Diving into the Warhammer 40,000 Commander Decks
All 4 of the Warhammer 40,000 Commander (40K) decks have been fully revealed! This means that we now have an idea of what to expect from a large-scale Universes Beyond product release. There’s a lot to take in. Between them, these 4 precons contain a total of 168 new cards! For those of us who’ve been playing for a while, that’s more than the number of cards in some of the smaller expansion sets from the 1990s. Every single card in these precons also contains artwork that has never appeared on a Magic card before, in a mix of new artwork created in-house by Wizards of the Coast and art provided directly by Games Workshop themselves.
In this article, I will go over all 4 of these decks and talk about all of the new commanders and go over some of the exciting new cards and cool reprints with Warhammer 40,000 flavor. I’ll also suggest a few cards to tune up each of these decks for those who are looking to upgrade. I’m very excited to get started, but I do want to be up-front about the fact that I’m unfamiliar with the Warhammer 40,000 universe. As such, I’ve recruited Cryptic. He’s one of the PlayEDH admins and a long-time fan of the franchise. He’ll be providing some insight into the lore and flavor of these cards.
Author’s note: For the sake of keeping this article at a somewhat readable length, I will be unable to go over each and every new card and reprint from these decks. This means that much of the focus of this article will be on the commanders and cards that caught my interest because they’re doing new or interesting things. Let’s do it!
Tyranid Swarm
Tyranid Swarm is a classic Temur beatdown deck that features some aggressive, stompy creatures and scaleable creature threats based around +1/+1 counters. In practice, many of the Tyranids play similar to the hydras that use X mana costs. This is bolstered by the new ravenous keyword ability. Creatures with ravenous feature an X casting cost, but they allow you to draw a card when they enter the battlefield if X is 5 or more. Allowing these Tyranids to replace themselves if you spend enough mana means that you can keep your hand full as you enter the later game and continue to bring new threats down to attack your opponents. This deck contains 37 creatures, all of which feature the new Tyranid creature type.
The face commander for this deck is a fearsome creature known as The Swarmlord. This creature’s Rapid Regeneration allows it to come back bigger and stronger each time that you cast it from the command zone! This can amount to a significant buff if you’re faced with board wipes and targeted removal and have to recast this creature a few times. Worry not, because the Xenos Cunning ability will allow you to draw a card every time that a creature that you control with any type of counter on it dies. This can make wiping the board into a difficult proposition for your opponents if they want to avoid giving you resources.
My biggest point of contention with The Swarmlord is that it lacks any type of keyword ability to provide evasion or some other additional bonus. This means that it can sometimes just be a huge creature that can’t get through your opponents’ chump blockers. While there are a few creatures in the 99 that can help mitigate this problem, I’d definitely recommend adding a few cards to help make sure that damage gets through during combat.
Cryptic: When I heard that 'Nids would be one of 3 decks released, I did expect Swarmy to be one of the commanders. While I do feel like the card is a bit underwhelming, I appreciate the Rapid Regeneration ability. The Swarmlord is one of the ultimate intelligences of the Tyranid Swarms along with the Norn-Queens, and when it comes back, it gets stronger. While I'm not as up to date with the current state of the tabletop game, for many editions The Swarmlord was considered a difficult inclusion in Tyranid armies due to its underwhelming stats, so at least they managed to bring over a hallmark trait into its incarnation in Magic.
Magus Lucea Kane is an interesting alternate commander that seems to be some type of human-Tyranid hybrid. I’m not really sure exactly what this means, but it probably isn’t good. Her Spiritual Leader ability allows her to put a +1/+1 counter on one of your creatures during each of your combat steps to buff them up and enable some of the synergies in the deck that care about counters. You can also activate her Psychic Stimulus ability in order to add 2 colorless mana, possibly to help cast X spells or activate X abilities. This ability will also copy the next such spell or ability that you use this turn, which can be a very powerful effect with the right cards.
If you wish to focus the deck around Magus Lucea Kane, you’ll probably want to add more cards that utilize X costs. It seems like people are already working on a variety of decks with her as the commander that use her to copy powerful spells and abilities. I feel confident in saying that while she has a higher ceiling than The Swarmlord, she feels like a less impactful commander within the context of the precon without modifications to add more X cost cards.
