While MTG Star Trek spoiler season started a week ago, the most exciting reveals for Commander players began this week. After We Are the Borg hit the scene yesterday, the second Star Trek Commander Precon, Federation Fleet, has now officially been revealed.
With at least 30 new MTG cards and some powerful reprints, there’s a lot to talk about. Here, we’ll highlight what we think are the best new cards in Federation Fleet, along with the deck’s strongest reprints. Sadly, however, while the deck itself looks fun to play, the individual cards look somewhat lackluster.
Powerful Draw-Two Payoffs
With Jean-Luc Picard, Luminary giving you an enabler in the command zone, Federation Fleet focuses on the Seek out mechanic, which rewards you for drawing your second card each turn. While there are a fair few new payoffs for this, Rom and Leeta, Unlikely Pair seems like the strongest.
After setting up an engine using cards like Howling Mine
Howling MineAt the beginning of each player's draw step, if this artifact is untapped, that player draws an additional card. and Faerie Mastermind or King T’Challa, it’s actually quite easy to draw two cards every turn. With this setup, Rom and Leeta create eight Treasure tokens per turn rotation, an absolutely obscene amount of mana. Sadly, while this card may look exciting for Treasure Typal decks, it probably isn’t worth running unless you can trigger Rom and Leeta at least twice per turn cycle.
The same is true for Data, Exploring Humanity, who can cast a fair few free spells so long as you can continually trigger Seek out. Even if Data just Discovers 4 twice, you’ve already reaped decent value from this creature, making it an interesting addition for Commanders like Ms. Bumbleflower.
If you’re looking to pull off some Commander-copying shenanigans in your draw-two decks, Reg Barclay, Fidgety Fanatasist can set up some explosive plays. The card shines with Commanders that have ETB triggers, like Kefka, Court Mage, since you can create up to four temporary copies per turn rotation. If you want to make these tokens permanent, The Master, Multiplied can prevent you from sacrificing your tokens, while end-of-turn effects like Sundial of the Infinite can do the same.
Frankly, however, if you aren’t interested in building a Seek out deck, Federation Fleet’s individual cards are actually rather poor. Even the Spacecraft in this deck are overcosted for what they offer, which is rather disappointing considering the precon’s name. Jean-Luc Picard, Luminary does a lot of heavy lifting to make these cards better, but in my opinion, the fact that these Spacecraft need additional support to perform at a subpar level makes them a failure.
Despite the disappointing Spacecraft, there are a few individual singles that MTG Commander players may want to pick up. This is especially true for On the Shoulders of Giants, which is the clear highlight for Federation Fleet.
MTG On the Shoulders of Giants
On the Shoulders of Giants is, in my opinion, the strongest new card in the Federation Fleet precon, functioning as an easy upgrade to all kinds of different decks. Whether you’re running Legendary Typal with Jodah, the Unifier, Sagas with Tom Bombadil, or Artifacts with Urza, Chief Artificer, On the Shoulders of Giants seems great everywhere. Heck, you may even want to buy this card as an upgrade to the recently revealed We Are the Borg Precon.
While these are the best homes for On the Shoulders of Giants, this card could, frankly, see play alongside any Commander that wants to consistently connect with your opponent. Since Legendary Creatures are considered Historic, Commanders like Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow or Edric, Spymaster of Trest could consider including this card, too. Even Vehicles can get in on the fun, making this fantastic in Edward Kenway decks.
The number of homes On the Shoulders of Giants has is absolutely staggering, so there’s potential for massive demand. Of all the singles to pick up from this precon, On the Shoulders of Giants is the one you won’t want to miss.
MTG Unification
Of all the individual cards in Federation Fleet, Unification might be the most interesting. The first mode offers plenty of flexibility, removing a problematic permanent from play or letting you draw two cards in an emergency. The really exciting bit of this Saga, however, is definitely Unification’s second chapter.
Before MTG Star Trek, Unification had nothing super exciting to cheat in, but Deep Space 9
Deep Space 9When Deep Space 9 enters and at the beginning of your upkeep, exile the top four cards of your library. Put all permanent cards exiled this way onto the battlefield.
Station (Tap another creature you control: Put charge counters equal to its power on this Spacecraft. Station only as a sorcery.)
9+ | Creatures you control get +3/+3. is now an absolutely incredible target. While getting this exact combination of cards will likely require some tutoring, you can also cheat in other decent spacecraft, like Extinguisher Battleship
Extinguisher BattleshipWhen this Spacecraft enters, destroy target noncreature permanent. Then this Spacecraft deals 4 damage to each creature.
Station (Tap another creature you control: Put charge counters equal to its power on this Spacecraft. Station only as a sorcery. It's an artifact creature at 5+.)
5+ | Flying, trample.
Rounding things out, Unification also offers you some card draw, making it a decent option for a Commander deck with a slower game plan. It won’t be for every MTG deck, but Spacecraft and political decks will love running this card.
MTG Federation Fleet Reprints
Fortunately, while most of the new Federation Fleet cards leave something to be desired, a few reprints stand out. Ironically, most of them are in the manabase, as Federation Fleet offers a surprisingly strong one.
The most expensive reprint in the entire precon, Training Center generally always enters untapped in Commander, since you’ll have more than one opponent. Since this makes Training Center essentially an untapped land in Commander, it’s no wonder this card is worth $18 on the secondary market.
Accompanying Training Center is a bunch of strong utility lands in Federation Fleet’s manabase. Command Beacon, for example, essentially offers a one-time pass on command tax, recurrable with cards like Crucible of Worlds. The land has surprisingly few reprints considering it’s a Commander land, giving it an $8.50 reprint value. Reliquary Tower can also be found in this deck as an apt draw-two synergy piece, offering a $5 reprint value.
Moving on to nonland cards, Alhammarret’s Archive is the most expensive reprint here, coming in at about $10. This is yet another incredible card for a draw-two deck, allowing you to get tons of Seek out triggers on your opponent’s turns. To help you do that, Loran of the Third Path
Loran of the Third PathVigilance
When Loran enters, destroy up to one target artifact or enchantment.
{T}: You and target opponent each draw a card. can draw a card in a pinch and destroy artifacts and enchantments for $5. To further support your draw-two triggers, Howling MineHowling MineAt the beginning of each player's draw step, if this artifact is untapped, that player draws an additional card. appears here as another $5 reprint.
Finally, offering some incredible Q artwork, Cryptic Command is the last $5 reprint in Federation Fleet, acting as a sort of Swiss-Army Knife. You can fulfill your Seek out trigger with this card, prevent an opposing alpha strike, or counter a spell. This card was far more popular in the past, but Cryptic Command still offers some decent value here.
While these reprints do seem disappointing, and they are, to an extent, it’s important to remember that Federation Fleet has way more new cards than Commander precons usually do. That leaves less room for reprints, but since we’re getting more new MTG cards, the trade still seems worthwhile.
All in all, while Federation Fleet doesn’t offer many exciting individual singles, the game plan seems focused and cohesive, suggesting this deck will play well out of the box. With lots of classic control bangers like Supreme Verdict among the reprints, too, this deck should be a hoot for anyone who likes a sort of midrange, draw-tons-of-cards strategy.
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