0:06 Many Magic the Gathering players ask the question, is it worth it to buy a Foundations Commander deck? Releasing alongside Reality Fracture with its sole Commander pre -con, and two years after their namesake set hit shelves, the Foundations Commander decks are a quintet of mono -colored pre -cons designed to introduce brand new players to Commander. designed to introduce brand new players to Like the two color starter Commander decks from four years ago, the Foundations decks are intended to provide an on -ramp, not just to Commander, but to Magic as a whole. They even have the same $29 .99 MSRP of the Foundations beginner box, featuring simple, iconic themes that exemplify each deck's color and consisting entirely of reprints From throughout
0:52 Magic's 33 -year history, this is clearly a product meant to withstand the test of from throughout Magic's 33 -year history. This is clearly... time. If someone walks into a local game store three years from now and asks how to start playing Commander, this is the product they will likely be pointed to. But just how successfully do these decks deliver on that promise? Are they really well suited to new players? And on the flip side, do they have anything to offer players with more experience? Do the decks contain anything in the way of financial value? And is it even possible to find them at their $29 .99 MSRP? Most importantly, are these decks actually fun to play with? And do they match up well against one another or even against other Commander Precons? All those questions and
1:40 more are what's in store. So let's take a look. And be sure to mark your calendars because it is the biggest Magic the Gathering giveaway we have ever done. 10 collector booster boxes. of Secrets of Strixhaven, 10 collector booster boxes of The Hobbit, and just for fun, 10 collector booster boxes of Reality Fracture. We're giving away 30, count them, 30, 30, 30 collector booster boxes of Magic the Gathering, and it's all during the What Not Card Show starting Thursday, October 15th, and running all the way through to October 17th, courtesy of What Not. The What Not Card Show is the biggest card event of the year, it was the biggest card event of the year and it's only on whatnot it runs all the way through and it's only on What Not. from thursday october 17th until sunday october 18th but i'm going to be streaming three times three days and giving away 30 collector booster boxes this is
2:27 an epic event where sellers such as myself are bringing out their best card products and prices and i hope very much to get to hang out with you in my whatnot stream where i am giving away all of these products and also have some really cool merch to offer there's exclusive signed playmasters really cool merch to offer there's exclusive signed playmats that are limited in production or just draft packs available for you to buy and play with thursday october 15th at 3 p .m pacific then again friday october 16th at 3 p .m pacific then again saturday october 17th at 3 p .m pacific and we're giving away 30 collector booster boxes i'm also giving each and every one of you 15 credit when you create a brand new account by going to www .whatnot .com dot com forward slash invite forward slash delarian college that's fifteen dollars credit forward slash invite forward slash larian college that's $15 to spend in my store on any store it's it's fifteen dollars worth of magic
3:15 products other cards whatever you want to spend it on and maybe just maybe you'll win one of these 30 collector booster boxes that i'm giving away it all starts thursday october 15th at 3 p .m pacific and then we're doing thursday friday saturday all at 3 p .m pacific join me on whatnot and thank you for sponsoring this video and the biggest giveaway ever! A Foundations Commander deck contains the following. One ready -to -play, right -out -of -the -box 100 -card Commander deck, featuring a traditional foil face card with new artwork. Ten double -sided token cards, a cardboard deck box, and the usual strategy and reference card inserts. All 100
4:01 cards in a Foundations Commander deck are reprints, though a few do feature new artwork. All 100 cards in a Foundations Commander deck are... Each of these five decks are monocolored, with a theme that is emblematic of the color. Those themes are White Angels, Blue Artifacts, Black Zombies, Red Dragons, and Green Dinosaurs. The MSRP for a Foundations Commander deck is $29 .99. but sadly you may be hard -pressed to pick one up at that price. All five are already facing markups on the secondary market, some as high as $15. The current secondary market price of these decks is Monoblack Wretched Ranks,