Cryptic: While I don't have much to elaborate on the role of the named Tyranid human characters, I think the deck did a neat job translating Genestealer Cults into the card game and I wanted to make a few remarks about that. GSC play a very interesting role in the expansions of the Hive Fleets. In a cross between something out of Dracula and Alien, Genestealers, over generations will corrupt the locals of a planet into hybrid Tyranid mutants who will topple and undermine planetary defenses and communications. Eventually, these mutations will produce powerful psionic individuals (Psykers) known as a Magus, who along with the Patriarch, serve as a beacon for the Hive Mind, unwittingly letting it know dinner's ready. The reward—consumption into more biofuel for the Hive Fleet.
I love creatures with flash, so I’m fond of Deathleaper, Terror Weapon. Since it has haste, it can always attack the turn that it comes down but it can also be flashed in as a nasty surprise for your opponents. If you can reliably give haste to other creatures, this Tyranid can continue to provide value over the course of the game. While I like this card a lot, it feels much more like a combat trick than it does a commander. Don’t let that discourage you from building a deck around it if you like.
If you need an extra hand for your pingers deck, you can definitely count on Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph. His Three Autostubs ability allows him to bring the pain whenever a source you control deals exactly 1 damage. Izzet has tons of support for this exact thing, but there’s very little of it to be found within this precon. As such, I’m of the opinion that he’s probably best used in a deck focused around dealing direct damage and cards such as Curiosity.
I mentioned earlier that The Swarmlord was lacking a good way to get damage through during combat. This is where Old One Eye comes in. For 6 mana, you get 11 total power and a global trample effect for your creatures. That’s a pretty good rate. The Fast Healing ability also allows Old One Eye to keep coming back to cause more problems after it dies. This creature feels like it will also have some crossover appeal for mono-green fans.
I’d be lying if I said that The Red Terror felt like a legendary creature to me. While the Advanced Species ability allows it to grow larger every time that a red source you control deals damage, that’s really all that this creature does. It definitely feels like it should have at least had some type of keyword ability to help it out during combat. This is a serviceable beater that doesn’t do anything worth writing home about.
There are 11 new creatures in this deck with the ravenous ability. These scaleable creatures can be much stronger than they seem, especially when they have enters-the-battlefield abilities tied to how much mana was spent on X. Being able to pay 5 or more in later turns to also draw a card really elevates the utility of these cards.
While I personally think that Exocrine’s ability to clear the board and possibly even finish off opponents if life totals are low enough pushes it over the top, there are a variety of useful effects to be found among these creatures. Even with no additional mana investment, Tyrant Guard can be a good way to make sure that your Tyranids survive a board wipe.
Outside of ravenous Tyranids, this deck also offers up some very useful creatures that can perform a variety of functions. Genestealer Patriarch can use its Genestealer’s Kiss to mark opposing creatures and then make copies of them as Children of the Cult when they die. Atalan Jackal definitely feels like a creature that will cross over to a bunch of other decks, using the Skilled Outrider ability to help you ramp when it deals combat damage. Winged Hive Tyrant is another way to help out your team, providing haste and flying to all of your creatures with counters on them.
Cryptic: The focus of the classic Space Hulk game that pits elite Space Marines against these purpose bred hunters, Genestealers are excellent and terrifying infiltration units, serving as the forerunners of Tyranid invasions. Of the three full Tyranid Genestealer cards, I think they do a nice job of capturing that element. Tyranids have a variety of biomorphs, like Rippers, Termagants, and more, but they are excellent in that they all work to support the invasion. Purestrains prepare the battlefield and Broodlords ensure they can keep doing that, until eventually you have Patriarchs to come and turn their enemy's strength against each other.
Nearly all of the new cards in this deck are creatures, but there are a few new noncreature cards as well. Tyranid Invasion is a no-fuss token generator that can put bodies on the board when you need them. Getting 9 power for 4 mana in a game with 3 opponents is nothing to sneeze at! The First Tyrannic War is part of a cycle of sagas that focus on the history of the different factions in these decks. It has great synergy with creatures and counters, so I’d expect it to do some crazy things. Shadow in the Warp discounts the first creature spell that you cast each turn and punishes opponents for casting noncreature spells. The art is also super creepy.
