(Back of a Magic Card | Art by Jesper Myfors, Christopher Rush)

Deckmaster, A Year On

Welcome to Too-Specific Top 10, where if there isn’t a category to rank our pet card at the top of, we’ll just make one up! (Did you know that Frodo, Sauron's Bane is the only one-mana Universes Beyond commander with more than one color in it's identity?)

A year ago I took a look at the complete card pool of Universes Beyond, and put the idea forth into the world both that it should have maybe been its own format, and that it's not too late. I called that format Deckmaster, after the intent of the Deckmaster on the back of all Magic cards: To eventually migrate the Magic system outside of the game of Magic: The Gathering.

Anyway, it's been a year, so how is the format looking these days? Let's take a quick look at the four Deckmaster Universes Beyond releases of 2024.

Ravnica: Clue Edition (16 Cards)

The first was Ravnica: Clue Edition, and I believe it came with a board game version of Magic? I don't know, I didn't play it, and neither did you.

Clue brought 16 new cards to the format, with a full ten of those being the Clue Duals. These lands enter the battlefield tapped, but bring much needed color-fixing to the format while also allowing for late-game mana-sinking in the form of creating Clue tokens. That may seem, in a word, bad, but remember when these are the only dual-color lands available, you'll take them.

As for the other six cards? Each color gets one of the reimagined Clue characters, and then Boros gets Commander Mustard for some reason. I guess someone's a fan. None of these characters, however, blows me away in any capacity. And unlike mana fixers, we're in no short supply of commanders.

Fallout (154 Cards)

The second Universes Beyond set of the year was the one that most people probably remember, and that in my opinion made the biggest splash: Fallout.

Fallout was the largest Universes Beyond set of the year, sporting 154 new cards to add to the format. Of those, easily the most important is the addition of five new enemy duals that enter the battlefield untapped in Overflowing Basin, Viridescent Bog, Ferrous Lake, Sunscorched Divide, and Desolate Mire. That brings the grand dual total up to 15, which is a definitive improvement, even if it makes things a bit uneven across colors.

Another milestone is what really prompted this revisit, however. Fallout brings us what is easily the first playable combo that features solely Universes Beyond cards:

Comparing the previous two combos available in the format to that of Peregrin Took and Nuka-Cola Vending Machine gives you a fairly immediate idea of the vast difference in quality.

Instead of two cards and a list of prerequisites a mile long accompanied by a need for tons of mana available, Peregrin Took and Nuka-Cola Vending Machine are both three-mana cards, one of which you can play in the command zone and creates the treasures needed for the combo to work.

As for the results? They're a handy "draw your entire deck, and make that many tapped Treasure tokens." Does that necessarily win you the game? No, not at all. But if you can't find a way to win with 80 cards and 80 mana next turn, then politely, I would question your deck-building skills.

Fallout also brought us several focuses for future deck archetypes, most notably counters. Whether they be of the +1/+1 or Radiation variety, there are cards that care about them, and even better, cards that Proliferate them.

Combine that with the heavy counter themes of Warhammer 40,000 and Doctor Who, and there is beginning to be a deep pool in the format around counter manipulation.

Assassin's Creed (104 Cards)

Assassin's Creed was... confusing. It's a set, but not a full set. It has boosters, but not draft, set, or even play boosters. Why on earth this wasn't just another set of Commander decks like Fallout and Warhammer 40,000 is Beyond me. Be that as it may, and as forgettable as this set felt for those that weren't a fan of the franchise, new cards into the format is new cards into the format.

While there aren't any huge mechanics or themes that shine through out of Assassin's Creed, there are some individual goodies. Leading the pack in utility, if not excitement, is Abstergo Entertainment, a land that will not only fix your mana if you're in a pinch, but also will return a historic permanent from your graveyard before exiling everyone's.

Next up is what is easily the best board wipe of the format in Desynchronization, which won't take care of opposing commanders, but will take care of just about everything else for a measly four mana, and at instant speed!

Finally, in a push for aggro decks everywhere, Excalibur, Sword of Eden arrives and makes artifact and legendary decks everywhere a lot more scary.

More broadly speaking, Assassin's Creed does also reward aggro and Voltron decks with the Freerunning mechanic, and has a larger Historic theme that is probably the most relevant thing in a format where there are actually more legendary creatures (381) than there are non-legendary ones (281).

Secret Lair - Marvel Superdrop (5 Cards)

Finishing up the year is a small Secret Lair drop that is more of a preview of what's to come next year(?) with Marvel: Spider-Man, which is just the first of supposedly several Marvel sets to come.

As for the cards, there are some beastly commanders in here that will absolutely see play in Deckmaster and beyond, with a couple even getting cEDH buzz in Storm and Iron Man. As for which I think is the strongest in a Universes Beyond-only format? Those same two, for the same reasons.

That brings me to a larger discussion that we've yet to cover: What are the best commanders available in Universes Beyond?

Top 10 Deckmaster (Universes Beyond) Commanders

No need to get too complicated on this one. We've got our format, we've got the play numbers for regular EDH, let's take a look at the list and see what the most popular options could be from that perspective.

Criteria: Commanders that have a first printing in a Universes Beyond set. As is tradition, all results are ordered by EDHREC score.

