#precons

Hi there, thanks for your question!

I’ve reviewed a few of the Commander preconstructed deck series in the past, notably doing video reviews for the 2013 and 2015 editions with help from my friend @mtg-realm. While the opportunity to do a video set for the 2017 editions didn’t come up, I’ve had the chance to play with and against the four decks in the most recent batch and I can definitely give some thought on them.

The four decks are balanced very well for play against each other, and Wizards seems to have taken steps to avoid one of the set being the “chase deck” as they used to do with cards like True-Name Nemesis. The Dragon deck is a bit more sought after currently because of the popularity of the tribe and the novelty of a five-color list, but in terms of card value they’re pretty close to the same across the set. As far as performance goes, I find that the Cat deck is a bit more stable to play, owing likely to it being a two-color deck whereas the others are all three-plus. That said, the other decks’ wider color identities offer them a bit more flexibility in their playstyles, whereas the Cat deck tends to stick to a similar strategy with each passing game. Stability isn’t a bad thing though, and the Cat deck is probably the best at doing what it needs to progress in the game.

In terms of overall potential, I think that the Vampire deck probably has the most capacity to perform well in a vacuum. Edgar Markov is a monster of a Commander and the deck is well-suited towards him at the head. The Wizard deck is the one I have the least overall experience with, but it’s got its share of great cards as well. Kess, Dissident Mage is specifically getting a lot of attention in the community right now. In terms of overall performance, though, the four are pretty equal in actual gameplay and are well matched to each other.

As jumping-off points to build your own deck, any of the four is a decent skeleton to get started. As with the previous decks in the series, the biggest hurdle to overcome is that the mana bases aren’t the best out of the package and you’ll likely want to improve them quickly. The recent reprint of the rare Checklands in Ixalan are a definite help in this regard. Any of the four lists are an excellent skeleton to begin with, so if your plan is to rebuild the deck into your own creation, you can’t go wrong with any of them.

Archenemy: Nicol Bolas ~ Decklists and Gameplay on DailyMTG

More news today about upcoming Magic boxsets -- this time it’s the Archenemy: Nicol Bolas set that features four preconstructed decks and a set of brand new Archenemy schemes themed around the terrifying Elder Dragon himself. The allied team decks are themed around members of the Gatewatch, namely Chandra, Gideon and Nissa. While there are no new cards in the decks, all of the Schemes are brand new and fully interactible with the previous ones other than a change in visual style to reflect Bolas’ influence.

The official Magic site has posted a feature article that includes the four decklists as well as all of the Schemes included in the set. The article also includes a Game Knights video featuring two complete Archenemy: Nicol Bolas games. You can check out the article and video here. Archenemy is a fun variant that can be applied to any game -- I did a write-up a while back on a game of Archenemy Commander that my friends and I played, which you can check out here.

A minor but noteworthy point is that Archenemy is receiving a rules change with this release that allows members of the allied team to block for each other. This is an important change to the rules and will certainly change the dynamic of games going forward.

Magic: The Gathering Commander Anthology ~ Contents and Info

Some solid information on the official Magic website today regarding the upcoming Commander Anthology boxset which collects multiple decks from four years of Commander releases. You can check out the official article here.

Included in this set are Kaalia of the Vast and the Heavenly Inferno deck; Derevi, Empyrial Tactician leading the Evasive Maneuvers deck; Freyalise, Llanowar’s Fury heading up the Guided by Nature deck; and finally Meren of Clan Nel Toth and her Plunder the Graves deck. These four decks are exactly the same as the original releases in terms of the cards you’ll find, although just as with other anthology releases they’ll be updated to current Oracle wordings and templating.

Also included are four 100-point life counters similar to the one in the Commander’s Arsenal from a few years back, although from the provided images these seem to be slightly updated for this product.

Announcing Commander (2017 Edition)

The Commander preconstructed decks for this year were announced today on the official Magic website. Unlike previous years, there will only be four decks in this product line instead of five. This change is due to the fact that the deck construction theme has shifted away from color balance and towards Tribal support instead. This is a bit of a surprising change for me, and -- as is the consensus in the community right now -- I have to wonder what tribes will be chosen for this spotlight. The article makes mention that the creature types they’ve chosen are “some of Magic’s most popular and interesting,” but don’t delve any further than that.