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Commander Series: List of Commander Precons 2011-2019

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Since there are multiple Commander decks coming out every few months, we had to split our big List of All Commander precons into three parts, to keep everything easily readable. This article is the third, and the final part, which features the first 35 Commander precons. They were released between 2011 and 2019.

2019 was the last year with only a single Commander release, so that seemed like a nice breaking point for the article.

In these nine years, there were eight Commander deck releases, as there were none in 2012. You can find all of them in the table of contents below. For each deck, I’ll talk about its characteristics, discuss their themes, and so on. I’ll start with the “newer” ones, and make my way back in time. So, we’ll begin in 2019, and moving back to the very first precons, released in 2011.

Newest Commander Precons (2022-Today)

Before we get to it, here are just a couple of reminders. If you’re actually looking for the newest decks, you can find them in the main article with all Commander precons. It talks in-depth about the 35+ precons released post 2022, and mentions all the other ones.

Newer Commander Precons (2020-2021)

For the decks released between 2020 and 2021, you can check this article about Commander Precons 2020-2021. It also contains 8 releases with 24 decks total.

Commander 2019

More than once in Commander’s history, players have tried to build decks around keyword mechanics that just did not have enough support. Even though this problem could not be solved all at once, in 2019 Wizards printed decks that cared about (mostly) underrepresented mechanics from Magic’s history. Specifically, there were decks that cared about:

  • Morph
  • Flashback
  • Populate
  • Madness.

The only cycle present in these decks is that each face commander got a sort of signature spell. These spells had the commander’s name in them and were specifically related to the keyword mechanic for the appropriate deck.

Faceless Menace

All Commander Precons List Faceless Menace
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Before 2019, there were few if any Morph commanders. Animar, Soul of Elements was probably the most popular. With the release of Faceless Menace, however, Kadena, Slinking Sorcerer took the Morph throne.

The goal of this deck is simple: play as many free morphs as you can. Each one will let you draw cards. You can keep your opponents guessing about what the hidden abilities of the upside-down cards are. Then, when they least expect it, you flip the perfect spell to beat them.

Iconic Cards

Mystic Intellect

All Commander Precons List Mystic Intellect
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Flashback was probably the keyword mechanic that had the most support before getting its own deck in this year. Despite that, there had never been a commander that specifically cared about casting spells from the graveyard the way Sevinne does.

Because this deck was not built around an obscure mechanic like the other ones were, it might have been less interesting to players. What it lacked in flashiness, though, it made up for by containing Dockside Extortionist.

Iconic Cards

Primal Genesis

All Commander Precons List Primal Genesis
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Primal Genesis was an incredibly aggressive precon. The deck made a bunch of tokens in the early-game, and populated them in the mid- to late-game. Often times these tokens were 4/4 Rhinos or some other similar threat that quickly took over games.

Iconic Cards

Merciless Rage

All Commander Precons List Merciless Rage
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Anje Falkenrath, the face commander for this deck, was probably the most competitive individual commander to come out of this set (if not K’rrik, Son of Yawgmoth, who also showed up in this deck). The interesting thing about her, though, is that the optimized version of her deck was not too different from the precon version. You basically add more Madness cards and an infinite combo and voilà you have yourself a cEDH deck.

Merciless Rage wants to discard a ton of cards and get value from them. Whether you cast them for their Madness cost, reanimate them later on, or just draw you a card with Anje’s ability – this deck takes advantage of discarding cards better than maybe any other deck until this point.

Iconic Cards

Commander 2018

Next up we have Commander 2018. Players were largely disappointed with the overall value of these Commander precons. Many said that the reprints were underwhelming, and the decks were not worth the extra $5 USD Wizards was charging for them. Despite these negative opinions, many cards from Commander 2018 went on to become widely used and beloved.

Three of the four decks from this year had a theme related to a permanent type. These were artifacts, lands, and enchantments. The fourth deck was a little different from the others. It cared about the top card of your library.

Each deck had a face commander (each one was a planeswalker again), two back-up commanders, and a third legendary creature that was not enough colors to lead the precon deck on its own.

