Here we will be reviewing the best and worst EDH precons.
The Endless Punishment Commander preconstructed deck from the Duskmourn: House of Horror set, released in September 2024, is a Rakdos (black-red) group slug deck that relentlessly punishes opponents for their actions. At its helm is Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls, a 4/4 Elder Demon with flying and ward pay 2 life. Whenever an opponent loses life for the first time on their turn, Valgavoth gains a +1/+1 counter and its controller draws a card. This ability encourages a strategy where opponents' actions—such as casting spells or attacking—result in life loss, benefiting Valgavoth's growth and card draw capabilities .
An alternative commander, The Lord of Pain, offers a different approach. This 5/5 Human Assassin with menace prevents opponents from gaining life and deals damage equal to the mana value of the first spell cast by each player each turn. This ability can quickly escalate damage, especially in multi-player games .
The deck is designed to inflict damage and disrupt opponents consistently. It includes cards like Blood Seeker, Spiteful Visions, and Harsh Mentor, which penalize opponents for casting spells or attacking. Additionally, reprints such as Mogis, God of Slaughter, Vial Smasher the Fierce, and Massacre Wurm enhance the deck's potency .
Despite its aggressive strategy, the deck is not without its drawbacks. Valgavoth's effectiveness can make games feel one-sided, potentially leading to less engaging experiences. Additionally, the deck's new cards, like Sadistic Shell Game and Spiked Corridor // Torture Pit, offer powerful effects but may lack originality .
Overall, Endless Punishment is a potent precon deck that offers a straightforward and aggressive playstyle. It's well-suited for players who enjoy a direct approach to gameplay, focusing on punishing opponents for their actions. However, those seeking a more nuanced or varied strategy might find the deck's singular focus limiting.
The Tyranid Swarm Commander preconstructed deck from the Warhammer 40000 Universes Beyond series is a Simic plus red (Temur) color identity deck that embodies the relentless and adaptive nature of the Tyranid Hive Fleets. Centered around themes of evolution, proliferation, and overwhelming the board through sheer numbers and power, the deck is led by The Swarmlord, a powerful creature that enters the battlefield with a number of plus one plus one counters equal to the number of times its controller has cast their commander from the command zone during the game. This rewards aggressive and repeated casting of The Swarmlord and synergizes with the deck's central mechanic called ravenous. Ravenous is a variation of X spells that allows creatures to enter the battlefield with X plus one plus one counters and provides card draw when X is five or more. This mechanic helps scale the deck's threats into the late game while maintaining strong tempo plays in the early turns.
The deck includes a wide variety of Tyranid creatures, many of which possess abilities such as trample, haste, or cascade, reflecting their evolutionary advantages and chaotic momentum. Cards like Tyranid Prime, Hormagaunt Horde, and Termagant Swarm represent the various stages and roles of Tyranid evolution, from small expendable bodies to massive apex predators. Several spells and permanents in the deck help create or copy tokens, double counters, or provide benefits when creatures enter the battlefield, further enhancing the swarm strategy. Additionally, the inclusion of support cards like Biophagus, which grants additional counters and mana fixing, or Broodlord, which offers tutor-like effects, gives the deck resilience and consistency.
The secondary commander, Magus Lucea Kane, introduces a slightly different direction, focusing on copying X spells and supporting both ramp and explosive plays. With her ability to double the value of X spells and provide mana, Lucea Kane turns any scalable threat or spell into a potentially game-ending effect. This adds an element of combo and unpredictability to the deck, appealing to players who enjoy high-impact interactions and large splashy turns. The deck also features ramp spells and mana generators to ensure that large creatures and expensive spells can be played efficiently, making it easy to flood the board with massive threats turn after turn.
Overall, Tyranid Swarm offers a flavorful and well-designed experience that captures the essence of the Warhammer 40000 faction it represents. It plays like a tidal wave of evolving horrors, overwhelming opponents through numbers and power. While it may lack the reactive elements found in more control-focused decks, its straightforward aggression and synergy-driven engine make it a great fit for players who enjoy creature-heavy strategies and scalable mechanics. It stands as one of the most mechanically satisfying precons from the Universes Beyond line, appealing both to fans of Warhammer and traditional Commander gameplay
The Ruinous Powers Commander preconstructed deck from the Warhammer 40000 Universes Beyond series embodies the chaotic and unpredictable nature of the Chaos Gods, featuring a Grixis color identity of blue black and red. Its central theme revolves around harnessing the corrupting influence of Chaos to reap devastating rewards, with mechanics that thrive on randomness, excess, and sacrifice. The face commander, Abaddon the Despoiler, is a 5/5 with trample who grants cascade to the first spell you cast each turn if an opponent has lost life that turn. This mechanic defines the deck’s identity, enabling high-impact turns where one spell can lead to a chain of others, emulating the chaotic influence of the Warp. With plenty of cards that deal incidental damage to opponents such as Blood for the Blood God and Sloppity Bilepiper, it is relatively easy to trigger Abaddon’s cascade ability consistently.
