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Fall in for Fallout!
Hey Magic players! The new wasteland frontier of Thunder Junction is nearly upon us, whether we want it to be or not! But first, I’d like to take a look at the new wasteland frontier we just got, in the form of Fallout.
Yes, Fallout, one of the many many Universes Beyond products that may be ‘not for you.’ If you’re someone who can’t stand playing with those cards, well, this post might not be for you.
But then again, this post is about identifying Fallout’s ‘staples’ or cards that would go in a lot of Commander decks, and be front and centre for future deckbuilding consideration. The kind of cards you would want to get a copy of for your collection. So maybe the non-Fallout people should read along too, to see what small handful of great cards they might be missing out on.
Staples are Generally Not Expensive
Part of what makes a staple is accessibility. Compare Sol Ring and Mana Crypt. Sol Ring is a couple of dollars and printed in a lot of volume. Every Commander precon gets one. It’s a staple.
In some circles, Mana Crypt might look like a staple. It might be in a lot of decks and lists, and cEDH players might swear by it. But the cost of getting one is usually $100+. If you put up the cash so you could have one to move between your many Commander decks, that’s awesome, and you’ve made it a personal staple, but it’s really not the kind of card I’m interested in looking at.
One big reason is that Mana Crypt‘s supply is kept deliberately scarce. When it is reprinted, it’s a chase mythic in a premium-priced set, or a lottery draw of some kind, probably in collector boosters only. Wizards wants this to be like a staple, but also wants you to pay a lot for it.
Unless winning at professional Magic is your sole source of income, you don’t need a Mana Crypt. But if you want to get started in Commander, you should probably grab a Sol Ring.
Reprints
The Fallout set has a lot of great reprints. Most of these cards will be available for cheap. Some have been printed into the ground, like the now dirt-cheap Austere Command, and some are barely affected by that, like Lightning Greaves and Skullclamp. Some, like Branching Evolution aren’t heavily printed, and might have dropped in price enough for most players to get a copy.
If you don’t have the following, or want to consider some new art for cards you do have, you might find deals for copies of Anguished Unmaking, Assemble the Legion, Basilisk Collar, Black Market, Blasphemous Act, Casualties of War, Champion’s Helm, Chaos Warp, Guardian Project, Hardened Scales, Heroic Intervention, Lethal Scheme, Panharmonicon, Scavenger Grounds, Spire of Industry, Morbid Opportunist, Path to Exile, Pitiless Plunderer, Swiftfoot Boots, and Swords to Plowshares.
There are also some cards with special frames and artwork, like the cartoony Farewell and Lord of the Undead reskinned as Centurian of the Marked. They’re only available in collector boosters. Some might end up the cheapest version of those cards, or they may have additional demand. It’s such a mixed bag and tough to evaluate that I’m going to move on.
Two other mentions: 4 of the Tainted lands, like Tainted Peak, and 8 of the Talismans, like Talisman of Indulgence have been reprinted here. All are solid additions to any Commander collection.
Lands
There are 9 new lands to consider. Let’s start with what I think is the most stapley of all the cards in Fallout.
Consider HELIOS One. This is a colourless land that enters untapped. That means every deck can play it, and it can be used right away. Good start. It also makes energy, which is niche. It makes it cheaply, but not quickly. Solid for energy decks.
The last ability is what takes this over the top. It can destroy a nonland permanent providing you pay that permanent’s mana cost in energy. This means zapping a problem token on demand, but if you’re willing to wait, or have other sources of energy, zapping almost anything.
Every deck can use more removal, and many decks desperately need any way they can to get rid of enchantments, like Black, Blue and Red decks. That’s a shallow pool, and a low bar for this card to clear. HELIOS One might not make every deck, but would be great in almost every collection. Staple!
To a lesser extent, we have Diamond City, which is almost universally playable as well. It comes in untapped, and the Shield counter can be proliferated for multiple uses. Shield counters are great, but requiring 2 or more creatures to have entered to use them disqualifies a lot of decks that really only ever play one creature, like Voltron decks. Those decks probably want the Shield counter the most, so this is a bit of a non-bo card, but still excellent.
A card that would be a top overall staple if not for a red mana symbol is Junktown, which is absolutely still a staple for red. Again entering untapped, this simple design sacrifices to make 3 junk tokens for a hefty mana cost of 5. The cost is fine, because this is all about later-game upside: 3 chances to dig deeper into your deck, or 3 artifacts to do stuff with. Maybe a combination of both. Red decks often love artifacts and struggle to draw cards. This is terrific.
