The "Looking For Game" section of our Patron Discord is 100% free and open to everyone: discord.gg/tolariancommunitycollege Arin Hanson Forgot He Suggested Crappy Commander Decks: ruclips.net/video/CB_mIPRnaL0/видео.html D's Vintage Power Cube Is Nuts! | Shuffle Up & Play #38 here ruclips.net/video/75I-CIZgIc4/видео.html
i feel like the pirate deck should have included Revel in Riches. 🤔 🤨 mine does, if i cant win by points, or milling a player, or pumping up my pirates.. then getting 10 treasure tokens and protecting revel in riches, I automatically win 😂
Has someone notice the bad printing look lower quality in the precons bought the dino and merfolk and they where awful blurry compare to the old cards more noticable in the merkfolks 😢
I asked my LGS why the vampire and dinos deck were more expensive than the other. The answer was that he had to order from his distributor by increment of 4, one of each deck every time. The reality is, my LGS had a lot of preorders for the vampire and dinosaur deck, and almost none for the two other, but he was forced to buy them anyways. The store had to make up for the time these decks will sit on the shelf somehow.
It's so nice to see the Professor still helping his viewers understand what their money gets them for sealed products. Personally, it helps a lot since I'm playing Magic on a part time job budget
There are some genuinely good reprints in here! The land base always needs work, as every commander deck has been haha. I'm personally getting these because I love the plane!
Someone always has to whine about the land base... I can overlook the usual mediocre land base when they put this much effort into the actual meat of the decks. And the 2-color decks don't even need insane land bases anyway.
@@nanoglitch6693^ This. When the colors are 2 or 3 color I can forgive weaker land bases cuz they aren't as needed for a winning strategy. These decks especially have good synergy outside of the basic strats
I started Magic with hand me down Merfolk cards and it has become my go to creature type, not because it wins all the time(which it definitely doesn’t) but I have more fun with the cards mechanics. Im very happy to see Explore make a proper splash in my Merfolk decks
I've always wanted to build Merefolk Tribal and the precon has so many needed peices as well as really good cards for counters strategies. Wave Goodbye is so good!
The inclusion of clips from Galavant is, by far, the best reference this channel has ever made. Don't get me wrong, the channel is great, but this show deserves a lot more than what it got.
Love that you're keeping in some small bloopers in the latest video. Really shows how much effort get put into these and a bit on how fun they can be to make. Keep up the great work everyone.
I used to never buy precons because I already have several commander decks, and just choose to buy singles for those decks. But, after buying all 4 Doctor Who precons, I've actually slowly been buying the precons from the past and sleeving them up to play on Spelltable with other precons. So, I'll definitely be picking these up!
I am getting precons due to the fact my LGS does Commander Party precon tournaments and the decks are more or less balanced. I gave up on getting into my past LGS events due to the fact that a chunk of people didn't seem to get casual tournaments should be casual and pulled out expensive pay to win decks and in time every event became pretty draining as such pods became one-sided. I want to have fun, not to get a loan to build a deck to match up these few folks.
If I didn't already collect every Commander precon, I would have picked these up for the nostalgia. I started playing MtG at the release of original Ixalan
@Zomburai45 yep, ot was the fall release set for 2017... It was my first semester of college and I saw some guys playing a card game so I watched, next thing I was at the rivals of ixalan prerelease
I've been looking at each of these decks individually, and I can greatly appreciate that these decks feel like they truly wanted folks wanting a creature type-themed deck to have a great starting point. I'm very impressed by these decks, something I couldn't say for many of the previous sets.
I've been waiting YEARS for a Grixis "play your opponents' decks" commander just like Don Andres, and I have NOT been disappointed by him. The precon is more aligned with Admiral Brass as the face commander, but I immediately went to work brewing for Don Andres. (Step 1: Mash the precon, my Prosper deck, and my Xanathar deck all together and see what works from the mess of 300 cards.)
I originally ordered the pirate and Dino decks for $34 each when they were first announced and then snagged the vampire and merfolk decks for $40 on card kingdom right around the deck lists release. My wife and I really wanted to build these typal decks, so we thought these would be great starting points. It’s great to hear how well these decks play!
Yeah I got the vampire deck for 35 before anything was released because I've been meaning to build one and when I started seeing the deck lists I was going to try and get the dino deck but gave up after seeing the price had been jacked up. I'm happy overall considering the whole deck is essentially the cost of an old copy of Exquisite Blood.
I got all 4 for $138USD. The professor is right never pre order and never order magic from Amazon. I usually do both. $138 for 4 has me at or below the price he listed here.
What’s funny is I went for the Merfolk (for The Smiling Flood) and Pirates. They just seemed more unique and fun. I get why the Dino deck was most expensive, and I’m sure current Vampire decks saw this precon as a nice surprise.
Price aside, I actually love these decks. The only one I didn't necessarily want was the Pirates deck, but all 4 in a bundle were running for the msrp at my go-to store, so I just got them all and am very happy with that. The Merfolk deck especially was surprisingly great, after fixing the mana base I only swapped out ~10 cards for some of the original Ixalan explore/merfolk cards and caverns pack pulls I got. Can't wait to play around with it when my group meets next!
