Star Trek Commander precon upgrades: what each of the four decks lacks, and what to swap at about $25 and $50

We Are the Borg, Klingon Fury, Federation Fleet and Landing Party, measured card by card: what each list does, where it runs short, and named cuts and adds at about $25 and $50.

Aymeric Lamontagne

Nov 5, 2026

The four Star Trek Commander decks reach stores on November 13, 2026, at $74.99 each, and Wizards published all four lists on October 29. That is enough to do the useful part before release day: we resolved every card of every list against our index, counted what each deck holds, and priced named swaps from our archive’s last reading, November 2.

Here is the honest headline: none of these decks needs much money, and none is short where you would guess. A pass at about $25 came to $10.94 for We Are the Borg, $20.01 for Klingon Fury, $21.27 for Landing Party and $21.59 for Federation Fleet. Taking each one to about $50 ends between $41.86 and $50.54. The role counts are mostly fine. What each deck lacks is narrower: the Borg have five cards that pay off on combat damage and no creature with flying printed on it; Worf wants bodies to attack with and the list has three creatures at two mana or less; Picard and Spock each get one card that protects them; and Landing Party has eight basic lands for the eight cards that go looking for one.

This piece covers what each list actually does, where it runs short, what to cut and add at two budgets with the exact printing and price, and whether $74.99 is a fair ask. For the mechanics and the set’s headline cards, read our mid-preview piece; none of that is repeated here.

The four face commanders

• The Borg Queen — We Are the Borg. White-blue-black, seven mana.
• Worf, Defiant Commander — Klingon Fury. Red-white-black, five mana.
• Jean-Luc Picard, Luminary — Federation Fleet. Blue-red-white, four mana.
• Commander Spock — Landing Party. Green-white-blue, five mana.

The four decks, measured

The lists come from Wizards’ decklist article. All four come to exactly 100 cards, and each holds 33 cards printed new in the Commander set by our count. Card text, colour identity and legality were read from our index, rebuilt on November 3; prices from our archive’s last day, November 2. The role rows use the same rules as the builder’s Stats tiles, with the starting targets our Agent reads in brackets.

Three caveats before reading anything into that. First, role counts are prompts for review, not a verdict. The rules read card text and lean on a Scryfall Tagger snapshot dated October 30, which labels only some of the new cards — 19 of Klingon Fury’s 34. Second, they misjudge engines in both directions: Worf’s exile-and-play counts as no draw at all, while Landing Party’s 17 ramp includes Commander Spock, Sun Titan and Starfleet Communicator. Third, no games were played for this piece. Everything below reasons from the lists and the card text.

None of the four lists holds a card our index flags as a Game Changer, and neither does any add below. That is one test, not a power rating: a bracket describes the natural weight class of a shell, not a promise about your list, and the builder’s stats are the place to check yours.

We Are the Borg: what the precon does, and how to upgrade it

The Borg Queen costs seven and does two things: artifact creatures you control get +2/+2, and whenever she enters or attacks, she takes the first creature card off the top of an opponent’s library and assimilates it, which makes it your Borg artifact creature with a +1/+1 counter. The list is built to agree with her. Forty-three of its 62 nonland cards are artifacts and 20 of those are creatures, so her anthem, Tempered Steel and Locutus, the One Who Speaks all read the same line of the type box. Then it tries to connect: Locutus of Borg, Supplementation Node, Co-Option Adjutant, Jurati, Cordial Queen and Hive Mind Coprocessor all pay when an artifact creature deals combat damage to a player.

Two weak spots, and the first is that last sentence. Five cards reward connecting, and no creature in the list has flying printed on it. Flying arrives through charge counters on Spacecraft — six of them on Borg Scout Sphere — or at seven mana through One, Borg Evolved. Before that, the list’s evasion is Extraction Integrant’s menace, Transwarp Hub once stationed and Rogue's Passage.

