{"ops":[{"insert":"Commander Spock — Strange New Worlds"},{"attributes":{"header":1},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"2026 Overview"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"This is a high-power Bant Commander deck built around Commander Spock. It develops a varied mana base, turns the top of the library into useful spells, and reuses enter-the-battlefield abilities. Lands supply both the mana to play and the threshold that determines which spells Spock can cast. Fast mana accelerates the first deployment, while land ramp keeps subsequent triggers relevant. The finished list contains 100 cards, including the commander, with 36 lands and 36 different land names.\nEleven new-to-Magic Trek cards, including the commander, form the thematic core: Commander Spock; Captain Pike, Fullness of Time; Mr. Spock, Science Officer; Chief Kyle, Transporter Tech; Subcommander T'Pol; Janice Rand, Essential Aide; M'Ress, Crew Coordinator; Colossal Clone Master; Lt. Arex, Ever-Adapting; Balance of Terror; and Warp Speed. The supporting cards emphasize the abilities this crew actually uses. This is an optimized thematic build intended for powerful tables, without a claim that a five-mana preview commander is an established tournament cEDH strategy.\nUpdated November 2, 2026. The new Trek cards are previews for the November 13 release. Commander Spock and the other unreleased cards require your group's agreement for games before their release. Preview-related legality warnings are expected until then. This primer describes the revealed text and has not been validated by a completed multiplayer playtest.\nFewer Land Permissions, More Useful Draws"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Removed Burgeoning, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove, and Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait. Kept Exploration as the cheapest extra-land option, alongside the unchanged 36-land mana base. The purpose is to reduce hands with several enablers but too little action. Captain Pike, Augur, and Greenwarden change where lands may be played from; they do not grant additional land plays. The crew's direct land placement, fetch lands, Nature's Lore, Three Visits, and Scapeshift still support the landfall plan.\nRanger-Captain of Eos finds Esper Sentinel, Birds of Paradise, Noble Hierarch, or Delighted Halfling on entry. Blinking it can find another eligible creature. Sacrifice it before committing the win to stop opponents from casting noncreature spells for the rest of that turn once the ability resolves. Opponents can respond to that ability, and creature spells and activated or triggered abilities remain available. Sacrificing it does not counter a spell already on the stack. Its library search shuffles, so finish the search before arranging Spock's next reveal.\nEndurance can put your graveyard on the bottom of your library in a random order to recover spent cards, or target an opponent to disrupt graveyard plans. It has flash and is a useful blink target. It does not return cards from your hand or battlefield, and it does not refill an empty library if your graveyard is empty. Use it before a draw would fail; you cannot interrupt a resolving draw instruction to cast it. When Endurance and Guardian Project trigger together, put the Project draw below Endurance's trigger if you need to replenish the library before drawing. Recycling your graveyard also reduces immediate targets for Witness and Loam, so choose the timing deliberately. Swan Song provides another cheap answer while leaving mana for the engine.\nThe deck remains 100 cards. Its current finish is landfall tokens converted into combat damage. This refinement lowers mana demands and improves access to protection; it is a card-role assessment, not a measured win-rate claim. Card references: "},{"attributes":{"link":"https://scryfall.com/card/mh2/157/endurance"},"insert":"Endurance"},{"insert":"; "},{"attributes":{"link":"https://scryfall.com/card/mh1/21/ranger-captain-of-eos"},"insert":"Ranger-Captain of Eos"},{"insert":"; "},{"attributes":{"link":"https://scryfall.com/card/ths/65/swan-song"},"insert":"Swan Song"},{"insert":".\nGame Plan"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Develop green mana first, then establish white and blue. Exploration is the single remaining effect that grants an additional land play each turn. Use it when you actually have lands available; the deck no longer spends several slots on overlapping land permissions. Spock, Janice, and Lt. Arex put lands directly onto the battlefield, which does not use the normal land-play allowance. Captain Pike and Augur of Autumn let you play lands from the top without granting extra land plays. Nature's Lore and Three Visits put searchable duals or basics onto the battlefield. They increase the number of land names in play while fixing colors. Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Chrome Mox, and Mox Diamond help cast the commander or an engine ahead of schedule.