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Magic: The Gathering’s Star Trek set is finally here, closing out a particularly packed release schedule for Wizards of the Coast’s long-running TCG.
Star Trek is the seventh set of the year, and it brings with it another four Commander decks to take this year’s total to 17. Still, as we all know, not all decks are created equal - so which one comes out on top?
The Klingons or the Borg? Picard or Spock? Here’s our ranking.
Before We Begin
If you’re picking up all four decks because you’re a Trekkie, or you just love new precons, Amazon has cut the price of the bundle again to just $224.97, basically offsetting the “Universes Beyond” tax.
That’s not the Collector Editions, though: Those are well over $100 each. They include the same cards, but all in foil.
Ranking Magic’s Star Trek Decks
Federation Fleet
Color Identity: Jeskai (blue, red, white)
Reprints of note: Alhammarret’s Archive
Magic loves to put heroic precons in Jeskai colors, and Federation Fleet is no exception - although it does come last in our ranking.
Its primary Commander, Jean-Luc Picard, Luminary, is a four-cost 2/4 that draws you cards as you play historic permanents, which then triggers the Seek Out mechanic. This lets you charge up a Spacecraft and add a counter to another target creature.
It’s not that it’s not a fun, cohesive deck, but it’s definitely just not as interesting on a mechanical level as the others in this set.
Klingon Fury
Color Identity: Mardu (white, black, red)
Reprints of note: Sword of Light, Shadow and World at War
Worf, Defiant Commander is in charge of the Klingon Fury deck, which makes use of the Battlefront mechanic to encourage players to play aggressively.
Worf creates Klingon Warrior tokens when it hits the battlefield, and the more opponents you attack on your turn, the more cards you exile from the top of your library, which you can play until the end of your next turn.
It’s not quite cheating big creatures into play, but it should mean you’re well-stocked with options as long as you keep Worf around.
Landing Party
Color Identity: Bant (green, white, blue)
Reprints of note: Ancient Greenwarden, Scute Swarm, Exploration, Heroic Intervention
Commander Spock is the logical choice for a Commander in Bant colors, and Wizards of the Coast has made it so here (sorry).
Landing Party’s Strange New Worlds mechanic helps play cards more quickly if you’ve got more differently named lands in the set. Given there are 40 in the deck, that should be easily done, but this deck also gives you a big bundle of non-basic lands in Bant colors if you need them.
Captain Kirk, Boldly Going, is another Commander option. William Shatner himself is a 3/4 with vigilance who powers up your Spacecraft cards. The card can also grab you land cards or the Enterprise from your library or graveyard.
We Are The Borg
Color Identity: Esper (white, blue, black)
Reprints of note: Toxic Deluge, Unwinding Clock, Morphic Pool
Our top pick for the Commander precons in the Star Trek set is We Are The Borg. Standing somewhere between artifact synergies and a “what’s yours is mine” deck, The Borg Queen pumps artifact creatures and also assimilates cards to your side of the battlefield.
Unwinding Clock is a very welcome reprint here since it fits nicely into just about any other artifact strategy, and Locutus of Borg can help you pull even more Borg to the table. It’s a deck that’s likely to get out of hand pretty quickly, and for that reason, it’s our top pick.
For more on Magic: The Gathering, check out some of our favorite Commander decks of all time, as well as the latest on reprints of the sought-after Universes Beyond: Warhammer 40K decks, and the most valuable cards to look out for in the new Star Trek Universes Beyond set.
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