Freyalise, Llanowar's FuryFreyalise, Llanowar's Fury | Art by Adam Paquette

Time to Eat Some Greens!

...Yes, that's some advice for everyone. Eat your veggies.

Anyway, welcome back to Precon Remastered, where we take preconstructed Commander decks from ancient days and give them a modern makeover. Today, we're going to round out our coverage of Commander 2014 with the final deck, diving into mono-green. Who, though, happens to be our commander?

Our commander's fairly straightforward. Her +2 ability gives us an equivalent of a Llanowar ElvesLlanowar Elves (as if there weren't enough functional reprints of it already), ramping us for five mana. Wheee! Her -2 will blow up a troublesome artifact or enchantment, should we need it. Lastly, her ultimate is effectively Regal ForceRegal Force, a staple in Elf decks from a bygone era (and yes, I now feel older than dirt).

Preparing an Elvish Salad

As always, here are our rules for remastering precons:

1. The value of the deck cannot exceed $120. This will apply to the reprints only, which gets to my first personal quirk.
2. Every card unique to the original precon stays in the deck. All those new cards that get released with precons remain in the list.
3. The land package should closely reflect what we get in precons these days (and, in my humble opinion, they're actually pretty good).
4. At least until 2020, we're not tied to a particular set, so we're free to choose whatever we want. You can be assured I have ideas for 2020 and beyond, though.
5. Universes Beyond cards are not added. No exceptions, unless they have an in-universe variant. Granted, this will change when we get there.

With that out of the way, let's take a good look at what the precon looked like originally.

The Original List

Two Shades of Broccoli

Frequent readers of this series will find an issue that sounds very familiar. In an unexpected (but unsurprising) callback to the Commander 2013 precons, we have a deck with a split identity in our hands. The contenders? Elves and Lands. The difference is that our commander's so generic that she could technically be better served in the 99.

That said, I am obligated to run her at the helm here. In doing this, we effectively called the shot. We have a smattering of Elf kindred cards here like Ezuri, Renegade LeaderEzuri, Renegade Leader and Elvish ArchdruidElvish Archdruid, both staples of the archetype.

On the other hand, we have a Lands deck of a kind, spearheaded by Titania, Protector of ArgothTitania, Protector of Argoth. Anyone familiar with the likes of Hearthhull, the WorldseedHearthhull, the Worldseed will see that she's better off there than here. Unfortunately, we are bound by the rules, so she dodges the bullet for now. I imagine, after throwing out the rules, she'd be the first cut.

Oh, wait. I gave my scheme away. We're doing Elves! Again!

Weeding Out the Weak (and/or Pricey)

At the time of writing, the precon is about $15 over our limit, which isn't bad. The problem, however, is that our most expensive cards are either new to the precon (and thus can't be cut) or are very married to one of the two themes above. Joraga WarcallerJoraga Warcaller exemplifies this as its price tag is off the back of countless Elf decks out there.

Other big value cards include Beastmaster AscensionBeastmaster Ascension, which is nice if we're going wide. Again, the new cards carry a lot of value. Cards like Grave SifterGrave Sifter and Song of the DryadsSong of the Dryads find homes in decks beyond the precon. In fact, Sifter's price spiked because of a precon from this year.

However, all this chat about card prices raises another issue: regardless of the direction we take this precon, the prices of the upgrades won't come cheaply, and to hit the $120 range, we have to cut a number of the expensive cards to ensure we can fit them in.

That leaves us with one recourse: a makeover.

Guided by Nature Remastered

Stay Hydra-ted

That's right. Hail HYDRA!

If you went back in time to when this deck list was revealed, you'd see me hoping for some good ramp and big monsters to smash opponents with. And, if you ask me now, this is what the precon should've been (Hydra theme optional). I went with Hydras because of Grave SifterGrave Sifter, and the deck needed to pack an even bigger wallop. We still have Titania, Protector of ArgothTitania, Protector of Argoth, but she'd get the boot fast enough.

With Freyalise, Llanowar's FuryFreyalise, Llanowar's Fury at the helm, the ult isn't so important. She's mostly making dorks while sniping the occasional artifact or enchantment. Besides, we have much better card draw than her now. Drop the rules here, too, and she's going to get usurped by Gargos, Vicious WatcherGargos, Vicious Watcher. That said, she'd be at home in the 99.

Sunsetting Another Set of Precons

That about does it for our only set of monocolor precons (barring the Starter ones coming out in October). Now I turn to you, the reader: what would you have done differently, if not Hydras? Were there, in fact, enough cheap cards to make Elves or Lands work? Or was I in the right to avoid both like I did (provided that the rules were followed)?

Anyway, next week, we return to my other series, Commander Makeover, covering what could very well be the first commander we'd consider as an autopilot (something I'll cover then). After that, we begin Commander 2015 in earnest. See you all next time!