Hello precon enthusiasts! Today we’re embarking on a new adventure in the world of preconstructed Commander decks. In this new series we're calling Precon Redux, we’re taking an old precon and reimagining it in the current era. And we’re kicking things off with Political Puppets, led by Zedruu the Greathearted, from the first very first set of Commander precons.

What is Precon Redux?

Before we get into the deck, let’s establish the goal and ground rules for the series.

Goal

Our goal is to treat this series as a thought experiment. We’ll pretend we are Wizards of the Coast, designing a new precon around these old commanders as if they were being designed today. We’re not just making a budget deck around these commanders, nor are we just making the most optimized version of a deck with these commanders. We are making a precon, with all the restrictions that entails.

Rules

Wizards clearly has some unspoken rules about what goes into their precons. So for this series we want to follow those rules as best as we can understand them, based on our observations of actual precons.

• Value of the deck is no more than $120, excluding the original legends (some have gotten pricey)
• Value of the land package can be no more than $10 (IYKYK)
• Aim for two or three high value ($10+) reprints
• Keep all new legendary creatures from the original precon
• Stay close to a typical 10/10/10 build (10 ramp spells, 10 card draw, 10 removal)
• We don’t have to tie into a specific set, as precons have been doing since Commander 2020
• Universes Beyond cards are off-limits if they couldn’t be reprinted as Universes Within with the same name (for example, Hithlain Rope and Khârn the Betrayer would have been good inclusions for today’s deck, but can’t be used)

With our guidelines established, let’s look at the original deck.

Political Puppets

This precon is led by Zedruu the Greathearted, a red, white, and blue 2/4 Minotaur Monk for four mana that lets us pay a red, a white, and a blue mana to give an opponent any permanent we control. And at the beginning of our upkeep we draw X cards and gain X life, where X is the number of permanents we own that our opponents control. So our goal with this commander is to give our opponents as many items as we can to get the most card draw value, while not giving them anything that could be used to harm us. There are also political ramifications here, as we can garner favor by giving an opponent a much needed blocker, or even help out the player who’s mana-screwed.

Our backup commander is Ruhan of the Fomori, a creature that is about as different from Zedruu as you can get. Ruhan is a 7/7 Giant Warrior for four mana that must attack if able, and the player he attacks is chosen at random. Not a creature we’re likely to give away, unless we can ensure he’s unable to attack us. And last we’ve got Nin, the Pain Artist. Although she can’t lead the deck, this is her first appearance as a card, so we’ll keep her. Nin’s a 1/1 Vedalken Wizard that can tap with X mana plus a blue and a red to deal X damage to a creature. That creature’s controller draws X cards.

Here’s the original decklist for Political Puppets:

What We’re Keeping for Political Puppets Redux

Commander 2011 was the first product made specifically for Commander. It was designed at a time when the card pool was much smaller, multiplayer strategies were less understood, and the format was far less streamlined. And so, when we look at the original deck list today, it appears to be a completely unfocused hot mess, with no actual plan for winning. Which it is. But that doesn’t mean we can’t keep a few cards from it.

Here’s the handful of cards that are staying:

• Sol Ring
• Fellwar Stone
• Chaos Warp
• Journey to Nowhere
• Fog Bank
• Ghostly Prison
• Lightning Greaves
• Windborn Muse
• Insurrection
• Vedalken Plotter

I think protecting yourself with this deck is the way to go, since you’re giving so much to your opponents, you want to make sure they don’t come back at you with it. As you’ll see later, we’re likely to be giving away some creature tokens, so making it harder to attack us, with cards like Ghostly Prison and Windborn Muse, will probably be necessary.

Insurrection was one of the few ways in the original deck to actually win the game. I think it makes sense, and fits thematically with the changes in control, to leave it here as a big finisher.

I love Journey to Nowhere in this deck. It gets rid of a problem, and we can give it away with literally no drawback. We’ll expand on this theme.

Speaking of which…

Themes and Strategies We’ll Expand On for Political Puppets Redux

The biggest theme I want to expand on here is the card draw. We have a lot of ways to increase the card draw effects, and to use them as win conditions. 

