Another Magic: The Gathering set, another set of Commander precons. While precons are usually decent, if a bit unoptimized, this time Wizards of The Coast have gone above and beyond to create some truly interesting and focused decks that include tight synergies and excellent reprints. The precons are so great this time around, that their decklists somewhat overshadow the main set.
While all four Battle For Baldur's Gate precons are good, some are much better than others, with the best among them competing with the best precons of the past few years. The decks also have a strong focus on the Dungeons & Dragons theme of this set, marrying the power of these deck lists with some great flavor wins as well.
Here is every Commander Legends: Battle For Baldur's Gate precon deck, ranked from worst to best.
4 Draconic Dissent - An Izzet Identity Crisis
Draconic Dissent is an Izzet deck headed by Firkraag, Cunning Instigator, a hasty Dragon that looks to force enemies to fight each other. The deck is slightly scattered for a modern precon, struggling under the weight of being both a Dragon tribal deck and goad deck.
On the Dragon front, it does quite well, bringing some new cards to support this side of the deck. The best of these is Astral Dragon, a huge eight-drop Dragon that copies two other creatures when it enters the battlefield. While a great card on its own, this becomes a win condition if you upgrade the deck with Cursed Mirror, as the two cards form a combo that gives you an infinite army of Astral Dragons with haste.
Despite this cast of huge creatures, Draconic Dissent is unfortunately a bit slow to get off the mark. The downside of using high mana cost creatures is that you're going to need some expensive mana ramp to actually cast them, something that Commander precons historically have not included.
The Goad side of the deck is also a bit of a let-down as Firkraag, Cunning Instigator's color identity doesn't include Black, ruling out many Goad deck auto-includes.
3 Exit From Exile - Back from Banishment
Exit From Exile is all about cheating out cards from exile and receiving Wolf tokens as a bonus. Despite it having the lowest re-sell value of the Battle For Baldur's Gate precons, it still puts up a good fight against the rest, partially thanks to its excellent reprints. It's decklist also has room for some excellent budget upgrades, too.
Being a partially green deck, Exit from Exile has a ton of great ramp that will get you the mana you need to cast some of its best new creatures, including the excellent Nalfeshnee, which copies spells that you cast from exile.
Another great new creature is Green Slime, a three-drop with flash that counters an ability from an artifact or enchantment, then destroys the card that it countered. This is an excellent anti-staple card, destroying everything from a Sol Ring to a Smothering Tithe to a Walking Ballista before they have the chance to pop off.
2 Mind Flayarrrs - Draining Sanity
Mind Flayarrrs plays into Magic's cards-equals-intelligence theme by assembling a group of eldritch Horror creatures that cause players to mill cards whenever they deal damage.
Using milling as a metaphor for Mind Flayers' habit of devouring people's thoughts and minds is a massive flavor win, and is almost a good enough reason to play this deck on its own. Luckily, Mind Flayarrrs also has a decklist to support its flavor.
Alongside an excellent set of reprints, Mind Flayarrrs has some quality new cards, including Aboleth Spawn, a hilariously annoying ability copier that turns enemy enter-the-battlefield effects against them. Brainstealer Dragon is another great new creature that also lines up with the narrative of Mind Flayarrrs, representing the stealing of enemy brains with an effect that steals cards from their libraries.
Commander is at its best when powerful card mechanics reflect the narrative of the deck or Commander that you're piloting. In this regard at least, Mind Flayarrrs is the best Commander precon for a long time.
1 Party Time - A Focused Campaign
Party Time is the most D&D-themed deck of the lot. All about creating a party and reaping the benefits, Party Time goes all in by including 45 creatures, all of which have one or more of the four party creature types of Rogue, Wizard, Cleric, and Warrior.
Each of the four types are excellently represented by some staple creatures belonging to each. Party Time's Wizard lineup is definitely smaller than its Rogues, Clerics and Warriors, but it still includes great staples like Aven Mindcensor and Direfleet Ravager.
The deck also includes some excellent reprints that help streamline the process of building a party. Maskwood Nexus is the stand-out here, giving every creature you control every creature type, giving you a full party every time you have four or more creatures on the battlefield.
Alongside its wealth of creature reprints, Party Time also has some great new cards, including one of the best enchantments in the set. Black Market Connections is a versatile enchantment that acts as a source of mana, card draw and changeling creatures, granting you as many of these options each pre-combat main phase as you like in exchange for some life. Party Time is also the best deck if you're the type that buys precons to sell their singles. Tolarian Community College found the total singles value of the deck to be a whopping $191.26.
Party Time is by far the best deck in an excellent set of precons. It's an excellent jumping-on point for any newcomer to Commander, and a great addition to the collection for seasoned players.