Next, there’s Mariposa Military Base, which comes in untapped unless you give yourself 2 Rad counters, and can draw a card for a pricey activation. There are a decent amount of lands that simply draw cards, and 5 mana is a lot, but that’s probably good enough already. The Rad counters are very interesting, as self-mill is a very real play. It’s tough to say if this is a staple, but it’s close enough, and unique enough, that adding one to your collection (at a reasonable price) is probably a good idea.
Finally, there’s a new cycle of dual lands, featuring Desolate Mire, that is solid if unspectacular. These are the ‘enemy colour pairs’ for this kind of land, and we already have the ‘allied colour’ versions. These will probably see a lot of printings in future Commander precons, and should never be expensive.
Artifacts
Should we start with the Bobbleheads? I see a lot of nodding.
Note* – I think there are 3 things about the Bobbleheads that players need to consider. First, they are mana rocks, so tapping them for a non-mana ability effectively costs one mana. We see this on lands, and it matters. Less so with the Bobbles, because they’re not lands, but still.
Second, if they aren’t awesome alone – ie. with no other Bobbleheads in play – they might not be awesome at all.
Third, 3-cost mana rocks that only produce 1 mana are a compromise. You’re playing them for the extra upside from the abilities, not because they’re efficient. There are plenty of 2 or fewer-cost mana rocks now in every colour and combination.
Let’s start from the rear. My pick for weakest is Strength Bobblehead, which adds +1/+1 counters to a creature at sorcery speed. At worst, it’s 3 mana (and tap) to add a single +1/+1, and at best, 7 of those counters. Making creatures bigger is solid, but not game-breaking. Sorcery speed is not great for this kind of ability.
Next to weakest is Charisma Bobblehead, which costs 4 mana and tap to make a 1/1 soldier at sorcery speed. I think making an extra body is better than making a creature bigger overall, and getting more bodies if you have more Bobbles is just fine. The cost is a lot though, and sorcery speed is not when you want this ability either.
Next is Luck Bobblehead, though it could totally be the weakest. It can do nothing for the one mana and tap cost, but it can also make a treasure, which is very good. Making more treasures is great, but no matter how many Bobbles you have, this can still come up empty. The ability is instant speed, however, and the cheapest Bobble activation. Rolling dice also does have applications beyond everything else this card does, however, the ‘win the game’ clause is extremely unlikely to ever happen to anyone.
Next is Intelligence Bobblehead, which draws cards for 5 and tap. That’s a lot, but drawing cards is always good. This is the best Bobblehead for late games and topdecking, because 5 mana isn’t much then. It’s also an instant speed activation, so using it on an opponent’s endstep after holding up mana is a thing too. Would be better if there weren’t a few lands with a similar activation and cost, like Mariposa Military Base.
Coming in third of the seven is Endurance Bobblehead, which costs 3 and tap to give a creature +1/+0 and indestructible. This is a sorcery speed activation, which really sucks, because instant-speed indestructible would be amazing. Too amazing. Sorcery speed is good enough, and very few cards in Magic grant indestructible at all, let alone as a repeatable effect. The applications are pretty stapley, from making sure a creature survives combat, to making sure it survives your boardwipe. Those situations come up a lot. This is probably among the best Bobbleheads to have in multiples, but it’s top-notch for single-creature strategies like Voltron too, and you’ll only need the one. The +1/+0 is not insignificant.
Second best is Perception Bobblehead, which can cast a free spell for you from the top of your deck. This is very very good, though it is restricted to spells costing 3 or less. If your deck is built on a low curve, or you can consistently manipulate the top of your library, this is a very real source of card advantage. The activation is at instant speed as well. Multiple Bobbleheads allow you to look at more cards, which might be unnecessary. Lots of newer Commanders care about cards cast from places other than your hand. This is very stapley.
At the top of the heap is Agility Bobblehead which gives a creature haste. We could probably stop there. A colourless source of haste is a big deal. Most Commanders want it, and some need it badly to ever do anything besides die to removal. Haste on a mana rock is instant-staple status.
But wait, there’s more! Giving multiple creatures haste with multiple Bobbles is good, but giving each hasty creature the Gingerbrute-exclusive ability of only-blockable-by-other-hasty-creatures is kind of shocking. That ability often reads ‘unblockable’ which is often what you want on a hasty creature, especially smaller ones that need to connect with an opponent for a trigger. Did I mention the activation is instant speed? Sure it’s not the cheapest at 3 and tap, but overall this is a great card that could go in soooo many decks. Hope you got one!
