Upgrading Commander Precon: Buckle Up

Hello Commander readers!

Preconstructed Commander decks — from now on just called “precons” — are widespread among Commander players. Its release is usually expected with a certain expectation by a good portion of the players, since these products represent an easy and objective way to enter the format or to have a taste of the new sets.

In the next articles, I will discuss the construction of the two new precons from Kamigawa, Neon Dynasty, their strategies, strengths and flaws that eventually should be considered by someone who intends to acquire them. Finally, I'll explore the upgrade options we have available to improve decks to the extent possible.

In this episode, we'll talk about the blue and white deck: Buckle Up. Read here about the upgrades unleashed deck.

When we take a look at the commander, Kotori, Pilot Prodigy, it's easy to deduce that this is a vehicle deck. In fact, there is some specific support for this theme, with cards like Drumbellower, Armed and Armored, Peacewalker Colossus and some of the more interesting vehicles that could integrate this type of strategy (which are not are many). However, it's also hard not to notice that most of the deck is made up of cards that add to a more generic artifact deck, like Master of Etherium, Indomitable Archangel and many others.

Since vehicles are also artifacts it is natural for this to happen, but what is important to say is that this deck should be evaluated as an artifact deck pure and simple, with vehicles being a secondary theme. That's at least considering the way it comes in the box.

The list also has a very modest token creation package, which is supposed to serve the main purpose of enabling the activation of vehicles' crew abilities.

Another feature of the deck is its great disposition for recursion. It has a robust package of cards that return graveyard resources such as Imperial Recovery Unit, Ironsoul Enforcer, Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle, Emry, Lurker of the Loch and others, which somewhat compensates for its relatively low amount of effective draws and allows for better use of loot from Smuggler's Copter and Riddlesmith.

The deck has a relatively high mana curve, but it's accompanied by a very robust mana acceleration package, which helps it not be slow.

Ultimately, your victory condition is based on your creatures and combat. The precon only has a minimum number of removals and seems to care less about interacting with possible threats from opponents and more about creating its own threats. The deck's technologies essentially serve to support the battlefield and allow the construction of an army strong enough to impose an aggressive pace of play.

And this is where vehicles really play a more significant role, as they constitute the bulk of the deck's bombs. High-impact creatures form the bulk of the firepower here. Support cards like Katsumasa, the Animator, Aeronaut Admiral, Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage and the commander himself offer evasion and other extra qualities to improve the functionality and lethality of these creatures.

Buckle Up offers an aggressive white and blue deck proposal, which in a way is a bit out of the ordinary. It also tries to explore the possibility of adding blue to the vehicles sub-theme, which was once only between white and red. However, my feeling is that the lack of red is too steep, and to make up for it, you had to fill the deck with cards like Master of Etherium and other generic artifact supports. This somehow ended up diluting its main theme, which in my opinion should have more focus on vehicles.

Kotori, Pilot Prodigy, which seems to have been designed specifically for a strategy that cared about vehicles, ended up being a little faded. At the same time, there are better options than her for artifact decks within the blue and white. That said, I consider this deck — as well as most of the other precons that have been released recently — as having an interesting proposal, but it could be much more fun and better used if it had the addition of red in its color identity. However, I understand this would deviate from the flavor established in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty for the Saber Futurists faction and the moonfolk, which doesn't have much to do with red.

Adding all this to the fact that the vehicles theme is still underdeveloped in the Commander metagame, the result is that in terms of upgrades we have a deck that is limited to the few new card options that have been released in Neon Dynasty, in addition to a something or other that came out earlier. The good thing is that the precon is already well-equipped with many of the best cards that a UW Vehicles deck could have, making it a good option for someone who wants to buy a semi-ready deck without having to change it too much.

Since the precon is already well assembled (as far as it is possible to do with the deck), I believe there is little need for upgrades, although there are better cards that can be included to add to your strategy.

Lands

Its land package is simple and functional. Largely composed of basic lands and the rest of “duals” lands capable of generating both blue and white. I was pleasantly surprised that most of these lands can come into play untapped, which is different from the usual for Commander precons, which are usually filled with lands that come into play tapped.

Of course, there are better mana-generating lands that can be added to the deck, such as Hallowed Fountain, Glacial Fortress, Sea of ​​Clouds, among many others; but these upgrades aren't exactly necessary, unless you already have these lands left over or really want to invest heavily in the deck, I see no reason to use better dual lands here.

As for utility lands (those that do more than just generate mana), there are some interesting upgrade options to consider. I'd start with artifact lands — like Razortide Bridge — which despite only generating mana can aggregate on the battlefield with effects that care about the number of artifacts on the board, like Master of Etherium and Indomitable Archangel.

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Still following the line of replacing basic lands with utility lands, we have the following other upgrade options:

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Draws and Recursion

Every Commander deck needs ways to draw new cards to some degree. This deck comes standard with a rather simple package (7 cards). While it's a little lower than what you'd expect from a blue deck, part of this pack's function is offset by the graveyard and library recursion cards, which balances things out.

Still, I would consider dropping some cards, like Riddlesmith (as it doesn't really represent an effective draw) and Jace, Architect of Thought (which appears to have simply been thrown in here to have a cheap planeswalker). I consider Fallowsage to be a good addition option, as he would make a perfect crewman for vehicles, while Cosima, God of the Voyage (asThe Omenkeel) can offer a lot of card advantage in a deck like this one.

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Other Upgrade Options: Thirst for Knowledge, Bident of Thassa, One with the Machine, Silent Submersible. And for those of you who insist on having a planeswalker in your deck, consider Tezzeret, Betrayer of Flesh, Tezzeret the Seeker, Teferi, Temporal Archmage or Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset.

Vehicles, Crew and stuff

As stated earlier, Buckle Up comes with most of what you'd expect in an Azorius vehicle deck. Yet, the precon designers strategically left some things out for us to chase after.

Fortunately, none of them are too expensive or difficult to find. Giant Ox, Gearshift Ace, Hotshot Mechanic are some examples of creatures that serve as good crew, while Consulate Dreadnought becomes especially aggressive towards the in-game commander. However, the two alternatives I consider the most are Kitsune Ace and Mindlink Mech, both from Kamigawa's main set.

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Another thing worth considering is that Kotori, Pilot Prodigy's second ability can affect any artifact creature, which means non-vehicle bombs can also become more lethal with the commander's help. With that in mind, I would consider the following final changes:

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Alternate Commander

As usual in Commander precons, there is an alternate commander option, which in the case of this deck is Shorikai, Genesis Engine. It is possible to adapt the precon's strategy to accommodate him as commander in place of Kotori, Pilot Prodigy, although doing so would require more deck changes and a greater inclusion of reinforcements.

A deck with Shorikai should be built to exploit its activated ability, which is capable of offering card advantage at a low cost. Untap effects of creatures and/or artifacts (Voltaic Key, Clock of Omens and Unwinding Clock) are very useful, enhancing the commander's draw ability. The drawback of discarding cards can also easily be turned in your favor, through graveyard recursion cards (already well present in precon) and other synergies. Moreover, the tokens created scale so that the excessively high cost of crewing the commander can be paid, making Shorikai a real bomb and eventually even a good candidate for voltron.

Hope you found some cool ideas to improve your Buckle Up precon. If so, or if you had even better ideas, let me know in the comments below.

See you in the next episode with the next Commander precon from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty.