Is It Worth It To Buy A Commander Deck? Commander Masters Series | Magic: The Gathering
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This was going to be the set to get me back into magic after a long break, hoping to get 3 of the decks, buy some singles later to upgrade them... now I can barely buy 1 if I want to get the now spiked up priced singles... I would rather keep my money for bills unfortunately...
I’ve been having more fun with other games. It’s sad to to see WotC rip players off like this!
Those prices are nuts.
may i email you something to your gmail non buisness unfortuantly youtube wont let write my post. its not buisness related so why im asking .
I apprecate your honesty you pulled me back into your channel but not mtg.
ALSO I i disagree with how you evalute value, slight adjustment/
1 shipping and handlign per card at a 1 meaning only include cards at avalue of 3 or more cuz htats the only ones really worth or sellable as a small time collecter. as huge collector 2$ works regular people its gotta be 3$ or more.
2 adjust take 10% off cuz if you want to sell it now instead of maybe never it hast to be affordable or cheaper then majority o f other stuff espciallly if tyour smaller dont have credit with that provider like mecari or ebay cuz people may not be willing to take a chance on you otehr wise
2anything over 3$ what is its value when adjusted for 10 to 30% taken off profit + that 10% from 2nd point. Because 10 to 30% htats what they take at online traders/distrubters + the 10% you have to take off total price. also dont forget point 1.
meaning if all cards over 3$ are worth about 60$ realistically you spent 80, and you sold them. youd have to sell them at about 50 to 55, sooo that said 55only 5$ cheaper, then they could otherwise get else where from a bigger distrubter or second hand guy. 55- 10 or 30% 45 or 50 - the 10 for shipping 35 or 40 meaning roughly you lost 40$ and are left with a bunch of cards that are unsellable.
this is how its always worked out whenever i sold anythign COllectablity is not a real thing, if i got 35 or 40$ selling my self you could say 20 or 35 from a carshop really isnt that bad considering you dont have to deal with all the work of selling but, just to buy something 80$ and make only about 30$ is kinda stupid. and beats the point collecting is stupid when done for value, unless of course your shop then ya you need to collect based on values, but for regular people, i like collecting cards with pritty or sexy females on it or crazy unique terrfiyng beasts. where someone could collect dolls, the point is to have representive of your or things you love and enjoy not to have things your just really scalping and in way scalping has become synonymous with collecting and they hijacked the term
MAYBE you need to do a video seperating SCalping from true collecting and remind MTG what Collecting is all about. the value comes from enjoyment and representation that a object can bring to a person, hence why i like kallia black red my favorite colors and a sexy female as well as tarmogoyf the card is easily replacble and there are cards that do what it does but way better, but its a terrifying looking beast as well as the dark depths i wanted to get a giant like tentacle tokens and octopus staute to get with the card just to throw on the table when i use it. FOr FUn.
the reason things become valuable is because the average person wants them for some reason other then value but when you have people only scalping for value well it takes away all the value that could ve been cuz when somehting has no value other then value then your in a cycle of basically trying to undercut other people so it destroys the value raising costs while lowering the the value because nobody wants it its too expensive. I dont blame wotc entirely but their mishandling and playing into the scalpers is a big problem they are enabling the scalpers they should print and destroy the mtg scalping industry. they should work with their distrubuters to get tehm on page to ensure so they make thier money but carefully print and distrubte to extract all the wealth from the scalpers and so regular people can get the products they want
i would still ike to message you email your gmail about my other full comment which is even bigger. on the subject of mtg. and their products. this comment sorta touched on it. but i expand much more i dont like how this SIte web doesnt allow for long commetns that could acutally be very productive, i know its commmmmmenttta section is reall ment to be a sesss pool to keep people at each other to help with the algo and the engagement with app , but they a problem too
I can't shake off a feeling that those were designed the same way as normal pre-cons are, and were to be released with the same ~$45 price. And then some exec came and said _"it's a Masters set, people always pay premium for those, we can up the price"_ and so they did, without changing the designs & composition.
Bingo.
Fax
Exactly
No printer. Fax. Facts.
Feels pretty accurate
I still can’t believe there was a WotC stream where the guy on stream asked “Where does it say “Premium”?” When asked about the high prices of the commander decks.
Yeah he got triggered by chat lol. Out of touch thing to say regardless though.
Where does it say "Premium"? Right after the "$".
Do you have a link to the video?
that guy revealed his inner doucheness to the world.
Don't you guys have credit cards?
At 16:00 I can hear the pain in the professor's voice 😢. It hurts us all that the format we love is being exploited. Thank you professor for always having your finger on the pulse of the MTG community and for your years of outstanding content.
That’s what you get for playing such a terrible “format”
@@ozmond ok snooty booty. It's not the only one I play...
The irony is that the swarm one? it actually did go down in price. I saw it on eBay for around $60 brand new. enduring enchantments and The unbound one actually held their value today. and planes will occur party was at 50. two held their value in the other two didn't. kind of interesting
I wouldn't be surprised if we see secret lairs with the notably missing cards soon.
Ding ding ding. This company continues to lose its soul.
Secret Lair Sliver legends here we come!
@@SamJones1337 soul don't make money. also wizard of the coast don't make magic. it employs people to make the product but they sure don't want you to think about that as they fire and re hire cheaper and cheaper
Wotgreed
Mtg dlc
Thanks for allowing us to sponsor this video!!! We wanna see more MTG in the world.
I’m glad, I’d rather buy your coding game than one of these( & I was excited about them when it was announced earlier this year)
I second this. I have no idea how coding works and not remotely interested, but I'd rather pay the service, discounted or not, -Than pay for whatever these decks are selling for (Spoiler: Way too much for their worth).