4:48 selling for $38, Monoblue Keen Engineering and Monored Reign of Dragons, each selling for $40, with Mono Green Trampelsaurus Rex and Mono White Calling All Angels selling for $44 each. Markups are always obnoxious. We always say, do not pay markups. But here, this is particularly egregious with this product because accessibility is the entire point of Foundation's Commander decks. We want more people to play this format, don't we? want more people to play Magic, right? Having this product marked up prevents all this. And look, I'm just gonna be honest here. I'm not a business person. I'm just a customer and a commentator. I don't know what it would take for Wizards of the Coast to ensure that products like
5:35 this are available at MSRP. Maybe they need to offer better deals and bigger supplies to local game stores in exchange for agreements regarding markups. Maybe that would work. Maybe online availability is the key. Online availability at MSRP for everyone to discourage price gouging maybe there's something else that i'm not thinking to discourage price gouging. of but you know what it's not a requirement to have a working solution in order to identify and highlight a problem and i must do that here highlight that this is a problem markups on these decks should not exist they should be available for 29 .99 and with this product more than any other you wizards of the coast should do whatever it takes to ensure that these are priced that way because
6:22 it is meant for new players. It is meant for supporting Commander and quite frankly, when you also go around selling the exact same number of cards for $74 .99 and $159 .99 just because it has Patrick Stewart's face on it or whatever, then it benefits you to also ensure that products like this are priced affordably. Now, it is entirely possible, and I hope this is the case, that the Now, it is entirely possible, and I hope this... cost of these decks are going to plummet once they start hitting shelves. I hope Wizards of the Coast prints these decks into the ground. For the purposes of this video, we will assume you have managed to find the Foundation's decks for at or at least around MSRP, and we are going to evaluate whether or not they are worth it to buy at that
7:09 price. Let's take a look at the kind of value that you'll expect to find in each deck. Financial Value If you were to buy all the singles from each Foundation's Commander deck separately for their lowest price, you would have to spend $106 .15 for Calling All Angels, $109 .92 for Keen Engineering, $127 .36 for Wretched Ranks, $115 .45 for Reign of Dragons, and a whopping $153 .22 for Tramplesaurus Rex. Wow, not bad for $30 decks, if of course you can find them for $30. A fascinating thing about these pre -cons is that since they are 100 % reprints,
7:58 these prices are an accurate reflection of value. Obviously, those prices are going to drop when the product hits shelves, up when the product hits shelves but typically when we look at a commander pre -con we're looking but typically, when we look at a Commander... at original card designs cards that are from the newest set and thus have inflated prices due to the fact that those cards are not on the market yet but here these are all reprints the cards existed at these prices before the decks were even conceived yes again those card prices will go down in value and that's a good thing by the way but what can i say other than wow the value of what they put in these boxes, it's fantastic. they put in these boxes Oh, but what about all the bulk that must be in there? I mean, these are 100 -card decks, so maybe there's a lot of 60 and 70 -cent cards
8:43 jacking up the price. What value is going to be left if we cut all the cards that are not even worth $1? Eliminating bulk cards that are not worth a dollar, we still find calling all angels with $106 .15 in value. 15 cents in value. Keen Engineering has $93 .51 in non -bulk value. Wretched Ranks, $109 .90. Keen Engineering has $93. Reign of Dragons, $95 .93. And Trampelsaurus Rex, wow, even with all -bulk eliminated, $138 .75. So yes, there really is a lot of value in these decks, despite their affordable MSRP and intentionally simple construction. Keep in mind, too, that this value comes dis - simple construction. Keep in mind, too, that this value comes despite the fact that each deck contains more than 30 basic lands. In other