The second is the shape of its mana. Fourteen ramp cards look generous until you read them: Astral Cornucopia pays three mana per counter, Wayfarer's Bauble takes three mana and two steps to fetch one land, and Stonespeaker Crystal costs four. Meanwhile only Type-03 Borg Vessel discounts every artifact spell, in a deck where almost every spell is one, and thirteen nonlands cost five or more. The mechanism worth spelling out: in this deck a cost reducer is ramp that also discounts the commander every time she comes back, tax and all.

The Borg at about $25: $10.94

That is eleven swaps for under eleven dollars, because Foundry Inspector, Etherium Sculptor and most of the artifact staples were reprinted in Foundations Commander and sat under a dollar on November 2. The Sculptor and the Inspector take the Queen from seven mana to five; Semblance Anvil, imprinting any artifact, takes her to three before tax, and nothing goes lower because the discounts only touch her generic cost. Fair warning on what the tiles will say: Ramp falls from 14 to 9, while cost reducers rise from 3 to 6. That is the trade, and it is only a good one in a deck this full of artifacts.

Two cards that look like cuts and are not. Unwinding Clock untaps your artifacts in every other player’s untap step, which turns each mana rock into a rock on every turn. Forsaken Monument gives colourless creatures +2/+2, and every Borg token is colourless.

The Borg at about $50: $41.86 in all

We stopped short of $50 on purpose. Urza's Incubator is the only expensive card here that does something the cheap ones do not, taking the Queen down another {2} — note that it discounts Borg creature spells for every player, which is rarely a cost. The next candidates, Tezzeret the Seeker ($26.06, MM2 #62) and Urza's Saga ($33.02, MB2 #114), would each take the total well past $50 for one more way to do what the list already does.

Klingon Fury: is the deck worth it, and what to change

Worf, Defiant Commander costs five, brings a hasty 2/1 with him, and does the one thing this deck is about: whenever you attack, exile the top X cards of your library, where X is the number of opponents you attacked this turn, and you may play them until the end of your next turn. Attack all three opponents and that is three extra cards a turn, which is why the draw count of 9 understates this deck by more than any other number in the table. Eight cards in the list use the same "opponents you attacked" count, and 23 of its 24 creatures are Klingons or Warriors.

So the deck’s currency is attackers, and that is the weak spot. Only three creatures cost two mana or less, and eleven cost three or less. Worf brings one hasty token, so on an empty board the pair of them reach two opponents at best, and only from the turn after he lands. Past that, three cards work against the plan or sit idle: Pest Control destroys every nonland permanent with mana value 1 or less, which means your own tokens and your own Sol Ring; Merciful Mandate can end combat; and Right of Vengeance only matters when someone is hitting you.

Klingon Fury at about $25: $20.01

Three of those deserve the sentence. Raiders' Spoils, at ten cents, gives your team +1/+0 and lets each Warrior that connects draw a card for 1 life, and the deck has 16 Warrior creatures plus every 2/1 token Worf and Rite of Ascension make. Skullclamp reads differently here than usual: +1/-1 on a 2/1 token kills it immediately, so {1} is "draw two" as often as you have tokens. Aurelia, the Warleader adds a second combat, and because Worf counts opponents attacked this turn, that second "whenever you attack" exiles the whole batch again, as World at War, Own the Day and Combat Celebrant already do.

The honest cost: the Board Wipes tile falls from 3 to 2, leaving Vanquish the Horde and Ruinous Ultimatum. The Ultimatum is one-sided and asks for {R}{R}{W}{W}{W}{B}{B} from 19 sources of each colour, so it will not always be castable when you want it. Keep The Promise of Kahless next to the Horde, since it returns every other Klingon and Warrior from your graveyard, and keep Koloth, Tribble Hunter, whose goaded Tribbles are two more bodies for Worf’s count every turn. Concerted Effort looks like a cut and is not: at each upkeep it shares flying from Imperial Hullbreachers or double strike from Ferocious Colonist with your whole team.

