When I asked for this on discord, was just looking for a recommendation for which one to buy. Didn't expect such a thorough analysis. You guys made it awesome!

As someone that works in an LGS and frequently gets the “which of these precons should I get?” Questions, i really appreciate your breakdown of each of these. I really enjoyed both of the kaldheim precons and felt that asking someone to invest 20$ in a functional deck is WAY more well received than asking them to spend 40$

Just a couple of days ago I visited a game shop that wasn’t my normal one, but I learned that the commander 2020 precons there were still at $40. Picked me up a timeless wisdom deck while I was out, or should I say a $5 discount on fierce guardianship and 99 free cards lol

Rags on him for mentioning sol ring continuously. No issues with mentioning command tower every time.

This is an amazing wrap up video. Great choice of key information about each deck.

I really enjoyed this video format, and the discussion. I don't have an hour of spare time so appreciate the stamps so I can watch the sections of commanders I was interested in.

Great idea for a video. Keep up the great work, can't wait for games.

As someone just now getting into EDH and looking at precons you guys really do the best job of breaking down not just the value but the reasons why you’d want to play these decks. Love your videos!!

Great idea for a video! Absolutely love it!

Awesome video! Chef's kiss!!!!! Thank you for your advice and opinions. You guys are great. Keep up the good work 👍☺️

Great timing for this video guys. We are starting a league up in January where you have to play one of the precons from this past year. Each week you get to upgrade $14-$22 each week depending on a ranking list that they have. With Coven Counters I would get $22 a week, so that might be a solid choice. Unfortunately Aura of Courage is only $14 per week for upgrades. But it was really good to hear what you guys thought of each of these.

This is the perfect video i needed right now. Happy holidays, Nerds!

Really cool video guys! Helped me filter through some junk in the vampire deck, you should do these kinds of videos every year! Maybe a little earlier in december though so you have time to order one as a gift hehe

I love osgir. He motivated me to finally Put together a 4 color artifact deck. So many cool new cards and a fun new Boros theme. I like the reanimating value engine

I spent so long trying to figure out which deck to buy, decided to last minute change my mind to Aura of Courage. So glad I did, is a great precon

Note to self: Wilhelt: 13:30 Coven counters: 54:38

Love my prosper deck. I play dnd and was so excited to build prosper. I had know idea I would be building such a powerful/fun deck

Thank you for this great video and the time you have put in. Maybe you can show at the end a small sheet with all decks and ratings for every topic and overall rating? I love your content.

New sub here great video I absolutely love dragon shield as well can't wait to watch more videos thanks guys. I look forward to supporting the channel

Favorite commander of these precons was a lorehold commander, but I chose alibou over osgir. I can’t deny osgir’s power, but the tap artifacts strategy seemed so much more fun for me

My personal favorite was the Wilhelt deck. Most of the precons this year were far better than in the past, and Wilhelt is super easy to upgrade to make really powerful.

I slept on Coven Counters so hard. Just played it out of the box as is and it was great. Ordered the cards from your guys upgrade video.

I love watching different KZfaqrs discuss the 2021 Commanders and comparing/contrasting opinions. There seems to be a lot of consensus that there were a lot of great commanders that had total garbage in the 99.

Dang. 57k subs. Seems like a week ago you guys did the 50k mail opening. Great job guys!

Sad to see breena in last place, as a precon with 4 or 5 cards added it has a huge win % in my pod, probably 75%. Keep up the good work nerds, I very much enjoy your daily content

Excellent analysis , it checks all the boxes. Subscribed immediately. Only 1 question, how Hellish Rebuke is not good ? I think the card it is great.

