Just like that, after a solid two weeks of previews, spoiler season for MTG Star Trek has essentially come to a close today. Wizards is leaving things off on a high note, at least, with the reveal of the set’s final MTG Commander precon, Landing Party.
While many players are, understandably, a bit sick of lands as a deck theme, this new Bant precon does at least take things in an interesting direction. It also features one of the best reprint suites we’ve seen in a precon deck in a while, making it worth the wallet even if lands don’t tickle your fancy.
Merciful Mandate MTG
While it feels like a bit of an odd inclusion in Landing Party, given that it doesn’t play into the Landfall and Blink themes at all, Merciful Mandate is probably the most exciting card in the deck. Wizards rarely gives us tools to mess with the phases of each turn, and this one is a doozy, letting you skip a combat phase entirely.
In practice, this is a fancy Fog, shutting down one opponent’s swing turn and leaving them totally defenseless for a turn. It also scrubs the stack clean of spells and abilities, so you can stop Aggravated Assault combos, or combat tricks like Akroma’s Will.
Seasoned players will probably recognize this effect from the similarly-named Mandate of Peace, but Merciful Mandate is almost certainly the better card. Trading a niche Silence effect for a full board untap is a fantastic deal, giving you extra uses of your blockers and mana dorks at an absolute minimum.
If you’re game for some shenanigans, Merciful Mandate’s untap effect also lets you pull off some funky infinite combos with Isochron Scepter. Provided you can make a creature version of Scepter with something like Ultron, Artificial Malevolence
Ultron, Artificial MalevolenceWhenever another nontoken artifact you control enters, you may pay {2}. If you do, create a token that's a copy of it. If the token isn't a creature, it becomes a 2/2 Robot Villain creature in addition to its other types., you can skip each opponent’s combat phase with this and a couple of mana dorks.
While it’s unlikely to be a game changer in the literal sense, Merciful Mandate definitely feels like one figuratively. With this in tow, white decks now have much more scope to screw with big swing turns, cementing the Commander hot streak they’ve been on this past year.
Sam Kirk, Xenoanthropologist MTG
If I’ve learned anything from the recent rise in cEDH content, it’s that cards that reward you whenever your opponents take actions are extremely good. Sam Kirk does just that, rewarding you with a fat stack of Clues as the rest of the pod deploys their various creatures.
This will probably trigger less often than its noncreature cousins like Mystic Remora in high brackets, but it’ll be even better in bracket three and below. With lots of creature-centric decks in lower brackets, Sam Kirk will give a lot of Clues to work with.
In a vacuum, this isn’t hugely exciting, as it’s kind of just overcosted draw, but Clue Tokens have other perks. Clues can make your Thought Monitors cost less, tap to cast spells with Inspiring Statuary, and even serve as sacrifice fodder for engines like The Technodrome. Don’t even get me started on its synergy with Fateful Discovery, which literally turns your Clues into free card draw.
Otherwise, Sam Kirk is also just great at stacking up a ton of cardboard for scaling cards like Mendicant Core, Guidelight
Mendicant Core, GuidelightMendicant Core's power is equal to the number of artifacts you control.
Start your engines! (If you have no speed, it starts at 1. It increases once on each of your turns when an opponent loses life. Max speed is 4.)
Max speed — Whenever you cast an artifact spell, you may pay {1}. If you do, copy it. (The copy becomes a token.) and Urza’s Saga
Urza’s Saga(As this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter. Sacrifice after III.)
I — This Saga gains "{T}: Add {C}."
II — This Saga gains "{2}, {T}: Create a 0/0 colorless Construct artifact creature token with 'This token gets +1/+1 for each artifact you control.'"
III — Search your library for an artifact card with mana cost {0} or {1}, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle. tokens. In short, Sam Kirk is just a good addition to a bunch of lower bracket artifact decks, so expect to see a lot of it there.