@@mjminino I put some more focus on Explore, mainly. Some more straightforward upgrades are Curse of the Swine for a spare Cyclonic Rift, Explore for Enter the Unkown. I dropped Bygone Marvels and Commit//Memory, don't feel like the deck really needs the recursion. Other than that, Commanders Sphere, Kiora's Follower, Prime Speaker Zengana, Surgespanner, Tributary Instructor and Ruinous Intrusions left for various reasons. I've added a Deepfathom Echo, Glowcap Lantern, Path of Discovery, Jadelight Spelunker, Twists and Turns, Wildgrowth Walker, the great Wanderwine Prophets and a Cultivate for some more Ramp. I also, and this is just a personal meme thing, replaced Ravenform with Witness Protection, because I love Witness Protection and run it in more or less any deck with blue interaction pieces. This is a rough first draft, there are a lot more cards I would LIKE to fit (a Deeproot Pilgrimage, for example, which I pulled in foil borderless), and some areas where I will probably need to patch some holes (I am very creature heavy right now, but with a relatively low level of protection and, almost unthinkable for blue, no counterspells), but the precon had so many great cards that it genuinely felt hard to remove stuff at times. I still have not had the time to watch the Command Zone Game Knights episode where the prof played his beefed up version of this deck, I am very curious to see what he did with it.
I also agree with you prof, the most synergistic precon in the bunch is the Merfolk, so i pre ordered it and had a bunch of add ons to make it more powerful 😁
Another thing that didn't got mentioned, but: they put checklands in these! Don't know if I have missed this and it's actually some time they've begun to do this, but I don't recall ever seeing them outside of UB products (and even Reveal lands are not excessively frequent, too).
@@lysanderxx1664 I also use them in 4-5 color decks in tandem with typed taplands when I want to go for a cheap manabase... though I'd be a liar if I didn't admit I also put the triomes in there and that helps out a ton. Sorry I can't do miracles. 😭
been waiting for this. Just getting back into magic commander with my friends and your videos are amazing! I also found out you are a local in the bay area! Thank you for amazing videos!
I appreciate the analysis proffessor. Ive just recently purchased my first precon and followed your suggestions on double sleeving as well. The sleeves you suggested are fantastic. While you are unlikely to see this in the sea of comments, thank you for helping me get into this hobby with a grounded understanding. Keep up the good work and I wish you and yours the best.
I wish I saw this sooner. I got back into MTG and was building off an older plainswalker Huatli deck I got in 2017. Got a bunch of dino singles but really wish I could've done more research before purchasing any. This was so informative
As soon as I saw gameplay of the decks in action, I loved how each of them worked and went to my local store's website to preorder the set of 4 for around $145, and I do NOT regret the purchase - can't wait to crack into them, play with them and upgrade them over time!!
I bought the Edgar deck back in, God, 2017? And I'm still tempted to get the vampire one, simply because there's actually been quite a few vampire sets since then, and I wouldn't mind grabbing all the relevant cards in a single box. It doesn't hurt that the deck plays pretty differently from Edgar, and probably isn't going to attract as much vitriol from the table (which is kinda why it's been gathering dust as of late). The Exquisite Blood reprint isn't really relevant to me, but I'm certainly happy to see it either way!
my uncle got me the merfolk deck and I’ve had a lot of fun with my wet elves when I put more cards in the board than all 3 of the other players combined
All hail the Merfolk. Excellent summary Prof. Was a little surprised you didn't shout out the new art for a good few reprints, as I know it's something you've called for to bring these releases closer to the Universes Beyond ones. ✌🧡
Wal-Mart and Target are starting to mark up MTG products in store as well. They're selling the LotR scene card sets for $48 and the Doctor Who products were also $5 more than my LGS.
Hello, Professor. You once had a video series about building your own precon. I would like to see a template Video on what factors, parameters, rules go into building an actual precon. Is it possible to get such a video in the future. Maybe with the help and some explanations from gavin verhey?
I ended up getting the LOTR: Riders of Rohan and Warhammer 40K: Forces of the Imperium decks and my friend got all the Ixalan decks. They easily destroyed either of my precon decks multiple times in a row. The pace and the number of interaction of the Ixalan decks are much better and so much fun! Hopefully I can upgrade my decks to be somewhat more quick, but ootb the Ixalan definitely feel like a much better step-in precon for newer players.
After the amazing fun my group has had with the Dr who decks and the builds we're already working on with these decks, I'm hoping we continue to get good quality commander decks going forward
I've found the best time to buy the precons are the minute they show up for preorders. The moment the deck lists are revealed is when they start getting marked up. Either based on reprint values and/or popularity based on individual preorders.
I was in history class day of this release and my mom was at target and saw they restocked all trading cards and she knows I love magic, she sent me a picture of a bundle and the dinosaur deck for the new set and asked me which one I wanted, I had to choose the dinosaur deck it is very well constructed and was a amazing fun time at locals! Would highly recommend!
got all four sitting on my desk, waiting for my playgroup to have time for a Pre-con rumble! And then I will take apart the Veloci-Ramp-Tor deck to make the Dino commander deck I've always wanted to on the shell of it!
I just started playing about 3 weeks ago, bought a tyranids precon from my LGS. I went to the LCoI prerelease and got Gishath as my promo, so now im going to build dinos. Coming from Yu-Gi-Oh, Commander has been really cool to dip into.
After thinking about it for a while, I ordered the decks yesterday for €134 and I'm really happy about it, considering the prices in the USA and other dealers in Germany.
I can definitely vouch for the Pirate precon's gameplay. I played 4 games against it out of the box with my Madame Vastra//Jenny Flint deck, and it won three of them. Vastra and Jenny are a newer deck, not completely tuned, and I had significant mana issues in two of those games, but it's still got a lot of extremely powerful lines and Pirates went blow-by-blow pretty effortlessly.
