I have followed the qr code and try to register. Cant i do it from Spain? There is no Spain option to reguster. I wanted to get something from you guys, is there anyway i can?
For me its Planeswalker Party from commander masters. But for the reduced price of 40€. For the original price i would‘nt bought this deck. But it turns out to be a very fun and strong precon for me. With some small upgrades its very powerful. But i gotta say that the hobbit deck is at least even. So flavourful and such a nice playstyle when upgraded.
We forgot to include the final ranking chart at the end of the episode. The final rankings can be found here. But, of course, SPOILERS: commandzone.com/2023-precon-ranks/
You guys gotta do an episode where you square the 4 s tier decks against each other. That could be cool. Or maybe even a few from the a tier as well. In anycase, fun video! Would be nice to see your thoughts in the same vein for years past.
I got 2 precons this year, the Ixhel one at 11:00 and the Merfolk one at 2:17:30 and super agree with your assessments. I had to upgrade the Ixhel deck a LOT to make it be able to compete versus mid-powered decks. The Merfolk deck is a delight to play and the commander isn't complicated once you get used to it.
I really like Bright-Palm, I preordered Call for Backup as soon as I saw the art (major Kamigawa nerd here), but 100% agree it's an F with it's maybe 3 total card draw spells. Absolutely dropped the ball on deck construction even though all the new cards are very cool.
Agree with you there - I took apart my Chishiro deck and combined it with the Bright-Palm deck just because they were both very similar and synergetic with one another, in both mechanics and flavor. A few weeks later though, I just put Chishiro back together because it was a more interesting deck and just added some of the new Backup cards in
I disagree, I'd give Bright Palm at least a B if not an A. Right out of the box the deck was playable with my friends higher power decks and even had a decent win rate. It was super easy to understand right off the bat and super interesting. With just a few upgrades it has become an extremely powerful deck that can win games out of nowhere. All in all It was money well spent in my opinion. Nothing quite like outright killing a man with a super pumped up Birds Of Paradise or Sanctuary Cat.
Explorers of the Deep is my first ever commander deck, and my intro in magic in general. I've been having an absolute blast playing it, even though it was a bit overwhelming at first since you have so much to do and decide every turn. I'm still considering buying Fae Dominion or Hosts of Mordor since I absolutely adore lotr and the art looks amazing.
@chrisnorton8844 awesome. When I first played the Food and Fellowship precon without the upgrades, I did use Lobelia, Defender of Bag End to take someone's Relic of Sauron, I was abusing the crap out of it by using it for card draw. It was fun.
Does it really need upgrades? Every time our group plays my friend who has it pre-con'd just ends up becoming a raid boss of 50+ hp while everyone else is sub-10 making pacts to stay alive just one more turn. It has life gain, ramp, synergy, and extremely good early-game (that will just ramp dmg into lategame) with the commander duo.
I love the convoke deck as a generic non-creature spells deck, with the convoke spells thrown in for added fun. Invasion of Segovia can combo really well by giving all non-creatures convoke once you flip it, and there are so many token generators that give you tokens when you cast non-creatures. Best of all, convoke is a pretty popular mechanic, so I can only imagine it getting more and more options to upgrade as the years go on.
@@famousstranger8468 not more than came in the precon. I had a turn 1 sol ring and arcane signet, then turn 2 third path iconoclast and invasion, then turn 3 I played the commander, then turn 4 I flipped tge battle, played jeskai ascendancy and my skull clamp to start a chain of convokes that ended with a halo fountain win.
My guff deck is one of my favorites. I have affectionately named it guffing dumb and it really is so dumb at mid to high power casual tables. Guff is insanely good as a superfriends deck commander.
I love the guff deck too it has an insanely high win % for me personally. That being said every time I go to grab it my pod will release an audible groan. I feel it's more fun to pilot than play against.
I ripped out all voting cards from elves LotR precon and went all in on scry. Elrond, Master of Healing is commander. Seems strong to scry and plan your draws all while getting scry pay offs. Haven't seen a ton of success with it, but still seems like it could be good! Would love to see Rachel's decklist.
