Those are not the only commander decks that you could build out of this box, but those were my favorites. Of the 18 commanders, who would you build out of the box? If you’re new to Magic, welcome! I hope this was helpful. Let us know if you have any questions in the comments, we’re happy to help.
Awesome thanks! Brand new to the game in general and I introduced my family to it. I've been looking for a way to play some games without putting in too much money to start.
Would love to see more of these deck build videos from the foundations starter collection! I've been wanting to do exactly this and I want to get into building my own deck and this video has inspired me more!
Honest to god Rachel has been such a boon to this Channel! She quickly became my favorite guest in what little she appeared early o. and she’s been crushing it ever since.
@@spudster8887 I guess I just have much more respect for Jimmy Wong and Josh Lee Kwai than most. Rachel is great, but she’s not the best thing about the command zone
As a new person to magic I appreciate these sorts of products and these videos help so much. I have a couple precons but I've been wanting to build something of my own and this is such a helpful framework. Thank you
I love Rachel's work so much! She's been such an inspiration for me about discovering what i like about MTG. Love me some weird little dudes in powerful *CREATURE BASED* decks!
I'm not new to magic, but lost most of my collection and thought this product would be a great place to start back. I built Aurelia, and haven't had a chance to play test it, yet. But, I'm super pumped about playing again! And had a lot of fun building with this lot of cards! Excellent job Rachel, as always. PS. Would love to hear more stand-up!
This is actually awesome, paying for the instant foundations collection -and- being able to build a selection of commander decks out of it that are relatively near modern pre-con level is such a good introduction to the game, but also a fun little project for seasoned players too. Rather than going super spendy making decks, you can make a couple out of this collection and just slowly upgrade them over time. Thanks Rachel, this is awesome!
This is exactly the vid I was looking for. Making Commander decks with contents only found in the Foundations Starter Collection box. I'm also really digging this solo host format with Rachel
First of all.. Rachel is awesome. I like her gameplay videos and she really knows how to present information. Keep up the good job. Now, about the kit. I have 40+ deck and I felt compelled to buy it. Sure it doesn't have the most powerful cards, but it does have some key pieces for a variety of decks. Now I'm thinking about building some of these decks to play with new players.
I love that Rachel mentioned the gates strategy. There is a whole support package related to running them, including several auxiliary gates you'll want to add in any deck that uses gates. The only caveat is you MUST be in green. They are: 1. Open the Gates, District Keeper, District Guide, Navigation Orb, and Explore the Underdark 2. Gond Gate and Baldur's Gate The first set are creatures, artifacts, and sorcery spells that let you find gates. Gond Gate let's Gates enter untapped, removing the major drawback of them, and Baldur's Gate let's you generate X mana, where X is the number of Gates you control.
The video was incredible! Exactly what I've been looking for for a while to compare my ideas to. I bought the box as a Christmas present for myself. I loved the product! In addition to the possibility of building different commander decks for friends who want to start the game, or for myself, the possibility of deck building in the standard format is incredible! Not to mention that I even created jumpstart format decks to play with friends, something much more casual.
I'm an Ovika main and absolutely love playing him. Anyone looking for better game enders with Ovika outside of the Starter Kit should definitely look at Raid Bombardment and Shared Animosity; two immensely powerful cards in my deck. Jin Gitaxis, the flippy one, gives you card draw whenever you play a large noncreature spell and card turn into a board wipe for non-Phyrexian creatures (notably your commander and the tokens your commander makes are Phyrexians), also something like Sorcerer's Class will allow your goblins to tap for red or blue mana (like you would with a land) but only to cast instants or sorceries which they can do immediately because they have haste. I think Jin Gitaxis is like, $5 but the rest are less than a dollar.
This is absolutely perfect. What a great way to get a player into commander with a relatively cheap gift. Precons are great but sometimes giving someone the tools to make a deck is better than just handing them a finished product.
I appreciate the introduction to new players via a good starter product. I just have to highlight that there were a questionable amount of cantrips included in the "draw" section of these decks. Wouldn't it be good to teach new players early what a drawspell vs a cantrip is? Otherwise super good decks with the support you had from the starter collection. Really nice to see. And good adds as upgrades for them 😊
That Halana and Elena's build setup is looking a lot like how I'm building Ms.Bumbleflower. Just +1/+1 beat down synergies with pieces from my old Hydra deck and flying from her ability to get big hits through.
