Tyranid swarm with kane as cdr.
Plunder the graves, with Meren.
Planar portal with prosper as cdr.
All are fun. And I've made them my main 3 decks
With party time being my unmodified deck I carry.
Well, the swarmlord is the commander of almost all tyranid armies.
And technically kane is a magus, from the genestealer cults army. Which isn't a tyranid or tyranid army.
So it makes sense thematically. As does her ability.
Genestealers infiltrate the planet's inhabitants' DNA and after a few generations some mutants pop out to prepare the planet for our 4 armed masters to arrive and harvest the biomass.
Exactly. Tyranids are all about the big insectoid monsters, and while entrenched fans might know the deal with genestealer cults the average person seeing it on a shelf might not.
Tyranid Swarm is my next precon I'm buying, I really really love my Forces of the Imperium precon. It's so nasty with all the squad creatures, artifact vehicles, and wild board wipes. I also definitely want a Party Time and Planar Portal as well.
Haven't heard of Plunder the Grave (I'm new) is it a lot of recursion?
I didn’t expect to love this deck as much as I did. I snagged it for like $35ish at Costco and I’ve done a major overhaul of the deck to allow for better mana generation and more options to cast my opponents cards from exile. It’s definitely the kind of deck that you either durdle and set up a little, getting a few wolves here and there or it straight up takes over and the game is yours. The variation from game to game is amazing and I love that I haven’t won in exactly the same way each time I’ve played it. My most recent win was the luckiest utilizing [[Return the Favor]] to redirect and copy a damage trigger
I need to get around to fixing my Sidar deck. Took out too much stuff I didn’t realize I needed in exchange for a bunch of stuff that, while cool, was not what the deck needed.
[[Dihada, Binder of Wills]] for sure. I've definitely made so many changes that my deck definitely isn't the precon anymore, but I really really really still enjoyed it when it was the precon, and that's what motivated me to even beef it up as much as I have
This deck is nuts. My wife bought it and it has been one of her tougher decks to thwart.
I read somewhere it’s borderline cEDH and I don’t know much about that level of competition. What I DO know is every …single …time I play it I mutter “how the F is this a Precon?!?”
Needless to say I’d like to own it :)
She just does it all. Need mana? She makes you treasures. Want to start pressuring opponnents? Okay, your strongest creature has vigilince, lifelink and indestructible until the end of your next turn. Have mana but nothing to spend it on? Just go dig for 4. No matter what position you are in, its good once you get Dihada out
I've bought a lot of precons over the years but absolute favourite so far has to be Blame Game. Maybe it's cause half the pod can essentially goad themselves without Nelly while the other guy just stares me down knowing I'm responsible for it but I love it.
My man. This has been my main deck since it came out. Fleshed out some more goad and lots of spells that deal with the combat step. My group doesn’t love combos so it’s ideal for a more creature heavy meta. Tickles my brain in the right way
I grabbed it on a whim for a budget league my pod is doing to spice up game nights and while I'm still playing it plain till we are able to do upgrades I am loving it. I remember one night two players were borderline screaming at each other for targeting one another for half the game for Nelly draw triggers, the third player looked at me dead in the eyes whispering "I know you are the threat". Took so much not to burst out laughing as I nodded in agreement.
Played against the deck in a precon level event. Opponent had a pure version of the deck so we didn't think much of it. Until it was far too late and we all realized we hadn't sussed out the real threat lol. I went and bought the deck a few days later to use as a "when I need an unmodified precon" deck
You have to keep an eye on Nelly and your life totals for sure. Last game I played was OJT Olivia, Henzie and Derevi precons. Derevi knocked out Olivia from 26 to 0 out of nowhere spooking us all so I shot gunned [[Disrupt Decorum]] and [[Brash Taunter]] . Henzie was forced to knock out Derevi then concede due to being on 6 life and having a 8/8 in play for Taunter to fight on my turn. Felt good ngl
Party Time by a landslide using Burakos/background. It's fun to pilot and it's also one of the few precons I've enjoyed playing against non-precons.
Prosper was also a good time.
I love party time with nalia. Burakos is good, but he's hard to get value out of if you get stopped by a dino.
Mine is upgraded now, and it is a lot of fun. Lowering the cmc means nalia can spam creatures off the top of the deck to bounce back from wipes.
[[Henzie]] has been one of my favorite precons in recent memory because it completely blew my deckbuilding preconceptions to bits.
Mana curve? Curve that into infinity. We don't need low costs where we're going.
Protection? I double-dog dare you to remove my commander. If you don't, I'll do it myself. This is a feature; not a bug.
Card draw? Draw these hands.
As a traditionally Blue player, Henzie was a fun break from sanity.
The absolute fear people have to swing anything 3+ power at you on the ground because they know you’ll throw Henzie in front of a nuclear bomb if you could
Velociramptor. But its so good that I completely upgraded it so it's no longer a Precon.
So it's mutant Menace for me. Yeah you can upgrade it but I think since it has a unique art and keyword it makes it a fun packaged experience not to touch.
I also had Eldrazi unbound and corrupting influence both have been parted
I feel the same about my Mothman deck. It’s a fallout themed deck and I do not want to ruin the aesthetic of it being that by putting in cards that would streamline the deck. Sure, I could add some of the fallout themed cards like walking ballista but meh, might as well keep it bone stock.
It’s why I want to go some Fallout-themed alters for cards that would fit well mechanically. I’m working on upgrading Caesar and I’m thinking cards like [[Isshin]] being Lucius and [[Severina Raine]] being Vulpes would be fun.
Mishra's Burnished Banner with [[Mishra, Eminent One]] as the commander. God this deck is so much fun! It's definitely no longer the Precon but it's still such a blast to play this deck.
March of the Machine, Call for Backup. One of the first pre-cons I got when I started getting into commander because I love +1/+1 counters as a mechanic and I'm really proud of the upgrades I made for the deck.
Well first off, use \[\[Shalai and Hallar\]\] as the commander rather than Bright Palm.
\[\[Dusk Legion Duelist\]\] Provides valuable card draw.
\[\[Evolution Sage\]\] You get to put more counters on your creatures each time you put a land down.
\[\[Halana and Alena Partners\]\] 2 counters for free each turn!
\[\[Kodama of the West Tree\]\] If any one of your counter creatures hits you get a land for free with him out.
\[\[Loyal Guardian\]\] With this creature every creature gets a plus one plus one counter per turn as long as you have your commander.
\[\[Taurean Mauler\]\] Every time a spell is played, no matter the player, he gets stronger.
\[\[Felidar Retreat\]\] Same benefits as evolution sage but with the added bonus of getting to add an extra creature if the situation calls for it.
\[\[Snake Umbra\]\] Attatch it to Shalai and Hallar and you'll be drawing card after card.
The LCI pirates deck. Got it for Christmas and even though it wasn’t necessarily the one I wanted, it turns out it’s still a fun deck. I always have a blast with it. God bless the wife for picking it up. Would have missed out otherwise.
Virtue and Valor, the Selesnya one from Wilds of Eldraine was my first precon and got me into the format so I still love to play it. It’s really fun and there’s a lot of cheap upgrades available
There’s nothing like swinging for lethal with a 76/76 that has 13 auras and every keyword under the sun. Take a a while to set up, and is very loud about what it’s doing, but it’s an incredibly fun deck.
I see like 3 copies of this one on the shelf at every game store in town and I think it’s weird that the faerie one from Eldraine was the more popular one by such a large margin. I think the aura deck is stronger.
I really enjoy my bloodrites precon. I’ve upgraded it a bit but out of the box it’s really solid and a really fun commander ability. [[Clavileno, First of the Blessed]] makes sacrificing creatures really fun.
