Vegas coverage at the same time on Twitch and got a Prof conservation how sweet!

Excellent video as always I don't think I have ever seen a bad movie from your channel. Two words, more professor!!.

Hey Prof, I recently had my magic collection stolen. I’ve been playing magic since 94 so it was a large and fairly expensive collection. Could you do a video discussing the risks and ways to mitigate the risk of your collection getting stole or lost? Many magic the gathering players need to know what steps they should take to safeguard their collection from something like this. Most home/rental insurance policies don’t have enough coverage to replace a decent sized collection and magic players need to know what to do to protect themselves. This is just a thought as losing my cards has been a very disheartening experience. Thank you!

Great insights, thanks Prof

Great video as always Professor! I was an avid Magic player (buyer) but the increase of price and increase of product being churned out (in addition to my health and financial situation) I just can't keep up with new sets & products anymore. Forgotten Realms was the last time I bought magic products. Had picked up Planar Portals and Draconic Rage and really liked the Commanders and quite a few of the new cards from them, esp getting both for $33 each. And before that the Strixhaven Commander Decks. Not a fan of essentially Commander Decks being $40 now. I especially preferred having the 4-5 Commander Decks once a year at $30-35 and then I liked what WOTC briefly teased with Zendikar & Commander Legends Commander Decks, at only $20 a piece.

You nailed it. Our playgroup played the 4 recent Innistrad/MH/CV pre cons Friday night. Spirit Squadron won with a massive influx of 1/1 Spirits, for which no one had an answer (most board wipes had already been played). It came out slow and passive, while Vampiric Bloodline was aggressive from the git-go and got into a bloodbath (har) with the other two decks before dying as "the Archenemy." But that battle left the other two players comparatively weaker than Spirit Squadron, who had 50 life by then, compared to around 20 for each of the two survivors.

Thanks for the great work on this one !

I really like the look of the spirits deck, the commanders cost reduction strategy seems like a good way to save mana.

About the vampire deck, I feel less mana generation is fine since the whole point of the commander is cheating expensive creatures into play, and it's a reasonable 4 drop.

I rebuild Vampire Bloodlines into an absolute Power House. I love this deck. I think Strefan and especially Bloodtokens are deeply underestimated. You can do great things with them and they deliver great Synergies.

Great video! Can´t wait to get my hands on them

I still love your Death Gate Cycle books in the background.

thanks for all the super useful information!

Thanks for doing this video Prof!

With the Vampire Bloodlines Pre-Con, I really like the blood tokens mechanic, which can work well with the Madness mechanic. There just aren’t enough Blood Token generators in the deck. I’ve been going through and swapping out cards with cards from the Crimson Vow set that create Blood tokens to, I Hope, make the deck more synergistic. While also keeping the higher cost & harder hitting vampires, because Strefan is supposed to pull them from your hand at the cost of 2 Blood Tokens.

Yes, they are excellent jumping off points for those tribes specifically.

Thanks for the information. I just got both because where else to start my collection. Make more episodes and i will watch them.as well 😆

great video, will get the uw one!

Man, I have to second grabbing the 1/1 counters deck from last set. Not only is it like 10 dollars cheaper then the most recent decks, it's also SOOOOO easy to upgrade! I bought a spare overgrown farm and tossed in some chafe from an old commander legends box and it plays amazing!

love ur videos.. thinking of getting back into magic after a 20yr absence... some of my cards are worth some scratch.. found a $390 dual land card a few days ago in my bulk box XD

Strefan is my fave! I did have to upgrade it though.

Thank you for the info!!

I appreciate your reminders. I’ve saved a lot of money buying the singles I want

Thanks for the great videos professor!

Thanks for this video you convinced me to buy neither and to search old commander precons

With videos this entertaining as well as informative how can I not watch another?!

I've recently started to play commander, and the spirit squadron is my only deck. I've asked my friend where I should start, based on I've played with up to then. I bought it for €27, and I must say, it was worth the money, it's a fun deck to play with. I'm appreciating it more now that I'm searching one for my dad as well, and all those decks are at least €39 or something similar. So yeah, it's a fun deck to play with as a beginner, and I'm really happy with it (and the price)

I picked up the vampire deck as my first commander deck and I have absolutely loved playing it so far. I don't have a lot of experience with MTG, as I have just started playing. I'd argue it's a little mana dense, but other than that, it is pretty fun to play.

Thinking of starting commander only done standard in the past.

... good Gavin.... 😆. Luv ya proff. I hope you and your family are doing well and happy early Turkey-day!!.

So I pulled an Olivia, Crimson Bride in a back, which made me wanna get the vamp one. I switched made Olivia the commander and moved strefen into the deck, I made a couple cuts, added some looting cards, some sac outlets, and a few other fun things like Anje, maid of dishonor and rakdos, the defiler. So far, it seems a bit better and cleaner than the original deck, Olivia can get the expensive cards out easier, and the extra looting effects make both getting the creature in the bin and Madness, and the sac outlets help with not exiling your creatures from Olivia's caveat and with the aristocrats strategy, all while keeping the strong vampire tribal theme present. Besides Olivia being about 10 bucks right now, the upgrade is pretty budget, highly recommended. (PS love you and your vids prof. ♥)

I always love your videos Prof!

I very much appreciate your cynicism, especially when it comes to promises or announcements that feel more driven by profit rather than players.

I bought my wife the spirit squadron deck to help teach her the game since she liked the art on millicent. She has since beaten me and our friends the three times she's played. Suffice to say she's enjoying it.

Glad to see a good spirit deck. Looks fun.

thanks for your work!

Great review.

Hi prof, I paused your video and added a cheap old commander deck to my pre-existing cart and checked out, only to unpause the video and hear you remind me to use your link to help out the channel. Figured I'd let you know to help in a different way!

Always enjoy prof

I'm getting Vampiric Bloodline purely to upgrade my Edgar Markov deck. Almost all the new cards are absolute vampire tribal bombs and Nirkana Revenant is a perfect reprint and luckily a vampire I don't already have.

I've watched most of these Commander Precon reviews, and have found them tremendously helpful. Also helpful is your selection on Card Kingdom's site. But it's difficult trying to compile all the results to make overall decisions about what to buy from past releases. In my case, I'm partial to buying them in sets. Do you have a place where these results are compiled in one place? Or should I have been taking better notes all along? 😞

Would love to see some pathways in the mana base of these along with better rocks.

Love your work

Prof and I have the same signed cumbojj witches play mat.

I have Spirit Squadron, and I absolutely love it. It’s fast, it’s fun, and it feels good. It also probably has something to do with the fact that I love spirit tribal.

Planar Portal is a fuego deck, highly recommend that if you're looking for red-black fuego. Impulse draw, treasure tokens, ramp and card advantage!

Love your vid’s! Your the man, Prof.

Thanks Prof!

Thank for this video. I was wondering if the cheaper commander deck was worse because it was only $15, and because I just started play mtg altogether I didn’t know where to start in commander.

Great content!

such a great and informative channel - i better check out another video while i go cook sth ;)

I liked this video a lot and great insights

I wish I got the Seveene pre-con when it was going out on clearance ages ago.

Loved the subtle bojack horseman reference

I liked these presets, even with the details about some cards