The 5 Most Unique Precons of All Time

If you ever wanted an off-the-wall commander deck straight out of the box, these decks are for you!
Buy some amazing cards from Card Kingdom and use this link so they know we sent you!
www.cardkingdom.com/nerds
Sign up for whatnot using our link and get $15 to spend on whatever you want! whatnot.com/invite/nitpicking...
Buy awesome sleeves from Dragon Shield and SAVE 5% using code "nerds" at checkout: dragonshield.com/?ref=nerds
Follow us on Moxfield!
www.moxfield.com/users/Nitpic...
Consider Supporting us via Patreon!
/ nitpickingnerds
Come join our Discord community!
/ discord
Want to send us something cool? We'll open it on stream! Send to:
Mia Largo
PO Box 29372
100 Hartford Ave,
Providence, RI 02909

[@DaGraveCrowder]

I bought several of the older precons, and I feel like there was a precon design philosophy change after about 2020 Previously, it seemed like WotC just slammed a bunch of themes that *could* work with the commander so that the player could figure out what they liked and then edit the deck around that theme After this point, it seems a lot more like the focus was on creating a smooth-flowing experience to onboard new players to Commander. The second philosophy makes a whole lot more sense as you'd have to be at least somewhat experienced to be able to change the older decks so drastically, and that wasn't the audience that precons were directed toward

[@MangoMotors]

And having precons be more pilotable out of the box makes it more desirable for newbies to buy it as opposed to "yeah you spent $50 the 'pre-built deck' but you need to spend more money for the deck to do the thing you want to do'

[@ANeonGenesis]

Lmao. 10/10 beginning ad improv from Beezy. Truly the master of winging it haha

[@NitpickingNerds]

What can I say? It's my gift!

[@simons.7957]

One Deck that is worth an honorable mention at least is the Food and Fellowship Deck with Frodo&Sam imo. Not only is the Food focus really unique but it is also super flavourful and also pretty strong out of the box with Frodo drawing a bunch of cards every turn as the ringbearer while Sam takes care of the Food. The finishers having keywords like Affinity for Food or Devour Food is the cherry on top.

[@SirLANsalot]

You guys kinda misunderstand what the Guff deck does. Most of the plainswalkers in that deck generate token defenders in some way, Guff himself generates a blocker that also is mana ramp for getting more walkers out. There are several key cards in the deck that allow you to copy plainswalker abilities (Leori and the Phynix both copy abilities when dealing combat damage to a player) or be able to do them more then once (The Chain Vail and Oath of Teferi). Its not hard to get 4 or 6 plainwalkers out there, then in a single turn, copy Guffs -3, like 3 or 4 times....dealing 24+ damage to everyone and drawing a ton of cards, good thing you have no max hand size with Reliqary Tower. In a mid to late commander game, that can KO a few players, or put them critically low to where they will die next turn, and you have a TON of card advantage now by having a quarter of your deck in your hand. The Go-Go Juice of the deck is Deepglow Skate, that double all counters when it enters. A good, edit to the deck is to add a few blinks or creatures with blinks, to suddenly put tons of counters on all the plainswalkers. The main strategy of the deck is to just defend and put out walkers, of which several have built in boardwipes, meaning your keeping your opponents at bay by clearing the board.

[@theflaminggroundon632]

Was wanting to know how the deck goes out, thank you for the support of what's possible for the precon :D

[@SirLANsalot]

@@theflaminggroundon632 I have done some edits and expanded the number of walkers in it from the default 18 to like 23 now. Lot more walkers, which is the point of the deck, as there are some walkers in there that aren't all that great and some spells that just aren't good either. Though continuing to edit the deck is getting more difficult trying to find what to cut and what to find. Overall, Guff is the key, getting him out as soon as possible gets that engine going. He is your blockers and mana ramp for more walkers, and he is your card draw. Though you should aim to get a few walkers out before using Guffs minus. I did add Thought Vessel right away, as that gives you a 2nd card in the 99 that gives you no max hand size, meaning you will have a better chance of hitting one of them.

[@MikeG-cx9nc]

That’s been my experience playing against it as well. It has a nice balance of defense through tokens and could swing for something decent but prioritizes more walkers and walker synergies while it stalls. It’s a deck that’s vulnerable to being shored by everybody but usually flies under the radar long enough to do something at least kinda cool

[@bigturkey1]

i just got a buckle up precon for $25 then ordered 35 cards for $35. i got so many vehicles mechtitan core, deluxe dragster, Mighty Servant of Leuk-o, brotherhood vertibird not sure if they are good i just wanted a lot of options. 11 lands to replace some of the basics, a tezzeret plainswalker, unwinding clock, intruder alarm some other stuff. i cant wait for everything to come in the mail, its my first commander deck.

