Last updated on September 9, 2025
Satya, Aetherflux Genius โ art by Aaron Miller
Wizards of the Coast attempted to make Energy counters a viable Commander theme by releasing three Energy-based precon decks (alongside eight Energy commanders) in quick succession between March 2024 and February 2025: Fallout, Modern Horizons 3, and Aetherdrift. However, Magic's Head Designer Mark Rosewater has recently admitted that this experiment fell short of expectations. When asked by an MTG player if these Energy precons were a success, Rosewater answered in his personal blog: โNot as much as we hoped.โ
โThe reason Aetherdrift had an energy-themed Commander deck was we ended up not having room for energy in the main set,โ Rosewater writes, โbut thought players would want more energy cards on our return to Avishkar.โ (fka Kaladesh).
Judging by the popularity of the new Energy commanders, and the price of their precons, Rosewater's โNot as much as we hoped,โ seems pretty much on point.
Popularity on EDHREC: Energy Commanders Rank Low
Saheeli, Radiant Creator โ art by Ernanda Souza
One clear metric of a Commanderโs success is how many players build decks around it. According to EDHREC, the Energy commanders are significantly less popular than other commanders from the same products.
Dr. Madison Li, the face commander of Falloutโs Science! deck, is a reasonably popular commander, heading about 6,500 decks and ranking #274 overall.
Aetherdriftโs Saheeli, Radiant Creator, who heads the Living Energy precon, does a lot worse, though, and EDHREC puts her around rank #327 with about 6,000 decks. In contrast, Temmet, Naktamun's Will (who helms the Eternal Might precon) is vastly more popular, commanding about more than 9,000 decks and ranking #164. And this is despite Saheeli being one of Magic's most recognizable names.
Modern Horizons 3โs Creative Energy precon provides a bit of a break in this trend, with Satya, Aetherflux Genius commanding roughly 11,500 decks and almost making it to the top #100. This is probably because Satya is only a part-time Energy commander: He generates and spends energy, but also works with artifact/token synergies.
Secondary Market Signals: Energy Decks are the Cheapest
Smothering Tithe โ Illustration by Mark Behm
Another telling sign comes up when you look at how the Commander precon fared on the secondary market. Popular Commander precons tend to maintain higher prices given their higher demandโฆ but the Energy decks have been the cheapest in their respective sets:
Fallout's Science! Energy precon quickly became the least valued of the four Fallout Commander decks. Its sealed deck market price hovers around $36 according to MTGStocks, while Hail, Caesar and Scrappy Survivors cost about $42-$44 on average, and Mutant Menace (led by Wise Mothman) jumps to nearly $60.
The Living Energy precon is similarly the cheapest of the Aethedrift duo. The Energy deckโs market price is around $30, while the other Aetherdrift Commander deck has been selling for roughly $54 on average โ not far from twice the price of the Energy deck.
And even though Satya, Aetherflux Genius does fairly well as a standalone commander, his deck can't escape the worst-seller trend. Of the four Modern Horizons 3 precons, Creative Energy is the cheapest at around $31-$33 on average.
Why Didnโt Energy Energize Commander?
Dr. Madison Li (Fallout) โ art by Zuzanna Wuลผyk
The Energy mechanic is a self-contained resource system (what MTG designers call โparasiticโ: a mechanic that only works with cards that share the same mechanic). This is not a bad thing per se: in Modern, Energy decks are having a field day and are among the strongest in their format.
But in Commander, Energy probably suffers from a relatively small card pool, and even new Energy cards printed in these precons werenโt enough to elevate the archetype.
โPart of the goal of making Commander decks is try to create new themes that could expand how players use a specific element,โ wrote Mark Rosewater in reply to a player's criticism that none of the energy cards from the Creative Energy precon worked well with Satya. โObviously, some are more successful at this than others, but thatโs the goal,โ Rosewater admitted.
That's not to say the energy decks are universally hates (some players do love at least one of them).
But, as Rosewater admits, not as much as WotC has hoped.
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10 Comments
In my opinion, the biggest problem is that none of the Energy Commanders feel like Energy Commanders: they mostly feel like Artifact Commanders with an Energy subtheme or are extremely narrow. Dr. Madison Li generates Energy through casting Artifacts, Liberty Prime generates Energy through sacrificing Artifacts, Pia Nalaar generates Energy through Artifact Creatures dealing combat damage, and Saheeli generates Energy through casting Artifacts (and Artificers, which is a nice bonus). Satya at least doesn’t require anything to do with Artifacts, Nissa works off of Landfall but does restrict you to a mono-Green deck, Rex generally wants to deal combat damage and have loads of things with activated abilities, and whilst The Motherlode seems fairly open, it again limits you to a mono-coloured deck.
As someone who has wanted an Energy Commander deck ever since Kaladesh first released, and has bought all three of those precons, I’m trying to get something fun to work. But it’s currently an uphill slog.
I agree completely, just curious what you think a “real” energy commander should look like?
A good energy commander would be any of the following: 1) Anything with proliferate. (Lots of green energy decks also use +1/+1 counters) 2) A creature who’s power toughness scales with your energy counters. 3) A creature who has all the activated abilities of all creatures on the battlefield 4) A (Hydra) creature that enters with X +1/1 counters and you get X energy.
Any one of these would have been better than “Mishra but worse”
I really like the idea of the energy-hydra.
I also think that the lack of unity between the 3 precon decks also hurt the playability of the commanders themselves. Two Jeskai and a Temur deck can’t necessarily share a whole ton of cards. I think a unifying commander would have gone a long way toward maybe making the archetype playable. Whether that’s all colors but black or a WUBRG identity wouldn’t have mattered all that much. A deeper overall pool of cards always helps things out.
Yeah, energy just doesn’t have enough variation, even with three back-to-back precons. It’d probably need another full set’s worth of energy cards to really get there, and that seems unlikely.
I have the Satya deck and it is one of my most powerful decks. I love playing it too. I also actively cut a lot of energy cards from it because Satya creates a lot of energy just himself.
Iโm honestly surprised more folks donโt play the commander. Itโs a really strong aggro deck, and has my best win rate at the moment.
Satya’s just a very powerful card, even without a real energy focus. Glad to hear you get good use out of it!
I think they they are comparing the mechanics of the deck to sales when they energy precons don’t have cards that are pricey reprints or a thematic card that can be used even out of an energy deck. More hot selling precons are not based on their theme but individual cards withing. Like Sevinne.
Sales is pretty much everything to them, so I wouldn’t doubt if you’re right about that.
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