Cryptic: The telltale sign of a Tyranid invasion, is the Shadow in the Warp. Causing a massive psychic depression in the fabric of the Warp—40k's immaterial dimension of dreams and nightmares, and worse--a planet and star system's defenders will be overwhelmed with feelings of dread and doom. For Psykers who can manifest 40k's equivalent of "magic", this represents additional physical peril. This card is reminiscent of cards that punish noncreature spells like Scab-Clan Berserker or Ruric Thar, the Unbowed. With a planet's defenders in disarray, deploying threats becomes that much easier and the discounting element feels very comfortable here.
Reprints with Warhammer 40,000 flavor are undoubtedly going to be a highlight for fans of both franchises. The creepy flavor of the Tyranid reprints really stands out to me and definitely has me wanting to do a deep dive on their lore. Of note, Inspiring Call is one of the absolute top reprints for this deck from a functional standpoint. I actually would have been very annoyed if it didn’t make the cut. Herald’s Horn is also a standout, given the high density of Tyranid creatures to be found in the deck.
If you plan to upgrade this deck, there’s quite a bit of +1/+1 counter and X cost synergy available in Temur colors. Animar, Soul of the Elements feels like the most obvious choice, synergizing extremely well with all of the high-cost creatures in this deck while also resisting common targeted removal. The Ozolith feels like the perfect way to keep all of your counters after a board wipe, making it much easier to get back into the game. Garruk’s Uprising can provide trample and even more card advantage when you drop huge Tyranids. Unbound Flourishing and Branching Evolution are fantastic card alongside the ravenous Tyranids, especially in decks focused on Magus Lucea Kane in the command zone. Simic Ascendancy can even turn +1/+1 counters into a win condition!
The Ruinous Powers
The Ruinous Powers is a Grixis deck focused on mixing combat with powerful cascade spells. This chaotic deck features some formidable creatures mostly split into the powerful Astartes super soldiers and vicious demons. While there is a bit of demon tribal synergy mixed in here and there, this is far from the main focus. This deck is looking to wear down opponents with removal and attrition before closing out the game with a legion of nightmarish attackers. There’s definitely a little bit of controlled chaos mixed in here as well with the focus on cascade and similar effects, helping to keep this deck fun and interesting to play.
Abaddon the Despoiler was the first legendary creature that we saw from this series of decks, and he remains one of the most fearsome. He’s sure to draw some comparisons to Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder due to his focus on turning sideways with trample in order to enable cascade, but the fact that he doesn’t need to connect with an opponent is definitely a big advantage. It remains to be seen whether this is worth losing access to all of the cascade support that includes green, but he’s still definitely a powerful commander.
This commander feels noticeably powerful in the context of the precon, but I believe that he’ll also continue to scale well as you make upgrades to the deck. It even seems like there might be a space for Abaddon the Despoiler in higher power Commander tables. Even though he isn’t the most powerful option available in Grixis, I definitely think that we’ll see him show up as the commander of some powerful decks. Regardless of power level, Grixis is well-positioned to take advantage of his Mark of Chaos Ascendant ability by using life loss and direct damage effects to enable cascade.
Cryptic: Abaddon is the head honcho of the forces of Chaos, second only to the big four Chaos gods. His ability to summon additional resources to secure the doom of a battlefield is represented decently here. He's able to capitalize on having other units in play, but true to his reputation as a singular force of destruction, can also enable the casting of all but the strongest or most expensive spells with little additional support in one fell combat step.
The alternate commander this time around is Be’lakor, the Dark Master. With the handful of demons in this deck, he can potentially draw you a few cards when he enters the battlefield using his Prince of Chaos ability and he can leverage his status as the Lord of Torment in order to have your other demons dole out big damage when they enter the battlefield. He is also a great attacker who can quickly dwindle opponents’ life totals.
If you prefer to run Be’lakor, the Dark Master as the commander, you’ll probably look to add a few more demons and some support for that tribe. Even in the context of this precon, he is a great attacker who has some upsides if you can summon a few demons to help your cause. Terror of the Peaks is one of my favorite creatures, but it would be pretty oppressive in the command zone. This legendary version that triggers on a limited number of creatures that are usually expensive is still very cool.
Okay, Lucius the Eternal is creepy. I’m not sure that I actually want to know what’s going on with this guy. Creepiness aside, he seems like a cool recursive attacker who will continue to harass your opponents using the Armour of Shrieking Souls as long as you can make sure that their creatures keep leaving the battlefield. I’m confident that there has to be a way to break this card somehow, but it currently escapes me.
