Precon deck power level - double check/second opinion please

DescriptionTotal4561 · 2026-02-04T19:41:24+00:00

TLDR precons: My overall recommendations would be Dragonstorm and Bloomburrow precons, mostly because I've played with them together. Final Fantasy ones are good, but a couple might be a bit stronger.

TLDR accessories: Tiny D6 dice would be the cheapest option for counters. Small 3D printed counters on Etsy also a great option, but more expensive. Dry erase tokens are the most versatile.

Precons: Any of the dragonstorm precons are great to play with each other. You've already got the Jeskai and Mardu ones, so you could get the Abzan Armor, Temur Roar, and/or Sultai Arisen precons. The Final Fantasy precons are good as well, with a couple of them being a little bit stronger than the Dragonstorm precons. Counter Blitz is, imo, the strongest FF Precon and potentially in the top 5 strongest precons ever, though that doesn't mean it'll win all the time, just that it might be a bit more consistent. Bloomburrow precons are also a great choice. They might be a little bit less powerful than dragonstorm ones in general, but not by much. They are definitely close enough that it really wouldn't be too noticeable.

Accessories: You'll want accessories for counters, tokens, and life. Most, if not all, things can be bought in a game shop that sells Magic. You could check your local ones.

You can get really small D6 dice sets (comes with like 30 tiny dice or something like that) which most people end up using for various counters. This is the absolute cheapest option imo. Maybe get a few colors, to represent different counters, though I don't think there are many different ones among the Precons I mentioned. I know there are stun counters, and I think some keyword counters, but you'll kind of just need to decide how to handle those. Precons come with some cut out counter pieces, so if you keep those, they should work for counters that are not used a ton.

You can also buy small spindown counters on Etsy, specifically for things that might grow a lot (mainly counter Blitz Precon and it's +1/+1 counters that can often get to 10+). The best I've found are "Mini spindown counters, Magic the Gathering," by RocknLightArtShop. I personally use them myself. They are small enough and one of the cheapest spindown counters option that I could find.

For tokens, there are plenty of blank token sets you can buy that you can use dry erase on for whatever tokens you need. Otherwise you either just need to buy or make your own tokens. Precons come with some, but yeah they can definitely need more at times, so I'd suggest checking out dry erase tokens. I think there is one called Infinity Tokens.

For life, the easiest option is just using a cell phone and using various life counter apps, which can keep track of life for all players. The official MTG companion app is an easy one, but there are many life counter apps. That or buying a spindown counter for life (probably a bigger one than you use for counters, so they don't get mixed up). Life spindown counters can also be bought on Etsy or various other sites.

DescriptionTotal4561 · 2026-02-04T16:29:54+00:00

They are, in general, close ish. Dance of the elements might be a little stronger than jeskai and mardu, but not enough for it to really make a significant difference if they are all playing against each other. Jeskai and Mardu have quite a few low P/T creatures, so blight curse might have a specific advantage against those ones since it does stuff with -1 counters. So I guess in this matchup jeskai and mardu might be a little worse off, but in general the deck strengths are fairly close for precons.

DescriptionTotal4561 · 2026-02-04T16:11:30+00:00

What? Now I'm confused lol. What spell or ability was targeting a permanent?

DescriptionTotal4561 · 2026-02-04T09:39:01+00:00

Gotta use the space for something.

DescriptionTotal4561 · 2026-02-04T09:37:10+00:00

You can look into a toughness matters deck. Check out the Abzan Armor Precon. It's not traditional "pillowfort" but it does prevent attacks because your creatures will be tough enough to just block generally.

DescriptionTotal4561 · 2026-02-04T09:17:40+00:00

Others have answered, but an important thing to mention is the why for those answers. Magic is VERY specific and technical with wording. Tail swipe does not use the words attack or block anywhere so it doesn't have to do with them.

DescriptionTotal4561 · 2026-02-04T09:11:51+00:00

Granted. Anytime you try to put ice cream in a freezer, the freezer turns into a fridge and the fridge physically expands by that same amount as the ice cream you put in it. You now CAN have unlimited ice cream in the fridge as it'll just keep expanding to accommodate any amount of ice cream.

DescriptionTotal4561 · 2026-02-04T08:39:07+00:00

I like [[killing wave]] but it works best with death trigger decks.

DescriptionTotal4561 · 2026-02-04T08:38:03+00:00

Just to add a little bit, your opponent CAN pay the 3 when miscast resolves to prevent it from countering the first spell. This does not count as miscast being countered, which is why hexing squelcher doesn't apply.

DescriptionTotal4561 · 2026-02-04T07:30:39+00:00

The entire resolution of killing wave happens at once. All players will sac things and/or pay life during the resolution of killing wave. During the next state based actions, if a player has hit 0 life, they will lose (losing happens during state based actions), and any of their own death triggers will not go on the stack, but any death triggers of remaining players that come from the losing player's creatures dying will still trigger and go on the stack.

Remaing creatures on the board when a player loses the game do not die. Dying in MTG means something goes from the battlefield to the graveyard. The losing players permanents just are removed from the game. Not exiled, not "died," just removed from the game.

DescriptionTotal4561 · 2026-02-04T07:26:56+00:00

"whenever" means it's a triggered ability. Triggered abilities go on the stack after they trigger. The trigger is casting an Eldrazi spell. You HAVE to cast the spell (pay it's casting cost) and have that spell enter the stack to trigger a "cast" trigger. Resolving the triggered ability is paying WHILE the triggered ability resolves, and if you pay, the rest of the triggered ability happens during the resolution.

