Magic: The Gathering has been on a roll with their Universes Beyond series, a product line that adapts outside properties like Doctor Who and Tolkien’s legendarium into its tried-and-true mechanical format. The latest, Fallout, follows in the tradition with over 150 original cards, available either in Collector Boosters or in four preconstructed theme decks.
Though they’re legal across Eternal formats, Commander is the real place where Universes Beyond sets shine, and the Fallout cards are no exception. The set manages to pack in allusions to the series’ most prominent legends, factions, and tropes, from the Synths to certain mutant tree folk to key gameplay concepts like V.A.T.S. targeting. Fans of the Bethesda-era games can soak in the nostalgia, while newcomers may just have their curiosity piqued for the source material.
If the debut of the live-action adaptation on Prime Video this week isn’t enough to set your world on fire alone, we’ve pulled together a list of our favourite cards from Magic: The Gathering‘s take on Fallout to shake up the Commander format, and help you add a dash of post-apocalyptic retro flavour to your favourite decks.
5) Dr. Madison Li
There are 52 legendary creatures in Magic: The Gathering—Fallout, with the majority of main NPCs from the modern games represented; name your favourite Wasteland faction, and you can probably build a Commander deck around them. The card you choose as your actual commander is crucial, as it informs the colours of spells you can use in your deck, so for my money, I’m inclined to name Dr. Madison Li the most intriguing Commander option in this Universes Beyond collab (but that may be the Boros player in me).
With this colour combination, you can splash in some Brotherhood of Steel legends like Sentinel Sarah Lyons or Elder Owyn Lyons to play with the artifacts or charge with Liberty Prime, Recharged (who also benefits from Madison’s energy counter ability). My first inclination was to go for the big robot myself, but the doctor’s cost is more accessible on repeat summons and can synergize with more deck types.
4) Grim Reaper’s Sprint
Grim Reaper’s Sprint is a flavourful interpretation of the perk it gets its name from in the Fallout games, which restores Action Points after slaying an enemy with V.A.T.S. targeting. In MTG, the effect is an Aura instead, which costs less if a creature has already died this turn. It gives the enchanted creature +2/+2 and haste, and when it enters the battlefield, it activates another combat phase.
The ideal scenario is to use it after your first combat phase, especially if you can take out a defender and lose an expendable creature in the process. Alternatively, you could destroy a creature with a red burn or a black destroy spell, play a new attacker, hasten them, and pound on your enemy. If it’s a multiplayer gamer, you can use that additional combat phase to attack a different player instead. Either way, getting this into play for only two mana offers a pretty decent return on mana investment.
Beyond the Fallout set, Grim Reaper’s Sprint could see a lot of utility—after all, how many red decks couldn’t benefit from another combat phase? My first instinct is to throw it into a Samurai and/or Warrior deck and combo it with Raiyuu, Storm’s Edge, but Commander has a lot of potential ways to keep extending a turn with more phases, and any devoted red player should consider having it in their deck.
3) Atomize
At four mana, Magic: The Gathering—Fallout offers a potent removal spell in Atomize, an instant that destroys a target nonland permanent and then increases the counters on anything you choose. Its standard artwork helps it perfectly catch that Fallout flavour—you can practically imagine the V.A.T.S. shot that initiated this gruesome, melty scene.
Within the limited realm of Fallout cards, it’s a powerful card, as there are a lot of counter mechanics at play in the limited set: energy counters, rad counters, +1/+1 counters (especially from Monstrous creatures), muster counters, and more. It’s included in the “Mutant Menace” preconstructed deck, where it demonstrates its worth in buffing mutant creatures
Though it may be a touch expensive to cast, Atomize could very well become a common face in Commander at Large. Proliferation and removal are always handy tools, especially with so many Phyrexian creatures printed in the core Magic: The Gathering sets a year ago.
2) Strong Back
Like Grim Reaper’s Sprint, Strong Back adapts a perk from the Fallout games into an Aura—specifically one that makes the enchanted creature cheaper to buff with equipments and other auras, and makes it stronger for each of those buffs it has.
+Use Strong Back to slap on a Pip-Boy 3000 and some T-45 Power Armor for free. Why stop there, though? Commander has scores of equipment and aura cards that can essentially be equipped for free with this perk; let’s just say that Butcher Pete could do a whole lot of “hackin’ and whackin’ and smackin'” if he had the various “Mirran swords” like the Sword of Light and Shadow at his disposal.
Green may not be the absolute first colour that comes to mind when planning an equipment-heavy Commander deck, but Strong Back might help change the tide on that score.
1) Nuka-Cola Vending Machine
In the world of Fallout, Nuka-Cola is a key component of the setting—informing the aesthetic and its parodical take on our society, and even the caps from its bottles form the basis of the postapocalyptic economy—so it’s fitting that the Nuka-Cola Vending Machine is one of the best cards in its MTG set.
For three mana, you get an artifact that can turn out a Food token each turn and a kickback whenever you sacrifice one of those tokens. You can use those tokens with legends like Liberty Prime, Recharged or Sentinel Sarah Lyons, or any of the vast array of deck options in Commander that care about churning out artifacts and/or sacrificing them for bigger gains. This card is a big enabler, especially with Food tokens becoming so prevalent in recent expansions like Throne of Eldraine.
In a strange twist, Fallout’s Nuka-Cola Vending Machine plays especially nicely with another Universes Beyond crossover: Tales of Middle-Earth. Feed your Hobbits 120% of the daily recommended intake of sugar, and see what happens!