Magnus the Red is an interesting creature. You can use his Unearthly Power ability to discount your expensive cascade spells while creating more bodies when he deals combat damage. This makes him a decent enabler for Abaddon the Despoiler, but I feel that he’d truly excel as the commander of an Izzet spellslinger deck of his own where he can help you cast a lot of really powerful spells on the cheap.
Cryptic: For one of the premier Psykers in 40k, I find Magnus's card to be a bit underwhelming. Since his introduction in the miniatures game, he's been a consistent master of the Psyker magics of Tzeentch, his patron Chaos God known for magic and schemes (and pranks). Cost reduction is nice and allows you to chain many spells once you've established a board, but does little to represent Magnus's raw magic potential.
Mortarion, Daemon Primarch seems like he might be an important character in the Warhammer 40,000 lore. Unfortunately, this card just doesn’t feel that impactful. While many demons encourage you to use life as a resource, having to also pay mana in order to get the tokens and only on your own end step makes him feel a lot less powerful than he otherwise could have been.
Cryptic: While not as favored by Nurgle, the Chaos God of Plagues, as the Death Guard's Typhus—who sadly didn't get a card although he appears in the art for Decree of Pain—Mortarion serves as a neat little force multiplier. I'm not sure I think this translates well over to the card game either. Mortarion underwhelms likely because Toxrill, the Corrosive already exists. I'd also substitute the Astartes tokens for some zombies instead.
Taking chaos very literally, Khârn the Betrayer is sure to spice up your games. The Berzerker ability makes sure that he attacks every combat if he can. If any damage would be dealt to him, The Betrayer prevents that damage and you choose an opponent to gain control of him. When that happens, Sigil of Corruption draws you two cards. This combination of abilities makes him feel like a Humble Defector that swings for 5 every turn. This card will probably be a ton of fun in casual commander.
Perhaps due to Abaddon the Despoiler having cascade built in, this deck doesn’t have a ton of new cascade cards. All told, there are only 3 new cards with cascade in the deck. Worry not, because Sloppity Bilepiper and Dark Apostle can enable cascade for creature and noncreature spells respectively. There are also some other interesting payoffs for cascade built into the deck, so you’ll definitely be able to make this strategy work right out of the box.
This deck also includes some powerful cards that will probably cross over into other decks. Poxwalkers feels like an instant staple that has a great interaction with the ever popular Gravecrawler and a few other cards, so I’m definitely expecting it to be an instant staple. Aggro decks including red will love Bloodthirster. This demon can easily get you an insane 3 combat steps per turn on a 6/6 body with flying and trample for 6 mana. It only untaps itself, but that isn’t much of a restriction in certain decks. Exalted Flamer of Tzeentch is like a crazy mix between Charmbreaker Devils and Guttersnipe and should be popular for decks playing either one.
A deck such as this one would like nothing better than to clear the board of annoying rabble so your big creatures can get through. This is exactly where Mandate of Abaddon shines. It should usually be pretty easy to make this one work in your favor. The excellent Blood for the Blood God! will allow you to dome each opponent for 8 damage and then wheel for 8 new cards for as little as 3 mana, possibly with cascade by way of Abaddon the Despoiler if you’ve dealt enough damage this turn already. The Horus Heresy is this deck’s saga card. This card will allow you to enact a little coup on your opponents with violent results.
This deck’s reprints actually have a lot to offer in terms of perennial favorites and I expect these cards to become quite sought after down the line. The super metal Blasphemous Act is my favorite as an outsider, but I’m sure that those versed in the Warhammer 40,000 lore will find even more to love. While it’s less of a staple, I also think that the new Assault Suit artwork is very cool. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by how many popular staples made it into this deck as reprints.
You may wind up wanting to make some quick upgrades to this deck after you play it out of the box. Adding an Arcane Signet for some extra ramp and easy mana fixing is an easy one, as the stock precon doesn’t include one. Bolstering your cascade synergies and mana output with legendary creatures such as Prosper, Tome-Bound and Neheb, the Eternal might also work out in your favor. These two can really shine in this deck with minimal modifications and should help you pour even more fuel on the fires of chaos. Passionate Archaeologist and Delayed Blast Fireball are some newer cards that feel quite powerful in a deck built around cascade. Of course, suspend spells with no casting cost such as Ancestral Vision are also very easy to cascade into!
