Federation Fleet - Star Trek Precon Guide

Star Trek preconstructed decks were released as regular and Collector's Edition versions.

The Federation Fleet Commander deck contains the following:

• 1 Ready-to-play 100-card Commander deck
• 1 Traditional foil face commander with borderless art
• 99 Non-foil cards, including 32 new-to-Magic cards
• 10 Non-foil double-sided tokens
• 1 Reference card
• 1 Deck box

The Federation Fleet Collector's Edition Commander deck contains the following:

• 1 Ready-to-play 100-card Commander deck
• 1 Surge foil face commander with borderless art
• 99 Surge foil cards, including 32 new-to-Magic cards
• 10 Surge foil double-sided tokens (foil on one side, non-foil on the other)
• 1 Reference card
• 1 Deck box

Jean-Luc Picard, Luminary

In true Star Trek fashion, Jean-Luc Picard exemplifies the role of the captain of a crew just as much as he does for this deck. For he enters play rather inconspicuously to little fanfare, which is a breath of fresh air in comparison to recent precon designs. However once he's in play, he's a deceptively consistent source of card draw that most Commanders can only dream to emulate.

Historic permanents, meaning Sagas (only one in the deck, don't worry about it), artifacts (mainly meaning Spacecraft) and legendary creatures (literally every creature card in the deck) that enter under your control will draw you a card, you at least one additional card in your hand on every one of your turns. That additional card matters for both the deck and your Commander, since his second ability adds a +1/+1 counter on another creature you control and two charge counters on a Spacecraft you control as well.

So we see the want for a second draw per turn, and a mechanism to get them. So as you look at the rest of the deck, just remember that your Commander guarantees that every seek out ability is guaranteed to trigger.

U.S.S. Enterprise-E, Sovereign

The most attractive ship in all of Sci-Fi finally enters the greatest card game in the world and it does so with a (sun)blast! The Enterprise comes out in the nick-of-time to punish your opponents for daring to cross into the neutral zone with attacks. This card is great for clearing the way for your board to then attack with impunity, knowing that your opponents won't be able to hit you with the crack-back.

U.S.S. Defiant, Tough Little Ship

This tough little ship comes into play later on in the game and is able to snipe out the one artifact or enchantment on the field that is causing the most problems on the board. Once it's done that, it very quickly turns into a 7/4 flyer with a cloaking device that prevents your opponents from getting a target lock.

U.S.S. Prometheus, Prototype

For five mana, Picard draws off of this while fully stationing it with his two free charge counters and tapping him, netting us a flying 6/6 beater, which is perfectly fine to begin with. Yet next turn we get to cast something else, add a +1/+1 counter to the Prometheus, station it to the final level, and spread whatever combat damage it deals to one player, to the rest of our opponents. This is a great top end for honestly any midrange deck (looking at you Saskia).

U.S.S. Enterprise-C, Time-Tossed

The U.S.S. Enterprise-C is yet another five mana 6/6 flyer that turns on immediately, but also gives you the option to redo a bad hand. Get this late game when you only have lands left, and exchange it with a whole new grip. Mind you, you can choose to draw off of Jean-Luc Picard, Luminary before or after your discard and draw with the C.

Data, Exploring Humanity

Moving beyond the Spacecraft, the best card in the deck with seek out is Data, as the one card in the deck that actively moves your gameplan forward for free. As the deck could use help getting more of the other seek out cards into play, he'll stay through any upgrade renditions of this deck. Just know that the discovered card will miss the "second draw" per turn.

Ezri Dax, Newly Joined

Once Ezri Dax is in your hand, you'll probably naturally start keeping up two mana in order to make a clutch play with them, which has the secondary benefit of making your opponents think twice about boardwipes. Once they commit to removing a problem card however, you'll get to reap the rewards of whatever enters trigger that creature had, including a draw off of your Commander if that card was three or more mana.

