No other content creators have done anything like this. This video really does offer me a place to steer new players into purchasing the right precon to play commander. Great work and I hope to see more content like this in 2023.
Guys! U should really do a tierlist with all the precons so far (period). That would be cool. Just make them fit in S,A,B,C,D (or any shorter/longer combination tbh) tiers so that would be easier to figure them out.
I bought the Party Time deck to get the black market connections to put in another deck I was building. Played a few games with the unaltered precon and had so much fun that I didn't end up changing it. And I didn't even make the deck I was going to put the black market connections in anyway! Love that deck, especially with Burakos as the commander.
When I realized Exit From Exile was number one, I was SHOOK bc I started playing Magic/Commander this year and that was my first precon. Love Green, love the ramp, loved this deck while I was rocking. Great video
I started Magic again back in July, and my friends got me a Faldorn deck as my first precon. Absolutely love to see how you guys rated that deck, it really got me back into loving the game again!
I actually LOVE Painbow but as a base for other 5c decks. I've turned it into a modular deck, sort of 4/5 in one. One version with Jared, one with Jenson and working on two more modules
Same. Hell, Painbow actually is semi-functional if your gameplan is "wipe the board and hit folks with big tramplers". The nerds are a bit hard on it for low-power tables, I think. Any place with enough removal to keep Jared or key pieces off the board is going to steamroll it, but I've won with Mana Cannons, Jared's Kavu & +1/+1 generation, and Knight of New Alara. Selvala, Explorer Returned is just weak enough to often ignore direct attention but can generate you an absolute metric ton of green mana. I've literally won with this deck by going under the radar when my fellow players at the table ignored me because I was "only playing a precon". It's certainly far from amazing but I think it's important recognize there's a lot more variance among deck power in the community than youtube might indicate.
I’ve actually won quite a few games with my Painbow deck with 4 players total. It’s not a bad precon at all. Hellkite and Okagami are 2 creatures I use a lot, Maelstrom is a great board wipe, and that Primeval Spawn is a hilarious trick to pop up. There’s a lot of other cards that have contributed to me winning matches such as the mutate and bestow cards and the Chromanticore is awesome.
@LightYagami25 I agree that it's not bad at all out of the box but it requires the player to think "out of the box" more than most (not necessarily a bad thing either). But I wanted to abuse the 5c part with Jenson too, so turning it into a "transformer" modular was too tempting let it pass! I even thought about getting a second one to leave as is!
I also love painbow. Don't know why they say there is not win condition. Win condition is pretty simple, cast some beat sticks, pump beat sticks win game. Infinity combos don't always have to be the win conditions.
My first time playing it I went against 3 non precons. I knocked out 2 players but lost to the last player one turn before I had him beat. Everyone playing couldn't believe how good it was playing.
Honestly I love the new Mishra deck! Its synergies with Brudiclad have been one of the most fun parts to explore. Can’t wait to upgrade it and attack with a whole bunch of reaver titans
Somehow I have never drawn into brudiclad and I've played it 8 times or so. It still works really well though! Portal to phyrexia is nasty in that deck (upgraded).
Same here, too. Since I upgraded it, it's become one of the most potent decks in my rather high-power central London play group. All it really took was some key additions like Hoard Hauler (which is nuts with Brudiclad), Gonti's Aether Heart, and Portal to Phyrexia. Vehicles in particular have overperformed, too - I love Imposter Mech and Weatherlight generates so much consistency and value.
@@AidyJames Do you think you could somehow share the decklist maybe? Do you know a good site where you can find curated decklist of well designed commander decks? I like edhrec but the volume of available Decks is overwhelming sometimes and a good few of them are really bad
Great video! And I love seeing some decks I didn’t know existed mainly the starter commander decks. Cool that they are actually pretty solid for that price. Thank you for the thorough breakdown 🙏🏻
Captain Ngathrod?!?? That is one of the best synergistic fun precon decks I have seen (and I’m not the one in my playgroup who plays it), to add: Horrors have gotten pretty bonkers…super strong and super nasty! This deck works almost every time I have seen it and does just so many things!…cannot believe this rating here
THought nearly the same. I play with this deck and it is sooo much fun to remove all the big dragons and stuff directly into the graveyard and get at least one of them joining my party. Ofc it has its weaknesses but in my opinion this is way underrated. :D
I’ve been blown out by the Golden Throne a few times. On the surface it doesn’t look great but it lets you get some mana in a pinch but most important it lets you swing out completely and not worry about crackback.
Hey! I lost my father to cancer Christmas eve. I had a lot of down time handling things and not working. Your videos kept my mind elsewhere. Thanks for the great content
The amount of work that probably went into this video is insane! Thank you so much for all the content ❤️ Also to answer at the end, exit from exile is number 1 😬
The tyranids get very large pools of mana with extremely little effort so the over paying for the ravenous isn't an issue, also when you copy a spell all instances of X are copied so with Lucea Kane it essentially also gives you a bonus card for whichever spell you copy (I've played many times my very lightly modified version of the deck and by turn 6 onwards I've found I've had easy access to 12+ mana) the modifications were basically just defiler of vigour, the neon dynasty channel lands, spinal parasite (because I like the card), iridescent hornbeetle, and maybe one or two other cards (Unbound flourishing is in there too and things certainly get amusing if it comes into play)
I have the Imperium deck and I played it with Greyfax with exactly your attittude towards her. At first. It turns out that having a tapper that also kinda anthems the overmana costed (vanilla rule-wise) confused guys in the deck is hilarious value. She's way better than I initially thought. So much so that I now cannot decide if Marney's a better commander or not. As an added bonus, she typically flies under the radar unlike the Ultramarines' number 2.