I remember listening to the command zone back when they even had video and now were here after all these years. Love all the growth. I was a bit sad when Josh and Jimmy werent headlining main epaiodes at first, but now it would be really weird if it were just them. Keep it up, Command Zone. You rock and thank you for all the years of content and entertainment!
Didn't expect to spend 2.5 hrs watching deck rankings today, but this video was awesome! I wholeheartedly agree with pretty much everything (although Eowyn totally should be an S) and desperately hope Wizards is taking notes! Crazy to see 25 precons in one year - it used to be more like 4, so exciting to see my favorite format growing and doing well 😊
Regarding the Corrupted All Will be One Commander Precon. It was my personal favourite, because it really innovated a mechanic in a way that made it very accessible to me while not making you archeenemy instantly. I do wish there were more interesting corrupted cards (maybe in the future), because deckbuilding is super limited, but otherwise it was a slam dunk for me
It was my first precon on my venture back into MTG and commander specifically; and albeit a hasty one. I’ve had some success with it and playing the low key threat is the way to go. Victories are quite satisfying when this precon beats tables, especially ones that have constructed decks worth several times more than this one. 🤙🏽
Damen Lenz is such a nice guy. All the members of the crew are awesome, but I specifically like Damen. His attitude and energy is so fun to watch! The whole episode overall is pretty great, as always. Thanks a lot for the upload!
Ixhel was my first experience with any form of poison counters. I had a ton of fun playing it and ended up transforming it into an atraxa deck which has been much more successful. While i didnt keep it as a precon i still appreciate it like crazy as it helped me make one of my favorite decks ever.
I remember being at commandfest Seattle and they had the commander precon pods. Day 1 everyone was talking about the knights deck but when day 2 came around everyone was talking about Divine Convocation and how the deck was storming off in these precon games and everyone was super impressed with it. I never got to play it myself but I'll always remember the buzz that deck generated when everyone got the chance to play it.
Great episode, surprised you didn't show a pic of the final full rankings though, bit of a miss there. LOTR were the best for me this year, got so many people into or back into Magic, they were perfectly playable as is and mostly nice and easy to play.
Glad to see I made a good choice picking up Fae Dominion for my first commander deck 😅 hopefully my upgrades are good. Also got Rebellion rising, but mostly for a mana/staples base for a different Boros deck (Aurelia Warleader). Love this channel as a Commander newbie
I have been playing Sidar since release (with Moonshaker when WoE dropped him) and I never even thought about the synergy of first strike triggering an etb or effect before regular combat damage.. my mind is blown how I overlooked that for so long >
I really enjoyed this. It provided more of a critical look at the products. The upgrade videos do come across nore promotional at times. Be very pleased if this becomes a regular thing.
I have managed to sneak 2 games with the ten doctor deck. Won both. Against precon to upgraded precon lvl. I am pretty sure that I won because the table didn't know how to interact. I am a seasoned player. This deck is probably the only precon I have ever had that needs actual piloting skill. So many decisions. I love this deck and I saw great improvement in my gameplay only after one game. Which makes it terrible to be handed to someone to have 1 game with it.
I agree, I personally love the Dr. Who decks. I learned so much about the mechanics of deck building in the blast from the past deck and how to “theme” a deck better because what is history if not repeating… and THAT is what this deck is made to do…. Repeat! Once I got that… all the pieces clicked and we just had fun playing with it and against it. Learning curve is rough at first but like you said it takes a bit to pilot. But once you get it down, they are so fun. My play group now after playing against them wants to do a dr who vs. dr who night. Will be interesting!!
wow, thanks for this amazing episode! great way to sum up the year. also once more agrreing to the many other comments over the past months: rachel is such an awesome include in the podcast! looking forward to 2024 :)
@@stationdisatrous647 I bet! I went with more two colored tokens so I could use them for basically color fixing and not have to rely on lands as much for colors. Funny enough she's the reason I ended building Gimbal cause I understood how to make a huge token army
hey, I don't comment much ( on any vidoes ) and I just wanted to say that I really enjoy your videos. They genuinely make my day better. In a world of negativity you may not hear this enough but thank you for your hard work and creatively
@@bloodforrugbyify Dude it's always pretty funny breaking it out for the first time infront of a new group. They have no idea for the storm that's about to wash over them. Divine Visitation is the most busted card in the 99 for sure.