There was also a cycle of signature spells for each face commander that had an effect related to the relevant permanent type (or top card of your library).

Finally, there was a cycle of cards that were related to the Storm mechanic. Each spell copied itself as many times as you had cast your commander in that game.

Exquisite Invention

All Commander Precons List Exquisite Invention
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At first glance, this deck does not seem very original. It is an Izzet deck that cares about artifacts. Not long before this deck was released, Dominaria was in Standard. In that set was a legendary creature named Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain who was also an Izzet commander who cared about artifacts, and a good one at that.

Upon further inspection, this Saheeli has her own twist on Izzet artifacts that is indeed unique. The goal for Exquisite Invention is to cast a bunch of cheap artifacts, then use them or Saheeli’s ability to ramp into a big artifact threat.

Iconic Cards

Nature’s Vengeance

All Commander Precons List Nature's Vengeance
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One of the many complaints that players raised this year, another common one, was that the “lands matter” deck did not have very many land synergies. This deck was probably the least related to the permanent type that it was supposed to care about. Hardly any of the creatures, especially the back-up commanders, had landfall effects or otherwise cared about lands.

That being said, after playing with the deck, there were many ways to interact with lands or landfall abilities that you might not expect at first glance. Most notably, Lord Windgrace‘s first two abilities are closely tied to lands and make the deck feel a lot more like a lands matter deck.

Iconic Cards

Adaptive Enchantment

All Commander Precons List Adaptive Enchantment
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In contrast, the enchantment deck (if not the artifact deck) was probably the most closely tied to its stated permanent type. The deck felt like a cohesive enchantress deck right out of the box. However, it also left plenty of room to upgrade into something more if you wanted to.

It was a toss up whether Estrid or Tuvasa were better commanders for this deck. Both have their advantages, and both have lead powerful enchatress decks since their release in this product.

Iconic Cards

Subjective Reality

All Commander Precons List Subjective Reality
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Finally, for this year, we have the black sheep. Subjective Reality is the only deck from this generation that did not care about a permanent type. Rather, it tried to manipulate the top card in your deck, so you could always draw the right card.

Appropriately, this deck also runs almost all cards that were previously printed with Miracle. This is a keyword ability that allows you to cast the spell for cheaper if it is the first card you draw in a turn. Fortunately, this deck’s primary function is to help you choose exactly which card is the best to draw first on any given turn.

The last great thing I want to say about this deck is that all three of the legendary creatures that were not the face commander were groundbreaking cards. Yennett was the first commander who wanted you to restrict the converted mana cost of everything in your deck. Varina was the first tribal Zombie commander in Esper colors. Yuriko was the first Ninja commander. Each one made a splash in the Commander format.

Iconic Cards

Commander 2017

2017 was a year that Wizards of the Coast tried a few new things with the Commander precons. First, instead of the typical 5 decks with equally dispersed colors, there were only four decks, and the colors were not equally balanced. Second, the theme for this year was tribal.

They decided to give a boost to a few tribes with plenty of support, and one that had hardly any. Commander decks had had tribal subthemes in the past, but this year they were going all out with it. The four tribes they decided to go with were Vampires, Dragons, Wizards, and Cats.

Each of the face commanders for this set had an ability called Eminence. This was an ability that could trigger if the creature was in the command zone or on the battlefield. A similar ability had been seen on a commander in a previous year. It was infamous among many play groups. Almost all the commanders from this year’s group of decks managed to become well-loved by players, in spite of their initial wariness about Eminence.

This set features a cycle of cards with kindred in their name. Each one asks you to name a creature type and gives you a benefit for having those creatures.

Another cycle I want to mention briefly is a cycle of curses featuring the same character in their art. They are:

Lastly, each deck came with a new land that synergizes with tribal themes. It’s called Path of Ancestry.

Draconic Domination

List of All Commander Precons 2017 Draconic Domination Dragon Tribal
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  • Main Commander: The Ur-Dragon
  • Colors: White, Blue, Black, Red, Green
  • Theme: Tribal Dragons

This deck is pretty straightforward. Using The Ur-Dragon‘s ability as well as some other cost-reducing effects from the deck, you cast as many dragons as you can as fast as possible. It is a surprisingly effective strategy, as anyone who has ever faced off against Draconic Domination would no doubt admit.