As someone who has 7 Gate Decks out of the 22 five-color decks I own, I'm surprised Rachel recommended Baldur's Gate over Gond Gate. Gond Gate is so key in making sure your land drops come in untapped so you're no longer a turn behind everyone else (as well as recommending swapping out the landbase here for the other gates within the Baldur's Gate set). It's what I always search first in every gate deck I own. Another recommendation would be Archelos since he's tri-color, makes sure your lands come in untapped and you can slow other down once he gets tapped
40:18 this is such a valuable tip. The first time I saw Glissa Sunslayer I was like “what is this magic?” Now one of my best winrates on arena uses Thalia and the Gitrog monster to grind the opponent out with reanimator value engines until I can tutor out Odric for a surprise Keyword Soup overrun.
This is great. As a new player i was hoping that with this set and a bunch of boosters and some jumpstart I could build some fun decks for cheap and play with others. That frustrating part has been the lower power level of what i've been able to build. These decks don't seem to stand a chance against the kind of custom decks people build, I have a hard time against precons as well. I love tinkering and building my own stuff but it seems I'm stuck having to spend hundreds to piece together custom decks if I want to compete at all with other players. Love this set though.
Ramos is such a powerful Commander. Access to all 5 colors and a big flying creature for Commander Damage. Even without the crazy mana ramp that is scary.
Thank you so much Rachel, I bought the collection a couple of weeks ago but didn't quite find what to do with all the cards in it, you just helped me a lot as a new player trying to create a deck from scratch, amazing
Rachel this is Amazing. I migrated from Yugioh during Murders of Karlov Manor and it’s so nice to hear an explanation of what Llanowar Elves does. Even if some of these concepts are familiar to me now, it’s valuable to perceive them through the eyes of a player with your experience and skill. And I cannot put into words how useful this will be to newer players. So much magic content online is very Jargon heavy and expects the viewer to have background information which can make newcomers feel alienated.
Hi! I bought the starter collection in a local comicon, and i also got two boosters from march of the machines. I packed Omnath locus of all and I immediately thought about a gate deck. Do you think that he fits in the ramos deck and who should be the commander?
Hello, I discovered your channel as I was chasing informations about Foundations. Your content is inspiring and it's great stuff, so I subscribed. At 13:56 I had a (noob?) question : Can Llanowar Elves be tapped for its mana the turn it comes into play ? (I always thought summoning sickness prevented this). Thanks ! Ps: Magic rule 302.6 seems clear that the answer is no ?
I'm trying to do an impossible to use Progenitus deck out of just foundations, Ramos is gonna have to work somehow... gates may have to be the plan B...
Can anyone help me with the Ovika, Enigma Goliath deck if I add these cards to the deck Perplexing Test, Transcendent Message, Krenko, Mob Boss, Goblin Bombardment and Skullclamp as well as Mana Geyser, Lightning Bolt, Fierce Guardianship my secret lair versions (if any of them are good to use) can someone help me figure out what to replace from the 99 and if possible why because I want to understand what goes into adding / removing cards from a deck once you one made cause I'm having a hard time deciding.
Super weird since you're completely wrong. Read the card again. Also, perfect is a title. This is from when the elves of Lorwyn were racists who thought anything not an Elf was super uggo. "The perfect are elves so beautiful and so shrewd that they rule all other elves. There are only a few of these in the world. Perfects can kill those of low rank with impunity (Note: This rank is 'perfect" and not "prefect')."
I love the command zone and especially Rachel. Not a fan of foundations and all the excessive reprints though. Secret lairs, which are essentially reprints, and too much product are hurting the game we all love. They just need to stop. We don't need another terramorphic expanse reprint. It only hurts players and stores
@@JasonOshinko No one who owns anything, should want it to not be worth anything. When a kid buys a commander they're excited about for several bucks only to see it reprinted 3 times within the next year and be worth 60 cents, is sad to me. You're entitled to feel differently and if you only care about the company, then you love reprints. I wouldn't punish long time players if I ran the company is my point. I'm invested in magic because it holds a special place in my heart. If you're new then I get why you look at people who own dual lands and scoff I guess... It's just cardboard has been the line for a long time but a signed baseball by some player is just a ball at the end of the day. I think you missed the collectible part of the greatest COLLECTIBLE card game ever to exist. Try putting yourself in other people's shoes when making judgments.