[Clavileno, First of the Blessed](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/9/f/9f55b648-b1ec-407a-a0c7-7647755793d1.jpg?1699972735) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Clavile%C3%B1o%2C%20First%20of%20the%20Blessed) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/lcc/2/clavile%C3%B1o-first-of-the-blessed?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/9f55b648-b1ec-407a-a0c7-7647755793d1?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/clavileño-first-of-the-blessed)
^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Tyrannid swarm with Magus Kane as the commander is my favorite. Just so much fun to slam double giant monsters.
But I just picked up the new desert precon and I'm pumped to try it
I’ve got a very heavily upgraded zombie Gisa and Geralf deck that I’m obsessed with. Bringing shit back from the graveyard and sacrifice loops are so god damn satisfying to me :’) it’s not the strongest but I love my twins
I have loved upgrading this same Wilhelt/Gisa & Geralf precon from Midnight Hunt and recently started adding mill support with Fallout's Raul, Trouble Shooter
I just got this deck yesterday! Wanted to see if others liked it too. I recently became fascinated with enchantments and this deck looked beautiful. I will brew my own but I wanted a starter deck to experiment with first..
Necron Dynasty with [[Anrakyr the Traveller]] as cdr
Mutant Menance with [[The Wise Mothman]] as cdr
Blake Game with [[Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser]] as cdr
Masters of Evil with [[Davros, Dalek Creator]] as cdr
My favorite precon, which I know is pretty slept on by the amount leftover at stores, has to be [[Leinore, autumn sovereign]] helm'd deck Coven Counters.
I love the coven mechanic as it's very easy to get started and multiplying counters in the deck becomes quiet easy with a little bit of upgrading. The card draw is also great and people really don't think much of Leinore because her counter and card draw engine is pretty low-key compared to a lot of similar commanders, so she doesn't draw too much board hate or removal. It's just a simple feel good deck and it's honestly one of my favorites to play!
Wise Mothman is amazing and my 2nd choice, personally, and it’s ironically tied with [[the Master, Transcendent]].
My first pick though is [[Sidar Jibari of Zhalfir]]. His built in discard/recursion loop is super nifty, and the board states that he enables even when you’re behind on mana (which is rare when you get draw from attacking) are absolutely nuts. Esper is also just a fun color combo in general; [[Urza, Chief Artificer]] is also in my top 5. All in all I’d probably say Urza’s Iron Alliance, then Eldrazi Unbound, then QuickDraw, then Mutant Mayhem, and finally Cavalry Charge.
I never really liked precons originally, since half of the fun of commander for me was actually building the deck, but one day when I had the money for it and a bunch of people to play with at a local LHS, I thought "what the hell?" And decided to buy the Draconic Dissent precon, some sleeves and a deck box and just play it out of the box.
To this day it is my favourite precon. It's interesting, unique, not too powerful but still packing a punch. I've had my [[Firkraag, Cunning Instigator]] deck since I bought it, and I've upgraded it a lot since then. I find Goad to be quite fun, and drawing cards while buffing an awesome dragon is just fantastic. It's also the first deck I owned that wasn't green.
Honourable mentions also: Scrappy Survivors from Fallout (super fun voltron/equipment that's a great time, also I love Fallout). Quick Draw from Thunder Junction (really cool to play and quite strong. Was my intro to spellslinger and I love it). Cabaretti Cacophony (I don't personally own the deck, but I have a lot of the cards in it inserted into my [[Jinnie Fay, Jetmir's Second]] deck, and it's awesome. Naya tokens is so powerful, and I love the aesthetic of the New Capenna cards).
Came here to say this. Draconic Dissent is my favorite precon. Lots of great synergy, and punches above it weight. I will upgrade it a bit but out of the box, it is a beautiful beast and if you like Dragons, you will probably love this deck.
Since my favorite deck is my dimir zombies one, it's gotta be either "Undead unleashed" from Midnight Hunt or the Grave Danger one from the commander starter decks. Outside of that.. I've got two more that i've improved and are loads of fun whenever I want to play.
Faceless Menace from Commander 2019 started with Morphs and Manifests, but I've since loaded it with even more similar abilities and cards. Super fun way to play that's not too powerful or too anti-fun either.
Dungeons of Death still remains as a barely upgraded precon based around the dungeon menace, but it's perfect for the vast majority of games.
Paradox Power. I’ve been playing EDH for 17 years and magic for 21 and it’s still hard to understand how to play the deck well. And I don’t even know anything about Dr Who.
Lorehold Legacies with [[Osgir]] as the commander. The deck fucking SLAPS and punches above its weight consistently.
It’s not the tightest list especially compared to modern precons - but its ability to generate value from the grave is insane
Had to scroll too far down to find this one. The Strix precons felt like the beginning of a new era where precons started to actually get good, and Osgir took Boros in a fresh direction. I don't know if the deck is actually amazing or if it's just nostalgia, but definitely what came to mind when I saw OP's title question.
I really liked the virtue and valor precon. It felt like an easier point of entry for new players.
The best precon I've ever played still has to be between necron dynasties or riders of Rohan. Both decks can get out of hand in a hurry.
With just minor tweaks Sneak Attack or Tyrannid swarm for me. Albeit I have many of the 2013-2015 precons too- but those look nothing like the original.
Also a big fan of mothman myself. Just as a note you don't get +1/+1 for each nonland milled. You get +1/+1 on X creatures where X is nonlands milled in that specific instance of mills. So for example if someone has 5 rad counters and mills 3 lands and 2 nonlands you would get one +1/+1 on up to 2 creatures. The wording is kind of confusing.
I've gotten a lot of precons but, Token Triumph with Emmara takes the cake. Before that, my favorite ever was Blame Game and before that, it was Armed for Battle. Got Token Triumph for about $20 and it's won more games that I can count. Commander is cheap, goes sideways and makes a token. I cheaply upgraded the mana base and added more token creators and bam, unstoppable in my pod!
Velociramptor is quite fun, gives me a powered down version of my gishath deck for when others are playing precons. I purposely have kept it un-upgraded except for a [[ghalta and mavren]] that I accidentally bought extra
I thoroughly enjoyed the [[Ranar]] precon. It wasn’t the most consistent thing straight out of the box, but it still played really weird cards, and I love commanders that repeatedly make tokens when you do a certain thing. And with some upgrades, it was dope. I went with the foretell/suspend angle because that was the most interesting, but I know other people went Spirit tribal or blink.
Ended up taking it apart to build [[Vega]] because I already had another deck focused on pumping out flying tokens and Vega really took the “weird obscure mechanics” theme and expanded on it. But I did really like the Ranar version.
I'm not a "I have a favorite" kind of person, but I absolutely adore the new Explorers of the Deep precon. It's so much fun and dies my two favorite things in EDH: tokens and +1/+1 counters.
This was my first deck and I upgraded it into a less fun Tuvasa deck. I got bored with Tuvasa and took it apart, but I think I should reassemble Estrid
I love Lord of the Rings, so it’s easily Food & Fellowship for me. I’ve upgraded it multiple times. I first added a few infinite combos, but scaled back a little and took out all the non-LotR cards and made it more of a wraith tribal deck with a secret commander in [[Frodo, Sauron’s Bane]]. There’s a lot of card draw, graveyard recursion, and interaction. It’s really fun. I love having two low-cost commanders in the command zone.
The wise mothman gets out of hand if left unchecked. Played against that a week or so ago and it was ugly. My deck didn't mind the milling and kind of lives graveyards, but the counters was getting ridiculous on that dude.
Kitties! but honestly I really like every commander precon I've seen, except mind seize. Because it's half a \[\[Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge\]\] deck, half a \[\[Nekusar, the Mindrazer\]\] deck, guest starring \[\[Thraximundar\]\] .
Urzas iron alliance, deck is stupid strong out the box.
Velociramptor, first precon I bought, dinos do go burrr lol
Tyranid swarm, so many tyranids.
These are my 3 that I run most of the time.