I bought the Chaos Incarnate as a Christmas gift for my nephew and I was actually surprised at how well it performed, basically you want to maintain some form of balance of power, use your removals if something really threatening hits the board, then watch your opponents kill one another. Fun deck to play but I'll admit that drawing cards like Breath of Malfegor doens't make you feel too good ^^ Also the deck could be improved for cheap with cards like Malakir Rebirth or Supernatural Stamina which allow you to trigger your Commander multiple times. Very fun deck to play, definitely give it a shot :)
Literally used chaos against a greensleeves deck and a vehicle deck and it has another creature in the deck that goads whenever a land enters battlefield you can make goad each turn until u really need to play kardur and i made them damage each other whilst i set up tonnes of utility in enchantments and creatures tohat effected them
Gonna do a bit of a nitpick myself: Mageslayer does WORK in my Wulfgar deck. I've won games with it before (along with other synergistic cards in play, admittedly). But still, can be good in the right deck.
Luxior, Giada's Gift makes Painbow completely fine, commander that prints tokens, buffs 2 creatures including himself every few turns, etc. Hes a good stompy boy.
The upgrade unleashed chishiro precon is so good. You give your big guy a mage slayer like Taurean mauler or Ascendant acolyte and you can quickly destroy planeswalkers and usually get A LOT of free damage. Orochi is really really good when you play a grumgully then a huge smoke spirit aid to get alot of 2/2 menace spirits that can tap for 2 green each. The smoke spirit's aid is a really good card once you realize that with the commander it creates a spirit for every extra mana you put into it.
I love this deck. Its a cheap pick-up and for like 10-15 bucks you got a pretty great deck. I love picking it up and just have a blaat with huge creatures
Whelp, all 3 precons that I bought last year (Painbow, Upgrades Unleashed and Mind Flayarrrs) were in the bottom 5. I've personally loved all 3 of these decks. I understand the ranking is considering them straight out of the box, but once upgraded, all 3 are really fun and strong imo
actually useful content to a new player like me. i will actually start playing by the weekend and i have put it off for so long because all the info can be much. you guys made it so easy ! thank you !
That Gruul DnD Deck, just because y'all didn't mention it yet, it came with Jeskas Will, DBFB, and Three Visits. Wild stuff. Fantastic content, you two. My patreon money is damn well spent. Edit: I was right! Exit from Exile! Tell me I cheated.
Mind Flayers is really strong, if it works. I once got almost all the manarocks in the deck out and I played my commander turn 3 but once board wipes and artifact kills came out I basically got steamrolled
Love the content. Paused for naming the #1 deck which of course is Exit from Exile. The 4 D&D commander precons was my first baby step into commander and those decks has thoroughly hooked me in.
I got Buckle Up for I think $20. Recently started playing and upgrading it more for a pretty decent amount of success. Vehicles tend to be on the cheaper end of cards, so pretty easy to get ahold of them. I know Shorikai is technically the better commander, but I've enjoyed running it with Kotori and a bunch of artifact creatures.
Super interesting seeing your take as high power players. We have a precon league we do and dihada is def top tier. Ashling pilgrim works amazing with your commander plus 2. Even if she only has 3 counters, with lifelink thats going to gain you a ton of life. Mageslayer has also gotten people a ton of wins. Being able to deal the damage even though everyone has blockers can be insanely strong
Warhammer precon is just amazing to play. Its also well balanced even though the Necron got super expensive. Magus from Tyranids deck is an amazing and unique Commander. Chaos is fun. With the Empire I only had unlucky rounds so far, sadly.
Faldorn is also my pet commander for this year, but Dihada is actually a very close runner up for me! I've been tweaking and tuning her constantly, spinning a few planswalkers and synergies for them in her and I'm really enjoying it. I LOVED Ashling in there before upgrading. Using Dihada's + to give her lifelink and indestructible then resolving her ability the final time is INSANE. I fell out laughing at the life total swing the first time I did it lmao And yeah, even when I have token copies of Dihada and three Chain Veil triggers on a turn I have never been interested in her final ability. She's strictly great beats or digging
Got the Party Time Deck for Birthday and the Necron Dynastie Deck on Christmas from my roommate. I'm still happy about her presents. Love both of this Decks. So good in the strategy and the synergy
I don’t even care for the power level or flavor of the 40k decks (it was all pretty great stuff even if I have….. problems with imperium/chaos being forced into singular decks), the fact that they were willing to have unique art for every card in those kinda pisses me off because there’s no reason regular precons decks never did that even before when precons dropped once a year instead of there being precons for every main Set release
I knew exit from Exile was going to be number 1 from the start. I have a friend that has it in it's base form, and it's really pops off even against "real" decks 5 times it's cost or more
I like the idea of painbow. You can bring it to a solid 6/10 with some small swaps and a revamp of the mana base. I've had some blowouts with it with, especially with Luxior, Giada's Gift. Usually i've got 1 or 2 all color creatures by the time I play jared, then its 2 ~10/10's, some with evasion. Also, mana cannons is amazing.
Gentlemen, I bought the Cabaretti Pre-Con, ripped out all the goad, and swapped the Commander for Jinnie Fay. Cabaretti Confluence is one of the finishers in it. You drop it, and make 3 copies of The Boss's Chauffeur. They die at the end of the turn, and become a giant army of cats. It takes a turn cycle, but it's so funny. It has the bones for a great Naya token deck.
I feel like people underestimate Mind Flayarrrs. I did a budget $50 upgrade increasing the mill aspect and if someone doesn't win by like turn 6 (I play in a combat focused group) it just runs away with the game. The horrors don't need to be as strong as elf or goblin tribal because they are just there to fuel the best part of the deck, stealing! I love playing this deck because by turn 6-8 I'm milling like 10 cards off the top of everyones decks and choosing the best creatures to beef my side up.
I JUST GOT MINE!!!! this is probably the best box I’ve ever owned. I play competitive stax which is very meta dependent so having a box that holds my 100 double hard sleeved deck, along with the extra cards per meta, and dice/tokens needed in just one box. Phenomenal. A+.
