This past week we received the full decklists for the upcoming Universes Beyond: Fallout Commander decks. These decks are the focal point of the latest Universes Beyond release for Magic the Gathering and hit our shelves here at Owl Central Games on March 8th.
Now, I am a big Fallout fan, so when this collaborative crossover was first announced back in 2023, I was extremely excited to see what Wizards had cooked up. This release was first teased back during the fresh hype of the Lord of the Rings crossover set. Due to that set’s resounding success, I had high expectations for what these Commander decks could be.
If you are looking for the TL;DR, it’s rather simple. I believe Wizards of the Coast have hit these preconstructed Commander decks out of the park. But which deck is right for you? That’s what I hope to cover for here. Let’s talk about the Universes Beyond: Fallout Commander decks, their themes, and mechanics.
General
Before I dive into each individual Commander deck, I want to start with a broad overview. There are a few overarching observations that can be made about all four decks. Rather than repeat myself over and over (and over), I thought I’d talk about these first and get them out of the way.
Let’s start with the aspect of Commander precons that everyone tends to have an opinion about; the manabase. The Universes Beyond: Fallout Commander decks all have a straightforward manabase. Each deck is three colors, so each deck has almost the exact same style of land reprints. We have scrylands, we have checklands, we have the usual Commander utility lands.
The most interesting new addition for these decks is the completion of the Odyssey filter land cycle. This land cycle is well…. not competitively viable. These lands are basically only playable in your non cEDH Commander deck. So while its cool to bookend this unfinished chapter in Magic’s mana options, it’s not blowing my socks off.
Let’s be fair to these manabases though. These combinations of multicolored lands are great for making these decks function in their out-of-the-box forms. Could these decks be better with things like shocks, fetches, and a triome? Yes. Do they need these things? That’s up to you to make that call for yourself based on the power of the players you’ll be enjoying these decks with.
Since we talked about land reprints, I’m also going to touch on nonland reprints. All four Universes Beyond: Fallout Commander decks have a similar reprint strategy to them. Most have nearly all their nonland reprints in artifacts, enchantments, and other noncreature spells. I’m pretty happy with this decision.
The universe of Fallout is a diverse one, with the nuclear wasteland serving as a perfect setting for unique and memorable characters. It would have been a shame to have a bunch of creature reprints that prevented iconic and cult classic characters alike from making their well-deserved appearance in this set.
That covers the major similarities between the decklists for the Fallout Commander decks. Now let’s go deck by deck and showcase what each one has to offer.
Science!
Let’s start with the last of the Fallout Commander decklists to be spoiled; Science! Science is a Jeskai-colored Commander deck centered around artifacts and energy. Energy is a great choice of mechanic for this deck, as Fallout’s 1950s Americana nuclear power thematically aligns with the aethereal power that was first introduced in Kaladesh. I would even go as far to say that energy feels more at home here than in its original aether-punk home.
The Commanders for Science! are both very energy based but offer differing playstyles for different players. Dr. Madison Li is a great option for the Johnnys out there that want to tinker and chain together their artifacts. Liberty Prime, Recharged on the other hand, is the deck slimmed down to its most voltron strategy possible.
Beyond the Commanders, this deck has a ton of interesting new cards for the ever-popular artifact strategies. One of the notable ones to me is Nick Valentine, Private Eye. This card is great alongside either Commander to keep the cards flowing and provide you the resources to generate energy. To see the full decklist, check out the Fallout Commander deck Science! here.
Mutant Menace
The Fallout Mutant Menace decklist was one of our most anticipated Commander decks from this set. This Sultai-colored Commander deck introduces a brand new mechanic to Magic: the Gathering, rad counters. Radiation is an obvious part of the game about surviving in the post-nuclear apocalypse world, and I’m glad to see it represented in this crossover. While rad levels lower your stats in the video games, in Magic rad counters slowly wear down your deck by milling you and draining some health. What’s similar in both the games and the Commander deck is that having too much radiation will take you out!
The Commanders for Mutant Menace are some of the coolest Commander options in Universes Beyond: Fallout. The Wise Mothman is a serious contender for being the best flavored Commander of 2024, and we still have most of the year to go! The Mothman also is mechanically very sound as a Commander. Use the Mothman to give your opponents rad counters and then grow your creatures as those rad counters mill their decks.