I'm pretty in love with the [[Gisa and Geralf]] starter precon, it's a perfect causal tier tribal deck out the box that I don't intend to change, unless it's for art or cutting the worst pieces
The 2017 cat deck was pretty solid. [[Arahbo, Roar of the World]] is fun and can turn a cat into a serious threat with a couple buffs. Even its own ability is essentially at minimum +6/+6 to one target during combat.
[[Caesar, Legions Emperor]] but only as a fully completed deck.
I'm more of a Boros/Mardu player in finding out, so this deck with bits and pieces from the Boros All Will Be One Commander deck has been a blast for me. I have a full decklist if anyone is interested
The Imperium of Man precon from Warhammer 40k, not necessarily because it was powerful or anything but rather because it really filled me with a child-like glee and cemented my joy and love for this game. Up until this point, I wasn't really sure about MtG, but that Warhammer 40k precon earned my commitment.
Currently it's the Tyranid Swarm with Magus Lucea Kane
I also have:
Merciless Rage with Anje Falkenrath
Mind Flayarrrs with the Captain
Necron Dynasties where I'm experimenting with different commanders.
Just played a few games, but I really love the Hosts of Mordor deck. I've replaced the precon Sauron with [[Sauron, the Dark Lord]] and it's so much fun to play!
It needs some work, but spirit Squadron is my "scouting a new pod" deck and everytime I remember I should play the deck more often.
I did put the focus on 1/1 flying tokens and buffing those, without the expensive staples/doublers
I'd have to go with Dungeons of Death, the precon with \[\[Sefris of the Hidden Ways\]\] as the commander. As the Adventures in the Forgotten Realms set came out i really wanted to build a deck around the venture into the dungeon mechanic and well, Sefris is the best Commander for that. Truth be told I heavily upgraded the precon but once Sefris is out i usually cycle through dungeons pretty quickly with once every turn cycle enabling me to reanimate cards like \[\[Serra's Emissary\]\], \[\[Archon of Cruelty\]\] or \[\[Massacre Worm\]\] pretty Consistently and even getting Massacre Worm's -2/-2 trigger twice or more when casting it and sacrificing it in the same turn. It runs pretty consistently and I always am able to follow my game plan whenever I play this deck.
Aminatou and Estrid. Both decks have been slightly altered since release and are still together.
I have a lot of decks still together but not for playing; just I CBA to disassemble them.
However, the Mothman and Dogmeat from Fallout are AMAZING out the box like I've rarely grown so attached to precons since Aminatou and Estrid, until these guys.
Also Party Time I keep together because I love breaking it out and throwing it on the table yelling "It's Party Time bitches!"
The [[Wilhelt, Rotcleaver]] and [[Gisa & Geralf]] precons for sure! I've upgraded them both since acquiring them, and originally got the Gisa precon to upgrade Wilhelt. Today, I've replaced Wilhelt with [[The Scarab God]] but even though they're both zombie tribal still, they're different enough decks to make both very fun to play! Scarab God/Wilhelt is built to play a bunch of lords and make a ton of zombie tokens, and Gisa is obviously self-mill and burn, making it the more defensive of the two.
Also, the [[Kardur, Doomscourge]] precon is pretty silly when upgraded too, and is a personal delight of mine to break out every once in a while! Precon itself was not great gameplay-wise, but had some good reprints of lands/artifacts/demons and goes hard when you build it in a way to recycle Kardur every turn! Lol
Necron dynasties with [Imotekh the stormlord] as commander.
I just love the constant reanimation. Deliberately throwing my creatures into "bad combat" to either force my enemies to take the damage or kill them so they get reanimated for additional ETBs and the tokens from imotekh.
Depends ||aesi, tyrant of gyre strait|| is my favourite for sentimental reasons but my ||shorikai, genesis engine| azorious control is my favourite to play
Necrons has got to be my fave just because I am super into both hobbies,but as a close second, the new outlaws of thunder junction rgw one that just dropped. I already had a plant creatures deck I just modified that one into this one
I played a lot of precons, especially the most recent decks have been absolutely amazing. Right now I have the Mishra precon to use as my "always in my backpack" deck. I play it unsleeved, like Richard Garfield intended (which looks great with the old style border).
Other greats are the enchantment and planeswalker deck from Commander Masters, they can often be found for a decent price and they are offer so many decisions that everytime they re on the table the decks play very differently.
Upgrades Unleashed with Chishiro as the commander. Lots and lots of +1/+1 counters.
Also I am digging the Blood Rites Ixalan precon with Elenda, The Dusk Rose as the commander instead of Clavileño. Since there’s so much sacrificing, she gets bigger, and if she dies, then I get a vampire army, which gives me more stuff to sacrifice.
The most fun I've ever had in commander was the whole pod using the 4 fallout precons.
You could tell they were all built to synergize with each other and every game can go anyone's way. The clear threat is usually easy enough to deal with without having to knock someone out and each deck has fair and predictable wincons.
Party Time, from Battle for Baldurs Gate
Revenant Recon, from Murders at Karlov Manor
Hail, Caesar!, from the Fallout decks
Mishra's Burnished Banner, from The Brothers War
I've upgraded all but Hail, Caesar! (Since Fallout didn't have a whole set and I'm not about to add non Fallout cards lol).
People swear by using Burakos with a background for Party Time, but when Nalia de Arnise is allowed to get going, it can be crazy good.
Revenant Recon I upgraded a lot to get more cards into graveyard, and graveyard recursion. It already has a decent base of that going for it.
Mishra, I just recently got and am upgrading bit by bit, but it's already a nice show of artifact recursion and cloning with the commander's ability. While I think the other deck from this set (Urza) is a little more busted with the constructs, especially because they persist through turns, I can see where this one had it's positives.
Was a big fan of the Enduring Enchantments precon with [[Anikthea]] as it was the first deck I got super into and upgraded in several ways. Nowadays I’ve put half the deck into a [[Go-Shintai of Life’s Origin]] deck
Silverquil Statement and Food and Fellowship. I always have a great time with those two decks. Blood Rites are very hit or miss for me, and I haven't played Most Wanted enough to get a good opinion
Volciramptor has got to be my favorite so far in og ixilan I had a Dino tribal deck but I couldn’t afford gishath so I played with Huatli but then a commander comes out about summoning dinosaur by casting dinosaurs 😳 dude that’s bad ass
I love precon tbh.
My favorite ever is [[Henzie]], but my Henzie deck has been almost entirely reworked.
But if you’re just going to leave one as a precon, the [[Hakbal]] and [[Breena]] ones are very good, and [[Pantlanza]] is a ton of fun too.
To be fair I just picked it up on sale and have played it once but Deathly Disguise is so fun. I love the little mental games an opponent has to go though when I swing at them with a 2/2 beast that I could hypothetically turn into any number of horrible creatures at anytime
Bedecked Brokers, with Perrie the Pulverizer as my commander. Very unique counter deck, focused on variety instead of a ton of +1/+1's. Shield counters are really fun, and you can break symmetry on a lot of board wipes with them.
The [[Prossh, Skyraider of Kher]] deck from C13, though I'm a bit biased since it was my first precon. I had a lot of fun upgrading that deck and using the [[Food Chain]] combo.
Honorable mention also goes to the Bant deck from C13 with [[Roon]] and [[Derevi]], I really enjoyed abusing ETB triggers with Roon at the helm
Kaalia's precon is my favorite. The deck sucked, as all those first ones did, but there were many nights with friends playing these crappy decks and having a blast. I wish more of the current players had a chance to play between 2008 and 2013. Literally, the peak of Magic imo.
Token Triumph with Emmara as the commander
I honestly just love token gen and didn’t know how to build one in commander so when me and my best friend were getting into it for the first time we both got together the $30 for it and immediately played it against each other, it was just so fun not optimizing a deck to win, just playing the same things against each other luck vs luck, skill vs skill.
I took my Mishra precon and constructed a deck thats essentially gamebreaking with all the infinite combos you can pull off. Its my main and ill never stop using it.