I ended up combining the Painbow and Legends Legacy decks and then using Jodah as the commander. It is super powerful with a little bit of work, plus Keri-Zev is really good in it.
smoke spirit aid in chishiro is pretty damn good, you get a 2/2 with menace for each 1 you pay into x, as well as a treasure when the creature dies. It's one of the few cards I've kept in from the precon and it still overperforms every time
Caberetti catcophony was one of the strongest precon’s I’ve played although the face comander is bad the much better one is phabeen which is a whole package, card draw, token maker, and the lord, all wrapped into one. If you get a few upgrades, it makes it the deck really strong, fast.
I bought the firk deck, modified it a little bit, but changed my commander to will and Rowan, and it's actually fairly fun. But right now I'm working on making it something completely different. I actually really like carthalion. It's definitely built to drop 5 color creatures and pump them up to swing wide. It's funny you say o-kagachi is a dud, since every time I drop o-kagachi I seem to become public enemy number one.
So I’m new to magic and want to play commander so I found this video right, that start of this video had me DYING. Someone at a card shop told me to get dragons dissent and I was like “mmm na” and this gentleman in the video hits it hard “coming in at DEAD LAST”, I spit my soda all over the floor thanks!!!!
For upgrades unleashed, to make it unique from other aura/equipment decks, but also to reduce the feels bads of drawing the wrong half of your deck, I made almost all of the cards in the deck able to fit BOTH roles. So they can be the creature OR the modifier. This includes Reconfigure, Living Weapon, and of course Licids. Just added some For Mirrodin! cards too. It plays differently than the typical aura or equipment deck because it incentivizes you to spread them out and not put them all on one creature, which I really like. Really good commander design but the deck out of the box was definitely unfocused
I bought exit from exile to get some cards for decks I already had, but after playing it once I couldnt take it apart it was so much fun, really a home run of a precon
As soon as you revealed the number 2 deck, I knew Exit from exile would be number one! Im new to Magic and got Exit from Exile this year because Im a big D&D fan so the D&D decks caught my eye. Needless to say I was curious to see where you would rank it, and didn't expect it to be the top entry! I lucked into that buy haha
The Reaver Cleaver gives you treasures for the damage done to a player + trample and +1/+1. In your example it would create 7 treasures. that card is amazing. Loving Legends Legacy. Great Video Guys
My best friend bought me the bedecked brokers deck as a birthday gift last year. I have replaced about 20 to 25 cards, granted budget not being a factor but trying to keep with the different counter flavor of the deck in mind. It definitely can hold its own far as power goes but what I never imagined was just how fun it could be. There is a ton of cards that you can replace the dud's with in all price ranges that have some random counter you never even knew was in magic. Then just double your counters/strength on perry and whack someone with 40+ commander damage trampling rhino to the face.
Love my chishiro the shattered blade deck… had to remove nearly every aura from the deck. And the only auras that are left either enchant lands, 1 curse, and whip silk as it defenantly designed for this deck. Its now equipments first and counters second, with auras not existing.
Nice, I did mine the opposite and focused in on auras which also works very well. If it's not in your deck check out Arterial Alchemy. It is great for either strategy. 3 mana for 3 bodies and 3 equipment that have an alternate use of looting is a win win.
I'm just here to say that Colossal Plow has pulled a lot of weight for me in multiple games with Shorikai. Only takes 2 pilots to crew and I usually end up getting 9 mana and 9 life from it
I was very lucky that I started playing last year. I picked Exit from Exile because I thought, awesome a wolfpack. All my friends were amazed by how good this deck was.
for the chaos incarnate precon reign of the pit is good going up against blue because if you play wild fire devils which is in the precon, you can just roll a die if it rolls your number or numbers you get reign of the pit for free. you can sacrafice a different creature so you're just trading lower power cards for a giant creature with flying. the precon is good for playing against groups of 4-6 players so having 4-5 players sac a creature and you getting a a 8/8- 15/15 dragon is pretty broken. while you have that dragon, you play your commander so that all the creatures get goaded and then because the creatures will be tapped, you can swing at someone for a boatload of damage.
Very surprised y’all are so low on Next of Kin from the Henzie deck. You’re so right the precon is a real struggle, but it moves at an excellent 6/10 pace with even a few swaps I found. When you improve the creatures across the board a little Next of Kin becomes significantly better imo. On a mod cmc creature with an instant speed sac outlet you can really threaten the table with a variety of creature based response. Very toolbox like in that regard
I'm sad to see painbow so low, but I agree. I had bought it and legends legacy, combined the two, and buffed it. Then, I put Jodah, the Unifier as the commander. That is my favorite deck I own, and it practically plays itself.
Whoa, Indomitable archangel is a great card. For any equipment or vehicle deck it's a must own. How could you not want your equipment to be protected from targeted spell abilities?
I know you guys hate on mage slayer but it is fantastic in my Wolfgar deck that doubles attack triggers. Equip to wolfgar and turn sideways. Stack the triggers so melee resolves first, defending player takes 20 dmg before even declaring blockers.
As someone that eventually got back into Commander thanks to the 40k collab, I'm happy that even the "weak" precon deck Tyranid Swarm is still good enough by precon standards. Bought that one at a local shop with a great owner that liked Age of Sigmar Champions like I did, if not for the Universe Beyond set I'd probably not play Magic of any type. $60 was a fair price point. Hopefully I'll be able to stick around much longer now that I'm back into this game. Great tier list overall as it helps highlight each new decks pros and cons.
I got Token Triumph for xmas and man it surprised me when I played it. Unless someone has a boardwipe ready I'm already going wide with 10+ creatures a few turns after the commander comes out.
