These are hot garbage this year and all for $5 more than previous years.
Very aggravated that they seem to be taking advantage of previous years’ success by upping the price and figuring people will buy the decks even if they are terrible.
Looks like Commander is no longer their best product.
These are terrible. Why were they so safe with these? I mean, they literally made that GW Cats deck be better than all of these. At least sneak a PW in these or something interesting. The manabases are hot garbage and the card selections are terrible. I'm going to buy singles from this and that's it.
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"The essence of every world, every spell and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
Since fewer people will be purchasing these (I hope), will this cause the singles from these to be more expensive as stores will be opening them more frequently than people will?
They want $40 for these?! I'm not sure if I'd pay $20. For that much money, I expect straight fire, not a bunch of do-nothing uncommons and taplands. No thanks.
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Can you name all of the creature types with at least 20 cards? Try my Sporcle Quiz! Last Updated: 6/29/20 (Core Set 2021).
This might be the first "failure" among the Commander decks/sets/years. Increasing the price by $5 and doing decks that are only as good as C13 (which I think was the weakest year so far until this year) as a definite let down. The best deck does seem to be Bant still, with U/R in second, but the Bant deck would probably look like one of the weakest when it came to any other year.
-Jund is the most...amalgamation-y of the four, and Esper isn't much better in that regard.
-Lots of missed reprints (Oracle of Mul Daya, Sterling Grove, Starfield of Nyx, and many others)
-Why does the U/R deck have THIRTEEN mana rocks?
-Mana bases being subpar, almost to the level of the Dragon deck of last year.Seriously, no Reflecting Pool again!?
-Increasing the price $5 reminds me of Modern Masters 2, and that's definitely not a good thing. In fact it's a perfect comparison. They increased the price of Modern Masters and made it worse, just like they did here.
-A few PWs among these would have been nice. Garruk 1 would have been great in Jund, Daretti (again) or any Tezzeret (even PW deck ones) for U/R, any would have been nice.
There are some positives, a couple decent reprints, but for the most part they played this too safe, and when you bump up the price and don't get anything more out of it that's a big nuhuh. I'm actually torn, normally I buy all of the decks, but this year makes me only really want Bant yet at the same time I want to play with all 4 to see if they're as bad as they look. At the moment this is looking like a clear forerunner for the worst PW year so far, which is a shame as Commander decks are usually the best product of the year.
Odd, WotC was terrible with non Standard sets and great with Commander, but this year they've been good about almost everything they've been terrible at and the usual great Commander is *****.
It must have been like that meeting when all the car manufacturers got together and someone suggested planned obsolescence as a means of increasing sales and profits.
"We need the make the Commander decks good enough for people to want to buy and play with them."
"Yes, of course, but...what if we didn't?"
"...what."
"Well, I mean, they'll buy it anyway. They bought Unstable in huge amounts and they can't even USE those cards in legal formats. So, why do we have to make them good and playable? That's a major drain on resources and time. Just shove a bunch of crap in each one and then dangle a couple new cards in front of them so they'll want to buy it."
Is the Jund deck the worst commander product made since the first commander products?
Yeah I'm gonna be honest, I was pretty annoyed at all the negativity earlier in the week and people saying "looks like it's only singles this year" but I think I'm probably only gonna be buying singles this year lmao. These decks are not great.
They aren't going to print stuff like Top or Idyllic Tutor because stores will just spike the prices. They also learned from printing "good for Legacy" stuff like True-Name Nemesis that people will just storm onto that deck and leave the rest on the shelves, forcing vendors to buy more sets of the things, since they can't buy them individually.
Now, there is no excuse for the manabases. There are literally dozens of lands that are better than the ones provided. The "gain 1 life" tapduals, Reflecting Pool, Gemstone Mine, City of Brass, cycle-duals, etc. I really, honestly believe that no one in their group actually plays Commander as it's played outside, because even non cEDH people have at least a stable manabase that far surpasses these pre-cons. This is what they need to work on for next year, and going forward after that.
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The "Crazy One", playing casual magic and occasionally dipping his toes into regular play since 1994.
Currently focusing on Pre-Modern (Mono-Black Discard Control) and Modern (Azorious Control, Temur Rhinos).
Find me at the Wizard's Tower in Ottawa every second Saturday afternoons.
They aren't going to print stuff like Top or Idyllic Tutor because stores will just spike the prices. They also learned from printing "good for Legacy" stuff like True-Name Nemesis that people will just storm onto that deck and leave the rest on the shelves, forcing vendors to buy more sets of the things, since they can't buy them individually.
Yeah they need those expensive cards to spread them through their overpriced Master Sets
To be fair, we did have Dominaria and Battlebond, both great for EDH. Perhaps C2018 is there to balance out.
