MTG Fallout Deck May be the Best Voltron Precon Ever!?

Travel with me to the distant past of 1997 when a somewhat obscure game called Fallout hit the shelves. One of the most impactful events in that game was befriending a loyal dog that followed you around and was surprisingly powerful in combat. Unfortunately, it was nearly impossible to keep “Dogmeat” alive through an entire playthrough of the game.

Thankfully, fast forward over 25 years, and Dogmeat has been revived time and time again for almost every Fallout game. Through these repeat appearances and certified good boy status, Dogmeat is undeniably iconic. As if this legacy wasn’t enough, now Dogmeat lives on in the new Scrappy Survivors Fallout pre-con deck.

Not only does this deck have an adorable face Commander, but it also appears to boast high replay value and a massive variety of build choices!

Two Interesting, But Different Commanders

While Dogmeat, Ever Loyal Dogmeat, Ever Loyal When Dogmeat enters, mill five cards, then return an Aura or Equipment card from your graveyard to your hand.
Whenever a creature you control that's enchanted or equipped attacks, create a Junk token. (It's an artifact with "{T}, Sacrifice this token: Exile the top card of your library. You may play that card this turn. Activate only as a sorcery.") is just one card, they can easily pilot two completely different decks. If you want to, you can pick between an Aura-based strategy, or an Equipment-focused one. On top of this, Dogmeat even creates the new Junk Junk {T}, Sacrifice this artifact: Exile the top card of your library. You may play that card this turn. Activate only as a sorcery. Tokens which provide impulse draw. Since all these abilities work together, Dogmeat, Ever Loyal is a three-in-one!

The fact that Dogmeat triggers the same with either Auras or Equipment means you can include many different cards with no risk of missing the “right” types of cards. In Commander, this utility is invaluable, as cards like Sram, Senior Edificer Sram, Senior Edificer Whenever you cast an Aura, Equipment, or Vehicle spell, draw a card. and Jukai Naturalist Jukai Naturalist Lifelink
Enchantment spells you cast cost {1} less to cast. prove. While both are effective, Jukai Naturalist only really works in one deck, while activating Sram’s ability is a total breeze.

Ultimately, a good card either has to be focused but low cost or have excellent utility and work in a wide variety of situations. Dogmeat crushes the latter and is also cheap to boot! This gives the Commander no end of options should you take them out of this flavorful deck.

In Commander, there are plenty of pre-existing and excellent Aura strategies that look good, but you are not forced into that route at all. Including a few Equipment won’t hurt your synergy, so this is a smart design choice.

But Wait There’s More!

So while Dogmeat is the generalist, Preston Garvey, Minuteman Preston Garvey, Minuteman At the beginning of combat on your turn, create a green Aura enchantment token named Settlement attached to up to one target land you control. It has enchant land and "Enchanted land has '{T}: Add one mana of any color.'"
Whenever Preston Garvey attacks, untap each enchanted permanent you control. is the focused specialist. Preston is all about Auras and even creates Aura tokens on your lands. At first glance, his ability indicates he’s sort of a mini Bear Umbra Bear Umbra Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +2/+2 and has "Whenever this creature attacks, untap all lands you control."
Umbra armor (If enchanted creature would be destroyed, instead remove all damage from it and destroy this Aura.) . But in a deck full of Auras, you’re also going to get to untap all your other enchanted permanents.

If you’re looking for easy acceleration, Bloom Tender Bloom Tender Vivid — {T}: For each color among permanents you control, add one mana of that color. and especially Sanctum Weaver Sanctum Weaver {T}: Add X mana of any one color, where X is the number of enchantments you control. will do incredibly well. Should you get infinite attack steps from Hellkite Charger Hellkite Charger Flying, haste
Whenever this creature attacks, you may pay {5}{R}{R}. If you do, untap all attacking creatures and after this phase, there is an additional combat phase. or Aggravated Assault Aggravated Assault {3}{R}{R}: Untap all creatures you control. After this main phase, there is an additional combat phase followed by an additional main phase. Activate only as a sorcery. , these mana dorks can go infinite! While not as consistent, this strategy is already present in the deck thanks to Grim Reaper’s Sprint Grim Reaper’s Sprint Morbid — This spell costs {3} less to cast if a creature died this turn.
Enchant creature
When this Aura enters, untap each creature you control. If it's your main phase, there is an additional combat phase after this phase.
Enchanted creature gets +2/+2 and has haste. . 