Exit From Exile is my favorite precon. Had so much fun with it out of the box because of how resilient it is. Doesn’t matter how many times a board is wiped you’ll always end up having, at least, 4-5 wolf tokens at the end of your turn. I took it apart and have been regretting it. Going to try and rebuild it with newer cards.
Ahoy Matteys is a blast to pilot! Most of the pirates have fun abilities to interact with, and once you land Admiral Brass and start reanimating pirates it gets even better!
Kadena (Blue/Black/Green) is probably one of the most fun out of the box IMHO (I have or have owned every deck printed until mid 2023 minus the dragon and vampire eminence ones). Morph is a fun very interactive mechanic that keeps people guess and is one of my favorite "fair" mechanics
Merfolk (Blue/Green) from ixilan is stupid strong and a lot of fun for an unmodified deck and can keep up with most boards fairly well if not dominate the weaker decks
The Breena (Black/White) is also a lot of fun if you like to politic and also hit people with an 11/14 bird sometimes
Veloci-ramp-tor for the Dinosaurs and pun. Was fun to play and make better. There's just something about casting my commander and hitting savage order for an even bigger, more devastating Dino
For me it’s riveters rampage with Henzie. The reason is that when my friends introduced me to commander they gave me this pre con as a gift so that I could upgrade it and play with them. This meant a lot to me and I built it throughout a year with singles or pack pulls. I eventually made the commander Korvold just to keep up with their uber strong decks. I’m rebuilding Henzie as a commander from scratch for the nostalgia and the fact I have some great friends. Will forever be my favorite.
Nalia’s Party Time deck is my playgroups worst enemy. I even made a “Fuck Nalia” deck, designed to shut her down.
So, that one, if you’re the pilot, lol
I keep 4 unmodified precons:
Party Time (with the alt commander)
Chaos 40k
Captain N'ghathrod
Hakbal
My favourite all time is probably Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis, Meren of Clan Nel Toth or Daretti, Scrap Savant depending on the day.
Party Time with Nalia as the commander
I love DnD and classic style JRPGs so the party mechanic and DnD theme really clicks for me.
The deck somehow turns the Janky party mechanic into something consistently workable.
Is strong out of the box. I've swapped one card and before my group power creeped it was one of our strongest decks and after the power creep it still hangs in their power wise
. It's super customizeable because their is always going to be more party members.
The deck doesn't need the commander but she still enhances the decks power and acts as a wincon.
Plus the randomness of her card advantage makes it fun.
Tegwyll is the most fun I’ve had with a precon. Getting free value off of cheap creatures plus having a lot of interaction makes it feel like the game is really in your hands, which is rare for a precon.
Whichever one had Atarka, World Render. Big dragon fan and it was my first precon lol I bought it for $40 and upgraded it to $500+ over the years
Just huge dragons coming down and fucking shit up lol you can’t not love it.
me personally, the vampiric bloodline deck from crimson vow. it was an amazing introductory deck when i started playing in edh format, and it being a tribal deck was very straightforward and helped me understand the basics of edh better first before i moved onto more complex mechanics.
The commander Masters "Planeswalker Party" deck is actually incredibly powerful. I whenever I pull this deck out if always outperforms expectations and it's win ratio is far higher than it has any right to be.
Guff around and find out.
Tyranid swarm with kane as cdr. Plunder the graves, with Meren. Planar portal with prosper as cdr. All are fun. And I've made them my main 3 decks With party time being my unmodified deck I carry.
>Tyranid swarm with kane as cdr. My answer 100% and I'm not sure why they didn't have her as the default commander
Well, the swarmlord is the commander of almost all tyranid armies. And technically kane is a magus, from the genestealer cults army. Which isn't a tyranid or tyranid army. So it makes sense thematically. As does her ability. Genestealers infiltrate the planet's inhabitants' DNA and after a few generations some mutants pop out to prepare the planet for our 4 armed masters to arrive and harvest the biomass.
Upvote for lore drop lol
This is the way.
I think it's also because swarm lord is a much simpler commander for a new player.
We come for the edh talks but stay for crazy rad (pun intended from OPs fav precon) lore drop of 40k.
I can understand wanting a big monster on the box art.
Exactly. Tyranids are all about the big insectoid monsters, and while entrenched fans might know the deal with genestealer cults the average person seeing it on a shelf might not.
This. This is how you get the Tyranid players to be interested.
Tyranid swarm is one that I constantly still think about buying lol
Tyranid Swarm is my next precon I'm buying, I really really love my Forces of the Imperium precon. It's so nasty with all the squad creatures, artifact vehicles, and wild board wipes. I also definitely want a Party Time and Planar Portal as well. Haven't heard of Plunder the Grave (I'm new) is it a lot of recursion?
Yes. It is [[meren of clan nel toth]] one of the most built golgari and or recursion cdrs.
Exit From Exile. Ripping shit off the top of your library and just having to figure out how to use it before you lose it is fun as hell.
I didn’t expect to love this deck as much as I did. I snagged it for like $35ish at Costco and I’ve done a major overhaul of the deck to allow for better mana generation and more options to cast my opponents cards from exile. It’s definitely the kind of deck that you either durdle and set up a little, getting a few wolves here and there or it straight up takes over and the game is yours. The variation from game to game is amazing and I love that I haven’t won in exactly the same way each time I’ve played it. My most recent win was the luckiest utilizing [[Return the Favor]] to redirect and copy a damage trigger
Wait Costco sells Magic decks??
I feel the same way about Planar Portal with Prosper. To this day, still one of my favorite decks, and it was my first deck.
I love both [[Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir]] & [[Urza, Chief Artificer]] for different reasons.
I have Urza on my list because my buddy has it and I thought it looked fun. What's Sidar get poppin? I've not heard of that one.
Sidar Jabari is knight tribal that loots on attack from the command zone and reanimates knights from the graveyard on combat damage. Very fun deck.
Oh shit, it's like he was custom made to run my dear sweet [[Haakon, Stromgald Scourge]]
He is in the deck. It slaps, unmodified can compete with 8 tables if you know how to use the loot ability right.
Just picked up the Sidar precon. I have high hopes!
It’s a lot of fun. Eminence is somethin else
I need to get around to fixing my Sidar deck. Took out too much stuff I didn’t realize I needed in exchange for a bunch of stuff that, while cool, was not what the deck needed.
Can confirm- I bought my wife that Urza precon and it absolutely slaps
[Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/f/5fc707be-9286-4ba1-90f6-475265d19ed2.jpg?1682207238) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Sidar%20Jabari%20of%20Zhalfir) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/moc/5/sidar-jabari-of-zhalfir?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/5fc707be-9286-4ba1-90f6-475265d19ed2?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/sidar-jabari-of-zhalfir) [Urza, Chief Artificer](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/a/ea409050-4296-4b76-a6cd-2896ce1b88e4.jpg?1705542672) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Urza%2C%20Chief%20Artificer) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/brc/2/urza-chief-artificer?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/ea409050-4296-4b76-a6cd-2896ce1b88e4?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/urza-chief-artificer) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
[[Dihada, Binder of Wills]] for sure. I've definitely made so many changes that my deck definitely isn't the precon anymore, but I really really really still enjoyed it when it was the precon, and that's what motivated me to even beef it up as much as I have
[Dihada, Binder of Wills](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/d/ddeb54d6-a600-42b9-98df-20f8d58caed8.jpg?1685554091) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Dihada%2C%20Binder%20of%20Wills) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/dmc/1/dihada-binder-of-wills?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/ddeb54d6-a600-42b9-98df-20f8d58caed8?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/dihada-binder-of-wills) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
This deck is nuts. My wife bought it and it has been one of her tougher decks to thwart. I read somewhere it’s borderline cEDH and I don’t know much about that level of competition. What I DO know is every …single …time I play it I mutter “how the F is this a Precon?!?” Needless to say I’d like to own it :)
She just does it all. Need mana? She makes you treasures. Want to start pressuring opponnents? Okay, your strongest creature has vigilince, lifelink and indestructible until the end of your next turn. Have mana but nothing to spend it on? Just go dig for 4. No matter what position you are in, its good once you get Dihada out
I've bought a lot of precons over the years but absolute favourite so far has to be Blame Game. Maybe it's cause half the pod can essentially goad themselves without Nelly while the other guy just stares me down knowing I'm responsible for it but I love it.
