These Underrated MTG Star Trek Cards Will Win Your Prerelease

MTG Star Trek Prerelease is just a few days away, giving players their first chance to play with the set’s new cards. With prizes on the line, some MTG players will be studying up to gain an edge over their opponents.

Luckily for you, we’re here to help you do just that.

Thanks to Wizards of the Coast, I was invited to the Star Trek Early Access Event on MTG Arena, where I got to play Star Trek Sealed and Draft early. After getting a bunch of games in, here are some tips and tricks to win your MTG Star Trek prerelease.

Some Strange New Worlds

Universes Beyond Limited formats have an extremely negative reputation for being unbalanced. Spider-Man and The Hobbit were two of the worst Limited formats in MTG history, and TMNT, while better, wasn’t fantastic, either.

Thankfully, MTG Star Trek felt pretty good in Early Access, with multiple strategies showing promise. Orzhov Borg, for example, is a good route to take in Limited if you want to build an aggressive deck.

I will say, however, that Star Trek’s Strange New Worlds payoffs do feel better than everything else in the set so far. Thanks to the number of dual lands in the set, reducing the cost of your Strange New Worlds payoffs, especially in three-color decks, is generally easier than you might think.

This means that Sealed Star Trek, in particular, feels similar to Reality Fracture. Aggressive decks need a lot of specific cards to work, and Strange New Worlds essentially rewards you for going into five-color soup.

In other words, you’re playing for the long haul in Star Trek Sealed, but Draft does seem to have some buildable aggressive decks. These were few and far between, however, with most of the stronger decks being Strange New Worlds builds.

With that in mind, cards like Cloak and Phaser Cloak and Phaser Strange new worlds — This spell costs {X} less to cast, where X is the number of differently named lands you control.
Create two 2/2 black Romulan creature tokens. Draw two cards, then discard a card. or Suus Mahna Practitioner Suus Mahna Practitioner Strange new worlds — {4}{U}, {T}: Tap target creature. This ability costs {X} less to activate, where X is the number of differently named lands you control. felt stronger in Star Trek Sealed than they looked. Even Astute Terraformer Astute Terraformer Strange new worlds — {6}: This creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn. This ability costs {X} less to activate, where X is the number of differently named lands you control. Activate only once each turn. was a two-mana 4/4 in most mid to late games, making it a decent two-drop if you can enable it.

Ensign Pavel Chekov Ensign Pavel Chekov Strange new worlds — When Ensign Chekov enters, each opponent exiles the top X cards of their library, where X is the number of differently named lands you control. For each opponent, choose a land card that player owns exiled this way. You may play the chosen cards for as long as they remain exiled. , however, was an absolute gamebreaker in the games I played. Later on, it’s not impossible for this card to mill your opponent for 6-10 cards, making decking out a real possibility. Since Chekov’s ability is an enters effect, you can beam him up with cards like Open Communications Open Communications Draw a card.
Beam me up {2}{U} (You may cast this card from your graveyard for {2}{U} if you also return a creature you control to its owner's hand. Then exile this spell.) in the late game, often milling your opponent out.

This means you’ll also want to go out of your way to run cards like David and Carol Marcus, Creators David and Carol Marcus, Creators When David and Carol Marcus enter, create a tapped Planet land token named New Planet with "{T}: Add one mana of any color." or Genesis Effect Genesis Effect Genesis Effect deals 6 damage to target creature. Destroy target land you control. Create a tapped Planet land token named New Planet with "{T}: Add one mana of any color." that can diversify your lands further. Really, anything that can efficiently make a New Planet is worth playing, fixing your mana and developing your Strange New Worlds count.

If you’re running a fair few Strange New Worlds cards, I’d play as many dual lands in your pool as possible. Even if one color is missing from your deck, these games go late enough that tap lands typically will not punish you. Of course, if you do face an aggressive deck, you could hold on to a few basic lands for the sideboard.

Pay Attention to Dilemmas

If you have the support, the MTG Dilemma payoffs in Star Trek are pretty strong. Really, any of the nine Dilemma payoffs is worth running if you have the cards to trigger them, but Obsidian Order Operative Obsidian Order Operative Whenever you face a dilemma, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life. (You face a dilemma as you choose one or more modes for a spell or ability.) is definitely a step behind the rest.

This is mostly because a lot of the Star Trek cards that trigger Dilemma are quite strong, often being stuff you’d want to play anyway. Command Decision Command Decision Choose one —
• Destroy target creature with power 4 or greater.
• Draw a card. , Resistance Is Futile Resistance Is Futile Choose one —
• Destroy target nonartifact creature.
• Return target artifact creature card with mana value 3 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield. , and D’Ghor Bloodletter D’Ghor Bloodletter When this creature enters, choose one —
• All other creatures get -1/-1 until end of turn.
• Each player sacrifices a creature of their choice. are cards that you’d want to run no matter what, even if you don’t have Dilemma payoffs.