@ Maybe because there's plenty of Legendary creatures in the set? Or the fact that a good portion of the cards say "each opponent" on them? And there's been a history of cards that are meant for 1v1 that just so happen to work well in Commander? It's not that much out of left field to say that there was intention to design for the format, even if the set is for Standard. Look at MH3 as an example of a set that was designed for Modern, but plenty of the cards are Commander viable
Those are not the only commander decks that you could build out of this box, but those were my favorites. Of the 18 commanders, who would you build out of the box?
If you’re new to Magic, welcome! I hope this was helpful. Let us know if you have any questions in the comments, we’re happy to help.
Awesome thanks! Brand new to the game in general and I introduced my family to it. I've been looking for a way to play some games without putting in too much money to start.
@commandcast can you do the new secret layer deck 10 cards in and 10 cards out video pleaseeeeeee
So if I add the 5 cards as the upgrade per the recommendation, what cards do I take out then? For the Halana and Alena deck. Thanks.
Would love to see more of these deck build videos from the foundations starter collection! I've been wanting to do exactly this and I want to get into building my own deck and this video has inspired me more!
Love Rachel's insight and Rachel's hair. Yet another great video !
Crazy how Rachel wasn’t an original member here. She’s so good at this and her love of the game is so obvious
Honest to god Rachel has been such a boon to this Channel! She quickly became my favorite guest in what little she appeared early o. and she’s been crushing it ever since.
she's the claire saffitz of mtg youtubers. just brings such a great vibe to all the videos and games she's a part of
Rachel is my favorite 👍🏻
Them bringing Rachel on as the third man in the booth was absolute genius. Recognizing talent is such a talent in and of itself.
You can tell she has a genuine passion for Magic. Definitely an amazing addition to the Command Zone.
Always stoked to see Rachel talk commander! I really appreciate her deck building style ✨
Rachel is the best thing to ever happen to mtg related youtube, let alone the command zone!
A bit dramatic don’t you think? 😂
@@MsMassacre-j9y Ehh not really, magic content creators are generally pretty bad.
@@spudster8887 I guess I just have much more respect for Jimmy Wong and Josh Lee Kwai than most. Rachel is great, but she’s not the best thing about the command zone
@MsMassacre-j9y ehh fair enough. I think as far as knowledge and overall insight goes, Rachel's got Jimmy very easily beat
This is exactly the kind of content my buddies and I were looking for!! 10/10, we needed this
perfect timing!!!! my starter collection arrived yesterday ^_^ thank you guys so muchhhhhh ALSO RACHEL YOU'RE MY FAVOURITE but don't tell the others
As a new person to magic I appreciate these sorts of products and these videos help so much. I have a couple precons but I've been wanting to build something of my own and this is such a helpful framework. Thank you
We are so glad you’re enjoying it!
I love Rachel's work so much! She's been such an inspiration for me about discovering what i like about MTG. Love me some weird little dudes in powerful *CREATURE BASED* decks!
Thanks Rachel. Stuff like this is always great to give as a resource when I meet new players.
Great video. Just bought this kit 2 hours ago. Thanks!
Holy s...t, this is the video I need now. I just bought the box and was thinkering with what commander decks I could create out of this.
I am not new to Magic, but just enjoyed watching this for your Rachel energy. Thank you for being you!
I absolutely love this video. How to build a deck and then the strategy behind it. LOVE IT!
I'm not new to magic, but lost most of my collection and thought this product would be a great place to start back.
I built Aurelia, and haven't had a chance to play test it, yet. But, I'm super pumped about playing again! And had a lot of fun building with this lot of cards!
Excellent job Rachel, as always.
PS. Would love to hear more stand-up!