Please no. Until wizards stops these anti consumer practices, i hope mtg ends. Its a shame that the game is so good that it allows for such scummy practices by wotc&hasbro
@@pepi560 hmmm I hope the BS ends but that MTG thrives
As a Colorless Eldrazi player, I can can confirm that the deck is missing many obvious cards. It's a void as cryptic as reality itself.
Which ones? Thinking about playing with that
You shouldn't expect a cedh deck with every card being perfectly tailored, there were obvious upgrades for literally every deck that's come out. And the eldrazi deck does come with most of the eldrazi supporting cards.
Absolutely! When the set was announced i predicted that they would put Kozilek in the Deck and reprint Ulamog and Emrakul in the Boosters. That was before i knew what the Commander Decks would cost. With these prices it would have been a no brainer to AT LEAST reprint the Ceaseless Hunger and/or the Butcher of Truth in the deck as well!
@@theholywand11 not when you ask for double the price. Were they priced like the rest you could make an argument for the upgrades. But with eldrazi and sliver you are asking people to spend more than 100 without upgrades, and in the case of the slivers the main upgrades are all lands which are expensive.
@@theholywand11It doesn't have to be a cedh deck but it's called "Eldrazi unbound" and is three times the price of a normal deck. It doesn't live up to the name or price.
You'd think with their current price tags that they would've at least reprinted Ulamog the Ceaseless Hunger or Sliver Legion
Cards that should be in precons if they were actually designed for their current price:
Eldrazi: Pick like any of the Titans
Slivers: Sliver Legion, Sliver Hive, etc
Enchantment: Argothian Enchantress, Urza’s Saga
Planeswalker: Jace the Mind Sculptor, 3-mana Teferi, 5-mana Teferi, Wandering Emperor, Tezzeret the Seeker, Dack Fayden (Greatest Thief in the Multiverse), Jace Wielder of Mysteries (which is legitimately a cEDH staple).
@@janmelantu7490 I agree with everything, but jace is hardly a cedh staple, I don't even know off the top of my head if there's any deck that plays him at all
@@andreaslion5877 Maybe “staple” was generous, but he at least was played in Thoracle decks that wanted redundancy or had fewer colors
@@janmelantu7490 true, you could run him for redundancy, but I generally don't see him in my groups, but maybe it's also meta dependent, not sure lol
In a bit of absolute comedic irony, in the Eldrazi Unbound deck I got, I pulled a Borderless Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger in the Collector Booster teaser pack
I really needed this video, thanks prof. As a commander rookie I was looking at the Eldrazi deck thinking it had a cool theme of being colorless and ramping out huge Eldrazi. Glad I saved my money on this one, I'll stick to my warhammer precon.
Same here. I was thinking about getting the planewalker deck but after seeing a few things coming out the past few weeks decided to spend that money on some small upgrades to my other precons.
I really think you'll feel more engaged and satisfied if you build cool decks yourself, the precons are becoming increasingly poor options.
My group loved the Warhammer precons and found similar enjoyment in the LOTR ones as well. The Riders of Rohan one in particular is pretty powerful out the box. Definitely look at those before going near these even more inflated priced ones
@@StarkMaximum I heavily agree, especially given how bad the mana base usually is... friend of mine started playing and got that MOM humans precon. You'd think that with an aggressive strategy like humans it'd be smart to only play lands that come in untapped, yet it feels like half of the mana base etbs tapped
The entirety Commander Masters is an exercise in gouging customers. Reprint sets are essential for the game, and should be affordably priced.
Nah, don't you know that if they would do so, the game would die? That's why every TCG out there follows WotCs lead, and either doesn't reprint at all or they price reprint sets double-tripple the price of normal set. It's literally the only way they can survive out there. Just a sad world if you can't survive as a company without selling cardboard for x300 the price. I mean, we know that because literally every card game also has do deal with foil curling...because you just can't make money without it anymore...card stock is too expensive to be profitable.
@@neros_sorenI mean Yugioh sells reprint sets all the time and still does well and retain value. So quit spouting bs.
i learned that from Warhammer Gameworkshop few years back
@@PopoTCG Holy balls...you really need a sarcasm sign held up for you to understand it, don't you? At least at the point at which I was mocking MTGs foil curling issue that is not present in ANY OTHER TCG, you should've realized as much. Next time, read properly before you attack someone. I mean, "every TCG out there follows WotCs lead"? Didn't ring a bell already?
Touch grass buddy...
@@PopoTCGwas my first thought, 25 years and they get reprints all the time. Honestly refreshing
The new eldraine decks are $35 each on preorder. Which puts $81 dollars each for a case buy in perspective.
This set in particular has made me finally break down and buy a high quality printer. I’ll be making proxies for now on for super high dollar cards I need. You won’t be able to tell the difference between them and a genuine one unless you remove them from the sleeves.
Any chances you can tell me the model, you intend to buy?
What’s the model?
You don't even need a high quality printer, a 50$ printer works just as well. Print the card in color, use a glue stick to stick it to a land, sleeve it, and it's almost impossible to tell it's not a real card unless you're looking for it.
I still buy single because it doesn't really feel like my deck it it's all proxy, but it's really usefull if I want to use the same card in multiple deck or for super expensive single that are essential for my deck.
One thing I'd like to point out. Wizards has repeatedly said that Commander Masters isn't a premium product. The price tag says otherwise, and it has the 'masters' branding, so I understand why so many people assume that it is
Wizards didn’t say that commander masters wasn’t a premium product. They said that the commander precons weren’t a premium product. Also. They didn’t repeatedly say it like you claim, it was just mentioned on a stream.
@@julianvickersFair distinction. Still doesn't explain the premium price tag on non-premium decks.