Reg Barclay, Fidgety Fantasist

The second-best seek out ability in the deck also rewards you with another enters trigger off of Picard, but that's about it. Most of the creatures in the deck itself are too small and the clone comes out too late to see that second draw (since that's what's making the clone in the first place). So what ends up being the best card to make a double of is actually Picard himself followed by another mana value (MV) three permanent for double the draw. Clones of Spacecrafts that are currently creatures will not enter with the same charge counters the original has, so you'll have to work on re-stationing it in order to attack with it this turn.

Rom and Leeta, Unlikely Pair

This deck typically taps out on its turn to ensure it gets its second draw a turn, so this card giving you more resources to work with is incredibly helpful. The fact that the Treasures come in tapped is honestly a good balance, because if we end up triggering the second draw ability on other opponents' turns, we'll start our turns with up to six additional Treasures.

Commander William Riker

Commander Rizz Riker is the perfect Number 1 for this Picard-led deck. Play your commander out first, then throw down his second-in-command who triggers your second card draw, and receives the +1/+1 counter from his Captain. Using his haste and vigilance he gets in some damage while keeping at attention to later trigger your second card draw on an opponent (who you've successfully charmed)'s turn.

Tom Paris, Risk-Taker

The true top-end to your deck is Tom Paris. Coming in at six mana as the most expensive creature in the deck, he just says "hey, game's gotta end."

After your board has been building up slowly over time between its +1/+1 counters and Spacecrafts, suddenly receiving flying, double strike, vigilance, and haste all in one go is your sure-fire way of closing out just about any game.

Orb of the Emissary

Alhammarret's Archive is still one of the only cards to give us the benefit of drawing twice attached to a second ability of doubling life gain, doing something that every deck loves to do. Since this deck is so focused on that second draw, this allows you to turn your single draw on an opponent's turn into two. A welcome reprint since the last Commander one in 2021.

Howling Mine

With the release of King T'Challa and Black Widow, Agile Avenger, the need for a Howling Mine reprint has never been greater. That being said, this is the first card you take out of this deck. Not only are you simply giving every opponent an extra card draw for an already guaranteed benefit to yourself, you miss out on the new seek out card you play on your own turn from getting its intended value until next turn. Nice for the collection, but horrible for the deck.

Chronomantic Escape

The last full-on reprint we've seen of this card was back in Future Sight and sorely missed in the Doctor Who precon that dealt with the suspend mechanic, however it works here just all right. Take some time off from being swung at while you station up your ships, but other than that you're not getting any additional value out of this than what's written on the card. Which isn't bad, just not exciting.

Cryptic Command

The ultimate Dilemma card makes its return to help out the Benjamin Sisko deck, but doesn't really have too much going on here. Triple is hard to keep up in a three-color deck but Q art makes up for it. I guess?

Training Center

We love to see more Battlebond lands in our Commander reprints and the world is always looking for more Izzet lands.

• Tom Paris, Risk-Taker
• U.S.S. Prometheus, Prototype
• Commander William Riker

This Jeskai () Precon plays as many of the Jeskai Precons have for the past while, on a new/alternate avenue of attack. The Fallout deck played with Energy, Dr. Who played with suspend, Tarkir Dragonstorm had you focus on casting your second spell, Edge of Eternities's Inspirit played around with Spacecrafts and charge counters, and now we're back at it again.

This time we're asked to play a who's-who of recognizable faces in order to draw our second card and charge up some Spacecrafts that you use to fly overhead and take chunks out of your opponents' life totals. Then you play Tom Paris, Risk-Taker and finish up the game. Go Tom Paris.

• Beverly Crusher, Ship's Doctor
• Worf, Son of Mogh
• Vic Fontaine, One Night Only

The seek out mechanic is not new, in fact it's one that Magic as a whole has done for years, since it's just asking you to draw a second card, something every deck wants to do. Since our Commander lets us more or less ensure we do this for as long has he remains alive, you should play like he is going to be there for you from turn four and onwards.