I picked up Galea precon same time as MH2 set booster, swapped a few pulls from the box straight in like Kaldrea compleat, Nettlecryst and Esper Sentinel and it almost felt like a real constructed deck with the great mana land base

Thanks. perfect video for my birthday as the precon guy in my play group

I build a deck from the Galea precon, with Storvald in command. That giant brought so many great ideas in my head while I discarded the idea of a seven mana commander at the time of spoilers I started going the giant adventure tribal in the end. Stonehewer cares about equipment and Boonweaver cares for auras. Then I thought it cool to bring in intrepid hero to whack opposing creatures, and pump em with the giant if they’re not big enough, or throw a rancor/bloodthirsty blade on them to make valid targets. Then I came up with the adventure cards from Eldraine, starting with Giant Killer and Realm-Cloaked Giant. I think that deck was one of the greatest to go different routes and still do synergistic stuff every turn. What a casual commander gem!

Thx for the birthday shoutout

Yeah I picked up the Galea and the Adrix and Nev precons this year, switch Adrix and Nev out for Esix, and both have served me REALLY well as my reintroduction to MTG after being out for like 7 years. Esix helped me learn all of the mechanics again and how to order triggers, and Galea got me my first introduction to Voltron and how important it is to be able to cheat equip costs and storm off the top of a deck. Really impressed with both.

I'm pumped with Galea's placement! She's who I chose to get into edh with, and I'm happy to see her getting love!

This video' was great. I played out of the box coven counters, and this pointed out the issues I had. Couldn't draw cards after consecutive board wipes, and not enough removal

Breena wanted your opponents to kill each other while Breena swoop in for the finisher when it's time. It's been a fun deck without much work but sad it's last in your list.

oh boy was i sweating the whole day. lunch time came, no neds. finally dinner time and nerds! cheers!

I grabbed up Phantom Premonitions week one of release. Every time I bring it to the table as is or with the suggested $50 upgrade, people are always so impressed with how it plays for such a cheap base of cost. I enjoy playing it and so glad it took the better half of this list. Grab it if you haven't it is fun even at base

I loved the witherbloom precon. Took out all the cards that gave counters and replaced them with more life draining cards and ramp. I also replaced the commander with Beledros. The deck is very effective.

birthday lad is me today, thanks for the wishes guys

Great video and great subject 👍 keep it up guys I’m an idiot and buy every commander deck no matter what lol those reprints and new cards get me every time

I literally cannot wait for my birthday video

Would you guys review the old precons for fun? I just want to hear you talk trash about some of the duds they used to toss into them. We’re honestly spoiled now by comparison, not necessarily as a whole, but nowadays the precons play much better out of the box

If you don't already know. This is an excellent video guys. Best of this quarter....so far😉

Great video! I still think prosper is the best deck this year, I've played against the top 5 quite a bit and prosper consistently wins more. I did upgrade it quite extensively like 25ish cards but that's also part of it, such a high ceiling for upgrading

How does it feel that y’all Made the market watch with ritual of the machines caused a price spike y’all are official now lol

I've had my Prosper's commander tax up to 14 and still had no problem getting him out. Crazy value engine and I don't even run any infinites in my build. One of my favorite commanders in my collection and I've been playing since 2003.

Elven empire is definitely my favorite precon from this year because of how many $2+ elf tribal cards there were. There were a couple elves that I tossed out fast but they were easily replaced. If we’re talking about the deck that can make the cheapest upgrades to be a lot better, then I’d say Elven empire is damn near the top if not #1.

Still playing Prosper and Osgir, very happy with those decks. I bought the Galea deck, converted it to a Tuvasa enchantments deck, and now I have a pile of equipment support.

I was really hoping Galea would get it. As a longtime fan of Bant Voltron, super cool to see a natural upgrade/evolution to my boy Rafiq. That deck truly was stacked!

Osgir is top in terms of boosting boros artifact support

39:38 dam right about deluge, Beezy. been running it on my Unesh list and it's SICK!

I recommend monologue tax, it is very good. Nearly always you get the mana out of it the first round it’s down, and I play it in a token synergy deck, so it really goes off. But since it’s not super insane it often stays around for quite a while since there are better removal targets

Thx for the video. But didnt you forget some decks like the Kaldheim and Innistrad Spirit-Decks?

