Lathril, Blade of the ElvesLathril, Blade of the Elves | Art by Caroline Gariba

Greetings and salutations, my dear brewers. I'm Arnaud, and I'm here to take you on a journey towards the uncanny, the unknown, and most of all the underappreciated.

Since this is Precon Month, I've been tasked to find the most underappreciated preconstructed decks out there. A daunting mission, since I've counted 168 of them published since 2011.

Usually, before going into such proceedings, I establish a set of strict and objective rules. These could be financial value over time, playability, or even commander popularity.

This time though, I'm not going to follow this route. The reason is simple: I believe that blindly following a given template would inevitably obfuscate some lists that deserve to be here. Therefore, you'll have to trust my rather rotund gut.

This doesn't mean I'll choose arbitrarily. But this also means you shouldn't take these as a ranking of sorts.

Also, underappreciated doesn't mean scorned. I take it as "not given all the love they deserved". The decks I will be picking will all be chosen for a different reason, and it's that very reason I want to put into perspective.

Let's get to work.

Paradox Power – Doctor Who's Trove for Hidden Gems

I could not in good faith decide to forego Universes Beyond altogether, so this is my pick for the category.

I hesitated a lot with Blast from the Past, as some of the Doctors have hardly gone above the 300-deck threshold. Yet I believe the one I chose eventually has more potential.

Credit to where it's due: much as I dislike Universes Beyond in general, the Doctor Who precons had some of the wildest and wackiest ideas thrown in, all while respecting the core material. For fans of the franchise, this was a home-run.

Still, I believe I'm not seeing as many such decks from these as I would have expected. Yet there are some exceptional (and underused) outlets in this list:

• Quantum MisalignmentQuantum Misalignment: A great copy outlet. And hey, it's reprinted in the upcoming Marvel set!
• FlatlineFlatline: It's almost as good as Sudden SpoilingSudden Spoiling, but it's blue.
• Become the PilotBecome the Pilot: A rather cheap Control MagicControl Magic-like spell, that provides both boost and evasion.

And then there's a bunch of excellent legendary creatures, all worthy of building a deck around:

• The Thirteenth DoctorThe Thirteenth Doctor: I've seen her in action a couple of times, and that second ability can go absolutely nuts, almost Time WalkTime Walk-ing you. Xolatoyac, the Smiling FloodXolatoyac, the Smiling Flood players know what I mean.
• River SongRiver Song: Playing from the bottom of your deck has been a very fun thing to do since Grenzo, Dungeon WardenGrenzo, Dungeon Warden appeared, and this is a refreshing take on this niche brew.
• Dan LewisDan Lewis: Make a billion tokens of all sorts, and turn them into deadly pellets. Reminds me a lot of Toggo, Goblin WeaponsmithToggo, Goblin Weaponsmith, but stronger.
• Clara OswaldClara Oswald: A one-size-fits-all companion. A bit on the expensive side, but opens the way to multiple builds. Think enhanced Prismatic PiperPrismatic Piper. And yes, I've wanted to build a deck with the Piper for ages.
• Strax, Sontaran NurseStrax, Sontaran Nurse: You'd be surprised at how quick he can become a viable threat with the right deck.

There's a lot of versatility in this precon. And while it's definitely not as good as the three others, I believe it's worth a second look nonetheless.

Divine Convocation – Convoke is Fun, Planechasing even more so

I'll happily admit I'm 100% biased towards this one. Not only is March of the Machine probably my favourite set of all time, it also provided one of the most fun precons I had the chance to play in years.

I'll also happily admit that time hasn't been as kind to it as other precons of the same era. But like many other decks of this time, it's an incredible soil to work on, one that can yield exceptional fruit at minimal cost.

There are two things that I believe are rather underrated here.

First, the central theme. Convoke is all well and good, and rather fun to toy with. But what's truly at the heart of this deck is its untapped potential. More specifically, the shenanigans revolving around tapping and untapping. The secondary commander, Saint Traft and Rem KarolusSaint Traft and Rem Karolus, is in my eyes a masterpiece of design, not to mention one of my favourite personal brews. You can go incredibly wide with this deck while foregoing infinite combos. It's a potent but fair token generation engine, and my second most played deck. If you're curious about how to build it on a budget, I've also published a full Trim on the subject. But I digress. The point is, anything you do here both cheats on mana and provides you with additional advantage. It's a neat three-in-one package.

Second, it came with a set of 10 cards for Planechase. If you haven't tried this variant with your group, I urge you to give it a spin, especially with the more refined variant that builds the Eternities Map on the battlefield. If you don't own the cards and don't feel like printing them out, there are a few apps out there that can help you out. It's fun, chaotic, quirky and full of surprises. And precons are actually great to balance things out.

