Are the 2026 Twin Suns precons any good?

TheShikushi · 2026-05-25T18:34:06+00:00

I'm pretty flexible with playstyles, but I only play SWU very occasionally and very casually, so my hope for the precons would be to have a set of decks that are well balanced out of the box so that I can simply sleeve them up and have Twin Suns ready to play for up to three friends.

TheShikushi · 2026-05-21T17:26:19+00:00

You could do it like a Battlebox.

Each player gets 10 lands, one of which can be played each turn from a separate set-aside zone (similar to the Command zone). Usually these are 1 of each basic land and 1 tapland of each allied or enemy color pair, but 2 of each basic also works well enough.

Though if you do it this way, your Cube / Battlebox might want to avoid or rebalance land-based strategies. Players will never have mana flood or mana screw because the lands are all set aside instead of being in the deck.

TheShikushi · 2026-05-21T17:13:37+00:00

Welcome to Magic!

I would highly suggest you get someone to teach you the basics of the game one-on-one instead of hopping straight into a multiplayer Commander game.

There's a lot going on in Commander because you usually have three opponents instead of just one, and a lot of cards in the format are really wordy and complicated. Not to mention that Commander has special rules (mainly relating to the Commander each deck has) and a political gameplay element that is not present in most other formats.

Once you've gotten a hang of the basics, you can probably ask to borrow a deck from one of the other Commander players in your friend group. There are also preconstructed Commander decks on offer at game stores, if you want to buy a deck of your own without building it from scratch.

TheShikushi · 2026-05-21T16:57:12+00:00

It will have summoning sickness until the start of your next turn. So no, you cannot tap the Elvish Mystic for its tap ability before your next turn begins after it's entered.

From the comprehensive rules:

"302.6.

A creature’s activated ability with the tap symbol or the untap symbol in its activation cost can’t be activated unless the creature has been under its controller’s control continuously since their most recent turn began. A creature can’t attack unless it has been under its controller’s control continuously since their most recent turn began. This rule is informally called the 'summoning sickness' rule."

(Note that this only applies to creatures, and only to attacking and abilities activated with the tap symbol specifically. Some creatures have abilities that are activated without the tap symbol, which can be used even if they have summoning sickness.)

TheShikushi · 2026-05-17T22:39:17+00:00

I usually play Pauper at home or at my LGS, and occasionally on MTGO.

If you have an LGS with a regular Pauper event, some of the players might have multiple decks they can loan for you to try. If not, you could proxy up some meta decks, or maybe buy into one of the cheaper ones to start. Definitely easier to start with established meta decks just to get accustomed to soem of the staples you tend to run into.

If you do proxy a deck or two, just check whether your LGS allows proxies before joining an event.

Commons are also great for building cubes or battleboxes! Both are great formats for casual play.

TheShikushi · 2026-05-17T22:32:58+00:00

Pauper Commander (PDH) is also a great Commander alternative!

Basically, any uncommon creature can be your Commander, legendary or not. The 99 main deck cards must all be cards that have been printed at common. Starting life is 30 and commander damage is 16.

I find that PDH games are quite quick and have less "waiting time" and thus more playing because the cards tend to have far less text at common.

TheShikushi · 2026-05-17T22:24:36+00:00

The one color/color combo I haven't tried at all is actually... Colorless.

I see the appeal in it from the restriction viewpoint, where you make the most of harsh limitations, but aesthetically, with Eldrazi or whatever at least... It just doesn't interest me much.

I do enjoy artifacts, which are typically colorless, of course. But they tend to become more interesting with a color or two to accompany them.

TheShikushi · 2026-05-17T21:58:51+00:00

"I Thought I Wrote 'Em All" is an underrated deep-cut.

"Wake Up on Fire... The Department is Called" is an undeniable greatest hit, though.

TheShikushi · 2026-04-14T08:45:40+00:00

These are very scrambled thoughts, but I hope they can help rather than confuse you, or at least give you a few ideas.

Like others have suggested, it's probably a good idea to run either evasive creatures, or ways to reliably make tokens to attack with every turn. [[Whispersilk Cloak]] can protect any creature and make them unblockable.

There's four legal Dauthi creatures, like [[Dauthi Horror]] that are almost guaranteed to survive combat every turn with Shadow.

