Best Commander Precons - Top 10 Strongest

Commander is Magic: The Gathering's most popular format, and the preconstructed decks are just as popular. They're meant to be easy on-ramps to EDH, but the new cards, ease of use, and powerful reprints make them favorites for even veteran players. Today, I'll be looking at the best commander precons ever printed.

Let's talk metrics for a second. What makes a commander precon powerful? In general, when looking at power level, I considered the overall game plan, the synergy of the 99 with that game plan, things like interaction, ramp, mana base and card draw, the commander, and the power of the remaining stand-alone cards.

Many people think of the old-school precons like the Kaalia of the Vast and Edgar Markov decks as highly powerful. In truth, I think the commanders themselves were extremely powerful, but the overall decks were not very well built. That said, I think more recent decks have overtaken them. With that out of the way, let's get into the top 10 best commander precons.

Top 10 Best Commander Precons

10. Mutant Menace

Commander:

The Mutant Menace deck wants to do a few things—it has the Rad counters, a mill plan, and a +1/+1 counter theme. They all have their place, but the +1/+1 counters are where the deck shines. A total of 22 cards put counters on themselves or others.

It's fairly easy to build a formidable attacking force and chip away at opponents via rad counters. The deck also has a lot of creatures with flying, plus Skatewing Spy. So, getting your creatures to a good size and swinging out is hard to deal with. This is the "meat and potatoes" of the deck, so to speak. However, it is no one-trick pony, and the mill and recursion plan offer some resilience.

The deck also fully takes advantage of having access to blue/green and has an impressive "out of the box" ramp and card draw package that helps it quickly get up to speed and stay in the race as the game goes on. If you're a Fallout fan looking for a strong commander deck, this certainly fits the bill.

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9. Enduring Enchantments

Commander:

Enduring Enchantments is a serious contender for one of the strongest precons to hit the Commander format in a while. It has an outstanding balance of power, synergy, and flexibility, making it fun and competitive.

First off, this deck's enchantment suite is top-notch. Cards like Enchantress's Presence, Archon of Sun's Grace, Sigil of the Empty Throne, and many more are part of a package that rewards you for playing enchantments, and it does it in spades. Between enchantment creatures and enchantments, the deck packs an insane 43 enchantments.

Then, the coolest thing about the deck is the power of the reanimation shenanigans with Anikthea. Considering the versatility of the enchantments in the deck, Anikthea essentially gives you toolbox-style access to whatever you need. For example, card draw (Cunning Rhetoric,  Enchantress's Presence) removal (Grasp of Fate, Cast Out) and bodies (Sigil of the Empty Throne, Sandwurm Convergence).

In addition to this extreme value engine, anything Anikthea copies will be a 3/3 creature with menace. So, not only do you have a robust enchantress build, but you're also creating an army of attackers with built-in evasion as you play and copy your enchantments. Whether new to Commander or a seasoned veteran, this precon is worth checking out if you've never seen it in action.

8. Veloci-Ramp-Tor

Commander:

Veloci-Ramp-Tor is a green, red, and white dino-themed deck that focuses on ramping into big dinosaurs. It's a fun strategy that can quickly overwhelm opponents. While the deck excels at getting ahead on mana via a plethora of ramp spells, its true power comes from Pantlaza, Sun-Favored and his "discover" ability.

It's very similar to Cascade and gives you an extra spell and the option to cast it for free every time you cast a dinosaur. As mentioned, the deck ramps very well, and 35 of the 40 creatures are dinosaurs. So, almost every creature you ramp out will net you an extra card, often for no mana.

You also don't have to cast the card you discover into if you don't want to. This can be a significant upside if you happen to get a removal spell or board wipe that you'd rather not use at that moment. The focus on dinosaurs and ramp provides a cohesive enough strategy and access to powerful creatures to be solid alone. And Pantlaza's ability makes every dinosaur that much better when you cast it.

This is a powerful combination; the deck can quickly establish a board presence and apply pressure from multiple angles, leaving opponents struggling to keep up with the constant onslaught.

