Last week saw the release of Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate. With it came a whole host of new cards meant to spice up Commander tables everywhere. As it's a Commander focused set, so too come what you'd expect: Commander preconstructed decks. This time around there's four new decks, and that means four new upgrades! Every Friday for the next couple weeks, I'll be covering upgrades for each of these precons in detail.

First up on the chopping block is the Exit from Exile preconstructed deck!

The deck basically plays exactly how it sounds. You put cards into exile and then you cast them. The commander herself - Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald - not only does this herself, but rewards you for finding more ways to do it as well by making swarms of wolf tokens. Foretell, suspend, adventure, and cascade all cast spells from exile and all make for great options to play with. So how does the deck play? Well let's take a look at the list first!

Exit from Exile Precon | Commander | Wizards of the Coast

• Commander (1)
• 1 Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald

• Creatures (25)
• 1 Arasta of the Endless Web
• 1 Aurora Phoenix
• 1 Battle Mammoth
• 1 Beanstalk Giant
• 1 Bloodbraid Elf
• 1 Dire Fleet Daredevil
• 1 Dream Pillager
• 1 Durman of the Yawning Portal
• 1 Embereth Shieldbreaker
• 1 End-Raze Forerunners
• 1 Etali, Primal Storm
• 1 Greater Gargadon
• 1 Green Slime
• 1 Grumgully, the Generous
• 1 Hornet Queen
• 1 Izzet Chemister
• 1 Laelia, the Blade Reforged
• 1 Lovestruck Beast
• 1 Managorger Hydra
• 1 Nalfeshnee
• 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1 Sweet-Gum Recluse
• 1 Tectonic Giant
• 1 Tlincalli Hunter
• 1 Wild-Magic Sorcerer

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 1 Vivien, Champion of the Wilds
• 1 Xenagos, the Reveler

• Instants (5)
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Delayed Blast Fireball
• 1 Demon Bolt
• 1 Natural Reclamation
• 1 Return of the Wildspeaker

• Sorceries (15)
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Escape to the Wilds
• 1 Explore
• 1 Ezuri's Predation
• 1 Ignite the Future
• 1 Jeska's Will
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Light Up the Stage
• 1 Mizzium Mortars
• 1 Nature's Lore
• 1 Search for Tomorrow
• 1 Terramorph
• 1 Three Visits
• 1 Venture Forth
• 1 Volcanic Torrent

• Enchantments (7)
• 1 Journey to the Lost City
• 1 Outpost Siege
• 1 Passionate Archaeologist
• 1 Primeval Bounty
• 1 Sandwurm Convergence
• 1 Stolen Strategy
• 1 Warstorm Surge

• Artifacts (4)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Chaos Wand
• 1 Sarevok's Tome
• 1 Sol Ring

• Lands (39)
• 11 Mountain
• 12 Forest
• 1 Ash Barrens
• 1 Blighted Woodland
• 1 Castle Embereth
• 1 Cinder Glade
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Game Trail
• 1 Gruul Turf
• 1 Highland Forest
• 1 Kessig Wolf Run
• 1 Mossfire Valley
• 1 Mosswort Bridge
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Raging Ravine
• 1 Spinerock Knoll
• 1 Temple of Abandon
• 1 Temple of the False God

Buy This Deck Export text format

In short: this deck is nothing short of excellent. In fact, if there was any kind of deck I'd love to pick up and hand to a brand-new Commander or even brand-new Magic player, this would be the one. Sure, there might be a little confusion and complexity hurdles to how exiling works and all that, but once the player gets a grasp on it, the deck is a no-brainer to play. That's not to say it's easy to pilot, but rather it just casts spell after spell and makes token after token.

The first thing I did when I fired up the list and looked at the commander was think of great cards that could fit in a deck like this. Search for Tomorrow? Yup, that's here. Light up the Stage? Got that too! Outpost Siege? You'd better believe that's in this deck. In fact, the more I thought and looked, the more I realized I wouldn't really change too much of this deck. The choices are all superb and there's no shortage of stellar ways to cast spells from exile and build up that sweet, sweet value.

Some of the new cards are nothing short of brilliant as well. The new alternate legends in Durnan of the Yawning Portal and Passionate Archaeologist provide some additional payoff for this kind of strategy. You could easily swap them for the face commander and have just as good of a time, albeit you'd lose the ability to do it on command. Delayed Blast Fireball and Venture Forth are both great new cards with their respective keyword mechanics - even if the latter of the two is a bit of a flavor fail in not actually venturing. There's even Journey to the Lost City which is such an astoundingly cool design from top to bottom.

That's not to say there aren't issues, though, and I definitely think there's a number of ways that this can be improved upon. This is an upgrade article and we have to make changes, but what I do think is out of the box, it's really hard to go too wrong with this. I'd say swap out a couple of the lands for some better options you've likely got lying around, but beyond that this is a great deck that anybody can play.

