MTG Fallout First Look Revives Multiple Overpowered Mechanics!

After the surprising announcement yesterday, MTG players were suddenly spoiled with the First Look for the new MTG Fallout Universes Beyond crossover, and things look incredible. It’s definitely a bit strange to see this First Look right after the release of Doctor Who and right before the new Lost Caverns of Ixalan spoiler season starts, but it really looks like Wizards of the Coast knocked this one out of the park. There’s a ton to breakdown, so buckle up! To start, here are the four new Commander decks releasing as a part of the MTG Fallout crossover!

Scrappy Survivors

The first of the four Fallout Commander decks appears to be a Naya deck that goes by the name of Scrappy Survivors. Dogmeat, Ever Loyal, one of the most popular characters in all of the Fallout Franchise, is the Commander for the Survivors deck.

The Survivors deck is themed around all of the survivors you meet in the Fallout universe, and Dogmeat, the face Commander for this deck, introduces a recurring theme that represents your character growing stronger in your Fallout journey: Auras and Equipments. As we’ll soon see, Auras have a particularly interesting application that functions as buffs your character can acquire from the game.

As for the middle treatment of Dogmeat, influenced by the Pip-Boy, this will only be available in MTG Fallout Collector Booster packs.

Tokens, and Junk

The Junk token created by Dogmeat that otherwise represents one of the new mechanics appearing in the MTG Fallout set is, basically, a Treasure token that, instead of providing one mana of any color, provides an Impulse draw. You exile the top of your library, but you need to use it on the turn that it was exiled. You can only use these tokens on your turn.

Idolized

After doing a number of good deeds, your Fallout character can gain the Idolized buff, which has various positive effects. This is represented by a sort of mass-Exalted effect that lends itself to Voltron-style Commander decks.

Science

The head Commander of the Jeskai Science deck, Dr. Madison Li appears in Fallout 3 as the head scientist, but reappears in Fallout 4.

Notably, Dr. Madison Li establishes that the Science deck is an Energy-focused deck. This is representative of the theme ‘where are you getting power and how to you use it’ that appears all throughout the Fallout series, and fits like a glove as a result.

Alongside Energy, this deck will also have an artifact focus. Dr. Madison Li ties these two themes together rather interestingly, acquiring Energy when you cast an artifact spell to spend it on various rewards.

Rex, appearing from Fallout New Vegas, is another good boi, or a scientific super dog, whichever you prefer.

Rex is a top-down design that really hammers home what the character does in the Fallout series. The character lost its original brain and, as such, you have the opportunity to put the brains of your other cards into Rex! This is represented by the exclusive brain counter.

Hail, Ceaser

Ceaser is the head of the most influential legion in all of Fallout: New Vegas. As suggested by Ceaser’s sacrificial theme, Ceaser is not too kind to his underlings. Now, even though a lot of Ceaser’s legion is going to be at the forefront of this MTG Fallout deck, there will be legions from all across the Fallout universe featured in this deck – perhaps as a way to create a ‘what if’ scenario if these legions did have an opportunity to work together.

As a Commander, Ceaser seems thematic. Offering a way to gain card advantage, increase your legion or convert your efforts into damage, everything seems to flow well here, but none of it seems overwhelmingly powerful.

The Hail Ceaser deck features a go-wide strategy that utilizes the solider creature type, thematically represented by Ceaser himself.

As much as I just wanted to type a line of “Gary!” when looking at this card, Gary Clone introduces a really flavorful mechanic that will appear in the Hail Ceaser deck considering that it wants to go wide: the Squad mechanic. This also, theoretically, allows you to clone as many copies of Gary as you could ever want.

Mutant Menace

The Wise Mothman, appearing in Fallout 76, is a worshippable character that showcases a new mechanic: the Rad counter. The Mutant Menace deck largely revolves around this mechanic.

Rad counters represent Radiation. These are unique counters that attach themselves to players that have the effect of the helper card above. At the beginning of each player’s main phase, the player mills cards and loses life equal to the number of Rad counters available. This can be a mill enabler and a win condition, showcasing an incredibly unique mechanic where having a little radiation is a good thing, and a lot can kill you quickly.

While having a little bit of Rad counters to fuel Mothman is a good thing, Feral Ghoul’s motif definitely involves infecting one opponent with an overabundance of Rad counters, causing them to lose too much life or milling them out.