9:32 words, the total value here is not getting much help from its mana base. All right, so where is all this value coming from? Let's take a closer look at each deck. 29 of the 100 cards in Calling All Angels are worth a dollar or more. These include heavy hitters like the $13 Norn's Choir Master, receiving its first ever reprint since its original printing in a Phyrexia All Will Be One Commander deck, as well as the impressive $9 Uncommon Starnheim Aspirant, its third reprint outside of the list. Calling All Angels has the fewest $10 and up cards of the five decks, but it also has the second most non -bulk cards overall, thanks to the high density of cards in the $1 to $5 range. These are cards like Metallic Mimic, Lyra Dawnbringer, and Archangel of Tithes,
10:21 all of which have been very pricey of Tithes. All of which have been cards in the past, and even now maintain a solid value despite recent reprints. Keen Engineering has the lowest non -bulk value at $93, and also has the fewest non -bulk cards in the list. Still, with 24 of the 100 cards costing a dollar or more, that's nearly a quarter of the overall deck list. This blue deck also features a pair of cards that cost north of $10 each, the $14 Misleading Signpost, its first non -secret north of $10 each. The $14. lair reprint, as well as the $12 Vidalkin Archmage, which receives its first reprint since the original Jumpstart set, and third reprint overall. The deck includes some nice reprints in the $5 range as well, such as the $6 Forsaken Monument, and a $5 All is Dust, a
11:09 card I remember once having a value of $30 to $40 each, so it's really wild seeing it reprinted in a Commander pre -con here. Wretched Ranks has a similar non -bulk value to Calling All Angels, and it gets there with just 25 cards. This deck also boasts two $10 and up cards, Zombie Kindred Staple Graveborn Muse receiving its first non -list reprint since 10th edition, and Undead Warchief, which hasn't seen a non -list reprint since Plane Chase. The printing of Undead Warchief from this deck, notably, has already cratered in price to just 50 cents. That's the power of reprints, baby! Rounding out the non -bulk list is the deck's $3 General Ghoulcaller Gisa and the $8 Ayara, First of Lothwain, a popular mono
11:55 -black commander in her own right. Reign of Dragons has the lowest non -bulk value. It's 25 non -bulk cards combined to about $95. This deck, too, only has one card that cracks the $10 mark. Utvara Hellkite, with its $13 price This deck, too, only has one card that cracks the mind. tag. That's a very sturdy $13, though, as the Hellkite has been reprinted several times since its original printing in Return to Ravnica. Also among the noteworthy cards in this list is the $8 Popper Staple Breath Weapon. $8 for a Popper Staple? Gavin, come on! Well, here it's receiving its sorely needed first reprint. Thank you very much, also probably Gavin. He gives, but he also... takeths away it's a very complex relationship and speaking of first reprints the four dollar dragon hawk fate's tempest joins the 99 by way
12:46 of its only prior printing in bloom borough finally we have the beast tramplesaurus rex far and away the highest non -bulk value among the five decks due in no small part to its three count them three cards in the 99 worth north of ten dollars the whopping 20 in the 99 worth north of $10. The whopping $22 Surak and Gorklaw is actually the most expensive card in the entire collection. That's out of all five Commander Precons here, as it has never been reprinted since its first appearance in March of the Machine. Joining the valuable team -up card is the $14 Witch's Clinic, a valuable tool for providing life gain without color restriction, and the perpetually $10 Birds of Paradise. But the value doesn't stop there. From the $7 Arachnogenesis to the $5 Carnage Tyrant to even a $1
13:34 Llanowar Tribe, there's value all throughout this deck. As such, a full 33 cards in Tramplosaurus Rex are worth a dollar or more, a third of the overall list. From the $7 Arachnogenesis to the... Even putting aside the significant green outlier, all five decks contain more reprint value than you'd expect an introductory product to contain, which is awesome. Credit where credit is. due. And yet, as nice as it is to know you're getting your money's worth financially when you pick up a Foundation's Commander deck, that is not the point of this product. This product exists to be played, not to be bought as some kind of stock option. And that's doubly true when the product is designed as an introductory one for new players, or at least players new to Commander.
