(Lathril, Blade of the Elves | Art by Caroline Gariba)

Family Feud: Kaldheim Precon Playtest

Welcome to the first installment of Family Feud! In this series, father and son (Mark and Max, respectively) will playtest the new Commander preconstructed decks against each other (both in 1v1 and in multiplayer games) and report their observations. They will then upgrade their decks and repeat the process.

Elven Empire – Mark

I chose the Elven Empire deck, commanded by Lathril, Blade of the Elves.

This deck has the makings of a powerful Elf tribal deck with a fantastic commander at the helm.

Deck Contents

The 99 includes the following:

Overall, it’s a pretty good spread among the different categories except for board wipes: there are 39 creatures in this deck (many of which have great abilities that interact with the board, by the way), but even in creature-heavy decks like this one, board wipes are still critical. Also missing is any graveyard hate; why not at least Bojuka Bog?

Recursion is on the heavy side for a deck like this one. As with many Precons, there is no protection for our commander, and there're no tutors, although I wouldn't expect the latter. The remaining 11 cards include combat-related effects that pump our Elves, provide deathtouch, etc. In addition, there are token-generators, many of which grow our existing token base. Some overall solid cards included in the deck are: Beast Whisperer, Elvish Archdruid, Harvest Season, Timberwatch Elf, Wolverine Riders, Elven Ambush, Elvish Promenade, Rhys, the Exiled, and Ruthless Winnower.

This deck wants to get Lathril, Blade of the Elves out early and swing away with her menace, create a critical mass of Elf Warrior tokens, create more tokens, then swing in, either pumped for combat damage, tapped with Lathril’s second ability, or both!

So... how does the deck play out of the box? In 1v1 against the Phantom Premonition deck, I got absolutely smoked by Junior. With so few one- and two-drops, this deck was just too slow. Too many games I could not get a card out until turn three, so ended up saying, “Forest, Pass; Swamp, Pass” on turn one and two, respectively. Typically, by the time I got my commander on the board, Max either had multiple tokens to block Lathril, Blade of the Elves or just dealt with her using some sort of targeted removal, like Curse of the Swine. I had no way to protect Lathril, Blade of the Elves from such spells. When I did get my Elf Warrior tokens on the board, they were ineffective in blocking Phantom’s army of flyers. He was also able to effectively blink his creatures to provide pseudo-vigilance, and his deck also had board wipes, which really set me back when I didn’t have a solid recursion option on the board.

I did also playtest the deck in multiplayer, where it fared much, much better. More players allowed for more time to set up and get Lathril, Blade of the Elves out. Once out, it was easier in a four-player game to find an open target and start building the token base. Once I had this base, a card like Elven Ambush allowed me to double my tokens and really get the engine rolling. Elderfang Venom was also effective, giving my Elves deathtouch and forcing painful blocking decisions for my opponents. In one game I was actually able to more than hold my own for well over an hour in a four-player pod against opponents with tuned decks. Midway through this game, I was actually THE threat on the board with the other three players all ganging up on me.

Overall Thoughts

While the deck is pretty focused on the abilities of this commander and is fairly balanced, this deck is not well-constructed, especially for 1v1 out of the box. Specifically:

• The mana curve is awful, with virtually no one- or two-drops. In general, at 3.63 CMC, this deck is way too high-costed for an Elf tribal that wants to run lean and mean. While the deck has plenty of ramp, much of it is too expensive.
• The interaction, for the most part, is slow, clunky, and ineffective.
• Too much recursion for a deck like this, an some of it is contradictory (e.g., do I want to exile a creature when it dies to play it later with Serpent’s Soul-Jar, or do I want to put it into my grave and create a 1/1 token with Prowess of the Fair)?
• While there are sufficient sources of card advantage, many of them are clunky and situational.
• Sometimes you just need a card and you need it now, not maybe on my next turn! Many games stalled out with only one or two cards in my hand, usually lands.