What a great way to encompass everything commander for 2023, especially consisdering I returned to MTG in January after an 18 year hiatus. I've had a lot of fun playing/upgrading precons as well as building my own decks throughout the year and feel generally the same as those at the table. Emmenance is overpowered and pushes Cavalry Charge over the edge, Fae Dominion is just great straight of the box and with a little fine tuning becomes amazing. I think Carmen from Blood Rites is under appreciated. She can easily become a commander who will 2-shot opponents with both lifegain and recursion in an aristocrats theme. But overall the best deck has to go to Veloci-ramp-tor, not only for being amazing, but also best pun.
I got into magic this year, and the Sauron deck was the first I bought for myself. Even though it’s now definitely one of my weaker decks, I still bust it out sometimes because it holds a special place in my heart.
Rachel please share your Elves LOTR deck list! I got all the LOTR decks and upgraded them all with only LOTR cards but I am struggling with the elves one.
This is exactly the video I was hoping for! I’ve been trying to do my own research as someone who just started playing last week and it’s been a little tough.
Great episode ! Zhulodok works with X-spells, so I don't really understand Rachel's confusion about the enclusion of such spells in the Eldrazi Unbound precon.
I understand that Bright Palms had low value but out of most of the precons from MoM, I had a blast with it. She can slap the heck out of people out of nowhere and if you're careful about timing you can one shot people with a massive chonky boy.
I need to play mine, I bought it with the idea of doing some upgrades, but I’ve been focused on my Neyali deck lol. Thanks for the info on this one can’t wait to try it out.
Corrupting influence was my first precon I bought and upgraded after a 15 years break, it often obliterated my friends and it still does! It draws a ton of hate but can be surprisingly lethal
The only precons my husband and I got this year were the Ixalan decks, and we absolutely loved them! The Merfolk deck is absolutely solid, upgrading it would be hard. All four of the decks are super fun to play, though.
So far the planes walker party deck has been my favorite. I upgraded it a bit, and it's currently my strongest deck. I just upgraded timey wimey, and fae dominion, those three decks are exactly my kind of play styles, and ive had great success with. I made the mistake of getting the new vampire deck, felt so slow, and required a lot of upgradrs to get it doing its thing more consistantly.
As an owner of the Zhuldok precon after I upgraded it was definitely one of my best and most fun decks, I would suggest this deck to newer, intermediate, and even long time magic players.
Pirates has been the second strongest out of the box im my leagues. It surprised me how well it played. Merfolk was the best and i don't think i have ever seen the vampire deck win a game yet.
I've got all four. I've never seen the Vampire deck do anything. Most of the time it just exhausts itself with a completely static board that can't really swing anywhere. I'll find something for it but over time its been the least rewarding deck. I think I still have Pirates ranked below Vampires though. Reanimation is a weird thing for pirates thematically, would've preferred if they went harder in either the treasure or stealing routes. I've updated the deck to theft focussed and having much more fun with it. I won casting 8 cards in total with Dinos. Got completely mana screwed but managed to survive an all out assault because they didn't think I was a threat and then killed that player with an Akroma's WIll on the next turn. But Merfolk is by far the strongest.
I bought the Corrupting Influence deck and made Vishgraz the commander with some upgrades. I made it into an aristocrats/blink deck and it was tons of fun. It was my first Abzan commander too!
My favorite card from all commander products is River Song. It is not even close! This is such an intriguing design not just for its flavor and highlights to me why this whole Dr Who Set* is just brilliant. I can't wait to build and play that as my commander and I can't remember when I was that enthusiastic for a new commander since I started. *Tolarian Comunity Colleague stated that it should be considered as such
Frodo and Sam was the first precon I’ve ever played out of the box, and it was amazing. My second favorite, and the only other one I’ve played unmodified, was Commodore Guff.