14:23 So how well do these Foundation Commander decks or at least players new to Commander. So how well do the actually play? Are they designed well for new players to pick up and learn Magic's most popular format? And do they have any appeal for established players? Let's take a look at gameplay and deck construction. I will discuss each deck individually in just a moment, but first I want to say that all five Foundation's Commander decks are remarkably focused by pre -con standards. Virtually every card in every list is there to serve the theme of the deck. Angels for white, artifacts for blue, zombies for black, dragons, and treasure for red, and big creatures for green. And while the deck themes are simple and easy to grasp, they're not boring either. Angels, dragons, zombies, artifacts, and dinosaurs are among the most
15:14 popular themes in all of Commander among new and experienced players alike. Nothing is being dumbed down for a first -time Magic player. The game plans are certainly straightforward. It's clear what your deck is trying to do just by looking at your opening hand. But there are also subtle synergies and intermediate level -ups available to be discovered the more you play with the same deck. They also complement each other very well. Games that we played in -house were tons of fun, despite all of us having plenty of experience playing Commander at high power levels. and plenty of experience playing commander at high power levels. The result here is a set of decks that are accessible yet engaging that teach you how to play them while you play them and makes you excited to shuffle up and play them again. Calling All
15:59 Angels is a mono -white angels kindred deck. The deck is helmed by the powerful angel commander Giada, Font of Hope, a two -mana mana dork that provides a power buff to your angels that scales well into the late game. The curve on Calling All Angels is among the highest of the five decks, but having a potent mana dork to cast on turn two every game helps mitigate this issue considerably. A common play pattern with Calling All Angels will be casting Gyatta on turn two, and then a four mana Angel on turn three. From there, you'll be off to the races. Just four of the 33 creatures in the 99 are not Angels, and all four of those still directly synergize with your game plan. The rest of the list is packed with interaction, card advantage, and additional mana ramp to complement Iyata. The next removal
16:46 suite is capable of interacting with any permanent type, giving you plenty of tools to control the flow of the game. Between the density of removal, the consistent access to early mana acceleration, and a highly potent endgame of big evasive flyers, backed up with plenty of graveyard recursion, And calling all angels is one of the most powerful of the five decks right out of the box. and calling all angels is one of the most powerful of the five decks right out of the game. It's also among the simplest to pilot successfully, making the deck one of the best suited for teaching a new player the game. More established players, though, may find the game plan a little too one note to enjoy more than a couple of games with. Keen Engineering is a mono -blue artifacts deck looking to flood the board with Thopter tokens that play well on both offense and defense, depending on what you need in the moment. The deck's commander, Psy, Master Thopterus, is both a board presence The deck's commander, Psy,
17:33 Master Thopter, engine and a means of drawing extra cards once you have artifact fodder to sacrifice. In my evaluation, this deck is probably the least focused of the five. Yes, every creature in the deck is either an artifact or cares about artifacts, but unlike the other decks that are capable of assembling an overwhelming board, the blue deck's endgame looks rather flimsy. This lackluster board presence is certainly not helped by the relative lack of removal in the blue deck. Aside from the pair of two -mana counterspells, most of the removal in the list is over -costed and underpowered. That's not to say that this deck has no merits. No other deck of the five can keep up with Keen Engineering's card draw. Keen Engineering pilots will also benefit from being difficult to attack, thanks to the never -ending stream of chump -blocking Thopters and the