So... Are we waiting for Wotc to charge $20 for a Wilds of Eldraine draft booster, or do you think that will be 2024 product?
When Eldrazi Unbound was announced I was so excited! I thought “wow they are going to make eldrazi tribal for the masters set it’s going to be crazy!” Then I remembered who was making it and waited. I’m glad I didn’t preorder, I knew they wouldn’t allow their design teams to make eldrazi tribal when they can keep them locked up as chase rares and mythics for future sets. What a joke.
Ironic thing they coulda made. 5 color eldrazi deck with the devoid stuff so that would open up more eldrazi stuff
Akschually, It's called "typal" now, mkay?!
Don't want to offend some munchkin in the US, now do you.
/s
It's the same 3 jokes@@RiseInAfterlife
I have been waiting for this product for years now, and it's such a letdown. Only 10 eldrazi, only one titan, and only one new eldrazi design. No Eye of ugin, no Void Winnower. The commander even has a booring design, not caring about eldrazi, just colorless 7+ mana spells. It really blows.
Some cool new cards, and the fact that they went for colorless, are the only upsides to this
@@HakazeI could be wrong but WOTC shows just shows how greedy they’ve become over the years by printing a few good cards in a commander precon deck and selling it in a premium price while pretending the individual cards won’t tank overtime.
The whole Commander Masters release has made me decide to only be a secondary-market MtG player. No more sealed product for me, unless it’s a draft box for limited play. Everything else will be singles purchased from LGS’s
Try proxies too, if you haven't.
Double Masters was my wake up call last year and it's only gotten worse since then.
@@Lucarioguild7 Same here. 2X2 coming out right after Commander Legends 2 and having all the actual commander reprints at a much higher price felt like a slap in the face. Between that and the premium prices on the 40K decks (no, I don't think they were ever worth $60+ dollars), I swore off buying new product from WotC.
I’m going even further. I ordered a $400 printer. I’ll be able to print mint quality proxies. My objective is to make them so good you can’t tell the difference at a game store without removing them from the sleeve and examining them. So the shop can’t get in trouble. I’m about to have a full play set of mana vaults, doubling seasons, mana tombs, dual lands, every tax card, shock land, gates, pains, etc.
@@NockergeekNetI disagree with you about the 40k decks. Those really were something special. The all new artwork, the dedication to having lore accuracy to 40k, and the sheer quantity of new cards in each deck definitely set them apart from the standard precons. I don't regret buying any of the decks at very early pre-order pricing of $60 each. The fact that a year later three of the decks sell for only a small amount less and Necron Dynasties (which was unfortunately not included in this video) actually still sells for $20 more than I paid for it, I feel it stands the test of time as a particularly higher quality product to justify the higher price.
Much of the disappointment that this one was it gives me even more respect for my local game store, the owner such a friendly guy and is taking a huge financial loss. Because he's only charging $50 per, because he believes they're just not worth the price and they're too high as it was.
which store is this? would love to support it if I am in the area!
Mine's only doing 80-85. Not as good as 50, but hes also taking a hit for us. Support these gamestores.
@@at802 He isn't making a profit selling the decks at $50
@@at802 wholesale on these is closer to $60, I think it was like $56 or something
$140 for Eldrazi at my store
I literally just started getting into Magic (im talking like 6 days ago) and I stumbled across one of your videos and i have literally been watching them eveyday. I learned a lot and im excited to dive in! Your are an excellent, extremely knowledgeable, clear and honest teacher. Thanks for teaching me so much in such a short time!
I’ve been playing for 18 years. Since 30th anniversary, there seem to be more and more products that aren’t for me. And it made me think: maybe Magic is no longer for me. I still enjoy playing with my friends, but as for keeping up with everything, I think I’m done.
I am sharing this in the event there are more of us who feel like maybe Magic is no longer for them, so that they can know they’re not alone.
Hey - I'm right there with you. I've got a decent collection, with reserve list cards and I used to buy the commander decks each year. I stopped doing that in 2021 and I'm at the point now where I might just sell everything. With all the IPs it seems like there isn't any creativity with MTG anymore. All they do is reprint and use a new ip which doesn't fit the lore of MTG. (Lord of the Rings is probably the exception).
I stopped playing about 8 to 9yrs ago, probably closer to 11yrs. It just felt like things weren't the same anymore. Found myself spending more and more money I couldn't afford to spend on some cardboard. I've picked up MTG recently after a friend got me back into it, but now I feel like I want to get back out after what little I've done.
It disheartens me to say it, but I'd rather put my money into the stock market. Use CDs, bonds, ETFs, Mutual Funds, etc... as trading cards, and, truth be told, I'm more likely to get more out of it than anything else. Sure, it's not as exciting as popping an instant, playing a sorcery, equipping that enchantment, and such, but I'll make some money along the way.
I'm getting to be the same way. Love the game, love playing it with friends. And maybe I have a enough cards to do that for a long time without buying much more.
Magic hasn't been for me since 2020. I refuse to buy a card past Commander Legends at this point, and I'll only buy directly from an LGS by me. Its the only way I can not feel guilt about playing this game.
I think pokemon tcg is what you are looking for then
These could’ve been the best Precons of all time at that price. Ancient Tomb in Eldrazi for example.
Or at the very least Eye of Ugin. I recall a lot of players expressing bafflement that the sliver deck didn't have Sliver Hive. A lot of people are already accusing WOTC of purposefully omitting these cards so they can sell them in a future 'premium set'.
Not to mention the titans themselves. Mainstay in basicly all eldrazi decks, not just the commander decks
The single biggest issue is WotC floating the pricing like they do rather than putting an MSRP on it. If it'd had an Ancient Tomb, the price would have gone up higher to account for that.
@@chiblast100x My question is why price gouge at all like this. You could make more money and bring in more players by pricing these Precons lower and still
Have value in them.