I bought the party time deck and I switched from Nalia to Buruko and folk hero background and I put the black market connections in my card hungry Skullbriar deck. :)
Buckle Up is one of my favorites. Slightly upgraded mine (mechtitan ofc + others) and often times no one can clear my board. Sometimes I feel bad for using it until the morph decks come out
Hi new to commander. Is the ratings, especially for the starter precons personal opinion of use or from a new player perspective? I’m only asking cause another RUclipsr rated the starter precons in reverse among the 5. Thank you
The best upgrades for budget for token triumph are to take out all the ramp and add creatures with: tap tap an untaped creature you control, add one manna of any colour to your manna pool as well as survivors encampment and shamanic revelation
Oh yeah!! I had had to sit here and think about it for a moment but it's definantly exit from exile. I've been playing that deck for a month or two and it's sick. I love it so much. I'm going all In on making as many wolves as possible and doing big overrun things. Love that deck so much.
Pause ist set! The number 1 deck of course is exit from exile, which I bought after seeing your review of the D&D precons. I replaced about 10 -15 cards and now it's one of my favorite decks.
Hey you guys, really liked the video, now I can not decide though. My group and I all want to get into commander again. I bought the first D&D precons when they came out, and last weekend we tried them out and had a lot of fun. We would like to have 5 more decks for now, since noone else owns cards so far ( and i personally didnt like the venture deck too much) . Which would you suggest for that case?
What's with all the Hate on Vampire Nighthawk. It's a perfect budget card for what it is. Flying, Death touch, and Lifelink. You call a card with decent power toughness and 3 Cool abilities trash?
This might be a me thing, but the biggest issue with almost all of the precons is not enough ways to draw cards. If we aren't playing tutors, i think at minimum we want 12 draw spells. Even with a card draw engine in the commandzone, i'm not going below 12, its just the best thing a low to mid casual deck can do outside of winning the game
Is there a video of a budget tune up or a normal tune up of the Exit from Exile deck? Thank you for the amazing detailed content. I stopped playing magic back in 95. So trying to get up to speed LOL
Holy Crap! Let me explain, I am amazed that these guys put out a vid every day and this one- a One Day serving looks to have like a week's worth of research and evaluating put into it! Do the Nitpicking Nerds have access to some sort of Teferiesque time magic??
I bought painbow and noticed the exact problems you outlined here, my commander was doing all the heavy lifting and there wasnt much else going on. I ended up sinking another 50 into it and turned it into a Jodah Archmage Eternal deck with strong win conditions. Still waiting on the new cards to ship to me but I imagine its going to be a huge improvement. So Painbow is a decent base for making a better 5 color deck like ramos or jodah
It's so refreshing and validating as a new player to see fellow queer people loving the game and makes me feel slightly less anxious about going to events so thank you guys
I did a $50 budget upgrade increasing the mill and it became one of my most powerful decks. I even had to stop using it cause it was just steamrolling lol
24. Draconic Dissent
23. Painbow
22. Chaos Incarnate
21. Upgrades Unleashed
20. Maestros Massacre
19. Mind Flayarrrs
18. Riveteers Rampage
17. Buckle Up
16. Bedecked Brokers
15. Legends Legacy
14. Mishra's Burnished Banner
13. Draconic Destruction
12. First Flight
11. Tyranid Swarm
10. Caberetti Cacophony
9. Forces of the Imperium
8. Token triumph
7. Urza's Iron Alliance
6. Ruinous Powers
5. Grave Danger
4. Obscura Operation
3. Party Time
2. Necron Dynasty
1. Exit From Exile
thank you!!
You are a saint for doing this.
Looking foward for an updated list
Not all heroes wear capes
No other content creators have done anything like this. This video really does offer me a place to steer new players into purchasing the right precon to play commander. Great work and I hope to see more content like this in 2023.
We do all the content!!!
@@malakimphoros2164 Well we can't know for sure if their gonna like it since they are new players.
@guysthatmagic did this 2 weeks ago
The Professor from the Tolarian Community College grades all the precons when they come out.
Guys that Magic do this content as well, I'm happy that lots of people do as everyone's perspective gives different info which is great
Guys! U should really do a tierlist with all the precons so far (period). That would be cool. Just make them fit in S,A,B,C,D (or any shorter/longer combination tbh) tiers so that would be easier to figure them out.
Surprised even that this video wasn't done like that
I was thinking Necron was going to be first except for the price because it’s definitively one of the craziest decks this year.
I bought the Party Time deck to get the black market connections to put in another deck I was building. Played a few games with the unaltered precon and had so much fun that I didn't end up changing it. And I didn't even make the deck I was going to put the black market connections in anyway! Love that deck, especially with Burakos as the commander.
The deck is top notch and Burakos is a lot of fun as a Commander.
Yea I really love the party theme idea. Picked up some upgrades for the deck like divining top. Putting death touch on a card like Sigrid is awesome.
more than all I'm glad to see I'm not the only one buying precons just for a few cards for other decks
When I realized Exit From Exile was number one, I was SHOOK bc I started playing Magic/Commander this year and that was my first precon. Love Green, love the ramp, loved this deck while I was rocking. Great video
I started Magic again back in July, and my friends got me a Faldorn deck as my first precon. Absolutely love to see how you guys rated that deck, it really got me back into loving the game again!
Bought it for my daughter knowing nothing about it and she absolutely destroyed me
Such a great deck
Just wanted to say that I really appreciated the idea behind this video as well as the insights throughout. Awesome recap!
Appreciate you too!
I actually LOVE Painbow but as a base for other 5c decks. I've turned it into a modular deck, sort of 4/5 in one. One version with Jared, one with Jenson and working on two more modules
Same. Hell, Painbow actually is semi-functional if your gameplan is "wipe the board and hit folks with big tramplers". The nerds are a bit hard on it for low-power tables, I think. Any place with enough removal to keep Jared or key pieces off the board is going to steamroll it, but I've won with Mana Cannons, Jared's Kavu & +1/+1 generation, and Knight of New Alara. Selvala, Explorer Returned is just weak enough to often ignore direct attention but can generate you an absolute metric ton of green mana.