[@Chucklepuffs]

Good choice!

[@evanreid8935]

Unwinding clock and intruder alarm are excellent choices for the deck. Untapping Shorikai makes it absolutely nutty. I highly recommend Rebbec Architect of Ascension as well if you don't have it. It's pretty easy to get to the point where your vehicles have protection from basically everything.

[@probablynotgandalf6411]

Symbiotic swarm was the first deck that made me really fall in love with MTG so I'm really happy to see it on this list

[@FloydianTheory87]

"They can serve as tokens, or be used as victory confetti."

[@erichunt1974]

see my hot take is that all the precons can be fun, especially if you're new to the game. I had a whale of a time with the one focused around the 14th doctor when I borrowed it from an acquaintance on vacation. A precon is never going to reach the thrilling highs of a deck like Krenko, Mob Boss but not every deck needs to to introduce players to the format and give them a fun and engaging experience.

[@izukukageyama7552]

I wonder where the new MH3 precon Tricky Terrain would fall on this list

[@zacdredge3859]

I mean you guys kind of mentioned it but I feel like the genius of Corrupted as a keyword is that by giving Poison an alternative payoff they were able to convert the playstyle of Infect into something less tunnel visioned and more proactive. You care more about generating your own advantage by spreading the infectious love around and seeing this in practice there's also a neat political element where you can negotiate getting someone to exactly 3 while agreeing not to push them for lethal.

[@chrisdavis9896]

I won a lot of games with my upgraded Symbiotic Swarm deck .... lots of dredge ... it was fun.

[@Chaoslorden]

I got a couple precon that I have looted/upgraded/side graded. Favorite ones so far is the esper knights and Strefan big vampires decks. Tuned them up real good. Weirdest deck out lately is that deck that cares for how many unique tokens you got. I mean.. Imagine buying that as your first try at magic and commander. Or the planeswalker deck. So much to keep track of!

[@oecus2786]

Mutant Menace??? Has it's own mechanic with full support. Burn mill

[@Dizzy0422]

5 minutes after the upload, moxfield ad is at 22:32, calling it now EDIT: 1 minute and 30 seconds away

[@NitpickingNerds]

This is an HONEST answer

[@danielharrison2383]

that planeswalkers precon slaps

[@MoeTuesday13]

Precons always a great place to start brewing. Love my Dihada deck.

[@avengedprophet1559]

Definitely a Legendary deck xD

[@bbkiljan]

Aminatou was my first commander. During C0V19 i was researching precons and saw this and fell in love with how odd it is. My current deck is now a full ship of Theseus. Everything has been replaced and upgraded. Even Aminatou has been replaced with the etched foil version.

[@jasonhoffman7959]

Planeswalker Party slams right out of the box, i just started playing commander with my friends and their 100's of $$$$ decks and it can hold its own and even win. You have to play it slow and deliberate

[@DracThaMac]

Aminatou was my first precon commander deck as well and to this day I find it difficult to give a clear wincon. I built it into a blink deck and for some time it was heavy on stealing people’s stuff with hostage taker, perplexing chimera, agent of treachery, etc., but my playgroup hated that. Now I run a lot of low cmc blink creatures and at a some point play something like “day of the dragons” to finish with combat damage and once day of the dragons is destroyed I get a second round of etb effects. If anyone has more ideas on how to transform the blink creature into heavy hitters let me know!

[@pinchejuan93]

Both of you are fucking adorable

[@geofferiswheel]

I'm guessing 6:52 today for the Moxfield ad

[@NitpickingNerds]

A good, honest guess

[@TSGypside]

I'm pretty sure I'm one of the few people that kept Kotori as the commander for Buckle Up. Favorite way to win (after modifications) was to animate an Aetherflux Reservoir and use Kotori to give it lifelink. Proceed to shoot all opponents.

[@zeondidnothingright9477]

Does this list include the secret lair precons?