\nOnce Spock resolves, prefer a protected value engine over an unsupported attack. Top, Library, Scroll Rack, and the tutors improve upcoming reveals. Ephemerate can save a creature and reuse it. Chief Kyle turns land entries into delayed blinks, while Balance of Terror combines removal with two delayed blink chapters. Kitten rewards the deck's noncreature spells with immediate blinks. Accumulate cards, landfall triggers, and creatures, then turn the landfall board into a protected combat finish.\nHow the Deck Wins"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"The combat route uses Scute Swarm, M'Ress, and Field of the Dead to create a board from ordinary land development. Fetch lands, Scapeshift, and replayed lands from Life from the Loam or Ancient Greenwarden accelerate this process. Craterhoof Behemoth turns that board into a trample attack. Finale of Devastation with X at least 10 grants a large bonus and haste; it can also find Craterhoof to add trample. Count actual attackers and opposing blockers before committing the finish.\nEmiel the Blessed and Peregrine Drake have both been removed. Their two slots now hold Felidar Retreat and Springheart Nantuko. This list no longer uses the Drake mana combo or an empty-library win. Develop a board and enough real mana for the combat finish.\nRemoved Thassa's Oracle and added "},{"attributes":{"link":"https://scryfall.com/card/lcc/125/akromas-will"},"insert":"Akroma's Will"},{"insert":". With a commander under your control as you cast Will, you may choose both modes: your current creatures gain flying, vigilance, double strike, lifelink, indestructible, and protection from each color until end of turn. It turns an established token board into a stronger attack and can also protect that board. It does not grant haste, trample, or a power increase, so use Craterhoof or Finale when those are needed. It is not an automatic win with an empty board. Colorless blockers and effects can still matter.\nNew Landfall Payoffs"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"link":"https://scryfall.com/card/fdn/574/felidar-retreat"},"insert":"Felidar Retreat"},{"insert":" triggers whenever a land enters under your control. Choose either a 2/2 white Cat Beast token or a +1/+1 counter on every creature you control, with those creatures gaining vigilance for the turn. Make bodies early, then choose counters when the board is wide. A fetch land entering and the land it finds normally give two separate landfall events. With Ancient Greenwarden, each event gives two Retreat triggers; choose a mode for each trigger separately.\n"},{"attributes":{"link":"https://scryfall.com/card/mh3/171/springheart-nantuko"},"insert":"Springheart Nantuko"},{"insert":" costs {1}{G} and normally makes a 1/1 green Insect for each landfall trigger. Its bestow cost is also {1}{G}. When attached to a creature you control, you may pay {1}{G} as each landfall trigger resolves to make a token copy of that creature instead. Decline the payment to get an Insect. Copying M'Ress, Ancient Greenwarden, Tireless Provisioner, or Ranger-Captain can multiply useful abilities, but every copy payment needs actual mana. Copies of legendary creatures still obey the legend rule, so do not expect several ordinary Spock copies to stay on the battlefield.\nGreenwarden doubles Nantuko's landfall triggers, with a separate optional payment for each. Newly created permanents do not trigger retroactively for a land that already entered. Token creatures do not trigger Guardian Project. If the enchanted creature is blinked, Nantuko becomes a creature rather than reattaching when that creature returns. Spock's free-cast option can cast Nantuko normally, but cannot be combined with the alternative bestow cost. These payoffs use ordinary land entries and the existing fetch and direct-placement package.\nJanice, Kyle, and the Landfall Engine"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Janice Rand adds a counter and finds a land whenever a commander you control enters or attacks. If you want the new land to improve Spock's free-cast threshold, put Spock's trigger onto the stack first and Janice's above it. Resolve Janice's land placement and resulting landfall triggers before Spock's reveal. If you have carefully arranged a particular card on top, resolve Spock first instead; Janice's reveal-until-a-land process can move the arranged card away.\nWith Janice, Kyle, and Spock together, a Spock entry can find a land, which lets Kyle exile Spock until the next end step. Spock's return can repeat the process. When the return happens during an end step, the new delayed return waits for the following end step. This is an ongoing value engine across turns, not an immediate infinite loop. Exiling Spock this way also makes him unavailable as a blocker until he returns.\nGreenwarden doubles the landfall triggers of Cobra, Provisioner, Scute Swarm, M'Ress, Kyle, Field, Felidar Retreat, and Springheart Nantuko. It does not double Spock's entry or attack trigger, or Janice's trigger, because those are not caused by a land entering. M'Ress makes four Officers per land when Greenwarden doubles her trigger. Greenwarden also lets you replay fetch lands from the graveyard, using your available land plays.