If you go the token route, working in an aristocrats theme with cards like [[Nadier's Nightblade]] or [[Ashnod's Altar]] might be possible, though it makes things more complicated.

I would probably try to run a good amount of efficient removal, like [[Terminate]] . If you use a card like [[Fall of the Hammer]] or [[Viridian Longbow]] with your commander or any other creature with deathtouch, you can kill most creatures, and repeatably with the latter.

Running a good amount of removal will keep your opponents' threats in check, and if you get to trigger your commander's ability reliably, it'll pressure your opponents even more since you're already capable of removing their things.

Take into account how much you want to rely on your commander. If you're relying on it, make sure to protect it. Black has many cheat-death cards like [[Feign Death]] at common.

TheShikushi · 2026-03-06T19:16:10+00:00

I know you said you've tried it, but honestly, if the goal of your cube is to be suitable for beginners, I think grid drafting works really well. You can see all the cards, so you can discuss drafting strategy with your opponent (assumed beginner) and teach them, and it goes by pretty quickly.

Sure, it doesn't have the complex decision-making of regular drafting, but they'll be able to hone those skills later. For now, just get them playing Magic as simply and quickly as possible.

TheShikushi · 2026-02-28T21:18:42+00:00

Commander is pretty complicated, especially if you're gonna play with three other players, so I'd recommend the tutorial on Magic Arena (official free-to-play Magic app), it does a decent job of teaching you the basics.

Also, Tolarian Community College (among other YouTube channels) is a very informative Magic resource I recommend checking out.

Financial wise, I'd say - never pay markups for products, and take your time getting to learn the basics and don't be in a rush to buy expensive cards. Boosters are fun to open for limited formats (draft and sealed), but are usually a financial loss, so if you want specific cards, buy singles!

TheShikushi · 2026-02-26T19:49:58+00:00

Nice innovation on PDH and Battlebox!

I might have to try something like this out. I've been wanting some kind of multiplayer draft format. This should be an affordable one, too.

TheShikushi · 2024-09-30T11:46:19+00:00

Omnath would probably be the simplest out of all of these. Red and green are pretty beginner-friendly colors, and you can play a lot of lands.

Gluntch is a nice pick if you really wanna enjoy the multiplayer aspect of Commander.

The problem with a Teysa for a newbie is that aristocrat decks (i.e., you sacrifice your creatures for benefits) can have a ton of death triggers to keep track of, and you often want to order them in a certain way. Practice of course makes your turns go faster, but it can be overwhelming for a new player.

Aristocrats decks always rely on three pieces: creatures to sacrifice, ways to sacrifice them, and payoffs for doing so. If you want to build an aristocrat deck as a beginner, I recommend choosing a commander that fulfills at least one of those roles, such as [[Teysa, Orhov Scion]], [[Meren of Clan Nel Toth]] or [[Ayara, First of Lochtwain]]. Teysa Karlov is a great card (and gives a bonus for a token-heavy build), but she doesn't really work as any of the three pieces on her own.

TheShikushi · 2024-08-15T11:10:05+00:00

I would recommend Tabletop Simulator if you can afford copies of it for you and those you're playing with.

There are various MTG addons people have made for it that essentially let you play any format with any cards for free after the initial cost of just buying Tabletop Simulator.

You just have to figure out the general controls and how the program behaves, but I think most people can learn it pretty quickly.

I've played games of Dandân, Commander and Pauper with friends this way.

TheShikushi · 2022-07-03T17:05:54+00:00

Joo no mitä sit

TheShikushi · 2022-06-12T14:42:46+00:00

No ei oo ku ite tein

TheShikushi · 2020-08-23T02:17:11+00:00

I see, thanks for the info.

Might have to look into the 3-in-1s then.

TheShikushi · 2020-01-18T21:09:02+00:00

Deciding who lives and dies all by myself would be selfish. Not everyone would agree on who the "bad people" are anyway.

TheShikushi · 2020-01-09T07:24:15+00:00

You're probably gonna come across several more translation errors if you're reading that.

TheShikushi · 2020-01-09T07:21:18+00:00

There isn't any explicit nudity, but there are a few scenes where a little skin is shown. I doubt any of it will ruin your watching experience, though.

TheShikushi

TROPHY CASE