My favorite has been the Eldrazi Unbound and I also think it is an A but only because it is not a pure Eldrazi deck. When I first heard about Eldrazi Unbound I thought it was going to have nothing but Eldrazi's but it didn't, which I guess is because it would be too powerful if the other Eldrazi's were included.
Kasla is easily the most fun I had for an out-of-the-box commander. I had fun thinking outside the box upgrading this deck and working with it. I'm still trying to figure out how Ixalan is going to change up my old Beckett Brass brew, it's kinda tough to nail down.
Ik they didn't like the dr who decks. But ngl me and all my friends loved the dr who decks they all super interesting even if they really not that powerful
Honestly, my two favourite precons of the year are the Vampires from Ixalan and the Enchantments from WOE. I bought the enchantments for myself, because I didn't have one, and I upgraded it plenty and it SMACKS. I love doing things in magic. I don't need to win to have fun, and boy oh boy, it does things. Bought the vampires for my friend as his 2nd deck (I build him one before) and he's figured it out, does all the things, and it's so, so good, synergizes so well, and is so powerful out of the box. It's so good.
1:55:01 100% agree here. I too love doctor who. The cards were incredibly well designed, flavorfully. All of the nods, and Easter eggs, and references, we’re phenomenal. Most everything was true to form. Seeing favored characters come to life in a unique way was awesome. However. The game play was rough. IMO
I've ran an upgraded Knight's Chivalry Charge deck and the first strike hit into Moonshaker Cavalry is one of the most fun ways I've taken a game. 3 player KO
I bought every precon this year except for the Doctor Who sets. Just had a feeling about them. I must say you all were pretty spot on with this rating. A lot of them you took the words out of my mouth. Overall, it wasn't a bad year for precons imo. It's hard to pick my favorite, but my faeries are pretty sweaty atm.
Merfolk deck is my favorite of the year. So strong out of the box, throw in blue and green staples and it's terrifying for everyone at the table. Hakbal is so good giving you land ramp, +1 counters, and card selection, and card draw, for every single merfolk you put on the table. Lord of the Rings was amazing and so fun to play against one another. I bought the faerie deck last week to celebrate my birthday and haven't opened it yet. But now it seems I definitely have to look inside and get some games in with it and see what the S rating is all about.
Hey Rachel, i am aswell struggling with the LOTR Precons - Power Level wise. Could you put your Upgraded Precon Lists on your Archidekt? Would love to see those! Thanks a lot from a big fan!
I have the Eldrazi Unbound. Played it out of the box. Hitting Everflowing Chalice of the cascade is the moment I will never forget. Whyyy is it hereeee. Out of all the mana rocks in the woooorld
Cavalries Charge: Eminence is a divisive mechanic in EDH, as are Commander abilities that let you cheat on Commander tax (Yuriko, Derevi). It provides a bonus ability "for free" without ever having to cast your Commander, which is an attractive incentive for the owner of the Eminence commander.Sure we could view it as an unearned or unfair advantage by an opponent. Eminence as a mechanic is undoubtedly popular, as well as most of the commander's that possess it are within the top 100 most used Commanders on EDHrec, but the reception of the playerbase is still pretty split on it, but I do not think "WotC" has reintroduce the mechanic with it's potential power clear to everyone.
I love my Sidar deck, and i pulled 2 moonshakers from WoE, a shoe in, with kinsbaile on the field, ive done just that, pitch moonshaker and it was just unfair.
I got an alt art Gishath in the sample pack of the Pantlaza deck. I was hard not to just have him as my commander but the discover mechanic is just too much fun :P
I'm here to defend Kasla and the Divine Convocation deck with the Invasion of Segovia giving all of your noncreature spells convoke and Jeskai Ascendancy untaping your creatures and buffing them as you cast those spells you can close out games and generate a ton of card advantage. Daring Thief in the deck also makes it crazy.