@@chiblast100x And this is why MSRP needs to come back. It tells every store what to sell the boxes for, and if they don't everyone knows they are ripping customers off.
I actually just cancelled my order of the decks. I was originally ordering all of them as a package for $65 each off of Amazon, but even at that price point, I realized I could just wait a month or two and buy the singles that I want. I could probably even treat myself to some fetches or shocks that I'm missing for Modern and still come out ahead lmao
great decision tbh, good for you!!
This video WAS helpful. NGL, I couldn't afford to buy these at their current prices anyway, but now I know at least I'm not missing anything anyway.
Thanks for always being honest and looking out for us as consumers. It's why I love this channel!
Regarding the no MSRP problem - I believe the best way to establish how different are the prices between products is to look into the price that LGS pay to their distributors. I saw somewhere a LGS owner saying that those pre-cons were acquired for $60 a piece, so the expected selling point would be probably $75-$80.
When I pre-ordered the deck on Amazon they were $67 and change. So getting them from distributor for $60 each seems reasonable, and they went up from there.
My local store is doing 75 and the other greedy one is doing 100 lol
@stevenwilliams1140 really greedy one by me was doing something really ridiculous like $120 or $130
@stevenwilliams1140 this is about what I paid under 300 which included tax and expedited shipping so 75ish each total
@@Gzilla313 Amazon has a lot of operating costs to cover, so I'd be surprised if their algo was only pricing in $7 over wholesale. And if it's a third party selling on Amazon, Amazon takes a percent for referral fee, a percent for fulfillment fee, so the sell price would also need to cover those.
The existence of premium precons implies that the regular precons are made worse on purpose and I'm not sure I'm okay with that
After watching the rest of the video I'm going to argue against myself here. The Warhammer 40k precons were premium as in they had more work out into them. Art wise and card design wise.
These aren't premium in any way except the price. So while we all know Wizards is making precons not as good as they could be on purpose this seems to be regardless of price
Every set is made worse on purpose to preserve reprint equity. Not saying I agree, just that it's how it is.
Wizards has clearly stated that Commander Masters is not a "premium product". ...at $240 for a 4-booster Collector Booster "Box".
The existence of premium precons contradicts itself since precons are (usually) for newer players but target established players with their contents
I understand not making preconstructed decks absolute powerhouses out of the box. But they are typically playable, fun, focused, and for $40 when they release they are typically worth it in my experience and if you can find them later at a mark down even better. I have a problem when they release a set where decks range from 1.5-3 times the price when they same amount of value is in each because it’s a “Masters” set. Reprint sets are healthy for the game, and should be affordably priced, and while I understand that not absolutely everything in this set is a reprint, I understand that most of it is and the ones people are chasing are. The set makes itself, and they give us NFT artwork for some powerhouse commanders, and expect us to pay top dollar.
I am fairly new to MTG. About 7 months in. TCC has been instrumental to me joining the hobby and learning how to play. The TCC review videos are my favourite - entertaining and very informative for a new player. This is one is no different, but it is really discouraging seeing the direction the product prices are heading towards.
I love the hobby, but new set releases are becoming my monthly drug fix. And after purchasing something from it, I’m left with a bad hangover thinking “damn if only I hadn’t!”
I pre-ordered all 4 when they were first announced because the deck themes sounded so fun, but after the decklists were revealed I canceled my pre-order
What price were the pre-orders for? I pre-ordered mine for $65 each(all but super friends), and at 65 I kept my order, but it's still too high. I feel like 50-55 would have been the sweet spot, and $80+ would be a hell no
@@etapollo13 mine were from Amazon and it was locked in at around $70 or so each iirc
Got them for $65. Might be returning
Even as prices kept rising, i held a small fraction of hope that maybe the eldrazi deck was going to be worth it, and then they stealth dropped in an article that it was more of a colorless matters deck, with some eldrazi! that's when i gave up. it is very weird how 2023 has not one but two sets of precons with planechase (MOM and doctor who) and between them you have these 4 which have less and ask more for no reason
Hell, there was SO MUCH POTENTIAL they had, and it got wasted.
Hell, since it's a masters product, give them some cards based on more casual formats.
We got Planechase with MOM and DW, why not give Commander Masters archenemy support with some new and old schemes based around the commander
Funny that my Eldrazi pre order seems okay at 70 only because some goons are buying it for 134 when it's worth 50
If Wizards had an MSRP on their products, this issue could be mitigated. Sadly, paying $70 for the Eldrazi deck is more an outlier than the rule.
I got mine for under 90 on Amazon. You bet I’m recording the opening
I managed to snag mine from Amazon for $68 so I'm getting mine for a pretty good deal.
pre-ordered mine like 6 months ago for $80 on Amazon after I saw 40k get borderline scalped . I have most the old eldrazi stuff and enjoy the tribe so I'm not mad
I’m just gonna use my in store credit
I love the Professor. His honesty is so appreciated.
I was so excited for the Abzan enchantress but now, after seeing the full decklist and watching this video (because Prof rules, obviously), I just going to wait to see if they come down to £40-45. Sad times, because my Bant enchantress needs a rival xD But thank you Prof, I've really come to trust your judgement on sealed products :)
I saw enchantments on a big card shop site for like $39 today but I’m kinda waiting for the whole case to drop
Wizards: Money me. Money now. Me a money needing a lot now
sells for 150 here in canada. super marked up.
my store made it 175
I love supporting my lgs, but the markups on everything are making it difficult.
Omega oof. I need to get back to drawing my own proxies.
Buying magic cards in this country is atrocious. I can't even find them in stores anymore, when my LGS does have them it's only like half of the precons and they're outrageously expensive.