10. Lord of the Nazgûl

(Helms 10,705 Decks, Rank #71; 15,804 Inclusions, 2% of 1,017,355 Decks)

A solid first entry here, as Lord of the Nazgûl brings a nice, broad strategy to bear: Dimir Spellslinger Tokens. With the Lord making 3/3 Wraiths with every spell you cast, it's easy to control a game by just packing your deck full of removal spells and card draw, at which point you can just let the Wraith's swing through consistently, whether or not you ever get to the number.

 

9. Mr. House, President and CEO

(Helms 10,862 Decks, Rank #70; 880 Inclusions, 0% of 361,399 Decks)

Mr. House seems like a good time, but there's a major problem when it comes to Deckmaster: He's the only card that rolls dice. If we expanded things to include Dungeons & Dragons sets, then Mr. House would have a real shot, but alas, as of now, Wizards doesn't consider D&D to be Universes Beyond.

8. Be'lakor, the Dark Master

(Helms 10,999 Decks, Rank #68; 2,656 Inclusions, 0% of 586,515 Decks)

There's no doubt that Be'lakor is cool, but a quick perusal of the Demon options will show that there is exactly one three-mana Demon, 10 four-mana Demons, and the other available 15 all costing five or more. Combine that with Grixis having zero ramp, and this one just doesn't seem feasible to me.

7. Magus Lucea Kane

(Helms 11,072 Decks, Rank #65; 5,368 Inclusions, 1% of 534,584 Decks)

Magus Lucea Kane, on the other hand, is ramp, which seems like one of the strongest things a commander can be in a Universes Beyond-only format. Between her deck and a smattering of entries from the other sets, there are also quite a few relevant X spells. All in all, then, this may be one of the strongest contenders we've seen yet.

6. The Wise Mothman

(Helms 13,111 Decks, Rank #48; 3,263 Inclusions, 1% of 365,555 Decks)

Outside of having ramp on a commander, the other option that seems like it's going to be particularly potent is having a particularly strong commander. Honestly, if there was a deck I knew would translate well into a "competitive Deckmaster" scene right now, it would be the infamous aggro cEDH deck, Slicer, Hired Muscle.

A solid backup plan to that commander aggro plan, however? The Wise Mothman. Usually untapping as at least a 5/5 flier, having already done Rad counter damage to the table, Mothman only gets bigger from there, and is a threat that has to be answered.

5. Tom Bombadil

(Helms 13,982 Decks, Rank #40; 227 Inclusions, 0% of 288,358 Decks)

Tom Bombadil has never blown me away, nor do I think he'll be a particularly strong deck in the format. With that said, it turns out there are more than enough Sagas to make him viable. Combine that with me wanting to know if you could make five-color work with this limited card pool, and I went ahead and built the deck.

It's slow, but red's Treasure generation combined with the fifteen duals available out there does make it workable. You probably won't win many games, but just like regular EDH, if you're a Saga fan, Tom Bombadil is right there.

4. Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit & Sam, Loyal Attendant

(Partners 15,026 Decks, Rank #32)

Food might not seem like that competitive a strategy, but I wouldn't judge a book by its cover too harshly. Those that remember the precon helmed by Frodo and Sam will remember just how good it was out of the box, and much of that translates here.

3. Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph

(Helms 15,665 Decks, Rank #25; 13,254 Inclusions, 1% of 1,127,657 Decks)

At first glance, prospects don't seem great for Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph, with only 12 spells in Izzet that will deal one damage available. Those that have played against Starn before, however, will realize that his effect actually doesn't say anything about spells at all, meaning that 1/1's swinging into the red zone will do just fine. In other words, Izzet weenies, here we come!

2. Aragorn, the Uniter

(Helms 16,909 Decks, Rank #20; 12,412 Inclusions, 4% of 305,254 Decks)

Difficult mana-base aside, if I was to pick one commander that just seems like it would body the rest of the available competition in Universes Beyond, it would be Aragorn, the Uniter. Almost every color available, with an efficient commander that just gives you presents anytime you do anything at all.

1. Sauron, the Dark Lord

(Helms 21,526 Decks, Rank #7; 7,025 Inclusions, 1% of 492,337 Decks)

There's no doubt that Sauron, the Dark Lord is an impactful card when you get it into play. With that said, getting to Sauron's mana cost in the colors that don't have any ramp, not to mention no color fixing, is I think too hard a hill to climb at this point.

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Honorable Mentions

Believe it or not, the rest of the Universes Beyond commanders list is too long to just keep on going with the list, so instead, let's just do a final decklist for a little ditty I like to call "Does that The Fifth Doctor/Adric, Mathematical Genius combo work, after all?"

In short, yes, yes it does. While I still wouldn't call this a competitive deck in the vein that many of the one- and two-color decks will be, it also isn't all that hard to go find Adric and to have three mana lying around. Even if you don't, however, it's almost as good to just go a lot with The Fifth Doctor. It turns out that having a board full of 10/10's is pretty good.

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Nuts and Bolts

There always seems to be a bit of interest in how these lists are made (this seems like a good time to stress once again that they are based on EDHREC score, NOT my personal opinion…), and people are often surprised that I’m not using any special data or .json from EDHREC, but rather just muddling my way through with some Scryfall knowledge! For your enjoyment/research, here is this week’s Scryfall search.

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What Do You Think?

And finally, what is your favorite Universes Beyond commander? Have you considered building it with only Universes Beyond cards?

Let us know in the comments, and we'll see you at the Betty & Veronica table.