Best Upgrades for MTG’s Buckle Up Commander Precon Deck

Preview Season for Magic: the Gathering‘s newest set, Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, is finally over. The last things previewed are the new Commander Precon decks. We saw yesterday our recommendations for “upgrades” for the “Upgrades Unleashed” deck, and today, we’ll look at the other deck, “Buckle Up”. We’ll break down some awesome upgrades that you can pick up to power up this deck!

The Mana

Upon looking at the deck list, one of the clear stick out things is that there’s SO many basic lands in this deck. There are 30 total basics which is WAY too many. There’s a few great lands that we’d recommend picking up to diversity the mana a bit more, as well as provide great utility.

Right out of the gate, we can diversify our mana by adding in a few dual lands. The price of these lands have come down quite a bit, so it’s a fairly easy pick up. Here’s a few other duals that are pretty inexpensive that you can pick up.

• Deserted Beach Deserted Beach This land enters tapped unless you control two or more other lands.
  {T}: Add {W} or {U}. | Buy on TCGPlayer
• Glacial Fortres | Buy on TCGPlayer
• Adarkar Wastes Adarkar Wastes {T}: Add {C}.
  {T}: Add {W} or {U}. This land deals 1 damage to you. | Buy on TCGPlayer
• Mystic Gate Mystic Gate {T}: Add {C}.
  {W/U}, {T}: Add {W}{W}, {W}{U}, or {U}{U}. | Buy on TCGPlayer
• Hengegate Pathway Hengegate Pathway {T}: Add {W}. | Buy on TCGPlayer

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There’s a few more, but these are the best. Additionally, there’s a few really good utility lands that work very well with this deck.

First up on the list is Academy Ruins Academy Ruins {T}: Add {C}.
{1}{U}, {T}: Put target artifact card from your graveyard on top of your library. . This is great as a way to recur our powerful vehicles from the graveyard. Next is Inventors’ Fair Inventors’ Fair At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control three or more artifacts, you gain 1 life.
{T}: Add {C}.
{4}, {T}, Sacrifice Inventors' Fair: Search your library for an artifact card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle. Activate only if you control three or more artifacts. . This is incidental life gain, but also allows us to fetch up a vehicle from our library. Lastly, Command Beacon Command Beacon {T}: Add {C}.
{T}, Sacrifice this land: Put your commander into your hand from the command zone. is a generally good land, letting us cheat a little bit on commander tax.

Vehicle Upgrades

There’s quite a few vehicles that have been added to the game, and honestly, WotC nailed a bunch of the really good ones. There are a few that I really like, and would definitely recommend picking up.

First up we have Consulate Dreadnought Consulate Dreadnought Crew 6 (Tap any number of creatures you control with total power 6 or more: This Vehicle becomes an artifact creature until end of turn.) . This is a REALLY high power creature, but is held back by it’s high crew cost. In our deck, that’s hardly an issue, as we can cheat on that cost very easily. Next up is The Omenkeel The Omenkeel At the beginning of your upkeep, you may exile Cosima. If you do, it gains "Whenever a land you control enters, if Cosima is exiled, you may put a voyage counter on it. If you don't, return Cosima to the battlefield with X +1/+1 counters on it and draw X cards, where X is the number of voyage counters on it." , or the flip side of Cosima, God of the Voyage Cosima, God of the Voyage At the beginning of your upkeep, you may exile Cosima. If you do, it gains "Whenever a land you control enters, if Cosima is exiled, you may put a voyage counter on it. If you don't, return Cosima to the battlefield with X +1/+1 counters on it and draw X cards, where X is the number of voyage counters on it." . Another cheap vehicle that can steal some of our opponent’s lands, which can be useful.

Lastly, Phyrexian Metamorph Phyrexian Metamorph ({U/P} can be paid with either {U} or 2 life.)
You may have this creature enter as a copy of any artifact or creature on the battlefield, except it's an artifact in addition to its other types. is an honorary vehicle, as it can become any vehicle that we have in play, as well as any creature, which is always a great tool to have at our disposal.

Other Upgrade Consideraions

As always, there’s a bunch of cards that can be changed out for this deck, so we’ll highlight some of the top picks, and list of the rest.

