MTG Salvation

Hey guys,

for the past week or so I wondered if I should buy some Commander 2017 precons, specifically Vampiric Bloodlust and Arcane Wizardry. I have fun deck ideas for Edgar Markov, Mathas, Fiend Seeker and Mairsil, the Pretender as well as a more competitive approach on Inalla, Archmage Ritualist. As I'm a fairly new player, I could also use a good chunk of the cards in those precons (I think). But because I'm on a budget every month, I have to decide if the precons will be worth my money. Would you buy the precons even if you are not starting a fresh Commander career?

Thank you for your suggestions
Aetherblade

Quote from Aetherblade »

Would you buy the precons even if you are not starting a fresh Commander career?

I've bought one of every Commander precon printed so far, and I've got a preorder for all four decks coming out tomorrow. I also bought three extra copies of Counterpunch (the Ghave/Karador deck) at Wal Mart for MSRP, not expecting Wizards to print Scavenging Ooze in Standard. (At the time I bought the extra Counterpunches, Ooze was worth more than the entire price of the deck.)

It was worth it about a month ago when you could preorder the whole lot for $95... Now it's horribly marked up since the full reveal.. your needs will determine if $120-$160 for the lot is acceptable....

To be exact, I don't want to buy all of the precons (I already have Dragon tribal lead by Atarka, World Render and could only use some reprints from that deck, while I really dislike the cat deck). So it would be two precons only, which I can buy for ~30€ each (I'm European).

I would figure out the decks you want to build, and then see how much of the precon you'd actually be keeping. An example: I bought the Breya and Saskia decks in the last set, and I'd say both decks only probably used 10-15% of the cards they came with, which probably would've cost me $20-25 if I had just bought the singles, meaning I wasted $40ish.

On the other hand, I bought the Prossh deck, and probably kept 85% of it, making it more worthwhile.

It'll come down to how badly you want to play the cards asap, and how much of the deck you'll actually plan on using. No point in spending unnecessary money to get it a week sooner and then not use the cards.

I usually end up buying 2 or 3 decks from each Commander release (over time, not all at once). They are good to sleeve up and keep on hand for when someone wants to play and doesn't have their own deck.

They are fine right out of the box, or you can fix them up over time if you prefer.

This set is really weak in power. I am picking up just singles I need or think are good. No decent lands in the decks. Certain cards are ok but nothing in set is really a must have in my deck besides, Kess. Kind of sad.

I may purchase the Wizard deck solely on the basis that it would fill the most holes in my collection. The rest I'm gonna just buy the singles.

Do the decks look fun? Do they inspire new strategies? Then they're worth picking up. I preordered the Dragon deck because Dragons have always been my favorite amd ive been planning a Scion deck for a good while. Now I can get a head start on that and have an even more fun general to play. Can't wait.

So far when I picked up precons I ended up using only a couple of cards from the decks, replacing a lot of the contents with other cards. In hindsight it probably was cheaper to get them as singles, so if you consider overhauling the precon then look at how much of the deck you want to check what buying them as singles will cost you. For a budgeted player thats a good way to save money, as planning your purchases tends to be key.

That said I'm only buying a handful of singles this time. As a precon neither of the decks really stood out to me and not going to pick up any of the Legendaries for a potential new deck either, as just figuring its better to focus on upgrading my current decks with this months budget for cards and just see what Ixalan will bring. But that's my personal choice for this release.

I daresay I've got the perfect video for you, if you're wondering about value: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yzwq8H4gc6M&t=470s

I have tons of edh decks and a pretty huge collection and ive ordered Dragonic Dominance and Arcane Wizardry.
I like to keep 1 edh deck thats just a precon until the next wave so if newer players want a game its not all Sneak attacks and Cyclonic Rifts. I decided ill keep Dragonic Dominance intact and getting Wizards cause theres plenty of good stuff in it.

I plan on buying singles since I only want O-Kagachi, and maybe The Ur-Dragon. If I did buy a deck, I'd get Dragons and keep it intact out of the box since it feels like the best one to try that with given its tribal nature.

I think it's worthwhile, largely because I have trouble finding the singles locally and don't like ordering online and dealing with bad exchange rates.
Truth be told, the Dragon deck is the only deck I'm excited about. The wizard deck is up my alley but I already have a grixis deck and doubt any of the cards will make it. I hate the cat deck, though there are a few singles I have interest in.

I like the vampire deck but don't like the deck strategy very much. Not sure what I'll do with it.

In any case, I preordered all 4 and expect it to be a good investment. The commander precons are usually worthwhile.

If you can get them for about £30 then its usually a good deal. There are only a few basically unplayable cards in each one so even if you chop and change a lot of them immediately I would think they will still end up in a deck at some point.

The vamp deck was really nice and has the best card in the set. I would always go with "how much of the ddck will you use?" Even kf youbtake it apart the cards can still be used. Non basic lands. Cool creatures. I mean mybdrsgon deck is running kindred discovery. But i am also gonna run it in wizard tribal. Vamps has teferi protection. I am not llay vamps but i wantbthat card. So inwill be buyinv it for two of my decks. It is not worth buying the vamp deck for 1 card in my opinion.

If you are in the US market, then it will be (or ought to be) a matter of economics that the singles will be cheaper than the whole deck. If the deck is cheaper, the retailers will raise their prices to compensate, or vice versa, the singles will drop in price. The difference is attributable to the premium you pay for having the deck pre-assembled for you, getting the oversize foils, and generally participating in this year’s release as a consumer. It’s like pizza delivery instead of pickup.

So, the question is – how much is that worth to you?

I know some people to who it is worth exactly zero, and so they make the right decision in not buying the pre-cons. For me, it has been worth it every year for at least one deck, and the two years I didn’t buy more than the one (2011 and 2015), I regretted it later.

There will be another wave of it. It might be worth it to wait for them to come down in price.


http://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/164811102068/will-there-be-more-of-c17-printed-my-lgs-and

i bought the Vamp deck today, i bought Dragons the day it came out (or more so bought it teh night beofe and picked it up on the day it came out after work) and bought wzards two days after. (Wizards is still unmodified)

The reason i got vamps was simple. My bro got cats and Teferis rpotection is at $35 CDN. The Vamp deck is $45 CDN. So yea, If Im gonna spend 35 bucks on one card why not spen teh extra ten and get the entire set?

Besides with what I have seen form vamps, It might be fun to build Edgar.

Got all 4 precons for 80 euro. Worth it.

I bought the Vampires for 21 + shipping euros on Magickartenmarkt

I buy the Vampire decks when i see them in non LGS stores, since they sell them for retail. I have a feeling that Teferi's Protection will only go up in price. Best protection spell out there.

The best and most fruitful reason I had to buy the decks was for my group of friends when we had no collection. That spurred us all to spend probably 3-5k a piece on a collection since the first release in... 2013? It also spawned many fun nights and stories.

Otherwise Yeah, just simply look at the cards you'll actually keep from each deck and do the math. I haven't been impressed eith this set yet. Probably will be buying less than 5 singles.

I have picked up the entire set every release except for the mono color planeswalker set where I picked up none of them and have not regretted my decision except for the year I bought none of them and have picked up many of the exclusives as singles in the years since