And I like how introductory these decks are for newer players who want to get in.
Yeah that's pretty true. The thing that really bothers me is the price hike. Like how you gonna jump the price and then print this? It just feels slimy.
EDIT: Don't get me wrong either, I'm incredibly excited for the new cards. But the decks just aren't worth buying, I'll buy my Aminatou, my black miracle, and the manifest enchantment, and save myself like 20-25 dollars.
They aren't going to print stuff like Top or Idyllic Tutor because stores will just spike the prices. They also learned from printing "good for Legacy" stuff like True-Name Nemesis that people will just storm onto that deck and leave the rest on the shelves, forcing vendors to buy more sets of the things, since they can't buy them individually.
Now, there is no excuse for the manabases. There are literally dozens of lands that are better than the ones provided. The "gain 1 life" tapduals, Reflecting Pool, Gemstone Mine, City of Brass, cycle-duals, etc. I really, honestly believe that no one in their group actually plays Commander as it's played outside, because even non cEDH people have at least a stable manabase that far surpasses these pre-cons. This is what they need to work on for next year, and going forward after that.
Look, we're not demanding much. It's not like we're asking for free Mana Vaults in every precon. But for $40 they could've done a HELL of a lot better than this. For heaven's sake, I could build a budget Elf commander deck for that much out of things left in the $.05 bins, which would leave all these decks in the dust. ELVES, man. Little tinkly 1 and 2 mana creatures that make mana.
These decks show a complete lack of thought, comprehension, and understanding of the format. It is an insult to us that they have the gall to try and fob off their ignorance and, worse yet, their LAZINESS on us and expect us to be grateful for it.
I don't see the issue with each deck having cards that have the value or Bear Umbra and Enchantress's Presence but they didn't even try. The Jund deck is an absolute disaster and these should not be for beginner players. If they were worried about making another True-Name Nemesis situation happen, they should just make a card that powerful and put it in all four decks.
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"The essence of every world, every spell and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
That these are the deck that get moved up five dollars is, quite frankly, laughable. Sure, there are some notable reprints, but not as many as in previous years. The Jund deck in particular is a mess. It is unfocused and misses key cards for lands.decks. I hoped the five dollar increase would at the very least signify some more rare lands (checks, cycles, tangos), but the mana bases are the same if not worse than previous years (last year's decks had some rare utility lands at the very least). This seems like a good year to focus on singles and tweak my existing decks. There are some interesting new cards, but I could probably pick up what I want for less than forty and have less chaff sitting around. Very disappointing considering the usual quality of this product.
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Avatar by Disappointing Signet Inc
EDH Decks UWB Oloro, Ageless Ascetic's spring of life RUG Animar, Soul of the Elements and friends... lots of them WBG Karador king of two worlds (value and attrition) WRKalemne's Angels BRUG Yidris's Wild Party UWBR Breya's Terrifying Tinker Toys UBRThe Pretender
I think it's laughable that the rules committee had a say in these decks, had input on what went in them, and this is what we got. They're supposed to be the "be all end all" when it comes to Commander and the rules and they should know what we want and what should be reprinted in these, and they obviously didn't fight too hard to try and get a better product.
So I'll start by saying that Subjective reality is probably the worst commander precon since the original commander. It's so painfully bad and missing a dozen no-brainer cards. In general though, I found myself wincing at the trash inclusions the normal amount. So overall pretty typical. The commander exclusive cards are above average in terms of desirability. Some real gems in there. I'm really getting tired of Wizards' ethic of putting the same mythics/rares in commander precons. Yeah, Rampaging baloths is a cool card for a new player to get, but most of us have two playsets by now because they are in these EVERY DAMN YEAR. Also if I see seer's sundial one more time in a precon I'm going to loose it. Does wizards think this is a staple or something? About a third of the rares in these precons follow this "samey" convention and it's so dang stale. To give credit where credit is due, there are some actually sensible inclusions here and there and I was surprised to see some cards that ACTUALLY needed to be reprinted or I didn't have:
With how much of a tear Wizards has been on lately I'm a bit surprised by how rough these decks are. I always buy at least one commander deck and sometimes 2+. This year I want like 5 singles, if that. The exclusive cards aren't bad but aside from a couple reprints in the bant deck the lists seem very weak and janky. Jund in particular, as others have noted, looks unplayable. Oh well!
Very aggravated that they seem to be taking advantage of previous years’ success by upping the price and figuring people will buy the decks even if they are terrible.
Looks like Commander is no longer their best product.
-as well as the fat that two of the 4 planeswalkers are a bit bland with a very difficult power-suite for audiences to grasp.