The Good News

This a fun, aggressive deck to play, and it’s got a lot of potential. It’s an excellent first Commander deck for many as it plays fairly straightforward. It’s also a great deck for the established player that should have many of the logical upgrades already in their collection. As with all of the recent Commander Precons, this represents a great value: with a purchase price around $20, you get about $60 worth of cards. The commander is solid, and her second ability is very powerful and easy to build around. There are so many great, inexpensive Elf tribal cards and better interaction/ramp/draw options readily available that this deck is easily upgradable to compete at your local game store. I can’t wait to upgrade it and get my shot at revenge against Max!

Phantom Premonition - Max

I chose the Phantom Premonition Precon because I thought that Foretell and blink would make for an interesting and unique deck. For those not familiar, Foretell is a new mechanic in the Kaldhiem sets. Similar to Morph, it provides an element of surprise as to what exactly is face-down that helps keep opponents off-balance. The commander of the deck is Ranar, the Ever-Watchful.

A rules check confirms that if you exile two creatures at the same time or exile two or more cards from your hand, you will only create one Spirit token, so another effective option is to exile one of your opponent's creatures to create a token when your commander is on the battlefield.

Deck Contents

A detailed look at this deck reveals the following:

Overall, this deck’s stats are very solid. A tutor or two would be nice, but I'm not complaining. For a Precon, this is very good.
Now, let’s look at the synergy in the deck:

• 10 cards with Foretell, which is pretty good for a new mechanic (also, Ethereal Valkyrie can give cards in your hand Foretell)
• 4 cards that care about Foretell
• 14 creatures with ETB effects
• 8 cards that blink creatures
• 7 cards that make tokens
• 4 cards that pump tokens, two of which only pump flyers

The best cards in the deck are Brago, King Eternal, Day of the Dragons, Storm Herd, Ethereal Valkyrie, Angel of Serenity, and Synthetic Destiny.

In 1v1 play, this deck was incredible, easily handling Dad and his army of Elves. In general, it’s a really good Precon out of the box in 1v1 because the flying tokens are hard to deal with for most decks, especially other Precons with limited interaction. The deck can also just plain outvalue the opponent in 1v1. When playing Dad, I really tried to remove or neuter Lathril, Blade of the Elves because I know the way Elf decks win is by getting a critical mass of Elves and then pumping them up and swinging. As a result, I tried to ramp out Ranar, the Ever-Watchful quickly and start making tokens to block. I also tried to hold up board wipes to make sure I could deal with his board.

In multiplayer games, the deck was still very good, but not spectacular like it is in 1v1 play. In multiplayer, the 1/1 tokens aren't big enough to usually make an impact on the game with three other players to deal with. I quickly realized that Ranar, the Ever-Watchful is significantly worse when you have to deal 120 damage to win. I was able to use explosive cards like Day of the Dragons to pump up my tokens, and I also used Synthetic Destiny to polymorph my tokens into actual creatures with useful abilities from my deck.

Overall Thoughts

• This deck is powerful, well-built, and an excellent value for $20.
• Foretell is a powerful mechanic. I wish there were more solid cards with Foretell in the deck. Hopefully Wizards will continue to release more cards with this mechanic.
• This deck is a very fun deck to play.
• It is a little slow, but no more so than most Precons.
• The deck is somewhat dependent on certain cards (Storm Herd, Brago, King Eternal, etc.) and timely interaction

In summary, this is one of the best out-of-the-box Precons I have ever played. There are many different ways to play the deck, and each game reveals different lines of play. You can easily upgrade or downgrade the deck to any power level. I think that a lot of players will pick up this deck, play it as is, and be very happy with it. Dad keeps talking about an upgrade and rematch; I say, "Bring it on."

Mark & Max Berberian

Max started playing Magic at camp, M15 set. When he's not in school, playing EDH or tweaking his beloved Teysa deck, he is playing baseball, basketball and football. Mark (Max's Dad) agreed to a quick game with Max one day and got hooked. In addition to Magic, he enjoys golfing, skiing, coaching sports teams, playing music and spending time with his family. They live in the Boston area.