Upgrading Commander Precon: Forces of the Imperium

The preconstructed Commander decks of Warhammer 40,000 are primarily themed around factions fighting for galactic supremacy. Always eagerly awaited, the Universes Beyond series products unite gamers' passion for Magic the Gathering with other renowned franchises — Warhammer 40k "precons" being the first Commander-exclusive product.

In this article, we will discuss the construction of the Forces of the Imperium deck, its strategies and, finally, we will explore the upgrade options that we have available to enhance it.

The most popular faction in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, the Forces of the Empire aim to retake the galaxy, for humanity!

The Adeptus Astartes know no fear and are the Angels of Death, serving as the first sent by the Emperor to bring death to the enemies of humanity. Their bodies are honed for warfare, bioengineered, and relentless.

Their play style consists of creating large groups of Space Marines, using their keyword Squad to double the value of their cards, Tokens and Vehicles — making your Battle Company look like one big Swarm.

Looking at the commander, Inquisitor Greyfax, it is clear that the proposal is a creatures deck, as her plays the role of lord adding attack and granting vigilance, bringing great offensiveness without abandoning defenses.

Her secondary ability, in addition to removing possible unwanted blockers, generates card advantage through clue tokens. Its presence suggests a Midrange where we build the board carefully and advance gradually, while encountering lords and supports like Ultramarines Honour Guard, Thunderwolf Cavalry and Vanguard Suppressor.

In Esper colors we traditionally have a sub-theme of artifacts where war units are represented Thunderhawk Gunship, Knight Paladin, Reaver Titan, being among the best vehicles in the game because they generate huge impacts.

The list also has a token creation package that supposedly serves the purpose of populating the board and secondarily enabling the activation of vehicle crew abilities. We have cards that when played create large amounts of tokens like Birth of the Imperium, Defenders of Humanity and Deploy to the Front. Other cards create tokens repeatedly like Inquisitorial Rosette, Marneus Calgar and Belisarius Cawl.

The Squad ability allows the same spell to generate a significant amount of bodies, being limited by the amount of mana available. This ability grants the deck a large mana sink, although the colors don't have a great support for this type of strategy, being necessary to complement it with mana rocks. The deck introduced Epistolary Librarian that lets you play large spells without paying mana costs, which is a strong addition.

The precon has a good support of draws and recursions, keeping its breath even if it presents an offensive posture. Sicarian Infiltrator, Marneus Calgar and Vanguard Suppressor generate a large amount of draws, and combined with the enchantments Reconnaissance Mission and Birth of the Imperium and other creatures guarantee a game with solid development.

The largest of the Esper decks have excellent recursion layout, and Forces of the Imperium is no different. It has a robust set of cards that recur resources from the graveyard, of which we can mention Sister Hospitaller, Celestine, the Living Saint, Neyam Shai Murad, and other ways to interact like Redemptor Dreadnought, which allows you to reuse downed units in new battles.

Among the precons of Warhammer 40k, the one that is better built is undoubtedly Forces of the Imperium, given its extreme resilience, ability to interact, and draw cards.

Although there are better cards, the deck is well-balanced, being efficient in answers, pumps and other functions. The changes aim to add more dynamism to its strategy.

Manabase

The precon's land package is basic and very functional. The number of basic lands and “duals” is set by investing in a timed building in the initial turns.

Its large number of corrections, filters and fetches makes it very pleasant to pilot, hardly crashing due to lack of mana. I think a good addition is the Streets of New Capenna location lands for their flexibility. Another nice addition is Esper Panorama, thus replacing Life Lands.

IN

OUT

The extra costs with Squad act as a mana sink using all the available mana, and to maximize its effects we need a lot of ramp, and looking to increase the total mana quickly, the use of artifacts is the most viable and safe.

The deck already has Arcane Signet, Mind Stone and the complete cycle of Talismans in the color identity of the commander. The choice of artifacts was a big hit for Wizards, as was the inclusion of Everflowing Chalice, much needed in this deck.

We've added a few more Signets, Thran Dynamo, and Oketra's Monument which in addition to speeding up the game create extra creature tokens. The Celestus replaces Commander's Sphere with the function of adding additional draws.

Occupying a prominent position, Wizards of Thay allow a substantial reduction in mana costs, as well as altering the speed of spells by granting flash to them.

IN

OUT

Interactions and Removals

The Emperor's Forces come armed with a massive package of removals, whether spot or global. The Exterminatus spell is devastating, managing to remove indestructible permanents from opponents. Other known removals are Hour of Reckoning, Martial Coup and Fell the Mighty, always present in token-based decks.

Some others, like Entrapment Maneuver, depend on opponents' actions, which can pose a problem when facing some decks that avoid combats preventing spells from being played. On the other hand, Collective Effort is a very interesting modal spell. However, its restrictions make it unfeasible at several critical moments, so a substitution is preferable.

We've added Eerie Interlude, Ephemerate, and Momentary Blink, which in addition to protecting important permanents, guarantee extra activations of our ETBs. These ETBs are a powerful tool, and we can multiply their effects with the addition of Panharmonicon extracting more value from our creatures.

Among the permanents that interact directly with the opponent, the cards Sanguinary Priest, Assault Intercessor have little synergy with the deck's strategy. Since it features Vexilus Praetor which grants evasion through protection from everything, the presence of Bastion Protector has its impact lessened. Even if it strengthens our commander, it doesn't have a fundamental role, since even though the deck has Greyfax as an important tool, it doesn't depend on her.

IN

OUT

Tokens

The central theme of this deck is tokens, and Defenders of Humanity, Inquisitor Eisenhorn, Cybernetica Datasmith are cards that belong to this group.

Arco-Flagellant and all creatures with squad are token generators and knowing that we can remove some of them without harming the main strategy of the deck, gaining slots for powerful cards like Entreat the Angels and Wizards of Thay.

Another important part is the amplifiers for these creatures, with which we generate great pressure on our opponents. The deck has excellent and powerful creatures like Ultramarines Honour Guard and Inquisitorial Rosette. However, there are other fragile buffs like The Flesh Is Weak, which is "a double-edged sword" that easily can cause its owner to lose the game.

IN

OUT

Deck with upgrades

Forces of the Imperium diverges from the proposition commonly associated with Esper , offering a proactive deck strategy. It explores a new possibility for blue: creating tokens, which are generally exploited in combinations of blue and green.

Its construction is balanced and very interactive, which makes it one of the most fun decks in the Warhammer 40,000 set. The absence of strong mana sources present in green forces its owner to follow the artifact route, to be able to take advantage of new creatures that have a very high mana curve, making it largely destined for use restricted to casual tables.

We also had powerful cards like And They Shall Know No Fear, devastating in tribal decks, The Golden Throne that will easily be a part of every aristocrat deck. Contrary to what it may seem, this release has new commanders capable of impacting the entire format, as we will see next.

Marneus Calgar

The second commander, Marneus Calgar, is an exemplary creature, and can easily replace the commander who illustrates the deckbox. With a robust build being a 3/5 with double strike, it won't be uncommon to see Voltron decks making the most of the color identity synergy with artifacts and enchantments.

However, its true potential lies in its ability to be a powerful draw engine, synergistic with Treasure Tokens, Clue, and Astartes of its own making. Combined with several Staples, it generates immense additional value. After all, a Shorikai, Genesis Engine, or maybe a Smothering Tithe generating card draw is something to watch carefully.

Conclusion

I hope you found some interesting ideas to improve your deck and get into Warhammer 40000 battles alongside Space Marines. Thanks for reading and good games!

Any questions, I'm available in the comments!