With Magic: The Gathering | Star Trek pre-release in full swing, I put together five hidden gems players can add to Commander decks to hurt their opponents like no one has before.
Magic: The Gathering is returning to sci-fi once more. Since Edge of Eternities, MTG has seen itself give way to many high fantasy elements with Secrets of Strixhaven, Reality Fracture, and The Hobbit, and with Magic: The Gathering | Star Trek, we are boldly going back to the confines of outer space.
Let’s face it, Star Trek is a momentous space drama wrapped in dramatic lighting, larger-than-life set pieces, and even larger characters that bring everything together believably with remarkable interactions. This is dressed in an optimistic manner befitting a Starfleet captain, and while diplomacy is on the menu in Star Trek: The Next Generation, it’s also present at the Magic: The Gathering Commander tabletop.
These larger-than-life Star Trek characters present themselves on MTG cards, like Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Mr. Spock, Science Officer, but these cards are instant threats with their Mythic rare status and even stronger effects. That, and their instantly recognizable status as Star Trek icons, hardly make these cards hard to find in a set that has 306 main set cards. On these Hidden Gems lists, we look for the true hard-to-find value cards so you don’t have to, and while big bombs like Deep Space 9 are exciting (like Smaug, The Magnificent from The Hobbit), they aren’t exactly Hidden Gems.
Like the Final Fantasy, Marvel Super Heroes, and TMNT universes beyond sets, Star Trek is also home to a suite of reprints referred to as Stardates, and these feature an actor portrait complete with a powerful reprint from Magic: The Gathering history, and there are also powerful new cards present in the four commander decks. If included, these reprints and Commander deck cards would populate the entire list. But we aren’t including those either; this list is reserved for the low-cost, lowbrow cards that will make a difference in-game and not shoot your wallet as a side effect.
What’s listed below are the true diamonds in the rough, cards that may be overlooked while sorting bulk or cracking boosters for a pre-release event. The versatility offered by the following five Magic: The Gathering | Star Trek cards, combined with their currently projected low prices on marketplaces, makes them well worth a look when considering your 99.
70,000 Light-Years from Home
This is a Sorcery variant of Path to Exile, plus one mana cost, and it allows the player to exile Spacecraft as well as creatures. As far as permanent removal goes, exiling is some of the strongest as it stops Indestructible creatures dead in their tracks, and it also assures that you will likely not see the target again once it’s exiled.
Star Trek adds a suite of new Spacecraft to the equation, adding to the utility of 70,000 Light-Years from Home. Existing threats like Dawnsire, Sunstar Dreadnought and Hearthhull, the Worldseed meet their end with this Sorcery, causing your opposition to lose a potential game-winner. You can even turn the effect on yourself if you need to mana correct, as sacrificing a 1/1 creature token could get you a basic land out of your library. Let’s face it, 70,000 Light-Years Away from Home is not the most exciting card, but it’s very powerful.
Resistance is Futile
Not only does this card activate the ‘face a dilemma’ requirement and trigger many other cards from Magic: The Gathering | Star Trek, you have two powerful options to consider when playing Resistance is Futile. What it lacks in ability to crush different types of permanents, it gains it versatility. If you’re playing any Black colour identity deck using artifacts, chances are Resistance is Futile is a staple addition.
Artifact decks commonly use mana reducers like Foundry Inspector, and Resistance is Futile can bring the construct back from the graveyard to the battlefield if he meets his demise. Other artifact tribals staples like Junk Diver, Sol Ring, and Baleful Strix can also be yanked from the graveyard and brought back to life, and if you’re playing a high end deck, even Phyrexian Altar and Ashnod’s Altar can return and continue giving you card advantage. On top of that, if your opponent has a big threat, like a Terror of the Peaks, you can blow it up with just a two mana commitment.
As an odd bonus, cards like Return the Favor can’t be used to deflect Resistance is Futile back on the artifact player, as Resistance is Futile cannot destroy artifact creatures. In a sea of excellent Black identity removal spells, Resistance is Futile is a Star Trek upgrade for artifact decks.
Warp Speed
If you take my favourite card from Lost Caverns of Ixalan—a green enchantment called Spelunking—and you add the Blue colour identity, you aren’t far off from Warp Speed. While it has extra utility, its downside is a loss in versatility in needing the Simic colour identity for your commander. But in play, this card is a force to be reckoned with.
Every land that enters tapped is a boon for your opponents, as it gives you one less mana to toy with on your turn. With Warp Speed, you can play lands and get mana payoffs instantly. With cards like Evolving Wilds, Bountiful Landscape and Myriad Landscape, being able to toss them in the graveyard and get lands ready to squeeze for mana out of your library is card advantage in spades. With cards like Crucible of Worlds and Icetill Explorer, you can double dip on these lands and make your deck more consistent immediately without needing an upkeep to untap your lands.
On top of getting you mana fast, Star Trek‘s Warp Speed also allows you to sacrifice the card in a pinch for card draw; added utility other cards like Tiller Engine and Horizon Explorer don’t have, and their creature status makes them easy targets for removal. Warp Speed also allows you to use its secondary ability when it is targeted, so you can net two card draws and coax an opponent into playing precious removal spells. In the case of Tiller Engine, you can pair it with Warp Speed and really hurt your opponents.
Tal Shiar Analyst
While this card is not the most threatening alone, in the right Commander deck, it becomes a force to be reckoned with. In Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph and Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin decks, this Romulan Scientist is a must add, and in decks that rely on casting non-creature spells like Storm, Force of Nature, Tel Shiar Analyst taxes every one of your opponents an extra life if you continue to press it for the one damage pip after playing a Storm of cards. In a deck helmed by Niv-Mizzet, Visionary, you can absolutely abuse this ability to continue drawing cards on top of dealing one damage.
This card has the potential to do even more damage when paired with cards that untap it without waiting for upkeep, like Seedborn Muse, or Intruder Alarm. This allows you to tap Tel Shiar Analyst more than once on the other player’s turns, keeping pressure up and opposing life totals down. When paired with combo pieces like the Marvel Super Heroes Hawkeye’s Bow and Seeker of Skybreak from way back in Tempest, this scientist becomes a game-ending threat with its ability to drain heavy amounts of life. With Chandra’s Incinerator, Tel Shiar Analyst becomes an absolute nuke when left unanswered.
There’s Coffee in that Nebula
Not only an iconic scene where Captain Janeway steers the USS Voyager in the pursuit of caffeine, There’s Coffee In That Nebula is also a dynamite Magic: The Gathering card that can turn the tides of the table in your favour. Whether you are mana-starved or you just need something that can help, this infusion of nebula coffee can let you search it out.
While the ability alone isn’t good enough for our list, the Beam Me Up addition to There’s Coffee In That Nebula makes it an immediate contender. While searching the top of your library for five cards is good, being able to search five more later on is great, and allows for some serious card advantage over your opponents. As a plus, ETB-triggered commanders like Pantlaza, Sun-Favored, Lord Xander, The Creator and even Thanos, Mad Titan (with Power-Up) can benefit from an extra cast when you’re in trouble. It also helps the player filter their card for another search, without needing another card in the 99 to do so.
That wraps up the Top 5 Hidden Gems from the Magic: The Gathering | Star Trek set! Of course (like always), this is not the entire list of viable cards from Magic: The Gathering | Star Trek, just the ones I’m considering as ‘must adds’ in my decks day one on the release of Magic: The Gathering | Star Trek. Magic: The Gathering | Star Trek pre-release events are happening all week, so fans can head to the official WoTC website to check for any events near them. Magic: The Gathering | Star Trek officially engages with tabletops fully on November 13, 2027.
