Fallout Set Review - White
(Sierra, Nuka's Biggest Fan by Anna Podedworna)
White | Blue | Black | Red | Green | Artifacts & Lands | Allied & Shards | Enemy & Wedges | cEDH | Reprints
Fallout Boy
It's that time again. I'm Michael Celani, writer of How They Brew It and co-host on Am I the Bolcast?, and the real reason I build with cards like Tempting Licid is because the nuclear bombs hit the local game stores first and all that's left in my area are scavenged rares from the before-times, when cards made no sense. Yes, Universes Beyond never changes, and Wizards will always somehow manage to print new sets even as the world is falling apart around us. That wasn't a Fallout joke, by the way, that was just an observation. Anyway, let's get to it!
Rares
Aradesh, the Founder
Given that there are only ten other creatures in the whole game with enlist, and all of them are trash, Aradesh, the Founder is practically a double-striker-in-disguise that has to tap another creature to have even a remote chance of attacking profitably. This bodes pretty poorly for its long-term relevance in the command zone, since much better options with double strike already exist and they don't have to take out the third mortgage on their house just to get there. If Aradesh, the Founder had some sort of built-in evasion, then maybe I could see him working, but honestly, just give the thing you'd enlist double strike instead. His meager card draw doesn't save it.
Automated Assembly Line
It's a shame that Automated Assembly Line is limited to one energy counter per player you damage. I would have loved to bear down on someone making the mistake of playing control only to come out a robot apocalypse ahead. As is, I still think this is fine in the dedicated energy deck because it at least gives you something to do with any excess electricity you've got, but there's no way you're slotting it into your average go-wide deck.
Battle of Hoover Dam
Hoover Dam Siege lets you choose between a free Unearth every turn or a macabre way to pump the rest of your team. They're both pretty clearly aimed at the go-wide strategy, as you're either reviving your cheap payoffs, like Benalish Marshal and Aron, Benalia's Ruin, or using it to pump up other creatures you control when some of your fodder inevitably bites it. Don't run into the trap of putting this in your aristocrats decks, though: those finality counters means that anything you bring back doesn't technically die, and you're generally not winning via combat when most of your damage is done through Blood Artist, anyway. It's worth noting that this easily goes infinite in Felisa, Fang of Silverquill alongside a sac outlet and some recursion.
Brotherhood Scribe
Brotherhood Scribe is a pretty interesting inclusion for the energy strategy, since it triggers every time you receive one or more energy counters. Giving your entire board +1/+1 isn't the most impressive payoff in the world -- just look at the middling inclusion rate of Goldnight Commander if you don't believe me -- but he makes up for that by generating energy counters himself as long as you've got Metalcraft set up, which is effectively free these days with all the investigating, spelunking, and cooking Wizards keeps forcing me to do against my will.
Codsworth, Handy Helper
Let's not kid ourselves, here: Codsworth, Handy Helper is specifically a handy helper, because there's no way you can justify having this bucket of bolts lead your deck. He would give himself ward, which could potentially enable a Voltron strategy, but that's not enough when you consider the competition: Light-Paws, Emperor's Voice has the mono-white Aura strategy locked down, while Balan, Wandering Knight handles the Equipment side. All he's actually capable of doing when he hits the field is make Auras and Equipment slightly easier to cast and attach. If you're looking to get value out of that strategy in the command zone, you're not beating Sram, Senior Edificer, who blesses every Aura and Equipment you play with the magic of card draw. If ferrying attachments around like you're Outlook 365 is your jam, you're definitely not surpassing Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist, who invalidates all of your Equip costs, can attach permanents to your opponents' creatures, and also happens to have partner, the most broken keyword on commanders. So that just leaves the main deck, and, to his credit, he's great in basically any of the lists I've mentioned, especially Ardenn, since his ability gives both of your commanders ward.
Idolized
Cards that want All That Glitters want Idolized, and Idolized happens to be a better All That Glitters than All That Glitters. I suppose it only works when you're attacking and not for defense, but when your Commander Eesha is swinging for eighty a turn, you won't be on defense for long.
