Thanks in part to the growing influence of Universes Beyond, Magic: The Gathering is getting more expensive than ever. With booster packs and singles getting more expensive, it’s becoming even harder for players to stretch their budgets. With Universes Beyond MSRPs driving Commander precons even higher, even these now have $60+ buy-ins.
Unfortunately, the steadily climbing prices are making MTG’s already infamous barrier to entry that much harder to clear. After all, not only do new players have to learn the game, but now they’ve got to contend with affording it, too. Thankfully, Wizards of the Coast seems to have a solution to this problem, for Commander players at least.
New Beginner Precons Confirmed
Spotted in a new Amazon listing, five new MTG Foundation Commander Precons are slated to hit shelves at the same time as Reality Fracture on October 7th. Offering five mono-color decks based on some of Magic’s most popular themes, these seem like great ways to get new players into the game. While the face Commanders have not been officially spoiled for these precons, their product descriptions thankfully explain more.
Among these precons, Calling All Angels has the potential to fly off the shelves. Helmed by Giada, Font of Hope, this is not only the most popular Angel Typal Commander, but is the 15th most popular Commander overall according to EDHREC. Sadly, none of the other face Commanders break the top 250, but they are surprisingly strong when built around.
Reign of Dragons’ Lathliss, Dragon Queen, and Keen Engineering’s Sai Master Thopterist, for example, can pump out a full board of tokens when properly synergized with. Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant, piloting the hilariously titled Tramplesaurus Rex, would rather go tall instead of wide, rewarding you with an extremely cheap 12/12.
Lastly, Wretched Ranks, helmed by Ghoulcaller Gisa, not only has a compelling Zombie Aristocrats theme but might also have a moderate amount of value, too. Since Gisa was the only one of these legends who wasn’t reprinted in MTG Foundations, she’s currently worth around $3.60. Whether or not she’ll remain at this price point post-reprint, however, remains to be seen.
Price Creep
While these Commander precons offer a cheap entry point to the format for new players, they might not be very enticing to more established MTG fans. The past Commander Starter Precons, in exchange for being cheap, had no new cards and few strong reprints. Undermine and Elemental Bond, for example, are the only two reprints over $3 from the entire lineup of 2022 Starter Commander decks.
Due to this, some players are upset about these decks’ price compared to the last round of Starter Commander decks. The 2022 Starter Commander decks were originally available for $20-25, making these $30 precons seem comparably steep.
That said, despite this price bump, there’s still a lot we don’t know. The decklists for each of these precons, for instance, haven’t been revealed yet, so they could contain better reprints. Sadly, we’ll have to wait a few months to find out whether or not that’s the case, since they’re not launching for a long while yet.
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