\nConverting Landfall into a Win"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Build attackers with Scute Swarm, M'Ress, Field of the Dead, Felidar Retreat, and Springheart Nantuko. Use Retreat's counter mode to increase the army's permanent power. When ready, Craterhoof Behemoth grants a large bonus and trample. Finale of Devastation with X at least 10 can find Craterhoof and gives your creatures +X/+X and haste for the turn. Reach that mana through the deck's lands, fast artifacts, mana creatures, Cradle, Cobra, Provisioner, and Tithe; the removed Drake combo is not available. Count the actual attackers and opposing defenses before calling an attack lethal.\nSpock and the blink package help find the necessary spells and trigger Janice for additional land placement. Decline Spock's optional free cast to draw Finale into hand: casting it for free would make X zero. Worldly Tutor and Scroll Rack can arrange Craterhoof for a Spock reveal when you have at least eight different land names. Janice's reveal-until-a-land ability can disturb that setup, so order the triggers deliberately. Resolve one set of triggers at a time and account for mandatory Guardian Project draws and Mr. Spock's draw doubling. Stop before a draw would exceed the remaining library. Endurance can replenish a stocked graveyard before a draw would fail; it cannot interrupt a resolving draw instruction.\nAkroma's Will offers another combat finisher when a token board already exists. Create the creatures before Will resolves, since creatures entering later do not receive its benefits. Choose both modes while controlling Spock, then attack with creatures that can legally attack. Will grants no haste or power bonus. Resolve your own colored targeted blinks or other targeted support before granting protection from each color, because that protection can prevent your own colored spells or abilities from targeting them. Mass buffs that do not target still work. Ranger-Captain and stack interaction help protect the winning turn.\nTop-of-Library Control"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Use Sensei's Divining Top or Scroll Rack before the entry or attack trigger resolves. Worldly Tutor can place a creature on top; Enlightened Tutor can place an artifact or enchantment there. Check the target spell's mana value against the current land-name count before using a tutor this way. Otherwise the trigger may only draw the card. Shuffling with a fetch land after arranging the top can undo the setup.\nTop's draw ability puts Top itself onto the library after drawing. A subsequent Spock trigger can cast it again if the threshold allows. Mr. Spock improves the draw portion, but those two cards alone do not form an infinite loop. Kitten blinks are triggered by casting noncreature spells; putting a land onto the battlefield does not trigger Kitten.\nThe Trek Crew"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Captain Pike gives information and lets you play lands from the top; he does not grant an extra land play. Mr. Spock amplifies the draw engines. Chief Kyle supplies delayed blinks from landfall. Subcommander T'Pol can stop an activated or triggered ability and is a useful creature to reuse. Janice develops the mana base while M'Ress builds the army that Craterhoof and Finale turn into a win.\nColossal Clone Master can copy Spock without being legendary, adding another reusable entry trigger. It can also copy a better opposing creature when that is more useful. Lt. Arex refills the hand and can place three lands from it, making him a strong late-game blink target. Warp Speed lets your lands enter untapped and finds a basic or Planet to hand. This list uses its basic-land option; it does not include a Planet.\nOptimized Mana Base"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"The 36 lands consist of nine traditional fetch lands, Prismatic Vista, three original duals, three shock lands, three multiplayer bond lands, three unrestricted rainbow lands, four differently named basics, and ten utility or specialty lands. Every main-deck land has a different name. A Forest and a Snow-Covered Forest are different names. Yavimaya adds the Forest land type, not new land names.\nCounting fetch lands by the colored lands they can find, the base has 25 green, 22 blue, and 22 white land sources before conditional Cradle production or Yavimaya helping other lands. These counts overlap. Green has priority because the ramp, Exploration, Augur, and Greenwarden demand it. Blue and white retain enough searchable access for double-blue and double-white spells. This is a source-count check, not a promise of having every color in every opening hand.