(Seize the SpotlightSeize the Spotlight | Art by Ernanda Souza)

Friendly greetings and welcome to Precon Month on EDHREC! I'm John Sherwood, and I'm here to Seize the SpotlightSeize the Spotlight for precon cards that deserve an encore.

Preconstructed decks are an important gateway to card games, especially Commander. The best precons lower the barriers to entry by providing an affordable way to bypass deckbuilding, shuffle up, and play.

For the veteran player, many Commander precons offer engaging gameplay out of the box, and excellent shells for new and upgraded decks.

Commander precons usually come with unique new cards, and many of them go on to become format stars. Other precon cards disappear into bulk bins, and fade into obscurity.

Many of those cards are better than their inclusion rates on EDHREC suggest, and I prepared ten examples for you.

First, a little context.

Before getting into the list, let's take a look at how we got here. Fifteen years ago, the Commander 2011 (CMD) preconstructed decks introduced 51 new cards to the game, commencing a new era of Magic design. Since then, over 2200 cards got their first printings with a Commander set code.

Approximately 7% of the Commander-legal card pool was made directly for our format, but how frequently are those cards played?

High-profile examples dominate EDHREC's list of most popular commanders. Presently seven of the top 10 are precon commanders. Kaalia of the VastKaalia of the Vast is one of the original Commander precon leaders, currently #6 overall. Zooming out to the top 100, half of the ranked legends are precon originals.

Moving over to EDHREC's top cards, only eight of the top 100 were originally printed in Commander products. The leader of that pack is Chaos WarpChaos Warp, another of those first 51 Commander precon cards.

A removal spell that can hit any permanent type broke new ground and the color pie for red. It's still a top nonland card in many libraries for that reason.

Many internet voices bemoan the pipeline of designed-for-Commander cards. Apparently, there's some credence to those complaints if we're only looking in command zones.

By taking a wider view, it appears only a small minority of made-for-Commander cards are climbing the popularity charts.

With that in mind, I'm ready to show you 10 underplayed cards. In the spirit of EDHREC's Precon Month, all the cards in this list made their debut in Commander preconstructed decks.

Main Phase Misfits

RegrowthRegrowth is premium recursion for green, and you can get it on a creature as Eternal WitnessEternal Witness. Healing Technique fulfills the graveyard recursion role with a multiplayer twist thanks to demonstrate.

I'm often quick to turn my nose up at any card that gives opponents a resource, but demonstrate is a very useful political tool. With the power of dealmaking, the demonstrate feature on Healing TechniqueHealing Technique helps players collaborate against threats.

That removal spell your opponent cast earlier is suddenly useful again, if you can convince them to point at a mutual problem. If you're truly averse to teamwork, you could simply choose a player with nothing impactful in their graveyard. You still get the spell twice, even if they don't get anything useful with their copy.

Synthetic DestinySynthetic Destiny asks you to build a blue deck with creatures in mind. In return, it will help you set up backbreaking board states. You could play fair and balanced Magic, casting big threats one at a time, on your own turn.

Or you could cast Synthetic Destiny during an opponent's second main phase, trading your setup pieces for bombs at the end of their turn, and then attacking big on your turn.

An archetype where Synthetic Destiny shines is in token decks like Kykar, Wind's FuryKykar, Wind's Fury. Synthetic Destiny can exchange tokens for more token generators like Monastery MentorMonastery Mentor and Murmuring MysticMurmuring Mystic.

As an edge case, you might use Synthetic Destiny to turn an opponent's board wipe into your board advantage. Commander players often telegraph their FarewellFarewells. If you see a board wipe coming, hold up Synthetic Destiny to quickly rebuild.

Truth or ConsequencesTruth or Consequences is one of the few voting cards with interestingly divergent outcomes. On one end, everyone could vote truth, and the spell is basically ConcentrateConcentrate. In truth, blue has more efficient card draw, but we're not playing this card for efficiency.

The alternative consequences give the voting some stakes. How many Lightning BoltLightning Bolts to the face are your opponents willing to risk if they don't want you drawing cards?