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7. Riders of Rohan

Commander:

Riders of Rohan offers a LOTR-themed, human tribal deck that packs a real punch. The face commander, Eowyn, Shieldmaiden, creates two 2/2 human creature tokens (at the beginning of combat on your turn) if another human has entered the battlefield. This is quite powerful, and thanks to Eowyn's own stats, she makes a total of 9/8 worth of power and toughness spread over three bodies.

29 of the deck's 31 creatures are humans, so Eowyn's ability is easy to trigger, and even drawing the card isn't too hard. Considering the deck's human count is so high, there are several payoff cards in the deck as well. This includes things like Door of Destinies, Vanquisher's Banner, and Herald's Horn.

The secondary commander Aragorn, King of Gondor gives the deck a monarch theme that gives the deck a lot of incremental value without weakening the core strategy. Considering his second ability makes all your creatures unable to be blocked, any cards that grant you monarch become potentially game-enders when you have a big board.

6. Explorers of the Deep

Commander:

Explorers of the Deep is a standout precon due to its exceptional synergy and card advantage capabilities. The deck centers around merfolk tribal and the Explore mechanic, creating a highly cohesive and efficient strategy of putting +1/+1 counters on evasive creatures. Hakbal, the Surging Soul himself, does a lot in this regard, allowing each merfolk to explore at the start of your combat.

The explore mechanic pulls double duty in the deck and offers a repeatable source of card advantage, lands, and a way to build threats. Aside from the threat the +1/+1 counters create themselves, many of the creatures synergize quite well with them. 

 

Hakbal is also a source of ramp, considering every time he attacks, you can play out the lands you've expanded into. The deck's ability to generate value, ramp, and draw cards makes it consistent and explosive. Considering the deck's "go wide" approach, it's not uncommon to get several explore triggers per turn, churn through your deck, and build a hard-to-deal-with board all at once.

There are also plenty of straight-up merfolk tribal syenergies that round out the deck's ability to close out games, too. There are 25 merfolk in the deck, five lords, and countless others that distribute counters to themselves and others. So, the deck plays quite well, even with Hakbal in play.

5. Party Time

Commander:

Party Time is built around the "party" mechanic, which rewards you when you have a Cleric, Rogue, Warrior, and Wizard in play. In this case, Nalia de'Arnise is a big payoff, giving you card advantage, a pump for your creatures, and deathtouch. Considering Nalia herself is a Rouge, she meets 25% of the party requirements by herself.

The deck has 45 creatures, and 44 of them contribute to a full party. This extremely high amount of redundancy means the deck is highly consistent, and the commander, Nalia de'Arnise, generates some insane card advantage. As long as you've got the available mana, there is no limit to how many creatures you can cast from the top of your deck.

Many creatures have a "party creature type" almost coincidently tacked onto them, too, so the deck gets to play some generally powerful creatures that overlap with the strategy. The cards pictured above are perfect examples of utility creatures that happen to be clerics, rogues, warriors, or wizards. Pontif of Blight, High Priest of Penance and Grim Hireling are a few other noatble ones.

Beyond the synergy and card advantage, the deck plays a handful of powerful cards in the 99, such as Black Market Connections. Nalia de'Arnise being three means the deck can come online very early and consistently, and the mana base, while simple, is very effective. Party Time has a focused game plan and the tools needed to execute it early and often, and it is pretty potent.

4. Necron Dynasties

Commander:

At number four, we have Necron Dynasties. It has a strong artifact strategy that is complemented by a powerful graveyard strategy. The face commander, Szarekh, the Silent King, mills three cards when he attacks and returns an artifact creature from among them to your hand. 28 of the deck's creatures are artifact creatures, so there are plenty of good targets for this.

However, in terms of pure power, I prefer running Imotekh the Stormlord as the commander. Making two 2/2 artifact creature tokens whenever an artifact leaves your graveyard is incredible, alongside unearth cards like Chronomancer and Lokhust Heavy Destroyer as well as things like Anrakyr the Traveller. He also gives another target artifact creature you control, gets +2/+2, and gains menace until the end of the turn.