Since we know we're getting them, we just have to choose which one gets activated first, and cards like Worf, Son of Mogh and Julian Bashir, Frontier Doctor want to be out first to get the most out of them while Data, Exploring Humanity can come out at any time you feel since his upside is always good. Organize your play patterns around whose seek out ability you want to see on this very turn instead of setting up for some future blast.

• Commander William Riker
• Ensign Harry Kim, Operations
• Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct

The deck comes with some tried and true options for drawing two cards on your opponent's turn like Faithful Mending, Thrill of Possibility, and Hedron Archive, all of which do get the job done. Along with other options like Riker and Seven of Nine, we oscillate between discarding cards in order to draw them at instant speed or sharing the spoils with our opponents to draw two.

Add on cards like Ensign Harry Kim and see how you can use the super understated +1/+1 mechanic in the deck to draw cards at instant speed too and the full picture of what the deck could be starts showing.

• U.S.S. Enterprise-E, Sovereign
• U.S.S. Enterprise-C, Time-Tossed
• U.S.S. Defiant, Tough Little Ship

The last portion of the deck is the five Spacecrafts you have available to you, and seeing as how your Commander directly calls them out, clearly it's a means to play a role in this deck. Now four of the five are pretty good and work with getting you card draw after Picard is out and having good enters abilities as well.

Once they're out, they end up being your most consistent source of damage with their flying and large base P/T (Power and Toughness) while your relatively weak creatures station them up. Save on stationing them to full for when you are ready to attack with them.

You don't do much good having them open to removal during your opponent's turns when you can avoid it, so wait until the turn after you play them to turn them into creatures.

• Chief Miles O'Brien
• Geordi La Forge, Innovator
• Howling Mine

The general weakness that the deck faces is in the decision paralysis that arises from choosing which seek out card you want to cast first. When you have to choose between Beverly Crusher, Ship's Doctor for +1/+1 counters, Worf, Son of Mogh for going wide with creatures, or getting started on making Julian Bashir, Frontier Doctor strong enough to affect the game at all; it's very difficult to feel as though you made the right choice.

You also have to come to terms with the fact that turn four is entirely reserved for casting your Commander to get the deck to start doing the thing.

There are again, only five Spacecraft, and that's far too low a number for a card type that is both mentioned on your Commander and is also your primary means of attack in this entire deck besides Tom Paris, Risk-Taker. If any of those five cards are in the lower half of your deck once you sit down to play, much less if they get destroyed for any reason, you're Gagh out of luck.

Take Howling Mine out of this deck before you sleeve up and play. It's never worth it.

Play creatures, play Tom Paris, Risk-Taker, ????, Profit.

But in all seriousness, Jean-Luc Picard, Luminary is the lynch-pin of the deck. Every Seek Out will happen as long as he's there.

As far as the mana base goes, there are actually some interesting things to learn from here when thinking about upgrading this deck, and is in fact an aspect that I tripled down on when doing my upgrade. Now when we look at Jean-Luc Picard, Luminary, we remember that he's looking for us to cast historic cards with mana value three or greater. If the mana rock doesn't cost two, like the Talismans (which are a welcome reprint to see in each of these Precons) then it costs three, which is exactly where we want to be.

• Hedron Archive
• Stonespeaker Crystal
• Commander's Sphere

Having Picard out, playing a land, and then casting a Hedron Archive/Stonespeaker Crystal nets us that second card draw, and still leaves us with three more mana to play Ro Laren, Double Agent, who costs three, triggering our third draw per turn.

Sure, she missed out on seek out this turn, but you net even on cards while remaining primed for playing even more cards on the following turns after that. The Archive, the Crystal, and Commander's Sphere each can be sacrificed to draw cards on your opponent's turns when you're looking a bit low on options.

• Glittering Massif
• Irrigated Farmland
• Coastal Peak

While these are usually a pain to see late game, these lands with cycling are rather good in a deck that wants to draw cards at any given time. You might find that keeping these in hand in order to draw with them on someone else's turn is worth more than a land entering tapped.

