Star Trek releases November 13 and brings with it four Commander Precons with over 120 new cards. We combed through all of those designs to highlight the ones we think might be the ones that age the best.
It can be hard with so many new cards to look through when you’re debating pick up a precon, or whether to skip it and grab singles. Restricting this rundown to the top twenty-five of those new cards was tough, but here are our picks.
TOP 25 NEW CARDS IN THE STAR TREK PRECONS
TRC: WHITE
Dr. Pulaski bring a pretty significant “second draw” trigger for lifegain decks: gaining four life. It might seem a little underwhelming outside of those decks, but considered in the context of just how many token producers and card draw engines you can turn on by gaining four life, you could well find the good Doctor keeps your decks in peak physical condition.
Guinan, Ancient Advisor is a strong counter-generating effect in mono-white, and certainly in white decks that don’t play green. Dropping a counter on each of the potentially huge masses of token creatures you might generate in a turn can seriously up the ante and adding in a little card draw as a treat seals the deal.
Julian Bashir, Frontier Doctor gets bigger when you draw your second card in a turn, sure – but what we’re interested in here is the fact he becomes a three-mana Sun Titan that comes down earlier and has the potential to overtake the board. Not grabbing lands is disappointing, but they’re never putting that on a three drop this side of 2030.
Shuttlecraft Galileo is one of the better Spacecraft in the set, despite looking a bit like a carton of milk. It ages significantly better than milk, though – going from a landfall token generator to a way to jump more or less your whole team. For four mana you can’t really go wrong.
Spot, Felis cactus, is first of all a cute cat – and that gets it a lot of points to a subsection of deckbuilders. Beyond that, anyone who plays a lot of Commander knows that Food is a big archetype these days, from Rocco to Ragost to Frodo and Sam. All are decks that have room (and reason!) for a stray like Spot.
TRC: BLUE
Ambulatory Reactor is an interesting one indeed; a four mana card that comes down and gives all of your artifact creatures the ability to mana-dork, but just for artifact spells and abilities of artifacts. This is nowhere near as restrictive as you’d think, as it’s generally only the odd enchantment or instant or sorcery (usually fewer than 10% of your deck) that won’t meet that criteria. When you also consider activated abilities, the Ambulatory Reactor gets better still. Breya, Etherium Shaper is the obvious one in the ‘zone, but artifact decks do tend to enjoy employing repeatable abilities.
Chief Miles O’Brien is one of the more out-and-out powerful three drops in the precons. He seriously accelerates Spacecraft Commanders (and decks) like Inspirit, the likes of Lady Octopus or Jhoira, Ageless Innovator that use ingenuity counters, getting Shang-Chi to his ten counters, and above else any deck playing a bunch of Saga creatures with Lore counters. That’s a bullseye as far as I’m concerned.
Colossal Clone Master is an intriguing new Clone. While you might be trying to figure out what other creatures like Cold-Eyed Selkie to copy and get bigger triggers from, the keener brewers are already rubbing their hands together at the thought of slotting this one into Gyruda and Helga, Skittish Seer. The Giant typing is pretty nice, but it’s the non-legendary clause that makes it worth picking up.
On the Shoulders of Giants might be one of the best cards of the set, offering a really low-cost win condition for artifacts decks. Jumping the whole team – from Legendary creatures, to Artifact Creatures, to Saga Creatures – for three mana? What a steal.
Optimization Annex does a heck of a lot for two mana. Not every deck uses charge counters, but those that do – including Spacecraft decks or ones that like to try win with Darksteel Reactor – will love adding a fresh two-drop to their list. Lux Cannon, Everflowing Chalice and Spawning Pit get so much stronger here.
UW Flicker decks love getting access to new and efficient flicker effects, and Temporal Tribulation might be one worth considering. It’ll reset two permanents like a Ghostly Flicker, but trades off the ability to steal stuff you have temporary control over for having a Flashback mode. Still, it hits Planeswalkers, and is a great way to protect them in combat.
TRC: BLACK
Not every artifact deck has access to Scourglass or Organic Extinction; those non-white decks that like to play Their Name is Death and Phyrexian Scriptures are going to move Battle of Wolf 359 right up their rankings as a board clear + win condition combo.