I ended up swapping Adrix and Nev for Esix as commander and added a few more go wide spells in place of some counter cards and i think it makes the deck so much more interesting to play

I think people missed Robe of stars at first but it's definitely the final piece Voltron decks needs. Because after hexproof and indestructible, the next thing you need is protection from edict effects and cyclonic rift

I was so excited for Wilhelt when I broke it out of the box, I played against other precons and it was sooooo slow! I’ve put some work into it but it’ll take some more money.

Crazy content lately

Hey I have a reap the tides deck and saw that the strixhaven decks were on sale at my LGS and was wondering what you guys thought about combining quantum quandrix and reap the tides together?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you guys poop on Expressive Iteration in the prismari power up video? Kinda confused me when you did given it's a pretty good card.

My favorite precon was Prosper. I upgraded it and have so much fun playing with it. It did so well the first couple of times that he now gets targeted by my play group.

the Wilhelt deck literally just needs minimal tweaking and it's great. I actually switched Gisa and Geralf to be my commander with Wilhelt in the 99, and it already works significantly better in terms of just amassing zombies. They're definitely right about the weird amount of non-zombies though, but there's TONS of amazing zombies to just swap in.

My first commander was Galea Kindler of hope. I hated it as it was my first time playing magic, that opinion changed after watching the upgrade video you guys did. I bought Osgir after ya’lls video came out as well. I have loved them both ever sense. Right now I’m trying to figure out if I want to make Ranar spirit/fortell tribal my third deck. :^)

The best Precon deck was Zombies but the best Commander was Osgir. His ability to recur and copy artifacts is so damn power is absurd! Especially when it's mana artifacts like Grim Monolith and Mana crypt. It's really cool when it gets going

My favorite is actually the silverquil one. A post on Facebook was saying they played all against each other and it was top 4 as well. It's probably my deck with the highest win rate. No one says oh this deck. It's fun for you and for other people playing. The Ghostly Prison effects are nice when it gets down to 1v1 but the commander makes a fun game of oh I'll hit that player I get cards.

As someone who just barely getting into magic crossing over from other tcg games. Love the way this game plays and how much more fun it is vs other games that are I’d consider more “serious” all the time. Anyway I have ZERO magic cards and I have very little experience with the game. Which deck should I shoot for? Thanks for any help!:)

I run twenty sources of card draw/selection in my wilhelt deck. It's purely a combo deck(no thoracle though I have self respect) that aims to combo off by turn seven in the absolute worst situations, but usually hits 4-6. Rooftop Storm+Acererak/(gravecrawler and a payoff), or poppet sticher with a payoff and wilhelt, but if all else fails ashnods altar getting extra mama off wilhelt to cast a Torment of Hailfire. Definitely my most powerful deck, i call it Zombo Combo

I’m bummed tomorrow is likely a short because Beezy won’t tell me happy birthday. I’ll take the early one today- thanks!

Would be really great if when you're listing what you're judging the cards on, you had some text pop up. Great episode.

you guys are awesome. that is all.

As far as the precon decks themselves... I purchased 10/15. I agree with the strength of the Coven deck... but I ultimately bought it to scrap for parts. Out of the box, I'm straight up a Sefris or Osgir fan. But Leinore itself is probably the best commander of 2021 from the precons.

