I don’t keep a lot of Commander decks anymore. I’m currently at four, because I don’t like having to do the upkeep on them with all the new sets. However, this week we got a preview of the Universes Beyond: Fallout decks coming in March of next year, and one of the secondary commanders really caught my attention:

Now you don’t necessarily need to know all the lore around this guy, but let me tell you, this ability is 100% on point as someone who will set up a situation and then cheat. If you’re a ProTrader, you might have already heard about the big thing this card doesn’t have, but if you didn’t hear it on the cast, then let me enlighten you…

Mr. House doesn’t require d6 rolls to make robots. He just needs a die roll, so if you come in with a d10, or best of all, a d20, now we’re really in business. I love to pay attention to commanders who do something new, and die rolling isn’t really a thing for any legendary creatures. We’re unlocking a brand new subset of cards, and I can’t wait to see what people do. 

Being in Mardu colors, we skip a lot of the green shenanigans that’s been added to silver-bordered cards over the years, for good or for bad. I won’t mention a lot of the Un-cards, but there’s a couple you simply have to know about and evaluate on your own. As a disclaimer, I’m currently ordering several of these cards to build the deck, but I haven’t made any large-scale purchases.

It’s virtually certain that some of these cards end up in the actual Commander deck and therefore the Collector Boosters. Mr. House is not the ‘face’ commander of the deck he’s in, but there’s going to be one or two of these that end up reprinted. If I knew which, I’d tell you, but sadly I don’t know.

Let’s talk about some of the things I’m buying for the deck, and what might jump in price. I’m including the current prices for the cheapest version and the most expensive.

Anointed Procession ($40 to $73) – Doubling Season has had so many printings, and Parallel Lives just got two in a row, but AP has gotten nothing but an appearance on The List since being in Amonkhet six years ago. I don’t like buying cards that are one reprint away from losing half their value, but considering that I want every roll of the dice to give me two Robots (Securitrons!) and perhaps two Treasures, I’m okay with one personal copy. 

I expect this to be printed soon, though I’m aware that Lost Caverns of Ixalan just gave us a creature that makes three tokens instead of one.

Barbarian Class (bulk to fifty cents) – rerolls count for final result, but ignore means the second roll does not trigger House. Considering the reroll benefits, there’s a lot of reasons to run this card and it’ll be one of the first additions to the deck. The second ability is useful for making your existing robots hit harder, and level 3 gives them haste which is always good. 

Wyll, Blade of Frontiers (a dime to $1) – Wyll doesn’t need an amazing background to kick butt in this deck. Every dice roll makes him bigger, and given that you want to be doing a lot of rolling anyway, this is a card that’s going to jump to a $5 foil out of nowhere. Again, it would be nice if Mr. House saw both dice rolls, but getting the best of your two d20s is nice insurance against the botch of not getting a Robot.

Ancient Dragons: Copper ($50 to $123), Brass ($14 to $34), and Gold ($8 to $17) – The Borderless Foil Ancient Copper Dragon is such an outlier when it comes to AFR’s prices, but all three of these are good cards that should be included in the deck. Yes, they eat removal and delay and no one wants to just let you get a hit in, but that’s the price for playing amazing cards: people want to remove them or steal them. I formally invite you to join the ‘Dragons are Awesome’ committee, you’ll never want to leave.

Contraband Livestock (bulk), Recruitment Drive (bulk) – There are a lot of d20-based commons and uncommons in AFR, and several will see the foils go up to a buck or two. These two card represent my favorites for the moment, but are not the only ones that will see such notable growth. Contraband Livestock especially, because it’s exiling at instant speed, and dice rolls are harder to come by on opponents’ turns.

Danse Macabre (bulk) – As an AFR Commander card, no one went for a lot of these decks but the Danse is both a way to get your rolling going and a way to get ahead. Yes, you’re getting the worst creatures of theirs, but now you’re getting two plus a Robot. We’ll see the EA versions move first.

Chaos Dragon ($0.25 to $1.50) – I adore this card in Ur-Dragon and want to play it in all my decks. It’s ridiculously undercosted, being three mana for a 4/4 flying haste, and this is a deck that wants a free dice roll every turn. This checks all the boxes, and do you really care that it’s a card which never defends? It’s got just enough play that the EA versions of the card are notably more expensive, and this might be the catalyst for even larger gaps to appear. There are currently no foils to chase, but this is also very unlikely to be in the Fallout set, as it’s not a universe with Dragons.

Wand of Wonder ($0.25 to $1) – This is expensive to use and cast, but getting the best, or 50% to get the two best spells, is very worth the mana and time. You can only miss with combat tricks or counterspells, and that’s why you get the pick of it. Blessed few Commander decks have no instants or sorcery spells, and you’re about to have a grand time playing off the top of other folks’ decks. Bundle foils exist and that’s probably going to do enough to hold down the price even if Mr. House hits it big.

Vexing Puzzlebox ($1 to $3) – Mentioned in December as a long term pick between $3 and $6, there’s been a lot of purchases lately but still a lot of room for profit. No huge walls, borderless mythic. Since we never got a good way to use dice-rolling in Commander, this hasn’t taken off. Well, now’s your chance.

Delina, Wild Mage ($2 to $50) – I talked about this card a lot on MTG Fast Finance this week, it’s everything the deck wants.

Comet, Stellar Pup ($4 to $8) – Comet’s a good boy who only rolls a d6 but we’ve got a lot of tools to help with that. Unfinity is a set that will contribute here, and I’ve mostly left the silver-bordered cards alone on this list.

Night Shift of the Living Dead (bulk to $2) – Galaxy foils are clearly the target, being that they are both pretty and inexpensive. Maxing out a roll and getting a 3/3 plus a 2/2 is sweet too!

Priority Boarding (bulk to $3) – Card advantage is going to be a little trickier here, but this plays well with the theme and is capable of some impressive outcomes.

Squirrel-Powered Scheme (bulk to $1) – There are three big walls on foils, and yes it’s silver-bordered, so I’m not sure if it’ll have a chance to get expensive. That said, if it’s in play, you can’t help but get Robots. It’s the biggest unknown on this list, in my mind.

The Big Idea ($0.25 to $1) – This isn’t overpowered but it is enormously fun and does do exactly what the deck wants. We’ve got a lot of evidence, though, that silver-bordered cards are not usually popular with the mainstream Commander crowd.

Maddening Hex ($4 to $6) – House is hard to trigger on other players’ turns, but this will do it and deal some good damage as a result. Most importantly, though, this is just free. You don’t have to do anything to get these rolls, and that’s what the deck wants more than anything else.

Cliff (@WordOfCommander) has been writing for MTGPrice since 2013, and is an eager Commander player, Draft enthusiast, and Cube fanatic. A high school science teacher by day, he’s also the official substitute teacher of the MTG Fast Finance podcast. If you’re ever at a GP and you see a giant flashing ‘CUBE DRAFT’ sign, go over, say hi, and be ready to draft.