I've literally won with this deck by going under the radar when my fellow players at the table ignored me because I was "only playing a precon". It's certainly far from amazing but I think it's important recognize there's a lot more variance among deck power in the community than youtube might indicate.
I’ve actually won quite a few games with my Painbow deck with 4 players total. It’s not a bad precon at all.
Hellkite and Okagami are 2 creatures I use a lot, Maelstrom is a great board wipe, and that Primeval Spawn is a hilarious trick to pop up.
There’s a lot of other cards that have contributed to me winning matches such as the mutate and bestow cards and the Chromanticore is awesome.
@LightYagami25 I agree that it's not bad at all out of the box but it requires the player to think "out of the box" more than most (not necessarily a bad thing either). But I wanted to abuse the 5c part with Jenson too, so turning it into a "transformer" modular was too tempting let it pass! I even thought about getting a second one to leave as is!
Same. I just took it apart for the cheap 5c mana base. Dihada is the cooler commander anyways
I also love painbow. Don't know why they say there is not win condition. Win condition is pretty simple, cast some beat sticks, pump beat sticks win game. Infinity combos don't always have to be the win conditions.
Chaos incarnate is actually really good against the other starter decks but that’s about it 😂
#Metagame!
i mean tbh all the starter decks are only good vs the starter decks lol
@@swampyswamperton6536 idk man the tyrannid deck has stomped a couple of our games outside of the precon decks
@@frostyshen689 they're talking specifically about the precons labeled as "starters".
My first time playing it I went against 3 non precons. I knocked out 2 players but lost to the last player one turn before I had him beat. Everyone playing couldn't believe how good it was playing.
Honestly I love the new Mishra deck! Its synergies with Brudiclad have been one of the most fun parts to explore. Can’t wait to upgrade it and attack with a whole bunch of reaver titans
Same! I love mishra plus brudiclad and machine gods effigy
Somehow I have never drawn into brudiclad and I've played it 8 times or so.
It still works really well though! Portal to phyrexia is nasty in that deck (upgraded).
Same here, too. Since I upgraded it, it's become one of the most potent decks in my rather high-power central London play group.
All it really took was some key additions like Hoard Hauler (which is nuts with Brudiclad), Gonti's Aether Heart, and Portal to Phyrexia. Vehicles in particular have overperformed, too - I love Imposter Mech and Weatherlight generates so much consistency and value.
@@LachyDachySachy Machine God's Effigy is insane.
@@AidyJames Do you think you could somehow share the decklist maybe? Do you know a good site where you can find curated decklist of well designed commander decks?
I like edhrec but the volume of available Decks is overwhelming sometimes and a good few of them are really bad
Great video! And I love seeing some decks I didn’t know existed mainly the starter commander decks. Cool that they are actually pretty solid for that price. Thank you for the thorough breakdown 🙏🏻
Happy to do it!
Captain Ngathrod?!?? That is one of the best synergistic fun precon decks I have seen (and I’m not the one in my playgroup who plays it), to add: Horrors have gotten pretty bonkers…super strong and super nasty! This deck works almost every time I have seen it and does just so many things!…cannot believe this rating here
Eh take it with a grain of salt. 🙃😊
THought nearly the same. I play with this deck and it is sooo much fun to remove all the big dragons and stuff directly into the graveyard and get at least one of them joining my party. Ofc it has its weaknesses but in my opinion this is way underrated. :D
Fave horrors to add?
I could have sworn Necron Dynasties is the best of the bunch. But great review as always! Want to have more videos like this.
I’ve been blown out by the Golden Throne a few times. On the surface it doesn’t look great but it lets you get some mana in a pinch but most important it lets you swing out completely and not worry about crackback.
Hey! I lost my father to cancer Christmas eve. I had a lot of down time handling things and not working. Your videos kept my mind elsewhere. Thanks for the great content
The amount of work that probably went into this video is insane! Thank you so much for all the content ❤️
Also to answer at the end, exit from exile is number 1 😬
The tyranids get very large pools of mana with extremely little effort so the over paying for the ravenous isn't an issue, also when you copy a spell all instances of X are copied so with Lucea Kane it essentially also gives you a bonus card for whichever spell you copy
(I've played many times my very lightly modified version of the deck and by turn 6 onwards I've found I've had easy access to 12+ mana)
the modifications were basically just defiler of vigour, the neon dynasty channel lands, spinal parasite (because I like the card), iridescent hornbeetle, and maybe one or two other cards (Unbound flourishing is in there too and things certainly get amusing if it comes into play)
I have the Imperium deck and I played it with Greyfax with exactly your attittude towards her. At first. It turns out that having a tapper that also kinda anthems the overmana costed (vanilla rule-wise) confused guys in the deck is hilarious value. She's way better than I initially thought. So much so that I now cannot decide if Marney's a better commander or not. As an added bonus, she typically flies under the radar unlike the Ultramarines' number 2.
I bought the Chaos Incarnate as a Christmas gift for my nephew and I was actually surprised at how well it performed, basically you want to maintain some form of balance of power, use your removals if something really threatening hits the board, then watch your opponents kill one another. Fun deck to play but I'll admit that drawing cards like Breath of Malfegor doens't make you feel too good ^^ Also the deck could be improved for cheap with cards like Malakir Rebirth or Supernatural Stamina which allow you to trigger your Commander multiple times. Very fun deck to play, definitely give it a shot :)
Literally used chaos against a greensleeves deck and a vehicle deck and it has another creature in the deck that goads whenever a land enters battlefield you can make goad each turn until u really need to play kardur and i made them damage each other whilst i set up tonnes of utility in enchantments and creatures tohat effected them
Gonna do a bit of a nitpick myself: Mageslayer does WORK in my Wulfgar deck. I've won games with it before (along with other synergistic cards in play, admittedly). But still, can be good in the right deck.
Draconic Dissent was such a good deck. One of my favorites.
just picked it up yesterday for $32. Super excited to try it out!
