Omo, Queen of VesuvaOmo, Queen of Vesuva | Art by Alex Brock

Hello, and welcome back to How To Be New, a series for players for whom every draw from their deck feels just as unfamiliar and startling as unboxing a Ninja Turtles card in their Lorwyn Eclipsed prerelease kit.

Today, we'll be talking about one of my favorite topics in Commander, and that's the oft-discussed Commander preconstructed deck ("precon"). These are the preconstructed Commander decks that Wizards of the Coast releases alongside most new sets.

I love precons. Assembling a deck whole cloth is tough for newer players. Heck, even updating preconstructed decks can be tough (just ask my Miracle Worker deck that's sitting on my desk, begging me to pick from the 30 cards I'm considering adding so that it can actually see a game table). Truly, the simple pleasure of just opening a deck, tossing some sleeves on it, shuffling up, and surprising yourself at what you find is akin to what I imagine dads feel when they drop a line into the local pond on a warm Sunday afternoon. It's just pure, contented bliss.

But the world of precons is vast. There are truly so many. They do so many different things and cost so many different dollar amounts. How do you possibly choose which ones are best to buy as a new player?

Well, not only do I have some answers for you, I have some directions. Because by their nature, preconstructed decks are great for learning one particular facet of the game or another. And I have a few decks that I'd recommend as wonderful places to start in order to get to know some of the most fundamental parts of Commander, and indeed, Magic itself.

Get To Know Combat With Blame Game

Blame Game is a precon I opened at my very first MagicCon, when I'd only been playing Commander for a handful of months. And the first thing I have to say about it is that it absolutely crushed the Precon Chaos event I played it in (in these events, you get handed a random precon deck, put in a random pod, and off you go. It's wonderful).

I won the first game somewhat handily. And when one of my opponents from my first pod saw me approaching him to join him in his second, the crestfallen look on his face said it all. He was playing a fairly powerful five-color deck, and another guy at that table had the very good Slivers precon. It didn't matter. On that day, Nelly BorcaNelly Borca would not be denied.

It's an easy enough deck to pilot, especially for new players. It makes heavy use of the goad mechanic to get your opponents' creatures swinging at each other at every possible opportunity, leaving you clean and dry far away from the maelstrom.

So why does that help you to learn the ins and outs of combat? Because you'll get to constantly watch more veteran players navigate it during every one of their turns. It's more of a visual learning method rather than tactile, but it's powerfully instructive if you pay attention.

Another benefit of the goad mechanic is that it can help teach you threat assessment, which I talked about in my last article. Did someone just bring out a creature that everybody groaned at? Or did someone read you a creature with a lot of lines of text that you're not exactly sure you followed? Just goad it! See what it can do by watching it bring its might to bear against another one of your opponents.

You'll get to see plenty of examples of how to handle attacking and defending from players who, presumably, know those skills much better than you do. What were you going to learn from that creature just sitting on the back line? Make its controller huck it straight into combat. You'll learn pretty quickly which creatures you'd prefer not to mess with.

Suggested Upgrades

I had the Masters of Evil Doctor Who precon on hand already, and there are a couple of fantastic cards in there to slot into this deck.

Day of the MoonDay of the Moon is a very fun card, and The Sound of DrumsThe Sound of Drums is extremely nasty when attached to certain creatures. Sontaran GeneralSontaran General is also a wonderful include. I've used all three to great effect in this deck.

Get To Know Lands With Tricky Terrain

I just got to play Tricky Terrain for the first time last week. I'd seen it played at a different Precon Chaos event, and it didn't really get off the ground, which is what I told my pod when I pulled it out and they asked me about its power level.

Then, I got to play Dark DepthsDark Depths, a card I'd long admired but never actually had in any of my decks, on turn three. On turn four, I copied Dark Depths with another land (there's a strong chance I misplayed Copy LandCopy Land and none of my pod caught it, but I also had Thespian's StageThespian's Stage in hand, so I could've achieved this regardless). The new Dark Depths didn't have any ice counters on it, and as such, it sacrificed itself and produced a glorious, flying, 20/20 indestructible Marit LageMarit Lage that singlehandedly won me the game.