Overencumbered
Overencumbered is a beginner's trap. It gives your opponent card advantage for free -- never a good thing -- and only truly affects decks that both run a lot of artifacts and win through combat. You're only slowing down Equipment and artifact creature decks, meaning there's a good chance Overencumbered, ironically, ends up a waste of space in your hand. Even Treasure decks aren't affected, since this card triggers at the start of combat instead of upkeep, meaning greedy players can just main phase their spells and pay a significantly reduced tax when it's time to throw down. Disregarding all of that, I'm also not convinced that playing this card would lead to particularly fun board states; price can't be the only reason nobody runs Peacekeeper, and one of the benefits of keeping a big, swingy combat deck at the table is that they can hit players other than you. You're much better off protecting yourself with a pillow fort card, like Ghostly Prison, and letting Smashy Gruul Man work for you instead of muzzling him and getting bitten three turns later when this useless Aura is inevitably removed instead of the combo player's Rhystic Study.
Overseer of Vault 76
I have a conspiracy theory that this set's quest counter theme were designed specifically to make Pyromancer Ascension playable in Commander, but I digress. Overseer of Vault 76 uses quest counters to pump your whole team by not a lot. +1/+1 and vigilance? Snore! I'm kinda stunned I'm bringing up Goldnight Commander a second time this review, but it's obvious that Overseer of Vault 76 is just blatantly worse. The only reason I'd play this is if I was all-in on quest counters (because my commander is Moira Brown, Guide Author) and I'm using the Overseer and a token engine to generate more of them.
Pre-War Formalwear
Don't let the Equipment subtype fool you: Pre-War Formalwear is useful not because of its mediocre buff, but because it's a blinkable artifact that gives you an Unearth when it enters the battlefield. Sure, if you're in any sort of Equipment-matters deck, you're getting the benefits you'd expect out of casting such a permanent, and three mana happens to be the sweet spot for a lot of the better Equipment-matters value cards, such as Sram, Senior Edificer, Puresteel Paladin, or Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist. But even if you're not power-suiting up your permanents, just the fact you can blink, bounce, and recur Pre-War Formalwear like a miniature Sun Titan makes it extremely useful throughout the entire game.
Securitron Squadron
I'm viewing Securitron Squadron as a more flexible Dictate of Heliod, minus the flash. Cast its two-mana mode to make all your tokens a bit stronger; the five-mana version to push any consistent token-generator, like Tendershoot Dryad into the danger zone; or the eight-mana version to crank your level one Crooks into beefy level thirty-five Bosses when they enter the battlefield. The benefit of a Securitron Squadron over something like Intrepid Adversary is that since your anthem is spread out over two or three permanents, you're much less vulnerable to single-target, instant-speed removal, and crucially, those buffs don't go away afterwards. Plus, you can populate your token copies of Securitron Squadron if Trostani, Selesnya's Voice is calling out to you.
Sentry Bot
Johnny? Johnny?! Johnny, snap out of it! Ghave, Guru of Spores made it through a single turn cycle, and now fifteen thousand Saprolings are crossing No Man's Land to take our homes and our lives. This is it for us, Johnny. You have to go, and get out of here. Tell my wife I loved her, but not as much as our sexy next door neighbor, Cassandra de Boleró von Hüďêříæķ. Wait, off in the distance! Could that be? My God! Sentry Bot is here to immediately enter the battlefield and do nothing! We're saved!
(In the scenarios where this would make an absurd amount of counters, you'd almost always want a Fog, Aetherspouts or Settle the Wreckage instead, and in every other scenario, you're better off playing some random Kaladesh common.)
Sierra, Nuka's Biggest Fan
With enough evasive creatures, Sierra, Nuka's Biggest Fan cooks up three Food in a single combat and seasons them all into on-board Giant Growths. If you can pull this feat off twice, your opponents will end up staring down a terrifying +36/+36 buff, and since you're clearly running a Tempest-block shadow-typal jankfest that spells instant death almost immediately. She reminds me a lot of Apothecary White, who I'm finding slots really well into Azorius fliers lists, of all things. If you're running one of these, make sure you include the other.