Managed to pick up all four at my local LGS for $150 with a pre--order. They tend to run deals like that when getting them all, so it averaged to actually less than $40 each.
I started playing because of the original Ixalan's flavor, and the vampire deck is almost 1 to 1 my dream commander deck flavored on that set. I am absolutely getting it, though I am thorn as to whether I should add green to play Mavren and Ghalta!
As someone who’s just got into magic these decks are great. I picked up all 4 on a package deal for around $150 and have been having a great time playing friends while learning to play and learning the decks. Actually able to win a good amount of games. Definitely decks capable of getting people like me into the game, having fun and winning a few games before I learn how to build strong decks myself
Vampire and Pirates decks are on the way to my home! I still have my Edgar Markov deck from a few years ago, so I'm definitely upgrading that with the new one, and the pirates deck looked so fun on Game Knights I just had to get it. It's a good time to return to Magic
I've already taken my decks for a few spins and can testify that these are some of the strongest precon Commander decks I've played in a long while. They can all get crazy out of hand fairly quick and there are many great and fun synergies packed into these. Great fun! Can only recommend.
Someone at my LGS opened up the vampire commander deck and I saw the Exquisite Bond. Whoa … was my reaction and I can’t remember the last time I reacted that way to a precon.
I played 2 games with the pirate precon against my friend's 5 coloured Dragon deck, and it was fun to gain control of the dragon that just hit me, and hit them with it, even if my board eventually got wiped. i like a good theft deck and i didn't have one.
I bought the entire set of the 4 decks without looking at spoilers (i like to live dangerously) and i was very surprised when browsing through them for the first time. I had so many "wow, i know a card that would work great in here"-moments that were redundant just seconds later when i spotted said card in the deck. I very much agree with everything you said prof, these decks feel like they are actually playable and worth their price. Haven't had so much fun with untouched precons since the 40k decks!
I wanted the Frodo and Sam precon REALLY bad, but LotR was an extremely hard product to find here. I decided to just buy singles from friends and try to open packs or use equivalent cards from my collection. I almost never play green, so my land base was terrible, like I had 3 heaths and 2 gates or something like that. I saw the commander masters enchantress deck in store as it was being stocked, and since none of the others jumped out to me, I bought it for the lands that are usually good in precons, and I hardly ever use enchantments, so maybe it'll be fun. Well, the land base was trash and all the good ones I already had, but it's a pretty fun deck, even if it was $100. Someone in my pod built an Olivia deck and it's his baby, if I beat him with the vampires precon he'll never forgive me, so I'll probably buy the pirates deck, seems fun!
I'm a decently new Magic player and got into it at first because of the gothic Crimson Vow aesthetics. Makes me really happy to see a demonic vampire deck so soon after joining 😭 I feel so lucky to be so catered to atm 🥰 I can only imagine how the Prof must feel with the Merfolk deck!
I waited to decide which of these I wanted to pick up and eventually decided on Dino, but my LGS all wanted 70+. Luckily I was able to grab it from Target for $45 and I'll be putting some upgrades into it. Going to pick up merfolk in the near future as well, played 1 game against it so far and it got going quick and looked really good.
I do hate the markups, but I preordered all 4 Commander Decks off of Amazon, $138.98 in total, just a few weeks ago. That means I am getting each commander deck for $34.75, Lower than ANY of them are listed as individually. I understand people may not want all 4, but It makes me feel pretty happy with my purchase knowing I got each deck for WAY under what they should be. And to nip in the butt anyone who is upset at me not supporting my local game store, I bought multiple pre-release kits from my local game store to draft with friends, 4 in total, and the game machi koro there just last week.
As a Gishath player, the Dino Deck was a no brainer, and I was pleasently surprised with those rare end expensive reprints too. Talk about the cherry on top, specially because I got it for 43€ :3
I am definitely snagging that pirate deck. They were always my favourite faction of Ixalan handily. I always enjoyed everything having to do with exchanging ownership of cards, whether that be plundering the opponent's resources, straight yoinking something from them, passing around freebies with group-hug effects or tossing someone a hot potato from my deck. Even back in my Yu-Gi-Oh years, I loved playing Vampires, which wound up being a big reason I got into the gimmick to begin with. Admiral Brass also looks super funky and being Grixis is always going to make a deck better, although honestly, if I play it for too long while I still have my Gisa and Geralf, I'm gonna start milling 4 whenever I cast my commander just on reflex. Even once I've wrinced the deck for all it's worth and it's time to dismantle it, there's alot I'm already looking to splice into places. Pitiless Plunderer has at least 3 decks I need him for, Vanquisher's Banner might actually be really nice for my zombies, Black Market Connections might be a good for the Yuriko brew I'm cooking (Can never have enough Ninjas) and Skeleton Crew is yet another case where I find myself asking "Should I make a Tormod, the Descecrator brew?"
I adore and appreciate ALL your advice, but especially "always shop your local game store first", and "DO NOT pay mark-ups". I hope u continue to drive those points home, even if they hit ad nauseum levels for some. Thank u for all the work u and ur team put into these videos to inform and entertain us!
After having played all four a half-dozen times each, they are among the better releases of the last years. Each has a clear strategy that suits its theming, balances well against each other, and is able to hold its own against established decks of the usual power level. Admiral Brass in particular managed to become the archenemy three games in a row before becoming a kill-on-sight commander for the table.
