It’s a big wasteland out there, unless you’re a cEDH player.
Back to the Wasteland! Universes Beyond: Fallout is here, it’s settled. People have gotten their chance to look closely at the Commander Precons and give their opinions on the effects it will have on the singleton and eternal formats such as Legacy (spoiler, the consensus is not a ton!). While the set may be packed with tons of awesome characters and flavor for a game series that is beloved by gamers all over the world, will the Magic set be up to the task, especially in competitive Commander? Unfortunately, the answer isn’t a whole lot (which is good, in my opinion) but we can talk about that in a bit. Onto the cards!
#5 Radstorm
Radstorm
Universes Beyond: Fallout, Rare
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This pick is definitely the one on my list that is the strangest because I’m pretty sure that (as of now) it doesn’t do anything. I can’t think of a solid shell for Radstorm to go into, I can’t think of another card that it is particularly good with, but I mean, come on. It’s a card that says Storm and Proliferate, it has to do something for us eventually, right?
So, consider this to be a pick to hedge my bets. I don’t think Radstorm will be in any competitive Commander decks this year or next. But I wouldn’t be surprised to see it as part of a winning strategy once they finally give us the outlet to use it to its best. While I can only imagine what it may be, I would have to think this would come alongside a Commander that makes adding Poison counters on your opponents somewhat trivial, allowing you to quickly proliferate them up to ten with Radstorm. Maybe that’s just way too small ball for competitive Commander, I know it is right now. Heck, maybe Radiation counters might even be good enough in cEDH to make a meaningful impact. We’ll have to wait and see what the future brings, but I can totally see Radstorm being a part of it. I’ve avoided making these types of picks in the past, but I’m ready to do it now!
#4 Feral Ghoul
Feral Ghoul
Universes Beyond: Fallout, Rare
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Feral Ghoul is technically strong and technically a combo piece in its own right, but possibly not in the exact way that competitive Commander decks want. Together with Animation Module and then either Phyrexian Altar or Ashnod’s Altar, you can have yourself infinite +1/+1s counters put onto Feral Ghoul, which whenever you decide to stop, can then be transitioned into an-amount-of-your-determination Radiation counters onto your opponents, causing them to all effectively lose the game on their upkeep to both mill and life loss. This is definitely a combo piece that can win the game, but is it good enough? I would postulate no. It’s hard to assemble, needing you to assemble the three pieces, two of which are artifacts and one of which is a three-mana value creature. Oh yeah, you need an extra creature around to start the chain, something that can be shockingly difficult to do in competitive circles. This will win you games but just doesn’t cross the line for me. I’m sure it’ll still beat me, though!
#3 Raul, Trouble Shooter
Raul, Trouble Shooter
Universes Beyond: Fallout, Uncommon
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Everybody! Don’t look now, but we finally have a new Isochron Scepter Commander! Raul, Trouble Shooter is an exciting card to put into the command zone, being affordable at three mana, resistant to damage-based removal thanks to four toughness, and a fun pair of abilities. It doesn’t hurt that his two colors are Dimir, granting you access to what are probably the strongest options in the format. What do those two abilities do? The first one is actually pretty strong — it lets us cast a spell from cards in our graveyard that was milled this turn. We can also do this once per turn. He also has a second ability, tapping to make each player mill a card. An important note here, both for Raul and for a later card on this list, is that he specifically cares about the mechanic mill putting a card into your graveyard. That means you can only cast spells that were milled by the mechanic mill not “milled” through other means that Magic players have colloquially described.
So, if you specifically put a card into your graveyard through the mechanic mill, specifically named as such, not through other ways of milling (gosh, this distinction is hard!), you can cast it with Raul. This is made additionally more confusing by a massive range of Magic cards that have had their rules text errat’d to specifically use the keyword mill, such as Jace, Wielder of Mysteries. Maybe, just check the oracle text for each specific card you want to use, as even the Magic Comprehensive Rules description of the keyword action mill, “To mill several cards, a player puts that many cards from the top of their library into their graveyard,” isn’t that helpful here.