Another comment mentioned this: I think it would be funny to see you guys review the original Commander precons. If you KNEW the kinds of cards that were in that Kaalia precon lol

Osgir for me is nr.1 :) Its a deck that i play A LOT - change a lot in it in time. From simple big artifacts "reanimate" deck with more "discard" outlet - to some fast draw/combo deck - eding now to amazing PL9 deck with STAX staregy and super fast mana... Gaela of me is nr.2 ... its my Favorite deck to play. I tried it in few builds too - but here i one was totaly the most fun and best. You build it as super fast pure equip deck ( Exept ramp Auras - they are amazing !!!) with super low cost for equipments and a lot creatures that lower cost of playing them. So the startegy is to put Gelea in game, and then really CHAIN 10+ cards from top - its amazing FUN :D What is best - even if i build this deck reallllyyy good (Great mana base - fetches etc. - all best equipments like Swords - and all best stuff to manipulate library + a lot Tutors) its not OP , and you can play it even in "lower" PL table - sure you can like make Galea 11/11 with DS in turn 4-5 ... but thats is still easy to STOP, and in best case scenario can kill 1 player... Nr.3 is elf deck... i love the deck i build based on the Pre-Con... problem is after all my upgrades and cards i want to run... i end up with may 20 cards from orginal deck ;P I still love my elf deck - but i could just buy the cards i needed - not the full Pre-Con... ;P

I think you guys are undervalued undead alchemist. Exiling your opponents creatures before they even hit the field, and making a bunch of zombie tokens is great.

Coven counters is solid. I love Kyler, he is expensive but so explosive. Give me a turn or so after I play him and I will swing the table for lethal.

Coven counters is my favorite. I bought that and undead unleashed at the same time, and after playing with both, I found Coven Counters and Leinore so great and fun. Sadly because it didn’t have as much “value” as when that and the undead unleashed were announced, most of the players at my lgs went with zombies instead of experiencing the greatness of leinore.

How many Basics do you think is optimal for a 3-colour deck, i have a naya mayael deck and i only run like 6, two of each, the rest ist basically utility and dual lands. At this rate should i replace kodamas reach/cultivate for wood elves?

Big D & D nerd, I got both prosper and Gaelia. I love them both, but Prosper is crazy. Threw birgi in and Laelia blade reforged, and with maybe five other additions, it has been going crazy

Shacklegeist has litterally won me games. Using tokens to tap down big stuff feels great. I even put Opposition in this 😊

I get that the precon is a bit underwhelming, but my upgraded Breena deck is my favorite deck. Built with politics, +1 counters, and board wipe resilience as themes in that order. It's also fairly strong. Won me quite a few games.

The four Innistrad decks are just awesome, one of the best worlds from MtG loaded with tried and true themes. I also think Kaldheim moving MtG into Norse Mythology is a great direction, but the set felt very lackluster... they spread their Gods too thin when a mono-colored Odin, Frigg, Thor, Loki, and Heimdall would have been more than enough. The uncommon Kaldheim legends though pretty weak are just far more cool and interesting. (Ranar also feels more like Odin than Alrund) :^)

Funny that the Leinore deck and the Adrix and Nev could really profit from some switch ups, the green token makers from Leinore to AnN and the green counter cards from AnN to Leinore

At what sub count is Joe changing his last name legally to cherries

Top 3 precons: 1:Prosper 2: Osgir 3: Lathril I never actually played lathril, but i like elf tribal and bought her to upgrade a deck. I do wanna rebuild her though. On a side note, i do have Eloise and Shadrix (and previously beledros) built as commanders, so i enjoyed those as well, even if not directly related

Randomly picked up Galea from a Target earlier this year and didn't know what to expect. Its kick ass now, enough for my friend who plays Tiamat to say it's "bullshit". #1 surprised me but i just didn't know what else was out this year. Really psyched to hear its #1

Mr thunder collector conductor was one of my favourite decks to pilot.

I totally agree with you guys, Aura of courage is by far the most powerful deck that was released this year. I bought it and builded around it to a point that it is ridiculous to play. Sure, equipments are expensive (Swords of..) but it get to a level that nobody can match. The only problem is that it is so good, my friends don't want me to use it anymore..