I see them at 440$ for the set of 4. From set to set I have to look at a lot of store because the price are roller coaster and it is not always the same store that got the best price.
The Eldrazi deck having only 10 Eldrazi reminds me of really old "Plant Synchro" decks from Yugioh that had 5-6 plants in a 40 card deck.
Really interesting sponsor for this video! It's one I haven't heard of before but one that piques my curiosity. I'll have to check them out!
I mean, people hear "Plant Synchro" and they assume it's basically a Plant tribal deck, but that's really not the case. It's a Synchro deck that uses a notable number of Plant monsters to get their plays going (Lonefire Blossom, Gigaplant, Spore, etc). People hear a creature type in a deck and they assume it's all "X monsters get whatever boost" but sometimes it's just "all of the starters that get my deck going are Plants so I called it a Plant deck".
Tbf, YuGiOh Decks are typically named after their primary engines.
As soon as I heard that Gavin distanced himself from the creation of the set/was working on Dr. Who instead, I had a feeling we would be in trouble for these.
Second thumbs up button for the Professor working through summer break🤓 👍
Thank you for being the voice of reason. We like to complain about price, but still for the marketing every single time. Appreciate you Prof.
I've been priced out of new MTG products for a couple years now.. my favorite thing to do with MTG cards is buy $20 or so of .1¢ to .25¢ singles.. then put together fun and unique decks to play with friends and family.. I quit letting FOMO affect my purchases and focused more on having fun with what I can afford.. I really appreciate what you do Prof.. keep up the good work.
Just wanted to say thanks so much for the video, prof. I play magic on and off and every time I dip in I like nabbing a precon or two just so I've got something from the more recent sets ready to go and the eldrazi one did catch my eye but the huge price tag had me real hesitant about picking it up. So glad we got you around to show not only is it not worth the price tag but it's not even really an eldrazi deck. You've saved my wallet some agony and for that I am really grateful.
Every time I watch videos like this I am sadly reminded why it was a good thing for me to get out of this hobby.
You're missing a lot. You don't have to be up to date with releases to enjoy a nice Commander game. (But if you can't resist the urge to upgrade your decks nonstop, good for you that you left.)
Proxy my dude.
@@tsakowich Thanks, but for me the fun of playing Magic is playing with Magic cards. Proxies wouldn’t change my underlying disinterest in the overall state of the game.
@@SethHornplay flesh and blood. it’s genuinely a great game that isn’t trying to gouge their collectors into the ground financially.
@@razzc7for now….
Wizards official response "I don't see where this says Premium"
If you can get it the Planeswalker pre con with some minor upgrades actually plays really well as a fun superfriends deck. If you can get it for the 60 that I was able to get it at my LGS and you have any desire to play a superfriends deck I highly recommend picking this up it’s genuinely really reeeeeally fun.
Excellent review, as always. I'm not shocked at the low grade. It's like I've been saying for years, WotC is afflicted with a sickness. As you've said, symptoms are only getting worse. It's bizarre to me that many don't seem to realize or care. Thank you for continuing to be a positive voice in the community.
After looking over the deck list for the Eldrazi deck I have to agree with you. These decks largely seem average at best but would need work to make them truly viable and worth it to even be considered a Commander Masters deck.
The eldrazi deck seems like a missed oppurtunity to have a card representing Emrakul imprisoned in the moon. I wish these decks would tell a story
Unfortunately they can’t print “imprisoned in the moon” in a colorless deck. But a colorless Saga depicting the SOI story, perhaps? It could’ve been a cool mirrored pair with the “Battle at the Helvault” saga in the Enchantment deck.
@@janmelantu7490or a saga depicting the fate of Hanweir, they literally had an ARG telling Hanweir's story running up to the release of Eldritch Moon.
Hell, give new versions of Hanweir, Brisela and the chittering host. If we can have four saurons and six Urza's all as cards in their set, why can't we have 2 Hanweirs or 2 Brisela's close to a decade apart?
Hey Professor I bought the eldrazi deck off of Amazon and it was 74$ with tax at it's lowest preorder price. This was right when the precon's had gotten announced. I figured getting the basic wastes with it would cover the price enough for me to justify getting it.
The eldrazi deck could have had one of each of the big ones. The enchantments deck could have had stuff like parallel lives. Slivers could have had another 2 of the big 5 color slivers besides sliver queen. Idk.
Great grade, Prof! This is what the community needs! Wizards is devaluing the perceived value of their Masters line and are doing their devoted community a disservice! I hope they start to follow the players opinions soon. 🙃
The Seventh Gate / Rose of the Prophet / Darksword Trilogy on the shelves finally caught my eye today!! Loved those books from my moms collection as a child. Great taste, prof!!
I think the THICK commander cards would be a great way to reprint in demand reserved commanders. If cheap enough (not likely) it would be cool if they made a set type product of them.
They did this back in 2012 for the Commander’s Arsenal, they made oversized versions (like old precons) of reserved list commanders. Doing thicc versions would actually be a Celebration of Commander’s history! Sliver Queen for the Slivers, Karn Silver Golem for the colorless deck, Rasputin Dreamweaver for the Planeswalker deck (he’s Blue-White and Basically a Planeswalker), and for the Enchantment deck either Lady Caleria (in-colors), Adun Oakenshield (graveyard shenanigans in mostly the same colors), or Asmira Holy Avenger (graveyard in just Green-White, but not super valuable)
I do wish there would have been some review of the gameplay of the decks. Just because I have no intention of buying these decks doesn't mean I can't admire them from a safe distance.
Either way, thanks for the videos!