Did I feel a little bad? Honestly, no. It felt totally awesome. And that's what this deck is. It's incredible. And the reason it's so cool is because you'll get to play with a ton of interesting lands that you probably wouldn't see otherwise. There's Locuses, and Caves, and Gates. In this deck with 44 lands, there are four Forests and three Islands. That's all of your basics.

This is a deck to help you fully grasp what an incredible resources lands are, and why they're often the most expensive part of any player's collection. It will also help you learn whether any other members of your pod are cruel enough to run Blood MoonBlood Moon, and why exactly that card is perennially on the EDHREC Salt List.

And the rest of the deck plays into this as well. There's ramp galore, there's powerful X-cost spells like Aggressive BiomancyAggressive Biomancy and Finale of RevelationFinale of Revelation to take advantage of all of the mana your lands produce. There's even an Apex DevastatorApex Devastator, in case you're looking to fold your mind in half several times in a row like in that one Mythbusters episode.

It's an extremely cool deck that I'm thrilled to have in my collection.

Suggested Upgrades

As I mentioned, I'm a bit newer to this deck, so I don't have too many recommendations. But I do have an idea. If you've managed to get your hands on any Avatar cards, the alternate commander in this deck, Jyoti, Moag AncientJyoti, Moag Ancient, would love to help you make this into an absolutely bonkers earthbending-based deck.

Get To Know Triggers With Mardu Surge

I bought this deck originally thinking, "Oh, this will be a nice, simple deck for new players to play. Strong, but not too difficult." And then I played a couple of turns with it and, my goodness, even for someone whose first deck was The Jolly Balloon ManThe Jolly Balloon Man, there sure are a lot of tokens coming on and off of the battlefield in this one.

At one point in my second game with Mardu Surge, all of my creatures had myriad, but the copies (and all other tokens) entered as 4/4 Angels with vigilance and flying. It took multiple people to help me through my triggers without my brain tearing in half.

But, it was a powerful instructive experience. If you're someone who likes to get their hands dirty, who learns to swim in an olympic-sized diving pool, whose first board game was Twilight Imperium, this is the deck for you.

It's not the easiest to pilot, but that's what's so helpful about it. If you can master the triggers in this deck, there will be sparingly few decks who can phase you (and who you and your pod would even want to see hit the table).

Suggested Upgrades

Honestly, I wanted to start our discussion here with some suggested downgrades. For example, if you're new and would prefer to warm up to this deck rather than dive in headfirst, take out Legion LoyaltyLegion Loyalty and and Divine VisitationDivine Visitation. They're the two main culprits behind the situation I described earlier. They're also very strong cards, and once you feel ready to include them, that fact will contribute greatly to the sense of reward you'll feel for having mastered this deck.

In the meantime, toss in Wound ReflectionWound Reflection instead, to really pour some water on the sauna coals and watch your opponents sweat. Another wonderful friend to this deck is Caesar, Legion's EmperorCaesar, Legion's Emperor. He fits both in the token generation goal of this deck and in the sacrifice outlet category.

These decks should all be relatively inexpensive and available at your FLGS. Any one of them would be a great place to start your Commander journey. If you're Commander-curious, I highly recommend picking one of these up and going to your local Commander night. Truly and honestly, they're all solid decks that won't be too far outclassed by Bracket 2 or 3 decks.

And if you walk up to a table saying "I only have a precon" and you're welcomed to sit down, then you'll know you're in good company and that those players should help you have a fun first Commander night.

Of course, there are so many more precons out there, each with something incredible to teach you. And soon I'll be sharing some more intermediate precons, both in terms of price and complexity, for players looking to take that next step. As a quick preview, I'm just going to leave a picture here of one of my new favorite cards:

That is all.