The Prydwen, Steel Flagship
Six mana is a lot for this kind of generator. You'd need a nontoken artifact to enter the battlefield multiple times a turn for me to consider The Prydwen, Steel Flagship, and the type of deck that can pull that off definitely isn't the type of deck that wants to spend their entire main phase casting a six-mana does-nothing-the-turn-it-enters-the-battlefield beater. On the other hand, if you're consistently triggering this, you are making an army of 4/4s, so in a slower meta, this might be a good play.
Vault 101: Birthday Party
Vault 101: Birthday Party's first chapter is just a toll you have to pay to get to the real prize, which is where you automatically cheat out Kaldra Compleat and Helm of the Host and attach them to your commander for free. It's starting to get to the point where the cost of attaching Equipment doesn't actually even matter to the Voltron decks anymore; sure, the most popular Equipment will remain low-cost protection that every deck can run, like Swiftfoot Boots, but I wouldn't be surprised if you see more Argentum Armors in the coming weeks.
Vault 13: Dweller's Journey
Honestly, I wish more Oblivion Ring-type effects were like Vault 13: Dweller's Journey, because their weakness has always been that they'll eventually give back what you took from your opponent. Vault 13: Dweller's Journey exiles up to one creature or enchantment per player, including yourself, and gives everyone a time limit to blow it up before two of them are gone forever. Unfortunately, this does mean at least one other opponent is getting their stuff back, but ideally, you're playing it like a Grasp of Fate, where you try to incentivize as few people as possible to blow it up as possible. If your targets are something like a Rhystic Study, a Platinum Angel, your Wall of Omens, and the blue player's dinky Prodigal Sorcerer, everyone knows which two are going back, and that blue player might even be willing to throw down a Counterspell to ensure those other two stay gone.
Vault 75: Middle School
Apparently, the story of Vault 75 involves a Children of the Corn-type culling of men who had just come of age, so Retribution of the Meek tied to a +2/+2 buff for each of your remaining creatures makes perfect sense. I'm left pondering what deck wants this, though, since you generally don't want to run effects that kill big creatures alongside effects that make your board into big creatures, but perhaps there's some list out there that walks the tightrope.
Yes Man, Personal Securitron
For the love of God, get a Homeward Path. Get a Homeward Path if you're running Yes Man, Personal Securitron. Yes Man, Personal Securitron will draw you two cards every turn as long as you activate your copy of Homeward Path right after. Get a Homeward Path when you decide to put Yes Man, Personal Securitron in your deck. Unless your commander is named Zedruu the Greathearted, this card is absolutely unplayable unless the lands section of your deck list contains a card named Homeward Path. Get a Homeward Path.
Uncommons & Commons
Brotherhood Outcast
Well, at least your target goes to the battlefield, so there's a little bit of utility over your standard Eternal Witness here, and if you've got absolutely nothing to do it you'll get a shield counter as a consolation prize. There's almost certainly an endlessly aggravating blink deck out there that will use Brotherhood Outcast to constantly revive Cloudsteel Kirin so that they can never lose.
Commander Sofia Daguerre
Commander Sofia Daguerre is a blinkable Bounty Agent, which instantly makes it ten times better and extremely annoying in your average Preston, the Vanisher deck. Despite the name, I wouldn't run her as an actual general, though; if you want to lose all your friends by preventing them from ever sticking their commander in format called Commander, try Empress Galina or Tsabo Tavoc instead. Just make sure to take out a large life insurance policy, first.
Gary Clone
Gary!
Running an Auras and Equipment themed-deck with white in it? Great! Fallout has some Voltron assistance for you. Anything else? I'm not extremely high on this set for white. But most of the value here lies in the multicolored cards; go ahead and read the other set reviews to see if there's one precon you find worth picking up. Until next time!
