Commander Masters is coming to Magic: The Gathering stores on August 4, but in keeping with Magic tradition, Wizards of the Coast has treated us to the full decklists including all the new cards that will be coming in the four preconstructed decks. Those decks are Enduring Enchantments, Eldrazi Unbound, Planeswalker Party, and the much-anticipated Sliver Swarm.
Each of these decks will speak to different players, and they're all great decks in their own right. But no set of precons is perfectly balanced, and some of these new cards just seem stronger than others. Here's how we'd rank each of the four new preconstructed commander decks coming in Commander Masters.
4 Enduring Enchantments
Kicking things off is Enduring Enchantments, the Erebos-colored enchantment deck. This deck naturally centers around enchantment cards and getting increased value for playing enchantments. Cards like Mesa and Verduran Enchantress will keep your hand full of enchantments, while Starfield Mystic and Herald of the Pantheon will make those enchantments cheap to cast.
Green and white are the core colors of enchantment strategies, but black adds access to Doomwake Giant and Extinguish All Hope to keep the board clear. A collection of Sagas like The Eldest Reborn and Binding of the Old Gods put further pressure on opponents while enhancing your board position.
It's not a bad deck by any means, but the weakness of enchantment strategies has always been its vulnerability to cards like Bane of Progress, Fracturing Gust, or even something as simple as Tranquility. It's easy to hate enchantments, and it's even easier for enchantment creatures to catch flack from damage-based board clearers like Blasphemous Act.
Still, Enduring Enchantments has 10 great new cards, and one of them is a 10/10 trample that can gain indestructibility. That's good enough to pluck at the harp strings of any lover of giant monsters.
3 Sliver Swarm
Slivers have always been a perennial favorite of Commander players, and Sliver Swarm is bound to make Sliver fans happy. All your favorite Slivers are here, from Sinew, Winged, and Crystalline Slivers to the beloved Sliver Hivelord.
There are, however, some notable absences. Chief among them is Muscle Sliver, which is essentially the same as the Sinew Sliver but in green, as well as our liege, the Sliver Queen. There's also no Cautery Sliver, Darkheart Sliver, Dementia Sliver, or Plated Sliver.
The fact is, there are simply too many Slivers to include them all, and Sliver fans will have to adjust this deck to suit their particular Sliver tastes. This task will be made all the more difficult due to the six new Slivers vying for position, including the all-new Sliver Gravemother. Even with 100 cards, it never seems to be enough for Slivers.
2 Planeswalker Party
For some reason, Teferi was not invited to the Planeswalker Party. There are three Jaces, three Chandras, and even three Narsets (one from before her spark ignited), but the only reference to Teferi comes from Oath of Teferi. Seems like Commodore Guff isn't a Teferi fan.
But of the red, blue, and white planeswalkers, the rest of the gang certainly seems to be here. Sarkhan, Nahiri, Saheeli, Gideon, Elspeth, Ajani, and even the mysterious Wanderer are all jamming down with newcomers Guff and Vronos to control the direction of your Commander game.
Proliferation cards like Grateful Apparition, Thrummingbird, and Flux Channeler keep your planeswalkers loyal, while cards like Silent Arbiter,Norn's Annex, and Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs keep opposing armies from spoiling your shindig. For a crazy planeswalker party, this deck sure doesn't want to let things get too raucous.
The only issue with Planeswalker Party is that each opponent can see your strategy as it's being played, which might rankle the opposition into ganging up on you. Path of Exile and Swords to Plowshares are there are instant-speed answers, but they seem insufficient to delay the armies of players that don't want to stare down a Silent Arbiter.
1 Eldrazi Unbound
Who doesn't love giant, ineffable monsters? Big mana, mono-colored monsters are the name of Eldrazi's game, and getting them onto the board fast is their claim to fame. Eldrazi Temple, Temple of the False God, and Shrine of the Forsaken God combine with the Urzatron lands to bring plenty of extra mana to first power out a Thran Dynamo and then follow that up with an Oblivion Sower. Repeat until your opponents simply can't keep up with the constant onslaught of enormous, faceless horrors.
When Eldrazi Unbound isn't throwing up terrifyingly huge creatures, it's blowing up everyone else's. Calamity of the Titans, Perilous Vault, All is Dust, and Blast Zone are just there for when Meteor Golem, Titan's Presence, and Ugin, the Ineffable aren't enough to keep you at the top of the giant monster leaderboard.
Both of your new commanders, Zhulodok, Void Gorger and Omarthis, Ghostfire Initiate, are designed to catapult you well ahead of the pack, while Rise of the Eldrazi and Darksteel Monolith will keep you there indefinitely. Just like the Eldrazi, victory is inevitable and unstoppable.
But you have to be strategic. Eldrazi Unbound's weakness is its lack of card draw outside a few sacrificing mana artifacts and some lands. The Eldrazi struggle when they empty their hands too soon. Always keep a monster in reserve for when the Planeswalker Party finally peters out.