Necron Dynasties
Necron Dynasties is a unique take on mono-black, since we rarely see this color interact so heavily with artifacts. To this end, every single Necron is an artifact creature and a total of 49 of the cards in this deck are artifacts! In addition to typical black reanimation, the Necrons make use of unearth and mill to make sure that you can always get plenty of value out of your graveyard. Since this deck is mono-black, there are actually 5 different possible commanders included. While each of them have their own specialties, they all have plenty of synergy with one another out of the box. This deck also contains a few very strange and unique card designs that really make the Necrons stand out.
The face commander here is Szarekh, the Silent King. My initial impression is that he definitely doesn’t seem as flashy as some of the other face commanders in these precons, but his evasion and ability to stock your graveyard and provide you with card selection definitely with the My Will Be Done ability make him very synergistic with the rest of the deck. It often seems like new commanders are over-the-top and provide a lot of instant gratification, but slow-burning value engines also have their own merits.
It seems to me that he would prefer to bide his time, sculpting your graveyard for the perfect moment to unleash the might of your deck on your opponents. Given what little I know about the Necrons, this seems perfectly in line with how they do things. While he can certainly perform admirably within the context of this precon, I believe that you’ll probably get more mileage out of this deck by replacing Szarekh, the Silent King with one of the other commanders if you plan to upgrade this deck to play in higher power tables.
Cryptic: For a character with such great lore, this card doesn’t really seem that impressive. That’s all.
While this deck has several options, Imotekh the Stormlord is seemingly considered the de facto alternate commander. The Phaeron ability allows you to create Necron Warrior tokens any time that one or more artifacts leaves your graveyard. This has plenty of synergy with anything that returns artifacts to your hand or directly to the battlefield and it opens up some exciting play when using unearth to bring back fallen creatures. The Grand Strategist ability will buff one of your artifact creatures and provide them with evasion in the form of menace.
When taken at face value, Imotekh the Stormlord comes across as an artifact creature go-wide commander with an emphasis on combat. It’s also possible to use him as a means to loop artifacts through your graveyard and amass tons of value or even combo off! I’m looking forward to seeing all of the creative ways that people build around this commander. He’s one of my absolute favorite designs among the new commanders in these precons. I always enjoy when commanders can be built in multiple different ways.
Cryptic: Not to be confused with The Swarmlord, Imotekh is the leader of the Sautekh dynasty and commands the might of many Necron warriors. Generally considered one of the most powerful Necrons in the galaxy, his card does leave a bit to be desired indicative of his role as a force multiplier. However, being able to shrewdly recycle your army's deck's resources into more warriors for conquest and providing a boost, minor as it is, to the combat efficacy of another unit is at least something.
I’m not sure where Anrakyr the Traveller is going, but I appreciate him stopping by. Lord of the Pyrrian Legions allows him to cast artifact spells from your hand or graveyard when he attacks, paying life instead of mana to do so. In the context of this precon, you’ll probably be casting some of the expensive Necrons early in order to gain an advantage over your opponents while they try to keep up! In higher power tables, he’s likely helping you combo off faster.
Illuminor Szeras feels like a good contender for a deck focused around unearth and other temporary reanimation, using his Secrets of the Soul ability to turn them into mana after they’ve fulfilled their duty one last time. After all, there’s no reason for them to go to waste if they’re just going to get exiled anyway. I’m mostly expecting to see him in the 99 of decks that enjoy sacrificing creatures to pull off various spicy or broken things.
With a name like Trazyn the Infinite, you know that he’s probably trying to do something broken. There are a number of graveyard piles that allow him to combo off in spectacular fashion. While it remains to be seen if his mana cost and his needing to tap to perform most of the best artifact combos make him too slow for cEDH, he should get up to some good fun in this precon with all of the different artifacts and his Prismatic Gallery ability.
Cryptic: Trazyn is known as a great collector of spectacular wonders (and occasionally individuals) from across the gallery, and his ability pays some homage to it.