Note* – If the price on these Bobbleheads keeps going up, their staple status will be in jeopardy. They, or anything else specific to Fallout names, locations and copyrights, are unlikely to see reprints as easily as cards Wizards designed from scratch. Getting enough copies of these cards to satisfy player demand might not happen, or at least for a while. These cards were printed as uncommons, but maybe next time they’ll be mythics. Same goes for the next couple of cards.
There has been a lot of big buzz for Nuka-Cola Vending Machine, which is also an uncommon, but already has a steep price tag. This does stapley things, like make artifact tokens cheaply, and really pays you off for sacrificing Foods. If you can sacrifice the Foods to something like Krark-Clan Ironworks then you make 2 colourless mana and a treasure for your troubles. That kind of math is the reason why this card is expensive.
I don’t want to call Nuka-Cola Vending Machine a staple. The abilities it has would be great for value in most Commander decks, but they’ll more likely be used for OP shenanigans in expensive cEDH decks, or some unintended game loop. Unintended in the sense that you’re probably not supposed to win a Wizards’ Duel with a vending machine. Especially since you’re not even dropping it on your opponent. But if Nuka-Cola Vending Machine can somehow settle to a reasonable cost, it would definitely be a staple.
Thanks to it’s mana cost, Pip-Boy 3000 is immediately attractive. It can be played turn 1, or grabbed with Urza’s Saga if that’s your style. The equip cost isn’t ideal at 2, but the 3 abilities, triggering on the equipped creature attacking, range from good to insane. Adding a +1/+1 is good, and very good with synergy. Drawing and discarding (looting) is very good, and excellent if you can leverage the discard. Untapping 2 lands… is… wow. It reminds me a bit of this card, which is heavily played and very expensive.
Huge difference between 2 lands and all lands, but how many equips untap lands at all? With any comparisons to Sword of Feast and Famine, Pip-Boy 3000 is off to a flying start. It’s going to see heavy play in a lot of decks, and is another potential staple unless the price stays high. Sadly, this seems extremely likely.
One card that drew some immediate interest but I’m not crazy about is Silver Shroud Costume. It’s instant speed and a free equip, sure, and a colourless way to blank removal or a nasty activation against your creature. Those are great things. Unblockable is also great, and a decent thing to have on a piece of equipment.
For me, however, it doesn’t all add up. Unless you nail the timing of playing it the first time, you’ve got a worse Whispersilk Cloak or even Prowler’s Helm. Shroud isn’t hexproof, and can really mess you up if you’re also trying to target your creature with other stuff that turn, and Shroud not lasting more than one turn won’t keep the heat off your creature if there’s sustained heat. If this is consistently a colourless Counterspell that leaves an okay piece of equipment behind, then it’s great, but I don’t think it’s a staple, and maybe not even that good at all.
Some cards have a lower bar to clear. Best of type sometimes matters, and we have a new contender for best vehicle in Commander. Enter Brotherhood Vertibird, which as a scaling, evasive threat, is one of the only real ways to topple a table with a vehicle. Seriously, the biggest flying vehicles top out at 8/8 (Cybership), and the non-flyers at 10/10 (Reaver Titan). They also cost more to cast and to crew.
The Vertibird is cheap to cast and crew, and is pretty much the same card as Aetherwing, Golden-Scale Flagship, which is the other side of the Invasion of Kaladesh Battle. In Standard and Modern, they want you to work for a card like this. Skip the Battle and just play the Bird. It’s trivial to get a bunch of artifacts together, and 10 or more is pretty reasonable for the right decks and the crazy amount of artifact token generation these days. Staple among vehicles, and a legit finisher for artifact decks in general.
Last of the artifacts to consider is C.A.M.P.. I had to read this a couple of times. This is the second Fortify card in Magic, after Future Sight’s Darksteel Garrison, and it’s sort of an equipment for a land. Once it’s Fortified, the land gains 2 passive abilities when it taps for mana, both being actually pretty good. You put a +1/+1 on your creature, then if its colours match the mana the land produced, you also make a Junk token.
At an initial investment of 6 mana, this card is off to a tough start, however, that’s probably the only investment you’ll need to make if you put this on your Command Tower or City of Brass. After that, finding ways to leverage the counters and tokens is trivial, and in a lot of demand for some decks. This is probably excellent in mono-red and mono-black decks. Not exactly a staple, but a really cool card that’s easy to overlook.