\nAll nine traditional fetch lands can find at least one Bant dual in this list. Bloodstained Mire is omitted because the deck has no Mountain or Swamp land to find. Prismatic Vista has four basic targets. The original duals provide painless untapped fixing; shocks offer additional searchable pairs; the bond lands enter untapped while you have at least two opponents. They become weaker in a one-on-one game.\nField of the Dead is the one land that always enters tapped without another effect. It earns that slot as a token engine, and Warp Speed can remove that delay. Ancient Tomb accelerates generic costs; Cradle scales with creatures; neither replaces the need for colored sources. Alchemist's Refuge can open an instant-speed winning window, but its activation costs GU and still requires mana for the spells. Canopy and Grove trade surplus lands for cards. The channel lands supply interaction from land slots.\nFetching prioritizes early green, then the missing Spock color, then blue for interaction or double white for Ranger-Captain. Do not automatically fetch the same dual each game. Fetch only when needed if leaving it available will improve a later Cobra, Provisioner, or Scute Swarm trigger. After sacrificing a fetch, count the land names actually left on the battlefield when Spock's trigger resolves.\nLandfall and Scapeshift"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Scute Swarm begins copying itself when its trigger resolves while you control at least six lands. Field needs at least seven differently named lands when its trigger resolves. Scapeshift can replace existing lands with a chosen set that satisfies Field and produce many landfall triggers at once. You may sacrifice fewer than all your lands. Preserve important colors, protect against a counterspell, and keep enough library targets for the search.\nLife from the Loam recovers fetch lands, discarded Mox Diamond lands, and channeled utility lands. Exploration can turn those returned cards into an additional land play. Without it, choose the best land for the turn and use direct land placement from the crew rather than expecting multiple normal land plays. Scapeshift and Spock put lands onto the battlefield without using normal land plays.\nAdditional Draw Engines"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Augur's coven condition requires three creatures with different powers before it allows creature spells from the top. Birds or Hierarch at zero power, an unmodified Sentinel at one, and Spock at three can satisfy it; counters and temporary effects can change that. Guardian Project rewards ordinary nontoken creature entries, including qualifying blinks. Its name check matters: a Clone Master copying Spock has the same name as the real Spock, even though it is not legendary, so those copies can prevent Project's draw. The card's intervening condition must remain satisfied when the trigger resolves.\nScroll Rack Setup"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Scroll Rack replaces Brainstorm. Pay {1} and tap it to exchange selected cards in hand for that many cards from the top of the library, then arrange the set-aside cards on top. Activate it in response to Spock's entry or attack trigger to put a desired spell from your hand on top for his reveal. You still need enough different land names for Spock's free-cast option. Rack exchanges cards rather than drawing them and does not increase hand size by itself. It therefore does not trigger draw abilities. Fetch lands can shuffle away unwanted cards after an exchange; wait until after the intended Spock reveal when preserving your setup matters.\nOpening Hands and Mulligans"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Prefer two or three lands, an early green source, acceleration, and either a draw engine, protection, or a useful tutor. An excellent hand has a fetch land, a second mana source, a one-mana accelerator, a two-mana land-ramp spell, and interaction. A hand full of expensive blink payoffs with no early development should be sent back. A land-heavy hand needs Exploration or reliable card selection to justify keeping it. Extra-land permissions are no substitute for spells that develop or protect the engine.\nBe skeptical of a one-land hand supported only by a Mox that needs another card. Mox Diamond requires a land to discard; Chrome Mox needs a suitable colored nonartifact, nonland card to imprint. Cradle is not a reliable first mana source without a creature. Mana Vault accelerates the first five-mana play but does not untap normally each turn. Do not assume its initial burst will fund every later turn.\nInteraction and Protection"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Force of Will, Fierce Guardianship, Flusterstorm, and Swan Song protect a winning attempt or stop an opponent. Swan Song answers an enchantment, instant, or sorcery for one blue mana and gives its controller a 2/2 flying Bird. It does not counter creature or artifact spells. Fierce requires a commander under your control for its free cost. Force needs another blue card to pitch. Veil of Summer protects against specific blue and black interaction; it does not stop every removal spell. Heroic Intervention protects the board from many destroy effects and targeted answers, but indestructible does not stop exile, sacrifice, or toughness reduction.