Kurn, Son of Mogh is one of the highlights of the Mardu Klingon deck. It’s a much easier to achieve Tymna in quite a few decks, and in others, it can be significantly better – just look at an Isshin, Two Heavens as One deck that can draw up to six cards off of a Kurn trigger. The Deathtouch really makes Kurn a strong choice.
TRC: RED
The new Battlefront attack trigger is a lot more achievable than the old Boros Battalion stuff and gives you a little to get you going. Galvanizing Tenor is a pretty darn strong Goader and can fit right at home in a myriad of aggressive decks that want to control the combat step. Extra combats or a Windcrag Siege turn up the heat.
Ro Laren, Double Agent is one of my most anticipated cards in the set. Drawing two cards in a turn is in vogue right now, especially to trigger a boat load of synergistic effects. Dealing two damage to each opponent for doing what you were already going to do? Why the hell not. She even fuels her own trigger, provided you can pitch a card.
TRC: MULTICOLOR, ARTIFACTS & LANDS
Alexander, Ship’s Fool is a really fun application of the RW card draw ethos – throwing burn damage in there for good measure. This kind of group hug group slug hybrid is casual enough not to have people flip the table but also has some depth if you want to brew around it with untap effects. Overall, a pretty fun little card.
Captain Kirk, Boldly Going can’t be discussed without Starship Enterprise, the Spacecraft he tutors into your hand when he enters or attacks. This little one-two package hearkens back to Kassandra and the Spear of Leonidas, right? It’s halfway to a Partner Commander with it truly being one.
Kirk and his ship are essentially what Damia, Sage of Stone might look like in 2026. A few more hoops, admittedly, but also a bit more reliable and less obviously telegraphed. If you want a great Commander for a “best of” Star Trek deck, look no further than this card draw engine.
Landfall flicker a thing until the next end step is hot, and Chief Kyle, Transporter Tech might be my favorite Commander of the expansion. Landfall in non-green decks is just compelling as a deckbuilding direction. I’m just a little sad it’s not red white, but they can’t get all of the good Flicker Commanders – that’d be greedy.
Collective Override can draw a nice chunk of cards for four mana. What takes this from good to great is the opportunity to also make a boat load of tokens to chump block or crack back with – phenomenal little card.
Commander William Riker is in the sweet spot – three mana for card draw in RW. RW has frequently dipped into caring about opponents drawing cards (just look at Black Widow), and Riker can contribute to that synergy by coming down and repeatedly enable second-draws for you and your opponents.
One, Borg Evolved hits the table and gives you more or less the ability to take out at least one player at the table with such a big mass of keywords. It’s more or less double-strike and unblockable between menace and flying, and the lifelink and vigilance makes it a free attack that also buffers your own life total. Much closer to a Craterhoof than you’d think for artifacts decks.
Pavel Chekov, First Posting is Abundance on a creature. All of the cool things you can do with Abundance combos you can do with this – and getting a second copy for UG/x decks is pretty sweet.
Reg Barclay, Fidgety Fantasist is a really fun Izzet card. When you draw your second card each turn, you get to make a non-legendary token copy of another creature you control until end of turn. That’s seriously strong when you build around it and is just great free value no matter which way you slice it.
Tom Paris, Risk-Taker fills a similar role as One, Borg Evolved – and I’m so happy to see UR decks get access to a combat focused way to close out games for decks that go wide with tokens or lots of artifacts. These decks tend to default to ping or combos, so it’s a great card to see added to the arsenal.
Rounding things out today is Command Chair. It’s a six-mana rock that comes in tapped but can tap for three mana of any one color – or X mana of any one color, with X based on the greatest mana value among Commanders you control. While it won’t pay for the Command Tax of your Ghalta, for instance, it does seriously ramp you if you have a hefty Commander.
END STEP
Star Trek’s four precons come with a ridiculous amount of new cards. These are just a few of the cards we’re eyeing up – did we miss any? Let us know on socials.
Kristen is Card Kingdom’s Head Writer and a member of the Commander Format Panel. Formerly a competitive Pokémon TCG grinder, she has been playing Magic since Shadows Over Innistrad, which in her opinion, was a great set to start with. When she’s not taking names with Equipment and Aggro strategies in Commander, she loves to play any form of Limited.