Iconic Cards

Feline Ferocity

List of All Commander Precons 2017 Feline Ferocity Cat Tribal
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This deck was the surprise of the set. Cats had just barely become a reasonable tribe in Amonkhet block, and many people were afraid that there would not be enough support to build a full Commander deck out of.

These fears turned out to be in vain, though, as Feline Ferocity packed a punch. Since the release of this deck, dozens of viable cats have been printed, making this deck one of the most beloved from this year.

Iconic Cards

Vampiric Bloodlust

List of All Commander Precons 2017 Vampiric Bloodlust Vampire Tribal
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  • Main Commander: Edgar Markov
  • Colors: Red, White, Black
  • Theme: Tribal Vampires

Just before this set was printed, Ixalan block was being played in Standard. That set featured white vampires pretty heavily. There were a few Ixalan legends that could be your commanders, but it wasn’t until this Commander deck came out that people could really run their vampire tribal decks. And Edgar Markov has been the best Vampire commander ever since.

His eminence ability is able to make a ton of vampire tokens very quickly. These overwhelm his opponents unless they are able to do deal with the board every single turn.

Iconic Cards

Arcane Wizardry

List of All Commander Precons 2017 Arcane Wizardry Wizards Tribal
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Arcane Wizardry is a creature-based control deck that tries to get extra value from Inalla’s eminence ability. Most of the Wizards in this deck have enter-the-battlefield triggers, so when they enter, Inalla can copy them and double up their triggers.

Iconic Cards

Commander 2016

If you only read about a single year of Commander decks, this is definitely that year. 2016’s Commander precons changed the format in a way that no other year had until that point or would in coming years so far. Not only did it introduce the first ever four-color commanders, it also was the first time we ever saw the Partner mechanic. Both things would shape the face of the Commander format for years to come.

Each deck came with 3 partner commanders. Of the fifteen commanders, ten of them were enemy colored (two per color combination) and five were allied colored (one per color combination).

In addition to that, there was a cycle of instants or sorceries that were allied colored that came with basic land cycling for 2 colorless mana. These were necessary at the time to make the 4-color mana bases work. In addition to those cards, each deck had a brand-new land called Ash Barrens, which helped fix your colors in a bind.

The last new thing from this year was the Undaunted mechanic. This mechanic let you cast the spell for 1 less generic mana for each opponent you had. There were a few interesting cards with this mechanic in the set.

Entropic Uprising

List of All Commander Precons Entropic Uprising 2016
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This deck is supposed to be a chaos deck. Cascade, the commander’s flagship mechanic, gives you the next card in your deck that costs less than the card you just cast, so the random nature of it is pretty chaotic.

Iconic Cards

Open Hostility

List of All Commander Precons Open Hostility 2016
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Open Hostility comes out swinging with cheap creatures that can grow to enormous sizes. Then, Saskia lets you double up on the amount of damage you’re doing by focusing your efforts on one player.

Iconic Cards

Stalwart Unity

List of All Commander Precons Stalwart Unity
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This was the first pre-constructed Commander deck to officially employ group hug as its game plan. It uses many cards from previous years’ decks, including Tempt with Discovery, cards with Join Forces, Edric, Spymaster of Trest, Zedruu the Greathearted, Selvala, Explorer Returned. It also uses many more cards to make allies with your opponents until you can hopefully be the last one standing.

Iconic Cards

Breed Lethality

List of All Commander Precons Breed Lethality 2016 Atraxa
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Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice was the most hyped commander I have ever seen in all my years playing Commander. Being so many colors and having Proliferate on her card made her the best commander for dozens of strategies. This deck, however, focused mostly on +1/+1 counters.

Iconic Cards

Invent Superiority

List of All Commander Precons Invent Superiority Breya
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Invent Superiority is the deck that most accurately captures the flavor of the color combinations. This deck has all colors except green, and green is the color that most hates artifacts. As a result, this deck is the artifact deck.

