Over the next month, Goonhammer will be covering the release of the Universes Beyond: Commander 40,000 decks, as well as the 40k themed 3 Secret Lair decks.
The preconstructed decks consist of:
- Tyranid Swarm – Green/Blue/Red aka Temur
- Forces of the Imperium – White/Blue/Black aka Esper
- Necron Dynasties – Mono-Black
- The Ruinous Powers – Blue/Black/Red aka Jund
Then the 3 Secret Lair decks to follow are:
- Secret Lair x Warhammer 40,000: Orks
- Secret Lair x Warhammer Age of Sigmar
- Secret Lair x Blood Bowl
Goonhammer won’t be providing day-to-day coverage of previews but rather comprehensive coverage of the new cards in each of the decks, with an overview of the new cards and commentary on them, as well as a breakdown of how to play the deck out of the box, and then a subsequent upgrade path(s) for each deck if you chose to purchase them and want to improve them.
We’re also working on a quick-start guide for players who have never played Magic, or players who’ve played a bit of Magic but never Commander, or those who just want a refresher.
Universes Beyond
BPhillipYork:Â I’m probably the person least familiar with 40k here, but from what I know of playing a few games in 9th edition, reading various Codexes, spending 3 or 4 years not painting my Tyranid army, and playing quite a few Games Workshop video games, WotC and GW are really knocking it out of the park with their take on 40k. The cards are interesting and powerful enough to be impactful. The art is awesome. Doing full 40k art decks even for reprints was a great call in my opinion. I’m actually hopeful they print more Universes Beyond: 40k, which is the first time I’ve had that desire about any of the Universes Beyond products. I’m loving some of the little nods, like the chaos deck being several deck concepts merged together in a nod to the nature of chaos. The Tyranid deck is sort of battlecruiser-y, but it’s pretty pushed in power and there are interesting mechanics interacting with each other. All in all, I’d say this release is being knocked out of the park. In fact, for someone who generally just uses playtest cards, I’m thinking of just buying these decks. I also like the idea of playing the 40k decks against each other, maybe including the Secret Lairs.
FromTheShire:Â As the resident ancient grump who owns most of the original Magic novels and actually cares about the lore of the setting, I’m still not super stoked about Universes Beyond. Yes, theoretically I could refuse to play against these decks because I think the idea of Jace being cut down by Abaddon is pretty dumb, but that’s a shitty thing to do, even if I don’t like Wizards putting me in the position for that conversation to even exist. For me personally there is a certain feel to the universe of Magic and I draw the arbitrary line of what fits and what doesn’t somewhere between Urza building a bunch of battle mechs to fistfight all of Phyrexia and a Space Marine gunning down Llanowar Elves. HOWEVER, ALL OF THAT SAID….. these decks fucking slap. The flavor of each 40k reference they capture is absolutely spot on, the mechanics are interesting, the decks themselves seem strong and well built without being busted, the art is incredible. Despite having grumbled about the slippery slope since the first Walking Dead reveals, I know these are going to keep being a thing because they’ve proven wildly popular, and for the first time I’m impressed enough with the product that I’ve pre-ordered all 4 decks.
Beanith: I’m still pretty new to Nerd Poker, only having started playing Magic in June thanks largely to the Universes Beyond: Commander 40k decks being announced earlier this year. I’m still so new in fact, I have no idea what the hell Temur/Esper/Jund means in relation to the decks but I’m not afraid to find out by bothering the grownups. The artwork on the cards are fantastic and I’m already looking forward to seeing how many truly terrible mishmash decks I can come up with using the just the cards from these 7 decks.
I’m already very keen to see what I can do with Morty and his Nurgle friends.
TheChirurgeon: I absolutely love this. I was on the fence initially, but everything I’ve seen from the card reveals has absolutely knocked it out the park. Also I think I’m a lot more OK with Universes Beyond that take from either mythology and classic literature (aka Dracula or Arabian Nights) or other fantasy-heavy games like Warhammer or even Street Fighter than I am with Universes Beyond that reference movies and TV shows like Stranger Things or the Walking Dead, particularly if they’re set in the modern day.
Anyways, the decks look like straight fire, I’m getting all of them, and I’m excited to talk about these cards this week. See you all tomorrow.
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