Yeah, that made no sense. If you want to show of how powerful the deck is, why wouldn’t you use the face commander, which is the entire reason the deck is as good as it is?
@@PokeStatsStudios to be fair, back when those Commander decks came out, they were notoriously unfocused. They were nigh unplayable out of the box. Rebell choosing that one surprised me, because it was clearly solely based on (one of) the face Commanders. Side note: those products prominently displayed all three oversized foil cards, so it’s hard to say one was the specific “face” in the same way the newer decks have.
Not surprised coming from a rebel.... Throwing the swamp in the discard phase.... putting a sticker and then using terminate on stickered creature... oof... so much rebellion there.
Precons usually don't run much removal, it makes sense to go for commanders that provide crazy value while they're out. Eminence is a very powerful mechanic also because it avoids removal, but I think their choices made sense.
12:30 Josh had an artifact land, could sac it and use Osgir’s ability to make two lands, also looting to find a land to make the turn land drop. (This would have also made it so he could hit for 2 more.) Also the lands enter untapped, so he would have net mana even in the turn and still be able to sac the key. As an experienced Osgir player trust me: do not underestimate his ramp potential
@@crossr1984 It is. But my favourite targets have to be the rings of brighthearth type things. It’s all snowballing from there. Either that or mirror of fate and win pretty much immediately
@@briankemper9443 you can loop the mirror of fate and whatever other aftifacts you've exiled. bc the two mirrors will see the original, you can play clown music for the rest of the game as you start playing simic in boros
Josh's single thopter at the end "Sir, are you seeing this horde of things on giant birds? What is happening?" Josh: " yes I see them.... I need you to somehow deal with all of that." The thopter..... "Not no, but heck no"
I feel like Rebell threw the game before it even started. I mean... the Kaalia precon is based on Kaalia getting out your 5+ CMC angels, demons, and dragons for free with her trigger. Removing her and choosing a 7 CMC commander with a random trigger was basically giving up before the game even started.
I'm pretty sure Tariel was in that precon originally, so it was at least somewhat intended that you could use Tariel - it's not just some random 7-drop. Granted, Tariel isn't remotely as good as Kaalia, but still...
Not to mention Rebell could've knocked Voxy out of the game @26:24 but chose to hit Murph for nonlethal. I mean, he was a threat for sure, but Voxy just kept proliferating all game and that ends games if it goes unnoticed.
And they are the same person who talks about how bad Cedh players are at keeping up with the format, and is constantly nitpicking bad commander play. xD
the older ones were way more busted. Gavin even admitted that 2017 was a mistake. Eminence is way too powerful. of the new ones I really like the simic ones. I don't have Aesi, but I got the Strixhaven one and it's really powerful when upgraded just slightly, like the 30 $ upgrade from the command zone + a few extra cards were enough to make it really scary.
Please forgive my ignorance, but why did the greaves get attached to a germ when they were stolen? I thought they had to be a living weapon or something similar for that to happen?
Fantastic game. I think the irony of this particular match is that if Josh had sacrificed his Great Furnace instead of Key to the City when he went to kill Murph, then he would have likely had enough damage to kill Voxy on his next turn. Really enjoyed the back n forth as well
It's literally trash. If it doesn't ramp you just lose most of the time. Not to mention if you have to build a deck to ramp and continually draw cards to win, it's bad. Definitely the worst of the 4 decks at the table, and there are plenty of precons that are definitely more powerful.
Yeah, this seems less like they chose good precons and more just chose good commanders. Most of the precons from the last 2 years are so much better out of the box
I honestly don't see why the CZ team keeps plugging that Osgir deck. Yeah it's a solid Boros deck, but as far as Strixhaven precons go, it was 2nd worst only to Silverquill...and if your meta is big into politics, it falls to worst behind (respectively) Adrix(hands down the best, likely why it wasnt featured on the GK episode), Veyran, Willowdusk, and Breena.
@@TehWhitt I'm sure it was an honest mistake. No doubt they just didn't have the time to redo the take or when they realized that the audio was messed up it was too late to re-shoot. Especially with their schedules. Mistakes happen, this was just having a bit of fun about the situation.
I hope the 40k deck video is the unmodified precons. Love to see more videos like this one where we see them unchanged. Also Kickstarter with more tokens and alters would be dope.
Key to the City is great! It's perfect with Osgir. It lets you discard an artifact to recur with Osgir. Makes Osgir or any creature unlockable. And that works especially well when you're giving creatures +2/+0
Key is really good in any reanimator/aggro synergy deck. Love it in Gyrus. That said if you aren't using it for every piece of the card, there are better options out there lol.
Yeah if JLK had sac’d his great furnace instead of the key he might have taken that game. Hard to say and always a difficult choice in the moment but I always keep my Key when playing Osgir
@@ReXtion88 yeah doubling it with Osgir isn’t very good but it can get expensive artifacts into the yard and it also lets you Falcon punch someone with Osgir. I dunno I like it
@@The1jkanter I'm not saying it's super bad, it's just that with Osgir you generally want to maximise the number of artifacts that get better the more of them you have, but two Keys to the City is nowhere near twice as good as one of them. I prefer Key to the City in my Teneb, the Harvester deck, which generally doesn't want to cast things from my hand - my Osgir deck usually does
My little brother got it for me for Christmas when it came out and I was impressed. I've since upgraded it a lot and taken out most of the original cards but was still good. Especially good considering it was one of the set precons and was cheaper than a commander set precon
My first was ezuri claw of progress, for a gift I was given sage of hours and a few other cards to make it better. That precon was fun. I think I’m about to order it.