Iconic Cards

Commander 2015

The decks from this year all featured an innovative new mechanic. Each face commander is equipped with an ability that gives the player experience counters. Then, those same commanders can utilize those experience counters uniquely.

Experience counters were not the only new mechanic for this set, though. Each deck had two creatures that were part of a cycle. Each of those creatures had a mechanic called Myriad. Those creatures were:

There were a few other cycles in these decks as well. One of these was the confluence cycle. Each confluence had three different modes that you could choose from. Of those three modes, you could pick one three times or up to three one time.

There is one individual card that I want to mention in this introductory section. Each deck contained a copy of Thought Vessel, which went on to become a Commander staple. Since there was one in every deck, I thought I would mention it here rather than in each deck summary.

Call the Spirits

All Commander Precons Call the Spirits
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This deck combined two themes in a clever way. Daxos, a character who at the time was trapped in the underworld of Theros, lets you make spirits based on the number of experience counters you have, but you get experience counters by playing enchantments. This means that the deck wants to play as many enchantments as possible.

There were not very many enchantress decks in Orzhov colors before this, so this deck opened up some cool possibilities when it was printed.

Iconic Cards

Seize Control

All Commander Precons Seize Control
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The commander for this deck, Mizzix of the Izmagnus, makes your instants and sorceries cheaper based on the number of experience counters you have. You can get experience counters by casting instants and sorceries, but they have to have a higher converted mana cost than the number of experience counters you have.

As you might have guessed, this highly synergistic commander wants to cast as many instants and sorceries as it can. The bigger, the better.

Iconic Cards

Plunder the Graves

All Commander Precons 2015 Plunder the Graves
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Maren was the most popular commander to come from Commander 2015 by a long shot. Her ability gives you experience counters whenever one of your creatures dies. At the end of your turn, if there is a creature in your graveyard with converted mana cost equal to or less than the number of experience counters you have, you can bring it back to the battlefield. Otherwise, it goes back to your hand.

This deck tries to fill up its own graveyard, get advantage from sacrificing creatures, and reanimate some nasty threats.

Iconic Cards

Wade Into Battle

All Commander Precons Wade Into Battle
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This deck was probably the least popular of the decks from this year, but it was packed with good stuff. Wade Into Battle was not officially a giant tribal deck, but it sure had a lot of giants in it. From Sun Titan and Inferno Titan to Sunrise Sovereign and Borderland Behemoth, this deck has almost all the giants you could ever dream of.

Technically, Kalemne cares about any creature with converted mana cost 5 or greater. Whenever you cast such a creature, you get an experience counter. Each experience counter you collect would then give Kalemne +1/+1. Between the giant threats (pun intended) and Kalemne having double strike and vigilance, this deck could get out of control quickly.

Iconic Cards

Swell the Host

All Commander Precons 2015 Swell the Host
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Although this deck is not exactly a tribal elves deck, Ezuri, Claw of Progress works similarly.

Step one: play a lot of little creatures. Ezuri’s ability give you an experience counter whenever you play a creature with power 2 or less. Step two: Make those small creatures gigantic.

Ezuri’s second ability gives one creature +1/+1 counters equal to the number of experience counters you have, making massive threats in the blink of an eye.

Iconic Cards

Commander 2014

The 2014 Commander precons mark the third year that Wizards of the Coast released pre-constructed decks for Commander. Having exhausted all possible three-color combinations in the previous two products, Wizards decided to get creative with this year’s decks. Each deck was only a single color and each commander was a planeswalker with the text “This card can be your commander”.

Not only was it exciting to be able to play with planeswalkers as commanders, but most of the planeswalkers were also famous characters from Magic’s past. I’ll go into each one more in depth.

Each deck also featured a card with a new mechanic: Lieutenant. Any card with this mechanic got some sort of additional bonus if it shared the battlefield with your commander.

There is also a cycle of cards with the word “offering” in their title. Each card in this cycle lets the caster choose an opponent to share in an effect with two separate times. You will see what I mean when you find these cards in the ‘Iconic Cards’ section of each deck.

