Welcome back to another session with the Epic Experiment!
One of my primary beliefs is that playing Magic: The Gathering does not need to be an expensive proposition. I will agree that it is increasingly getting more difficult as a result of the continuing global pandemic, the explosion in popularity of Commander, and more premium products creating a drive for players to acquire premium cards at inflated prices. However, the most recent Black Friday sales gave me pause to look at building our Commander decks differently.
One of the features of Magic in the last couple of years has been the ongoing release of Commander precons. Starting with Zendikar Rising, we have seen decks come out with each set. This is a new development and deviates from the older approach from having the once a year release that we used to get. This new model has also changed because it is fairly clear, that with a few outliers, that these new pre-cons are at a lower power level right out of the box. These new decks are less powerful, but are also typically at a lower price point.
Now, there are a couple of ways of approaching a precon. The first is to open the box and to play it as is. This can be pretty fun if everyone has a precon, but it can get stale quickly. Then there is the option of just simply upgrading 5-10 cards of your precon and running it back. This is a strategy I have employed before and it is reasonable fun. You get some of the feel of a precon, but also a smidge of your own flavour to help keep the deck unique.
The last approach is to take a precon and to undertake a whole scale retool of the deck and repurpose much of the deck. This approach gives you many of the key components of a deck structure, but also allows you to customize your deck to your tastes. While many of these key structures aren’t pricey, if you can get a precon at a good price, this can often be one of the most cost effective ways to start your deck and to give your deck a strategy to follow.
I have been experimenting with exactly this method when I found a number of precons from the past year and a half on sale for 50% off as part of a Black Friday special. This is particularly appealing because even if the expected value of a deck is low, grabbing something that is fairly playable for half price is still a pretty good value. I picked up the Obuun, Mul Daya Ancestor deck and decided to retool the deck.
Here is the precon list that MTGGoldfish has published: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3378541#paper
This deck is entirely underwhelming on a number of fronts. Obuun itself is very potent and there are a few other cards that are also appealing, but by and large this deck is weak and in need of some serious help in order to make it viable. So, I added a colour, switched up the Commander, and built myself a Omnath, Locus of Creation deck on the back of Obuun!
Here is the new Omnath list:
As you can see, I leaned into the land matters theme, but instead of playing along with the +1/+1 counter theme that Obuun provides, the whole premise is to dump lands onto the battlefield and benefit. The nice part of this is two fold. First, this deck costs a total of $80 dollars. It could absolutely stand to have a bunch of upgrades made, but right out of the gate this deck is very affordable. Second, it still plays plenty of heavy landfall hitters to keep your opponents honest.
Ramp
We will keep the Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Springbloom Druid, Kodama’s Reach, Circuitous Route, Roiling Regrowth, Harrow, and Kor Cartographer to help get the land game going. These are all part of the original precon and are indispensable tools to help power out lands to power Omnath or to trigger Obuun. The most interesting piece is the combination of Emeria Shepherd and Sakura-Tribe Elder, where you can sacrifice Sakura to go get a land, Shepherd sees the land, and the landfall trigger can raise dead your Sakura… or bring him back right away if you get a Plains. This sets you up to rinse and repeat until you have all the plains in your deck and are ready to do something goofy.
Removal
We are admittedly light on removal but I consider Negate, Counterspell, Beast Within, Nature’s Claim, Reclamation Sage, and Acidic Slime all to be very viable removal spells. This will be one instance where I don’t actually follow much of my own advice and don’t play a lot of hard creature removal. I am consciously choosing not to play it because this sort of deck can probably play large enough creatures to address threats on board. Things like Phylath, Omnath (both of them), Trove Warden, Rampaging Baloths, Moraug etc. are all big enough that I can address on board threats. It may backfire, but as a starting point this configuration allows me to focus on the desired synergies I want to build. Once I have seen what synergies are potent and worth keeping, this deck can be adapted and I can build in things like Swords to Plowshares, Prismatic Ending, or other flexible removal spells.
Board Wipes
Time Wipe and Planar Outburst are the only two board wipes, but that feels like enough considering the nature of this deck. This is a deck predicated about being on the battlefield, so playing board wipes negatively impacts my own deck. However, it feels a little light on removal and I may be adding more. This is an experiment and it could go horribly wrong. What I will acknowledge is that I need to include protection from wraths because currently I only have Make a Stand, Boros Charm, and Wrap in Vigor to help maintain my board.
Card Draw
Mulldrifter, Urban Evolution, Tatyova, Gretchen Titchwillow, Rites of Flourishing, Cosima, God of the Voyage, or Teferi’s Ageless Insight are the primary ways this deck generates card advantage, but this deck has the capacity to flood the board with tokens from Maja, Rampaging Baloths, Phylath, and Omnath, Locus of Rage. This is one of the main ways landfall decks accrue value and can often get out of control.
Land Synergies
Oh man. This is the bread and butter of this deck. Whether it is Phylath, Tatyova, Obuun, Multani, Ancient Greenwarden, or Maja, there are loads of payoffs and they constitute the primary reason to play and build this deck. I don’t think finding a way to win the game is a challenge, it is more a matter of what you have on hand to beat your opponents over the head with rather than being overly selective. I tend to prefer this sort of approach over having to select win cons because it means that no two games end the same. That difference in routes to victory goes a long way to keeping your deck fresh for you and your opponents.
So, for $80, you get a deck that can let you sit down at the table, packs a mean punch, presents a concrete and coherent plan, and where the bulk of the structure comes from a readily accessible source in the Obuun pre con. Would I be looking to build a deck like this every time? No. But the synergy between Obuun and Omnath presented an opportunity worth exploring and I’m glad I gave it a try. Pre cons can be a fun, inexpensive, and flexible approach to help players get into the game and to customize the level of deck building difficulty they are looking for. So, next time you sit down to brew up a deck, maybe look over at your shelf of precons (or the shelf at the LGS) and see for yourself if there isn’t something that could pique your interest.
If you enjoyed my thoughts or have something you would like to see explored in more detail, please check out our decks and much more each week on our podcast on iTunes, Google Podcast, Spotify, Amazon, and anywhere else you find better podcasts. Just look for the name The Epic Experiment Podcast! We’d love to have you join us!
Get all your board game news from The Bag of Loot! www.thebagofloot.com
Get all your board game needs from Three Kings Loot! www.threekingsloot.com