Klingon Fury at about $50: $47.56 in all

Iroas, God of Victory is the one that changes the arithmetic. Menace on every creature makes a three-way attack hard to block, and because all damage to your attackers is prevented, those attacks stop costing you the bodies Worf is counting. It is not a creature unless your red and white devotion reaches seven, and it is indestructible either way.

Now the search question. Is the Klingon Fury deck worth it? As a deck to play, the case is plain: this is a coherent 100 cards around one engine, and about $20 smooths it. As a pile of singles, the case is weaker, and the numbers are further down.

Federation Fleet: what the precon does, and how to upgrade it

Jean-Luc Picard, Luminary costs four and draws a card whenever another historic permanent with mana value 3 or more enters on your side. Thirty-three of the other 61 nonlands qualify. That card matters more than it looks, because twelve cards in the list carry Seek out, which fires whenever you draw your second card each turn, and the card from your draw step was the first. So on your own turn, a single qualifying spell starts everything: counters from Beverly Crusher, Ship's Doctor, Treasures from Rom and Leeta, Unlikely Pair, tokens from Worf, Son of Mogh, a free spell from Data, Exploring Humanity.

Card draw is not the problem: the tile reads 27, the highest number in the table. Three things are. First, Picard has one protection card behind him, Grand Crescendo, and he is a 2/4 the whole list is leaning on. Second, six cards hand the table free cards — Howling Mine, Ambassador K'Ehleyr, Commander William Riker, Loran of the Third Path, Fevered Visions and Unification — and almost nothing in the list collects when opponents draw, beyond the 2 damage on Fevered Visions. Third, two of the four wipes hit you harder than anyone: Promise of Loyalty leaves each player one creature in a deck running 26, and Chain Reaction counts the creatures you built.

There is also a better use of Seek out sitting one card away. Alhammarret's Archive is already in the list and turns every draw except the first in your draw step into two. Add a second doubler and a way to draw on other players’ turns, and a single draw on an opponent’s turn is already your second card that turn.

Federation Fleet at about $25: $21.59

Three of those work as a set. Mind's Eye costs five, so it draws off Picard as it lands, and from then on {1} buys a card whenever an opponent draws one. With Teferi's Ageless Insight out, that one card becomes two during the opponent’s draw step, and the ten Seek out cards left after these swaps fire on their turn as well as yours. Howling Mine stops being a gift and becomes something you collect on. Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain does it on your own turn: a card when a historic spell is cast, another from Picard when it lands.

The tiles move the way they should: Protection goes from 1 to 4, Board Wipes falls from 4 to 2 on purpose, leaving Supreme Verdict and U.S.S. Enterprise-E, Sovereign, and Removal rises from 11 to 13. Two natural fits stayed out because our index flags them as Game Changers: Narset, Parter of Veils ($0.91, MB2 #32), which would make Howling Mine yours alone, and Smothering Tithe ($55.62, 2X2 #31). Add either knowingly.

Federation Fleet at about $50: $50.54 in all

This is the one deck where the second tier pays for raw effect rather than a new line of play. Akroma's Will with a commander out is both modes at once, which either wins a combat or survives a wipe. Mystic Remora asks for an upkeep payment that grows every turn, so treat it as a few turns of cards rather than a permanent engine.

Landing Party: what the precon does, and how to upgrade it

Commander Spock costs five, and whenever he enters or attacks you reveal the top card of your library. You may cast it free if its mana value is at most your number of differently named lands. A land goes onto the battlefield tapped. Anything still on top goes to your hand. So there is no miss: every trigger is at least a card, and the only question is whether it is also free.

The list answers that question emphatically. Its 40 lands carry 35 different names, because only the basics repeat, so the count is close to your land count. With five different lands in play, 89 of the 99 cards in a full library are either a land or a free spell. With six, 97 are. More names is not what this deck needs. More triggers is, and a trigger needs Spock alive and on the table. The tiles agree on the rest: Protection reads 1, Heroic Intervention, and Removal reads 5, the lowest in the table.

