Fallout Commander Decks Upgrades + Review

Hello and welcome back. It’s release day for the Fallout Commander decks, and today I’m going to go over each of them in a general sense and make some suggestions for additions. There are also some decent reprints in the decks as well, allowing for some nice pickups on singles if you aren’t going for a full deck and like the Fallout theme.

SCIENCE!

Up first today is the “energy” deck. Really, this deck seems to care more about artifacts than energy, even if it has a few payoffs. However the themes are woven together well enough that I think the deck is fairly functional.

It does have a few hiccups on the energy production, but nothing that a few additions wouldn’t overcome. I’d consider Aetherstorm Roc for some extra energy off making tokens and other creatures coming into play. Era of Innovation might also be worth an include, though its payoff isn’t as good. What I’d want from it would be the energy to help fuel the effects of my commander with all the artifacts I’d get. Lastly, Lightning Runner is something to consider if you want to lean aggressively onto the board. When it attacks it gives energy. Combine it with other energy sources to give opponents a bad day.

Another thing I noticed is the deck doesn’t make many tokens (which would help the two cards above). We could add some token makers like any of the Saheeli planeswalkers, or Sharding Sphinx.

While some extra tokens can be good, this deck might benefit better from a small blink suite of cards, like Conjurer’s Closet, Sword of Hearth and Home, Soulherder and/or Abuelo, Ancestral Echo. If you run the original Saheeli and a blink package, you can always go with Felidar Guardian if you’re into combos, which is helped by the precon coming with Panharmonicon.

I’ll also remind the reader that another energy deck is coming in Modern Horizons III in the same color identity, so new cards are on the horizon.

MUTANT MENACE

This deck seems to have a little better cohesion than SCIENCE!, but it also has a kind of spread out feel hitting each theme a couple of times. Despite this, the different directions this deck takes are complimentary more than not. Before I get into it, let’s explain the Rad counter.

Rad counters are put onto players, and trigger at the beginning of the first main phase of the active player’s turn (the one before combat). When this happens, that player mills cards equal to the number of counters they have, and then lose 1 life for each nonland card milled this way and remove a rad counter from themselves.

With that out of the way, the deck itself can use rad counters to try and win the game, but they seem better as the central utility tool to get the deck going places than a win condition on its own. Many of the cards in this deck with Proliferate make this mechanic viable.

Speaking of proliferate, another kind of counter features prominently in the deck, and those are +1/+1 counters. While there isn’t a lot of cross play between the creatures that use +1/+1 counters, a few have good effects that use the counters individually. There are some cards in the deck besides creatures that enjoy when creatures have counters, like Inspiring Call or Mutational Advantage.

The counters are sometimes counterintuitive with the mill subtheme in the deck, but not often. Something I did notice is a seeming lack of recursion in general. While the deck has some, I would offer that you might want to add a smidge more. Vat Emergence proliferates and can recur a creature from any graveyard, while Unnatural Restoration can get anything you have in your yard to hand while proliferating.

Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus might also be worth considering in this deck as a hard to destroy creature while potentially doubling your various counters.

HAIL, CAESAR

Ah, good ol’ aggro. Well, the deck is a bit more than that, but that is its core. By and large, you want to make a go-wide army, support that number, and then smash into opponents one way or another.

Easy enough to do with the squad mechanic making a return, but there are also other cards that make tokens. Assemble the Legion is still a card to be feared over a few turns, and Secure the Wastes can be a good surprise to your opponents. That’s about all the deck has outside of the squad mechanic to make tokens though. With the amount of token support in the deck, adding some more is on the table.

One card we could add and also shore up some potential card draw is Court of Grace. Whether you’re the Monarch or not, you get flying token, with flyers being an absolute premium in this deck. Some other cards to consider might be Inkshield and Shadrix Silverquil. Each can provide flying tokens, with Inkshield protecting you to make them and Shadrix also adding some card draw and +1/+1 synergy. Dragons likewise are large tokens, and Goro-goro could be abused to make some since many creatures in this deck would be modified.

On the ground, Adeline Resplendent Cathar or Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon can get out of hand quickly. Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin can also contribute tokens and synergizes with +1/+1 counters like Anim.

Outside tokens we do have sacrifice abilities and treasure to consider, and those two mechanics come together in Negan, Cold Blooded (or if like me, you prefer Malik, Grim Manipulator). Gravepact effects or Edict effects could also go well in the deck, but if we stick closer to how the deck is designed, Carmen, Cruel Skymarcher seems like it could do very well and adds yet another flyer to my small roster of suggestions.

As for creatures to sacrifice, I’d consider the Kamigawa spirit dragons, and each of the newer ones in this color identity all work well with the various treasure, +1/+1 counters, and the lesser recursion subthemes found in the deck. Of course, this would also increase the count of flying creatures, which I’m keen on doing since I see it as a major weakness of the design as is.

SCRAPPY SURVIVORS

This deck seems fairly consistent in strategy, tying with Hail, Caesar. Pretty straightfoward, you enchant and equip your stuff and smash face, making junk tokens along the way as a form of card “advantage”. The junk tokens themselves lend to a few things we can do.

Since the junk tokens are artifact tokens, Nettlecyst can sit right by All That Glitters to cause some trouble and give the creature it equips a large buff. Another large buff over time can be found with Tarrian’s Soulcleaver. Dire Flail might also be worth an include for some burn damage on the attack.

Supporting both equipment and auras can be tricky, but Sigarda’s Aid is here for you on that front, as well as Open the Armory. These cards help you get a little extra mileage out of your stuff, or just get you stuff when you need it. Likewise, being able to get to that mileage is needed, and Dragonlord Dromoka or Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar can stop your opponents from interacting with your enchanting and equipping.

Something else to get more mileage out of your auras is Feather, Radiant Arbiter. She can be enchanted but can make token copies to enchant another creature you control. This deck only has 18 creatures, so making as many as resilient as possible is going to be key.

Looking more at the deck, having a way to defend yourself from attacks or sacrifice effects may be needed. Yasharn Implacable Earth and Sigarda Host of Herons may be something to consider on the anti-edict front, with Sigarda herself being a good target for auras. To outlast the hordes that may come your way, any number of fog effects could work. Other effects like Ghostly Prison or removal like Winds of Abandon can help keep things at bay.

FALLOUT

These decks are loaded with references that fans of the franchise will love, but how the decks play is another story. Each seems well set up to grab and play at any table, but I do have some reservations about how smooth they run. Of course, I could be completely wrong and each experience could be as smooth as a nuka-cola.

I want know which you prefer fellow planswalkers. Would you prefer a more general overview of decks like this, or an in depth review of a single deck.  A bottlecap for your thoughts in the comments below.

Until next time, stay safe in the Wastelands.