\nSwords removes problematic creatures. Rift can clear a board or open combat. Beast Within answers any permanent, including artifacts and enchantments that disable the engine. Balance of Terror's first chapter provides another artifact or enchantment answer. Boseiju and Otawara give additional answers that are not spells when channeled. Ephemerate can protect an important creature, but returning it makes it a new object and can disrupt an attack.\nWeaknesses and Sequencing Pitfalls"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Effects that suppress creature entry triggers shut off much of the deck. Hushbringer can be exiled with Swords; Torpor Orb needs an artifact answer such as Boseiju, Beast Within, Balance of Terror, or a bounce effect. Rule of Law and Drannith Magistrate interfere with free casting, while land destruction weakens both the mana engine and the spell threshold. Keep independent draw engines and interaction rather than committing every resource to the commander. Endurance now provides a tutorable, reusable graveyard answer, but one answer does not cover every graveyard combo. Preserve stack interaction and act before an opposing win resolves.\nA free Spock reveal cannot be overloaded as Cyclonic Rift, and an X spell cast without paying its mana cost has X equal to zero. Draw Finale and Zenith rather than using their free-cast option when you need a meaningful X. A counterspell revealed with no useful spell to counter can simply be drawn. Blinking Spock during combat removes that attacking creature from combat; do not count its damage afterward.\nBuild Notes and Sources"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Initial build completed November 2, 2026, then refined using the suggested Landing Party cards: 100 cards, one Commander Spock in the command zone, 36 unique land names, a fast-mana package, eleven new-to-Magic Trek cards, token combat finishes, Felidar Retreat, and Springheart Nantuko. Added Janice, M'Ress, Greenwarden, Augur, Guardian Project, Balance of Terror, Heroic Intervention, and Beast Within. The final list retains the Trek crew and adds Endurance, Ranger-Captain of Eos, and Swan Song in place of Aesi, Burgeoning, and Dryad of the Ilysian Grove.\nThe low-cost artifact ramp was retained; two-mana Signet gave way to broader interaction while land ramp continues to fix the commander. Six-mana tapped Command Chair, slow ship support, and unrelated counter packages were considered but omitted to keep the deck focused. This list is intended for the Optimized bracket, with tutors and fast mana disclosed. No turn-by-turn win claim or win percentage is asserted.\nRules references: "},{"attributes":{"link":"https://scryfall.com/card/trc/2/commander-spock"},"insert":"Commander Spock"},{"insert":"; "},{"attributes":{"link":"https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/feature/star-trek-release-notes"},"insert":"Wizards Star Trek release notes"},{"insert":"; "},{"attributes":{"link":"https://scryfall.com/card/trc/79/janice-rand-essential-aide"},"insert":"Janice Rand"},{"insert":"; "},{"attributes":{"link":"https://scryfall.com/card/trc/26/mress-crew-coordinator"},"insert":"M'Ress"},{"insert":".\nNovember 2 follow-up: added Scroll Rack and removed Brainstorm, retaining 100 cards and the same 36-land mana base. "},{"attributes":{"link":"https://scryfall.com/card/cmr/337/scroll-rack"},"insert":"Scroll Rack card text"},{"insert":".\nNovember 2 — Transporter Blink Additions"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Added Eerie Interlude, the card reprinted as Beam Us Up, and Momentary Blink. Removed Farseek and Skyshroud Claim, retaining 100 cards and the same 36 lands. The remaining mana package preserves the more efficient untapped-Forest searches and fast acceleration. Eerie Interlude can protect chosen creatures from many sweepers and reuse their entry abilities at the beginning of the next end step. Tokens exiled this way do not return. If Spock is exiled, leave him in exile for this return rather than moving him to the command zone. Track the mandatory draws from the returning creatures and their resulting land entries.\nMomentary Blink returns one creature immediately and can be used again with its {3}{U} flashback cost. It protects against suitable targeted removal and reuses Spock, Ranger-Captain, Endurance, or another entry ability. A blinked attacker leaves combat. These spells do not create an infinite loop by themselves, and Interlude does not return creatures immediately. The announced Secret Lair artwork was not listed in the card catalog at this update, so the saved entries use the original card names and available printings. "},{"attributes":{"link":"https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/announcements/secret-lair-set-phasers-to-superdrop"},"insert":"Official Beam Us Up and Momentary Blink announcement"},{"insert":".\n"}]}