The newest Universes Beyond Commander decks are here, with the full lists for the Fallout x Magic: The Gathering Commander Decks released ahead of the March 8 release, and we have a Mutant Menace review and improvements piece for you.
Magic The Gathering Mutant Menace Commander Review
When we take a look at a pre-con, the first place to look is at the face Commander, and the alternate Commander(s) to see what they are doing, and make sure you have the right Commander in place.
The Wise Mothman (who hails from Fallout 76) is our face commander, and he shows what the deck is about. Medium-sized creatures, milling (self, and opponent), rad counters, and +1/+1 counters are all elements that are the heart of the deck, to the point that The Wise Mothman is a bit on the nose.
Our alternate commander is The Master, Transcendent. Leaving aside rants that he should be the face commander due to his legacy as the final boss of Fallout 1 (which is inline with Bethesda's treatment of the first games), The Master, Transcendent is more focused on reanimation of creatures that are milled. While he takes advantage of +1/+1 counters (they grow his 3/3 super mutants), it is clearly a background feature compared to mill, and reanimating the best thing you or an opponent put into a graveyard.
While either can lead Mutant Menace quite well, I’m a bit more fond of The Master, Transcendent, especially with a few tweaks to take more advantage of his particular abilities compared to The Wise Mothman’s jack of all trades status.
Mutant Menace Review
Like the other Universes Beyond Commander decks, Mutant Menace has more new cards than your standard Commander deck with 41 shiny new cards.
Mutant Menace has several themes that work together to build a coherent plan. A key piece of glue in the deck is proliferate, as it can improve both rad counters (which mill players), and +1/+1 counters, the two of which fuel much of Mutant Menace’s gameplan.
Monetary value is tougher to judge on these precons as they have significantly fewer reprints than your normal precons. Still, we can look at what the reprints are and see what equity they bring in addition to all the new cards. Of the reprints, Inexorable Tide, Guardian Project, and Branching Evolution stand out as recent $10+ cards that are included in Mutant Menace, giving the deck decent reprint equity, along with all the new cards.
On the downside, Mutant Menace lacks removal or many ways of interaction. There are all of a handful of interaction pieces in the deck, leaving you at the whim of your opponent’s actions, and is an area to look at improving.
This is a pretty strong pre-con out of the box, with a lot of synergies in it that should create unique situations when you play. That said, we can do a few things to make it even better, especially if we’re focusing on The Master, Transcendent as our commander
Mutant Menace Additions
With a lot of synergy in the deck, what we’re looking at working on here is taking further advantage of The Master, Transcendent, and shoring up the weakness in interaction.
One of the top additions I see to this deck with The Master, Transcendent in charge is Seedborn Muse, as you want to maximize how often you can use The Master’s ability. By untapping him each turn, you can steal a creature from each player around the board, each round.
I love how Intruder Alarm combos perfectly with The Master, Transcendent and let’s him grab all the creatures someone mills in a go, putting it above other options like Quest for Renewal.
A great card from Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate for any milling deck, Zellix will make you little dudes for doing what you to do anyways.
We’re looking for some extra removal here, and Cankerbloom is a really good fit for artifact or enchantment destruction. As a bonus, he can also proliferate if there’s nothing you want to destroy.
A strong removal/counter piece that takes advantage of the fact that you will be filling up your opponent’s graveyards by milling them.
While I try to avoid the obvious options too often, sometimes you just want the best card in the role. Assassin’s Trophy is a good, versatile removal spell that does what you need.
One risk with milling opponents is that they might make use of their graveyard. Enter Scavenging Ooze who can empty their graveyards, and synergizes with the counter theme.
This card is just crazy in this deck as you get them milling more, and if you can accompany that with Intruder Alarm and the Master you have your opponents facing a possible mill out situation.
Eternal Witness is another staple, and one I’m honestly surprised didn’t get put in the deck, so we’ll fix that. It is here to grab whatever you need from your graveyard, whether it got there due to opponent destruction or self-milling.
Our last addition is a powerful card for mill decks. Syr Konrad deals 1 damage whenever a creature is put into a graveyard from anywhere (and a few other things), making your rad counters even deadlier.
Mutant Menace cuts
Given the amount of synergy in the deck, the thematic nature of Universes Beyond precons, and the higher power level they often have, cuts are harder here than in many precons. Here are some options you might consider:
- Piper Wright, Publick Reporter
- Temple of the False God
- Biomass Mutation
- Find/Finality
- Tireless Tracker
- Jason Bright, Glowing Prophet
- Young Deathclaws
- Strength Bobblehead
- Fraying Sanity
These aren't necessarily bad cards, but ones that aren’t always great fits for the deck so you can move on from them.
You can order Mutant Menace, and other Fallout Commander decks, right now on Amazon.
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A longtime lover of speculative fiction, in almost all its forms, Don joined TechRaptor in 2014 on a whim sending in an application as he was looking for… More about Don