There are a total of 23 creatures in this deck with the brand new Necron creature type. These mono-black artifact creatures offer a new take on what we can expect from this color, but they also still rely on black’s ability to effectively leverage the graveyard. I’m very impressed by Necron Deathmark’s ability to enter at flash speed to destroy a creature, mill the player of your choice, and stick around as a 5/3 body for just 5 mana. Recursive threats such as Tomb Blade can definitely cause a lot of problems for your opponents. Most of the Necrons synergize very well with either self-mill or the unearth mechanic.
Cryptic: In addition to the cool mono-eye, Deathmarks have always been my favorite Necron models. They've always been a great way to remove pinpoint enemy units. The card does a good impression of the Hunters From Hyperspace rule (which has gone through some variations), that would allow you to set them up outside the battlefield, only to bring them suddenly into play and destroy high priority targets.
Not all of the creatures in this deck are Necrons. As I understand it, the C’tan are an ancient race of beings who once deceived the Necrons before eventually becoming their slaves. We seem them represented here by Shard of the Void Dragon and Shard of the Nightbringer. They’re big, expensive flyers who are prime targets for reanimation. They also offer some powerful abilities as a major upside when they enter the battlefield. Cryptothrall is a colorless artifact creature that provides some much needed hexproof to your Necrons and other artifact creatures.
I mentioned earlier that this deck had some pretty weird cards in it. Biotransference is an enchantment that gives every single creature card that you own in every game zone the artifact typing. While all but 2 of the creatures in the stock precon are already artifacts, this card offers a lot of synergy if you add more nonartifact creatures over time. Out of the Tombs is a unique self-mill card that replaces decking yourself out with reanimating a creature from your graveyard. This card is also part of a janky combo with Magosi, the Waterveil and Swarmyard. Convergence of Dominion makes unearth abilities cheaper, but it likely has other applications outside of this precon.
This precon also includes some choice reprints. While Darkness is just a colorshifted Fog, it has become a very scarce card due to limited availability and it was actually the most expensive card reprinted in any of these precons. That’s pretty impressive for a common. The unique Necron flavor makes even formerly benign artifacts such as Caged Sun feel quite sinister and I think that Warhammer 40,000 fans will see that a lot of thought went into the reflavoring behind these reprints.
If you’re looking for easy upgrades, a synergistic favorite of mine is Kuldotha Forgemaster. In a similar vein, Ruthless Technomancer can provide a ton of excellent utility by producing treasures and enabling reanimation. Tortured Existence is a fantastic older card to consider, especially in decks focused around Imotekh the Stormlord. Disciple of the Vault can definitely put in some work with all of the artifact creatures going to the graveyard. Bolas’s Citadel can enable some broken stuff in any mono-black deck, especially one focused around artifacts. If you’re leaning into the self-mill aspect of the deck, the classic Altar of Dementia plays well with large unearthed creatures.
Forces of the Imperium
Forces of the Imperium is an Esper go-wide deck focused around casting creature spells and generating tokens so that you can win in combat against your opponents with superior numbers. This deck features the return of the miracle mechanic, except this time it appears on creature spells! There’s also a new mechanic called squad that allows you to pay additional mana when casting a creature spell in order to create token copies of that creature when it enters the battlefield. This deck contains 30 creatures, mostly divided between humans and the powerful Astartes. Will your superior tactics allow you to achieve victory over your opponents?
The face commander is Inquisitor Greyfax. By all measure, she’s a competent go-wide commander whose Unquestionable Wisdom provides a +1/+0 buff and vigilance to the rest of your forces. She’s also able to Hunt for Heresy, tapping one of your opponents’ creatures and investigating. This can be useful for tapping down a problematic blocker or keeping a big creature from attacking you.
Inquisitor Greyfax isn’t very flashy, but all of her abilities feel very relevant to this deck’s strategy. I think that she’s a fun and appropriate commander in the context of this precon, even if she isn’t doing anything too out of the ordinary. It’s also worth noting that she is a possible outlet for Isochron Scepter and Dramatic Reversal, which isn’t something that Esper had access to prior to the release of this precon. More on that in a moment.
Marneus Calgar is the alternate commander for this deck. To my knowledge, there has never been a commander that draws a card any time that you create one or more tokens. His Master Tactician ability even works with noncreature tokens! You can even enable this card draw by activating his Chapter Master ability to put 2 tokens into play for 6 mana. The high cost isn’t ideal, but it can work in a pinch if you don’t have other token generators on hand.