"Play more lands," and, "Play more removal," are simultaneously dismissive platitudes and solid advice to Commander players. Underdark RiftUnderdark Rift is both a land and removal that is legal in any Commander deck.

Both is good. It enters untapped, is fair for colorless removal, and it hits three permanent types. On a versatile card with low cost of inclusion, the main drawback is a restriction to activate only as a sorcery.

Combat Curiosities

Evasion for the whole board is a good enough reason to play Midnight PathlighterMidnight Pathlighter, and its combat damage trigger is good enough to be a one-off instance of venturing in the dungeon. Your opponents probably aren't playing their legendary creatures because they plan to block with them.

Furthermore, it's easy to go wider than the number of legends in a typical Commander game. When you venture into the dungeon with Midnight Pathlighter, I recommend the Lost Mine of PhandelverLost Mine of Phandelver because the left path leans into combat.

Versatility and proactivity are two of the traits I value most in a card, Redemption ArcRedemption Arc captures both. If you're into a Voltron strategy, goading your own creature is no big deal.

You were going to attack anyway, and you can swing and indestructible creature with impunity. Alternatively, you can goad one of your opponent's threats and make it everyone else's problem.

In a pinch, you can always pay to make that problem go away. Whether protecting your own creature, or messing with your opponents, this Aura is the antithesis of PacifismPacifism, and it's wonderful.

What if a card could win you the game in combat, without actually dealing combat damage? Within RangeWithin Range can do that, if you have enough creatures to swing with, and it even makes a couple tokens to help get you there.

End Step Enigma

Ok, there's nothing enigmatic about this next card. It's more like Alexander cutting the Gordian Knot.

The enigma I can't wrap my head around is the tendency toward solitaire gameplay in Commander. Fortunately, Charging CinderhornCharging Cinderhorn sees those precious value engines and encourages players to choose violence.

It suffers from low toughness and no evasion, but its effect creates a new decision point every turn. Remember I said I value proactivity? This burning bovine encourages players to be proactive.

The first round of damage is manageable, but after one round on the table, it threatens damage greater than its power on each player's turn.

Second in Command

Every captain needs a good first mate; every commander needs a lieutenant they can count on. If you're playing in Brackets 2 or 3, I bet there's a card with the lieutenant ability word that would make your deck better. There are currently thirteen cards with lieutenant, each offering a different reward for having your commander in play.

Released in Commander 2018, the loyal cycle was the second batch of creatures with lieutenant. Of C18's five loyal lieutenants, Loyal ApprenticeLoyal Apprentice leads the popularity contest with an impressive 170,000 decks, leaving Loyal GuardianLoyal Guardian in a very distant second-place by a titanic margin of 120,000 decks.

Edging out my personal favorite, Loyal DrakeLoyal Drake, for third place, Loyal SubordinateLoyal Subordinate's numbers are probably propped up by its creature type (Zombie). As is often the case for the white card in a cycle, Loyal UnicornLoyal Unicorn lags far beyond its peers.

I challenge that stat™; 21k decks is way too low for a card that keeps your attackers alive and available to block. Vigilance is easily one of the best keywords, allowing you to go on offense without sacrificing defense.

Loyal Unicorn also protects your offense from your opponents' blockers, in a color that overwhelming supports combat decks. I can't fathom how this card fell to the bottom of the pile, and I'm confident it's better than the numbers suggest.

Gift a Fish

All the cards I picked for this list have something in common. Every one of the ten appear in less than 1% of eligible decks. That's crazy to me, but I think I know the real reason these cards are underplayed.

Since the inception of Commander preconstructed decks, the format has grown exponentially. The breadth and depth of the format are too immense for many cards to get the playtime they deserve.

It's a vast ocean with a lot of bigger fish. Still, we don't enjoy oceanography just for the whales and sharks. Biodiversity is important, and (to a less globally existential extent) format diversity is important too.

The obscure, the brightly colored, and the oddly shaped fish make the ocean marvelous. So gift yourself a fish and put something underplayed in your Commander deck.