Multi-Coloured
Since many of the multicoloured cards in Magic these days are legendary creatures designed to helm a Commander deck, it’s tough to find staples among them. Most are too specialized, too niche, or too clunky outside of very specific situations. But Fallout does have one staple contender in Atomize.
The rate on Atomize isn’t terrific. You can destroy a permanent for 2 mana in the same colours using Assassin’s Trophy, and there are a lot of ways to do it for 3 (and even exile) in black/white. Beast Within is cheaper, can hit lands, and doesn’t need the black mana at all.
But none of those cards proliferate, and since putting counters on creatures and players and everything is such big game these days, Atomize can impact the table beyond destroying a permanent, even if you don’t touch your own counters. It also has no real downside, and there aren’t enough spells overall in Magic that destroy a permanent at instant speed that this isn’t really good by default. Probably not a staple, but so close.
Black
There are 3 black cards worth talking about. First up is Nuclear Fallout, which is a decidedly modern, non-wizardly concept. You are perfectly justified ignoring this card completely from a (gross) flavour perspective. Many of the cards in this set qualify for that.
But Nuclear Fallout is very strong as a boardwipe, getting twice the minuses you’d get from something like Black Sun’s Zenith even if it’s not -1/-1 counters. There aren’t many -X/-X spells overall in Magic, and since they’re so effective against indestructible creatures, all merit consideration in most decks that can cast them. The only holdup here is that Nuclear Fallout is very mana intensive compared to something like Damnation. The Rad counters might be a holdup too, but they might also be huge upside. Tough to tell, as milling cards is a mixed blessing.
I think we’re safe in calling Nuclear Fallout a staple as long as the price supports it. It’s reprintable in a way that other Fallout-specific cards aren’t, even though it has the name of the game in its title. In some concepts, this might be the best black boardwipe spell available.
Speaking of black boardwipes, we also have V.A.T.S.. This is much less likely to wipe the board than Nuclear Fallout even if only 4 mana is spent on either. What this does have is lots of upside. Instant speed is, of course, very good, and Split Second is always strong, and prevents any late changes in toughness that will spoil this card’s effectiveness.
The card is best when facing off against a token army, even one that has grown up together with a bunch of +1/+1 counters. It’s also strong if there are 2 or more big threats on the table with the same toughness. If you kill 3 things with this, it’s a huge win.
What keeps V.A.T.S. from being a staple is the potential for failure based on the boardstate. If it’s only going to kill one thing at max, it’s not great. If it’s going to kill the tokens but not the bigger threats, or the bigger threats but not the tokens, it might not even matter. If there are 10 big threats and this kills 5, is that enough? What about threats I can’t target, or have indestructible? The timing matters too much, and this is simply not enough of a sure thing in today’s Magic. Great potential though.
Finally, we have Hancock, Ghoulish Mayor, which is very straightforward and simple: this is a staple for Zombie decks. Many Zombie decks make tokens and grow them with lords who give +1/+1 to them. This is a great Zombie lord, even if it doesn’t give a bonus off the top. Getting Hancock to die and come back with a counter is pretty easy, and adding other +1/+1s or even ability/shield/stun counters isn’t hard either. There is some potential to fizzle if he just comes into play and sits there, but he could be a game breaker if you can get a few counters on him. Buffing Mutants hardly matters now, but may in future.
Blue
Apologies to Radstorm. Cool card. Not a staple. Also, stop printing Storm cards, WotC.
Leading off the actual blue staples is Struggle for Project Purity, which is a modal enchantment with some serious upside. The first mode is either very political, giving your opponents card draw during your upkeep, or very non-interactive, drawing you 3 cards every upkeep against 3 opponents whose actions you barely care about. Regardless, and even if the card sort of plays in a grey area between politics and combo, it’s a very very strong effect.
The second mode might be stronger. Blue has a number of ‘rattlesnake’ or ‘pillowfort’ enchantments designed to deter opponents from attacking, and this is also one of those. Rad counters are pretty effective at milling, and at making players lose life passively, turning this mode into a hybrid of Riddlekeeper and Hissing Miasma. If this only did a Hissing Miasma impression it would still be a borderline staple. But it does so much more. Very very cool!
Next up we have Synth Infiltrator, which is one of many Clone-style cards that copy a creature in play. Since it has Improvise, it can cost as little as 2 actual mana, which is great for a Clone. Casting it for 5 mana isn’t ideal, but it’s still okay, and it coming in as a Synth artifact creature can be upside. Many Clones that cost 4 mana, or cost 5 with a lot of upside, are staples, and this is close enough.