This is actually awesome, paying for the instant foundations collection -and- being able to build a selection of commander decks out of it that are relatively near modern pre-con level is such a good introduction to the game, but also a fun little project for seasoned players too. Rather than going super spendy making decks, you can make a couple out of this collection and just slowly upgrade them over time. Thanks Rachel, this is awesome!
This is exactly the vid I was looking for. Making Commander decks with contents only found in the Foundations Starter Collection box. I'm also really digging this solo host format with Rachel
First of all.. Rachel is awesome. I like her gameplay videos and she really knows how to present information. Keep up the good job.
Now, about the kit. I have 40+ deck and I felt compelled to buy it. Sure it doesn't have the most powerful cards, but it does have some key pieces for a variety of decks.
Now I'm thinking about building some of these decks to play with new players.
This product really does have a lot of good stuff. Nothing super flashy and busted, just solid staples.
I love that Rachel mentioned the gates strategy. There is a whole support package related to running them, including several auxiliary gates you'll want to add in any deck that uses gates. The only caveat is you MUST be in green. They are:
1. Open the Gates, District Keeper, District Guide, Navigation Orb, and Explore the Underdark
2. Gond Gate and Baldur's Gate
The first set are creatures, artifacts, and sorcery spells that let you find gates. Gond Gate let's Gates enter untapped, removing the major drawback of them, and Baldur's Gate let's you generate X mana, where X is the number of Gates you control.
What 5 would you take out if you were adding the 5 from the "upgrade" list for Halana and Alena?
The video was incredible! Exactly what I've been looking for for a while to compare my ideas to. I bought the box as a Christmas present for myself. I loved the product! In addition to the possibility of building different commander decks for friends who want to start the game, or for myself, the possibility of deck building in the standard format is incredible! Not to mention that I even created jumpstart format decks to play with friends, something much more casual.
Rachel, this is a very good video, thank you, this helps me a lot!!
Great video, Rachel! I recommended it to my LGS as a resource for new players who want to get started in Commander.
Bought the collection and pulled a banner of kinship out of one of the boosters. As a guy who loves some casual tribal decks, that was pretty hype.
I'm an Ovika main and absolutely love playing him. Anyone looking for better game enders with Ovika outside of the Starter Kit should definitely look at Raid Bombardment and Shared Animosity; two immensely powerful cards in my deck. Jin Gitaxis, the flippy one, gives you card draw whenever you play a large noncreature spell and card turn into a board wipe for non-Phyrexian creatures (notably your commander and the tokens your commander makes are Phyrexians), also something like Sorcerer's Class will allow your goblins to tap for red or blue mana (like you would with a land) but only to cast instants or sorceries which they can do immediately because they have haste. I think Jin Gitaxis is like, $5 but the rest are less than a dollar.
So if I add the 5 cards as the upgrade per the recommendation, what cards do I take out then? For the Halana and Alena deck. Thanks
Love that Halana and Alena got a spotlight. That was one of the first decks I built, and is still one of my favorites.
Thanks for this Ms. Rachel. Can't wait to grab my own box of FND Starter Collection.
This is absolutely perfect. What a great way to get a player into commander with a relatively cheap gift. Precons are great but sometimes giving someone the tools to make a deck is better than just handing them a finished product.
I picked a good time to get on RUclips. 😊
Same
I wish this product existed when I first started or when I have taught someone else how to play! So good.
I appreciate the introduction to new players via a good starter product. I just have to highlight that there were a questionable amount of cantrips included in the "draw" section of these decks. Wouldn't it be good to teach new players early what a drawspell vs a cantrip is? Otherwise super good decks with the support you had from the starter collection. Really nice to see. And good adds as upgrades for them 😊
That Halana and Elena's build setup is looking a lot like how I'm building Ms.Bumbleflower. Just +1/+1 beat down synergies with pieces from my old Hydra deck and flying from her ability to get big hits through.
This is such a cool video idea. Great content!