The deck features a menagerie of powerful and flavorful Chaos-aligned creatures such as Lucius the Eternal, Nurgle’s Rot, Tallyman of Nurgle, and Khorne Berzerkers, each representing one of the four major Chaos Gods through unique and synergistic abilities. Many cards embrace a high-risk high-reward playstyle, with effects that require sacrificing creatures, discarding cards, or relying on your opponents’ actions to fully unlock their potential. This thematic alignment makes the deck fun and flavorful but can also result in inconsistent hands or slower starts, especially if you do not draw into your ramp or enablers. Fortunately, the deck includes decent card advantage engines and interaction pieces such as Let the Galaxy Burn and The Warpstorm, although they may not be as efficient as those in tuned decks.
To make The Ruinous Powers more competitive and consistent, several upgrades are recommended. First, improving the mana base is essential. The precon includes many tap lands that slow down early plays, so replacing them with faster dual lands like Watery Grave, Steam Vents, or budget-friendly options like Path of Ancestry and Terramorphic Expanse can help smooth the deck’s tempo. Adding more ramp, such as Talisman of Creativity, Fellwar Stone, or Dockside Extortionist if available, will also help cast the deck’s higher-cost spells more reliably. Second, enhancing the cascade package makes Abaddon much more threatening. Cards like Maelstrom Wanderer, Aurora Phoenix, or Shardless Agent increase your odds of chaining multiple impactful spells per turn. You can also add more ways to ping opponents and trigger cascade, like Curiosity combos, Kederekt Parasite, or Guttersnipe.
Finally, it helps to shore up the deck’s ability to close out games. Adding finishers like Torment of Hailfire, Aetherflux Reservoir, or powerful Grixis staples like Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant can elevate the deck’s ability to end games decisively. You might also consider adding tutors like Demonic Tutor or Mystical Tutor to find key pieces more consistently. Overall, The Ruinous Powers is a thematic and explosively fun deck out of the box, but with some thoughtful upgrades, it can become a much more consistent and dangerous threat at the Commander table.
The Quick Draw Commander precon from Outlaws of Thunder Junction is a high-energy spellslinger deck in Izzet colors that thrives on velocity and value. Focused around casting multiple spells each turn, the deck rewards players for playing fast and often, using synergistic payoffs that grow stronger with every instant or sorcery. The face commander, Stella Lee, Wild Card, is a low-cost commander who provides impulse draw each time you cast your second spell in a turn, giving you consistent card advantage and helping you chain spells together. The alternate commander, Eris, Roar of the Storm, offers a more aggressive approach, creating 4/4 Dragon tokens with flying and prowess whenever you cast your second spell each turn, quickly building an overwhelming aerial threat while staying true to the spellslinger theme.
The deck features a strong backbone of classic spellslinger staples like Young Pyromancer, Murmuring Mystic, and Talrand, Sky Summoner, which create tokens each time you cast an instant or sorcery. There are also cost reducers such as Goblin Electromancer and Haughty Djinn, enabling you to cast more spells per turn, and mana generators like Storm-Kiln Artist that help refuel your plays with Treasure tokens. Several new cards introduced in the precon, including Thunderclap Drake, which can copy spells, and Crackling Spellslinger, which grants storm, expand your explosive potential. These combine with utility creatures like Leyline Dowser, which recurs spells from the graveyard, and Pyretic Charge, which provides card draw and pump, to fuel extended turns and massive value.
While the deck offers plenty of synergies and momentum, it can sometimes struggle to close games efficiently. Its win conditions are largely tied to token swarms or stacking spell triggers, and without enough finishers, it can fizzle in the late game. To make the deck more competitive, consider adding storm-adjacent cards like Grapeshot, or value engines like Aetherflux Reservoir, which reward high spell counts. More draw spells like Preordain, Expressive Iteration, and Consider can help you dig deeper and smoother. Upgrading the interaction package with better counterspells or mass bounce spells like Cyclonic Rift adds much-needed control. Lastly, upgrading the mana base with more untapped dual lands and fast mana like Talisman of Creativity or Arcane Signet will increase the consistency of your early turns.
Quick Draw is a well-constructed deck for players who enjoy fast-paced gameplay and clever sequencing. With a few strategic upgrades, it can transform from a solid out-of-the-box deck into a powerful engine capable of overwhelming opponents with a flurry of spells and value.
The Forces of the Imperium Commander preconstructed deck from the Warhammer 40,000 Universes Beyond series brings the unyielding might of the Imperium of Man to the Commander format, showcasing the faction’s versatile military prowess. Centered in the colors of white, blue, and black (Esper), the deck emphasizes both strategic planning and powerful synergy, utilizing the strength of the Imperium’s best units and tactics to gain the upper hand. The face commander, Saint Celestine, the Living Saint, is a resilient leader who can return from the grave whenever she or her allies are destroyed, embodying the concept of the Imperium’s unrelenting resolve. Her ability to generate Angel tokens each time she returns is a strong motivator for players to take advantage of recursion strategies and battlefield control.