• Howling Mine
• Fractured Identity
• Fevered Visions
• Ambassador K'Ehleyr
• Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct

Friends, the Galaxy Class Enterprise-D might be a ship full of families and walks of life, but you're engaging in First Contact on the Sovereign Class Enterprise-E.

For the non-Trek of you, this means we're not here to group hug, we're here to throw hands. So the first things that are out are the group-hug cards. Jumping through hoops and giving all of your opponents the leg-up just to draw one card is entirely not worth it.

• Jhoira's Familiar
• Lady Octopus, Inspired Inventor
• Relic of Legends
• The Seriema
• Hemmer, Fixing What Is Broken

Some budget upgrades, with the highest amount being $3.00, include a historic card that reduces the cost of every historic card in our deck, artifacts and creatures included. Reducing the cost that we pay for an artifact like the U.S.S. Stargazer, Here and There or legendary creature like B'Elanna Torres, Scrapper does not change the fact that they have an MV of three.

So for the cost of one Picard (four mana) we can cast two cards that will trigger his draw, and that's simply perfect. The rest of the choices here flow along those same lines, getting historic permanents in cheaper than before, and also protecting them once they are there like with The Seriema.

• Dawnsire, Sunstar Dreadnought
• Deep Space 9
• Flawless Maneuver
• Captain Jean-Luc Picard
• Trouble in Pairs

Listen, we need way more Spacecraft in this deck, and these choice cards come from both the set and in-universe options like Dawnsire, Sunstar Dreadnought. Any way to increase our count in the deck, but luckily most of them are not too expensive. We also need a few ways to keep our board intact.

Luckily we only need two to three counterspells or indestructible spells to keep the creatures we care about alive. In my upgrade I largely abandoned the "draw on opponent's turn" plan, as I feel it takes a bit too much focus away, however Trouble in Pairs is a one-stop shop for just simply triggering seek out thanks off of your opponents.

• Fierce Guardianship
• Tannuk, Steadfast Second
• Clever Concealment
• The Mind Stone
• Sami, Wildcat Captain

To bring this deck up from a solid, firm Bracket 2 we want to really cut down on nearly all of the Seek Out cards that don't actively push forward on our Spacecraft and +1/+1 counter plan.

Instead of trying to spread ourselves thin on triggering seek out on our opponent's turns, which requires entire cards in our limited 99, replace them with Spacecraft and artifacts that we can make cheaper with cards like Etherium Sculptor and Cloud Key, and very quickly triggering seek out once but drawing four times in one turn feels much better.

Tannuk, Steadfast Second allows us to trigger seek out and get a Spacecraft's ETB for cheap, then allows us to cast it again later on; and if we have things like Sami, Wildcat Captain out by then, we're in business!

To my fellow Trekkies, welcome to Magic: The Gathering, you're welcome here and we're glad to have you. If you're looking to represent your favorite Captain on the battlefields of your new favorite game, then you'll want to pick this deck up! Not only do you get to have a blast playing the memorable cast of the Enterprise-D/E, but you can back them up with the crew of Voyager and members of DS9.

On that axis alone, this deck is more than worth your time, yet for my fellow Magic players, and especially the ones who rock with Inspirit, Flagship Vessel (there are dozens of us!) this deck is right up your alley too! Trust me, while he'll be playing most if not all of the same Spacecraft, he plays very differently than what you're used to and it's going to be soo fun figuring him out!

Listen, any deck that brought the U.S.S. Enterprise-E, Sovereign to life was going to get my vote for Best Deck Ever, but truthfully this deck is very fun, very very fun; and I've already spent a sleepless night or two just fiddling around with it. There are more than enough pathways for this deck to be built for flavor or to the nines, and that's exactly what a Universes Beyond Precon deck should offer.

So I give it a final rating of E.