18:21 inclusion of Propaganda, as well as cards like Aetherize and Misleading Signpost, which can control the flow of combat. rise and misleading signpost which can control the flow of combat all in all keen engineering is the least well -suited of the five to introduce a new player to commander but the deck has enough going for it that it can still provide a fun play experience to a more seasoned pilot wretched ranks is a mono black zombies kindred deck with a graveyard recursion sub theme the commander ghoul call agisa is a five mana sack outlet that translates big creatures into wide board presence wideboard presence. Though she's expensive and rather slow, Gisa is incredibly powerful when though she's expensive and rather slow he says she gets going. It's not uncommon for her to spit out upwards of five or six zombies with every activation. And in the meantime, the rest of the deck is well -suited to keep you alive until she's online. With a low curve featuring four excellent one -mana zombies, plenty of removal
19:11 and life gain, and a lot of card draw to keep your hands stocked with gas, this deck is a massive threat at the table from the very beginning of the game. That's not to say the deck doesn't have weaknesses. There are zero flyers or reach weaknesses. There are creatures in the deck list, meaning the white, blue, and red decks will all have clear skies to attack you in the air. And because of the aforementioned strengths of the deck, you're sure to have a target on your back from the start of the game. Still, with as much life gain that this deck has access to, you shouldn't have too much trouble keeping yourself in the running. Not only is Wretched Ranks powerful, but it is fairly straightforward to pilot. This is an excellent choice for new players and experienced ones alike. This is an excellent choice for new players and experience. Reign of Dragons is a mono -red dragons deck with a treasure sub -theme. The
19:57 deck's headliner is Laughless, Dragon Queen, an exceptionally explosive 6 -mana flyer that adds an additional 5 -5 dragon token to your board whenever a non -token dragon swoops in. As if the extra dragons weren't enough, she also provides a repeatable mass fire -breathing effect for 2 -mana. heatable mass fire -breathing effect for two mana. Reign of Dragons is a surprise - Reign of Dragons is a surprisingly dynamic deck considering its simple game plan. What's more, your removal suite is well -suited to keep your opponent's boards under control, thanks in large part to a whopping seven sweepers throughout the list. And with the many haste -granters throughout the list, you are capable of killing your opponents out of nowhere. The only downside to Reign of Dragons is that high curve, which makes you highly reliant on drawing your early mana producers. You have no two -mana dork in the command zone like Gyatta. What you have instead You have no two -mana dork in the command zone like Yotta. is 14 total mana
20:44 producers and cost reducers at a three -mana CMC or less. But if you don't find one in the first couple of turns, or another player rudely removes your mana producer, you'll find yourself falling behind quickly. All in all, this is a great deck with plenty of tools to compete against the other four foundations decks, and this is also one of the decks best suited to keep up in a pod against other non -introductory precons. Tramplosaurus against other non -introductory pre -cons. Tramplosaurus Rex is a mono -green dinosaur's pre -con, though really it's more of a generic green stumpy pre -con. Yes, the Commander Galta is a massive green dinosaur, but there's just 10 other dinosaurs. In lieu of a dino -centric game plan, the deck focuses instead on power matters synergies. 20 total creatures in the list have at least 4 power, and several more
21:31 have at least 3. To help accelerate out all these big boys, To accelerate out all these big boys, Tramplesaurus Rex includes a ton of cheap mana dorks, and I highly recommend that you mulligan any hand that doesn't contain at least one of these while piloting this deck. Tramplosaurus Rex includes a ton The curve on this deck is high, but it's still on par with that of the white and red deck. Considering the deck has a lot more in the way of turn 1 and 2 mana acceleration, this translates to Tramplesaurus Rex getting out the gate a full turn or two faster than its white or red counterparts. Your biggest weakness of this deck is its linear game plan. You're not doing much. Your biggest weakness of this deck is its linear game plan. You're not doing much besides putting creatures into play and then turning them sideways. Though you do have a smattering of targeted interaction, as well as the powerful, sweeper -like Azuri's Predation. All in all, Tramplesaurus Rex is a solid