Great episode! Before the announced commanders, I knew Atraxa was one. Was great to see Voxy pilot that to a win. Cheers to Josh for not picking blue! 😅 You still drew more cards than the table! Cheers!
Josh could tap the artifact land (Great Furnace) and sacrifice itself to get any creature +2/0, and then pay 0 and tap Osgir to get 2 tokens of the land onto the battlefield.
Rebell is the exact type of player i wont ever invite to a game. Literally had the battle seraph with 4 power while Voxy had 4 life and no blockers and was tapped out and what happens? "Attack Murph for 4." Are you kidding me?
Got into magic like a few weeks ago and just bought reap of the tides as a starter for my commander journey. Really cool to see someone who knows how to play using the precon, so I know how I should be playing now 😅
Yo if you still play reap I have an amazing upgrade for you. Buy the card “Archetype of imagination” combo that with stormtide leviathan and your opponents can’t attack nor block.
I think these were all good picks, but gotta say, the Faldorn precon (Exit from Exile) is really strong. I've kept it as a precon and it definitely punches above its weight. Was kind of hoping to see that one here.
There have been strong one. Prosper was like faldorn but even stronger. (Tho in weaker colors). Other strong ones are mizzix, teferi, windgrace, markov, and derevi. I'm actually very shocked they weren't picked.
Edgar was my first precon and I absolutely love it; while I do agree is a strong deck. Right out of the box is a bit too slow. It has creatures that are simply too expensive to keep up with faster decks.
@@RebellSon it's an absolutely disgusting attack trigger, I've always wanted to build a Kaalia deck with Aurelia as a secret commander, but I've never been too interested in Mardu. Despite that, you definitely inspired me to push towards a mardu deck more with the Alt commander, I love a good bit of thievery
I'm going to go ahead on a limb here and say the only reason we didn't see Elves vampires and dragons (you know which ones I'm talking about) is because had the tribal episode not that long ago
What got me into Magic was the amazing artwork on the cards, with my very first deck ever being Aesi. To see someone use that precon just has nostalgia for me and I love it!
Coven counters was a surprisingly powerful precon, also Otrimi was really powerful out of the box. I must say, though, that these decks played well against each other. Great episode!
We need to make a tourney of all precons, 4 at a time, against each other. Leftover decks from certain years (i.e 2011, 13, 14, and 15) can go against each other Edit: I forgot 2016 also had a fifth deck, as I remember the four color decks all had one color not present. Saskia, Breya, Yidris, Atraxa, and Kynaios and Tiro. However, K&T need something that can compete fast. I should make a list
lmao, Watching rebell go from turn 1/2 cedh wins to playing a 7 drop commander out of a precon is amazing! Still waiting for Josh and Jimmy to do a CEDH episode.
I LOVED this episode. Though, as a scientist, I’d like to mention that this is an N of one, and with the amount of variability in commander, you’d probably need at least 16 games with the same 4 decks to establish an answer with more validity.
I've really enjoyed using the Reap The Tide's pre-con for as a foundation to create a deck filled with dangerously powerful beasts multiple win conditions. If you go the route of using this deck as a foundation for your own Simic Landfall Deck, I highly recommend keeping (or upgrading) a good portion of the land bounce featured in the pre-con, as it can be really helpful in the mid-game to ensure that you can still trigger your landfall. I would also recommend the use of multiple blue instant spells which can return Aesi to your hand from the battlefield, as casting a commander multiple times from your command zone--especially a commander with a base casting cost of 6 mana --can get pretty expensive very quickly.
She deserved the win. She did most of the work in the table. She was fun and engaging. She did what the deck had to do. She got really close to dying. She respected her deal not to deal with Josh. She was fun to watch even with a precon.
As someone who bought the Aesi precon thinking it would be one of the most powerful due to it’s potential and structure, I am overjoyed to see it on this series. I MEAN COME ON? 20 DOLLARS? INFINITE UPGRADE POTENTIAL? BIG SEA MONSTERS? Hell. Yes.
Love the idea of new dynamics but one of the things I like from extra turns is the power level and precons doesn't go with the high power that we are used to see here.
would you guys consider having the 4 players try and build the same commander 4 different ways? i think that would be really awesome to the variety the players could display with the same commander.
It would be 4 nearly identical decks with slightly different wincons. Unless they played something wild like Golos or Jodah but even then the mana bases and basic layout would still be the same.
It's definitely a lot of fun to play, but it took me a lot of practice to realize what a good hand looked like, and even then the earliest you can get your commander on the field (absent a god-tier first hand) is turn four, and typically you won't get Aesi out on the field until turn 6, assuming that you're opponent doesn't decide to take him out. Not saying it's not a powerful deck, but it is definitely a slow start before Aesi comes out. I have heavily modified (as in replaced nearly half the cards) my Reap the Tides deck after running it stock for a month or two against my friends who have custom commander decks or modified precons.
What a game that was and on starter decks. Just started mtg again after many years and looking at chaos Incarnate with maybe a few upgrades. Started playing with new neighbours with my missus and have to say I'm loving it all over again.
I expected to see Atraxa. But I also expected Edgar and the Jeleva decks. Shocked they weren’t here. The Jeleva deck especially still holds up, as I use it frequently in my friends precon only games.