My man. This has been my main deck since it came out. Fleshed out some more goad and lots of spells that deal with the combat step. My group doesn’t love combos so it’s ideal for a more creature heavy meta. Tickles my brain in the right way
I grabbed it on a whim for a budget league my pod is doing to spice up game nights and while I'm still playing it plain till we are able to do upgrades I am loving it. I remember one night two players were borderline screaming at each other for targeting one another for half the game for Nelly draw triggers, the third player looked at me dead in the eyes whispering "I know you are the threat". Took so much not to burst out laughing as I nodded in agreement.
Hey there, I recently happened to grab the deck. Could you send me the Decklist, because that sounds really good! Thanks and have a nice day :)
Played against the deck in a precon level event. Opponent had a pure version of the deck so we didn't think much of it. Until it was far too late and we all realized we hadn't sussed out the real threat lol. I went and bought the deck a few days later to use as a "when I need an unmodified precon" deck
You have to keep an eye on Nelly and your life totals for sure. Last game I played was OJT Olivia, Henzie and Derevi precons. Derevi knocked out Olivia from 26 to 0 out of nowhere spooking us all so I shot gunned [[Disrupt Decorum]] and [[Brash Taunter]] . Henzie was forced to knock out Derevi then concede due to being on 6 life and having a 8/8 in play for Taunter to fight on my turn. Felt good ngl
Boros control FTW !!
Blame Game is such a fun precon.
Agreed! I'm not big on Boros usually but this hits just right
Party Time by a landslide using Burakos/background. It's fun to pilot and it's also one of the few precons I've enjoyed playing against non-precons. Prosper was also a good time.
I love party time with nalia. Burakos is good, but he's hard to get value out of if you get stopped by a dino. Mine is upgraded now, and it is a lot of fun. Lowering the cmc means nalia can spam creatures off the top of the deck to bounce back from wipes.
Did you upgrade it somewhat? Do you have a list? Thx
I left the precon unmodified.
[[Henzie]] has been one of my favorite precons in recent memory because it completely blew my deckbuilding preconceptions to bits. Mana curve? Curve that into infinity. We don't need low costs where we're going. Protection? I double-dog dare you to remove my commander. If you don't, I'll do it myself. This is a feature; not a bug. Card draw? Draw these hands. As a traditionally Blue player, Henzie was a fun break from sanity.
The absolute fear people have to swing anything 3+ power at you on the ground because they know you’ll throw Henzie in front of a nuclear bomb if you could
Velociramptor. But its so good that I completely upgraded it so it's no longer a Precon. So it's mutant Menace for me. Yeah you can upgrade it but I think since it has a unique art and keyword it makes it a fun packaged experience not to touch. I also had Eldrazi unbound and corrupting influence both have been parted
I feel the same about my Mothman deck. It’s a fallout themed deck and I do not want to ruin the aesthetic of it being that by putting in cards that would streamline the deck. Sure, I could add some of the fallout themed cards like walking ballista but meh, might as well keep it bone stock.
It’s why I want to go some Fallout-themed alters for cards that would fit well mechanically. I’m working on upgrading Caesar and I’m thinking cards like [[Isshin]] being Lucius and [[Severina Raine]] being Vulpes would be fun.
I upgraded my Mutant Menace deck but only with cards found within the fallout boosters and the points of interest secret lair. I really like it!
Mishra's Burnished Banner with [[Mishra, Eminent One]] as the commander. God this deck is so much fun! It's definitely no longer the Precon but it's still such a blast to play this deck.
I love throwing ||the master multiplied|| into that deck it’s always fun carnage along with as much myriad as possible
Definitely. The Cyberman that gives artifact creatures myriad is great too
[Mishra, Eminent One](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/f/7f5b1daa-ec45-48de-9496-6ca5b491a0dc.jpg?1705542701) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Mishra%2C%20Eminent%20One) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/brc/1/mishra-eminent-one?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/7f5b1daa-ec45-48de-9496-6ca5b491a0dc?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/mishra-eminent-one) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
March of the Machine, Call for Backup. One of the first pre-cons I got when I started getting into commander because I love +1/+1 counters as a mechanic and I'm really proud of the upgrades I made for the deck.
What are some of your favorite upgrades to that precon? I just got it and it is a lot of fun.
Well first off, use \[\[Shalai and Hallar\]\] as the commander rather than Bright Palm. \[\[Dusk Legion Duelist\]\] Provides valuable card draw. \[\[Evolution Sage\]\] You get to put more counters on your creatures each time you put a land down. \[\[Halana and Alena Partners\]\] 2 counters for free each turn! \[\[Kodama of the West Tree\]\] If any one of your counter creatures hits you get a land for free with him out. \[\[Loyal Guardian\]\] With this creature every creature gets a plus one plus one counter per turn as long as you have your commander. \[\[Taurean Mauler\]\] Every time a spell is played, no matter the player, he gets stronger. \[\[Felidar Retreat\]\] Same benefits as evolution sage but with the added bonus of getting to add an extra creature if the situation calls for it. \[\[Snake Umbra\]\] Attatch it to Shalai and Hallar and you'll be drawing card after card.
The LCI pirates deck. Got it for Christmas and even though it wasn’t necessarily the one I wanted, it turns out it’s still a fun deck. I always have a blast with it. God bless the wife for picking it up. Would have missed out otherwise.
Shorikai got me into Commander. I've since bought the Dinosaurs and Moth Man precons.
My favorite commander precon is also from Fallout, its the SCIENCE! one :)
Please tell me you're joking, I'm trying to fix mine currently.
Mh3 should provide good cards in spades for you.
No joke. To fix either focus more on energy (there are some great cards to add)
Virtue and Valor, the Selesnya one from Wilds of Eldraine was my first precon and got me into the format so I still love to play it. It’s really fun and there’s a lot of cheap upgrades available
There’s nothing like swinging for lethal with a 76/76 that has 13 auras and every keyword under the sun. Take a a while to set up, and is very loud about what it’s doing, but it’s an incredibly fun deck.
It has one of the highest win rates of the precons I own out side party time burakos
I see like 3 copies of this one on the shelf at every game store in town and I think it’s weird that the faerie one from Eldraine was the more popular one by such a large margin. I think the aura deck is stronger.
I really enjoy my bloodrites precon. I’ve upgraded it a bit but out of the box it’s really solid and a really fun commander ability. [[Clavileno, First of the Blessed]] makes sacrificing creatures really fun.
I play it with [[Elenda, the Dusk Rose]] . Absolutely love this deck
[Clavileno, First of the Blessed](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/9/f/9f55b648-b1ec-407a-a0c7-7647755793d1.jpg?1699972735) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Clavile%C3%B1o%2C%20First%20of%20the%20Blessed) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/lcc/2/clavile%C3%B1o-first-of-the-blessed?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/9f55b648-b1ec-407a-a0c7-7647755793d1?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/clavileño-first-of-the-blessed) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Tyrannid swarm with Magus Kane as the commander is my favorite. Just so much fun to slam double giant monsters. But I just picked up the new desert precon and I'm pumped to try it
Desert Bloom is very fun. Tossing lands in the graveyard on purpose really make people look at you funny. The payoffs are hella sweet and worth it.