Finally blue has Nerd Rage. This is an odd card. It’s an aura, which is generally bad, but it draws 2 cards on entry, which is generally good, and mitigates a lot of why auras are so bad. It removes the creature’s controller’s hand-size restrictions, which is good, and also gives the creature a huge bonus if you have a ton of cards in hand, which is cool and probably not hard to do. But is it playable? What do you enchant with this?
I don’t honestly think it matters. I think this card goes in decks because Magic players know the concept of Nerd Rage intimately. We’ve felt it ourselves, seen others consumed by it, and have probably used it to describe a person or situation to another Nerd who also knows Rage. As an aura, the card kinda sucks, but as a representation of Nerd Rage, I think it’s a huge win. It’s also interesting and it addresses the thing that usually makes Auras so bad. Meme cards can be staples too, and this is a shining example. Don’t you want to say, ‘My Deranged Assistant gets +10/+10 from Nerd Rage. Any blockers?’ I know I do.
Green
Green is often a powerhouse when it comes to a Commander release. It seems like there’s always a few cards that do a little too much, and this set has those cards. There are 2 green ones, and while they both do stapley things, I hesitate to call them staples. I actually dislike both cards a lot.
First up is Watchful Radstag, which starts creating copies of itself like crazy if you meet the very simple evolve criteria. And the copies make copies, and so on, and so on. After a few activations, you’ll quickly discover this is a massive pain in the neck to track, and the payoff is a lot of 2/2s with a +1/+1 counter on them or two, and no evasion.
Super fun. Checking every elk token every time a creature enters the battlefield. Keeping track of all the counters on them. Doing this diligently, because no part of this creature’s abilities are optional. Or you find the thing that makes this go infinite. Both are unfun options. Just a bad design.
Next up is Well Rested, which is either a really crummy aura that maybe replaces itself, or part of a greasy combo or obnoxious synergy with an already broken card like Seedborn Muse. Total feast or famine, and another bad design.
Finally, green does get a legit staple in the simple, yet effective Power Fist. It’s not widely talked about, but trample isn’t the easiest ability to give to creatures if they don’t already have it. Some of the options are very weak, overcosted or do nothing else. Power Fist is cheap, easy to use, and straightforward. You hit, your guy gets bigger. Green decks love big beaters, and there is no end to the +1/+1 synergies out there.
Red
Red staples are a weird bunch. Red is a weird colour. It made a lot of sense in Alpha as a fire-slinging damage maker plus dragons, but as the years went along, finding ways to make red unique, interesting and complex have gone down some unusual paths.
As a result, some very strange cards can emerge as staples. Because they make sense in the Chaos that is red. Take Megaton’s Fate for example. This is a modal card that can either be a very expensive, sorcery speed Shatter with upside, or a pseudo boardwipe that also leaves Rad counters. It’s a very tough card to evaluate.
The first mode is probably bad. 6 mana to destroy an artifact is too steep. You make 4 treasures, though, and that’s a lot of potential mana, artifacts entering, and sacrifices. Even as a fail case, that has a lot of wacky potential.
The second mode is decent. 6 mana to deal 8 to each creature is solid. It might not kill everything, but it will likely be enough most of the time. The addition of Rad counters is a wild card. You get them too, for better or worse. They will burn, but many players love to stock their graveyards, so you might help someone more than hurt them.
I think Megaton’s Fate sees play. Based on 8 damage to each creature for 6 mana, this is a borderline staple. Add all the other weirdness, and we’re pretty much there.
Also really weird is Wild Wasteland. It sort of turns your single card draw for turn into 2 cards. Sure they’re never actually in your hand, and that’s downside for some decks, but you can’t be forced to discard them, and there’s a lot of cards that care about things played from exile.
Is Wild Wasteland a staple? Short answer: yes. It’s like red’s Phyrexian Arena. Long answer: also yes. There’s a bunch of cards that really want this for the play-from-exile, or because it doesn’t specifically draw cards. Even skipping your draw step might be upside if you’re packing Experimental Frenzy or Spiteful Visions, and in a wacky twist, this card can keep you from losing to mill decks, since what kills you is the inability to draw a card from your library. Neat!