Serialized Bobbleheads

Seven Bobbleheads will appear in the MTG Fallout set. These Special Bobbleheads can all grant different perks/stats which can be represented by the world SPECIAL. They are considered collectibles in Fallout, which makes them a fantastic card to bring back as a serialized option in Collector Boosters. 500 of these appear to be available for each, and will be available in the Double Rainbow Foil treatment.

Vaults as Sagas

Vaults from the Fallout series are being represented in Magic’s world as Sagas. Vault 101 represents the beginning of Fallout 3, and falls back to the theme of representing your in-game character growing stronger by suiting them up with Aura and Equipment cards.

This is a fantastic new tool for equipment-based Commander decks. Both reanimating equipment and bypassing the equip cost, Vault 101 will see a lot play alongside decks that care about Auras and Equipment.

Vault Boy Treatments

These are some of many Vault Boy treatments that will be releasing in the MTG Fallout crossover. Multiple classic Commander staples appear to be receiving this treatment. Sol Ring, Arcane Signet and Command Tower are some examples of this.

Nine total reprints in this artwork will be available.

The G.E.C.K. represents the Garden of Eden Creation Kit, a mythical item in the world of Fallout intended for those chosen to revitalize the post-apocalyptic world. Reprinting this as Crucible of Worlds is a very flavorful inclusion.

All of the Pip-Boy and Vault Boy art treatments will be exclusively available in MTG Fallout Collector Boosters, and will be available in both Surge Foil and Traditional Foil variants.

More Cards

V.A.T.S. is flavorfully represented by the Split Second mechanic. Four mana isn’t super premium for creature-only removal, but V.A.T.S. can wipe out a surprising amount of permanents when you manage to align things together. Able to wipe out any number of creatures with the same number of toughness, V.A.T.S. gets around players trying to misalign toughnesses by having Split Second. This is a rather interesting piece of removal that could become incredibly viable depending on an expected metagame.

Food decks have a new staple! This is definitely one of the more powerful cards spoiled in the MTG Fallout First look, and it creates a Treasure Token whenever you sacrifice a Food. Combining this with a card like Peregrin Took easily creates an incredibly powerful engine, creating a Food whenever your get a Treasure Token from sacrificing one. Add Sam, Loyal Attendant to the mix, and you have infinite artifact token creation on your hands.

Straight from Fallout: New Vegas is Mr. House, President and CEO. This computer looks to be from the Hail Ceaser Commander deck, and the theme of the card represents how Mr. House rose to his position: by betting a ton of stuff on some fixed games of dice. Create a ton of Treasure tokens to start rolling an unfair number of dice.

The Alpha Deathclaw is one of the more iconic creatures that appear in the Fallout franchise. The card is rather simple in function and represents what the character does in the Fallout series: kill things.

This card appears in the Mutants EDH deck, and introduces a secondary theme for the Commander deck aside from Rad Counters: +1/+1 counters.

Overencumbered presents another condition that your character can get in the Fallout games, but this is a negative trait that occurs when you pick up too many things. Enchanting your opponents this time around, in exchange for a bunch of tokens, they must pay a mana for each artifact they control. If they cannot, their creatures cannot attack, forcing creature-based decks to spend some time picking their ‘gifts’ apart if they want to do anything.

Absolutely Terrifying

Radstorm looks terrifying and incredibly powerful. We all know Proliferate and Storm as incredibly powerful mechanics, and Radstorm puts them together. The obvious use of this card in the Mutant deck is to overwhelm your opponents with Rad counters, but players are going to have fun breaking this card, as it can easily do a ton of work.

Basic Lands

Two new sets of basic lands will appear in the Fallout franchise.

Interestingly, as pointed out by Chris Mooney during the Weekly MTG event that revealed these cards, the second cycle of full art Basic lands have a small easter egg where, in left to right order, these lands tell the story of a player’s journey through the early Fallout games.

Like the Vault Boy treatments, these Basic Land cards will be available in both Surge Foil and Traditional Foil treatments in Collector Booster packs. You can find non-foil variants in the MTG Fallout Commander decks.

Fallout’s official preview starts this January, and, despite the set being announced for March 2024 previously, is now scheduled to release in early February 2024. You can read more about the new MTG Fallout expansion at the official Wizards of the Coast article found here.