Don't understand Rebell's gameplan. It's supposed to be strongest precons and she shelves one of the best commander options for one of the weakest. Then later she discards a land and ends up missing a land drop as a result in a deck full of huge creatures... That deck was never going to do anything when you take out its ability to cheat creatures and throw away ramp
I love Reap the Tides, was my first deck i have ever played with and i wont 3 games in a row against my buddy teaching me. The 3rd game he was genuinely trying. I bought it as my first commander deck and have been making improvements to it as i play and get more cards. Easily one of my favorites.
Aesi was the deck that got me into Magic. After 4.5 years it’s still my favorite, and my playgroup fears the Landfall Serpent 😂 Glad to see it in some Gameplay.
Listen, there was no doubt in my mind about the answer to this question being Breed Lethality. the 2016 decks are all incredible, and I regret not having enough money at the time to get the two I hadn't yet (those being Open Hostility and Invent Superiority)
@@twi1ightknight ah, see, I'm trying to stick with the video's original thesis; what is the most powerful precon WOTC has ever assembled for commander right out of the box? obviously they are FAR from having the appropriate data na dcontrol to properly judge and rank these, especially given the inherant swinginess of commander and the tendencies of various pilots. the video is flawed, but even still... I remember Breed Lethality being a deck that was surprisingly hyper focused on it's theme with only a few outliers such as Irka shadiqi not directly fitting into that theme of spitting out boatloads of +1/+1 counters and theng etting the tall army through.
24:27 couldn't Josh have attacked Voxy with his two Ruin Grinders? And then Murph finishes her off on his turn? Instead he attacks Rebell who isn't doing basically anything? Seems like a misplay.
Swapping Kaalia out for the extremely mid alt commander was basically throwing the game lol. Also confused as to why no daddy Markov, he seems like top 5 material.
literally this morning: Outside of super-friends, is Atraxa, Praetors' Voice really worthy to be Rank #1 on Edhrec? after the game: you know, $30 on Tcgplayer isn't so bad.....
Shes not only good, but versatile. You can run her a few different ways and still be strong. Counters, Planeswalkers, you can be mean and do -1-1 counters to opponents stuff, poison counters...Not to mention shes a 4/4 flying deathouch lifelink for 4 mana. I bought her when she first came out. That deck has since been stolen... very sad. 8(
One of my friends once used to play a deck he called Stax Atraxa Lotta Hate... it was (unsurprisingly) a budget Atraxa Stax deck that even still locked down the board *HARRRRRD* with control and stax pieces, dropped an Ichor Rats to give everyone a poison counter, and then just pinned you in place for a few turns until her proliferate killed you. It was disgustingly powerful. "Oh hey, I put Pollenbright Wings on my buffed Atraxa and hit you, end of turn I proliferate her +1/+1 counters and pump up my Smokestack. On your turn, please sacrifice 5 permanents. Oh its my turn again? Cool, I sacrifice the pollenbright wings saprolings. Move to combat."
Damn, recalling to Voxy playing Kaalia on the recent EDSC, get to notice how low those early precons were on card advantage. Power creep is indeed a thing
1. Most powefull precon is Markov!!!! 2. Never throw away a kaalia again please!!!!! 3. I wish you could show your most powerfull deck Josh !!!!! Than you 4 ur content :)
Ya when the demon got countered I feel like that sadly was the nail in her coffin sadly, like she could have came out on top but really that basically was the end of all hope.
35:12 these should've been 3/3 birds with flying since Atraxa already gave them their second +1/+1 counter. Luckily this didn't change the outcome and was a still an amazing match
Despite the fact Murph lost, I think his deck was probably the strongest here. He became so powerful so quickly that the second and third strongest decks, Voxy and Josh, had to team up to take him out. Unfortunately Rebel's deck didn't perform this time so it's not really clear how good it is.
Do you think it's a good deck for starters to use? Forest and island are my favorite and I feel like I can build on top of it to make it even better over time too
@@PraiseGodandJesus528 Simic (blue and green together) and landfall decks are both incredibly powerful when done right. The only reason I'd steer away from them as a new player is because of what happened in this video. Murph essentially became the arch enemy, as we call it, because of how quickly his threat level grew. In my experience, it's common for people to gang up on green/Simic early because they expect it to run wild.
@@HiiroRocker101 interesting, my goal for green/blue simic to to have plenty of counter spells, huge monsters, and then apply trample and hexproof to those monsters that kind of the theme I want to go for... That way even if I become the target I should be able to protect myself with counters and hexproof
Another general tip is, proxy your decks before you buy them. Particularly in Commander, since some Commander decks can be pretty expensive. You wouldn't want to build even a $200 deck only to find out it duds every time you play a pod.
Kalia is not THAT powerful, the average Kalia deck is so over reliant on the commander to function that if she can't stay on the field the deck doesn't do much. Also the fact that more people are upping the amount of instant speed targeted removal these days will keep her off the field.
This would have been perfect to have a whole series of all the precons going against eachother tournament style
Nice idea.
All those in favor say I ... I
Yes to this!
Elderdragon social club
Let’s go
Now we need this to be a mini series of other precons against each other
LRR just started a gameplay series like this using a wheel of precons :D
YES!
YESSSSSSS
@@Cupitron it's friday baby, fauck!
