The Ruinous Powers Precon: Decklist, Value, and Verdict
Everything in the The Ruinous Powers Commander deck: all 100 cards with current prices, what the deck is worth against the sealed price, the 42 new cards, and whether it is worth buying.
Abaddon the Despoiler
Trample Mark of Chaos Ascendant — During your turn, spells you cast from your hand with mana value X or less have cascade, where X is the total amount of life your opponents have lost this turn.
Is The Ruinous Powers worth buying?
The Ruinous Powers has produced a lot of long-standing Commander cards, from both of its commanders down to its cascade support and staples for demon decks. The two themes within the deck are a bit disparate, but they’re both powerful enough to coexist in the precon, and the individual pieces are quite strong once you upgrade the deck and start specializing in one direction or the other.
How The Ruinous Powers plays
The two main commanders for The Ruinous Powers are Abaddon the Despoiler and Be'lakor, the Dark Master. Unlike the tyranids, this deck’s strategy isn’t quite as linear, with multiple themes competing for the spotlight.
There’s a small cascade theme with a handful of cascade spells along with the ability of Abaddon itself, as well as cards that trigger whenever you cast spells from outside of the hand. Additionally, there’s a demon subtheme to support Be’lakor.
This is best described as “Grixis good stuff”. If you enjoy midrange battles featuring plenty of creature removal, creatures with effects that annoy everyone else at the table, and some really wild table-flipping interactions, then this is probably the deck for you!
Most valuable cards in The Ruinous Powers
The 42 new cards
Abaddon the Despoiler$1.64
Be'lakor, the Dark Master$3.55
Lord of Change$2.28
Blight Grenade$0.38
Great Unclean One$4.04
Mandate of Abaddon$3.45
Mortarion, Daemon Primarch$0.74
Nurgle's Conscription$0.38
Plague Drone$2.27
Poxwalkers$5.93
Sloppity Bilepiper$0.35
Tallyman of Nurgle$0.44
Venomcrawler$1.13
Aspiring Champion$0.47
Bloodthirster$25.10
Dark Apostle$0.37
Keeper of Secrets$7.87
Khârn the Betrayer$5.68
Knight Rampager$0.43
Let the Galaxy Burn$0.51
Blood for the Blood God!$5.15
Chaos Defiler$5.82
Chaos Mutation$1.02
Drach'Nyen$0.35
Exalted Flamer of Tzeentch$17.61
Helbrute$0.32
The Horus Heresy$1.26
Kill! Maim! Burn!$0.38
Lucius the Eternal$0.35
Magnus the Red$6.65
Mutalith Vortex Beast$0.41
Pink Horror$0.58
The Ruinous Powers$1.13
Tzaangor Shaman$0.37
Heralds of Tzeentch$0.39
Nurgle's Rot$4.44
Bloodcrusher of Khorne$2.14
Chaos Terminator Lord$0.42
Herald of Slaanesh$4.73
Noise Marine$1.70
Seeker of Slaanesh$0.38
The Lost and the Damned$3.46The Ruinous Powers decklist
Commander 1
- 1Abaddon the Despoilerfoil$1.64
Creatures 29
- 1Herald of Slaanesh$4.73
- 1Poxwalkers$5.93
- 1Tallyman of Nurgle$0.44
- 1Aspiring Champion$0.47
- 1Bloodcrusher of Khorne$2.14
- 1Chaos Terminator Lord$0.42
- 1Dark Apostle$0.37
- 1Exalted Flamer of Tzeentch$17.61
- 1Khârn the Betrayer$5.68
- 1Plague Drone$2.27
- 1Seeker of Slaanesh$0.38
- 1Sloppity Bilepiper$0.35
- 1Tzaangor Shaman$0.37
- 1Venomcrawler$1.13
- 1Chaos Defiler$5.82
- 1Great Unclean One$4.04
- 1Helbrute$0.32
- 1Heralds of Tzeentch$0.39
- 1Knight Rampager$0.43
- 1Lucius the Eternal$0.35
- 1Magnus the Red$6.65
- 1Noise Marine$1.70
- 1Pink Horror$0.58
- 1Be'lakor, the Dark Masterfoil$3.55
- 1Bloodthirster$25.10
- 1Keeper of Secrets$7.87
- 1Mortarion, Daemon Primarch$0.74
- 1Mutalith Vortex Beast$0.41
- 1Lord of Change$2.28
Instants 10
- 1Brainstorm$2.53
- 1Dark Ritual$4.45
- 1Bile Blight$0.32
- 1Reverberate$3.93
- 1Chaos Warp$0.79
- 1Bituminous Blast$0.22
- 1Chaos Mutation$1.02
- 1Kill! Maim! Burn!$0.38
- 1Nurgle's Conscription$0.38
- 1Blood for the Blood God!$5.15
Sorceries 7
- 1Mandate of Abaddon$3.45
- 1Past in Flames$2.70
- 1Blight Grenade$0.38
- 1Deny Reality$0.33
- 1Let the Galaxy Burn$0.51
- 1Decree of Pain$0.37
- 1Blasphemous Act$2.75
Artifacts 10
- 1Sol Ring$2.56
- 1Wayfarer's Bauble$0.40
- 1Talisman of Creativity$3.01
- 1Talisman of Dominance$1.21
- 1Talisman of Indulgence$3.51
- 1Chromatic Lantern$2.52
- 1Commander's Sphere$0.37
- 1Worn Powerstone$0.50
- 1Assault Suit$0.40
- 1Drach'Nyen$0.35
Enchantments 5
- 1Nurgle's Rot$4.44
- 1The Lost and the Damned$3.46
- 1The Ruinous Powers$1.13
- 1The Horus Heresy$1.26
- 1Warstorm Surge$1.21
Lands 38
- 1Barren Moor$0.39
- 1Command Tower$0.68
- 1Crumbling Necropolis$0.49
- 1Dismal Backwater$0.23
- 1Evolving Wilds$0.19
- 1Exotic Orchard$0.32
- 1Foreboding Ruins$0.40
- 1Forgotten Cave$0.29
- 8Island$0.00
- 1Molten Slagheap$0.22
- 8Mountain$0.00
- 1Path of Ancestry$0.36
- 1Sunken Hollow$0.41
- 8Swamp$0.00
- 1Swiftwater Cliffs$0.31
- 1Temple of the False God$0.42
- 1Terramorphic Expanse$0.27
Upgrading The Ruinous Powers
To upgrade this deck, I’ll focus on some key goals. Although the deck was designed with Abaddon the Despoiler in mind, the commander will be Be'lakor, the Dark Master. We’ll have to improve ramp, and reduce the incentives for casting instants and sorceries, or cards from outside our hand, because cascade is going to be a minor theme. I’m also focusing on getting some staple cards into this decklist, taking out more situational ones. This deck has many cards that cost 6+ mana, so we’ll need to improve the high curve.
Draftsim's upgrade guide makes 16 changes to this deck. The first picks (hover for the card):