The Baldur’s Gate Commander preconstructed decks are all great. Filled with lots of flavorful inclusions and packing just enough power to be worth your time, the precons play perfectly out of the box! However, each precon can stand to see some additional upgrades, and I want to walk you through the pieces I most thoroughly recommend adding, as well as the cards that are best to cut from the initial deck lists.
There are a couple of things to keep in mind as I go through these lists. First, my recommendations are assuming you’re using the face commander of the deck. Second, unless they have key synergy with the deck, I will largely be ignoring “staple” inclusions (yes, if the deck is white, you should probably run Smothering Tithe etc.) and lands. With that in mind, let’s party up and get into it!
Additions:
First is the Party Time precon built around the party mechanic. The deck is already solid but could use a few more ways to help consistently enable Party so the commander can reliably pop off. To that end, we add Nullpriest of Oblivion, Body Launderer and Tenacious Underdog as ways to get bodies on the board and keep them there.
Archivist of Oghma, Drannith Magistrate and Opposition Agent are all powerhouse cards that take up party slots, while Oketra’s Monument smooths things over while letting you tick Warrior off the checklist. Nameless Inversion can be cast off the top and will occasionally crush an opposing tribal ability, Hidden Dragonslayer removes a problem while adding a Warrior, and Coveted Prize is a fun tutor that otherwise doesn’t have a home.
Cuts:
The cuts for this deck are largely self-explanatory, removing some low-impact or clunky removal and early drops, plus some similarly superfluous and inefficient protection. Order of Whiteclay needing to get in and untap is rough, Frontline Medic in my experience is never quite good enough, and the deck often won’t want to be holding up mana for Unbreakable Formation. Finally, we snip out the top of the curve since the deck doesn’t need it, and remove a basic.
Additions:
Next is Exit From Exile, which is just begging for more exile effects and a smoother curve. Birgi, or more accurately her Horn on the back, is a great start for getting lots of Wolves on the board. Speaking of Wolves, I have to fight the urge to make this a hard Wolf-tribal list. That said, Master of the Wild Hunt turns your commander’s canines into removal.
Containment Construct is exceptionally powerful with Faldorn, letting you get more tokens for “free” as you discard to her ability. Urabrask, Heretic Praetor and Tempered in Solitude both efficiently feed you exile fodder, while Violent Outburst helps you get in for lethal once you’ve got a healthy-sized pack on the battlefield. The remaining picks, Rousing Refrain, Audacious Swap, Throes of Chaos, and Chandra are all recursive or efficient exile synergies that are easy to recommend.
Cuts:
The cuts for Exit from Exile are very straightforward. The deck is full of creatures that are largely “just” beaters, which is not really where you want to be here. Lovestruck Beast, Managorger Hydra and Greater Gargadon all get the ax for just being big. Izzet Chemister is too mana hungry for what it gives you and Demon Bolt doesn’t kill enough relevant targets.
Similarly we want to lower the curve a little bit to help the deck play out more smoothly, while also removing any extra pieces that lack synergy. Arasta doesn’t do anything impressive in the list, Hornet Queen is a little too costly despite being a unique effect in this color combination, while both Sandwurm Convergence and Primeval Bounty are just too slow for the value they can generate. With the curve dropped, we can also snip a Forest and move on.
Additions:
While I half joked about making the previous deck into Wolf tribal, Draconic Dissent actually does benefit heavily from leaning into the Dragon tribal that its commander offers. Upgrades start with adding some more ramp and synergy options in the form of Orb of Dragonkind, Dragon Tempest and Dragonspeaker Shaman. Then, some great Dragons to ramp into: Scourge of Valkas, Lathliss and Utvara Hellkite love seeing Dragons hit the board while the Hellkite Courser helps a late-game commander get in for more goading.
With the tribe covered, we can then look at the cards that help with the goad-based mechanics of the deck. Komainu Battle Armor goads a whole board while Illusionist’s Gambit helps you turn combat in whatever direction you want it to go. Similarly, Frontier Warmonger rewards the opposition for swinging elsewhere, which is exactly what you want.
Cuts:
Cuts were easy here, as the deck wants to employ Goad as a way to surgically alter the combat step. Almost all the cards that force everything to attack works against that plan, so we are happy to cut Goblin Spymaster, The Akroan War, Warmonger Hellkite, Angler Turtle and Pursued Whale to ensure that creatures are attacking how and when you want them to.
Similarly, you don’t want the opponent hitting you, so Kazuul in a perfect world never triggers. Worse, Dissipation Field often incentivizes opponents to hit you – they want to use their enters-the-battlefield triggers again! Aether Gale is a fairly weak form of removal for its cost and the planeswalker twins, Rowan and Will Kenrith, have never impressed me for six mana.
Additions:
Mind Flayarrrs does some silly things right out of the box, but it’s at its best when it can be aggressively milling the table to find more targets for N’gathrond to reanimate. Ruin Crab is the poster child for mill, while Bruvac the Grandiloquent, Shadow Kin and Syr Konrad, the Grim all strongly support the mechanic (with Syr Konrad functioning as an alternative win condition in his own right!).
Umbris, Fear Manifest, Phenax, God of Deception and Arvinox, the Mind Flail all similarly support what N’gathrond wants to be doing, while Wrexial plays as an additional payoff. Finally, some noncreature mill sources keep things going with Psychic Corrosion and Altar of the Brood allowing for more surgical milling as the game progresses.
Cuts:
Cuts were a bit harder here, but we start with removing pure beaters and inefficient creatures. Hunted Horror is a lot of power for its cost, but the downside is very real. Plague Spitter may result in an additional mill with the commander out, but it’s just not strong enough and Dross Harvester similarly isn’t big enough to warrant his downside. Nihilith, Dark Hatchling and Dusk Mangler are also decidedly inefficient.
The last few cuts are a bit more controversial. Syphon Mind is fine, but it’s better to be attacking the library than the hand with this deck. Your game plan is active and aggressive, making Leyline of Anticipation’s ability to cast at instant speed less useful than it might be in other decks. Hex is always awkward in my experience, and the curve has been dropped enough that we can safely remove a swamp.