@@thebrbninja it's been awesome so far
The way my soul fractured when Kaalia was thrown away like that… ouch
It was a poor decision to be sure
Yeah, that made no sense. If you want to show of how powerful the deck is, why wouldn’t you use the face commander, which is the entire reason the deck is as good as it is?
It’s cause the person is mentally ill
@@PokeStatsStudios to be fair, back when those Commander decks came out, they were notoriously unfocused. They were nigh unplayable out of the box. Rebell choosing that one surprised me, because it was clearly solely based on (one of) the face Commanders.
Side note: those products prominently displayed all three oversized foil cards, so it’s hard to say one was the specific “face” in the same way the newer decks have.
Not surprised coming from a rebel....
Throwing the swamp in the discard phase.... putting a sticker and then using terminate on stickered creature... oof... so much rebellion there.
Is it just me or is Jimmy's mic this episode spiking like crazy?
His mic is god awful lol
Glad I wasn't the only one who thought it was being buggy
im sitting here trying to turn my headset down, this was god awful hahaha
Yeah it's peaking the audio like mad.
I was thinking the same thing. It wasn’t the usual crisp sound that we’ve come to expect
Surprised none of the decks were using Eminence, when I saw the theme of today's episode I was expecting Ur-Dragon or Edgar Markov
Same here
Precons usually don't run much removal, it makes sense to go for commanders that provide crazy value while they're out. Eminence is a very powerful mechanic also because it avoids removal, but I think their choices made sense.
The Ur-Dragon's manabase was pretty bad. Edgar would probably have a better shot as the most powerful precon out of the box
Thats what im saying
Unfun.
12:30 Josh had an artifact land, could sac it and use Osgir’s ability to make two lands, also looting to find a land to make the turn land drop. (This would have also made it so he could hit for 2 more.)
Also the lands enter untapped, so he would have net mana even in the turn and still be able to sac the key.
As an experienced Osgir player trust me: do not underestimate his ramp potential
Nice, yeah, the artifact lands are some of my favorite targetswith Osgir. Such a fun deck.
@@crossr1984 It is. But my favourite targets have to be the rings of brighthearth type things. It’s all snowballing from there.
Either that or mirror of fate and win pretty much immediately
Yeah that was a pretty big misplay
@@milisicht could you explain the mirror of fate to me? i don't quite understand why you would do that
@@briankemper9443 you can loop the mirror of fate and whatever other aftifacts you've exiled. bc the two mirrors will see the original, you can play clown music for the rest of the game as you start playing simic in boros
Josh's single thopter at the end
"Sir, are you seeing this horde of things on giant birds? What is happening?"
Josh: " yes I see them.... I need you to somehow deal with all of that."
The thopter..... "Not no, but heck no"
I feel like Rebell threw the game before it even started. I mean... the Kaalia precon is based on Kaalia getting out your 5+ CMC angels, demons, and dragons for free with her trigger. Removing her and choosing a 7 CMC commander with a random trigger was basically giving up before the game even started.
And throwing a land into the bin and then missing land drops?!?!?!?!?!? Lmao.
Yea, never throw away lands in Kaalia... Deck starves for those...
I'm pretty sure Tariel was in that precon originally, so it was at least somewhat intended that you could use Tariel - it's not just some random 7-drop. Granted, Tariel isn't remotely as good as Kaalia, but still...
Not to mention Rebell could've knocked Voxy out of the game @26:24 but chose to hit Murph for nonlethal. I mean, he was a threat for sure, but Voxy just kept proliferating all game and that ends games if it goes unnoticed.
And they are the same person who talks about how bad Cedh players are at keeping up with the format, and is constantly nitpicking bad commander play. xD
Man, i missed the precon games. Playing a deck out of the box just gives you a warm fuzzy feeling.
You gotta use osgir to sacrifice the artifact land and then tap him for 0 and get 2 copies of it. That’s how you ramp in Boros!
These newer Precons have been super powerful as of late. I’m ready to see these Precons from magic history.
Jimmy's mic was peaking badly during the intro. Love you guys!
the older ones were way more busted. Gavin even admitted that 2017 was a mistake. Eminence is way too powerful. of the new ones I really like the simic ones. I don't have Aesi, but I got the Strixhaven one and it's really powerful when upgraded just slightly, like the 30 $ upgrade from the command zone + a few extra cards were enough to make it really scary.
A lot of old ones were super weak and all around awful
@@ingolf82 I have the Aesi one and it is pretty powerful. I did eventually take it apart and make a simic good stuff deck.
@@colinsmith5879 I mean they don't even have Arcane Signet in them!
Rebel: we are friends right?
Voxy: Yeahh!…I’m taking your Lightning Greaves 😂
Friends let friends borrow shoes :)
Rebell was like voxy you biatch time for atraxa to get terminated 😉😅😆
Friends don't let friends run barefoot 😂😂😂😂😂😂
Please forgive my ignorance, but why did the greaves get attached to a germ when they were stolen? I thought they had to be a living weapon or something similar for that to happen?
Fantastic game.
I think the irony of this particular match is that if Josh had sacrificed his Great Furnace instead of Key to the City when he went to kill Murph, then he would have likely had enough damage to kill Voxy on his next turn.
Really enjoyed the back n forth as well
Definitely should have sac/recurred the great furnace
@@failureworks Right?!? My mind was kinda blown that it didn't happen at 14:05 , such an easy play.
@@davidchapman7350 as an osgir player myself. I too was in shambles.