Market Price: $14.43
Market Price: $20.98
I’ll be real, these abilities are pretty okay. Raul is a solid little value engine, especially if you want to mill with a range of cards in your deck. Of course, the once per each of your turn restrictions is pretty rough, hard limiting your potential to once per turn cycle. Where most people have been interested in Raul, however, is he lets you mill out your opponents if you have an Isochron Scepter and Dramatic Reversal combo assembled. This is, again, pretty okay. I’m always looking for an excuse to combo people with a classic selection of cards, even if it has mostly been left in the dust by win conditions like Thassa’s Oracle. Don’t worry, Raul can play that too!
#2 The Wise Mothman
The Wise Mothman
Universes Beyond: Fallout, Mythic
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The Wise Mothman is another in a long line of Legendary Creatures that makes people say, “Wow, that would be pretty good with Food Chain!” And in this case, they once again would be right. If you get your infinite mana loop started with Eternal Scourge (or other enablers) and everybody’s favorite powerful enchantment, you can begin to exile and recast The Wise Mothman from your command zone, giving everybody a ton of Rad counters and then passing around the table to kill or mill them all out, much the same as I’ve referenced before. The problem The Wise Mothman, while technically powerful in this way, is that he doesn’t do much else. Sultai is a difficult color combination, eliminating the color best at tutoring up Food Chain in the first place. Lacking the color Red also cuts off one of the best mana enablers in Squee, the Immortal. It also lacks many other win conditions besides the everpresent Thassa’s Oracle. However, I think the possibilities with Food Chain are enough that you could still give it a shot and create a reasonable deck, and thus, is high on my list!
#1 The Master, Transcendent
The Master, Transcendent
Universes Beyond: Fallout, Mythic
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The Wise Mothman, but better! No, I really mean it. The Master, Transcendent is also a Sultai Food Chain Commander, but he’s got some extra text going on that is incredibly powerful in its own right. If you can get some milling going (see above for what milling means!), you have a side plan of The Master perfectly enabling Reanimator strategies, getting to tap him to put the likes of Razaketh, the Foul Blooded or Hoarding Broodlord onto the battlefield! This additional Reanimator angle lets you play powerful cards you maybe wouldn’t otherwise, including even Protean Hulk (if you can sacrifice it afterward, anyway). Beyond that tidbit, everything I said applies to The Master, along with The Wise Mothman. Sultai is a rough color pairing, and there are potentially better things to be doing with your time – but it does make me feel good that we finally have a defensible Sultai option that isn’t the Thrasios, Triton Hero and Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools partnership.
Market Price: $25.09
A special note about mill — of course, the best card you could think of for this strategy, Hermit Druid, doesn’t work with The Master. As awesome as it would be to dump our entire deck into the graveyard and then make Thassa’s Oracle into a Mutant to win the game, Hermit Druid does not mill, it reveals a lot of cards and then puts specific cards from among them into your graveyard. Stink! Regardless, especially with the lack of strong playables for the ninety-nine, I still hereby declare The Master, Transcendent to be the strongest card from Fallout!
Universes Beyond: Fallout, It’s Not Great, and That’s Okay
Market Price: $76.91
That concludes my quite milquetoast Universes Beyond: Fallout cEDH review. As you can see, there aren’t a whole bunch of exciting competitive card options in this newest set of Commander Precons. But, honestly, that’s okay. Especially as more cards come through the pipeline, a break is appreciated for those who keep up with everything. Also, this set is strong enough on flavor, mechanics, and fun that I don’t think it needs to be pushed that much anyway. It’s cool to have seen Wizards succeed in making a product for Universes Beyond that can lean purely on its intellectual property rather than the strength of its cards to get sales and excitement from players. Here’s hoping that continues to be the norm!