Foundations Commander

The Five Decks and What Each One Teaches

Calling All Angels is mono-white behind Giada, Font of Hope, a two-mana 2/2 with flying and vigilance that taps for white to cast Angels and makes every subsequent Angel enter with an extra +1/+1 counter for each Angel already on the battlefield. It teaches curve and board building: play them in order and each lands bigger than the last, with Righteous Valkyrie converting the lifegain into a second anthem.

Keen Engineering is mono-blue with Sai, Master Thopterist, who turns every artifact spell into a 1/1 flying Thopter and converts spare artifacts into cards. It teaches value and resource conversion. Master of Etherium and Nettlecyst scale with the artifact count, while Myr Battlesphere and Steel Hellkite wait at the top of the curve.

Wretched Ranks is mono-black with Ghoulcaller Gisa, who sacrifices a creature to make that creature's power in 2/2 Zombies. It is the most immediately legible engine in the set: feed her something large, receive a board. Grave Titan and Noxious Ghoul reward going wide, Death Baron and Undead Warchief make the tokens hit hard, and Gravecrawler keeps climbing back out of the graveyard.

Reign of Dragons is mono-red with Lathliss, Dragon Queen, a 6/6 flier who brings a 5/5 Dragon token along with every nontoken Dragon you cast. It teaches the payoff of committing to a theme. Dragonspeaker Shaman and Dragonlord's Servant make the curve affordable, and Dragon Tempest and Scourge of Valkas turn each arrival into damage.

Tramplesaurus Rex is mono-green with Ghalta, Primal Hunger, who reads twelve mana and almost never costs it, because the spell costs one less for each point of power you already control. It teaches the most satisfying lesson in green: build a board, then cast a 12/12 trampler for two. Elvish Mystic and Llanowar Tribe start it and Garruk's Uprising converts the whole thing into trample and cards.

How They Compare, and Where They Land

Wizards has tried this before. The Starter Commander Decks arrived on December 2, 2022 as five two-coloured decks — specifically the five allied pairs — and the shift to one colour here is the clearest signal of what was learned: two colours is one more decision than a first-time Commander player needs. Two of these decks go further than inspiration. Comparing all five new lists against all five from 2022 card for card, 57 distinct cards appear in both product lines, and they cluster: Reign of Dragons shares 23 with the 2022 Dragons deck, Draconic Destruction, and Wretched Ranks shares 20 with the 2022 Zombies deck, Grave Danger. Those two were rebuilt as mono-colour decks and renamed.

For an existing player, the interesting question is not whether these are strong but where they sit. Starter products are deliberately built below the level of a seasonal Commander precon, which means they make good loaner decks and good first opponents but will be outclassed in a pod of upgraded lists. Knowing that before you sit down is exactly what the bracket conversation is for.

Every one of the five decklists is on this page in full, and each can be run through the EDHcheck analyzer for a power score, a WotC bracket and a card-by-card breakdown. That is the fastest way to see what a starter deck actually needs before it can hold its own at your table, and which handful of cards would do the most.