The less obvious weak spot is in the mana. The deck runs eight basic lands, and eight cards go looking for one: Captain Kirk, Boldly Going, Fabled Passage, Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic Expanse, Tranquil Landscape, Cultivate, Rampant Growth and Cold-Blooded Crew. Worse, sacrificing Evolving Wilds for a second Forest takes a name off the battlefield and adds none. And the eight basics are too few for Canopy Vista, Prairie Stream and Sodden Verdure, which enter tapped unless you control two.

Landing Party at about $25: $21.27

The flickers are the point. Conjurer's Closet gives Spock an enters trigger at every end step of yours, on top of his attack, and Roon of the Hidden Realm can do it on anyone’s turn for {2}: exile him during an opponent’s turn and he returns at that end step, revealing again. When the game asks, leave him in exile rather than moving him to the command zone, or he will not come back. The list already has Chief Kyle, Transporter Tech, Balance of Terror and Temporal Tribulation pulling the same way. Swiftfoot Boots covers the other half: hexproof, and haste, so he enters and attacks on the same turn.

One cost we will not hide. The land swaps raise the always-tapped count from 13 to 16, which is already the highest in the table. Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse were tapped lands in all but name, so the real price is one land, and the bounce lands repay it by replaying a land for another landfall. The name count stays at 35. Command Chair leaves only because this deck has 17 ramp cards already; it has an obvious home under a seven-mana Queen.

Landing Party at about $50: $46.79 in all

Breeding Pool is the one shock land to buy first here, because it is a Forest and an Island: Nature's Lore, Farseek, Skyshroud Claim and Krosan Verge can all reach it, so a fetch adds a name rather than a basic. Field of the Dead ($26.51, M20 #247) is the card this mana base looks designed for, making a Zombie on every land once you have seven different names, and it is flagged as a Game Changer in our index, so we left it out of both tiers. If your table is fine with that, it is the first card to consider.

Are the decks worth $74.99?

Start with the comparison. Wizards’ collecting article puts these at $74.99, and Reality Fracture’s Commander deck was $49.99 on October 2, so this box costs half as much again. Here is what the reprints alone came to on November 2, using the same printing rule as the tables above.

On paper, every box clears its price before a single new card is counted. Three reasons not to take that at face value. First, about fifty reprints in each deck are under a dollar, and nobody pays you the floor on a stack of bulk, which is why the third column is the honest one: there, Federation Fleet falls below the box price. Second, the reprints are about to have company. The fourth column swaps in the Star Trek Commander listing wherever one already undercuts the old printing, and it moves Landing Party by $35.52 — Exploration alone, from $29.81 to $9.99, is $19.82 of that. Those listings are thin, but they point one way. Third, the new cards do not rescue the sum yet, because most have no price at all. The ones that do are asks: One, Borg Evolved at $49.95 (TRC #100), Hugh, First of Many at $28.95 (TRC #94), Own the Day at $28.64 (TRC #73) and The Beacon of Kahless at $28.58 (TRC #64). Asks are not sales.

So, deck by deck. Klingon Fury is worth it if you want to play Worf. As singles it is thin: three cards make up 43% of its reprint floor, and eight of its 34 new cards had any price on November 2. We Are the Borg has the most coherent list and needs the least money after the box. Landing Party has the deepest reprints and the most exposed ones. Federation Fleet has the lowest floor, and asks you to supply the protection yourself.

Browse the Star Trek Commander cards — Every Star Trek Commander printing in the card browser, with text and prices.

To try any of this, import the list into the builder as plain text; an account is needed to save the deck. The Stats tiles will show you the counts above, and they will move as you swap. If you want a second opinion on the last few slots, the Agent reviews a Commander deck, its proposed cards are checked against the index, Commander legality and color identity, and you apply or dismiss each suggestion. Until the release data lands, it will not treat the new Star Trek cards as legal.

May your Queen arrive at a discount, your Klingons find all three opponents, and your Spock never be the one who stays behind on the planet.