What does ‘shifting Fate’ even mean? It sounds overpowering at worst and difficult to grok at best.
As for the enchantress, I’m confused as to why she revolves around the least popular type of enchantment- auras
The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
My 720 Peasant Cube
It's not a compliment. These things are about as desirable as hot garbage, is the general gist of it.
-Jund is the most...amalgamation-y of the four, and Esper isn't much better in that regard.
-Lots of missed reprints (Oracle of Mul Daya, Sterling Grove, Starfield of Nyx, and many others)
-Why does the U/R deck have THIRTEEN mana rocks?
-Mana bases being subpar, almost to the level of the Dragon deck of last year.Seriously, no Reflecting Pool again!?
-Increasing the price $5 reminds me of Modern Masters 2, and that's definitely not a good thing. In fact it's a perfect comparison. They increased the price of Modern Masters and made it worse, just like they did here.
-A few PWs among these would have been nice. Garruk 1 would have been great in Jund, Daretti (again) or any Tezzeret (even PW deck ones) for U/R, any would have been nice.
There are some positives, a couple decent reprints, but for the most part they played this too safe, and when you bump up the price and don't get anything more out of it that's a big nuhuh. I'm actually torn, normally I buy all of the decks, but this year makes me only really want Bant yet at the same time I want to play with all 4 to see if they're as bad as they look. At the moment this is looking like a clear forerunner for the worst PW year so far, which is a shame as Commander decks are usually the best product of the year.
Odd, WotC was terrible with non Standard sets and great with Commander, but this year they've been good about almost everything they've been terrible at and the usual great Commander is *****.
Source: mtggoldfish
Artifact Deck
- Unwinding Clock
Land Deck
- Avenger of Zendikar
Enchantment Deck
- Bear Umbra
- Enchantress Presence
- Hydra Omnivore
Top of Library deck
- Entreat the Angels
- Silent Blade Oni
Bant-chantments have the best 2 reprints but that's about it.
Reprints are very disappointing.
Dunes of Zairo
SHANDALAR
Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries
It must have been like that meeting when all the car manufacturers got together and someone suggested planned obsolescence as a means of increasing sales and profits.
"We need the make the Commander decks good enough for people to want to buy and play with them."
"Yes, of course, but...what if we didn't?"
"...what."
"Well, I mean, they'll buy it anyway. They bought Unstable in huge amounts and they can't even USE those cards in legal formats. So, why do we have to make them good and playable? That's a major drain on resources and time. Just shove a bunch of crap in each one and then dangle a couple new cards in front of them so they'll want to buy it."
Now, there is no excuse for the manabases. There are literally dozens of lands that are better than the ones provided. The "gain 1 life" tapduals, Reflecting Pool, Gemstone Mine, City of Brass, cycle-duals, etc. I really, honestly believe that no one in their group actually plays Commander as it's played outside, because even non cEDH people have at least a stable manabase that far surpasses these pre-cons. This is what they need to work on for next year, and going forward after that.
Currently focusing on Pre-Modern (Mono-Black Discard Control) and Modern (Azorious Control, Temur Rhinos).
Find me at the Wizard's Tower in Ottawa every second Saturday afternoons.
And I like how introductory these decks are for newer players who want to get in.
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
Yeah they need those expensive cards to spread them through their overpriced Master Sets
EDIT: Don't get me wrong either, I'm incredibly excited for the new cards. But the decks just aren't worth buying, I'll buy my Aminatou, my black miracle, and the manifest enchantment, and save myself like 20-25 dollars.
Look, we're not demanding much. It's not like we're asking for free Mana Vaults in every precon. But for $40 they could've done a HELL of a lot better than this. For heaven's sake, I could build a budget Elf commander deck for that much out of things left in the $.05 bins, which would leave all these decks in the dust. ELVES, man. Little tinkly 1 and 2 mana creatures that make mana.
These decks show a complete lack of thought, comprehension, and understanding of the format. It is an insult to us that they have the gall to try and fob off their ignorance and, worse yet, their LAZINESS on us and expect us to be grateful for it.
EDH Decks
UWB Oloro, Ageless Ascetic's spring of life
RUG Animar, Soul of the Elements and friends... lots of them
WBG Karador king of two worlds (value and attrition)
WRKalemne's Angels
BRUG Yidris's Wild Party
UWBR Breya's Terrifying Tinker Toys
UBR The Pretender
Duplicant, Mimic vat, Silent-blade oni, Soul of Innistrad, Budoka gardener, Hydra omnivore, Elderwood scion, Bear umbra, Enchantress's presence, and a handful of others.
Feel free to tell me yours!
Hands to the sky
Give a round of applause
For the great Miss Y!