I play in a precon league at my locals and Aesi is an absolute powerhouse let me tell you.
I love the Reap the Tides deck so much I bought two.... although I use Koma as a commander for 1 of them. But yes it's a great precon deck
6 mana before you can start to ramp seems pretty slow, but I'm not super used to Commander.
Really? Seems like it really lacks a win con.
@@Krusell1994 these are just base precons we are playing with in this league. So all the value generated with Aesi is enough to win.
It's literally trash. If it doesn't ramp you just lose most of the time. Not to mention if you have to build a deck to ramp and continually draw cards to win, it's bad. Definitely the worst of the 4 decks at the table, and there are plenty of precons that are definitely more powerful.
i like seeing some clean and (mostly) fair precons being played once in a while.
Exit From Exile with Faldorn is absurd out of the box as well, I'm surprised it's not on here
Yeah it's surprisingly strong! Another exile based precon that's pretty strong is the Prosper one
I mean, neither was edgar...
Yeah, this seems less like they chose good precons and more just chose good commanders. Most of the precons from the last 2 years are so much better out of the box
I honestly don't see why the CZ team keeps plugging that Osgir deck. Yeah it's a solid Boros deck, but as far as Strixhaven precons go, it was 2nd worst only to Silverquill...and if your meta is big into politics, it falls to worst behind (respectively) Adrix(hands down the best, likely why it wasnt featured on the GK episode), Veyran, Willowdusk, and Breena.
@@BigDrew49 Second worst??? for real??? i played it against all other decks and he clearly is always on top. osgir ramp and power is just absurd.
Jimmy's Mic that's out a tad too loud and extra crunchy : wHaTs uP EvErYBoDy, WeLCoMe To a nEW ePiSoDe oF ExTRa tUrNs!
Sometimes I wonder how editors say to themselves - yeah this is great
@@TehWhitt I'm sure it was an honest mistake. No doubt they just didn't have the time to redo the take or when they realized that the audio was messed up it was too late to re-shoot. Especially with their schedules. Mistakes happen, this was just having a bit of fun about the situation.
What's up with Jimmy's mic at the beginning? it's real crunchy
I was wondering if it was on my end because it feels so odd.
good to know it's not a problem with my headphones
Sounds like it's time for all of their mics to get the axe after the last vid too
You've heard of extra crunchy peanut butter, but the Command Zone is launching a brand new extra crunchy microphone!
Chances are the vid either isn’t loaded all the way yet or they may have to reupload the vid.
I hope the 40k deck video is the unmodified precons. Love to see more videos like this one where we see them unchanged. Also Kickstarter with more tokens and alters would be dope.
I find 'upgrading' the 40K decks blasphemy. They should be played and kept as precons. Hell, they should have made em silverbordered :p
Voxy seems to be popping up everywhere lately and it's great. Really enjoy the chaotic energy.
I so miss you guys battling with precons.
It's always a blast and always looks like you all have a ton of fun with them.
More of this please
Key to the City is great! It's perfect with Osgir. It lets you discard an artifact to recur with Osgir. Makes Osgir or any creature unlockable. And that works especially well when you're giving creatures +2/+0
Key is really good in any reanimator/aggro synergy deck. Love it in Gyrus. That said if you aren't using it for every piece of the card, there are better options out there lol.
Yeah if JLK had sac’d his great furnace instead of the key he might have taken that game. Hard to say and always a difficult choice in the moment but I always keep my Key when playing Osgir
It's better in other decks, doesn't really get you much for doubling it with Osgir, but in other reanimator decks it's fantastic
@@ReXtion88 yeah doubling it with Osgir isn’t very good but it can get expensive artifacts into the yard and it also lets you Falcon punch someone with Osgir. I dunno I like it
@@The1jkanter I'm not saying it's super bad, it's just that with Osgir you generally want to maximise the number of artifacts that get better the more of them you have, but two Keys to the City is nowhere near twice as good as one of them. I prefer Key to the City in my Teneb, the Harvester deck, which generally doesn't want to cast things from my hand - my Osgir deck usually does
Finally we get to see Aesi in action!! Aesi was my first Magic deck, and it's so powerful
My little brother got it for me for Christmas when it came out and I was impressed. I've since upgraded it a lot and taken out most of the original cards but was still good. Especially good considering it was one of the set precons and was cheaper than a commander set precon
My first was ezuri claw of progress, for a gift I was given sage of hours and a few other cards to make it better. That precon was fun. I think I’m about to order it.
Aesi wasn’t my first, but definitely my first love in the command zone. That decks my baby now… extended foil everything basically just because 🫶🏻
Aesi is the most popular deck played at my LGS. Pretty bored of playing against it.
@@skykur ah, that’s unfortunate, just show up with a nekuzar deck or something and hate them out of having fun playing it.
Murph: Didn't you win with champion of lambholt last time you were here?
Voxy: And you can be damn sure I'll do it again!
Great episode! Before the announced commanders, I knew Atraxa was one. Was great to see Voxy pilot that to a win. Cheers to Josh for not picking blue! 😅
You still drew more cards than the table! Cheers!
Josh could tap the artifact land (Great Furnace) and sacrifice itself to get any creature +2/0, and then pay 0 and tap Osgir to get 2 tokens of the land onto the battlefield.
