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Previously on the blog I reviewed what I considered to be the weakest of the Universes Beyond: Fallout preconstructed decks, Science! Today I am back with a review of what I consider to be the strongest of the decks from this series: Mutant Menace. This deck goes in a very different direction from Science! and introduces a new mechanic for the Fallout decks in the shape of Radiation, which I will cover in more detail later.
What’s included in the box
In keeping with all of the decks in this series you get a 100-card deck that contains 2 foil legendary creatures: the deck’s commander, The Wise Mothman; and the backup commander The Master, Transcendent. A thick card foil copy of The Wise Mothman is also included, along with 10 double sided tokens and a cardboard deck box. Again, like other decks in the series, you also get the 2-card sample Collector’s pack. The components overall are high quality and I will happily go on record as being a fan of the thick card foil commanders.
Best new cards
Mutant Menace contains 41 new cards (compared to the 38 in Science!) and to pick a top 5 was really difficult because there are some really great ones both for this deck and to take out and put in other decks both in Commander and in other formats too. However, these are the 5 that I think are the 5 best new cards in this deck.
· The Wise Mothman
Once again, the face commander of the deck is one of the best cards in the deck. For 4 mana you get a flying 3/3 creature which is so-so, but it comes with an enter the battlefield trigger to give every player a rad counter. This also happens whenever The Wise Mothman attacks, and the evasion in the form of flying helps out with that. This is all great so far, but the thing that really caps off this being a great card is the final ability: whenever a nonland card is milled, put a +1/+1 counter on up to X target creatures, where X is the number of nonland cards milled this way. This means that any milling (not just from the rad counters) buffs your team from your commander. This can very quickly get out of hand making your board huge, and further allowing The Wise Mothman to attack profitably. This is a really powerful and fun creature.
· Nuclear Fallout
Boardwipes play an increasingly important role in Commander games to keep your opponents in check, and Nuclear Fallout is a really great addition to the black suite of boardwipes. Being scalable really makes this useful, and the fact that it is in the form of -X/-X debuff to creatures means that this removes indestructible creatures too. The added rad counters mean that this also contributes to the games plan for this deck, meaning it is easier for you to rebuild after the boardwipe.
· Power Fist
A cheap equipment, costing 1 generic and one green mana and having an equip cost of 2 mana, this gives trample and adds as many +1/+1 counters to the creature as it deals in damage. This can very quickly get out of hand, not least of all with The Wise Mothman! But added to any creature with double strike and some kind of evasion this will really make a game end quickly. In play testing with the Fallout decks, if this card got played it made The Wise Mothman the premier threat at the table and meant that unless removal was played quickly, then that was game. For the low casting and equip cost, this is a really powerful and fun piece of equipment in green, without making it unstoppable due to the lack of Ward/Hexproof/Indestructable etc.
· Tato Farmer
Now this one may be showing a little personal bias here, but I stand by my choice. This zombie mutant peasant costs 2 and a green mana for a 1 / 4, but has Landfall, meaning that every land that enters that battlefield under your control gives you the choice to gain 2 rads. This is a very flexible and easy way to control the amount of rads you gain, which plays incredibly well with this deck’s game plan. There are a whole lot of other decks out there that would benefit from a Landfall trigger that can add self-mill so this card has some wide appeal outside of the Mutant Menace deck too. However, the Landfall is not the only ability Tato Farmer has. If you tap the creature, you can put target land from your graveyard that was milled this turn onto the battlefield under your control tapped. This means that Tato Farmer can make use of the self-mill from Radiation to ramp your game plan, and this trigger isn’t limited to once per turn, so if you can find ways to untap the creature you can do it more than once if you have milled multiple lands. This is a really great utility creature.
· Watchful Radstag
A 2/2 for 2 and a green, this elk mutant comes with two abilities on it. The first is the keyword Evolve meaning it gets a +1/+1 counter on it every time a creature with greater power or toughness enters that battlefield under your control, meaning that the Radstag can grow over time. On its own this is ok but not very exciting. However, the second ability really makes for a fun time: every time the Watchful Radstag evolves, create a token that is a copy of it! This means very quickly you can end up with a large number of Radstag tokens that can keep on making more and more copies. This card is a veritable army in a can, and easily makes for a win condition on its own if not dealt with.