Forged in Stone

Commander Precons Forged in Stone Nahiri
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Known before this set as “The Lithomancer”, Commander 2014 was the first time that Nahiri got a card. She was among the most exciting new legends to be printed in this set.

Aside from the hype around Nahiri, this deck did not perform too well straight out of the box. It struggled with many of the weaknesses that still plague white to this day. The equipment that it ran as it’s primary win condition were expensive and fairly low-impact by themselves. That being said, this deck has the ability to get very scary if not dealt with.

Iconic Cards

Peer Through Time

Commander Precons Peer Through Time Teferi
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The overall theme for this deck is difficult to pin down. When you think of mono-blue decks in Commander, sea monsters are not the first things to come to mind. Furthermore, when you think of Teferi, you might think of counterspells and control magic. Although this deck runs a relatively low number of both of these things, they are not the theme of the deck.

It seems what this deck wants to do the most is ramp into one of its twelve 6+ mana creatures to beat down your opponents with.

Iconic Cards

Sworn to Darkness

Commander Precons Sworn to Darkness
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This deck tells the origin story of the famous Magic villain, Ob Nixilis. Before the Chain Veil turned him into a demon himself, he summoned armies of them to fight his foes. Sworn to Darkness wanted to make an army of infernals to unleash upon its foes.

Iconic Cards

Built from Scratch

Commander Precons Daretti Built from Scratch
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Daretti is the only commander from this year’s precons who didn’t have much as far as previous backstory. Despite this, he has become a popular character and the most common mono-red artifacts commander. This deck tries to ramp into big artifacts and get advantage from sacrificing them.

Iconic Cards

Guided by Nature

Commander Precons 2014 Guided by Nature Freyalise Llanowar Fury
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Guided by Nature was probably the most cohesive tribal Commander deck that Wizards had printed until this point. The deck had 37 creatures, most of which were elves. Freyalise wants to fill the battlefield with as many elves as she can, then use the tons of mana they can generate to cast a big overrun spell.

Iconic Cards

Commander 2013

The decks from Commander 2013 were led by shard-colored Commanders. In addition to the face Commanders, each deck had two other legendary creatures that could double as a Commander for the deck. Each of the face Commanders cared somehow about the command zone. None of the decks are too focused, leaving a lot of room for improvement.

Notable cycles from this year include 5 new curses and 5 new cards called the “Tempt Cycle”. The curses did not end up being too interesting, but most of the tempt cards will be mentioned in the breakdown of the individual decks below.

Evasive Maneuvers

List of All Commander Precons Evasive Maneuvers
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Derevi, Empyrial Tactician has become one of the infamous Commanders from this set. Her ability that cares about the command zone is an activated ability that puts her straight into the battlefield. This can be done at instant speed and dodges command tax. Because of this, she almost always heads a stax deck that no one likes playing against.

This precon, however, is not such a deck. It is filled with flying creatures and light control. It tries to win with a small army of creatures that cannot be blocked.

Iconic Cards

Eternal Bargain

Eternal Bargain Oloro Ageless Ascetic
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Oloro is another infamous commander from 2013 Commander precons. He was the grandfather of the C17 tribal Commanders with the Eminence mechanic. Oloro’s ability gain’s his controller two life every turn on their upkeep as long as Oloro is in the command zone or battlefield. Because of this, he almost always leads a life gain deck.

This precon was no exception, except that it also had an artifact subtheme.

Iconic Cards

Mind Seize

Mind Seize Jeleva
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The Mind Seize precon is full of high costed instant and sorcery spells, since the Commander can cast them for free. Jeleva’s ability that cares about the command zone counts the amount of mana that was spent to cast it. This is an interesting ability, since that number goes up each time the Commander is cast. A similar ability shows up in the next deck.

The most popular Commander from this deck was actually one of the secondary commanders, Nekusar, the Mindrazer. Outside of Commander, True-Name Nemesis also made waves, becoming a staple in the Legacy format.

Iconic Cards

Power Hungry

Power Hungry Prossh COmmander Precon
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This deck’s Commander has probably become the most popular (or unpopular, depending on what side of the table you are from it) of all the decks in this year’s precons. Prossh, Skyraider of Kher has been beloved by casual and competative players alike.