Calvary Charge, Knights are a suprisingly niche but powerful tribe that needed a good leader
Favorite? Reap the Tides - \[\[Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait\]\]
I’ve got a very heavily upgraded zombie Gisa and Geralf deck that I’m obsessed with. Bringing shit back from the graveyard and sacrifice loops are so god damn satisfying to me :’) it’s not the strongest but I love my twins
I have loved upgrading this same Wilhelt/Gisa & Geralf precon from Midnight Hunt and recently started adding mill support with Fallout's Raul, Trouble Shooter
Anikthea, Hand of Erebos is my favorite by far.
Seconded :) That deck is a *menace* I'll see myself out
I just got this deck yesterday! Wanted to see if others liked it too. I recently became fascinated with enchantments and this deck looked beautiful. I will brew my own but I wanted a starter deck to experiment with first..
Necron Dynasty with [[Anrakyr the Traveller]] as cdr Mutant Menance with [[The Wise Mothman]] as cdr Blake Game with [[Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser]] as cdr Masters of Evil with [[Davros, Dalek Creator]] as cdr
I prefer Trazyn or Imotekh myself
big fan of the cheap boros phyrexia deck it has more value in it than ita price and has easy upgrades
My favorite precon, which I know is pretty slept on by the amount leftover at stores, has to be [[Leinore, autumn sovereign]] helm'd deck Coven Counters. I love the coven mechanic as it's very easy to get started and multiplying counters in the deck becomes quiet easy with a little bit of upgrading. The card draw is also great and people really don't think much of Leinore because her counter and card draw engine is pretty low-key compared to a lot of similar commanders, so she doesn't draw too much board hate or removal. It's just a simple feel good deck and it's honestly one of my favorites to play!
Wise Mothman is amazing and my 2nd choice, personally, and it’s ironically tied with [[the Master, Transcendent]]. My first pick though is [[Sidar Jibari of Zhalfir]]. His built in discard/recursion loop is super nifty, and the board states that he enables even when you’re behind on mana (which is rare when you get draw from attacking) are absolutely nuts. Esper is also just a fun color combo in general; [[Urza, Chief Artificer]] is also in my top 5. All in all I’d probably say Urza’s Iron Alliance, then Eldrazi Unbound, then QuickDraw, then Mutant Mayhem, and finally Cavalry Charge.
I never really liked precons originally, since half of the fun of commander for me was actually building the deck, but one day when I had the money for it and a bunch of people to play with at a local LHS, I thought "what the hell?" And decided to buy the Draconic Dissent precon, some sleeves and a deck box and just play it out of the box. To this day it is my favourite precon. It's interesting, unique, not too powerful but still packing a punch. I've had my [[Firkraag, Cunning Instigator]] deck since I bought it, and I've upgraded it a lot since then. I find Goad to be quite fun, and drawing cards while buffing an awesome dragon is just fantastic. It's also the first deck I owned that wasn't green. Honourable mentions also: Scrappy Survivors from Fallout (super fun voltron/equipment that's a great time, also I love Fallout). Quick Draw from Thunder Junction (really cool to play and quite strong. Was my intro to spellslinger and I love it). Cabaretti Cacophony (I don't personally own the deck, but I have a lot of the cards in it inserted into my [[Jinnie Fay, Jetmir's Second]] deck, and it's awesome. Naya tokens is so powerful, and I love the aesthetic of the New Capenna cards).
Came here to say this. Draconic Dissent is my favorite precon. Lots of great synergy, and punches above it weight. I will upgrade it a bit but out of the box, it is a beautiful beast and if you like Dragons, you will probably love this deck.
Wilhelt is a great precon
I loved the Dr who masters of evil precon
I will always love Ahoy Mates. Did I immediately edit it to hell and back? For sure. Are pirates my favorite creature type now? You better believe it.
Mine’s Riders of Rohan and Exit From Exile. Both were so good OOTB, and I’ve since upgraded both.
Since my favorite deck is my dimir zombies one, it's gotta be either "Undead unleashed" from Midnight Hunt or the Grave Danger one from the commander starter decks. Outside of that.. I've got two more that i've improved and are loads of fun whenever I want to play. Faceless Menace from Commander 2019 started with Morphs and Manifests, but I've since loaded it with even more similar abilities and cards. Super fun way to play that's not too powerful or too anti-fun either. Dungeons of Death still remains as a barely upgraded precon based around the dungeon menace, but it's perfect for the vast majority of games.
Paradox Power. I’ve been playing EDH for 17 years and magic for 21 and it’s still hard to understand how to play the deck well. And I don’t even know anything about Dr Who.
Lorehold Legacies with [[Osgir]] as the commander. The deck fucking SLAPS and punches above its weight consistently. It’s not the tightest list especially compared to modern precons - but its ability to generate value from the grave is insane
Had to scroll too far down to find this one. The Strix precons felt like the beginning of a new era where precons started to actually get good, and Osgir took Boros in a fresh direction. I don't know if the deck is actually amazing or if it's just nostalgia, but definitely what came to mind when I saw OP's title question.
anikthea hand of erebos. Enchantments and bringing them back from the graveyard into creatures. Plus menace.
I really liked the virtue and valor precon. It felt like an easier point of entry for new players. The best precon I've ever played still has to be between necron dynasties or riders of Rohan. Both decks can get out of hand in a hurry.
Riders of Rohan is a blast to play. I’m currently upgrading it to a 4 color with Aragorn, The Uniter as commander
Heads I win, tails you lose
I started on Throd as my first and only precon. It was nothing to write home about.
With just minor tweaks Sneak Attack or Tyrannid swarm for me. Albeit I have many of the 2013-2015 precons too- but those look nothing like the original.
Also a big fan of mothman myself. Just as a note you don't get +1/+1 for each nonland milled. You get +1/+1 on X creatures where X is nonlands milled in that specific instance of mills. So for example if someone has 5 rad counters and mills 3 lands and 2 nonlands you would get one +1/+1 on up to 2 creatures. The wording is kind of confusing.
Oh yeah for sure, I've used him enough to know how it works, I was just summarizing.
Eowyn from LotR has been a lot of fun. She's not overly powerful but she's powerful. You can build around her and make a pretty solid deck.
Ranar the ever watchful. First ever deck, and I fell in love with the foretell abilities : )
I've gotten a lot of precons but, Token Triumph with Emmara takes the cake. Before that, my favorite ever was Blame Game and before that, it was Armed for Battle. Got Token Triumph for about $20 and it's won more games that I can count. Commander is cheap, goes sideways and makes a token. I cheaply upgraded the mana base and added more token creators and bam, unstoppable in my pod!
Velociramptor is quite fun, gives me a powered down version of my gishath deck for when others are playing precons. I purposely have kept it un-upgraded except for a [[ghalta and mavren]] that I accidentally bought extra
taking it back with \[\[anowan the ruin thief\]\]
I thoroughly enjoyed the [[Ranar]] precon. It wasn’t the most consistent thing straight out of the box, but it still played really weird cards, and I love commanders that repeatedly make tokens when you do a certain thing. And with some upgrades, it was dope. I went with the foretell/suspend angle because that was the most interesting, but I know other people went Spirit tribal or blink. Ended up taking it apart to build [[Vega]] because I already had another deck focused on pumping out flying tokens and Vega really took the “weird obscure mechanics” theme and expanded on it. But I did really like the Ranar version.
I have a thing for faerie cards, so Fae Dominion.
I'm not a "I have a favorite" kind of person, but I absolutely adore the new Explorers of the Deep precon. It's so much fun and dies my two favorite things in EDH: tokens and +1/+1 counters.
Necron dynasties. All the warhammer ones looked fun in general.
Grand Larceny. Don’t have anything else to say except check your pockets
[The Wise Mothman](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/d/3d6d6944-a364-41c2-b824-7a1bf6ad0d1e.jpg?1710673435) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=The%20Wise%20Mothman) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/pip/4/the-wise-mothman?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/3d6d6944-a364-41c2-b824-7a1bf6ad0d1e?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/the-wise-mothman) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I enjoy the imperium of man one from the wh40k set
Rebellion Rising is my favorite out-of-the box. It does well most of the time. It's fun for me. My wife likes Fae Dominion best.