As someone who has 7 Gate Decks out of the 22 five-color decks I own, I'm surprised Rachel recommended Baldur's Gate over Gond Gate. Gond Gate is so key in making sure your land drops come in untapped so you're no longer a turn behind everyone else (as well as recommending swapping out the landbase here for the other gates within the Baldur's Gate set). It's what I always search first in every gate deck I own. Another recommendation would be Archelos since he's tri-color, makes sure your lands come in untapped and you can slow other down once he gets tapped
My family knows i got back into magic the gathering, and so i just got this box for Hanukkah, very excited!
for the 5 upgrades for the Ovika, Enigma Goliath what do you remove to replace them for.
I really like this video. It has a lot of value. Thanks
Glad it was helpful!
40:18 this is such a valuable tip. The first time I saw Glissa Sunslayer I was like “what is this magic?”
Now one of my best winrates on arena uses Thalia and the Gitrog monster to grind the opponent out with reanimator value engines until I can tutor out Odric for a surprise Keyword Soup overrun.
literally opened this product up last week and thought this would be a great idea for a video
Zegana is absolutely my recent favorite commander, especially when paired with cards like Profts Eidectic Memory
new sub just bought this today, you helped so much ty
Thank you Rachel!
Thank you making this video! 🎉
49:00 This kinda thing is why I've been adding Void Rend to any deck that will take it.
That last deck was diabolical
Rachel you are seriously the best
This feels like magic.
This is great. As a new player i was hoping that with this set and a bunch of boosters and some jumpstart I could build some fun decks for cheap and play with others. That frustrating part has been the lower power level of what i've been able to build. These decks don't seem to stand a chance against the kind of custom decks people build, I have a hard time against precons as well. I love tinkering and building my own stuff but it seems I'm stuck having to spend hundreds to piece together custom decks if I want to compete at all with other players. Love this set though.
Best product in years. Much better than orginal starter kits from last decade
Ramos is such a powerful Commander. Access to all 5 colors and a big flying creature for Commander Damage. Even without the crazy mana ramp that is scary.
Which cards would you cut from the Ayli list for the upgrades?
Any of the decks. All of the decks. I found a few that I removed to add something else I had, but I’m fairly new with no clue what I’m doing.
The Ramos deck is so interesting to me, maybe I can try Commander with this
honestly im a step above beginner but i actually really wanna build that Ovika deck it seems so cool!
I just picked up the starter collection and beginners box
I literally just made an Ovika budget deck with a lot of the cards mentioned in your list
Ovika, just jam as many mana rocks as you can, some removal, card draw, and pump effects and you win.
I think you missed an important cheap include for the Ayli deck: Morbid Opportunist.
PELAKKA SQUAD!!!
I just want to Zombify them into play for Standard.
Miss putting them out with Summoning Traps and Marshal's Anthem
Come for the commander talk, stay for Rachel's subtle hotness.
Hi, thanks for the suggestions.What to remove for improvements in the blue/red?
I kid you not i built ramos already xD
It was fun, basically a build your own precon
Thank you so much Rachel, I bought the collection a couple of weeks ago but didn't quite find what to do with all the cards in it, you just helped me a lot as a new player trying to create a deck from scratch, amazing
I really like the professor's Elena and halana deck
I love this channel so MUCH
"Thank you for coming to my TedTalks."
-Rachel Weeks, December 2024
Beginner here, what cards would you exactly swap out for the 5 upgrade cards in the Ayli deck?
Click the link in bio under it itll show u
@@emmilianoc5107 It doesn't right? I'd like to know too :)
Rachel this is Amazing.
I migrated from Yugioh during Murders of Karlov Manor and it’s so nice to hear an explanation of what Llanowar Elves does. Even if some of these concepts are familiar to me now, it’s valuable to perceive them through the eyes of a player with your experience and skill.
And I cannot put into words how useful this will be to newer players. So much magic content online is very Jargon heavy and expects the viewer to have background information which can make newcomers feel alienated.
For the Ayli deck what do u change the upgrades for?
Hi! I bought the starter collection in a local comicon, and i also got two boosters from march of the machines. I packed Omnath locus of all and I immediately thought about a gate deck. Do you think that he fits in the ramos deck and who should be the commander?
What would be best to remove to add the upgrades in the Ovika deck?
Honestly, probably going to build one or two of these now...