I'm sure there are/will be plenty of videos of people playing the decks out there. That being said, as the Prof just said, you can build one of these (probably with better lands) for far less than the price tag of the whole deck (especially if you own quite a decent collection of cards already), so no need to avoid them just don't buy the decks as they are.
or as he recommended buying older ones these might drop in a few months and then I would love to know how these four work and how well they are designed
Spike Feeders have a couple of videos on gameplay: one with un-upgraded precons and one where they spent 50$ on upgrades.
Usually he does mention how they play but skipped out on it this time for some reason.
I mean a good way to play test them is just to find a play group that does not mind proxies and play test the whole deck with proxies.. then you can enjoy the overpriced product for free lol (well nearly free it would be like $3.00 ??? for paper and printing? not sure here)
I hope I get to go against one of these precons with my $6 Alela deck or my $20 Ovika deck. I looked at the manabase of these and though they looked like my budget lists lol
Great video and your final message at the end is very important about wising up.
When these were spoiled, my playgroup and I were so excited. I'm a huge sliver fan, another of us is a huge eldrazi fan, and we got 2 other people in the group that wanted the other two. We were so excited to split a case....Until we saw the price. Ha$bro's greed really knows no bounds. These precons, and the accompanying set, were so exciting...but the price just completely sours the mood. We're skipping this set and just buying singles, when/if they get affordable. And no, we're not just gunna blindly accept it and fork over literally double the money for the same product. Giving in to their ludicrous prices set after set is how we got here in the first place. They have NO reason to ever stop if they know we'll just pay whatever price they want~
Me and my three buddies in my commander POD always go in on a draft box and the person who does best in the draft or whoever wins the commander game we play picks first out of the goodies from the box and then so on. We absolutely will not be buying even a draft box of this over hyped and over priced set of crap. Sure the alt arts look great and whatnot but none of us can justify trying to get more than a few misc. reprints that we dont have yet. What a damn shame. Thanks for nothing Hasbro/WOTC!!!!!!!!
I only have one deck, and since the moment I knew about the sliver deck, I have been looking forward into have achieving one. But since I don't have much knowledge about magic, it's been hard for me. And now that they have released this precon I have doubted if it was worth it to buy it. Do you know if I can get a sliver deck cheaper than this one?
the pioneer challenger decks had shocklands! and they were like $40 each, actually, those decks were worth it just for the lands they came with, and now we have these decks who can't be asked to have decent manabases and are at least double the price
Not to mention Fastlands, Painlands, and Slowlands. And those are useful in formats besides Pioneer! It’s not like the Battlebond lands which are literally only good in multiplayer, so it’s not like a precon would be scalped for them.
@@janmelantu7490 oh yeah, the manabases on those decks were actually pretty decent, they even had some buddylands and manlands like mutavault in the case of the humans deck. It is amazing that with commander being the most popular format, they refuse to give people a decent manabase
Not even a triome and I seen farseek in at least two of the decks
@@matthill8284 not to mention all the slow fetches in the Sliver deck.
This makes me glad I didnt preorder the products and was waiting for the price drops so I can get singles instead. At the end of it all, I don't think getting bundled products is for me anymore. However, I do think creating my own themes and being open to my creativity IS for me.
Thanks for the video! Your honest opinions are always appreciated.
Shocked! And really glad I watched this before going nuts with pre-orders
I would like to see a price comparison of just the reprint cards, to see how much of the singles value is made up of them compared to the new ones. Great video as always Prof.
The few reasons why I'll still back up my order of sliver swarm is that I had been wanting to make a sliver deck and would've ended up spending more to make a 100 count deck with quality cards in it. Overlord and Sliver Hive alone are about 60-70$ together. So this, while sadly lacking, was an easy option to get a deck going.
Go figure the irony of finally buying new product after several months of avoiding them and this is how it turned out. At least I supported a local game store.
I feel that's the only market for the sliver deck. Everyone who already has a deck just wants the maybe one or two good cards out of it because they already have better options. Anyone else is just wanting a sliver deck they can start with and it's an okay baseline if you're planning on upgrading.
"It's not gonna stop until you wise up." Truer words were never spoken. I applaud that you are making this honest reviews.
A penny for your thought. Had you released this video earlier, you would have swayed more people to not buy this product. The price and its content were widely known. I do presume you test these and buy them yourself, so it's hard to release the earlier, but still.
All the best to you and your channel.
I was happy getting the sliver deck with points from playing drafts at magiccon. Plus the collector booster sample had a full art foil deflecting swat 🎉
Man at regular pre-con prices I would’ve insta-bought all of em except the planeswalker one
I only bought the Eldrazi deck because I had pieces to upgrade it. I’ve also spent money on upgrades and to be truthful, I’m disappointed with the fact that I looked at how many cards I had ready for the deck (could’ve put in more from the decklist itself so number might be off) and it totalled 47 including lands/upgrades. I played myself 😂
I had canceled my preorder of the Eldrazi deck, and now I'm very glad I did. Thanks for validating my worries, Pro!
You hit the nail on the head at the end there, Prof. It isn't just Wizards killing Magic; sucker consumers voting with their wallets are complicit, too.
I wonder if there was a desire to make them premium and Hasbro or WOTC stepped in and had them tuned down.
Probably not. A lot of corporate sees it all as cardboard. It’s probably something decided after the fact. Maybe to see if they can get away with or just to guarantee a revenue spike.
More likely that this was designed with a normal commander release price tag in mind, then higher ups decided to markup the prices since they're tied in with a "premium" set
I think the biggest sign of premium quality vs premium price is Argothian Enchantress. If the Enchantment deck was designed to be premium and priced correctly, there would be an Argothian Enchantress reprint. Its absence means it either wasn’t designed to be premium, or it was designed to be premium and was de-tuned.