Similar to Jeleva, when Prossh’s controler casts it, that player gets a benefit that increases each time they do. They make Kobold tokens equal to the amount of mana spent to cast it. This deck wants to make a bunch of tokens, sacrifice them for value, and reanimate some creatures.

Iconic Cards

Nature of the Beast

Nature of the Beast MTG Commander Precons 2013
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This deck is a Naya beasts deck. Unfortunately, it was not equipped with very many payoffs for playing beasts. This, however, did not harm the deck’s flavor. Nature of the Beast could unleash a feral herd upon its foes.

The commander for this deck, Marath, Will of the Wild, has an ability that gives it more power the more mana you spend to cast it. This amount grows with each new cast of Marath from the command zone. You can then use that power to your advantage with Marath’s second ability.

Iconic Cards

Commander – First Commander Precons

This set of precons was Wizards’ first attempt at a Commander product. Each deck was wedge colored, had two new Commanders in the appropriate wedges, one reprinted Commander in those colors, and a new Commander that is only two colors.

One of the first mechanics that were designed for Commander debuted in this product. It was Join Forces, and showed up on one card in every deck. These decks also feature a cycle of auras known as the “Vows”. Each one is named “Vow of ___” and grants the enchanted creature a power/toughness boost along with the text, “can’t attack you or a planeswalker you control.” Both of these cycles were creative ways for Wizards to encourage the political aspects of Commander.

Heavenly Inferno

All Commander Precons List Heavenly Inferno
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  • Main Commander: Kaalia of the Vast
  • Colors: White, Black, Red
  • Theme: Angels, Demons, and Dragons

Like the other decks released in this product, the Heavenly Inferno deck had a couple of great ideas that were spread a little too thin. There were a handful of powerful Angels, Demons, and Dragons in the deck (including a few new ones), but they came next to cards that definitely did not fit. Needless to say, there was plenty of room to upgrade this deck.

Iconic Cards

Mirror Mastery

All Commander Precons List Mirror Mastery
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This deck mostly had two goals:

  1. Ramp up to a lot of mana, so you can…
  2. Cast really big creatures or spells, and copy them with Riku.

This commander requires a lot of mana to work properly, so the deck is equipped to generate a lot of mana. However, just like Heavenly Inferno, Mirror Mastery was not very focused and left a lot of room for the buyer to upgrade it.

Iconic Cards

Counterpunch

All Commander Precons List Counterpunch
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Counterpunch, led by Ghave, Guru of Spores, wants to do precisely what it’s name implies. The deck tries to kick out a bunch of little creatures and load them up with +1/+1 counters. Once it has, it will either overrun you with the army of tokens it has made, get value from removing the counters and sacrificing the creatures, or a combination of the two.

Iconic Cards

Political Puppets

All Commander Precons List Political Puppets
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The Political Puppets deck feels like Wizards’ attempt to be hip with the kids. Don’t get me wrong, the design of Zedruu and the idea of giving your things away for value and politics is cool. Unfortunately, the deck just does not really have a great win condition. Optimized versions of this deck that give away harmful permanents and hunker down in a pillowfort can be very powerful.

Iconic Cards

Devour for Power

All Commander Precons List Devour for Power
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  • Main Commander: The Mimeoplasm
  • Colors: Black, Green, Blue
  • Theme: Graveyard

The Devour for Power precon combines creatures that have interesting abilities with creatures that have a lot of power and toughness. This way, when you fill your graveyard, The Mimeoplasm has plenty of targets to choose from.

Iconic Cards

Conclusion

So, which of the 37 decks released between 2011 and 2019 is your favorite one? Let me know in the comments below. Also, you can follow me on Instagram or Twitter.

If you’re planning on getting a precon and also upgrading it, feel free to check this Guide on How to improve Your Commander Deck. In it, you’ll find five useful tips on how you can have more fun, and win more games with your precon or a deck that you built yourself.

Last, but not least, if you want to find a list of all precons in a single article, check our aforementioned Commander Precons List.

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