To make sure we’re getting the most out of Zedruu, we’ll add in Teferi's Ageless Insight and Alhammarret's Archive, with the Archive pulling double duty by doubling the life gain. Then there’s Sphinx of the Second Sun doubling up Zedruu upkeep triggers by giving us an extra beginning phase, which includes untap, upkeep, and draw. Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind can dish out some damage when we draw, which is a great way of lowering life totals or dealing with pesky creatures and/or walkers. The Locust God will get us a hasty Insect token for each card drawn, which really adds up quickly, but can also be a fairly innocuous creature to give to an opponent. Humble Defector draws and gets passed around. Mangara, the Diplomat and Faerie Mastermind draw cards for opponent actions. And then there’s one of my favorite cards in the game, Psychosis Crawler.

We’ll also be drawing into one of our alternate win conditions, with Approach of the Second Sun. With all of our card draw, the clock on Approach is much more sped up. Probably even the next turn. But that’s not our only alternate way to win. We’ll throw in one of our pricey reprints here: Aetherflux Reservoir. We won’t be comboing off with it, but the life gain off of Zedruu, combined with Reservoir’s gains, can lead to potentially knocking a player out - or at least keeping us in the game longer. For one more way to knock out a player, we’ll throw in Nine Lives, a Zedruu staple found in 74% of decks.

Of course, we gotta talk about our “gifts.” These are the cards we’ll give to our opponents that they really just don’t want. Akroan Horse is in 67% of Zedruu decks, and an excellent inclusion. Cinder Giant is a nice present for the token deck that keeps popping out 1/1s. Bronze Bombshell is a quick seven damage to someone’s dome. Crown of Doom makes attacks scarier, and gets passed around like a hot potato. And Rust Elemental can knock down a life total or deal with the player abusing artifacts.

I didn’t add cards that I felt are “mean,” because I don’t think Wizards is likely to add cards like that to decks that would make a precon pod miserable. So we’re leaving out popular Zedruu cards like Steel Golem and Aggressive Mining.

We can’t just rely on Zedruu to do all the gift giving. We’ll need other cards that can give or trade permanents to our opponents. Assault Suit is a fun one to throw on Ruhan of the Fomori. Wrong Turn is multi-functional, as it can be used to give something to an opponent, or more aggressively used to take a threat out of an opponent’s hands. (I was big on Wrong Turn for quite a while, until I realized that giving a player’s commander to someone else wasn’t exactly polite.) Then there’s Bazaar Trader, which does Zedruu’s trick for no mana.

To exchange goods, we’ll add Sudden Substitution, Puca's Mischief, Djinn of Infinite Deceits, Spawnbroker, Role Reversal, Shifting Borders, and Modify Memory. Modify is nice for some card draw if needed.

I mentioned earlier that we’re keeping Journey to Nowhere from the original list. We’ll be adding to that synergy with Conclave Tribunal and Banishing Light.

Zedruu’s New ‘Do

Here’s the list for Political Puppets Redux:

With this new precon, we’ve got a lot more synergy, a lot more strength, and ways to actually end the game. There are a ton of fun cards in the deck, and even some valuable reprints that fit our theme to get people interested in buying the deck, like Faerie Mastermind, Alhammarret's Archive, and Aetherflux Reservoir. 

Does this look like a realistic precon? If I’m being honest, this is probably a bit more streamlined than what I’d expect to see in a precon. But I’m really happy with how the deck turned out, so we’ll just leave as is. A real precon would probably have Etali, Primal Storm and Zetalpa, Primal Dawn. Cuz Wizards just loves those damn Dinos in all their precons.

What do you think of this deck? Did I hit the mark? Did I miss any obvious inclusions? Which old precon should I hit next? Head on down to that comment section and sound off. And don’t forget to check back soon, because the precon party don’t stop.

Read More:

Vorthos Vortex: April Fool's Day with Zedruu the Greathearted

Mechanical Memories - A History of Gifting

Andy Zupke

Andy's been playing Magic on and off since Fallen Empires. He loves to travel, drink, eat, and spend time with family and friends.