Summary
In the long history ofMagic: The Gathering,many different ways to play have been created by fans and Wizards of the Coast themselves. There are now several different formats for just about anyone to find a version which they enjoy.
One of the most popular formats to play is Commander, where you go up against up to three other players using a 100-card deck that’s focused around one card as your commander. If you’re looking for a cheap and easy way to get your first match of Commander going, look no further than these pre-constructed decks that give you everything you need to jump right in.
All prices have been taken from theirTCGPlayerMarket Price and are subject to change at any time.
10Starter Commander Deck - Chaos Incarnate – $29.72
Reign Chaos All Around
This Starter Deck is one of the many that Wizards of the Coast made to give new players a gateway into the Commander format. These decks are all a bit underwhelming, but that is for a good reason as they make it super simplistic and cheap to start playing.
The Chaos Incarnate deck is themed around Rakdos (black/red) cards and uses Kardur, Doomscourge as a commander to wreak chaos all around the battlefield and force your opponents to attack each other. When Kardur, Doomscourge enters the battlefield, it forces all opponent creatures to attack another player until your next turn. This can be super-powerful in controlling the board if you retrigger it in combination with the sacrifice and death triggers that this deck is filled with.
9Universes Beyond: Fallout - Science! Commander Deck – $29.52
Technologically Advanced
Fallout was one of Universes Beyond’s best collaborations and this deck is one of the cheapest ways to get some of theexcellent cardsfrom the set, or get a Fallout fan into your weekly Commander sessions. This Commander Deck focuses all on Jeskai (white/blue/red) cards to advance your board forwards with scientific enchantments and powerful mechanical Robot creatures using energy.
Even if you aren’t a Fallout fan, this deck is still a blast to experiment with thanks to its card synergies that will have you shocking your foes with the power of your artifacts and energy counters. The only major issue with the deck is the commander, Dr. Madison Li, has so many alternatives that would work so much better with what the deck does.
8Duskmourn: House Of Horror Commander Deck - Jump Scare! – $29.11
Surprising Your Friends With Jump Scares
This tricky Simic (green/blue) Landfall deck comes haunting on in packed with some of the most opponent confusing mechanics in all of MTG. Jump Scare’s main focus is on taking full advantage of the manifest variant called manifest dread, which acts just like manifest in that you put cards onto the battlefield face-down as 2/2 creatures.
This really makes the deck true to its name, as revealing your cards can really be quite the jump scare for those unprepared to see what horrors await. With Zimone, Mystery Unraveler as your commander, this deck allows you to choose just the right moment to flip the cards back up and reveal your horrific cards to leave shock all across the board and this never gets old.
7Universes Beyond: Doctor Who - Paradox Power Commander Deck – $27.77
A Two-Commander Paradox
One of the most underrated Universes Beyond collaborations is the classyDoctor Who set, which brought along a time-paradoxical bunch of cards all themed around the long-running show. For fans of the show, this precon deck takes some of the iconic characters and mixes them together into a range of Temur (green/blue/red) cards.
There are tons of great niche mechanics in this deck that help it feel like no other, such as allowing you to have two commander cards, being The Thirteenth Doctor and Yasmin Khan. Just like the show, however, some of the synergies are just way too disjointed from each other, like the plot between seasons, to consistently win your games, unless you are a Time Lord and can manipulate the deck to its limits.
6March Of The Machine Commander Deck - Tinker Time – $27.70
Marching Aimlessly
March of the Machineintroduced so many great cards and brought a close to one of the best sagas of the MTG story, and we can’t help but adore the set. Like most main sets, it came along with some Commander precons to showcase some of the brilliant new cards and make it easier to obtain certain cards. One of these precons, Tinker Time, was, unfortunately, a bit too ambitious and is regarded as one of the worst-built precons.
