MTG Federation Fleet Decklist, Best Cards, Reprint Value, Review, and More

While MTG Star Trek spoiler season started a week ago, the most exciting reveals for Commander players began this week. After We Are the Borg hit the scene yesterday, the second Star Trek Commander Precon, Federation Fleet, has now officially been revealed.

With at least 30 new MTG cards and some powerful reprints, there’s a lot to talk about. Here, we’ll highlight what we think are the best new cards in Federation Fleet, along with the deck’s strongest reprints. Sadly, however, while the deck itself looks fun to play, the individual cards look somewhat lackluster.

Powerful Draw-Two Payoffs

With Jean-Luc Picard, Luminary Jean-Luc Picard, Luminary Whenever another historic permanent you control with mana value 3 or greater enters, draw a card. (Artifacts, legendaries, and Sagas are historic.)
Seek out — Whenever you draw your second card each turn, put a +1/+1 counter on up to one other target creature and two charge counters on up to one target Spacecraft. giving you an enabler in the command zone, Federation Fleet focuses on the Seek out mechanic, which rewards you for drawing your second card each turn. While there are a fair few new payoffs for this, Rom and Leeta, Unlikely Pair seems like the strongest.

After setting up an engine using cards like Howling Mine Howling Mine At the beginning of each player's draw step, if this artifact is untapped, that player draws an additional card. and Faerie Mastermind Faerie Mastermind Flash
Flying
Whenever an opponent draws their second card each turn, you draw a card.
{3}{U}: Each player draws a card. or King T’Challa King T’Challa Flash
Whenever a player draws their second card each turn, you draw a card.
{4}{W}{U}: Transform King T'Challa. Activate only as a sorcery. , it’s actually quite easy to draw two cards every turn. With this setup, Rom and Leeta create eight Treasure tokens per turn rotation, an absolutely obscene amount of mana. Sadly, while this card may look exciting for Treasure Typal decks, it probably isn’t worth running unless you can trigger Rom and Leeta at least twice per turn cycle.

The same is true for Data, Exploring Humanity, who can cast a fair few free spells so long as you can continually trigger Seek out. Even if Data just Discovers 4 twice, you’ve already reaped decent value from this creature, making it an interesting addition for Commanders like Ms. Bumbleflower Ms. Bumbleflower Vigilance
Whenever you cast a spell, target opponent draws a card. Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature. It gains flying until end of turn. If this is the second time this ability has resolved this turn, you draw two cards. .

If you’re looking to pull off some Commander-copying shenanigans in your draw-two decks, Reg Barclay, Fidgety Fanatasist can set up some explosive plays. The card shines with Commanders that have ETB triggers, like Kefka, Court Mage Kefka, Court Mage Whenever Kefka enters or attacks, each player discards a card. Then you draw a card for each card type among cards discarded this way.
{8}: Each opponent sacrifices a permanent of their choice. Transform Kefka. Activate only as a sorcery. , since you can create up to four temporary copies per turn rotation. If you want to make these tokens permanent, The Master, Multiplied The Master, Multiplied Myriad
The "legend rule" doesn't apply to creature tokens you control.
Triggered abilities you control can't cause you to sacrifice or exile creature tokens you control. can prevent you from sacrificing your tokens, while end-of-turn effects like Sundial of the Infinite Sundial of the Infinite {1}, {T}: End the turn. Activate only during your turn. (Exile all spells and abilities from the stack. Discard down to your maximum hand size. Damage wears off, and "this turn" and "until end of turn" effects end.) can do the same.

Frankly, however, if you aren’t interested in building a Seek out deck, Federation Fleet’s individual cards are actually rather poor. Even the Spacecraft in this deck are overcosted for what they offer, which is rather disappointing considering the precon’s name. Jean-Luc Picard, Luminary Jean-Luc Picard, Luminary Whenever another historic permanent you control with mana value 3 or greater enters, draw a card. (Artifacts, legendaries, and Sagas are historic.)
Seek out — Whenever you draw your second card each turn, put a +1/+1 counter on up to one other target creature and two charge counters on up to one target Spacecraft. does a lot of heavy lifting to make these cards better, but in my opinion, the fact that these Spacecraft need additional support to perform at a subpar level makes them a failure.

Despite the disappointing Spacecraft, there are a few individual singles that MTG Commander players may want to pick up. This is especially true for On the Shoulders of Giants, which is the clear highlight for Federation Fleet.

MTG On the Shoulders of Giants

On the Shoulders of Giants is, in my opinion, the strongest new card in the Federation Fleet precon, functioning as an easy upgrade to all kinds of different decks. Whether you’re running Legendary Typal with Jodah, the Unifier Jodah, the Unifier Legendary creatures you control get +X/+X, where X is the number of legendary creatures you control.
Whenever you cast a legendary spell from your hand, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a legendary nonland card with lesser mana value. You may cast that card without paying its mana cost. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. , Sagas with Tom Bombadil Tom Bombadil As long as there are four or more lore counters among Sagas you control, Tom Bombadil has hexproof and indestructible.
Whenever the final chapter ability of a Saga you control resolves, reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a Saga card. Put that card onto the battlefield and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. This ability triggers only once each turn. , or Artifacts with Urza, Chief Artificer Urza, Chief Artificer Affinity for artifact creatures (This spell costs {1} less to cast for each artifact creature you control.)
Artifact creatures you control have menace.
At the beginning of your end step, create a 0/0 colorless Construct artifact creature token with "This token gets +1/+1 for each artifact you control." , On the Shoulders of Giants seems great everywhere. Heck, you may even want to buy this card as an upgrade to the recently revealed We Are the Borg Precon.

While these are the best homes for On the Shoulders of Giants, this card could, frankly, see play alongside any Commander that wants to consistently connect with your opponent. Since Legendary Creatures are considered Historic, Commanders like Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow Commander ninjutsu {U}{B} ({U}{B}, Return an unblocked attacker you control to hand: Put this card onto the battlefield from your hand or the command zone tapped and attacking.)
Whenever a Ninja you control deals combat damage to a player, reveal the top card of your library and put that card into your hand. Each opponent loses life equal to that card's mana value. or Edric, Spymaster of Trest Edric, Spymaster of Trest Whenever a creature deals combat damage to one of your opponents, its controller may draw a card. could consider including this card, too. Even Vehicles can get in on the fun, making this fantastic in Edward Kenway Edward Kenway At the beginning of your end step, create a Treasure token for each tapped Assassin, Pirate, and/or Vehicle you control.
Whenever a Vehicle you control deals combat damage to a player, look at the top card of that player's library, then exile it face down. You may play that card for as long as it remains exiled. decks.

The number of homes On the Shoulders of Giants has is absolutely staggering, so there’s potential for massive demand. Of all the singles to pick up from this precon, On the Shoulders of Giants is the one you won’t want to miss.

MTG Unification

Of all the individual cards in Federation Fleet, Unification might be the most interesting. The first mode offers plenty of flexibility, removing a problematic permanent from play or letting you draw two cards in an emergency. The really exciting bit of this Saga, however, is definitely Unification’s second chapter.

Before MTG Star Trek, Unification had nothing super exciting to cheat in, but Deep Space 9 Deep Space 9 When Deep Space 9 enters and at the beginning of your upkeep, exile the top four cards of your library. Put all permanent cards exiled this way onto the battlefield.
Station (Tap another creature you control: Put charge counters equal to its power on this Spacecraft. Station only as a sorcery.)
9+ | Creatures you control get +3/+3. is now an absolutely incredible target. While getting this exact combination of cards will likely require some tutoring, you can also cheat in other decent spacecraft, like Extinguisher Battleship Extinguisher Battleship When this Spacecraft enters, destroy target noncreature permanent. Then this Spacecraft deals 4 damage to each creature.
Station (Tap another creature you control: Put charge counters equal to its power on this Spacecraft. Station only as a sorcery. It's an artifact creature at 5+.)
5+ | Flying, trample .

Rounding things out, Unification also offers you some card draw, making it a decent option for a Commander deck with a slower game plan. It won’t be for every MTG deck, but Spacecraft and political decks will love running this card.

MTG Federation Fleet Reprints

Fortunately, while most of the new Federation Fleet cards leave something to be desired, a few reprints stand out. Ironically, most of them are in the manabase, as Federation Fleet offers a surprisingly strong one.

The most expensive reprint in the entire precon, Training Center Training Center This land enters tapped unless you have two or more opponents.
{T}: Add {U} or {R}. generally always enters untapped in Commander, since you’ll have more than one opponent. Since this makes Training Center essentially an untapped land in Commander, it’s no wonder this card is worth $18 on the secondary market.

Accompanying Training Center is a bunch of strong utility lands in Federation Fleet’s manabase. Command Beacon Command Beacon {T}: Add {C}.
{T}, Sacrifice this land: Put your commander into your hand from the command zone. , for example, essentially offers a one-time pass on command tax, recurrable with cards like Crucible of Worlds Crucible of Worlds You may play lands from your graveyard. . The land has surprisingly few reprints considering it’s a Commander land, giving it an $8.50 reprint value. Reliquary Tower Reliquary Tower You have no maximum hand size.
{T}: Add {C}. can also be found in this deck as an apt draw-two synergy piece, offering a $5 reprint value.

Moving on to nonland cards, Alhammarret’s Archive Alhammarret’s Archive If you would gain life, you gain twice that much life instead.
If you would draw a card except the first one you draw in each of your draw steps, draw two cards instead. is the most expensive reprint here, coming in at about $10. This is yet another incredible card for a draw-two deck, allowing you to get tons of Seek out triggers on your opponent’s turns. To help you do that, Loran of the Third Path Loran of the Third Path Vigilance
When Loran enters, destroy up to one target artifact or enchantment.
{T}: You and target opponent each draw a card. can draw a card in a pinch and destroy artifacts and enchantments for $5. To further support your draw-two triggers, Howling Mine Howling Mine At the beginning of each player's draw step, if this artifact is untapped, that player draws an additional card. appears here as another $5 reprint.

Finally, offering some incredible Q artwork, Cryptic Command Cryptic Command Choose two —
• Counter target spell.
• Return target permanent to its owner's hand.
• Tap all creatures your opponents control.
• Draw a card. is the last $5 reprint in Federation Fleet, acting as a sort of Swiss-Army Knife. You can fulfill your Seek out trigger with this card, prevent an opposing alpha strike, or counter a spell. This card was far more popular in the past, but Cryptic Command still offers some decent value here.

While these reprints do seem disappointing, and they are, to an extent, it’s important to remember that Federation Fleet has way more new cards than Commander precons usually do. That leaves less room for reprints, but since we’re getting more new MTG cards, the trade still seems worthwhile.

All in all, while Federation Fleet doesn’t offer many exciting individual singles, the game plan seems focused and cohesive, suggesting this deck will play well out of the box. With lots of classic control bangers like Supreme Verdict Supreme Verdict This spell can't be countered.
Destroy all creatures. among the reprints, too, this deck should be a hoot for anyone who likes a sort of midrange, draw-tons-of-cards strategy.

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