@@RiseInAfterlife I disagree with pre-cons of other games being actually better. YGO needs 3x10$ to get the cards you need. Digimon needs 2x15$ to get what you need. Pokemon pre-cons are not worth any asking price, period (excluding the World Champion decks, but they are not tournament legal). FFTCG has a good value-price ratio, but those pre-cons are generally just to get your exclusive cards out of them. FaB are the one exception, but even their pre-cons are hardly worth bringing out to any tournament if you want a shot a winning, but then again...FaB also reprints regularly to keep single prices down, so they are doing everything right anyways from a "TCG as a game first" perspective.
@@neros_soren Absolutely no precon is out of the box ready for being at a tournament, not even talking about winning the whole thing.
MtG however asks for over 80 bucks for their latest awful precons with the usual garbage manabase.
If you want to get those decks up to speed you will spend at least the price you bought them for again.
YGO and Digimon asking for 30 bucks to get it all?
That's very, very cheap when compared to MtG.
In their non commander precons you also get cards you need 4 times once. And then you'll probably end up spending 3x 30-40 again unless you buy singles on the secondary market.
And, as usual, manabase being garbage and lacking cards that are necessary in those archetypes. Curiously all the cards missing being rather pricey.
" they are doing everything right anyways from a "TCG as a game first" perspective."
Are you kidding me?
WotC is doing absolutely no such thing, for them it's nothing but 'money first' lately.
The product in question asks 25 bucks for a normal pack, 70+ for collectors and the decks are over 80.
A year ago Wizards published an article ensuring that it would launch all its products in eight languages from then on. A year later, there are only four of those languages left. My condolences to all those who wanted this product in Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese or Italian, not like other commander precons we had. It is increasingly evident that we pay more for less, we are a joke to them.
Professor yet again being the voice of the Consumer
The collector Samples from this set of Commanders were awesome.
Listening to your comparison with 40k decks (ones I hate immensely) you do make a good point. Why these are both premium and yet one is clearly better premium than another is rather baffling. It sort of lends credence to my thought they are pushing UB on purpose between quality, power, and even the imaginative mechanics while purposefully making other Magic products worse.
It's moreso that with UB, they have to actually make the cards good, and have the decks represent the setting well, otherwise their partner will just pull out and never partner with them again.
I mean they went with Games Workshop, then the Tolkien Estate, and the next one has them working with the BBC on the doctor who set. If they fuck up and show their true colours in the third UB set, they're not getting any partnerships again because if you fuck up one of the most well known sci fi franchises in the world, people won't trust you with the paper your cards are printed on
Hello! I at one point had all 4 decks preordered at Amazon, all decks ranged from $82.95 to $84.99 including the Eldrazi deck. All decks were direct from Amazon and not a third party.
I canceled all and decided to buy singles instead.
I got mine from Amazon at $65 back 4ish months ago when only the names were announced. I still almost cancelled, and can't imagine people paying 100+
Just in case someone wanted more price data: my lgs in france sells "normal" commander decks for 45€, the universe beyond ones (warhammer and lotr, expect dr who to be that price) for 55€, and those masters one were 100€ on preorder and 130€ in not preorder. Also they're already out of stock on commander masters stuff so I guess they managed to sell it, good for them.
"And unlike having all the Pokemon memorized..."
ok but I felt that one in my soul
I was so so excited when they originally announced the Sliver deck. Then I saw the price and wasn't thrilled, but I still had hope. Then they revealed the list and I felt so deflated. I love the new sliver card designs, I love the new classic art redesigns of the M14 slivers. But that mana base is so bad and there are so many no brainer inclusions that were left out.
Like you said, it's just. Not. Worth it.
Getting back into mtg after about 5-6 years of not playing, thank you for putting this video out before i bought them. The eldrazi deck was looking good to me but this breakdown helped me to know thebprice, and gow it really isn't worth it. I'll just buy singles instead
I was so excited when I first heard there was going to be Eldrazi and Sliver precons, that I determined that I was definitely going to get them. I would forgo getting other products because I didn't want them as much as I wanted to get these. Decks I've wanted to make for a long time, and a solid base to build from. Or so I thought.
Then the decks were revealed, as well as their prices. And I spent a bit of time every day looking at the deck lists trying to see if I could justify the price. Watching videos go over how these decks are built no different than any other Commander precon and how they're missing obvious, key cards, but at least double the price. Seeing the clip of a WotC employee asking, "Where did we say this was a premium product?," and making no justification about the price. I lamented over this so much, that when I messaged my local game store when the preorder deadline was, I didn't realize I had a day left to decide. Ultimately, I couldn't justify it. Cards and decks I wanted, and looked fun, but it wasn't worth it.
WotC keeps making products that are less and less worth the price or effort, and it, unfortunately, means buying sealed product from my local game store less and less. I've switched to buying singles, but most of my enthusiasm for Magic is withering away. Wilds of Eldraine seems to have some promise, though. A goose hydra seems stupid, zany, and right up my alley. But I wouldn't but it past WotC to muck it up somehow. We'll see.
Love the ending message, Prof
It's funny how every single magic player is better at deckbuilding than WotC is
I definitely fell into wizards trap. Though my local store was partially to blame. Charging 124.99 regardless of which deck you got. I felt like I was more making a donation to the store then getting a worthwhile product. I do like the store. But I think I need to start disengaging from this hobby
As a player with a tighter budget, hearing about commander precons for two of my favorite yet most out of reach decks, Eldrazi and Slivers, had me so excited. Yet as the days got closer and closer, as the prices talked more and more, I realized I would once more be cut off from some of my favorite deck themes. There's just something so depressing to be, what it feels like at least, told by Wizards that as a cheaper player I'm not allowed to play these tribes. Because that's what it feels like they're saying. I just can't imagine them not deciding to price those two higher (or use them as justification to price the whole set of four decks higher) with them knowing that people want those cards. Even if they're bad, at least they're the tribe you want kind of thing!!