Pavel Chekov, First Posting MTG
For those who have been following Magic since the ’90s, Pavel Chekov is a real throwback for the books. This is, essentially, a new version of 1998’s Abundance, but this time attached to a Simic creature instead of a Mono-Green enchantment.
This means that Pavel is a fantastic way to smooth out your draws, guaranteeing you either action or land drops as needed. It goes particularly hard with burst draw effects like Brainstorm for maximum selection, and Sylvan Library for two free, sculpted draws each turn.
Some combo lines are even possible, most notably dropping Cultivator Colossus to put every land from your deck into play. In most cases this won’t win you the game on the spot, but it can generate a ton of value with cards like Field of the Dead.
Unlike Abundance, Pavel is a legendary creature, allowing you to run him in the command zone, which is great for setting up combos. You can also tutor it up out of the 99 with ease, with everything from Neoform
NeoformAs an additional cost to cast this spell, sacrifice a creature.
Search your library for a creature card with mana value equal to 1 plus the sacrificed creature's mana value, put that card onto the battlefield with an additional +1/+1 counter on it, then shuffle. to Formidable Speaker.
Solid Blink Support
It turns out the title ‘Landing Party’ actually has a sneaky double meaning, referring not just to the many Landfall synergies in the deck, but also to your creatures landing in play. The latter part is represented in the deck’s sizable suite of new blink cards, many of which look destined for success in many brews.
Balance of Terror is the big highlight here, giving you some ever-useful artifact and enchantment removal on top of two blinks for any permanents. Sadly these are end-of-turn blinks, which prevents any kind of combo shenanigans: a theme we’ll see with the rest of the blink cards here.
Temporal Tribulation is another very solid card in this lineup, being a more flexible Ghostly Flicker that trades immediate blink returns for Flashback. While this is a bit of a bummer downside, you can still pull off infinite turn combos with this and cards like Mystic Sanctuary and Archaeomancer
ArchaeomancerWhen this creature enters, return target instant or sorcery card from your graveyard to your hand..
Last but by no means least, The Guardian of Forever is one of the most unique blink cards we’ve ever seen, arguably so unique that it’s not a blink card at all. For a steep four-mana investment, this sacrifices a creature of your choice, then brings it back at end of turn, letting you recycle both its enters and dies triggers. This is better than traditional blink in graveyard decks and with bangers like Solemn Simulacrum, and it can even create some pseudo-combos with Mana Echoes, too.
Best Reprints
In addition to some new-to-mtg bangers, Landing Party has some killer reprints. You’re getting an absolutely stacked lineup here, headlined by Exploration
ExplorationYou may play an additional land on each of your turns., a $32 Commander Landfall staple that also sees a ton of play in Legacy and Premodern.
It’s rare to see a card this pricey in a precon, and it’s supported nicely by Ancient Greenwarden at $13 and Guardian Project at $12. Add in classic Battlebond land Sea of Clouds
Sea of CloudsThis land enters tapped unless you have two or more opponents.
{T}: Add {W} or {U}. at $20, and powerhouse Timetwister
TimetwisterEach player shuffles their hand and graveyard into their library, then draws seven cards. (Then put Timetwister into its owner's graveyard.) retrain Echo of Eons at $10, and there’s at least $87 in high-end reprint value here.
This doesn’t even factor in the many valuable sub-$10 cards on this list, like Lotus Cobra
Lotus CobraLandfall — Whenever a land you control enters, add one mana of any color. at $6 and Mutavault
Mutavault{T}: Add {C}.
{1}: This land becomes a 2/2 creature with all creature types until end of turn. It's still a land. at $4. For bang for your buck, this is probably the strongest Star Trek precon at a base level, especially if you can find it at its $74.99 MSRP.
Overall, for both new cards and reprints, Landing Party feels like one of the better MTG Star Trek Commander precons out of the box. While I’m personally more drawn to Klingon Fury’s aggressive playstyle, it’s hard to deny the appeal of blinking your high-value face Commanders and drowning your opponents in Landfall triggers.
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