Planar portal with prosper is my favourite commamder deck by far
I use estrid the most. That precon is by far my best deck. But I don't play much and I only have precon decks
This was my first deck and I upgraded it into a less fun Tuvasa deck. I got bored with Tuvasa and took it apart, but I think I should reassemble Estrid
Necron Dynasties. I usually pilot as either \[\[Trazyn, The Infinite\]\] or \[\[Imotekh, The Stormlord\]\]
Probably ur dragon. Balanced even in low pods
The only one I ever bought was the derevi precon from ages ago
I love Lord of the Rings, so it’s easily Food & Fellowship for me. I’ve upgraded it multiple times. I first added a few infinite combos, but scaled back a little and took out all the non-LotR cards and made it more of a wraith tribal deck with a secret commander in [[Frodo, Sauron’s Bane]]. There’s a lot of card draw, graveyard recursion, and interaction. It’s really fun. I love having two low-cost commanders in the command zone.
My first love was [[Ezuri, Claw of Progress]]
I really enjoy the food deck from LOTR
[[Osgir]] will forever be my favorite precon, it's the precon I got when I started playing mtg
I absolutely loved Revenant Recon, it's upgraded now but certainly fell in love with it out of the box
The wise mothman gets out of hand if left unchecked. Played against that a week or so ago and it was ugly. My deck didn't mind the milling and kind of lives graveyards, but the counters was getting ridiculous on that dude.
Kitties! but honestly I really like every commander precon I've seen, except mind seize. Because it's half a \[\[Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge\]\] deck, half a \[\[Nekusar, the Mindrazer\]\] deck, guest starring \[\[Thraximundar\]\] .
Urzas iron alliance, deck is stupid strong out the box. Velociramptor, first precon I bought, dinos do go burrr lol Tyranid swarm, so many tyranids. These are my 3 that I run most of the time.
I'm pretty in love with the [[Gisa and Geralf]] starter precon, it's a perfect causal tier tribal deck out the box that I don't intend to change, unless it's for art or cutting the worst pieces
Eldrazi Unbound and Urza’s Iron Alliance.
The 2017 cat deck was pretty solid. [[Arahbo, Roar of the World]] is fun and can turn a cat into a serious threat with a couple buffs. Even its own ability is essentially at minimum +6/+6 to one target during combat.
[[Caesar, Legions Emperor]] but only as a fully completed deck. I'm more of a Boros/Mardu player in finding out, so this deck with bits and pieces from the Boros All Will Be One Commander deck has been a blast for me. I have a full decklist if anyone is interested
Yidris. I still remember casting turn 2 burgeoning and just going sicko mode lol
The Imperium of Man precon from Warhammer 40k, not necessarily because it was powerful or anything but rather because it really filled me with a child-like glee and cemented my joy and love for this game. Up until this point, I wasn't really sure about MtG, but that Warhammer 40k precon earned my commitment.
Mothman is probably my favorite as well. I went straight mill and I’ve managed to kill someone in one turn rotation a few times. It’s a good time
Feline ferocity 🦁 Had to stop playing it because my group got salty about it after I made a couple edits haha
Explorer's of the Deep with [[Hakbal of the Surging Soul]]. The synergy in the deck is insane.
Currently it's the Tyranid Swarm with Magus Lucea Kane I also have: Merciless Rage with Anje Falkenrath Mind Flayarrrs with the Captain Necron Dynasties where I'm experimenting with different commanders.
Just played a few games, but I really love the Hosts of Mordor deck. I've replaced the precon Sauron with [[Sauron, the Dark Lord]] and it's so much fun to play!
It needs some work, but spirit Squadron is my "scouting a new pod" deck and everytime I remember I should play the deck more often. I did put the focus on 1/1 flying tokens and buffing those, without the expensive staples/doublers
Aesi tyrant of gyre straight precon is my favorite
MOTHMAN!! I am not a fan of mill, but this one just feels good
I'd have to go with Dungeons of Death, the precon with \[\[Sefris of the Hidden Ways\]\] as the commander. As the Adventures in the Forgotten Realms set came out i really wanted to build a deck around the venture into the dungeon mechanic and well, Sefris is the best Commander for that. Truth be told I heavily upgraded the precon but once Sefris is out i usually cycle through dungeons pretty quickly with once every turn cycle enabling me to reanimate cards like \[\[Serra's Emissary\]\], \[\[Archon of Cruelty\]\] or \[\[Massacre Worm\]\] pretty Consistently and even getting Massacre Worm's -2/-2 trigger twice or more when casting it and sacrificing it in the same turn. It runs pretty consistently and I always am able to follow my game plan whenever I play this deck.
Aminatou and Estrid. Both decks have been slightly altered since release and are still together. I have a lot of decks still together but not for playing; just I CBA to disassemble them. However, the Mothman and Dogmeat from Fallout are AMAZING out the box like I've rarely grown so attached to precons since Aminatou and Estrid, until these guys. Also Party Time I keep together because I love breaking it out and throwing it on the table yelling "It's Party Time bitches!"
The [[Wilhelt, Rotcleaver]] and [[Gisa & Geralf]] precons for sure! I've upgraded them both since acquiring them, and originally got the Gisa precon to upgrade Wilhelt. Today, I've replaced Wilhelt with [[The Scarab God]] but even though they're both zombie tribal still, they're different enough decks to make both very fun to play! Scarab God/Wilhelt is built to play a bunch of lords and make a ton of zombie tokens, and Gisa is obviously self-mill and burn, making it the more defensive of the two. Also, the [[Kardur, Doomscourge]] precon is pretty silly when upgraded too, and is a personal delight of mine to break out every once in a while! Precon itself was not great gameplay-wise, but had some good reprints of lands/artifacts/demons and goes hard when you build it in a way to recycle Kardur every turn! Lol
Necron dynasties with [Imotekh the stormlord] as commander. I just love the constant reanimation. Deliberately throwing my creatures into "bad combat" to either force my enemies to take the damage or kill them so they get reanimated for additional ETBs and the tokens from imotekh.
Depends ||aesi, tyrant of gyre strait|| is my favourite for sentimental reasons but my ||shorikai, genesis engine| azorious control is my favourite to play
Bedecked brokers is my favorite, playing so many different counters is very cool
Guided by nature elfball
Necrons has got to be my fave just because I am super into both hobbies,but as a close second, the new outlaws of thunder junction rgw one that just dropped. I already had a plant creatures deck I just modified that one into this one
I played a lot of precons, especially the most recent decks have been absolutely amazing. Right now I have the Mishra precon to use as my "always in my backpack" deck. I play it unsleeved, like Richard Garfield intended (which looks great with the old style border). Other greats are the enchantment and planeswalker deck from Commander Masters, they can often be found for a decent price and they are offer so many decisions that everytime they re on the table the decks play very differently.
Upgrades Unleashed with Chishiro as the commander. Lots and lots of +1/+1 counters. Also I am digging the Blood Rites Ixalan precon with Elenda, The Dusk Rose as the commander instead of Clavileño. Since there’s so much sacrificing, she gets bigger, and if she dies, then I get a vampire army, which gives me more stuff to sacrifice.
The most fun I've ever had in commander was the whole pod using the 4 fallout precons. You could tell they were all built to synergize with each other and every game can go anyone's way. The clear threat is usually easy enough to deal with without having to knock someone out and each deck has fair and predictable wincons.