[@uhmatcha1167]

I love timey-wimey, I ended up making a voltron-ish version of tbe deck

[@Bedni87]

hi, just want to meantion.. revenant recon, but with alt commander - Marvo. CLASH mechanic! I have upgraded it and it makes sick plays. 8 mana cards played for free. Sign me in. 🎉🎉

[@hunterosty8262]

I literally ordered cards two days ago WHY IS FATE SO CRUEL

[@OmegaMTG]

The colorless Eldrazi precon is my only precon that has stayed together.

[@mjhenkel1984]

re eldrazi unbound: you say that its high curve is a drawback but my experience of standard right now is that colorless (esp eldrazi colorless) has some pretty dope ramp.

[@hankitnap5076]

Tenth Doctor is one of my main decks

[@rcccbarry]

i realt love my timey whimey precon its the deck that brought me back to mtg

[@jordanmartin8458]

Love the kotori deck. And I actually run kotori. Kotori, aetherflux reservoir, and cyber drive awakener. 😈

[@catpotter7208]

INSTA CLICKED. Love my precons.

[@Nephalem2002]

How does the Mutate one not make the list?

[@avengedprophet1559]

Maybe because the quality of the deck wasn‘t that good. Mutate is EXTREMELY weak to removal unfortunately and the precon wasn‘t well built to protect your creature that consists of 3+ cards. Still, the precon is interesting and the deck could be cool after upgrades.

[@Nephalem2002]

@@avengedprophet1559 Fair Point. Best thing about the Ikoria decks is honestly the 0 Cost Mana Spells.

[@fightmeirlnoob1238]

I just started playing mtg and the ixhel deck is my first deck. Bought it because I thought the artwork was cool.

[@marCHILLL]

I always forget that Tayam was not the face commander, since he plays so much better and can be played on multiple different power levels

[@whome806]

Commodore guff is board wipe after board wipe

[@GhostlyGhost333]

I got the ixhel commander deck the day it came out. Then swapped it out with an Atraxa from March of Machines. Now she’s solid part of the 99.

[@karkas389]

Absolutely

[@sarcasticgamer2]

Jokes on you I’m gonna ruin your carpet

[@superfrans100]

i made an Aminatou blink deck and my friend refuses to play against it. tbf he also hates my eldrazi, vamps and zombies so....

[@TransgenderTalkTime]

I love my Ixhel deck

[@lorenzomarquez9122]

16:35

[@NitpickingNerds]

Appreciate the guess

[@hawkeye137137]

How is Eldrazi Unbound unique when we just got another Eldrazi tribal precon?

[@spencermartel8222]

No Kadena pre-con?? Morph is pretty cool & unique!

[@avengedprophet1559]

Probably because there are 2 morph precons already. Kaust as well. Though Kadena is much better.

[@Rexcilious]

What’s the rule of thumb for number of planeswalkers in a SF deck? Mine has 20 😅

[@PirateMaster45]

My Guff EDH currently has 20 Walkers, 21 if you count Guff himself. Idk the rule of thumb too, so want to know as well

[@kozad86]

The Planeswalker Party deck has some good cards in it, but I was disappointed with it overall. Definitely felt like the deck with the least amount of effort out of the CM set.

[@AdamChampoux-wp7xz]

Karameetra pronunciation lol

[@xT1MOTHYx]

I’ve made people concede with dark steel monolith.. play a 7 CMC card on each players turn.. that’s 9 spells casted for zero mana needed. And if you get some big creatures with in that.. all can attack on your turn… people just quit 😂😂

[@Jude30]

KITTY!

[@Troy_34]

Surpised Omo didnt make the cut

[@davidjones2921]

Boost for the algorithm

[@mjhenkel1984]

i'm gonna guess... completely at random here... 20:52 for the moxfield ad?

[@ashemabahumat4173]

Eldrazi Unbound is _the_ deck I wanted to play, but the price is just so... fuuuck... even if I want it, that's not worth it at all. Why does it feel like this game is full of scalpers, lol

[@skulletorable]

I somehow got it from my lgs earlier this year. Didn’t realise how sought after it was. Paid 100 aud which is much less usd. Was actually hesitant since it was more than the other precons, lucky I did 😂

[@ashemabahumat4173]

@@skulletorable they should only be about $50 at most due to having 100 cards, but anything near $70 is just... nah, lol. Feels impossible to get into the game due to pricing, and I play Yugioh. The fact that I can say with confidence that this is worse, and that I know it has _always_ been worse on account of wizards pushing it to be with things like the reserve list and exorbitant pricing before _avoidable_ inflation, is just downright tragic

[@alty2182]

19 seconds ago zamn