The Master, Transcendent is the other Commander option, and is great fan service for those who’ve played the original Fallout from 1997. The Master is one of the End Game bosses of the original game, and serves as a referenced antagonist in most of the pre-Fallout 4 games. Much like in the games, he serves as the Commander of your mutant army, bringing your opponent’s creatures in-line under your irradiated banner!
Beyond the rad counters, this deck has many complimentary strategies. You’ll find self-mill, proliferate, +1/+1 counters, and even a Zombie Mutant typal subtheme in this Fallout Commander deck. This deck is definitely a good one for those who love to utilize their graveyard and see more of their deck during the course of a game. Sultai has been proven to be one of the strongest color combinations in Commander, and whether you are adding cards to this deck, or taking out a few key pieces to throw into a current build, this deck has a lot of reasons to be your choice of Fallout Commander deck. To see the full decklist, check out the Fallout Commander deck Mutant Menace here.
Hail, Caesar!
All hail the mighty armies of Caesar’s Legion! Hail, Caesar is the Fallout Commander deck with all the twisted realities of human civilization following the nuclear apocalypse. Led by dictators, tyrants, or military generals, this deck is full of ways to build your army of humans to fight against the other factions of the nuclear wasteland. Beyond going wide with human tokens, this deck makes a ton of other tokens too. If you play this deck, be ready to make room on your playmat, because you’ll need every inch of space available.
The Commanders for Hail, Caesar are two of my favorite “bad guys” from Fallout: New Vegas. The face Commander is of course, Caesar himself. Like Caesar of the Roman Empire, this guy will build your board, but at a cost. Grow your army, draw cards, or deal a ton of damage to your opponent. This is everything I’ve come to expect from a Mardu Commander deck so this Commander is a solid choice.
For a spicier option, look no further than the other Commander option for Hail, Caesar; Mr. House, President and CEO. Mr. House has to be the wildest three-color Legendary creature in this entire release. Mechanically, he represents his video game counterpart perfectly. Mr. House runs the casinos of the New Vegas strip, so take a gamble with him and see if you can roll big and build up your army of Securitron robots.
Whether you want to play the safer go-wide token strategy or take a greater risk, this deck has plenty of power. One of the things I want to note about this deck is how well minor characters are highlighted as creatures. Whether it’s the Tunnel Snakes leader, Butch DeLoria, or the robot assistant Yes Man, these characters are portrayed so well both in flavor and in mechanics. It’s hard to not love this deck after I’ve played so much Fallout: New Vegas. To see the full decklist, check out the Fallout Commander deck Hail, Caesar here.
Scrappy Survivors
And that brings us to the final of the four Fallout Commander decks: Scrappy Survivors. This deck is as close to representing the player character as we could possibly ask for in Universes Beyond: Fallout. Much like the game, this Naya-colored deck has you searching the wasteland for whatever you can find to help you defend yourself. That means taking a creature and strapping it up with all the auras and equipment you can scavenge.
Speaking of scavenging, the face Commander will certainly help you do that. Dogmeat, Ever Loyal is the goodest boy in the Fallout wasteland. He’s perfect for helping you find the perfect piece of equipment or aura to attach to whoever you are choosing as your protagonist. Preston Garvey, Minuteman is another excellent option as your Commander in this deck too. This deck has a ton of great auras and Preston will help you cast them all by untapping a bunch of lands during your turn. Since he also needs to attack to ramp you further, this makes him an excellent candidate to hold all of your buffs and win with Commander damage.
One of the biggest concerns I had for a deck with a ton of enchantment auras was not losing everything if my creature died. I’m glad to see that this critical flaw has several remedies in this deck. Whether it’s creatures like Cass, Hand of Vengeance or other auras like Mantle of the Ancients, this deck has ways of avoiding getting completely blown out by one removal spell. To see the full decklist, check out the Fallout Commander deck Scrappy Survivors here.
Last Thoughts
All of these Fallout Commander decks look awesome! For me personally, it’s hard to choose which one I’m going to buy because they all seem great. From a gameplay perspective, I love what Mutant Menace, Hail, Caesar, and Scrappy Survivors are doing. While I already have a Mardu humans deck and a Sultai graveyard deck, I don’t have a Naya Commander deck yet. So I’m going with Scrappy Survivors!
Which Fallout Commander deck are you most interested in? Join the conversation in our Discord and share your thoughts about these awesome decks. You can also countdown the days with us until these decks release on March 8th!