The deck’s theme revolves around militaristic efficiency, leveraging both an elite army of Space Marines and the strategic superiority of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Cards like Adeptus Custodes, Assassin’s Creed, and The Battle of Terra play into the faction's disciplined approach to warfare, creating a sense of an unbreakable line of defense while also punishing opponents for attempting to disrupt your forces. Many creatures in the deck come with protection or keyword abilities such as vigilance or lifelink, ensuring that even when your units are under threat, they can strike back and maintain board presence. Additionally, Sister Repentia, Inquisitor Greyfax, and other character cards add extra layers of interaction and control over the battlefield, either by suppressing opponents' spells or forcing them to discard key cards.
To improve the deck’s overall strategy, Arco-Flagellants, Vindicare Assassin, and Astra Militarum offer additional flexibility, with one being a powerful token generator and the others helping with removing opposing threats. In terms of artifacts, Relic of the Imperium and Emperor's Champion provide more synergy with the deck’s unit-focused abilities while supporting strategies around battlefield manipulation and card advantage. The addition of Cathedral of the Emperor or Terminus Sigil enhances synergy with the deck’s tokens and recursion engine, making sure that, even if your key pieces are lost, you can continue rebuilding your forces.
One area that may need attention is card draw. While the deck can amass an army quickly, having a reliable way to draw into more action can help maintain pressure. Upgrades such as Esper Sentinel, Phrexian Arena, or Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts can ensure a steady flow of cards, while adding utility creatures like Elder Gargaroth or Serra Ascendant boosts overall deck consistency.
In terms of ramp, Chromatic Lantern, Arcane Signet, and Orzhov Signet help ensure your mana base is ready to deploy the Imperium’s finest when needed, while Elder Brain offers a game-changing ability to control your opponents’ strategies. Adding interaction like Counterspell, Swords to Plowshares, and Path to Exile allows for better defense against other decks’ big threats, which is vital in the competitive Commander environment.
Overall, Forces of the Imperium offers a solid, thematic foundation built on the strength of the Imperium’s elite warriors and their unshakable resolve. It can be made even more effective by enhancing its draw power, ramping options, and removal suite, making it a flexible and resilient deck in multiplayer Commander games. With some key upgrades, it will stand tall against even the most formidable of foes, ensuring that the Imperium’s will endures.
The Guided by Nature Commander preconstructed deck from the Warhammer 40,000 Universes Beyond series brings the power of the natural world to the battlefield, harnessing the strength of the forests, wildlife, and the untamed forces of nature. Centered in green and white (Selesnya), this deck focuses on the synergy between creatures, enchantments, the environment and their connection to nature. The face commander, Arbiter of the Wilds, is a steadfast leader who thrives by controlling lands and ensuring that the battlefield is full of creatures and powerful, untapped resources. She draws upon the power of forests to summon vast legions of creatures, giving players an edge through ramp and massive token generation.
The primary focus of Guided by Nature is to develop a robust board presence with a variety of large creatures and strategic enchantments that enhance both the deck’s control and its ability to generate resources. Cards like Wildwood Elemental, Verdant Warden, and Sylvan Reclaimer play into the theme of creatures connected to the land, making each forest and land card not just a resource, but a potent tool to summon larger creatures or empower existing ones. The deck also thrives on ramping up with mana-producing enchantments like Leyline of Abundance and Wild Growth, allowing you to accelerate your game plan and flood the board with creatures and tokens, especially through synergies with Elvish Promenade or Verdant Summoning.
Verdant Conflux, Arboreal Beacon, and Nature's Bounty help cement this land-focused strategy, offering additional ramp and recursion. Guided by Nature also thrives on recursion and protection, with cards like Elder Gargaroth and Bastion of Remembrance to not only regenerate creatures but also ensure that your tokens are consistently valuable, either through combat or tapping into abilities that trigger with each new token generation. Moreover, creatures such as Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves and Ajani, Strength of the Wild further bolster your board presence, bringing in powerful synergy with token generation and lifegain as you steadily grow your forces.
For those seeking to improve the deck's consistency, some upgrades could focus on enhancing the ramp and draw engines. Adding cards like Rhystic Study or Guardian Project could help keep your hand full while your creatures flood the battlefield. Similarly, improving the deck’s mana base with lands like Command Tower, Farseek, and Temple of Plenty will ensure smoother ramping. Adding more efficient token generators like Anointed Procession, Parallel Lives, and Selesnya Eulogist can amplify the deck’s token-producing capabilities, letting you quickly overwhelm opponents with vast armies of creatures.
Additionally, the deck can benefit from more targeted removal options. Cards such as Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, or Generous Gift can help handle any threats that could disrupt your game plan, especially in multiplayer environments where large, difficult-to-deal-with creatures are common. You could also include more board wipes like Wrath of God or Cyclonic Rift to clear the board when necessary, ensuring that you stay ahead of opponents and recover quickly from any setbacks.
Overall, Guided by Nature offers a powerful, growth-focused strategy, emphasizing creature synergy, ramp, and an army built on the strength of the land itself. With its token generation, ramp, and versatile creatures, it is well-suited for players who enjoy a more proactive, board-heavy approach to Commander. By adding some key upgrades to the deck's ramp, draw, and removal, you can make it an even more formidable force in the Commander format.