Vibranium Violence: Wakanda Forever Precon Upgrade Guide

Welcome back to another EDHLAB Precon Upgrade Guide! We’re still in Marvel mode, and today I’ll be covering Wakanda Forever. Black Panther is such a compelling character, and Wakanda is a great Marvel-original location. Compared to the infamous Magic: The Gathering plane of New York City, the vibes are off the charts. 

Panther Gods, esoteric statues in the wilderness, and beautiful landscapes never looked so good. We’re not here to look at pretty art, though, so let’s sharpen those claws and get ready to fight for the throne.

The Ways

Wakanda Forever differs from some of the other precons in this cycle by including themes from Magic’s history as opposed to first-time mechanics from Marvel Super Heroes. Before we dive into the cards in the deck, though, here are the contents of the box:

• 1 Ready-to-play 100-card Commander deck
• 1 Traditional foil face commander with borderless art
• 99 Non-foil cards, including 29 new-to-Magic cards
• 10 Non-foil double-sided tokens
• 1 Reference card
• 1 Deck box

The face commander here is T’Challa, the Black Panther. This iteration of the fierce monarch is an interesting departure from his last big appearance, which used similar, flavorful mechanics. Whereas the Secret Lair version depends on other creatures to find Vibranium deposits, represented by putting counters on lands, the precon version works all on his own, creating Vibranium tokens when he enters or attacks. This doesn’t point the deck in a particular direction until combined with his second ability, which puts two +1/+1 counters on T’Challa every time you cast an artifact spell that costs four or more. The gameplan is pretty simple: cast the king, make lots of mana, and cast big artifacts for value.

There are multiple possible options for other commanders in this precon, but most of them are not worth worrying about. The main alternate option is Shuri, the Black Panther, who is more of a specialized commander than her older brother. She has a good 2/3 statline and a relevant keyword in lifelink, but she needs multiple artifacts on board before she generates any value, which is pretty easy to do in dedicated builds with cheap artifacts — the opposite of what this deck is designed for, so Shuri will not yet truly claim the mantle of Black Panther.

All The Stars

Of the four Marvel precons, Wakanda Forever is definitely my favorite. There are multiple cards with great flavor that capture cool moments and powerful objects from the various Black Panther canons with mechanics that honor that history with engaging and fun abilities. Every good king needs a powerful arsenal, so let’s take a look at some of the best new cards in the deck.

If there’s one category where Selesnya is a clear winner, it’s building a wide boardstate with plenty of tokens and weenie creatures. Bast, Panther Goddess takes advantage of that strength with a flavorful buff for Wakanda’s king, empowered through the gathered support of his subjects. This is especially relevant for this deck because you want to attack with T’Challa as often as possible to keep spitting out Vibranium tokens, so buffing him up to make your attacks safer, while applying continuous pressure on your opponents to block him, is supremely useful.

T’Challa’s trusted chief of security is W’Kabi, Shield of the Nation, a standout two-mana creature in a deck filled with cheap creatures with impactful abilities. Another 2/3 statline with the relevant vigilance keyword is already a great rate for that low of an investment, and you get even more value by creating a 4/4 stompy Rhino whenever your commander attacks as long as you have the requisite minimum four or more mana value artifact on board.

One of the benefits of lower-cost commanders in big-mana decks is that you can feel comfortable casting your commander more than once, especially in Bracket 2 games where unmodified or lightly upgraded precons thrive. Hatut Zeraze Strike Force amplifies that benefit, copying itself for each time you’ve cast your commander. Since you want to cast your commander early anyway, you’re almost guaranteed to get one copy when you first cast this spell, and in longer games with multiple recasts the potential keeps scaling up.

Say it with me, readers: affinity is a fair and balanced mechanic. One thing that’s easy to miss about T’Challa’s buffing ability is that the artifact has to cost at least four mana, but that doesn’t mean you need to spend at least four mana. Panther Robot is a great way to take advantage of this, as you can discount it even below four mana and still get your requisite +1/+1 counters onto the king. 

Flash speed is always an engaging and powerful mechanic to play with in commander, and Equipments that cheat on equip costs are one of the best aspects of Equipment-themed decks, so combining those two ideas in Vibranium Strike Gauntlets makes it a pretty powerful card. Four mana might seem like a lot, but you get plenty of benefits: a sizable power buff, the surprise factor of giving your commander — or other large attacker — trample when blocked, and a combat damage trigger that gives you extra cards.

Big Shot

The resources at the king’s disposal are impressive, but there’s one thing every American knows for sure: there’s always capital to be found in arms development!

