PUBLISHER: WIZARDS OF THE COAST | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

The commander format is one of the most fun and popular ways of playing Magic the Gathering. Mostly this is because you can play with more than two players, it allows for a large number of cards to be used in your deck. Magic: The Gathering Commander Legends Arm for Battle is a pre-built deck of a 100 cards intended for this style of play and it’s a pretty sweet. The deck includes reprints of cards that have been difficult to get for a while.

This is an epic white/red deck. Partially because it’s full of elephant themed cards and other cards that simply go bang. The commander card itself, Wyleth Soul of Steel is not only unstoppable (he has trample), he also draws more cards if he attacks when equipped. And this huge deck has a lot of equipment. You’ll be bolting on items throughout play, steadily growing more and more powerful.

Cards of note include Swiftfoot Boots, which gives your commander Haste and Hexproof, which makes them hard to hit and immune to summoning sickness. Relentless assault effectively let’s you attack twice with all your summoned creatures. Boros Charm gives you multiple options, all of which let you hit hard and Blackblade Reforged can make you nearly unstoppable if played toward the end of the game. Overall, they are some great cards here and it’s a very well-considered deck.

This range also comes with two types of boosters, a ‘collector’ and a ‘draft’ version. Collector boosters are mostly shiny cards but you only get 15, the draft has one shiny card, but 20 cards. So if it’s up to you if you want to go for pretty or bulk. This also means you can play Commander as a draft game. (You buy extra boosters and make your deck on the night from those boosters, rather than in advance.)

If you’re looking to get into Magic the Gathering, this is a solid place to start.