‘Magic: The Gathering Universes Beyond – Warhammer 40,000’ TCG Review
As a long term fan of Magic: The Gathering, I have loved seeing the new “Universes Beyond” series that Wizards of the Coast has been promoting lately. With incredible IP’s like Lord of the Rings, Doctor Who and Warhammer 40,000 being introduced in casual formats, players who have never shown an interest in Magic: The Gathering before are suddenly much more keen to see what the hobby is all about.
One of the best ways to enjoy Magic: The Gathering (MTG) is via a format like Commander (formerly known as Elder Dragon Highlander, or EDH) which is a two to four player game that usually favours three or four players, and which lends itself to a very casual group rather than a more serious tournament format. Because it is casual, Commander games allow players to choose from wide varieties of cards that span years and even decades since the MTG product line first launched. Specifically in relation to Magic: The Gathering Universes Beyond, Wizards of the Coast are also reprinting cards to feature artwork and often characters that are completely new to MTG.
This leads to a hugely exciting crossover between people who play MTG already and are familiar with many cards and sets, and those who are simply interested in the new materials. Whilst some cards are completely brand new, with new names, artwork and abilities, other cards in Magic: The Gathering Universes Beyond are actually old cards reprinted with new art and the same statistics as they’ve always had. This makes the Magic: The Gathering Universes Beyond Commander sets really easy for a group of friends with perhaps one or two MTG players among them to pick up, teach, and play.
Our friends at Asmodee have kindly sent us one of each of the four Magic: The Gathering Universes Beyond: Warhammer 40,000 Commander decks to test, and without giving too much away, these sets have blown my mind. First of all, I can scarcely believe the power level on offer across all these decks – where some of the MTG starter decks have been all filler, no thriller in the past, these decks have no dud cards and on average around twenty rare and mythic rare tiered cards. Considering that in the Commander format, every card in the 100 card deck (except lands) has to be unique, this leads to some absolutely bonkers card combinations.
Before I dive into each deck specifically, let me just give you a brief overview of how a game of Commander works. Firstly, each player receives 40 life (and these sets all contain life tracking dials) and shuffles their deck before drawing seven cards and placing one named card (their commander) face up beside their deck. A player loses if they either lose all their life, run out of cards, or if they are dealt 21 points of damage exactly by any other individual commander card. They can mulligan their cards, but once they have decided on a hand, they lock it in and begin to play.
Play proceeds clockwise with the first player who cannot draw a card on the first turn and the actual rules of the game are exactly the same as in normal MTG. You’ll play one land per turn, spin land cards sideways to pay creature and spell costs and use those creatures and spells to attack other players. In Commander, when you choose to attack, you declare who you wish to attack with each creature – so in a four player game, each player has three targets to choose from. Making deals (which don’t need to be honoured) is absolutely part of the game, and you can trash talk and make agreements off the table to whatever extent your group feels comfortable with.
With that said, you’d normally now need to think about collecting about sixty-something individual cards, plus the appropriate lands, to make up your deck of 100, but thankfully, Wizards of the Coast has you covered – especially if you are a Warhammer 40,000 fan. In the next few paragraphs, I’m going to provide an overview of each of the Magic: The Gathering Universes Beyond: Warhammer 40,000 Commander decks, but remember you can also make your own deck from cards you already have, or you can even bring in Commander decks from other sets. That’s the great thing about casual formats – almost anything goes!
Magic: The Gathering Universes Beyond: Warhammer 40,000 – The Ruinous Powers
The Ruinous Powers deck focusses on the work of chaos, with Abaddon the Despoiler (a 5/5 trample creature with a powerful cascade effect whenever opponents lose life) as its commander. Other notable characters include Be’Lakor, The Dark Master (6/5 flying demon with removal when you summon other demons), Lord of Change (66/6 flying demon with ward and card draw) and Great Unclean One, a 4/5 demon who deals two damage to everyone each turn, and potentially produces token creatures if opponents have less life than you.
Powerful removal spells also feature, with Kill! Maim! Burn! potentially destroying two permanents and hitting an opponent for three for just five mana, Mandate of Abaddon clearing the entire board except your one big threat and Let the Galaxy Burn also offering a board wipe that could leave your creatures standing alone. Mana options include Chromatic Lantern (tap for any colour and all your lands tap for any colour), Exotic Orchard (tap for any mana an opponent could produce), and Sunken Hollow and Foreboding Ruins, which add black/red and blue/black mana respectively.