It would be very easy to focus a deck like this one around creating tokens and drawing tons of cards, especially because Esper has so much support for tokens already. I expect this to be a popular strategy for this commander. I also believe that he will cross over to cEDH tables as he is the second outlet for Isochron Scepter and Dramatic Reversal in Esper colors and likely the stronger of the two. It’s wild to see both of these commanders show up together in the same precon and create new possibilities for cEDH.
Cryptic: Marneus Augustus Calgar is a veteran of countless battles, including one against The Swarmlord, and later one encounter with Abaddon where he technically died before being restored as a Primaris Astartes, lieutenant of the acting Regent of the Imperium of Man. Calgar's Magic iteration, while a bit uninspired, is very powerful. Tokens are generally considered weaker game pieces compared to other cards, but they are able to provide excellent results in game in large enough densities. Calgar being able to take tokens of all sorts and turn them into cards, or turn surplus mana back into more Space Marines is pretty decent at translating his acumen for eking all available advantage into victory. Also, it’s kinda amusing that he can kill every Daemon Primarch and Abaddon in combat. Maybe he should be a 2/5 instead. Finally I was surprised that Calgar appears to be bald in his art. While the "Bald Space Marine" has been a great joke for many years, his most recent model does indeed have hair.
This interesting looking fellow is Belisarius Cawl. I think that he’ll do just fine in the 99 of this precon as a reliable way to put bodies on board and dig for artifacts, but he feels a bit slow and durdly due to the fact that his Ultima Founding and Master of Machines abilities require him to tap as part of their activation cost. That said, he can create infinite creatures with Intruder Alarm if you want to build around that.
Commissar Severina Raine seems to be a real woman of action. Her penchant for Leading from the Front allows you to drain opponents for life equal to the number of attacking creatures. If one of your creatures disappoints you in battle, you can always use Summary Execution to sacrifice it to draw cards and gain life. If you’ve been waiting for an Orzhov go-wide commander, a strong contender has definitely arrived.
I’m going to be honest and say that Inquisitor Eisenhorn doesn’t really feel mechanically interesting to me. I’m sure that he’s important to the Warhammer 40,000 lore in some way, but he barely even feels like a legendary creature. He will likely perform his duties to an acceptable degree in the 99 of this precon deck and then quickly fall out of favor as the deck receives upgrades.
Author’s note: For whatever reason, they didn’t even give this guy flavor keywords for his abilities. This doesn’t help him stand out among the large number of exciting legendary creatures on offer.
If you fancy a bit of politics, Neyam Shai Murad can use her Rogue Trader ability to help you craft the perfect deal with one of your opponents if they’re willing to let her through. While it requires a bit of wheeling and dealing, you can likely talk opponents into letting you have whatever you want if there’s a more obvious threat on the table. I think that this is a very fun design for casual Commander.
I was very surprised to learn that Celestine, the Living Saint isn’t an angel. This human warrior can use her Healing Tears during your end step to reanimate a creature with mana value equal to the amount of life that you’ve gained this turn. This is a very elegant design that continues the trend of giving white access to better reanimation to help out in Commander, and I can see her having a ton of crossover appeal even outside of these Commander decks.
The new squad mechanic allows you to make copies of certain creatures by paying extra mana when you cast them. Sicarian Infiltrator is one of the best creatures to showcase this mechanic. Since this creature draws a card when it enters the battlefield, it can actually function as a sneaky outlet for infinite mana. It even has flash. Zephyrim showcases squad as well, alongside the miracle mechanic that we’ve previously only seen on instant and sorcery spells. This can allow you to put out a ton of bodies with flying and vigilance in a pinch. Given how interesting these cards turned out to be, I hope to see these mechanics on more creatures in future sets.
Even outside of these new mechanics, the creatures in this deck still have a lot to offer. Vexilus Praetor can offer commanders the powerful Aegis of the Emperor for protection from everything at flash speed, with the possible downside of protecting your commander from your own equipment and auras. Sanguinary Priest is a unique take on the Blood Artist effect that can also deal damage to creatures and planeswalkers with the Blood Chalice ability. Epistolary Librarian is an excellent go-wide payoff, using Veil of Time to cast spells from your hand without paying their mana costs if you’re attacking with enough creatures.