My LGS was selling the Velociramptor deck for 50 dollars, which i thought was a fair price. Been really excited for this precon as I've been purchasing dino singles with the intent to build a dino deck for ages (a few of which are included in the deck already but that's what i get for my enthusiasm). I hit some great dinos at my prerelease and already have a Gishath so I can't wait to upgrade this and hit the tables!
And yeah agree that the precons seem pretty strong out of the box, a merfolk player at the lgs last week was able to keep up and even threaten quite a bit with all the counter and tribal synergy the deck has at a lower-mid power table.
I really love your content Professor. Im currently working and really happy listening to your voice talking about this product. I purchase the merfolk deck.
Do you know it has been 2+ years that ALL (5) my LGS have "basic" commander decks at 80$ and "premium" (e.g. reprints sets, or LOTR) decks at 120$. And that's why I buy on Amazon or online. They have the decks you find on MKM at 18$ at 80$. Nice LGS!
I managed to pull one of the commander cards in my bundle and just plan on building it from what I already was building. The creature is Pantlaza, Sun-Favored I pulled a borderless foil. He looks quite nice. I had Ren and Siri but was a bit boarded with the deck. I decided to build Naya Dino with most of the cards from that deck.
Pricing wise, typical retail markup here in Australia is 100% (excluding clothing/seasonal items). So if a shop buys a product for $20 (typically inc shipping and fees) they will sell it for $40. If a store needs to markup products from the RRP it is usually a sign of a serious issue along the line. When a company doesnt give a MSRP or RRP, it’s a sign they’re hiding something. No surprise here with Hasbro being at the helm.
Glad I picked up the Dino deck for $45 at my LGS. I didn’t realize it had jumped in price online. And glad to find so many Galavant enjoyers in the comments here. The show was taken from us too soon
This is the first time I ever preordered anything from wizards. I was super excited for these decks, especially the vampire deck, and when I saw that I could preorder them from my LGS, I did right away. For a while before seeing the deck reveals, I was honestly really nervous. I knew that preordering is a BAD IDEA and that I should always wait to see what I'm buying before I actually buy it. When the decklists were finally unveiled, I was so happy that they were the best decks in a WHILE. Super happy with my purchase (and didn't even pay markups).
The "Looking For Game" section of our Patron Discord is 100% free and open to everyone: discord.gg/tolariancommunitycollege
Arin Hanson Forgot He Suggested Crappy Commander Decks: ruclips.net/video/CB_mIPRnaL0/видео.html
D's Vintage Power Cube Is Nuts! | Shuffle Up & Play #38 here ruclips.net/video/75I-CIZgIc4/видео.html
Merfolk Pre-con! :D
i feel like the pirate deck should have included Revel in Riches. 🤔 🤨 mine does, if i cant win by points, or milling a player, or pumping up my pirates.. then getting 10 treasure tokens and protecting revel in riches, I automatically win 😂
Hey prof, just want to let you know that Factor is extremely anti union and abuses its workers regularly.
Has someone notice the bad printing look lower quality in the precons bought the dino and merfolk and they where awful blurry compare to the old cards more noticable in the merkfolks 😢
you should do a video on full art lands that you liked the most.
The best benefit to the Magic product overload is all the videos we get from the Professor about it all
Factually
Fax!
Damn it you’re so right
You're not wrong!
Agreed
Even the Sun-Favored can’t get his moment in the sun uninterrupted.
Love the Galavant reference, that show was so fun.
A hidden gem, for sure.
Galavant is the best show ever! It's how my wife and I bonded on our first date!
Yep. Would have loved a third season, but the music was soooo spot on and catchy.
Big same. It even had Weird Al as a monk!
First time I heard about Galavant. When I looked up the Wikipedia entry, I was like "Why was this never on my radar?"
I asked my LGS why the vampire and dinos deck were more expensive than the other. The answer was that he had to order from his distributor by increment of 4, one of each deck every time. The reality is, my LGS had a lot of preorders for the vampire and dinosaur deck, and almost none for the two other, but he was forced to buy them anyways. The store had to make up for the time these decks will sit on the shelf somehow.
I've been told the same by my shop
I thought they stopped doing that garbage and actually made individual decks available to distributors. A shame if they went back to bundles only.
That makes perfect sense. Thank you for bringing that up!
Just preorder online for ~35 each when they go up before list announcements. Cancel any if you don’t like the list.
@@tbd3058 inventory space is limited, and the store loses money for every item on shelves it can't move.
The use of Galavant here was astounding. Highly under appreciated tv show.
It's so nice to see the Professor still helping his viewers understand what their money gets them for sealed products. Personally, it helps a lot since I'm playing Magic on a part time job budget
There are some genuinely good reprints in here! The land base always needs work, as every commander deck has been haha. I'm personally getting these because I love the plane!
I'm getting these as the decks just look like a lot of fun to play.
Someone always has to whine about the land base... I can overlook the usual mediocre land base when they put this much effort into the actual meat of the decks. And the 2-color decks don't even need insane land bases anyway.
@@nanoglitch6693^ This. When the colors are 2 or 3 color I can forgive weaker land bases cuz they aren't as needed for a winning strategy. These decks especially have good synergy outside of the basic strats
I started Magic with hand me down Merfolk cards and it has become my go to creature type, not because it wins all the time(which it definitely doesn’t) but I have more fun with the cards mechanics. Im very happy to see Explore make a proper splash in my Merfolk decks
You got me with the Galavan ref, Proffesor! Mad respect
I've always wanted to build Merefolk Tribal and the precon has so many needed peices as well as really good cards for counters strategies. Wave Goodbye is so good!