I was really happy to see Rebell on extra turns, truly one of my fav people in the magic community
As someone who got into Magic from a friend letting me borrow their Aesi deck, I'm always excited to see them be played outside of my pod
Aesi was my favorite commander and precon before Osgir came out, I upgraded both of those decks a whole bunch and turned them into my own
I was hoping to see Prosper here but I guess he does get a lot of love elsewhere. His precon was actually insane.
Prosper is my second favorite commander. With no upgrades, I was able to win with him in 45 minutes on the first go around.
@@theotherguy4478 The value is insane, and the payoffs in the deck are actually so good.
Rebell is the exact type of player i wont ever invite to a game. Literally had the battle seraph with 4 power while Voxy had 4 life and no blockers and was tapped out and what happens? "Attack Murph for 4."
Are you kidding me?
Got into magic like a few weeks ago and just bought reap of the tides as a starter for my commander journey. Really cool to see someone who knows how to play using the precon, so I know how I should be playing now 😅
Practice makes perfect👍🏿
He doesn't know how to play, he misused his clone card so badly. I have now idea why he didn't just keep copying the Beloths
@@haloplayer9855 maybe he just wanted to have fun. food for thought 🤷🏼♀️
@@andreabimonte7688 Maybe he's shit 🤷🏼♀
Yo if you still play reap I have an amazing upgrade for you. Buy the card “Archetype of imagination” combo that with stormtide leviathan and your opponents can’t attack nor block.
It makes me so happy to see Asei in this episode, by far one of my top 10 underrated commanders for my area.
No one picked Ur-dragon or Markov? Or i also remember the Teferi precon deck being really strong out of the box
I felt the same about Edgar Markov missing from here. He’s pretty much the deck by himself lol
nor the Meren deck
Ur-dragon was horrible out of the box, the mana base made it near unplayable
@@MrNbkelly Taplands. but you would get all your colors 👍 saying it was unplayable is really an over exaggeration
Markov is too unfair imo
I think these were all good picks, but gotta say, the Faldorn precon (Exit from Exile) is really strong. I've kept it as a precon and it definitely punches above its weight. Was kind of hoping to see that one here.
There have been strong one. Prosper was like faldorn but even stronger. (Tho in weaker colors).
Other strong ones are mizzix, teferi, windgrace, markov, and derevi. I'm actually very shocked they weren't picked.
I made a few small changes to mine and repeatedly kill the table at my LGS when I play her.
There better be a part 2 because Edgar needs on here
Edgar was my first precon and I absolutely love it; while I do agree is a strong deck. Right out of the box is a bit too slow. It has creatures that are simply too expensive to keep up with faster decks.
edgar and ur dragon, pretty powerful.
@@alienware609 I think it would keep up it's hard to keep down plus cards like tefri pro it has some good protection
riku of two reflections needs to be in that game as well
The banter in this episode and the fun everyone was having. One of my favorite episodes yet. Thanks again for all your team brings to the community.
I had a really crappy day today and a new episode from game knights really made it better thank you so much
Here I am just learning that Kaalia got a precon
Not just a precon, the first precon!!!
@@primalx7975 very cool to know! Now I know who to hate when someone plays a Kaalia deck, WoTC! Jk jk
One actually just showed up for sale at my LGS a few weeks ago. It’s still there with a $200 price tag, sealed.
It's my very first precon and what got me back into Magic and Commander! When I first read her attack trigger I was like: WHAT @w@
@@RebellSon it's an absolutely disgusting attack trigger, I've always wanted to build a Kaalia deck with Aurelia as a secret commander, but I've never been too interested in Mardu. Despite that, you definitely inspired me to push towards a mardu deck more with the Alt commander, I love a good bit of thievery
Maybe I missed something, but didn’t Rebell have a chance to take out Voxy with her angel?
Twice.
Ikr?
s/he wanted to do what everyone else was doing and attack Murph.. sad if you think about it lmao
I love these precon format. It's balanced and exciting to watch!
The precon match was surprisingly nostalgic. I would love to see more!
i miss the precon fight videos....i liked seeing how the decks play out and how they prefrom out of the box against each other
I'm going to go ahead on a limb here and say the only reason we didn't see Elves vampires and dragons (you know which ones I'm talking about) is because had the tribal episode not that long ago
Edgar markov and teferi, temporal archmage are super strong out of the box. I remember the morph one being really tuned as well.
Kadena was super good out of the box
What got me into Magic was the amazing artwork on the cards, with my very first deck ever being Aesi. To see someone use that precon just has nostalgia for me and I love it!
If I ever meet the crew, I'm definitely saying, "I just met Jimmy, and I like Josh, so, uh, Murph..." 😂
Coven counters was a surprisingly powerful precon, also Otrimi was really powerful out of the box. I must say, though, that these decks played well against each other. Great episode!
We need to make a tourney of all precons, 4 at a time, against each other. Leftover decks from certain years (i.e 2011, 13, 14, and 15) can go against each other
Edit: I forgot 2016 also had a fifth deck, as I remember the four color decks all had one color not present. Saskia, Breya, Yidris, Atraxa, and Kynaios and Tiro. However, K&T need something that can compete fast. I should make a list
lmao, Watching rebell go from turn 1/2 cedh wins to playing a 7 drop commander out of a precon is amazing! Still waiting for Josh and Jimmy to do a CEDH episode.
would love a series on all the precons playing against each other tournament style
not my idea
I LOVED this episode. Though, as a scientist, I’d like to mention that this is an N of one, and with the amount of variability in commander, you’d probably need at least 16 games with the same 4 decks to establish an answer with more validity.
