As Dominaria is the 1st world (also known as plane) where Magic: the Gathering began, it only makes sense that Wizards of the Coast would want to go back to the basics of what makes the game fun. The thought of casting Legendary Creatures who have made their mark in the lore, or having access to any and every spell in its history, are sumptuous to say the least.

But how does that affect power level or playability of precon decks – do too many cooks spoil the broth? We’re here to find that out with a full review of the 2 Dominaria United Commander precon decks. Legends’ Legacy focuses on playing Legendary Creatures and synergy, while Painbow tries to unleash 5 colour spells to outmanoeuvre the opponent.

Before we get started, a quick recap on our rating system:

Power Level: How likely can the deck hold its own and win against the other recent precon decks?

Value: How good is the deck in terms of financial value of reprints, as well as future potential gain?

Upgradability: How easily can this deck be upgraded and optimised with a small budget? A high potential for upgrades will lead to better scores.

Beginner Friendliness: How easily can a beginner pick up and learn the mechanics of the deck?

Legends’ Legacy Precon Deck

Overview

Led by the Planeswalker Commander Dihada, Binder of Wills, Legends Legacy is a red, white, black deck that tries to make the most use of Legendary Permanents and triggers. It’s a fun iteration of the “super friends” deck – think of it as Magic: the Gathering’s own Fellowship of the Ring where you combine different heroes of different backgrounds and traits to eke out a win.

Power Level

The game plan is quite straightforward. First cast any of the 28 Legendary Creatures in the deck. Next you get Dihada, Binder of Wills onto the Battlefield. Her ability to give a Creature Vigilance, Lifelink and Indestructible for 1 whole turn cycle will be crucial to establishing a presence since any Creature will be able to attack and still protect Dihada (thanks to the Vigilance and Indestructible traits).

Next, pump down some Equipment to attach onto a Creature and you are in serious beatdown mode. Tenza, Godo’s Maul and Hero’s Blade are specially included here because they benefit Legendary Creatures. To round off, Day of Destiny and Sword of the Chosen also help make your Creatures bigger.

This Battlecruiser mode of slowly building up your Legends can be good against other similarly built decks, but might struggle against other decks that like to go wide with dozens of Creature tokens. One or 2 big Legendaries may not be enough to stop a swarm of goblins pounding at your door.

A big part of the strategy also relies on your Commander Dihada staying alive. Without the keyword buffs or her 2nd ability of digging for more Legendary Creatures, your castle will fall apart pretty quickly. From a paper standpoint, the Creatures included in the precon deck also don’t synergise that well with each other.

Value

Before its official release, Legends’ Legacy has a couple of highly-valued cards thanks to perceived potential in Commander and other formats. One of them is Gerrard’s Hourglass Pendant, an Artifact that stops players from going off with a combo for unlimited turns. Since it has Flash, it can catch the opponent by surprise, and as an added-on bonus, can also bring back most of your Permanents to the Battlefield after a board wipe spell like Wrath of God.

The other new, dangerous looking card is Reaver Cleaver, an Equipment with the ability to create Treasure tokens equal to the combat damage dealt to a player. Treasure generators are highly sought after since they allow players to ramp into their combos or finishers much faster, as players have experienced first hand through Dockside Extortionist.

The biggest dollar prize goes to the reprint of Shizo, Death’s Storehouse, a Land that is included in many Commander decks because of its ability to give a Creature Fear (cannot be blocked except by black or Artifact Creatures). It’s only been reprinted once since 2004, so the price has been in the steady $30 region for some time now. That price will likely dip, but it’s a good bet it will still retain value in the long term.

Upgradability

There’s a lot that needs to be done for the Legends’ Legacy precon deck, and that’s a good thing. Its Commander Dihada, Binder of Wills is a good focal point for your Legendaries, but there are better options for the Creatures themselves than what is included in the deck.

One easy upgrade is to include Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful into the deck. It’s a cheap 1-Mana Creature that gets bigger for every Legendary cast, and the deck is already full of them. We would also take out the high-costing Bladewing, Deathless Tyrant and Zetalpa, Primal Dawn since this is a rather slow deck.

Obosh, the Preypiercer will be a nice damage doubler, even if it only affects a segment of your Creatures. Selfless Spirit, while not a Legendary Creature, might be a good way to protect your Creatures in the event of a board wipe. Avacyn’s Memorial could be a good inclusion too, although you will have to weigh the high casting cost over its incredible ability.

Beginner Friendliness

Legends’ Legacy checks many boxes for beginner friendliness. Most importantly, the theme is fun and players are introduced to several of the secondary characters of the game such as Krenko, Josu Vess, and Neheb. The deck strategy is also linear and easy to follow, where likely a player will only cast 1 spell a turn until well into the game.

Knowing when to cast and attach Equipments instead of planting another Creature onto the board might confuse new players but they will hardly go wrong one way or the other. Just as Wizards of the Coast had intended, this Dominaria United precon deck is a great entry into either the game or the Commander format.

Final Verdict

We’re pleasantly surprised that an offbeat theme revolving around Legendaries can show a high level of fun, without sacrificing too much on competitiveness. Legends’ Legacy has even included a few valuable cards that will entice even some collectors. The deck may find it hard to dominate on the Battlefield, but it’s an absolute win as a gift or for someone who is trying out their 1st Commander game. (4.2 out of 5)

Buy Legends’ Legacy!