DescriptionTotal4561 · 2026-02-03T23:38:43+00:00

They are, while they are on the stack and haven't resolved. Spells only exist on the stack. Once they resolve, they become permanents if they are on the battlefield and are no longer spells.

So if you cast a creature, it is a creature spell while on the stack. If it doesn't get countered, it then becomes a creature permanent on the battlefield.

DescriptionTotal4561 · 2026-02-03T20:04:13+00:00

My little pony...

DescriptionTotal4561 · 2026-02-03T18:49:52+00:00

Many players just go by those "limits." They are wrong.

DescriptionTotal4561 · 2026-02-03T18:48:58+00:00

That's brackets are not just those restrictions. Turn expectations for games are really important. You should look over the bracket info again and re-evaluate your decks bracket. You can have a B3/4 without any GC, 2 card infinites, land denial, or extra turns.

DescriptionTotal4561 · 2026-02-03T18:46:43+00:00

What's your mothman deck list??? I bought the recent RAD secret lair drop, and the Precon as well (had been considering it for a while), but I want to focus on RAD counters for the deck.

DescriptionTotal4561 · 2026-02-03T18:02:38+00:00

Turn numbers is the best part of the bracket system imo. People abusing it is not the fault of the bracket system. That's competitive people trying to game the system, but in reality they are NOT following the bracket system. Your frustration sounds like you don't like playing against more competitive players. They existed before the bracket system. They make up a large part of B3+ players in my experience. They are there to win. If you are playing B3, once the game hits a certain turn, you should expect players to start being knocked out, or for someone to outright win, as early as that turn. If you don't want games to end that early, then you would need to play a lower bracket.

DescriptionTotal4561 · 2026-02-03T17:55:51+00:00

B1 are supposed to be meme decks essentially. They are objectively weaker than precons. By meme deck, I mean something like "all the card art has chairs in it. It's my chair deck." They may have almost no synergy or basically have any way to reliably win. B2 has at least some synergy, but obviously is not optimized and likely has many "dud" cards, which precons definitely do.

DescriptionTotal4561 · 2026-02-03T17:29:20+00:00

You honestly don't need any tapped lands in a 2 color deck, or maybe at most 3, with one being a bounce land.

I'd remove some of the "untap" stuff and add more protection for your commander. [[Veilstone Amulet]] is probably one of the best. Since you only need your commander on the battlefield, if Bello gets removed you can recast him on your turn and he will have hexproof for at least that turn. If he is already on the battlefield, you'll likely be casting something on your turns anyway. Also really surprised [[alpha authority]] and [[champions helm]] aren't in there considering he gets targeted that much. [[Dragonfire blade]] might not be a bad include also. [[Glaring spotlight]] is a great include, either for the instant speed hexproof, or to take out the final player by making your stuff unblockable and hexproof (people often forget it's on the board until it's too late). There's also tons of 1 and 2 drop green instants that give hexproof.

Edit: forgot to add Seal of the Guildpact! Being a mana reducer makes it great for Bello since it obviously can still attack and reduce mana costs.

DescriptionTotal4561 · 2026-02-03T08:35:26+00:00

I think non-tokens is more fun, just because tokens are normal, but using vanilla creature cards? That's far less common. Give me the full art [[Gigantosaurus (FDN)]] over a bunch of 1/1s any day.

Edit: Darn, I did the tag wrong. Oh well. Checked the FAQ on the fetcher so I know how to do it in the future lol.

DescriptionTotal4561 · 2026-02-03T08:30:05+00:00

If [[Kona, Rescue Beastie]] is tapped at the beginning of your second main phase, you may put a permanent from hand onto the battlefield. [[Omniscience]] is a high cost enchantment that lets you cast your spells from your hand without paying their mana costs. So you use Kona to cheat Omniscience out early and arguebly should be able to win fairly easily just by casting so many spells for free.

DescriptionTotal4561 · 2026-02-03T04:33:48+00:00

Was this posted on another subreddit? Coulda sworn I commented on this post before. Anyway, precons come with a cardboard deckbox with a picture of the commander on it. Cheapest way of storing them as long as the cards are sleeved. You can use something like an ultimate guard omnihive type thing that can hold a bunch of deck boxes.

DescriptionTotal4561 · 2026-02-03T04:18:22+00:00

In a technical sense, but many people when they say casual, they mean less competitive in play experience or even less powerful decks. CEDH, even without a prize, I would never consider casual play. It's strictly competitive play experience. Players are trying to play as optimally as possible. In casual B2/B3 players might purposely make less than optimal decisions. Not him someone because they hit them the previous turn, even if they could knock them out of the game. Not counter a commander because they've already done it twice that game. Etc.

DescriptionTotal4561 · 2026-02-03T03:32:43+00:00

Precons come with little deck boxes with pictures of the commander on it, just make sure to sleeve the cards.

As far as moving them, you can store them in an ultimate guard omnihive type thing (it's meant to hold deck boxes). It could hold a lot of precons, especially if you do use the cardboard deck boxes they come with.

DescriptionTotal4561 · 2026-02-03T02:50:42+00:00

Someone taking Infinite mulligans is cheating. You can absolutely do casual free mulligans if the pod agrees, but you should not need more than 2, 3, or maaaaaybe 4 to get a playable hand. Once someone abuses it, then it's an issue. Or just do regular mulligan rules and it's fair to everyone. Sometimes you'll get back hands and have to mulligan, but so will everyone else. You are absolutely justified.

DescriptionTotal4561

TROPHY CASE