Regardless of which commader you play, the unearth cards and graveyard recursion makes the deck incredibly resielnt and hard to keep down. Even if someone wipes away your artifact tokens, cards like Dread Return and Beacon of Unrest keep the biggest threats coming back.

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Aside from being streamlined and resident, the deck plays consistently and smoothly, too. The mana curve is great, and being mono-black means you'll never have a problem with mana. The deck has good ramp and solid sweepers, including Living Death, Their Name Is Death, and Mutilate.

This removal package, plus the reanimation suite, means you'll almost always reach the late game playing this deck. When you do, the deck's ramp package and curability make it difficult to deal with.

3. Urza’s Iron Alliance

Commander:

Urza’s Iron Alliance shines because of its commander. Urza can make some massive token creatures every turn, and it's easy to cheat his commander tax, thanks to his affinity for artifact creatures. Of course, the "artifact creatures you control have menace" is a cherry on top for a deck that churns out giant artifact creatures every turn.

Like any good artifact-based EDH deck, there are plenty of other synergies, too. For example, Chief of the Foundry, Etherium Sculptor, Master of Etherium, Steel Overseer and Cranial Plating all reduce your spells or make them hit harder.

Overall, the deck is consistent, gets the plan going right out of the gate, and can survive being interacted with. The curve, ramp package, card draw, and removal are on point, too. The list includes Swords to Plowshares, Vindicate, Despak and three board wipes.

There are plenty of early game plays (17 two-drops), solid cards on the top end, and a full 10 ramp spells. Right out of the box, Urza’s Iron Alliance has a streamlined plan, the tools to execute it, and the ability to withstand and rebuild opposing removal.

2. Timey-Wimey

Commanders:

All of the Doctor Who precons are powerful, but Timey-Wimey is probably the best of the bunch. In a nutshell, the deck uses a combination of powerful suspend spells and the "time travel" mechanic to cheat powerful spells out early. Time travel says, "For each suspended card you own and each permanent you control with a time counter on it, you may add or remove a time counter."

So, you can put out cards like Judoon Enforcers, Star Whale, and Atraxi Warden out early. What's nice is that almost every card in the deck contributes to this strategy meaningfully. There are a high number of suspend spells, and things like Wibbly-wobbly, Timey-wimey, All of History, All at Once, and The Tenth Doctor go a long way in getting them out ahead of schedule.

Aside from that, the cards from the 99 that are more standalone cards are potent, too. Things like Farewell and Everybody Lives! are both bangers and the best examples. The fact that the deck has two commanders also ups the power level quite a bit because you essentially start the game with two extra cards in hand and fill two spots on your curve. If you've never played with or against partner commanders, it can be deceptive just how good they are.

To top things off, Timey-Wimey has an incredible mana base. Deserted Beach, Fiery Islet, Frostboil Snarl, Furycalm Snarl, Stormcarved Coast, Sunbaked Canyon, and Sundown Pass are all included and make the mana base smooth as can be. 

1. Eldrazi Unbound

Commander:

My top pick for the most powerful commander precon is Eldrazi Unbuond. And I think it's not even close. The curve for the deck is incredibly high, and the ramp is plentiful. So, in the late game, Eldrazi Unbound is utterly dominant. And the commander, Zhulodok, Void Gorger, makes the top-end creatures even better by giving them double cascade. You play huge spells and get two more spells with them.

Being completely colorless makes the deck's mana rocks highly effective and there are 17 total peices of ramp in the stock list. Plus, things like Eldrazi Temple, Urza's Mine, Urza's Power Plant, and Urza's Tower for even more top-end and explosivness.

Speaking of the mana base, it's fantastic with a lot of utility lands that the deck can play without downside. Things like Arch of Orazca, Blast Zone, Tyrite Sanctum, and many more. Being completely colorless means less than optimal interaction compared to decks that can play Counterspell or Path to Exile, but that's more than made up for by the incredible ramp and overwhelmingly powerful top end of the deck.

Conclusion

There you have it, my friends, my top 10 picks for the best commander precons ever made. Now, I want to hear from you - Do you agree with my list? What precons have you played with/against that were hard-hitting and perhaps didn't make the list? Comment below and let me know.