Luxior, Giada's Gift makes Painbow completely fine, commander that prints tokens, buffs 2 creatures including himself every few turns, etc. Hes a good stompy boy.
The upgrade unleashed chishiro precon is so good. You give your big guy a mage slayer like Taurean mauler or Ascendant acolyte and you can quickly destroy planeswalkers and usually get A LOT of free damage. Orochi is really really good when you play a grumgully then a huge smoke spirit aid to get alot of 2/2 menace spirits that can tap for 2 green each. The smoke spirit's aid is a really good card once you realize that with the commander it creates a spirit for every extra mana you put into it.
See I'm glad I'm not the only one who realizes that too! The nitpicking nerds are always sleeping on the fun and cool cards
I love this deck. Its a cheap pick-up and for like 10-15 bucks you got a pretty great deck. I love picking it up and just have a blaat with huge creatures
This is exceptional content. Kudos to you two for all the work that obviously went into it.
i started playing magic this year so seeing all of these precons ranked against each other makes me happy
Whelp, all 3 precons that I bought last year (Painbow, Upgrades Unleashed and Mind Flayarrrs) were in the bottom 5. I've personally loved all 3 of these decks. I understand the ranking is considering them straight out of the box, but once upgraded, all 3 are really fun and strong imo
Absolutely honored to have this as my birthday video! Great info and a good summary of all the decks
actually useful content to a new player like me. i will actually start playing by the weekend and i have put it off for so long because all the info can be much. you guys made it so easy ! thank you !
Your patreon is blowing up! Proud of your guys success. Been watching for quite some time now.
Appreciate the kind words!
That Gruul DnD Deck, just because y'all didn't mention it yet, it came with Jeskas Will, DBFB, and Three Visits. Wild stuff.
Fantastic content, you two. My patreon money is damn well spent.
Edit: I was right! Exit from Exile! Tell me I cheated.
Nice job! Also YOU CHEATED
Mind Flayers is really strong, if it works. I once got almost all the manarocks in the deck out and I played my commander turn 3 but once board wipes and artifact kills came out I basically got steamrolled
Love the content. Paused for naming the #1 deck which of course is Exit from Exile. The 4 D&D commander precons was my first baby step into commander and those decks has thoroughly hooked me in.
I got Buckle Up for I think $20. Recently started playing and upgrading it more for a pretty decent amount of success. Vehicles tend to be on the cheaper end of cards, so pretty easy to get ahold of them. I know Shorikai is technically the better commander, but I've enjoyed running it with Kotori and a bunch of artifact creatures.
The Swarmlord really ought to sit down and have a nice long conversation with Animar. My boy loves Ravenous something fierce.
I have been waiting for this one.. a favorite of my favorites annual NN vids
Yeah this one is awesome! Took us SIX HOURS to export for some reason tho
Super interesting seeing your take as high power players. We have a precon league we do and dihada is def top tier. Ashling pilgrim works amazing with your commander plus 2. Even if she only has 3 counters, with lifelink thats going to gain you a ton of life. Mageslayer has also gotten people a ton of wins. Being able to deal the damage even though everyone has blockers can be insanely strong
Warhammer precon is just amazing to play. Its also well balanced even though the Necron got super expensive. Magus from Tyranids deck is an amazing and unique Commander. Chaos is fun. With the Empire I only had unlucky rounds so far, sadly.
Faldorn is also my pet commander for this year, but Dihada is actually a very close runner up for me! I've been tweaking and tuning her constantly, spinning a few planswalkers and synergies for them in her and I'm really enjoying it.
I LOVED Ashling in there before upgrading. Using Dihada's + to give her lifelink and indestructible then resolving her ability the final time is INSANE. I fell out laughing at the life total swing the first time I did it lmao
And yeah, even when I have token copies of Dihada and three Chain Veil triggers on a turn I have never been interested in her final ability. She's strictly great beats or digging
I've turned my Dihada deck into a self mill, treasure, recursion deck and It makes the -3 absolutely insane.
Great content as always. I’ve been debating about what Precon I want. You’ve sold me on Party Time!
Have fun!
Got the Party Time Deck for Birthday and the Necron Dynastie Deck on Christmas from my roommate. I'm still happy about her presents. Love both of this Decks. So good in the strategy and the synergy
I don’t even care for the power level or flavor of the 40k decks (it was all pretty great stuff even if I have….. problems with imperium/chaos being forced into singular decks), the fact that they were willing to have unique art for every card in those kinda pisses me off because there’s no reason regular precons decks never did that even before when precons dropped once a year instead of there being precons for every main Set release
I knew exit from Exile was going to be number 1 from the start. I have a friend that has it in it's base form, and it's really pops off even against "real" decks 5 times it's cost or more
I like the idea of painbow. You can bring it to a solid 6/10 with some small swaps and a revamp of the mana base. I've had some blowouts with it with, especially with Luxior, Giada's Gift. Usually i've got 1 or 2 all color creatures by the time I play jared, then its 2 ~10/10's, some with evasion.
Also, mana cannons is amazing.
I’ve played the Jared pre on maybe 8 times and I won all besides maybe 1 game so I’m surprised it’s so low on the list lol
switch it to Jodah, change some stuff, kick ass
@@claramonti3889 if you switch your commander from Jared to jodah. It's nowhere near the same deck...
Awesome vid and format! Very helpful! Please keep making this type of material. Thanks!
you guys are my fav channel. love both your personalities. super fun channel and interaction on social media yall are awesome.
I personally loved Bedecked Brokers. I know most people say Perrie is a crappy commander, but I think he's so dope
Gentlemen, I bought the Cabaretti Pre-Con, ripped out all the goad, and swapped the Commander for Jinnie Fay. Cabaretti Confluence is one of the finishers in it. You drop it, and make 3 copies of The Boss's Chauffeur. They die at the end of the turn, and become a giant army of cats. It takes a turn cycle, but it's so funny.