Pleeeease, more Precon matches. That was awesome to watch
I love precons (and the budget upgrade guides) so watching good players play them was fun and educational. Thanks!
Like the idea and would love to see more pre-con battles.
I've really enjoyed using the Reap The Tide's pre-con for as a foundation to create a deck filled with dangerously powerful beasts multiple win conditions. If you go the route of using this deck as a foundation for your own Simic Landfall Deck, I highly recommend keeping (or upgrading) a good portion of the land bounce featured in the pre-con, as it can be really helpful in the mid-game to ensure that you can still trigger your landfall. I would also recommend the use of multiple blue instant spells which can return Aesi to your hand from the battlefield, as casting a commander multiple times from your command zone--especially a commander with a base casting cost of 6 mana --can get pretty expensive very quickly.
I always thought prossh was a crazy powerful precon. I hope we see him on another episode of this
I was getting ready for lunch, looking for something cool to see. And this video gets uploaded. Nice.
She deserved the win.
She did most of the work in the table.
She was fun and engaging.
She did what the deck had to do.
She got really close to dying.
She respected her deal not to deal with Josh.
She was fun to watch even with a precon.
I'm just starting the video, and I'm assuming you're virtue signaling your ass off with this comment.
I read with a robot like voice
As someone who bought the Aesi precon thinking it would be one of the most powerful due to it’s potential and structure, I am overjoyed to see it on this series. I MEAN COME ON? 20 DOLLARS? INFINITE UPGRADE POTENTIAL? BIG SEA MONSTERS? Hell. Yes.
How can I choose who to root for when they are all my favorite people?!? GAAAAH
Top notch episode! This should be a regular series.
I bought the Osgir deck and I think I even upgraded it, but I never got around to playing the deck. I hope it performs well.
Love the idea of new dynamics but one of the things I like from extra turns is the power level and precons doesn't go with the high power that we are used to see here.
would you guys consider having the 4 players try and build the same commander 4 different ways? i think that would be really awesome to the variety the players could display with the same commander.
It would be 4 nearly identical decks with slightly different wincons. Unless they played something wild like Golos or Jodah but even then the mana bases and basic layout would still be the same.
Osgir is my favorite precon of all time, I absolutely love artifact shenanigans and I feel like he can take it to the next level. Great game!
Clearly what we learned here is that Champion of Lambholt is the best commander.
Aesi was my first commander deck! I may be biased but I think it's great! :)
Aesi is a monster of a precon. Ramp, play Aesi and value into huge haymakers. Absolutely fantastic precon
It's definitely a lot of fun to play, but it took me a lot of practice to realize what a good hand looked like, and even then the earliest you can get your commander on the field (absent a god-tier first hand) is turn four, and typically you won't get Aesi out on the field until turn 6, assuming that you're opponent doesn't decide to take him out. Not saying it's not a powerful deck, but it is definitely a slow start before Aesi comes out. I have heavily modified (as in replaced nearly half the cards) my Reap the Tides deck after running it stock for a month or two against my friends who have custom commander decks or modified precons.
What a game that was and on starter decks. Just started mtg again after many years and looking at chaos Incarnate with maybe a few upgrades. Started playing with new neighbours with my missus and have to say I'm loving it all over again.
Seriously, no Edgar?!
I expected to see Atraxa. But I also expected Edgar and the Jeleva decks. Shocked they weren’t here. The Jeleva deck especially still holds up, as I use it frequently in my friends precon only games.
lathril and henzie were some powerful precons too
I know myself and my group of friends would enjoy a whole series about that very much! Just getting back into magic! It would be perfect!
Rebell almost had play of the game with that Malfegor
SO CLOSE
I felt so bad for them! Haha everyone else’s decks got to show off, Rebell almost got to do something cool.
@@MPerMinute it's deserved switch out kaalia was retarded
@@MPerMinute had rebel swung at voxy instead of murph they could have at least taken her out of the game that would have been cool
Don't understand Rebell's gameplan. It's supposed to be strongest precons and she shelves one of the best commander options for one of the weakest. Then later she discards a land and ends up missing a land drop as a result in a deck full of huge creatures... That deck was never going to do anything when you take out its ability to cheat creatures and throw away ramp
5:30 start
22:05 resume
Legend
I love Reap the Tides, was my first deck i have ever played with and i wont 3 games in a row against my buddy teaching me. The 3rd game he was genuinely trying. I bought it as my first commander deck and have been making improvements to it as i play and get more cards. Easily one of my favorites.
I'm gonna say Edgar Markov!
0:11 My brain for a split second: NICKELODEON STAFF!!
Kalia was my first commander deck so seeing Rebell playing that deck makes me so happy
Rebel didnt play kaalia idk what your talking about
Aesi was the deck that got me into Magic. After 4.5 years it’s still my favorite, and my playgroup fears the Landfall Serpent 😂
Glad to see it in some Gameplay.
Murph got my respect ! What a guy :)
Listen, there was no doubt in my mind about the answer to this question being Breed Lethality. the 2016 decks are all incredible, and I regret not having enough money at the time to get the two I hadn't yet (those being Open Hostility and Invent Superiority)
Cedh is clear data about this.
@@twi1ightknight there's a CEDH community for stock precons?
