Picking the right precon
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on Dec. 20, 2020, 2:57 p.m. by TheGiftedBard
Hi?!
I’m fairly new to the game and new to edh, my apologizes if I’m not in the right section.
I’m currently looking at the precons and there’s a few I’d like to try but right now I think that getting just one is probably smarter in case I end up not liking the format.
In all the precon I looked at, these are the one that my lgs still have. I’m gonna list them one by one with a quick reason why I’m interested by them.
Commander - Devour for Power - The Mimeoplasm: I do like the idea of dumping stuff in my graveyard to basically make my commander into whatever I need for a particular situation, I recently bought a small collection with a Sheoldred, Whispering One, Mortivore, Golgari Grave-Troll, Lhurgoyf and Hermit Druid.
Commander - Political Puppet - Zedruu the Greathearted: The idea of casting curses on my opponents and giving them creatures to screw them over seems terribly funny and diabolical. Switching my Steel Golem for Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre would be a win for me even if I end up losing the game.
Commander 2015 - Call the Spirits - Daxos the Returned: Building an enchantment deck seemed fun and I also have cards like Sorin Markov with his -3 and cards line Debt to the Deathless or Exsanguinate in my collection for alternative way of winning the game.
Commander 2015 - Seize Control - Mizzix of the Izmagnus: It’s probably not the main goal of the deck but casting instant and sorcery with Talrand, Sky Summoner or Murmuring Mystic and having Crackling Drake on the board to swoop in with a bunch of flying drakes and birds on the board made me laugh.
Commander 2015 - Swell the Host - Ezuri, Claw of Progress: Ezuri just looked so badass and flooding the bord with a bunch of 2 and 1 power creatures and adding stuff like Craterhoof Behemoth and Beastmaster Ascension or using Triumph of the Hordes or even buffing them up with Ezuri + some proliferate triggers looked like sometimes that could be very scary for the table.
Sorry for the long post but There’s so many choices that I got lost and confused on what could be better a first deck.
Thanks for the help.
Without really knowing what kind of decks and playstyles you prefer, the best I can do is suggest Swell the Host, the Ezuri, Claw of Progress deck.
Of all the decks listed, I think it is most likely to perform consistantly and give you a good experience with commander. The other decks are all good, so whatever you pick should be fine, especially since you seem to already know why you want to try them. The Call of Spirits deck is probably the weakest right out of the box, though.
My first 2 precons were both graveyard type decks because that's just what I enjoy, and almost every deck I build has lots of graveyard interaction. Consider what you enjoy most and what you build most often.
December 20, 2020 4:25 p.m.
TheGiftedBard says... #4
Pikobyte could you tell me which of these deck would fit in what category?
I’m gonna have to look what those terms mean so knowing which deck goes in what maybe would help me pick.
December 20, 2020 4:27 p.m.
Ezuri is pretty much aggressive but can be build for infinite turn combo too.
Mimeoplasm is often build combo, but could also be build aggressive or even control with damia (also in that precon) as a Commander.
It’s way easier if you tell us what you want your deck to do
December 20, 2020 4:31 p.m.
TheGiftedBard says... #6
Pikobyte if I had to choose I’d say that I’d like a deck that had a lot of answers to people’s threats. Be as annoying as possible but people can’t get to me either because they’re scared of the crack back or because there’s a bigger threat on the table.
Is that something possible?
December 20, 2020 5:03 p.m.
Sounds like control/pillowfort is what you want, so Zedruu the Greathearted might be what you want.
December 20, 2020 5:11 p.m.
TheGiftedBard says... #9
Pikobyte then give me your top 2 in the deck I listed.
December 20, 2020 6:09 p.m.
Probably ezuri for aggro or mizzix for spellslinger. But both don’t fit really your description of what you like
December 20, 2020 6:13 p.m.
TheGiftedBard says... #11
Pikobyte that’s fine, I’m gonna go with the Izzet deck. It looked fun with the drakes and stuff I could add in.
December 20, 2020 6:31 p.m.
King_marchesa says... #12
The Izzet one is good and for upgrades regarding your play style you could add more counter spells and removal and maybe add clone spells so you always have a copy of the biggest creature on board.
December 20, 2020 7:27 p.m.
MindAblaze says... #13
If I had to rank them;
- Mimeoplasm
- Ezuri
- Daxos
- Mizzix
- Zedruu
It sounds like you want a responsive deck, so I would say the Mimeoplasm would fit best for what you want. Throwing creatures into the yard with useful etb abilities and copying them with the ooze allows you to deal with a variety of threats, while still presenting your own. Plus the colours are the best commander has to offer.
My second pick; the simic deck gives you options to tweak in a similar way, but still allows you to go tall with Ezuri’s abilities. Not my favourite experience counter deck but I’ve seen it do powerful things.
After that, for me it’s about what the colours can do. White black is a very removal heavy color, which is kind of my jam, plus enchantments tend to play in many directions, control being one of them.
The other two decks I don’t have too high of opinions of. The way the precons are designed it allows you to experience any of the potential commanders they ship with, which means watered down versions of either, and as a spell-slinger deck or a group hug deck neither was very appealing watered down. As it’s been commented, Mizzix can be upgraded fairly cheaply though. I have seen Mizzix explode all over the kitchen table though...
December 20, 2020 8:20 p.m. Edited.
TheGiftedBard says... #14
King_marchesa I’m currently looking at a few updates right off the bat so I’ll tag you in if you wanna look at them.
December 20, 2020 8:21 p.m.
RNR_Gaming says... #15
Buy Singles and proxy. Getting a pack of sleeves and printing out some paper allows you to try before you buy especially if you're not committed to the format.
Honestly, most precons are disappointing upon closer examination. With the exception of like maybe one or 2 of the commanders in each deck and the chase card they place in the deck so it appears to have value but it's really a pile of draft chaft.
December 20, 2020 9:31 p.m.
My wife plays the Estrid, the Masked
precon, Adaptive Enchantment. I gotta say, IMO it is one of the best precons WotC has released. It's not in your list and you probably checked it out but it's worth glancing over again. I doubt it's available at your LGS but can be easily obtained via the interweb.
December 20, 2020 10:39 p.m.
Depends on the price,
if you lgs has all these 2015 commander decks and not price gouging i would buy them all
How ever if there asking for $80-$200 each like most do
I would suggest buying a more modern precon for $35-$45 instead
Pikobyte says... #2
Finally it all depends on which playstyle you like or think you like. Since you’re fairly new to the game this might be tough. But do you prefer something aggressive, more combo oriented or even control? I mean the nicest aggro deck won’t satisfy you if you don’t like aggro at all
December 20, 2020 4:21 p.m.