Best reprints
One of the most exciting things about a Commander preconstructed deck is looking at what cards have been reprinted in it. This was a big area of weakness in the Science! deck, so does Mutant Menace fare any better on this front? Most definitely yes! Along with a suite of reprinted mana rocks and role-players that you would expect in one of these decks, the following 4 cards are the real highlights in terms of reprints.
· Hardened Scales
A one mana green enchantment with a simple effect. If you get one or more +1/+1 counters, then Hardened Scales means you get that many plus one. A great early turn play, this will keep on having an effect throughout the game in the Mutant Menace deck, and plays very well with The Wise Mothman’s triggered ability to add +1/+1 counters too. This card is a real staple of +1/+1 counter decks and is always a welcome reprint in my eyes.
· Tireless Tracker
Another staple, this time of Landfall decks as well as any Clue deck that includes green, this 3/2 creature for 2 and a green mana also plays very well with +1/+1 counters strategies. Its flexibility lends it considerable power and the ease of triggering Landfall in green means that this a great reprint for both use in this deck and also as something to add to your collection.
· Inexorable Tide
This blue enchantment consists of 6 words in terms of rules text, and yet is an incredibly powerful card. Every time you cast a spell, you Proliferate, meaning that you choose any number of permanents and/or players with counters on them and add another one of those counters. So, in this deck the obvious choices are Radiation and +1/+1 counters, but this card has applications outside of this deck too, meaning it is a really great reprint, which had been creeping up in price before the release of this deck.
· Guardian Project
Another enchantment this time costing 3 and a green mana, this one fuels your game plan through card draw. Every time a non-token creature enters the battlefield under your control if it doesn’t have the same name as another creature you control, you draw a card. In Commander, almost all the non-token creatures have different names so this is very easy to trigger, and allows a constant flow of card draw over time, keeping your hand full and meaning you are less likely to have to rely on top decking. This is a great card in any green Commander deck, and was quite expensive before this reprint, so is very welcome to see in this deck.
How this deck plays
This deck has something I really like: multiple play patterns! The Wise Mothman allows for building wide or tall, and the Radiation mechanic means that self-mill, reanimation and even mill as a win condition are all possible, as well as simply piling rad counters on opponents and draining them out. The backup commander The Master, Transcendent even enables a token strategy by stealing creatures from graveyards (all filled by the Radiation counters). Some of these strategies are better supported than others in the default deck list, but the fact there are so many ways to go is really great to see. In play testing I found that this was definitely the deck to beat and found it fun to both pilot and play against, and I don’t think you can ask for more than that in a preconstructed deck.
Complexity
For all it’s multiple ways to play I found that this deck is actually quite easy to play. +1/+1 counters are a simple (if fiddly in person) mechanic to use and build around, and the Radiation counters are straightforward to work out; however, they do also add to the mental load to play. Having some way to remember to deal with your radiation after Upkeep but before you do anything on your first Main phase can be challenging to remember, and that led to missed triggers a few times. There is also the card Radstorm, which has the Storm mechanic, which can be a little tricky to track, but as it is the only card in the deck that has it, and the results are quite straightforward it doesn’t add too much complexity to the deck. I would say out of the box it is quite easy to pilot this deck, but that it has depth that can be discovered on repeated plays, and this is no bad thing.
Upgradeability
This is a deck that plays with many well supported themes in Magic, with there being ample paths to take this deck down. You might choose to lean in to the Mill theme in the deck, with the deck having both the best colours for Mill available (blue and black) and adding in cards such as Consuming Aberration, The Ancient One and Dreamborn Muse. You could choose to go down the self-mill route and look at cards such as Sidisi, Brood Tyrant, Hedron Crab and Skull Prophet. There is the possibility to strengthen the +1/+1 counter support in the deck, you could around the Landfall, or you could turn it into a tokens deck with the ample support green has for token creation. This preconstructed deck has so many possibilities for upgrading that mean everyone’s version could very much be personalised to their own tastes, or you could leave it as is and keep it as an example of a really well built preconstructed deck.
Overall
In sharp contrast to the Science! deck I was not initially bothered by this deck, and it sort of passed me by as I focussed on the Jeskai deck. However, I quickly realised that this deck is an absolute train when it gets going, and it doesn’t take much to get it going in the first place. With excellent new cards, exciting reprints, a fun new mechanic and the usual excellent artwork expected of a Universes Beyond deck, Mutant Menace is an easy recommend. In playtesting I found this to be the most powerful of the Fallout decks, and one that I would not hesitate to tell people to get. This is exactly what I wanted from a preconstructed deck and then some.