A fair few other Dilemma cards, like Rogue Artificial Intelligence Rogue Artificial Intelligence When this creature enters, choose one —
• You gain 3 life.
• Surveil 2. (Look at the top two cards of your library, then put any number of them into your graveyard and the rest on top of your library in any order.)
Basic landcycling {2} ({2}, Discard this card: Search your library for a basic land card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.) , Constable Odo Constable Odo When Constable Odo enters, choose one —
• Tap target creature an opponent controls. Put two stun counters on it. (If a permanent with a stun counter would become untapped, remove one from it instead.)
• Investigate twice. (To investigate, create a Clue token. It's an artifact with "{2}, Sacrifice this token: Draw a card.") , and Set Phasers to . . . Set Phasers to . . . Choose one —
• Stun — Tap target creature and put a stun counter on it. (If a permanent with a stun counter would become untapped, remove one from it instead.)
• Kill — This spell deals 3 damage to target attacking creature. are decent inclusions that just get better with Dilemma payoffs. While these don’t seem quite as good as Strange New Worlds, they’re a close second.

I’d Try the Big Bombs

Unless I faced down an aggressive Mythic like Captain James T. Kirk Captain James T. Kirk Whenever Captain Kirk enters or attacks, choose one. If you have no cards in hand, choose one or more instead.
• Discard a card, then draw a card.
• Create a 1/1 red Officer creature token.
• Creatures you control get +1/+0 until end of turn. , all the MTG Star Trek sealed games I played went really late. Because of that, as long as you have the resources to go late, I’d play the big bombs you open in your Sealed kits.

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 an example of a card that’s so expensive that playing it becomes kind of dubious, but if you get it out, you probably win. Deep Space 9 entered play multiple times during my games, and otherwise got hit by hand disruption.

So, if you open Star Trek’s biggest mana value cards, like 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. , Branching Timeline Branching Timeline Strange new worlds — Reveal the top X cards of your library, where X is the number of differently named lands you control. Put all permanent cards revealed this way onto the battlefield tapped and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. , or Crystalline Entity Crystalline Entity Flying
When this creature enters, if you cast it, destroy all nonartifact creatures. , I would run them. That said, Live Long and Prosper Live Long and Prosper This spell can't be countered.
Double your life total. Draw cards equal to the number of cards in your hand. You have no maximum hand size until your next turn. is one I’m unsure about, since you generally won’t have a huge hand when casting it.

Think About Flying and Artifacts

There are a lot of Spacecraft in this set, which means that Flying is going to be quite prevalent in MTG Star Trek. The format seems slow enough that Stationing Spacecraft is a consistent strategy, so they perform a bit better than you might think at first glance.

With this in mind, Reach creatures likely perform a bit better than average in MTG Star Trek Sealed. Mugato Mugato Reach, vigilance, deathtouch and The Traveler The Traveler Reach, vigilance
Strange new worlds — The Traveler's power is equal to the number of differently named lands you control. , in particular, always seemed to perform well when they entered play.

Similarly, artifacts are all over the place in MTG Star Trek. Between Spacecraft being artifacts and there being an entire archetype dedicated to artifact creatures, artifact removal also performs better than it looks.

While I wouldn’t play specific colors for these cards, this makes cards like Perils of the Past Perils of the Past Choose one —
• Use the Relic — Target creature gets +3/+2 until end of turn.
• Destroy the Relic — Destroy target artifact. and Kirk, Commanding Officer Kirk, Commanding Officer Whenever you attack while creatures you control have total power 8 or greater, exile the top card of your library. You may play that card this turn.
{2}, Sacrifice Kirk: Destroy target artifact or enchantment. stronger than they look at first glance. Eject the Warp Core Eject the Warp Core Kicker—Sacrifice an artifact or creature. (You may sacrifice an artifact or creature in addition to any other costs as you cast this spell.)
Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn. If this spell was kicked, that creature gets -6/-6 until end of turn instead. felt fantastic throughout, too, considering that you’ll generally have an extra artifact lying around. Even Dathon and Picard at El-Adrel Dathon and Picard at El-Adrel Choose one —
• Temba, His Arms Wide — Target creature gets +3/+3 and gains trample until end of turn.
• Shaka, When the Walls Fell — Each opponent sacrifices a nontoken artifact or enchantment of their choice. could be ok depending on the matchup, but I’m a bit less excited about this card.

Limited Actually Feels Pretty Good

It may not be what Star Trek haters want to hear, but this Limited format actually feels like it might be an all-timer. I do worry that Strange New Worlds cards may be an issue, but slower, five-color formats like this one tend to go over well with the player base.

So, if you’re going to Star Trek Prerelease this weekend, be prepared to play your games quickly. A Strange New Worlds mirror may end up taking you to time otherwise, which isn’t fun for anyone.

If you’re in a slower deck, you’ll notably want to splash for removal. 7-8 removal spells were the recommended number for Reality Fracture when you had them, and if Star Trek is as slow as I expect, your goal will likely be the same.

That said, do remember to look for synergies before just going for a five-color plan. Getting the right Borg or 8-power mechanic cards could get you an explosive aggro deck to rush people down, after all.

It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but MTG Star Trek Limited feels good. This should be quite a fun format to watch for the MTG World Championships coming up soon.

Stick with us here at mtgrocks.com: the best site for Magic: The Gathering coverage. Be sure to check out our deckbuilder for your next big brew, and our brand new MTG Rocks Podcast!