Hello, I discovered your channel as I was chasing informations about Foundations. Your content is inspiring and it's great stuff, so I subscribed. At 13:56 I had a (noob?) question : Can Llanowar Elves be tapped for its mana the turn it comes into play ? (I always thought summoning sickness prevented this). Thanks !
Ps: Magic rule 302.6 seems clear that the answer is no ?
Ramos seems to be designed to pay for Progenitus, I'd definitely put it in for the memes if nothing else.
Me playing Ramos with triomes from 5 years and never felt it slow~
I'm trying to do an impossible to use Progenitus deck out of just foundations, Ramos is gonna have to work somehow... gates may have to be the plan B...
Can anyone help me with the Ovika, Enigma Goliath deck if I add these cards to the deck Perplexing Test, Transcendent Message, Krenko, Mob Boss, Goblin Bombardment and Skullclamp as well as Mana Geyser, Lightning Bolt, Fierce Guardianship my secret lair versions (if any of them are good to use) can someone help me figure out what to replace from the 99 and if possible why because I want to understand what goes into adding / removing cards from a deck once you one made cause I'm having a hard time deciding.
Are these decks balanced against each other? Thinking of building all these to introduce new players to commander.
Hello! Could you do threat assessments?
Rachel is the best!
Rocket me to the table!!!!
What does this have to do with Wicked though
Too late guys, Starter Collection are already impossible to find in Italy.
As usual artificial scarcity hits :3
Prefect. Imperious Prefect. P-R-E.
It'd be weird if this were my pet peeve, right?
Super weird since you're completely wrong. Read the card again.
Also, perfect is a title. This is from when the elves of Lorwyn were racists who thought anything not an Elf was super uggo.
"The perfect are elves so beautiful and so shrewd that they rule all other elves. There are only a few of these in the world. Perfects can kill those of low rank with impunity (Note: This rank is 'perfect" and not "prefect')."
where can i get the card list from this video???
The decklists are in the show notes!
@@commandcast no they're not (or I'm really blind).
@@Feyamius scroll down the video description to "Relevant Links" and there's Archidekt link for each deck.
@@ZachHall that has to be new 😅
Can someone recommend a fun way to build tatyova? I love her art so much but every deck is so mean
Rachel rules
Can she host every episode?
Yoooooo
First! 9th whatever
first!
Foundations?? I hardly support her!
Nice Good games Morley reference!
Vc é pika.
I love the command zone and especially Rachel. Not a fan of foundations and all the excessive reprints though. Secret lairs, which are essentially reprints, and too much product are hurting the game we all love. They just need to stop. We don't need another terramorphic expanse reprint. It only hurts players and stores
If you're mad about reprints, then you love finance, not the game.
@@JasonOshinko No one who owns anything, should want it to not be worth anything. When a kid buys a commander they're excited about for several bucks only to see it reprinted 3 times within the next year and be worth 60 cents, is sad to me. You're entitled to feel differently and if you only care about the company, then you love reprints. I wouldn't punish long time players if I ran the company is my point. I'm invested in magic because it holds a special place in my heart. If you're new then I get why you look at people who own dual lands and scoff I guess... It's just cardboard has been the line for a long time but a signed baseball by some player is just a ball at the end of the day. I think you missed the collectible part of the greatest COLLECTIBLE card game ever to exist. Try putting yourself in other people's shoes when making judgments.
Foundations aint for commander.😅
All the great pulls say other wise. Dummy
I'd disagree. It seems to be for Commander just as much as it is for Standard, like most other sets tend to be
@@draciel117 they didnt design this set with commander in mind. If it was for commander how come no precons came with the set...🤦♂️
@ Maybe because there's plenty of Legendary creatures in the set? Or the fact that a good portion of the cards say "each opponent" on them? And there's been a history of cards that are meant for 1v1 that just so happen to work well in Commander? It's not that much out of left field to say that there was intention to design for the format, even if the set is for Standard. Look at MH3 as an example of a set that was designed for Modern, but plenty of the cards are Commander viable
@@VWcachowWow its almost like not every set had commander decks but you can still build a commander deck from them, but what do i know?
For the Ayli deck what do u change the upgrades for?
I personally dropped some cards from the “threats” category to add cards