It has the bones for a great Naya token deck.
I feel like people underestimate Mind Flayarrrs. I did a budget $50 upgrade increasing the mill aspect and if someone doesn't win by like turn 6 (I play in a combat focused group) it just runs away with the game. The horrors don't need to be as strong as elf or goblin tribal because they are just there to fuel the best part of the deck, stealing! I love playing this deck because by turn 6-8 I'm milling like 10 cards off the top of everyones decks and choosing the best creatures to beef my side up.
I have a buddy who upgraded into the mill aspect and it’s bonkers how crazy it goes past like turn 5. He’ll mill like 75% of your deck in like a turn.
@@KEN_KEN_KEN I become the main target of the table the moment I start swinging with my commander out lmao
I JUST GOT MINE!!!! this is probably the best box I’ve ever owned. I play competitive stax which is very meta dependent so having a box that holds my 100 double hard sleeved deck, along with the extra cards per meta, and dice/tokens needed in just one box. Phenomenal. A+.
I ended up combining the Painbow and Legends Legacy decks and then using Jodah as the commander. It is super powerful with a little bit of work, plus Keri-Zev is really good in it.
smoke spirit aid in chishiro is pretty damn good, you get a 2/2 with menace for each 1 you pay into x, as well as a treasure when the creature dies. It's one of the few cards I've kept in from the precon and it still overperforms every time
It's also great in Hinata, Dawn Crowned.
Target every creature on board for cheap, then watch a board wipe turn all of it into treasure 😍
Throw a setessan champion in there and get a +1/+1 counter and card draw for each 1 as well.
@@Unnonamus That's amazing.
I think Eidolon of Blossoms works too
Caberetti catcophony was one of the strongest precon’s I’ve played although the face comander is bad the much better one is phabeen which is a whole package, card draw, token maker, and the lord, all wrapped into one. If you get a few upgrades, it makes it the deck really strong, fast.
I bought the firk deck, modified it a little bit, but changed my commander to will and Rowan, and it's actually fairly fun. But right now I'm working on making it something completely different. I actually really like carthalion. It's definitely built to drop 5 color creatures and pump them up to swing wide. It's funny you say o-kagachi is a dud, since every time I drop o-kagachi I seem to become public enemy number one.
You guys are the best. That is all. ❤
Edit: nice job with the clean ROYGBIV on the Painbow section. It’s the little things 🌈
Thanks :P
So I’m new to magic and want to play commander so I found this video right, that start of this video had me DYING. Someone at a card shop told me to get dragons dissent and I was like “mmm na” and this gentleman in the video hits it hard “coming in at DEAD LAST”, I spit my soda all over the floor thanks!!!!
For upgrades unleashed, to make it unique from other aura/equipment decks, but also to reduce the feels bads of drawing the wrong half of your deck, I made almost all of the cards in the deck able to fit BOTH roles. So they can be the creature OR the modifier. This includes Reconfigure, Living Weapon, and of course Licids. Just added some For Mirrodin! cards too. It plays differently than the typical aura or equipment deck because it incentivizes you to spread them out and not put them all on one creature, which I really like. Really good commander design but the deck out of the box was definitely unfocused
Seeing someone complain about Nighthawk in a precon feels weird
I bought exit from exile to get some cards for decks I already had, but after playing it once I couldnt take it apart it was so much fun, really a home run of a precon
As soon as you revealed the number 2 deck, I knew Exit from exile would be number one!
Im new to Magic and got Exit from Exile this year because Im a big D&D fan so the D&D decks caught my eye. Needless to say I was curious to see where you would rank it, and didn't expect it to be the top entry! I lucked into that buy haha
The Reaver Cleaver gives you treasures for the damage done to a player + trample and +1/+1. In your example it would create 7 treasures. that card is amazing. Loving Legends Legacy. Great Video Guys
Excited for more shuffle scuffle and whatever new video ideas you have for next year! Keep it up guys
My best friend bought me the bedecked brokers deck as a birthday gift last year. I have replaced about 20 to 25 cards, granted budget not being a factor but trying to keep with the different counter flavor of the deck in mind. It definitely can hold its own far as power goes but what I never imagined was just how fun it could be. There is a ton of cards that you can replace the dud's with in all price ranges that have some random counter you never even knew was in magic. Then just double your counters/strength on perry and whack someone with 40+ commander damage trampling rhino to the face.
try taking painbow and replace jared with jodah the unifier and it works very well.
I transformed Exit from Exile into a Minsc and Boo deck and really liked the few games I played with it out of the box!
Love my chishiro the shattered blade deck… had to remove nearly every aura from the deck. And the only auras that are left either enchant lands, 1 curse, and whip silk as it defenantly designed for this deck. Its now equipments first and counters second, with auras not existing.
Nice, I did mine the opposite and focused in on auras which also works very well. If it's not in your deck check out Arterial Alchemy. It is great for either strategy. 3 mana for 3 bodies and 3 equipment that have an alternate use of looting is a win win.
I'm just here to say that Colossal Plow has pulled a lot of weight for me in multiple games with Shorikai. Only takes 2 pilots to crew and I usually end up getting 9 mana and 9 life from it
I was very lucky that I started playing last year. I picked Exit from Exile because I thought, awesome a wolfpack.
All my friends were amazed by how good this deck was.
for the chaos incarnate precon reign of the pit is good going up against blue because if you play wild fire devils which is in the precon, you can just roll a die if it rolls your number or numbers you get reign of the pit for free. you can sacrafice a different creature so you're just trading lower power cards for a giant creature with flying. the precon is good for playing against groups of 4-6 players so having 4-5 players sac a creature and you getting a a 8/8- 15/15 dragon is pretty broken. while you have that dragon, you play your commander so that all the creatures get goaded and then because the creatures will be tapped, you can swing at someone for a boatload of damage.
