Gavin Verhey gave a recap of Commander preconstructed decks and what to expect in the future from the products on today’s episode of Good Morning Magic.
Verhey started with the history of the Commander precons and their start back in 2011, paving the way for a decade of similar products. The precons were so successful, WotC found a way to put them in the schedule for each year going forward. And even though the initial design was to make Commander decks for experienced players (as the complexity of a multiplayer game was thought to be too much for new players), that quickly changed as stories flowed in from players choosing to teach new players to play in Commander groups. Verhey believes the social and laid back nature of the Commander group offered a great atmosphere for teaching players and that friends often wanted to play whatever formats their friends were playing. This led to the change of making precons new-player friendly and even had the precons replace the planeswalker intro decks.
With everything WotC learned about Commander over the years, more and more precons are being made and they’re being tied together with almost every new Standard set. Not only can they keep making new offerings for players that are just learning, but they’re able to expand on the world and story of each set while fleshing out more characters and diving deeper into the set’s mechanics and themes.
Verhey used the rest of the video to outline the rest of the year’s Commander precon release schedule. Adventures in the Forgotten Realms will have four precons just like Strixhaven: School of Mages and each deck will include seventeen new cards. The decks are designed to be played against each other and look to be great introductions to Commander for players that like Dungeons & Dragons. Innistrad Midnight Hunt and Innistrad Crimson Vow will each have two precons similar to Kaldheim. Each Innistrad precon will have fifteen new cards and will play well on their own or with all four after the second set’s release.
Verhey wrapped up the video by saying the rhythm of Commander precon releases will continue like this year’s. He also reiterated that the designers are purposely looking to prevent any cards like Arcane Signet from being made that become auto-includes in every Commander deck.