While the deck is definitely focused around creatures, there are also a number of notable noncreature spells. Deny the Witch is a catch-all counterspell that can stop almost anything at a restrictive casting cost. We’ve been seeing more cards like this recently, and it’s a design space that I’m very interested in. Exterminatus is a powerful board wipe that makes my favorite deck very sad. I think that this card will show up in a lot of decks. While I’m unclear on the lore significance, The Flesh Is Weak is a very unique card design that puts +1/+1 counters on your team and turns them into artifact creatures. You’ll want to either cast this after your creatures have been deployed or have a way to put counters on them, as it doesn’t continue to put counters on creatures when they enter the battlefield.
Cryptic: Sometimes in the grim darkness of the 41st Millenium, you might be losing. When that happens, it's important that your opponent doesn't win. So you blow up the planet using Exterminatus. I feel like even allowing for destruction is a bit generous, but between stripping indestructibility and mass exile, the distinction likely doesn't matter much.
The Flesh Is Weak is hallmark slogan of the Iron Hands chapter of Space Marines, although it's not limited to Astartes. I think this card does an excellent job of portraying how Iron Hands will modify their already genetically altered bodies with cybernetic augmentations to make up for what they consider to be fallible organic material. Often seen as cold and callous, the Iron Hands have been prone to a great amount of stubbornness in their campaigns with other forces of the Imperium. The card penalizing even your own nonartifact creatures that join battle afterwards represents that aspect very well.
Of course, we also have the reprints. Bastion Protector sneaks in as the only creature reprint among these 4 precons, which seems flavorful and offers a buff and solid protection to your commander. There’s also the incredibly eerie Skullclamp reprint, which appears to be some sort of cybernetic skull creature. The new artwork definitely makes you feel like you’re right in the middle of a large-scale battle. I think that the art direction was extremely well done across all of the precons, but the reprints in this deck are my personal favorites when it strictly comes down to the enjoyability of the artwork.
If you’re seeking some easy upgrades for the deck, you may consider adding in Rumor Gatherer and Coastal Piracy to help provide additional draw and card selection. Grim Hireling and Smothering Tithe can also be a powerful sources of ramp, particularly if you’ve chosen to focus on Marneus Calgar as your commander. It will be hard to top the amount of advantage that you’ll get from drawing cards in addition to making treasure tokens. You may also want to protect and bolster your forces with cards such as Unbreakable Formation and Akroma’s Will, especially as the latter feels like the premier combat finisher for go-wide decks that include white.
Now that we’ve covered all of the 40K precon decks, there’s just one more thing: a special promo version of Fabricate will be available at select game stores beginning on October 7th as part of the Commander Party launch event for these decks! You can find out more information here. Make sure to check with your local game store to see if they’re participating in these events.
I’d like to thank Cryptic for his contributions to this article, because I’d be totally lost in regards to the lore of Warhammer 40,000 without his assistance. I’d also like to give him the opportunity to share his overall thoughts on how successful these decks were in capturing the feeling and flavor of the source material.
Cryptic: Overall, I think these precons ultimately have a bit too much going on, as if they’re trying to bring into focus far too many things. There are a lot of misses in my book. I think there are some neat cards, and divorcing the 40k from the cards, the decks have a lot of neat things going on. I'm personally not very optimistic about the future of all the various crossover products coming down the pike based on this, but I do understand that Games Workshop has some extremely restrictive controls on their IP that makes working with them and their lore rather challenging. I like the design space that Necron Dynasties explores in mono-black, so divorcing the precons from the lore of their source material is something that I'd count as a win.
It's not a surprise that things don't translate well, and my expectations were low to begin with, but ultimately I'm still disappointed. One thing that 40k the game has that Commander doesn't really, is the ability to create your own heroes (or villains) and equip them with various wargear or abilities that belong to the tradition of those factions. While I still have some reservations, I find the D&D crossovers a lot easier to reconcile with Magic’s aesthetic (as I likely will with the Lord of the Rings set, and I am sure I would have were this set of precons focused on Warhammer Fantasy Battles, or even Age of Sigmar). The background mechanic and card type introduced in Battle for Baldur’s Gate allow for a degree of interesting customization that I feel would—with some more iterations—be excellent in Commander, and would allow you to really take advantage of the fantasy of leading your deck, especially in heroic crossover settings like this. I'm imagining a world where you have an unnamed legendary Astartes Captain with a background from a variety of Chapters including those like the Ultramarines Calgar represents.
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