Magic Con Chicago’s spoiler panel went above and beyond expectations, shocking players worldwide. While promises of free spells, Fetch Land reprints and Oko’s reappearance stole the show, there was a lot more than just that to see.
Of the four sets previewed yesterday, Modern Horizons 3, by far, looks the most impressive. Somehow, Fetch Lands, Free spells and new Eldrazi Titans weren’t enough for the set. Commander players should also be heavily anticipating the release of Modern Horizons 3 – as new Commander precons are coming with them!
Considering that these Commander precons are releasing alongside a premium set, assumptions can easily be made that these decks will pack some power. While we only have the themes of these decks revealed so far, they look absolutely wild!
Taking things even further, it appears that one of the most expensive Commander products in history will return with Modern Horizons 3.
Collector’s Edition Precons Return
If you’re a fan of fully foiled out Commander decks, the Collector’s Edition product is for you. These decks offer a full 100-card foil Commander precon with a foiling technique that hasn’t even been revealed yet. The catch? These Collector’s Edition precons have traditionally been very expensive.
So far, Wizards of the Coast has only released one instance of Collector’s Edition Commander decks. Those were in the Warhammer 40K expansion. According to TCGplayer, the four Collector’s Edition Commander decks currently retail for between $123 and $190, with the Necron Dynasties Collector’s Edition deck being significantly more expensive than the other decks.
To give some perspective, the normal variants of these Warhammer precons range from $42 to $69 according to TCGplayer market values, with Necron Dynasties once again being much more expensive than the others.
This means that the Collector’s Edition Commander precons for Warhammer are roughly three times more expensive than their normal counterparts. If you value your foil decks this much, than this could still be a great purchase, but do know that these decks will likely be quite expensive.
With that aside, let’s take a look at the four new Modern Horizons 3 Commander precons!
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Tricky Terrain
Tricky Terrain appears to embody a Commander favorite: Simic Ramp with copy effects!
Where are we getting the copy effect idea from? Well, it appears that two copies of a creature are wearing a Helm of the Host. That card is rather infamous in Commander, creating instant kills with Godo, Bandit Warlord. While we cannot confirm that this is indeed the Helm of the Hosts, it certainly looks like it.
Either way, players should expect the general gameplan of ramping up quickly to large threats to appear in this deck.
Eldrazi Incursion
Eldrazi Incursion is, by far, the most intriguing deck from a colors perspective. This deck seems to include all five colors plus the secret sixth colorless color! For a deck with what seems like an Eldrazi Typal theme, this is rather odd.
My guess here is that the Commander costs five mana with all of those being hybrid pips that are half colorless and half of a specific color. That said, it would be much more interesting to have a Commander that actually had the mana value of the colors on the box.
Alternatively, this Commander could be a colorless Eldrazi with a WUBRG ability or vice versa. Either way, players have never seen a five colored Eldrazi before, so it’s difficult to know what to expect.
Creative Energy
The new MTG Fallout Universes Beyond crossover has really signaled a renaissance for the Energy counter. This seemingly forgotten mechanic from Kaladesh has suddenly returned in full force, being at the center to two Jeskai-themed Commander precons.
Now that energy is back in full force, expect old powerful energy payoffs like Gonti’s Aether Heart and Aetherworks Marvel to start rising in price. Energy is going to be getting a ton of support over the course of 2024.
Lastly, Graveyard Overdrive appears to be a reanimator or graveyard-focused deck in Jund colors. While there are likely reanimation-focused strategies present here, maybe the graveyard synergies care about the number of cards in grave instead? This is a really difficult one to guess, as it seems rather generic.
Read More: Wizards of the Coast Reveals Core Bloomburrow Cards!
A Missed Opportunity?
While the inclusion of Commander decks allows Modern Horizons 3 to appeal to a majority of the larger communities of MTG players, players are wondering why Commander decks were included in a product intended for a two-player format.
Following this logic, this may be a missed opportunity to create competitive Modern structure decks. Sure, these would likely be a bit more expensive than Commander Precons, but one of the biggest problems that the Modern format has is a barrier to entry. This could help tons of curious MTG players gain an easy entry into one of Magic’s most popular formats.
Either way, these new Commander decks are still exciting for many MTG players. It will be interesting to see just how powerful, and expensive, they end up being.
Read More: Modern Horizons 3: Release Date, Spoilers, Commander Decks
