It would be a waste to not use the decks I already have. Let’s check them out.

I have a few of the initial decks that were released by WotC when Commander became a format. I got one deck from Commander 2011 so I could play in the launch event since I had no idea what Commander was and how I was supposed to make a deck. Then in 2013, I got all the decks. I think I probably got them at a good price as a bundle. I created some decks myself but they didn’t last long. After that, I didn’t buy any Commander decks up until a couple years ago. I was gifted the Forces of the Imperium from the Universes Beyond: Warhammer 40.000 and Nicole was gifted the Tyranid Swarm one. That one gift was a catalyst for me to buy more Commander decks.

But I don’t track my decks anywhere and most of the older ones have been dissolved into my collection. Worst of all, I don’t even track my collection. Well, I have started an attempt to track my collection but that’s a conversation for another time.

So I did what any logical human would do and started looking up what preconstructed Commander decks I have or had at some point. Then I made a Moxfield account to start tracking them.

As mentioned above, I theoretically have 1 deck from Commander 2011 and all 5 from Commander 2013. I say theoretically because I have the cards but not in a deck form. These are the decks

• Mirror Mastery. This is my first Commander deck ever. I am surprised I liked this colour combination.
• Power Hungry. I haven’t played this one much, but it has cards I like.
• Mind Seize. I liked this deck a lot but I preferred Nekusar as the Commander.
• Nature of the Beast. I don’t remember playing this deck.
• Evasive Maneuvers. I don’t even remember having this deck.
• Eternal Bargain. Esper is my favourite three-colour combination. While life gain is not a mechanic I adore, the deck still hit the spot for me.

These ones exist in my collection. I am sure I have 100% of the card lists because I don’t tend to trade. But it would take me too much time to find all the cards, and I believe I am using some of them in another Commander deck.

But what about the decks I currently have? Here they are

• Forces of the Imperium. Again, Esper is the best. However, I feel this deck is trying to do too many things at the same time. That, or I have no idea how to pilot this deck.
• Tyranid Swarm. Beefy creatures and lots of counters. A bit slow though.
• Mutant Menace. You get some rads, and you get some rads, everybody gets some rads! Oops, I died from the rads I gave myself. 10/10
• Scrappy Survivors. The turn the dog is on the board, it’s the turn you become a target. Because nobody wants to deal with an unblockable 30/30 dog with hexproof and double strike.
• Eldrazi Incursion. Eldrazi stuff is an archetype on its own. Ulalek takes this to another level. I am still not sure I have fully understood how it works, but it still is fun.
• Mishra’s Burnished Banner. I got this deck during the Christmas holidays, kinda on a whim. It feels a bit hard to pilot but it has grown on me.

These are the preconstructed decks I have at the moment. I have another deck that’s not a precon but I haven’t uploaded it to Moxfield yet. It’s another Esper deck and the Commander is Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign, so you can guess more or less what it does. I’ll talk about it another time. The Fallout Commander decks are the best Universes Beyond decks so far, in my opinion. I missed the Necron one, though, and I’m a bit bummed about it.

Hypothetically, based on what I have, which slots of the challenge can I fill?

• Colourless – None
• Monocoloured – None
• Dualcoloured – None
• Naya – Scrappy Survivors, Nature of the Beast
• Esper – Forces of the Imperium, Eternal Bargain, Yennett Deck
• Grixis – Mishra’s Burnished Banner, Mind Seize
• Jund – Power Hungry
• Bant – Evasive Maneuvers
• Abzan – None
• Temur – Tyranid Swarm, Mirror Mastery
• Jeskai – None
• Mardu – None
• Sultai – Mutant Menace
• Fourcoloured – None
• Five colour – Eldrazi Incursion

That’s not terrible. I can fill in 8 out of the 32 slots if I want to. But the point is to fill them with decks I enjoy playing. Some pass this check but some either don’t or I don’t remember playing them. At least I have a place to start from.

On another note, one thing I wish to gain from this challenge (other than the obvious goal of having 32 decks) is to finally learn the names of the three-colour combinations that are not from Alara. The other thing I will definitely gain is that I will have an organised list of decks online and also my physical connection will probably become a bit more organised as well.

And I think that’s enough for today. Maybe next time I will decide at least how a couple of the slots should be filled.

And until next time, have fun!