Alright, so this Modern Horizons 3 Eldrazi Incursion precon deck. You’ve probably heard about it. I decided to pick one up myself, see what all the excitement was about. My local shop had a few, so I snagged one. Figured it’d be a bit of fun, you know, sling some big, colorless monsters.
First Impressions Out of the Box
Getting it home, I did what I always do. I cracked open the box, that new card smell hit me, and I laid everything out. The big Eldrazi cards, they looked cool, no doubt. The art is something else these days. There’s a bunch of new stuff in there, which is always a bit of a gamble. You look at the decklist online, sure, but it’s different having the cards in your hand.
I spent a good hour just going through it, card by card. Separated the creatures, the spells, the lands. Trying to get a feel for how it’s supposed to work. They give you this fancy little insert that explains the strategy, but I usually take that with a grain of salt. It’s their sales pitch, after all.
Taking it for a Spin
So, the next step was to actually play the thing. I called up a couple of buddies, and we got some Commander games going. I sleeved up the Eldrazi Incursion deck, gave it a few good shuffles – you know, the kind where you hope you mix it well enough but don’t bend your new cards – and dove in.
The first game? A bit of a mess, honestly. I was struggling for mana. Everyone says Eldrazi, you need tons of mana, and yeah, the deck has ramp, but it felt… clunky. I’d draw into big expensive creatures but not have the lands or the mana rocks to cast them. Or I’d get the mana rocks, and then draw more mana rocks. One of my friends was playing this super-fast aggressive deck, and I just got run over before I could do anything really impressive.
We played a few more games over the next couple of days. Sometimes it popped off. I’d get a good opening hand, hit my land drops, cast a big ugly Eldrazi, and then things would get interesting. There are some powerful cards in there, no question. When it works, it feels pretty good. You feel like you’re doing the big, splashy things the deck promises.
The Cracks Start to Show
But after a few more plays, I started to see the issues. It wasn’t just bad luck with draws. The deck felt a bit… unfocused? Like they wanted to do a few too many things at once. You’ve got the big Eldrazi, okay. Then you’ve got some support cards for them. But then there are these other cards that feel like they belong in a different deck almost. It’s like they had a checklist: “Big monsters? Check. Card draw? Sort of. Removal? A little bit.” But it didn’t always feel like a cohesive machine.
It’s a bit like some of those potluck dinners, you know? Everyone brings a dish. Some are amazing, some are okay, and some just don’t quite go with anything else. That’s what this deck felt like at times. A collection of individually decent cards that didn’t always sing together.
I found myself thinking, “Okay, this is supposed to be an ‘Incursion,’ right? Like an overwhelming invasion.” But half the time, it felt more like a hesitant scouting party that got lost. I’d be sitting there, staring at a hand full of seven-plus mana cost spells and just praying to draw my next land.
Trying to Patch it Up
So, naturally, I started tinkering. That’s the next phase, isn’t it? You get the precon, you play it, you see what’s weak, and you try to make it your own. I looked through my collection, dug out some other colorless cards, some better ramp options, maybe a bit more consistent card draw.
I made a few swaps. Took out some of the cards that felt like dead weight most of the time. Added a few pieces that I thought would smooth things out. More Sol Rings or Mana Crypts are always tempting, but I tried to keep it reasonable, focus on what the deck wanted to do.
The result? A little better, yeah. It felt a bit more consistent. I wasn’t getting mana screwed quite as often. But it still wasn’t this unstoppable Eldrazi juggernaut I had pictured in my head. It’s a lot of work to make these things truly hum, and sometimes I wonder if it’s worth it, or if you should just build from scratch.
It’s an Old Story, Really
This whole experience reminds me of when I first got into these preconstructed decks years ago. There was this one time, I bought a planeswalker deck – yeah, I know, planeswalker decks, not exactly top-tier – but I was newer then. I was so excited. The box art was cool, the main planeswalker seemed powerful. I took it to a casual event at my store, thinking I was going to crush it.
And I just got demolished. Game after game. Turns out, those decks are often pretty underpowered, designed more to teach new players than to actually win consistently. I was pretty disheartened. Spent ages trying to ‘fix’ that deck, buying boosters, trading for singles. In the end, I probably spent more trying to upgrade it than if I’d just bought the singles for a decent budget deck in the first place.
It’s a bit like that with some of these fancier precons too. They’re better now, much better than those old planeswalker decks, for sure. But there’s still that element of them being a product designed to sell packs or a new set, rather than being the perfectly optimized machine you might hope for straight out of the box. They give you a taste, but you gotta do the real cooking yourself.
So, Where Am I At With It?
Look, the Eldrazi Incursion deck isn’t bad. It’s got cool new cards, some real powerhouse Eldrazi, and it can definitely do some fun stuff. If you like Eldrazi, and you want a starting point, it’s probably a decent pickup. But go in with your eyes open. It’s not going to win every game for you right away. You’ll likely want to tweak it, customize it, make it your own. And that’s part of the fun, I guess. Or part of the frustration, depending on the day.
For me, the “practice” continues. I’ll keep fiddling with it. Maybe I’ll find that perfect combination of cards that makes it really sing. Or maybe it’ll end up being a source of cool Eldrazi singles for other decks. Only time will tell. But that’s the journey with these things, isn’t it? You get it, you try it, you curse at it a bit, and then you try to make it better. That’s the game.