Galea is so fun and good that I changed out like 4/5 cards only and have it as a lower power deck that’s still fun and good. Also love with Ozgir having more mana than green decks, even more lands in addition to rocks if you have the Karn that pulls artifacts out of exile

Just bought the #1 on your list at my LGS yesterday (before seeing this video) and it seems kinda lackluster in comparison to the 5-color deck (not on this list) I bought along side it. In play testing of the two, the equipments are very slow. Maybe the strategy is to get your commander out as fast as possible? Probably just RNG but the deck kept being mana-starved while precon 5-color deck I bought just went nuts with lands and could consistently bring out its 5-7 cost creatures.

I just got into mtg in august & I bought the Aura of Courage precon with zero knowledge 😂 I’m glad I got it

great breakdown, but no idea what decks you are talking about, most of the time. Happy Christmas!

I have Galea but I think I need more experience with her. Love my Gruul Dragons after I pimped that deck out. Zombies and Spirits are great too. I have 6 of those precons so I guess I have a problem :)

I was thinking about imposing grandeur in a Gishath deck and thought it’d be pretty sweet

I loved the coven counters

I HATED my vrondiss deck until I switched to klauth. Now it’s one of my favorites. The precon was meh in general. I ended up putting a lot of ramp and changing the creatures around. Throwing in eldrazi, etali, ilharg, etc. Lots of damage doublers and extra combat spells, heroic intervention, wrap in vigor, cauldron of souls, soul of new phyrexia, lots of green card draw, and some removal and x spells. It’s a force now. Not the most powerful but it’s extremely explosive and can win the game seemingly out of nowhere. It’s a lot of fun to play.

One of Wilheldt's biggest detractions is that almost all of its reprints were only expensive due to supply and cratered when it was reprinted, and out of all the precons I've upgraded this year, I've taken the least number of cards out of it (adrix and nev is basically a completely different deck)

I’ve been meaning to ask - who put Solgaleo on the shelf in the background?

Wilhelt supercharged my zombie deck. I was playing Gisa and Geralf because Scarab God is out of my budget. Wilhelt was perfect. The issue with buying the deck was that there were so many cards in the precon that I already had in my zombie deck. But it added some nice stuff, too. I bought Galea because I love equipment decks but most of the cards went into my Boros equipment/aura deck. But I may have to just build Galea since it has blue and green in it. I'm also surprised you didn't mention Sword of the Animist. All you have to do is attack to Rampant Growth. My biggest issue with Coven Counters is the lack of actual value. I feel like if I want those individual cards, I'll buy them separately. I rarely play precons out of the box because I always want to rip cards for existing decks. In Wilhelt's case, he became my new commander for a deck I already had. Willowdusk gave me a bunch of great lifegain cards for my Leisa deck and the Osigir deck had a ton of stuff I needed for various decks. I was disappointed by the other Strixhaven decks for the most part. Veryran found a home but I feel like I really need to do something with Adrix and Nev. I have no plans to do anything with Breena. I don't have all of them yet but I'm looking at Strefan next. Prosper looks like it has some good value so that's a consideration and then the Dungeon deck looks cool. Galea is the only one I picked up from D&D so far though.

Zaffai is a real fun deck but I changed more than half of the precon. Tried to keep the theme of 5 cmc or greater to make 4/4's and win through combat

My personal top 2021 precon (only referencing those I own): (1) Osgir - made boros great again (2) Prosper - cool mechanics (3) Vrondiss - dice rolling is fun (4) Lathril - elves, easy to upgrade (5) Wilhelt - doesn’t even need upgrades (6) Ranar - unique feel (7) Leinore - GW humans, lots of synergies (8) Esix / Adrix and Nev - simic goodness, kind of generic (9) Galea - wanted to love but plays like a dud most games

Osgir was my favorite once I upgraded it. :)

I had a very explosive game with the Vrondiss deck. Basically hit all the good stuff there was to have and ended the game in 5 turns with the damage doubling effects and overruning everyone with imaginary dragons. I doubt it can do that regularly, but it felt good :)