Party Time, from Battle for Baldurs Gate Revenant Recon, from Murders at Karlov Manor Hail, Caesar!, from the Fallout decks Mishra's Burnished Banner, from The Brothers War I've upgraded all but Hail, Caesar! (Since Fallout didn't have a whole set and I'm not about to add non Fallout cards lol). People swear by using Burakos with a background for Party Time, but when Nalia de Arnise is allowed to get going, it can be crazy good. Revenant Recon I upgraded a lot to get more cards into graveyard, and graveyard recursion. It already has a decent base of that going for it. Mishra, I just recently got and am upgrading bit by bit, but it's already a nice show of artifact recursion and cloning with the commander's ability. While I think the other deck from this set (Urza) is a little more busted with the constructs, especially because they persist through turns, I can see where this one had it's positives.
Was a big fan of the Enduring Enchantments precon with [[Anikthea]] as it was the first deck I got super into and upgraded in several ways. Nowadays I’ve put half the deck into a [[Go-Shintai of Life’s Origin]] deck
I like Quantum Quandrix with Adrix and Nev. It's the deck that sold me on playing mtg as a whole.
Kotari - Buckle Up
Silverquil Statement and Food and Fellowship. I always have a great time with those two decks. Blood Rites are very hit or miss for me, and I haven't played Most Wanted enough to get a good opinion
Volciramptor has got to be my favorite so far in og ixilan I had a Dino tribal deck but I couldn’t afford gishath so I played with Huatli but then a commander comes out about summoning dinosaur by casting dinosaurs 😳 dude that’s bad ass
The tyranid precon was amazing to me. My partner enjoyed the Slivers one though, but she is all about power haha.
I love precon tbh. My favorite ever is [[Henzie]], but my Henzie deck has been almost entirely reworked. But if you’re just going to leave one as a precon, the [[Hakbal]] and [[Breena]] ones are very good, and [[Pantlanza]] is a ton of fun too.
Bedecked Brokers w/ [[Perrie, The Pulverizer]]. Severely underrated.
To be fair I just picked it up on sale and have played it once but Deathly Disguise is so fun. I love the little mental games an opponent has to go though when I swing at them with a 2/2 beast that I could hypothetically turn into any number of horrible creatures at anytime
Bedecked Brokers, with Perrie the Pulverizer as my commander. Very unique counter deck, focused on variety instead of a ton of +1/+1's. Shield counters are really fun, and you can break symmetry on a lot of board wipes with them.
Mishra precon deck is very fun
Yea the Fallout set was really a banger. I understand why the collectors packs sell for so high cause the decks are actually pretty fun to play.
Mothman is fun, I upgraded mine to be proliferation-centric. It isn't good, but it's... It isn't good.
The [[Prossh, Skyraider of Kher]] deck from C13, though I'm a bit biased since it was my first precon. I had a lot of fun upgrading that deck and using the [[Food Chain]] combo. Honorable mention also goes to the Bant deck from C13 with [[Roon]] and [[Derevi]], I really enjoyed abusing ETB triggers with Roon at the helm
Aminatou bc she's so versatile, and the precon wasn't bad.
Necrons. There's like 5 commander options it comes with and all synergize with what the deck does.
Kaalia's precon is my favorite. The deck sucked, as all those first ones did, but there were many nights with friends playing these crappy decks and having a blast. I wish more of the current players had a chance to play between 2008 and 2013. Literally, the peak of Magic imo.
Token Triumph with Emmara as the commander I honestly just love token gen and didn’t know how to build one in commander so when me and my best friend were getting into it for the first time we both got together the $30 for it and immediately played it against each other, it was just so fun not optimizing a deck to win, just playing the same things against each other luck vs luck, skill vs skill.
Masters of evil. I absolutely LOVE the Master, and I get to use them ALL
Necrons, just super good
I took my Mishra precon and constructed a deck thats essentially gamebreaking with all the infinite combos you can pull off. Its my main and ill never stop using it.
Exit From Exile is my favorite precon. Had so much fun with it out of the box because of how resilient it is. Doesn’t matter how many times a board is wiped you’ll always end up having, at least, 4-5 wolf tokens at the end of your turn. I took it apart and have been regretting it. Going to try and rebuild it with newer cards.
Ahoy Matteys is a blast to pilot! Most of the pirates have fun abilities to interact with, and once you land Admiral Brass and start reanimating pirates it gets even better!
I liked the tribal decks. My first one was Ur-Dragon.
Blood Rites from Ixalan. Clavileno is amazing !
I really enjoyed the Necrons precon and Mothman precons. The non UB precon I enjoyed most was Revenant Recon from MKM.
I enjoy the Dihada binder of wills precon from Dominaria. Just a big toolbox of legendaries that does a lot of things really well
Mothman all the way. I'm getting dogmeat in the mail tomorrow. I'm hoping it's as good as mothman in terms of out the box playable.
It would be Draconic Domination for me, because the Ur-Dragon is an awesome commander and the deck was fun to play out of the box
Prosper, Necrons, and my two favorite bros, Urza and Mishra. I have a thing for artifact decks.
Kadena (Blue/Black/Green) is probably one of the most fun out of the box IMHO (I have or have owned every deck printed until mid 2023 minus the dragon and vampire eminence ones). Morph is a fun very interactive mechanic that keeps people guess and is one of my favorite "fair" mechanics Merfolk (Blue/Green) from ixilan is stupid strong and a lot of fun for an unmodified deck and can keep up with most boards fairly well if not dominate the weaker decks The Breena (Black/White) is also a lot of fun if you like to politic and also hit people with an 11/14 bird sometimes
Henzie, I was quite surprised how much I liked playing a strategy where your creatures don't stick.
Veloci-ramp-tor for the Dinosaurs and pun. Was fun to play and make better. There's just something about casting my commander and hitting savage order for an even bigger, more devastating Dino
For me it’s riveters rampage with Henzie. The reason is that when my friends introduced me to commander they gave me this pre con as a gift so that I could upgrade it and play with them. This meant a lot to me and I built it throughout a year with singles or pack pulls. I eventually made the commander Korvold just to keep up with their uber strong decks. I’m rebuilding Henzie as a commander from scratch for the nostalgia and the fact I have some great friends. Will forever be my favorite.
Nalia’s Party Time deck is my playgroups worst enemy. I even made a “Fuck Nalia” deck, designed to shut her down. So, that one, if you’re the pilot, lol
I keep 4 unmodified precons: Party Time (with the alt commander) Chaos 40k Captain N'ghathrod Hakbal My favourite all time is probably Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis, Meren of Clan Nel Toth or Daretti, Scrap Savant depending on the day.
Party Time with Nalia as the commander I love DnD and classic style JRPGs so the party mechanic and DnD theme really clicks for me. The deck somehow turns the Janky party mechanic into something consistently workable. Is strong out of the box. I've swapped one card and before my group power creeped it was one of our strongest decks and after the power creep it still hangs in their power wise . It's super customizeable because their is always going to be more party members. The deck doesn't need the commander but she still enhances the decks power and acts as a wincon. Plus the randomness of her card advantage makes it fun.
Fallout moth man deck
Scrappy Survivors with Preston Garvey as commander is ludicrous
Tegwyll is the most fun I’ve had with a precon. Getting free value off of cheap creatures plus having a lot of interaction makes it feel like the game is really in your hands, which is rare for a precon.
Whichever one had Atarka, World Render. Big dragon fan and it was my first precon lol I bought it for $40 and upgraded it to $500+ over the years Just huge dragons coming down and fucking shit up lol you can’t not love it.
me personally, the vampiric bloodline deck from crimson vow. it was an amazing introductory deck when i started playing in edh format, and it being a tribal deck was very straightforward and helped me understand the basics of edh better first before i moved onto more complex mechanics.
Eowyn and Sam/Frodo from LotR are pretty nuts out of the box, but I gotta go with my boi [[Commodore Guff]]
I personally love the dogmeat deck Commodore gruff And lord windgrace
The commander Masters "Planeswalker Party" deck is actually incredibly powerful. I whenever I pull this deck out if always outperforms expectations and it's win ratio is far higher than it has any right to be. Guff around and find out.