Hey red player, what if I told you there was a spell that costs 1 red mana, deals 1 damage to an opposing X/1, and then creates 4 treasure tokens? Yup, that’s Bottle-Cap Blast. Of course it’s not really that simple, but it’s pretty close. You do need 4 untapped artifacts and that X/1, but after that, this is an absurd ritual spiced up with a teeny bit of removal.
And it scales too. You can zap an X/3 and make 2 treasures, or just kill an X/5 or deal 5 to an opponent. It pairs very well with Forbidden Orchard to give your opponent a 1/1 and make a red mana. All you need is 4 untapped artifacts. While this isn’t quite Jeska’s Will or “Name-Sticker” Goblin, it has a very large amount of potential, and could totally end up a bona fide staple.
White
At last, there’s white, these days the colour of card drawing. Turns out small creatures and wraths need some hand refillers to get them through the games. Who knew.
White is also one of the primary colours of equipment synergy, which is a pretty big deal these days, and not just in Commander. Often the most powerful thing to do is cheat equipment into play, and then cheat it onto a creature without paying any equip cost. Small wonder that Codsworth, Handy Helper is on this list.
At 3 mana, Codsworth is too slow for 60 card formats, but very good for Commander. All of the things it does are great: ward for Commanders, producing 2 mana (with limited usage), and equipping creatures for free. You can also move auras around. As long as you’ve got some equipment, this should be pretty playable, and it gets better the more you synergize with its abilities. Some decks can’t be bothered with equipment or auras, and the ward on the commander is negligible for them. But enough others play the right cards to make this great, making Codsworth pretty much a staple.
Next we’ve got Overencumbered, a new addition to White’s pillowfort. It’s an interesting design, giving an opponent some utility artifact tokens along with a sort of curse for having a lot of artifacts in general. I feel like this probably isn’t a staple, but it does have a lot of potential. While many decks run a lot of artifacts, and will be punished by this, it only shuts off attacking, which not every deck does. It also gives away some very real resources. The mana cost is friendly, but Ghostly Prison is a superior card that hits all opponents for only a mana more.
The best thing Overencumbered does is add to the pillowfort, being yet another option for those decks to try and smother opponents. The next best thing it does is be a bit of a meme. Lots to like, worth mentioning, but not quite a staple.
Like Overencumbered, Vault 75: Middle School almost gets there. Chapters 2 and 3 are okay, and you’ll happily have them, but what makes this card is Chapter 1, exiling all creatures with power 4 or greater. This works with a lot of smaller creature decks. It won’t hit everything, but it does exile, and it’s an enchantment trigger, not a cast spell that provides the effect, which might matter. Again, this is not a staple, but anything that exiles a lot of creatures has to be mentioned, and big, indestructible ones, often 4/4 or bigger, are just begging for exile.
Who doesn’t love Humble Defector? Great card, very playable, super fun. Well Yes Man, Personal Securitron is pretty much the same, except white, 1 more mana, and with a massive upside that Humble doesn’t have: making soldier tokens for the owner when it leaves play! Not dies, leaves play. So bouncing it, blinking it, and having it be exiled are all fine! It’s also the right colour to play with Zedruu the Greathearted.
If you kill Yes Man before the new controller can use it, it’s a 3 mana spell that draws 2 cards and makes a 1/1 soldier. Not bad for white, and not bad overall. While this is probably never going to be a competitive card, it will totally see plenty of casual play, and be a welcome sight at many tables. Like Humble Defector, that makes it a format staple, the kind that shows off the fun you can have passing creatures around and drawing cards.
Last but not least is Commander Sofia Daguerre. Spoiler alert: not a staple. But pretty good, and kinda meme-worthy. Destroying a legendary permanent is narrow, but well-positioned in Commander. Leaving behind a junk token is saucy. The downside is that you pay 4 mana, which is too much for that ability these days, but you do also get a Human Pilot body that can be blinked to recur the effect. 1/3, but you can’t have everything. This might end up being very playable, and if turning your opponents’ Commanders into junk is a feelgood play, this card could scratch and claw all the way to staplehood.
Conclusion
Fallout is not for everybody, and definitely not for everybody that plays Magic. And that’s fine. You can dive into the set or skip it however you like. But it’s a good idea to take a close look at the cards, and consider which ones could transcend the wasteland frontier and become useful and appreciated parts of your Magic experience.
Staples, cards that have a lot of applications and play value, that go in a large amount of decks, are a great thing to look for. Fallout has lots of these, and hopefully the prices stay nice and low, and these cards are very accessible to players.
Thanks for reading!
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