With that, let's check out an upgraded version:

Exit from Exile Revamped | Commander | Paige Smith

• Commander (1)
• 1 Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald

• Creatures (32)
• 1 Atsushi, the Blazing Sky
• 1 Aurora Phoenix
• 1 Battle Mammoth
• 1 Beanstalk Giant
• 1 Birds of Paradise
• 1 Birgi, God of Storytelling // Harnfel, Horn of Bounty
• 1 Bloodbraid Elf
• 1 Conspiracy Theorist
• 1 Containment Construct
• 1 Dire Fleet Daredevil
• 1 Dream Pillager
• 1 Durnan of the Yawning Portal
• 1 Embereth Shieldbreaker
• 1 End-Raze Forerunners
• 1 Etali, Primal Storm
• 1 Eternal Scourge
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Green Slime
• 1 Grenzo, Havoc Raiser
• 1 Izzet Chemister
• 1 Laelia, the Blade Reforged
• 1 Llanowar Elves
• 1 Managorger Hydra
• 1 Nalfeshnee
• 1 Professional Face-Breaker
• 1 Robber of the Rich
• 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
• 1 Tectonic Giant
• 1 Tlincalli Hunter
• 1 Urabrask, Heretic Praetor
• 1 Wild-Magic Sorcerer

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
• 1 Xenagos, the Reveler

• Instants (4)
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Delayed Blast Fireball
• 1 Natural Reclamation
• 1 Return of the Wildspeaker

• Sorceries (15)
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Escape to the Wilds
• 1 Ezuri's Predation
• 1 Ignite the Future
• 1 Inspired Tinkering
• 1 Jeska's Will
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Light Up the Stage
• 1 Mizzium Mortars
• 1 Nature's Lore
• 1 Rampant Growth
• 1 Search for Tomorrow
• 1 Throes of Chaos
• 1 Venture Forth
• 1 Volcanic Torrent

• Enchantments (4)
• 1 Journey to the Lost City
• 1 Passionate Archaeologist
• 1 Stolen Strategy
• 1 Warstorm Surge

• Artifacts (4)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Chaos Wand
• 1 Mox Tantalite
• 1 Sol Ring

• Lands (38)
• 10 Forest
• 11 Mountain
• 1 Arch of Orazca
• 1 Blighted Woodland
• 1 Castle Embereth
• 1 Castle Garenbrig
• 1 Cinder Glade
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Karplusan Forest
• 1 Kessig Wolf Run
• 1 Mosswort Bridge
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Raging Ravine
• 1 Rockfall Vale
• 1 Rootbound Crag
• 1 Sheltered Thicket
• 1 Spire Garden
• 1 Stomping Ground
• 1 War Room

Buy This Deck Export text format

Apart from the lands, the one thing I basically looked at here were ways that I could cast spells from exile more effectively. Were there better options, perhaps things that couldn't be put in due to budget or rarity concerns or something along those lines? Maybe there were a few cards that frankly just didn't strike me as being a great fit for this kind of deck - and make no mistake there were certainly a handful of them. So, what I did was simply add some of the cards I thought would be great fits.

Chandra, Torch of Defiance was one of the first ones I thought of. She can let you cast cards that she exiles while doing a whole host of other things such as mana ramp and creature removal. Urabrask, Hidden Praetor just felt like a thematically better version of Urabrask to include for a deck like this that likely couldn't be in here as he's a chase card in the newest premier set. Throes of Chaos was one I especially loved, as it's something you can do repeatedly and spin the wheel. Mox Tantalite also makes for a great suspend option, and while I didn't ultimately include it, Sol Talisman is similarly great.

I also made sure to include a few ways to help mitigate discarding, as you'll be doing that quite a bit with Faldorn. Squee, Goblin Nabob was an easy auto include here, as you can continually discard him again and again every single turn for more and more value. Containment Construct and Conspiracy Theorist also let you actually play cards you discard - and doing so from exile at that! We do love some good synergy with our deck's theme, after all! I did consider something like Crucible of Worlds or Ramunap Excavator since I figured we'd be going through lands but decided against it. With new reprints of Kozilek, Butcher of Truth and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre around the corner in Double Masters 2022, maybe you should consider those if you can get one.

There's also a ton of great exile cards I thought about and considered but ultimately chose against for one reason or another. Durkwood Baloth was one such creature, being a cheap suspend card that can come down later, but it felt a bit too basic and there were so many other good options as it was. There were also the likes of Stromkirk Occultist (which benefits from Faldorn's discarding), Valakut Exploration, and Flameskull as ways to repeatedly cast spells. The more I thought about it, though, the more I preferred other options. I also considered Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, but he'll just empty out your wallet. If you've got him, play him, but I'm not about to tell you to go out and buy a copy here either.

There were also a number of cards I ended up cutting. Some were easier, some were harder. I already mentioned Urabrask the Hidden as an easy replacement for his New Capenna counterpart, but even that Outpost Siege I mentioned earlier was better replaced as well. Some of the cards just didn't seem great either, like Demon Bolt, Bonecrusher Giant, and Lovestruck Beast - two of which were tournament staples for years - just aren't very appealing in a Commander setting. Then there's cards like Hornet Queen, Primeval Bounty, and Grumgully, the Generous which are fine cards but don't really do a whole ton with the theme specifically and end up feeling a little out of place as a result.

What's really cool, though, is the fact that I ended up cutting almost none of the new cards at all - something that often feels like a rarity. The only card I ended up taking out was Sarevok's Tome. The deck already had tons of ways to ramp - even in the base precon form - so this expensive mana rock just feels kind of bland. It can do a bit more if you actually complete a dungeon, but there's no guarantee that'll actually happen. I do think it's a good card, but I simply think that this isn't the right home for it. Put it in your Sefris of the Hidden Ways decks instead.

Ultimately, no matter how you build this one, you're sure to have a great time. It's very easy to pick up and play and it's a breeze to upgrade this deck in whatever way you see fit. Many of the upgrades I included here are very cheap, very splashy, and most importantly very fun. But there's also a lot more options than what I provided here and I promise you that there's no wrong way to build it. Build it your way and have a great time with it at your next Commander night. I promise you'll be the one pulling off some of the biggest and flashiest plays at the table.

Paige Smith

Twitter: @TheMaverickGal

Twitch: twitch.tv/themaverickgirl

YouTube: TheMaverickGal