22:16 deck. Certainly it's well -suited for new players. It does have less to offer more experienced players, unless of course those more experienced players just happen to really, really love stompy decks. But regardless of which of these five you pick up, the gameplay these decks provide, Regardless of which of these five you pick up, the gameplay these decks offer is engaging enough to appeal to players of all experience levels. This is certainly a great product for teaching a friend commander, but the full set of decks also makes for a great all -in -one product for a playgroup that already knows how to play commander. Honestly, I'm excited to just keep our set of the five decks in the office as a battle box anytime folks are in the mood to jam some fun lower power commander games. That all being said, I am still extremely frustrated our commander games. That all being said, I am still extremely frustrated by how hard it is to find these decks for their MSRP. Even a $5 to $10 markup
23:02 on an introductory product like this is bad feels, but a $15 and up markup for something like the Angels or Dinosaurs Precon is ridiculous. Yes, these are well -made decks, and yes, they do have a lot of value in them, but please, please do not buy them at a 50 % markup. If you can't find them at MSRP right now, then wait to pick them up until future print runs bring their secondary market price back down to earth. After all, we waited two years to get these precons for Magic Foundations. You can wait another couple of months to hopefully buy them at or maybe even below MSRP. Final conclusion, the Foundations Commander decks are well -built, fun to play, and full of
23:48 a surprisingly high amount of value given their msrp they are extremely well balanced for shuffling up and playing against one another and they're even strong enough to hold their own at a table with other more advanced pre -cons with perhaps the exception of keen engineering the decks are simple enough for new players to pick up and get a hang of quickly what's more the gameplay they offer is engaging enough to appeal to players of all experienced levels assuming of course that you can find these foundation decks at msrp i strongly You can find these Foundation decks at MSRP. I strongly feel they are the best introductory magic product we've seen in years, while simultaneously being an amazing product for established Commander players who are looking for everything from valuable reprints to just a cool new Commander deck to take apart or possibly upgrade. Even with
24:34 my reservations about the Keen Engineering deck, I'm giving these Foundation's Commander Precons an A +, a grade I almost never give to anything, which I hope can... A grade I almost never give to anything, which I hope conveys the amazing quality of this product. But it is contingent upon these being available for MSRP. At $29 .99, these are an A+. One of the best products Magic the Gathering has offered in quite some time. Contingent on that $29 .99. I hope very much this video has been of some help to you. Remember, we're doing our biggest Magic the Gathering giveaway ever. 30 collector booster boxes for the whatnot card show that's 10 collector 30 collector booster boxes for the one. booster boxes of secrets of strix haven 10 collector booster boxes of reality fracture and 10 collector booster boxes
25:20 of the hobbit and it all starts thursday october 15th with the whatnot card show and we're doing thursday we're doing friday we're doing saturday 3 p .m pacific each day giving away a total of 30 collector booster boxes on whatnot i hope very much you join me for one or maybe even two or maybe even three of these days of epic join me for one or maybe even two or maybe even giveaways and I'm going to give each and every person a $15 credit when they create a brand new account by going to www .whatnut .com forward slash invite forward slash Tolarian College that's $15 to spend in my store or any store during this epic epic card show weekend it's going on all weekend but I'm doing three days of streaming Thursday Friday Saturday October 15th 16th, and 17th at 3 p .m. Pacific
26:05 each day and we're giving away 30 collector booster boxes. It's the biggest giveaway ever and I hope very much to see you there and thank you, Whatnot, for making this all happen. time on Shuffle Up and Play. What's up? It's Shuffle Up and Play and today we are playing Betrayal at Tolarian Community College. Commander Betrayal. We are going to explore Tolarian Community College. The Laboratory. The Dragon's Horde. The Cafeteria. The Forbidden Library. It's forbidden for a reason. Bring my commander in play.
26:56 Sephiroth fallen heroes all these bears mumbling reunion. Do players sometimes do things DMs don't expect not once especially in the alley Sephiroth Fallen Heroes. All these bears mumbling reunions. Kill kill kill don't actually do that though Just a suggestion. Not even a suggestion. It's a it's a colloquial phrase. It'll just give you all of your hopes and dreams It's the solution to all your problems. I'm gonna keep exploring this chill with you