Out of the box, it will be difficult to tell if Preston will be a better Commander than Dogmeat. Once you tune the deck for power Preston may be the more consistent game-ender.

On the Other Hand

As if two compelling Commanders weren’t enough already, this deck even has a third! Unfortunately, thanks to their color identity they don’t work right out of the box, but Cass, Hand of Vengeance Cass, Hand of Vengeance Vigilance
Whenever Cass or another creature you control dies, if it was enchanted or equipped, return any number of Aura cards that were attached to it from your graveyard to the battlefield attached to target creature, then attach any number of Equipment that were attached to it to that creature. is nonetheless busted. If anything you control dies you get back your Auras and Equipment from that creature onto another creature. That’s great!

To make the already stellar Cass even better, this deck includes a reprint of Mantle of the Ancients Mantle of the Ancients Enchant creature you control
When this Aura enters, return any number of target Aura and/or Equipment cards from your graveyard to the battlefield attached to enchanted creature.
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 for each Aura and Equipment attached to it. . This lets you continuously suit up one creature with every single Aura and Equipment, so you always have a monumental threat. Not only does this let you create a gigantic monster of epic proportions but it also gives you recursion.

Should you still not be satisfied, the new card Almost Perfect Almost Perfect Enchant creature
Enchanted creature has base power and toughness 9/10 and has indestructible. gives Indestructible. Thanks to this flavorful addition, getting rid of your new behemoth is going to be incredibly difficult. Unfortunately for your opponent, they have to keep finding answers again and again and again.

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It Goes Tall But What About Wide?

Within the Scrappy Survivors deck, one of your potential wincons is Three Dog, Galaxy News DJ Three Dog, Galaxy News DJ Whenever you attack, you may pay {2} and sacrifice an Aura attached to Three Dog. When you sacrifice an Aura this way, for each other attacking creature you control, create a token that's a copy of that Aura attached to that creature. . Out of the box, this deck features several Auras that grow for each Aura you have in play. Get an All That Glitters All That Glitters Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 for each artifact and/or enchantment you control. or Strong Back Strong Back Enchant creature
Equip abilities you activate that target enchanted creature cost {3} less to activate.
Aura spells you cast that target enchanted creature cost {3} less to cast.
Enchanted creature gets +2/+2 for each Aura and Equipment attached to it. on Three Dog and watch as your board swells in power/toughness.

Before you get to this point, you’ll need to generate a wide board to buff with Three Dog. Thankfully, both Squirrel’s Nest and Preston, are great ways to generate a lot of tokens. Should you really want to lean into this strategy, however, a Doubling Season Doubling Season If an effect would create one or more tokens under your control, it creates twice that many of those tokens instead.
If an effect would put one or more counters on a permanent you control, it puts twice that many of those counters on that permanent instead. wouldn’t be amiss.

At only three mana, you can quite easily get Three Dog out with protection backup to keep them safe. While this deck hardly revolves around this go-wide option, Three Dog is nonetheless capable of ending games.

But Does it Interact?

Over recent years, the general quality of most pre-cons has steadily improved. Most recently and notably, there has been a massive jump in the reprint value of many preconstructed decks. Beyond this detail, the general contents of pre-con decks are simply a lot better than what they used to be.

Nowadays your deck should have board wipes, protection effects, good single-target removal, and a couple of catch-all cards. Scrappy Survivors has all that and some interesting new twists as well. Look at Inventory Management Inventory Management Split second (As long as this spell is on the stack, players can't cast spells or activate abilities that aren't mana abilities.)
For each Aura and Equipment you control, you may attach it to a creature you control. featuring the very rare Split Second keyword.

Using this new card, you can potentially give a creature Indestructible or Hexproof to beat otherwise inescapable removal. Alongside this, you can also toss double-strike and a pile of extra damage on an unblocked creature. Inventory Management is both versatile and uncounterable, it’s a very cool trick that is completely unique.

On top of this brand-new and unique combat trick, Scrappy Survivors also has plenty of staples. With the deck containing both tooltips]Heroic Intervention[/tooltips] and the versatile Valorous Stance Valorous Stance Choose one —
• Target creature gains indestructible until end of turn. (Damage and effects that say "destroy" don't destroy it.)
• Destroy target creature with toughness 4 or greater. you always have the potential for protection. While these effects are undeniably useful, Scrappy Survivors can also do a number on your opponent’s creatures.