For these reasons, I believe Divine Convocation, and more generally all the precons from that set, are vastly underappreciated.

Rebellion Rising – Boros trying new things

I have a certain fondness for decks. They're considered by many as the ugly duckling of the color combination gang. Some will consider it offers boring play patterns. Others will shun its lack of proper card draw. Others still will complain about a lack of identity.

If you look at all the 168 commander precons printed to this day, there are only six in Boros: the recent Lorehold Spirit, from Secrets of Strixhaven; Blame Game, from Murders at Karlov Manor; Rebellion Rising, from Phyrexia: All Will Be One; Lorehold Legacies, from Strixhaven, School of Mages; Arm for Battle, from Commander Legends; and Wade into Battle, from Commander 2015. That's a drop in the ocean. Among these, I feel like there are only a couple that truly succeeded in doing something different.

• Osgir, the ReconstructorOsgir, the Reconstructor, redefined what playing in Artifacts meant. It gave rise to a new way to toy back and forth with the graveyard, and has remained for a long time the paragon of Boros play.
• Neyali, Suns' VanguardNeyali, Suns' Vanguard gave new significance to playing with tokens in Boros, providing an excellent card advantage outlet in the command zone.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying no one played with tokens in Boros before this precon came out. Heck, back when Conspiracy was released, I had built an Adriana, Captain of the GuardAdriana, Captain of the Guard brew that relied heavily on tokens.

Still, I get the impression that Neyali, just like Osgir, marked a milestone for Boros. It showed that you didn't need to stick to Equipment to make a dent, and it kicked impulse draw into the second gear.

The list isn't perfect by any means. But to this day, it also remains one of the cheapest decks you can find on the secondary market, at least in Europe. I found some listings for less than €30 (or roughly $35). It's both rather easy to play and understand, and deceptively powerful. This is one list I would happily gift a friend who's new to commander, head and shoulders above the Foundations Starter Decks.

Party Time – Baldur's Gate Was a Great Set

Ok fine, I know what you'll say. "You bashed on UB, yet you praise Baldur's Gate?"

The short answer is yes. The long one is that D&D is the one exception I'm willing to make, since it's both high fantasy and a WotC IP. That's my limit. Feel free to roast me in the comments.

But setting all those considerations aside, this was truly a great precon, packed full of valuable outlets. And I'm not surprised it's going for around €130 (or around $150) on the secondary market.

Baldur's Gate was a set that was snubbed and/or slept upon for the longest time, yet one that had a trove of hidden gems. Both commander options worked wonderfully. And the Party mechanic – of which WotC's decision to put it in Zendikar instead of the Forgotten Realms set still puzzles me to this day – is very fun to build around.

What I really like about this precon is that there are no wasted shots. Everything you do feels like a cog in a Rube Goldberg puzzle, adding more and more attrition until it proves too much for the opposition. I've tinkered extensively with Burakos and Folk Hero, building a very tight budget deck around it, and yet it's proven both fun and effective to pilot.

Now I'm not saying you should absolutely go and fetch that precon. That price is simply prohibitive. But there are a lot of singles you can still pick up for cheap. This is one list I would advise not to take as a full product, but rather an excellent base to scrounge from.

Elven Empire – Why Wizards, WHY???

I owe you a preemptive apology. For this last entry, I'll lead with a rather sad and sour note.

The savviest among you will without a doubt have raised an eyebrow. After all, Lathril remains to this day the most popular Golgari commander on EDHREC, as well as ranking #12 among all commanders with 32,493 decks to her name.

It's not the commander nor even the deck list I want to address. It's the ephemeral moment when Wizards of the Coast decided to make a move for the players, instead of mercilessly milking them to the last drop.

Lathril headed a deck list that was priced lower than the regular precons. At release, you could grab that deck for $20. That's right, a 100-card precon, that included eight original cards, for half what a regular commander precon cost back then.

Incidentally, that very precon nowadays sells for roughly $130-$150 on the secondary market.

I remember I used to play on the PlayEDH Discord around that time. The higher-ups had set up an interview with Gavin Verhey, and I had managed to ask if those excellent products would continue to be published. He had answered with a strong and vibrant yes. We all know, today, that this was not meant to be.

Sure, there are Starter Commander Precons today for Foundations which go for roughly €30 ($35). Even when considering inflation, that's nowhere near where those precons stood. And while the deck lists are fine I suppose, I still miss that spark of novelty that were those new exclusive cards.

So yes, this is a bit of a sour note. I believe that this product has been underappreciated back then, despite vocal enthusiasm. I really wish Wizards of the Coast had kept on this course of action.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed this deep dive in the past. I tried to make something a bit different.

I'd love to hear your input on this method, or rather lack of.

See you next week with the next Trim!

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