Ramp cards might seem boring to add to a deck, but they’re often a very powerful addition to make. In the case of each of Avacyn’s Pilgrim, Llanowar Elves, and Utopia Sprawl, the turn-one play is the target. Since T’Challa is three mana, the only way to cast him early is to ramp immediately on the first turn of the game, so if you want to accelerate your deck as quickly as possible, you need these early plays.

Following up all that talk about the boring nature of adding more mana generation, here are three more ways to ramp. In fairness, these three ramp pieces have slightly different use cases. Jhoira’s Familiar and Arc Reactor are great setup pieces and can be your first expensive artifact; Jhoira’s Familiar lets you hit that four-mana sweet spot going forward for just one less mana spent per big artifact, and Arc Reactor can discount itself if you already have other artifacts available to tap for its improvise ability. Great Desert Prospector, on the other hand, works better to prepare for a huge turn. All you need is a board full of creatures — easy in Selesnya, as mentioned — and you’re set to cast spells until the cows Rhinos come home. 

With all those Vibranium tokens laying around, you’ll be capable of pumping mana into all varieties of artifact spells, and to do that you need to be able to find more artifacts to cast. Caretaker’s Talent draws you a card every time you make a token (capped at once per turn), and as long as you keep swinging with T’Challa, you’ll keep making one token a turn. Mystic Forge lets you see extra cards by peeking at and casting artifacts from the top of your library, and Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam is both an extra source of card draw on attack, but also an artifact that can cost at least four mana. It’s important to remember that the value of X counts towards a spell’s mana value while it is on the stack, which is when a trigger like your commander’s checks to see if the requirement is met, so always aim to cast your X-cost artifacts for an amount that will make its mana value four or greater.

Card advantage via consistent, repeated, singular draws is great and all, but sometimes you need a more specialized way to see more cards. Adaptive Omnitool’s equip cost of three is a little steep, but fulfilling two jobs doesn’t come cheap — it gives you great card selection by drawing an artifact out of the top six cards of your library whenever T’Challa attacks, and the number-of-artifacts buff will quickly grow out of control to boot. Building on that, Rishkar’s Expertise is a great way to take advantage of having a huge commander by drawing cards equal to the power of the biggest creature you have, and casting a five-mana spell entirely for free, letting you get 11 mana worth of spells for the price of six. The Aetherspark doesn’t draw as many cards, but it takes great advantage of the fact that your commander can deal huge chunks of damage. Keep in mind that this unique planeswalker Equipment gains a number of loyalty counters equal to the amount of combat damage the equipped creature deals on your turn, whether it’s dealt to a blocking creature or a cowering opponent. This glut of loyalty can then be exchanged for more cards and more mana. Additionally, the Aetherspark can’t be attacked by opponents’ creatures while it’s equipped, making it a durable value engine.

Since your commander’s second ability triggers on a four-cost minimum, increasing the average quality of card at that cost threshold will help bring the floor of the deck up, leading to a more consistent performance. Thousand Moons Smithy not only creates a token which will quickly grow large thanks to the heaps of Vibranium, it subsequently flips into Barracks of the Thousand to continue creating one of those huge Gnome Soldier tokens every turn. Arcbound Crusher functions similarly by upgrading itself with a +1/+1 counter every time an artifact enters, and it has trample to boot. Reaching all the way back to Mercadian Masques for a source of reliable evasion, the last upgrade for this list is Power Matrix. Its activated ability is simple — just tap it to give a creature +1/+1, flying, first strike, and trample until end of turn. I wonder what creature would benefit from that?

Pray for Me

Here’s a rapid-fire report on the cards to remove:

• Okoye, Mighty and Adored, Queen Mother Ramonda, Nakia, Wakandan Operative, M’Baku, Jabari Chieftain, T’Chaka, Venerable King - These cuts are related to the monarch mechanic. The deck has a fun subtheme supporting it, but these pieces needed to go to make room.
• Scourglass, Martial Coup - Vibranium might be indestructible, but the rest of your permanents won’t be. This deck has too many board wipes for its own good.
• Loyal Retainers, Conduit of Worlds, Greater Good - These cards are all aimed at another subtheme in the deck related to graveyard recursion, so you won’t be needing them.
• Fleecemane Lion - Flavorful inclusion that doesn’t contribute to the theme.
• Harmonize - Plain old draw spells can be perfectly valid to keep in a deck, but you have better options for your gameplan.
• Wakanda Forever! - Indestructible is a strong keyword, but this is too expensive a spell to potentially whiff.
• Coveted Jewel - Though I personally love this spell, it needs to be in a deck that can better abuse the enters trigger and keep it out of our opponents' hands. 
• Divine Visitation - While there are a few cards that create creature tokens in the deck, there isn’t a critical mass of them to make this card consistently useful.

Redemption

Here’s a visual on the new and improved royal arsenal of Wakanda:

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