This is a much needed list for people like me lol thank you and happy new years/happy birthday to the nitpicking nerds!
You too!
Been waiting for this video for a couple of months. You guys always deliver!
Heck yeah we do!
Very surprised y’all are so low on Next of Kin from the Henzie deck. You’re so right the precon is a real struggle, but it moves at an excellent 6/10 pace with even a few swaps I found. When you improve the creatures across the board a little Next of Kin becomes significantly better imo.
On a mod cmc creature with an instant speed sac outlet you can really threaten the table with a variety of creature based response. Very toolbox like in that regard
I'm sad to see painbow so low, but I agree. I had bought it and legends legacy, combined the two, and buffed it. Then, I put Jodah, the Unifier as the commander. That is my favorite deck I own, and it practically plays itself.
Whoa, Indomitable archangel is a great card. For any equipment or vehicle deck it's a must own. How could you not want your equipment to be protected from targeted spell abilities?
I know you guys hate on mage slayer but it is fantastic in my Wolfgar deck that doubles attack triggers. Equip to wolfgar and turn sideways. Stack the triggers so melee resolves first, defending player takes 20 dmg before even declaring blockers.
As someone that eventually got back into Commander thanks to the 40k collab, I'm happy that even the "weak" precon deck Tyranid Swarm is still good enough by precon standards. Bought that one at a local shop with a great owner that liked Age of Sigmar Champions like I did, if not for the Universe Beyond set I'd probably not play Magic of any type. $60 was a fair price point.
Hopefully I'll be able to stick around much longer now that I'm back into this game. Great tier list overall as it helps highlight each new decks pros and cons.
I got Token Triumph for xmas and man it surprised me when I played it. Unless someone has a boardwipe ready I'm already going wide with 10+ creatures a few turns after the commander comes out.
I bought the party time deck and I switched from Nalia to Buruko and folk hero background and I put the black market connections in my card hungry Skullbriar deck. :)
Buckle Up is one of my favorites. Slightly upgraded mine (mechtitan ofc + others) and often times no one can clear my board. Sometimes I feel bad for using it until the morph decks come out
Hi new to commander. Is the ratings, especially for the starter precons personal opinion of use or from a new player perspective? I’m only asking cause another RUclipsr rated the starter precons in reverse among the 5. Thank you
The best upgrades for budget for token triumph are to take out all the ramp and add creatures with: tap tap an untaped creature you control, add one manna of any colour to your manna pool as well as survivors encampment and shamanic revelation
Oh yeah!! I had had to sit here and think about it for a moment but it's definantly exit from exile. I've been playing that deck for a month or two and it's sick. I love it so much. I'm going all In on making as many wolves as possible and doing big overrun things.
Love that deck so much.
Huge disagree on Smoke Spirits but I do have a regular of broodiclad and hinata at my LGS so maybe I’ve only seen it’s best use case.
Chaos incarnate is going to better once I put Blim at the helm and make it complete chaos. Win con? *Scoffs* Who needs that? CHAOS.
Pause ist set! The number 1 deck of course is exit from exile, which I bought after seeing your review of the D&D precons. I replaced about 10 -15 cards and now it's one of my favorite decks.
Glad to hear it!
Hey you guys, really liked the video, now I can not decide though. My group and I all want to get into commander again. I bought the first D&D precons when they came out, and last weekend we tried them out and had a lot of fun. We would like to have 5 more decks for now, since noone else owns cards so far ( and i personally didnt like the venture deck too much) . Which would you suggest for that case?
Joe Cherries' "Umm... Actually' moment on the Monument just about made me cry.
Oh Lord have mercy, that made my side hurt
What's with all the Hate on Vampire Nighthawk. It's a perfect budget card for what it is. Flying, Death touch, and Lifelink. You call a card with decent power toughness and 3 Cool abilities trash?
Very high quality content. Well done.
Is it possible to see the Joe's upgraded Exit From Exile decklist?
Great video, awesome work!
This might be a me thing, but the biggest issue with almost all of the precons is not enough ways to draw cards. If we aren't playing tutors, i think at minimum we want 12 draw spells. Even with a card draw engine in the commandzone, i'm not going below 12, its just the best thing a low to mid casual deck can do outside of winning the game
Is there a video of a budget tune up or a normal tune up of the Exit from Exile deck? Thank you for the amazing detailed content. I stopped playing magic back in 95. So trying to get up to speed LOL
Holy Crap! Let me explain, I am amazed that these guys put out a vid every day and this one- a One Day serving looks to have like a week's worth of research and evaluating put into it! Do the Nitpicking Nerds have access to some sort of Teferiesque time magic??
"I'm not gonna deal with vampire nighthawk. THATS ASS!" Yall got me cracking up in the airport
I bought painbow and noticed the exact problems you outlined here, my commander was doing all the heavy lifting and there wasnt much else going on. I ended up sinking another 50 into it and turned it into a Jodah Archmage Eternal deck with strong win conditions. Still waiting on the new cards to ship to me but I imagine its going to be a huge improvement.
So Painbow is a decent base for making a better 5 color deck like ramos or jodah
It's so refreshing and validating as a new player to see fellow queer people loving the game and makes me feel slightly less anxious about going to events so thank you guys
Before watching this video I was just running Faldorn in my cascade pile, now I kinda want to just build her. Great content.
Thank you!
Emmara came from Guilds of Ravnica and the Selesnya theme was convoke. Of course there were multiple ways to tap here.
Mind Flayarrrs needs such littles mods before it becomes absolutely cracked in comparison to the majority of these other precons.
What mods did you add? off the top of your head
I did a $50 budget upgrade increasing the mill and it became one of my most powerful decks. I even had to stop using it cause it was just steamrolling lol
@@JonReid01 I was actually really new when I did it and just followed GuysThatMagic 100$ upgrade guide
The line that always comes to my head when you discuss deck tech is the Joe Cherries "Ya Basic!" line. Lol 🤣
LOL