I can really take in your displeasure with these, and in truth, I am starting to reflect that. I'm becoming less interested in the expensive "tuned" decks and moreso just looking for the fun in magic again. There's always been a price issue, but the product from wizards itself never felt this bad.
Thanks for the series prof, i love commander precons and am all so gratefull for having someone i can trust give an evaluation before i decide to buy them.
Initially was super hyped about the Idea of premium commander decks containing super good value and split the lot with a friend and preordered. Then, as soon as the first spoiler for the Sliver deck were spoiler, I knew it may have been a bad decision. As the last deck was spoiled my friend and I were sure: we had to cancel the order. They are charging way too much for a deck like that. The lands are especially disappointing. If they ever fall into the 40ish 50ish category I might reconsider.
Great vid prof. I’m sad to see the state of mtg. I got out of the rat race right before the brothers war, and I was looking forward to that set; haven’t bought a sealed product since, just some singles here and there for my existing decks, totalling $25 maybe.
We are so lucky to have you.
I appreciate your honest review. I was considering one of these precons until watching this but you’ve swung me. Thank you
I pre-ordered the full set of decks for $320, before lists were spoiled, because I loved the themes and expected WH40k level construction. I canceled that order as soon as I saw the sliver list spoiled. Absolutely disappointed and frankly disgusted at the greed here.
Unfortunately I know for a fact my LGS sold out of all of these decks at the $80+ price point anyway, including those from my canceled order. I don't think WOTC will learn from this.
Hearing that these decks are $80 a pop just breaks my heart
The Prof had some strong "I'm not mad, just disappointed" vibes this whole video.
I just found your channel today, and have watched a few reviews already (March of the Machine, New Capenna), and i am so hapoy i didn't give in and preorder these. Thank you!
I know it's a lot better to support your local game store, but everytime since the Warhammer 40k commander decks I preordered on Amazon when they first become available. Right now I'm getting all the decks for 64 -68 dollars each. I hate to recommend it to others but it has saved me money each release.
Seems like the best option is to wait a month or two and buy from the LGS at half the price tbh. Why pay even $65 just to get them a few weeks earlier?
@lookoutitsadragon Out of curiosoity I just compared the deck prices I was able to get the Lord of The Rings Decks at (41 -42 each). I still saved 15 - 20 dollars a deck 6 weeks later. In general it does save money, and as you said, time as well
The Professor be like... I'm The Professor
It's Prof'in time!
@@TolarianCommunityCollege Yeah, that's pretty true I think
Remember the kaldheim and commanderlegends precons ? Those were great
I had a friend who was looking to get into magic after finding a bulk box from a brother which held a lot of slivers. I told him «Hey, wait for this year's commanders, they are a cheap way to get into the format and you'll likely have a route to upgrade one of them because you already have a ton of slivers». I had to take back what I said.
I traded in some cards I don't use to my LGS to grab the enchantment deck, but I still feel dirty about getting it. I've wanted an Abzan enchantment commander for so long but the price has really taken the wind out of the sails for me. I'm going to build it out and play it and hope it was worth it in the end.
If prices like these continue, I think things I have left to buy are regular bundles and singles for me (I like to collect the die).
"No"
This is a good exercise for others to wait on deck prices coming down. Like Prof said, even the Warhammer decks came down once they had had enough printings. I know these will too. Don't feel like your missing out. Wait on these, look forward to Eldraine and potentially Dr. who and come back to these decks when they are below $60
If they realize they are not selling like the 40k ones, I bet they will shorten the reprint just to squeeze out the most amount of money.
It’s my bachelor party tomorrow but before I go, I’m stopping by a retail store to pick up slivers as a personal treat
I just got my Sliver Swarm deck delivered - I'm a sucker for Slivers so even with the markup it was worth it for me. Also, I got a borderless Spellseeker from the promo "booster sample", which was neat.
I just got the Sliver deck too last night! My sample pack had a Foil Borderless "Flawless Maneuver" and a Foil "Personal Tutor!"
Wow, surprisingly good pulls from those sample packs! Generally they end up being sorta junky.
Kinda sad you didn’t do a gameplay analysis to see how these decks stack up against each other and against other commander decks like you usually do. But yeah, sad to see how these turned out given how high the hopes were for them.
He didn't do it, but I tested and watched the gameplay enough times to draw a conclusion.
It's not balanced. Essentially, the game becomes a case of "kill the Abzan player quick before they spiral out of control and crushes us in value." Especially true when they have Composer of Spring out. Not fun for anyone.
Nearly died when the proff pulls out the more realistic quote of modern times. "Wizards of the coast makes an ass of you, and me, as you will soon see"
I had been hyping up the Eldrazi deck on my social media accounts. I was excited to hear I would be getting a precon of my favorite critters. A couple of my LGS's pricing is on par with Amazon. I was going to attend the Draft event for this product today. I just can't at these prices. I would enjoy myself, but I can support these prices. I'm not saying other TCGs are better, it's just I mostly play Magic and I just can't.
I will wait to get singles and build my own update Eldrazi Commander deck. The upside is it will have lands like Eye of Ugin, Urza's Saga, or Ancient Tomb. These aren't even on the reserved list. Even with Ancient Tomb's reprint it's still priced higher than a cat's ass. I really did want to use the Eldrazi Precon if you couldn't tell. I was very excited for it. Oh we, such is life. Your Whatnot Stream is about to start so I will hop on there and hopefully win one of the Commander Master's Collector boxes. Maybe get a big pull, sell it, then fund my dream Eldrazi Commander deck. Sorry to vent here. I'm preaching to the choir.... No Eye of Ugin?!?!?! Really?!