Put hakbal in the 99 make it less about explore and more about tapping and untapping and run kumena as ur commander
The inclusion of clips from Galavant is, by far, the best reference this channel has ever made. Don't get me wrong, the channel is great, but this show deserves a lot more than what it got.
getting weird al to lead the singing monks... with jaz hands was the absolute best
Love that you're keeping in some small bloopers in the latest video. Really shows how much effort get put into these and a bit on how fun they can be to make. Keep up the great work everyone.
I used to never buy precons because I already have several commander decks, and just choose to buy singles for those decks. But, after buying all 4 Doctor Who precons, I've actually slowly been buying the precons from the past and sleeving them up to play on Spelltable with other precons. So, I'll definitely be picking these up!
I am getting precons due to the fact my LGS does Commander Party precon tournaments and the decks are more or less balanced. I gave up on getting into my past LGS events due to the fact that a chunk of people didn't seem to get casual tournaments should be casual and pulled out expensive pay to win decks and in time every event became pretty draining as such pods became one-sided.
I want to have fun, not to get a loan to build a deck to match up these few folks.
I always appreciate the humor that you put into your videos, proff. 9:02 had me on the floor.
Glad you like my sense of humor!
that galavant cutaway was so perfect, well done editors!
If I didn't already collect every Commander precon, I would have picked these up for the nostalgia. I started playing MtG at the release of original Ixalan
@tbd3058 no, I said if I didn't already collect precons anyways I would pick these up for nostalgia.
It is absolutely screwing me up that Ixalan is old enough for people to have nostalgia for it
@Zomburai45 yep, ot was the fall release set for 2017... It was my first semester of college and I saw some guys playing a card game so I watched, next thing I was at the rivals of ixalan prerelease
Me too. Orzhov Vampires is my favorite deck to this day.
I started playing MTG when Avacyn Restored was still in store shelves around 2013...
Yep... I'm old.
I've been looking at each of these decks individually, and I can greatly appreciate that these decks feel like they truly wanted folks wanting a creature type-themed deck to have a great starting point. I'm very impressed by these decks, something I couldn't say for many of the previous sets.
I've been waiting YEARS for a Grixis "play your opponents' decks" commander just like Don Andres, and I have NOT been disappointed by him. The precon is more aligned with Admiral Brass as the face commander, but I immediately went to work brewing for Don Andres. (Step 1: Mash the precon, my Prosper deck, and my Xanathar deck all together and see what works from the mess of 300 cards.)
I originally ordered the pirate and Dino decks for $34 each when they were first announced and then snagged the vampire and merfolk decks for $40 on card kingdom right around the deck lists release. My wife and I really wanted to build these typal decks, so we thought these would be great starting points. It’s great to hear how well these decks play!
Yeah I got the vampire deck for 35 before anything was released because I've been meaning to build one and when I started seeing the deck lists I was going to try and get the dino deck but gave up after seeing the price had been jacked up. I'm happy overall considering the whole deck is essentially the cost of an old copy of Exquisite Blood.
It’s Kindred now
Pre-ordered the 4-pack on amazon right away at 137$, making them about 34.25$ a box. Right now they have it at 157$ which comes to about 39.25$ a box.
One-of-each bundles tend to be at or below "MSRP", individual decks are when the markups hit.
Same, got the $137 price when they were announced and could have canceled if the deck lists stank. Not sure why folks are so anti Amazon.
I'm really happy I got the dinosaur deck for $50 CAD before it went up.
lol lucky you, even my lgs is asking 60 CAD for all of the decks not just the dinosaur one which is not too bad of a mark up.
I got all 4 for $138USD. The professor is right never pre order and never order magic from Amazon. I usually do both. $138 for 4 has me at or below the price he listed here.
I managed to get the dinosaur deck for $38 with a 5% extra discount from Amazon.
What’s funny is I went for the Merfolk (for The Smiling Flood) and Pirates. They just seemed more unique and fun. I get why the Dino deck was most expensive, and I’m sure current Vampire decks saw this precon as a nice surprise.
I’m so happy for The Professor getting more merfolk!
Price aside, I actually love these decks. The only one I didn't necessarily want was the Pirates deck, but all 4 in a bundle were running for the msrp at my go-to store, so I just got them all and am very happy with that.
The Merfolk deck especially was surprisingly great, after fixing the mana base I only swapped out ~10 cards for some of the original Ixalan explore/merfolk cards and caverns pack pulls I got. Can't wait to play around with it when my group meets next!
What exactly did you swap out?
@@mjminino I put some more focus on Explore, mainly.
Some more straightforward upgrades are Curse of the Swine for a spare Cyclonic Rift, Explore for Enter the Unkown.
I dropped Bygone Marvels and Commit//Memory, don't feel like the deck really needs the recursion. Other than that, Commanders Sphere, Kiora's Follower, Prime Speaker Zengana, Surgespanner, Tributary Instructor and Ruinous Intrusions left for various reasons.
I've added a Deepfathom Echo, Glowcap Lantern, Path of Discovery, Jadelight Spelunker, Twists and Turns, Wildgrowth Walker, the great Wanderwine Prophets and a Cultivate for some more Ramp.