Each of these cards here give us some benefit to the deck. Tezzeret the Seeker Tezzeret the Seeker +1: Untap up to two target artifacts.
−X: Search your library for an artifact card with mana value X or less, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle.
−5: Artifacts you control become artifact creatures with base power and toughness 5/5 until end of turn. lets us untap 2 of our vehicles, allowing them to possibly be crewed to block, but more importantly is another tutor for our vehicles. Darksteel Forge Darksteel Forge Artifacts you control have indestructible. (Effects that say "destroy" don't destroy them. Artifact creatures with indestructible can't be destroyed by damage.) gives our artifacts (and artifact tokens) staying power through board wipes. Lastly Vedalken Orrery Vedalken Orrery You may cast spells as though they had flash. is a great card for any deck, but will allow us to cast spells at instant speed.

Here’s a list of some of the other cards that we considered for this deck.

• Padeem, Consul of Innovation Padeem, Consul of Innovation Artifacts you control have hexproof. (They can't be the targets of spells or abilities your opponents control.)
  At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control the artifact with the greatest mana value or tied for the greatest mana value, draw a card.
• Whir of Invention Whir of Invention Improvise (Your artifacts can help cast this spell. Each artifact you tap after you're done activating mana abilities pays for {1}.)
  Search your library for an artifact card with mana value X or less, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle.
• Enlightened Tutor Enlightened Tutor Search your library for an artifact or enchantment card, reveal it, then shuffle and put that card on top.
• Thought Monitor Thought Monitor Affinity for artifacts (This spell costs {1} less to cast for each artifact you control.)
  Flying
  When this creature enters, draw two cards.
• One With The Machine One With The Machine Draw cards equal to the greatest mana value among artifacts you control.
• Refurbish Refurbish Return target artifact card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
• Rise and Shine Rise and Shine Target noncreature artifact you control becomes a 0/0 artifact creature. Put four +1/+1 counters on each artifact that became a creature this way.
  Overload {4}{U}{U} (You may cast this spell for its overload cost. If you do, change "target" in its text to "each.")
• Wonder Wonder Flying
  As long as this card is in your graveyard and you control an Island, creatures you control have flying.
• Skilled Animator Skilled Animator When this creature enters, target artifact you control becomes an artifact creature with base power and toughness 5/5 for as long as this creature remains on the battlefield.
• Manifold Key Manifold Key {1}, {T}: Untap another target artifact.
  {3}, {T}: Target creature can't be blocked this turn.
• Unwinding Clock Unwinding Clock Untap all artifacts you control during each other player's untap step.

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READ MORE: Vehicles Are About To Become Absurd In Commander

Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty Upgrades

Obviously, since this is a Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty preconstructed deck, you’d want to play some of the cards from the main set in the deck. While there’s a handful of them already here, there’s a few that definitely should make the cut.

Here’s just a few of the highlights for cards we’d recommend for this deck from the main set. While we got a good number of the good vehicles from the main set, Mechtitan Core Mechtitan Core {5}, Exile this Vehicle and four other artifact creatures and/or Vehicles you control: Create Mechtitan, a legendary 10/10 Construct artifact creature token with flying, vigilance, trample, lifelink, and haste that's all colors. When that token leaves the battlefield, return all cards exiled with this Vehicle except this card to the battlefield tapped under their owners' control.
Crew 2 was left out. This is a fantastic boss creatures to really put some hurt on our opponents.

Both Brilliant Restoration Brilliant Restoration Return all artifact and enchantment cards from your graveyard to the battlefield. and Invoke Justice Invoke Justice Return target permanent card from your graveyard to the battlefield, then distribute four +1/+1 counters among any number of creatures and/or Vehicles target player controls. are reanimation spells for our artifacts, which is great for us to get back into a game. Hotshot Mechanic Hotshot Mechanic This creature crews Vehicles as though its power were 2 greater. is a another great way to cheat on crew costs, and can give us a little one-two punch with Consulate Dreadnought. Born to Drive Born to Drive Enchant artifact or creature
As long as enchanted permanent is a creature, it gets +1/+1 for each creature and/or Vehicle you control.
Channel — {2}{W}, Discard this card: Create two 1/1 colorless Pilot creature tokens with "This token crews Vehicles as though its power were 2 greater." is a super interesting card, as it’s a almost like a All That Glitters All That Glitters Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 for each artifact and/or enchantment you control. , which if we’re making a bunch of tokens, can beef up a creature to immense heights.

READ MORE: An OP Aura Tutor In the Command Zone Will Kill Opponents in One Blow

The Buckle Up deck is really sweet, and definitely cool seeing support for an often forgotten archetype. What upgrades would you add to this deck? Let us know in the comments!