Thank you, your videos taugh me a lot about MTG. I looked into MTG because of Doctor Who precon. Spent 70 hours and 100USD learning how to build better decks but in the end (till now) giving up. As I see, Macau China isn't city for MTG. shame Maybe if I was told those 2 S tier precon decks from my local card stores, maybe would be whole different stories
My favorite decks of the year have to be the Sidar Jabari knights deck from M.O.M and the faeries deck from W.O.E. I haven’t played any Ixalan decks yet but I did just buy the Clavelino vampire precon.
I got back into Magic after a pandemic layoff because of the Doctor Who precons. I pre-ordered Timey Wimey at MSRP and adore the flavor. I played my first game of commander ever... And immediately bought 12 new cards based on podcasts to make it coherent. 😂 Holy heck is it complicated. But without the Doctor Who theming, I wouldn't be here. Again. For the 3rd time. I've ordered the Doctor Who Secret Lair so I can build a 17 Doctor deck. I've ordered all the doctors as singles. I ordered all the special border Doctors as singles to put in a display case. Mission accomplished, WotC.
I just got into magic when the doctor who pre-cons with my brother wanting the “blast from the past” and so I got that for him and I got the “masters of evil”. after watching this, I didn’t realize how lackluster it felt playing against him.
I really liked the food and fellowship deck, I swapped the commanders for merry & pippin and honestly I’ve had a ton of fun just constantly making tiny adjustments to the deck… I think there’s less than 30% of the original deck left but it’s a lot of fun to work on 😅
By the far the best part of Eldrazi Unbound is Zhulodok. I feel like it’s the first eldrazi that would make me want to do colourless eldrazi tribal as normally blue+green or red is just strictly better when it comes to getting those big splashy eldrazi out but Zhulodok makes you want to actually play them as a colourless deck which I think is pretty cool.
The two decks that I had considered getting this year was the LotR Elf deck and the Anikthea Enchantress deck. I've been thinking about building Simic Elves for years with Rashmi, Eternities Crafter and was looking forward for some cool simic elves, potentially with a stronger Scry theme like the main set had to really make that deck, but instead the commander cards mostly focused on a voting theme, while the main set scry elf theme was more geared towards limited, so I ended up not getting it. For Anikthea, I think reanimator enchantress is super cool, I've never played anything like it, it felt powerful in playtests, it includes 90% of enchantress staples that I'd ever want... but it's over $80. They'd for sure would have made a customer out of me if it were just appropriately priced.
Charismatic conqueror doesn't go infinite bc you're allowed to tap already tapped permanents unless the card says otherwise (this is why cards usually include the text, "Tap target *untapped* permanent" - if it doesn't specify that the target must be untapped, tapped targets are valid).
I feel so bad... my first ever pre-con, and introduction to EDH, was call for backup, bc i liked the pretty fox lady... and then i had no idea what i was doing since... fortunately i was able to pick up the better naya precon later with veloci-ramp-tor. But i wish call wasn't as ass as it was
I’m a little sad to hear yalls opinion on the Call for Backup deck (though I respect your thoughts on it). I love the backup mechanic and picked up the deck as soon as I saw it, even keeping the face commander. I’ve upgraded it a bit but kept the central Backup tribal theme (which yes is sort of 1:1 counters) and it’s one of my favorite decks to play because of how crazy it can get
i made a big CMC deck with the simic Gandalf, was abit of a struggle and then i stormed of and nuked the table. I regret casting Apex Devastator because my turn took 20 min with all the cascade triggers XD
the price are just roller coaster this year so it would be good to know at which price you have calculated the $ reprint/$ spent . A google spreadsheet in link to the video would be nice I bought a copy of the planeswalker party for 50$ two weeks ago which was not a good deal when it entered the market way higher
After buying the sliver grave mother deck for $104, I then added over $200 of SINGLES that I did not previously own and any time I've pulled her out to play I'm consistently the problem. So when you're the problem, you get your face beat fast af boi. Still love to play it though even though I spent oodles to just loose 9/10 times.