I also, and this is just a personal meme thing, replaced Ravenform with Witness Protection, because I love Witness Protection and run it in more or less any deck with blue interaction pieces.
This is a rough first draft, there are a lot more cards I would LIKE to fit (a Deeproot Pilgrimage, for example, which I pulled in foil borderless), and some areas where I will probably need to patch some holes (I am very creature heavy right now, but with a relatively low level of protection and, almost unthinkable for blue, no counterspells), but the precon had so many great cards that it genuinely felt hard to remove stuff at times.
I still have not had the time to watch the Command Zone Game Knights episode where the prof played his beefed up version of this deck, I am very curious to see what he did with it.
I also agree with you prof, the most synergistic precon in the bunch is the Merfolk, so i pre ordered it and had a bunch of add ons to make it more powerful 😁
I will always love Galavant representation. Thanks Prof!
As an October Baby, I definitely want the Vampire deck just as a jumping off point for my eventual horror show
Another thing that didn't got mentioned, but: they put checklands in these! Don't know if I have missed this and it's actually some time they've begun to do this, but I don't recall ever seeing them outside of UB products (and even Reveal lands are not excessively frequent, too).
@@lysanderxx1664 I also use them in 4-5 color decks in tandem with typed taplands when I want to go for a cheap manabase... though I'd be a liar if I didn't admit I also put the triomes in there and that helps out a ton. Sorry I can't do miracles. 😭
been waiting for this. Just getting back into magic commander with my friends and your videos are amazing! I also found out you are a local in the bay area! Thank you for amazing videos!
I’ve been eagerly awaiting this video even though my group has already ordered the decks to play together this weekend.
I love my Veloci-ramp-tor deck. Upgraded it the same day I got with cards from the set and a janky dinosaur deck I already had. Works like a dream.
I appreciate the analysis proffessor. Ive just recently purchased my first precon and followed your suggestions on double sleeving as well. The sleeves you suggested are fantastic. While you are unlikely to see this in the sea of comments, thank you for helping me get into this hobby with a grounded understanding. Keep up the good work and I wish you and yours the best.
Pre-ordered the dino deck for 35, so awesome there! And man, I really want to get the merfolk deck.
I wish I saw this sooner. I got back into MTG and was building off an older plainswalker Huatli deck I got in 2017. Got a bunch of dino singles but really wish I could've done more research before purchasing any. This was so informative
As soon as I saw gameplay of the decks in action, I loved how each of them worked and went to my local store's website to preorder the set of 4 for around $145, and I do NOT regret the purchase - can't wait to crack into them, play with them and upgrade them over time!!
I bought the Edgar deck back in, God, 2017? And I'm still tempted to get the vampire one, simply because there's actually been quite a few vampire sets since then, and I wouldn't mind grabbing all the relevant cards in a single box. It doesn't hurt that the deck plays pretty differently from Edgar, and probably isn't going to attract as much vitriol from the table (which is kinda why it's been gathering dust as of late). The Exquisite Blood reprint isn't really relevant to me, but I'm certainly happy to see it either way!
My wife and I went to Barcelona and it is a great city to visit. I hope you have a great time there Professor.
I saw the name of Veloci-Ramp-tor and preordered it on Amazon for 36 bucks before anything was spoiled. I feel validated in this purchase.
I pulled an Exquisite Blood list reprint in my Streets of Capenna bundle and It paid off the bundle. :)
Love love LOVE the Galavant song spliced in. Ended too soon.
Before it's time, for sure.
My partner actually won the Veloci-ramp-tor deck for me and gifted it to me for Christmas. Hype! Didn't have to pay markups!
Wait till he finds out that velociramptor went up to 100 bucks
125*
@@ole38 Plus shipping and taxes in my country 😅
Yeah... I paid that. I've never played Magic, but my friends want me to get into it. So, I bought dinosaurs.
my uncle got me the merfolk deck and I’ve had a lot of fun with my wet elves when I put more cards in the board than all 3 of the other players combined
The best thing about these new Ixalan precons is the fact that we've got a decent merfolk deck for prof to rejoice in ❤ love this!
Simic merfolks were my introduction to magic and I couldn't possibly be more excited for a precon
In France, we have a online shop that sells the 4 of them for 147€, it's a freakin' gold deal.
In germany, in preorder 129€ :D
All hail the Merfolk. Excellent summary Prof. Was a little surprised you didn't shout out the new art for a good few reprints, as I know it's something you've called for to bring these releases closer to the Universes Beyond ones. ✌🧡
Wal-Mart and Target are starting to mark up MTG products in store as well. They're selling the LotR scene card sets for $48 and the Doctor Who products were also $5 more than my LGS.
MJ Holdings has the best interest of the players and collectors of TCG's.
I got the dino precon and it was absolutely worth both as a deck you want to keep or just as a product to buy for a bunch of usable commander singles.
Can confirm I got all 4 from my LGS WPN for 35 each! Preorder special but still. Best value of the century for magic.
Hello, Professor. You once had a video series about building your own precon. I would like to see a template Video on what factors, parameters, rules go into building an actual precon. Is it possible to get such a video in the future. Maybe with the help and some explanations from gavin verhey?
I ended up getting the LOTR: Riders of Rohan and Warhammer 40K: Forces of the Imperium decks and my friend got all the Ixalan decks. They easily destroyed either of my precon decks multiple times in a row. The pace and the number of interaction of the Ixalan decks are much better and so much fun!