Even with the strength of a powerful commander in Gimbal, Gremlin Prodigy, who can create Gremlin artifact creature Tokens, this deck just has way too much going on. There are very few synergies between the cards that allow foes to quickly deal with anything you attempt to fumble around with. If more cards were to focus on the commander as the focal point of the deck rather than splitting its focus across multiple archetypes, this deck would actually be interesting.
5Duskmourn: House Of Horror Commander Deck - Death Toll – $27.14
Grave Opportunities
This Duskmourn: House of Horror Commander Deck will leave your foes shaking in fear of your dominating board that just won’t stay in the graveyard no matter how hard they try. Using strong Golgari (black/green) cards, this deck involves manipulating your graveyard to get high-cost creatures and instants out for free early by casting them from the graveyard.
Death Toll is a precon that, like most Golgari decks, is very resourceful and requires a lot of strategy to use. At all times, you need to keep track of important cards that you want and make use of abilities and instants to bring them back from or put them in the graveyard. The commander, Winter, Cynical Opportunist, is spectacular because of his strong abilities that do exactly what you need, and the entire deck has plays that other decks cannot pull off.
4Aetherdrift Commander Deck - Living Energy – $26.97
Build Your Energy Economy
Energy-focused decks can be some of the most enjoyable to play in Commander and while many were disappointed withAetherdrift,this precon released alongside the set gives you a wonderful energy Commander deck. It has a great set of modern cards that come together with some versatile combos and abilities to create an energy deck that is blended with powerful ETB retriggers.
What the deck unfortunately lacks outside of its fun playstyle is a decent late game and win conditions, as while you can build energy consistently, there aren’t many places to spend it aside from continuing to ramp up your existing board in the late game. The commander, Saheeli, Radiant Creator, is great though, and with so many interesting cards, it is a deck that refreshes the energy archetype.
3Starter Commander Deck - Grave Danger – $25.34
How Many Zombies Is Too Many?
This deck is overflowing with cards that work with Zombies to bombard your board with creatures by bringing them back from the graveyard using a variety of cards. While it isn’t the best Zombie-focused precon, Grave Danger offers great value for casual play and gives you something great to start off with and learn more about the graveyard and strategies around it.
The commander at the center of the deck is the siblings Gisa and Geralf, and with their abilities, they help make this deck synergize and create massive armies worth of Zombie creatures. Upon entering the battlefield, Gisa and Geralf mill four cards and this can help you put some of your Zombie creature cards into your graveyard for them to later cast from your graveyard once per turn. After a couple of turns, you will have tons of Zombies on the board to threaten all those who oppose you.
2Starter Commander Deck - Token Triumph – $20.62
Tokens, Come Get Your Tokens
At the start, when learning MTG, many complaints newcomers have are with the countless mechanics, keywords and counters that all need to be kept track of and, while Commander is not the most newcomer-friendly format, it can be super simple with the right deck. This Selesnya (green/white) deck is perfect for that as it focuses on one key part of gameplay and makes it simple, that being Tokens.
Despite being a Starter Deck, it actually comes equipped with a decent pool of good Selesnya cards that make the deck quite strong without any upgrades. The commander is Emmara, Soul of the Accord, and she synergizes very well with the deck’s abundance of Token creating cards by creating a 1/1 Soldier Token every time she is tapped. Like most Starter Decks, it is simplistic and easy to understand but at the cost of power.
1Starter Commander Deck - First Flight – $18.89
Learning The Basics
This Azorius (white/blue) deck focuses on evading attacks using flying creatures alongside controlling the battlefield using powerful control cards. As the name fittingly suggests, this deck is great for your “First Flight” into Commander as playing it teaches you alot of the core mechanics of the game and once it clicks, you will be playing Commander with ease.
Unfortunately, this deck is quite weak with important Azorius cards missing, and the draw power requires you to work around specific requirements that often aren’t worth it. For example, the commander, Isperia, Supreme Judge, may allow you to draw lots of cards if an opponent goes full send at you in combat, but there aren’t a lot of ways in the deck to prevent the damage to give yourself time to play those cards.
