Family Matters Precon: Decklist, Value, and Verdict

Zinnia, Valley's Voice

Flying Zinnia gets +X/+0, where X is the number of other creatures you control with base power 1. Creature spells you cast gain offspring {2} as you cast them. (You may pay an additional {2} as you cast a creature spell. If you do, when that creature enters, create a 1/1 token copy of it.)

Singles value

$66.40

TCGplayer market, 87 cards, basic lands counted at $0

Sealed price

$37.54

TCGplayer price for the box (Amazon $54.45) · singles are 1.8× that · MSRP $11.00

New cards

10 / 100

First printings in this deck

Bracket

Core, out of the box

Is Family Matters worth buying?

from Bloomburrow Commander Decks: Are They Worth It? by Andrew Quinn

Family Matters is definitely a deck that speaks to me. I’d have liked to see a Panharmonicon reprint or something like that. Overall, it just feels like there’s a lot of good stuff going on, but not enough reward. Zinnia seems like the reward, but then Family Matters seems to be too focused on the commander sticking around, and that isn’t guaranteed to happen. It’s a very good start, but this feels a lot like a deck in dire need of upgrades.

How Family Matters plays

primer from Family Matters Upgrade Guide: 19 Easy Changes You Can Make by Steve Vrooman

Zinnia, Valley's VoiceArthur, Marigold Knight

This deck is headlined by bird bard Zinnia, Valley's Voice. The theme is clear from this Jeskai commander’s design; Family Matters is a deck built around the offspring mechanic. Zinnia gives this ability to every creature, so the deck is full of creatures with powerful enters triggers with a subtheme of creatures that have a base power of 1.

The alternate commander for Family Matters is the wonderfully adorable Arthur, Marigold Knight. Since we’re taking advantage of offspring, this deck can go wide and get into combat. Arthur takes this theme and goes with it, behaving very similarly to Winota, Joiner of Forces. Each attack with Arthur gets you a new creature and presumably a new triggered ability to advance your position. Given my love of enters triggers, as my Vannifar deck guide shows, this is a strategy that really speaks to me, though I don’t know if it’s better than Zinnia’s theme.

The general strategy of Family Matters, regardless of your choice of commander, is to start by going wide. There are a lot of cheap creatures in the deck that cost 3 or less. If Zinnia is your 3-drop, you can follow up on successive turns with offspring costs paid on your 2s and 3s. You should have a full board of creatures in no time at all, although there seems to be very little to reward you for that. But each creature that you play gives you an incremental advantage, so even if you fall victim to a board wipe, it should be easy for you to recover.