Hopefully I can upgrade my decks to be somewhat more quick, but ootb the Ixalan definitely feel like a much better step-in precon for newer players.
Bought all 4 precons.
Will upgrade them. I love Ixalan so much.
After the amazing fun my group has had with the Dr who decks and the builds we're already working on with these decks, I'm hoping we continue to get good quality commander decks going forward
I've found the best time to buy the precons are the minute they show up for preorders. The moment the deck lists are revealed is when they start getting marked up. Either based on reprint values and/or popularity based on individual preorders.
I was in history class day of this release and my mom was at target and saw they restocked all trading cards and she knows I love magic, she sent me a picture of a bundle and the dinosaur deck for the new set and asked me which one I wanted, I had to choose the dinosaur deck it is very well constructed and was a amazing fun time at locals! Would highly recommend!
got all four sitting on my desk, waiting for my playgroup to have time for a Pre-con rumble!
And then I will take apart the Veloci-Ramp-Tor deck to make the Dino commander deck I've always wanted to on the shell of it!
Thanks again prof was looking into one of the commanders as a new player because they are cool. As a new player I cannot thank you enough! 🎉🎉🎉🎉
Fought the merfolk precon yesteday at my LGS, dude had a blast with the deck.
I just started playing about 3 weeks ago, bought a tyranids precon from my LGS. I went to the LCoI prerelease and got Gishath as my promo, so now im going to build dinos. Coming from Yu-Gi-Oh, Commander has been really cool to dip into.
After thinking about it for a while, I ordered the decks yesterday for €134 and I'm really happy about it, considering the prices in the USA and other dealers in Germany.
Finally! Been waiting a few days for this, checking in, couldn't wait to see it. Thanks Prof
I can definitely vouch for the Pirate precon's gameplay. I played 4 games against it out of the box with my Madame Vastra//Jenny Flint deck, and it won three of them.
Vastra and Jenny are a newer deck, not completely tuned, and I had significant mana issues in two of those games, but it's still got a lot of extremely powerful lines and Pirates went blow-by-blow pretty effortlessly.
Managed to pick up all four at my local LGS for $150 with a pre--order. They tend to run deals like that when getting them all, so it averaged to actually less than $40 each.
I started playing because of the original Ixalan's flavor, and the vampire deck is almost 1 to 1 my dream commander deck flavored on that set. I am absolutely getting it, though I am thorn as to whether I should add green to play Mavren and Ghalta!
An example of a abzan commander for legends matters that can be for vampire creatures and dinos- kethis, hidden hand
I'm only a few months into MTG and bought the Mefolk deck the other day. Absolutely love it! I've discovered I'm a blue player and I like Mefolk alot.
As someone who’s just got into magic these decks are great. I picked up all 4 on a package deal for around $150 and have been having a great time playing friends while learning to play and learning the decks. Actually able to win a good amount of games. Definitely decks capable of getting people like me into the game, having fun and winning a few games before I learn how to build strong decks myself
Vampire and Pirates decks are on the way to my home!
I still have my Edgar Markov deck from a few years ago, so I'm definitely upgrading that with the new one, and the pirates deck looked so fun on Game Knights I just had to get it.
It's a good time to return to Magic
I've already taken my decks for a few spins and can testify that these are some of the strongest precon Commander decks I've played in a long while. They can all get crazy out of hand fairly quick and there are many great and fun synergies packed into these. Great fun! Can only recommend.
Someone at my LGS opened up the vampire commander deck and I saw the Exquisite Bond. Whoa … was my reaction and I can’t remember the last time I reacted that way to a precon.
I played 2 games with the pirate precon against my friend's 5 coloured Dragon deck, and it was fun to gain control of the dragon that just hit me, and hit them with it, even if my board eventually got wiped. i like a good theft deck and i didn't have one.
I bought the entire set of the 4 decks without looking at spoilers (i like to live dangerously) and i was very surprised when browsing through them for the first time. I had so many "wow, i know a card that would work great in here"-moments that were redundant just seconds later when i spotted said card in the deck. I very much agree with everything you said prof, these decks feel like they are actually playable and worth their price. Haven't had so much fun with untouched precons since the 40k decks!
(0:40) Yes I look forward to your shuffle up and play epinote for this set. I bet you're going to play merfolk.😎👍
I wanted the Frodo and Sam precon REALLY bad, but LotR was an extremely hard product to find here. I decided to just buy singles from friends and try to open packs or use equivalent cards from my collection. I almost never play green, so my land base was terrible, like I had 3 heaths and 2 gates or something like that. I saw the commander masters enchantress deck in store as it was being stocked, and since none of the others jumped out to me, I bought it for the lands that are usually good in precons, and I hardly ever use enchantments, so maybe it'll be fun. Well, the land base was trash and all the good ones I already had, but it's a pretty fun deck, even if it was $100. Someone in my pod built an Olivia deck and it's his baby, if I beat him with the vampires precon he'll never forgive me, so I'll probably buy the pirates deck, seems fun!
I'm a decently new Magic player and got into it at first because of the gothic Crimson Vow aesthetics. Makes me really happy to see a demonic vampire deck so soon after joining 😭 I feel so lucky to be so catered to atm 🥰 I can only imagine how the Prof must feel with the Merfolk deck!
I waited to decide which of these I wanted to pick up and eventually decided on Dino, but my LGS all wanted 70+. Luckily I was able to grab it from Target for $45 and I'll be putting some upgrades into it. Going to pick up merfolk in the near future as well, played 1 game against it so far and it got going quick and looked really good.