Magic: The Gathering Universes Beyond: Warhammer 40,000 – Necron Dynasties
The Necron Dynasties deck works perfectly with the existing MTG terminology and mechanics around artefacts and vehicles. Usually led by Szarech, the Silent King (3/4 flying with mill that draws artefact cards), every Necron creature card is also an artefact, and this deck seeks to use synergies associated with the artefact keyword wherever possible. This is demonstrated not only on Szarech himself, but also his lieutenants (and potential Commander alternatives), Imotekh the Stormlord (3/3 with token generation when artefacts leave the graveyard and +2/+2 for another artefact creature each combat) and Anrakyr the Traveller (4/4 with cast an artefact spell using life whenever this card attacks) do the same. These are just three cards among about 50 that either trigger artefact effects or benefit from them.
If you’re in any doubt about a cards status as an artefact, then Biotransference rams the point home by making all creatures you control into artefact cards, and generating artefact tokens at a cost of one life whenever you cast an artefact spell. Artefacts, tokens, life loss, mill and graveyard manipulation – Necron Dynasties has them all, and whilst it can be complex to play, it sure is fun. Direct creature removal is a bit weaker here than in some of these other decks however, with Necron Deathmark (a 5/3 creature that also destroys a creature upon entry), Defile and Go for the Throat being the mains forms of removal. As a mono black deck, Necron Dynasties little in terms of mana fixing, and whilst Sol Ring and a couple of interesting lands are offered, it’s not a major feature of the deck.
Magic: The Gathering Universes Beyond: Warhammer 40,000 – Forces of the Imperium
The supposed “good guys” of the Warhammer 40,000 are the Forces of the Imperium, led by either Marneus Calgar (3/5 Double strike with token creation and card draw off the back of it), or Inquisitor Greyfax (3/3 Vigilance, +1/0 and vigilance to others and clue token creation). These guys share some similarities with the Necron Dynasties in the token creation stakes, however where the Necron’s create some tokens, the Forces of the Imperium create loads of tokens, usually following a big board wipe such as Exterminatus (remove opponents indestructible, destroy all nonland permanents.
Cards such as Commissar Severina Raine (2/2, when attacking opponents lose X life for every attacking creature, and sac a creature to gain 2 life and a card) and Company Commander (2/4, create 1/1 tokens equal to number of opponents, other attacking creatures gain deathtouch) really lean into this, and many cards buff others to add keywords, increase power and defence and generally bulk up the fragile forces of humanity. A few angels (as always in MTG human decks) round things out. As a blue, black and white deck, Forces of the Imperium probably has the “most expensive” mana fixing among these decks, with Sunken Hollow, Skycloud Expanse, Choked Estuary, Darkwater Catacombs and Port Town all featuring among the rare cards.
Magic: The Gathering Universes Beyond: Warhammer 40,000 – Tyranid Swarm
The scourge of the universe (unless you think that of Chaos, or the Necrons…) is the Tyranid Swarm, a red, blue and green deck that focusses on big, nasty creatures led by The Swarmlord (5/5 with two +1/+1 tokens on it for each time it has been recast, and whenever a creature with a token on it dies draw a card.) Notable lieutenants include Magus Lucea Kane (1/1, add +1/+1 counter on target creature at beginning of combat, tap to add two colourless mana and a chance to duplicate mana effects that use X in the cost) and Genestealer Patriarch (4/4, infects creatures when attacking, and creates tokens of that creature when they die. The Magus is great at helping duplicate some of the big creature cards that cost for X (such as Exocrine, a 2/2 that begins with X tokens on it), whilst the Patriarch is big in its own right and steals creatures from other players.
There’s decent removal as well, albeit quite conditional – with Starstorm (X damage to each creature, and cycling 3) offering the only board wipe, plus Mawloc (2/2 with X +1+1 tokens where X is the mana paid, forces a fight between itself and an opponents creature to remove them) and Screamer-Killer (5/5 Trampler with whenever you cast a creature for 5 mana or more, deal 5 damage to any target) offering direct removal. The Tyranid Swarm is a three-colour deck that needs mana fixing, and again Wizards do not disappoint. Temple of Abandon, Game Trail, Exotic Orchard, Temple of Mystery, Temple of Epiphany and Cinder Glade all offer at least two colours, as well as other beneficial effects such as scry.
With all that said, there’s not much more for me to add here, except that I hope you have fun. After I stopped playing MTG competitively due to the cost and time, I felt I might fall out of love with the hobby – but the Commander format made it much easier for me to build decks that I could lend to my friends, and then just play. With the Magic: The Gathering Universes Beyond: Warhammer 40,000 sets, you can do exactly that – just grab a deck each and go for it. If you’re existing Warhammer 40,000 fans, you’ll get all the benefits of the lore that you already love, plus the speed and (relatively) lower point of entry that these pre-constructed decks offer.
Great value for money, great fun, and powerful enough to stand up to anything this casual format will throw at you.