@@ClexYoshi lol no. Where are the most played commanders from? 2016 precons. Just the cedh vibe that more colors is more good.
@@twi1ightknight ah, see, I'm trying to stick with the video's original thesis; what is the most powerful precon WOTC has ever assembled for commander right out of the box?
obviously they are FAR from having the appropriate data na dcontrol to properly judge and rank these, especially given the inherant swinginess of commander and the tendencies of various pilots. the video is flawed, but even still...
I remember Breed Lethality being a deck that was surprisingly hyper focused on it's theme with only a few outliers such as Irka shadiqi not directly fitting into that theme of spitting out boatloads of +1/+1 counters and theng etting the tall army through.
Voxy and Rebell seem like genuinely nice people. Hope good things happen to both of them.
24:27 couldn't Josh have attacked Voxy with his two Ruin Grinders? And then Murph finishes her off on his turn? Instead he attacks Rebell who isn't doing basically anything? Seems like a misplay.
Congrats to Voxy on another epic win! Love to see her come back again
This episode should be called gang up on Murph lol. After that baloth came out everyone was on kill Murph mode.
Swapping Kaalia out for the extremely mid alt commander was basically throwing the game lol. Also confused as to why no daddy Markov, he seems like top 5 material.
Aesi was my first commander deck I ever bought/modified (: happy to see it make an appearance.
literally this morning: Outside of super-friends, is Atraxa, Praetors' Voice really worthy to be Rank #1 on Edhrec?
after the game: you know, $30 on Tcgplayer isn't so bad.....
Shes not only good, but versatile. You can run her a few different ways and still be strong. Counters, Planeswalkers, you can be mean and do -1-1 counters to opponents stuff, poison counters...Not to mention shes a 4/4 flying deathouch lifelink for 4 mana. I bought her when she first came out. That deck has since been stolen... very sad. 8(
@@jstawch2608 sorry for your loss.
One of my friends once used to play a deck he called Stax Atraxa Lotta Hate... it was (unsurprisingly) a budget Atraxa Stax deck that even still locked down the board *HARRRRRD* with control and stax pieces, dropped an Ichor Rats to give everyone a poison counter, and then just pinned you in place for a few turns until her proliferate killed you. It was disgustingly powerful.
"Oh hey, I put Pollenbright Wings on my buffed Atraxa and hit you, end of turn I proliferate her +1/+1 counters and pump up my Smokestack. On your turn, please sacrifice 5 permanents. Oh its my turn again? Cool, I sacrifice the pollenbright wings saprolings. Move to combat."
Rebell - "I thought we were friends the. You took my shoes" 10:53
The way Kaalia just went flying 😆
Damn, recalling to Voxy playing Kaalia on the recent EDSC, get to notice how low those early precons were on card advantage. Power creep is indeed a thing
1. Most powefull precon is Markov!!!!
2. Never throw away a kaalia again please!!!!!
3. I wish you could show your most powerfull deck Josh !!!!!
Than you 4 ur content :)
Abzan Falconer: etbs
Me: "AND HE FLIES THROUGH THE AIR, WITH THE GREATEST OF EASE!" -Moby Jones, SSX Tricky, early 2000's
I feel bad for Rebell, debuting in the show and not being able to cast the commander even once 😢
Ya when the demon got countered I feel like that sadly was the nail in her coffin sadly, like she could have came out on top but really that basically was the end of all hope.
35:12 these should've been 3/3 birds with flying since Atraxa already gave them their second +1/+1 counter. Luckily this didn't change the outcome and was a still an amazing match
Despite the fact Murph lost, I think his deck was probably the strongest here. He became so powerful so quickly that the second and third strongest decks, Voxy and Josh, had to team up to take him out. Unfortunately Rebel's deck didn't perform this time so it's not really clear how good it is.
Do you think it's a good deck for starters to use? Forest and island are my favorite and I feel like I can build on top of it to make it even better over time too
@@PraiseGodandJesus528 Simic (blue and green together) and landfall decks are both incredibly powerful when done right. The only reason I'd steer away from them as a new player is because of what happened in this video. Murph essentially became the arch enemy, as we call it, because of how quickly his threat level grew. In my experience, it's common for people to gang up on green/Simic early because they expect it to run wild.
@@HiiroRocker101 interesting, my goal for green/blue simic to to have plenty of counter spells, huge monsters, and then apply trample and hexproof to those monsters that kind of the theme I want to go for... That way even if I become the target I should be able to protect myself with counters and hexproof
Another general tip is, proxy your decks before you buy them. Particularly in Commander, since some Commander decks can be pretty expensive. You wouldn't want to build even a $200 deck only to find out it duds every time you play a pod.
@@HiiroRocker101 what does that mean?
voxy is such a ball of energy and such a blast to watch, amazing gameplay guys ^^
Isn't not playing Kaalia in the Kaalia precon kind of cheating? 🤔 Is she just so op that it was the only way to go?
Kalia is not THAT powerful, the average Kalia deck is so over reliant on the commander to function that if she can't stay on the field the deck doesn't do much. Also the fact that more people are upping the amount of instant speed targeted removal these days will keep her off the field.
@@justinbowman1342 Having a 7cmc do nothing commander will also keep your commander off the field
if the precon contains another legendary creature (which most precons do) then they can be swapped for the face commander
@@jfb- what a stunningly salient point thanks for the contribution
Yeah I cannot fathom why you wouldn't use Kaalia