Thank you for the Info. Really looking forward to my bday present and that's the Dino deck
I do hate the markups, but I preordered all 4 Commander Decks off of Amazon, $138.98 in total, just a few weeks ago. That means I am getting each commander deck for $34.75, Lower than ANY of them are listed as individually. I understand people may not want all 4, but It makes me feel pretty happy with my purchase knowing I got each deck for WAY under what they should be. And to nip in the butt anyone who is upset at me not supporting my local game store, I bought multiple pre-release kits from my local game store to draft with friends, 4 in total, and the game machi koro there just last week.
As a Gishath player, the Dino Deck was a no brainer, and I was pleasently surprised with those rare end expensive reprints too. Talk about the cherry on top, specially because I got it for 43€ :3
Your use of Galavant clips was much appreciated.
Thanks for your channel Professor as well as your informative videos plus Discord channel.
Thanks for another awesome and informative video Prof! I wasn't excited for these except Merfolk for my partner, but now I'm very hyped!
I am definitely snagging that pirate deck. They were always my favourite faction of Ixalan handily. I always enjoyed everything having to do with exchanging ownership of cards, whether that be plundering the opponent's resources, straight yoinking something from them, passing around freebies with group-hug effects or tossing someone a hot potato from my deck. Even back in my Yu-Gi-Oh years, I loved playing Vampires, which wound up being a big reason I got into the gimmick to begin with. Admiral Brass also looks super funky and being Grixis is always going to make a deck better, although honestly, if I play it for too long while I still have my Gisa and Geralf, I'm gonna start milling 4 whenever I cast my commander just on reflex. Even once I've wrinced the deck for all it's worth and it's time to dismantle it, there's alot I'm already looking to splice into places. Pitiless Plunderer has at least 3 decks I need him for, Vanquisher's Banner might actually be really nice for my zombies, Black Market Connections might be a good for the Yuriko brew I'm cooking (Can never have enough Ninjas) and Skeleton Crew is yet another case where I find myself asking "Should I make a Tormod, the Descecrator brew?"
I love how the cut scene is from Galavant
Thanks for the info! I hadn't had the chance to look these over and after hearing your thoughts they're definitely a christmas list item!
I adore and appreciate ALL your advice, but especially "always shop your local game store first", and "DO NOT pay mark-ups".
I hope u continue to drive those points home, even if they hit ad nauseum levels for some.
Thank u for all the work u and ur team put into these videos to inform and entertain us!
In Germany the Dinosaur Deck was 47,30€ on amazon and is actually sold out for pre order. Glad I picked it up early.
After having played all four a half-dozen times each, they are among the better releases of the last years. Each has a clear strategy that suits its theming, balances well against each other, and is able to hold its own against established decks of the usual power level. Admiral Brass in particular managed to become the archenemy three games in a row before becoming a kill-on-sight commander for the table.
My LGS was selling the Velociramptor deck for 50 dollars, which i thought was a fair price. Been really excited for this precon as I've been purchasing dino singles with the intent to build a dino deck for ages (a few of which are included in the deck already but that's what i get for my enthusiasm). I hit some great dinos at my prerelease and already have a Gishath so I can't wait to upgrade this and hit the tables!
And yeah agree that the precons seem pretty strong out of the box, a merfolk player at the lgs last week was able to keep up and even threaten quite a bit with all the counter and tribal synergy the deck has at a lower-mid power table.
I really love your content Professor. Im currently working and really happy listening to your voice talking about this product. I purchase the merfolk deck.
I've been holding off on pre-prdering any of the decks until this came out! Thank you!
Do you know it has been 2+ years that ALL (5) my LGS have "basic" commander decks at 80$ and "premium" (e.g. reprints sets, or LOTR) decks at 120$. And that's why I buy on Amazon or online. They have the decks you find on MKM at 18$ at 80$. Nice LGS!
Very happy that I picked up both the dino and vampire decks before they went above $40. I snatched up the dino one really early.
prof, you're always the best: honest and right to the point
Haha, I just finished rewatching Galavant last week, with my wife seeing it for the first time. Great reference!
I managed to pull one of the commander cards in my bundle and just plan on building it from what I already was building. The creature is Pantlaza, Sun-Favored I pulled a borderless foil. He looks quite nice. I had Ren and Siri but was a bit boarded with the deck. I decided to build Naya Dino with most of the cards from that deck.
Pricing wise, typical retail markup here in Australia is 100% (excluding clothing/seasonal items). So if a shop buys a product for $20 (typically inc shipping and fees) they will sell it for $40. If a store needs to markup products from the RRP it is usually a sign of a serious issue along the line. When a company doesnt give a MSRP or RRP, it’s a sign they’re hiding something. No surprise here with Hasbro being at the helm.
Glad I picked up the Dino deck for $45 at my LGS. I didn’t realize it had jumped in price online.
And glad to find so many Galavant enjoyers in the comments here. The show was taken from us too soon
This is the first time I ever preordered anything from wizards. I was super excited for these decks, especially the vampire deck, and when I saw that I could preorder them from my LGS, I did right away. For a while before seeing the deck reveals, I was honestly really nervous. I knew that preordering is a BAD IDEA and that I should always wait to see what I'm buying before I actually buy it. When the decklists were finally unveiled, I was so happy that they were the best decks in a WHILE. Super happy with my purchase (and didn't even pay markups).