Check out Overencumbered Overencumbered Enchant opponent
When this Aura enters, enchanted opponent creates a Clue token, a Food token, and a Junk token.
At the beginning of combat on enchanted opponent's turn, that player may pay {1} for each artifact they control. If they don't, creatures can't attack this combat. . For two mana, you generate a Food, Clue, and Junk token for your opponent, which seems terrible at first. Thankfully, after this, the enchanted opponent cannot attack unless they pay one mana for each Artifact they control. This is a very interesting and powerful take on Propaganda Propaganda Creatures can't attack you unless their controller pays {2} for each creature they control that's attacking you. , Ghostly Prison Ghostly Prison Creatures can't attack you unless their controller pays {2} for each creature they control that's attacking you. , or Sphere of Safety Sphere of Safety Creatures can't attack you or planeswalkers you control unless their controller pays {X} for each of those creatures, where X is the number of enchantments you control. style effects.

From the moment this enchantment lands, you prevent your opponent from attacking unless they pay at least three mana thanks to the tokens you gave them. Luckily, since every Commander deck loves mana rocks, it’s likely Overencumbered could cost five or six mana initially. Unless they’re using Treasures to crack the Clue and Food, this effect will linger for quite a while, making Overencumbered incredibly powerful.

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Land Base, a Waste?

The Fallout pre-cons include brand new filter lands completing a cycle that was first started in Odyssey in 2001. Yes, Sunscorched Divide Sunscorched Divide {1}, {T}: Add {R}{W}. is part of a cycle that started over 20 years ago. The problem? The original filter lands are modest in power, at best.

Forcing you to tap one mana to then activate the land can make every play a bit awkward. The deck also includes Temple of the False God Temple of the False God {T}: Add {C}{C}. Activate only if you control five or more lands. which is a relatively polarizing land. As usual for a Preconstructed Commander deck, there are quite a few lands that enter the battlefield tapped in Scrappy Survivors. Thankfully, it seems like they wanted to include more untapped two-color lands this time around, so Wizards completed the cycle.

Unfortunately, an opening hand with multiple filter lands and/or Temple of the False Gods does not work. You cannot make any mana. It seemed like the land formula for pre-cons was refined, but this seems like another small misstep. This is much like some of the land decisions in the Murders at Karlov Manor pre-cons.

For two-color decks, these filter lands are perfectly acceptable. In a three or more color deck? You can get into many poor situations as keeping one mana open can be impossible. Taking a forced mulligan with multiple lands in your opener, because not one tap for mana, feels pretty bad. That being said all the deck needs to do is be able to consistently turn three Dogmeat.

A Numbers Game

A deck lives and dies by the numbers, except for when you have flexibility. Pip-Boy 3000 Pip-Boy 3000 Whenever equipped creature attacks, choose one —
• Sort Inventory — Draw a card, then discard a card.
• Pick a Perk — Put a +1/+1 counter on that creature.
• Check Map — Untap up to two target lands.
Equip {2} gives you something for all occasions. If you need to dig, it has got that. Want to buff a creature? The deck does that! Need a little more mana? Well, it does that too. What the Pip-Boy does not do, however, is increase your Aura count.

Surprisingly for a deck with Dogmeat, Ever Loyal as its Commander, Scrappy Survivors is a little light on Auras and Equipment. Thankfully, to get around this, Dogmeat can mill you for five. Ideally, this allows you to hit five Aura or Equipment cards and play them, but the odds of that aren’t great. With less than one in five odds, Dogmeat is hardly a guaranteed value engine.

Thanks to the flexibility that Dogmeat provides, the somewhat low count on buff effects is completely manageable. This is thanks to their ability to generate Junk for impulse draw which prevents you from stalling out. Ultimately, this just lets you focus on your gameplan of mill, recur, buff, smash.

At the end of the day, the stock Scrappy Survivors deck may need some tweaks. But the potential to engineer a new Naya Voltron deck with Dogmeat at the helm is very high. Within this archetype, building around two permanent types is significantly liberating. Furthermore, when they destroy in response you don’t auto-lose because you have multiple forms of built-in recursion.

Is this the best Voltron pre-con out of the box? It certainly looks like it. In just a couple of weeks when we get our hands on the deck we’ll try it out.

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