Landing Party Upgrade Guide

Quick verdict

Landing Party is a land deck with a commander who casts your spells for free. Commander Spock reveals the top card of your library whenever he enters or attacks and casts it without paying its mana cost if its mana value is no more than the number of differently named lands you control, so every new land name makes him better. The box is built for that, with 40 lands under 35 names, and it plays well out of the box. What holds it back is that several of its ramp cards add land drops without adding names: four fetch lands sacrifice themselves for a basic, and Cultivate, Rampant Growth and Captain Kirk, Boldly Going only find basics. The first upgrades keep the count of names climbing, then trade the slowest cards for more land drops.

TurnZero HQ rates Landing Party a 3 out of 5 on difficulty and a 4 out of 5 on power, as it comes in the box. That is our editorial read, not an official Wizards rating. The full hundred cards are on the Landing Party decklist page, and every other precon we cover is on the precon directory.

How the precon plays

Strange new worlds counts differently named lands, not lands. Two Forests count as one, and a land that leaves the battlefield takes its name with it. Commander Spock is the main payoff: whenever he enters or attacks, you reveal the top card, cast it for free if its mana value is low enough, put it onto the battlefield tapped if it's a land, and draw it if it's still on top. He never comes up empty. Lt. Arex, Ever-Adapting, Colossal Clone Master, Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, Christine Chapel, Combat Medic and Chief Montgomery Scott count the same thing.

Landfall pays you for every land drop, and the deck makes extra ones with Exploration, Augur of Autumn and its ramp spells. M'Ress, Crew Coordinator makes two Officer tokens, Amanda Grayson, Logic's Link and Syndicate Liquidators put two +1/+1 counters on a creature, Tireless Tracker makes a Clue, Lotus Cobra adds a mana, and Ancient Greenwarden makes each of those trigger twice. Chief Kyle, Transporter Tech blinks a creature on every landfall; attack with Spock, then play a land after combat and have Kyle exile Spock, and he comes back at the end step for a second reveal.

Captain Kirk, Boldly Going is the second commander in the box, for a game built around Starship Enterprise. Kirk gives your Spacecraft creatures +3/+3 and finds the Enterprise from your library or graveyard whenever he enters or attacks. The Enterprise takes four charge counters on every landfall, becomes a flying creature at 16, and draws a card for each point of combat damage it deals to a player.

What works out of the box

Commander Spock ↗

Every time he enters or attacks you get a card: a free spell if its mana value is no more than your number of differently named lands, a land onto the battlefield, or a card drawn.

Lt. Arex, Ever-Adapting ↗

Draws three when he enters and puts up to three lands from your hand onto the battlefield, then tramples for one point per differently named land. Those lands can add names, which makes him bigger as he lands.

M'Ress, Crew Coordinator ↗

Two 1/1 Officer tokens for every land that enters under your control. With Exploration or a ramp spell, that is four or more a turn.

Chief Kyle, Transporter Tech ↗

Each land you play exiles another creature you control until the next end step. Blink Spock or Lt. Arex and they trigger again when they return.

Ancient Greenwarden ↗

Every landfall trigger happens twice, so M'Ress makes four Officers per land and the Enterprise takes eight charge counters. You can also play lands from your graveyard, including fetch lands you already used.

Starship Enterprise ↗

Four charge counters per landfall means four land drops make it a flying creature, and each hit draws a card for every point of damage it deals. Kirk gives it +3/+3 on top of that.

What needs improvement

Four lands make the count of names go down when you use them. Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic Expanse, Fabled Passage and Tranquil Landscape each sacrifice themselves for a basic, so you lose one name and gain a basic name you may already have. With eight basics in the deck (four Forests, two Plains and two Islands), you often do. The ramp spells have the same problem: Cultivate, Rampant Growth and Captain Kirk, Boldly Going only find basics. Farseek and Nature's Lore are the exceptions, since they can fetch typed duals like Canopy Vista or Sodden Verdure that are new names.

A few cards are slow or work against the plan. Echo of Eons gives every player a fresh seven cards, and the deck is usually the one ahead on board when you'd cast it. Command Chair costs six mana and enters tapped in a deck that already ramps with lands. Fleet Captain Christopher Pike, Sam Kirk, Xenoanthropologist and Tribble Cluster don't touch lands or Spock at all.

Spock costs five and has no way to attack the turn he lands. His attack trigger is half of his value, so a turn without an attack is a reveal you didn't get. The box protects him reasonably well at instant speed (Heroic Intervention, U.S.S. Defiant, Mirror Migrant and Temporal Tribulation), but nothing in the box gives your commander haste.

Upgrade ideas

Each upgrade below starts from something the deck does poorly and says what a replacement card has to do. The cards named are examples, not the only answer: if you own something else that does the same job, or a newer printing does it better, it goes in the same slot. Make one change at a time and play a few games between them, so you can tell which change helped. The general method is in how to upgrade a Commander precon →

1. Keep every land name on the battlefield

Spock and the other strange new worlds cards only count names you control right now. A fetch land is a name until you use it, and then it is a basic you probably already have. A nonbasic land that stays on the battlefield adds a name for the rest of the game.

What to look for Nonbasic lands the deck doesn't already run, ideally with basic land types so Farseek, Nature's Lore and the ramp below can fetch them. On a budget, the gain lands (Blossoming Sands, Thornwood Falls, Tranquil Cove) are new names too and each one grows Christine Chapel, though no ramp spell here can fetch them. Once these are in, you can also swap a basic or two for another nonbasic, but keep a few, since Cultivate and Captain Kirk search for basics.

Cut, for example

✕

Evolving Wilds Two landfall triggers for one card, which M'Ress and the Enterprise like. The cost is that it ends as a basic, so it never adds a name and often removes one. Keep Fabled Passage if you want one fetch land for the double trigger.

✕

Terramorphic Expanse The same card as Evolving Wilds, and the second fetch land to go.

Add, for example

Spara's Headquarters ↗

A Forest Plains Island, so it taps for all three colors and Farseek or Nature's Lore can find it. It enters tapped, and cycling turns a late copy into a card.

Lush Portico ↗

A Forest Plains that enters tapped and surveils 1, so you can bin a top card you don't want Spock to reveal. Nature's Lore and Farseek can both fetch it.

2. Ramp into new names, not basics

Every ramp spell that puts a basic onto the battlefield adds a land drop but rarely a name. Ramp that fetches a land by its type can find the deck's typed duals instead: Canopy Vista, Scattered Groves, Sodden Verdure, Rain-Slicked Copse and the two lands above are all Forests.

What to look for Ramp that searches for a Forest card rather than a basic land card. The land still enters tapped if it says so itself: Spara's Headquarters, Lush Portico, Scattered Groves and Rain-Slicked Copse always do, and Canopy Vista and Sodden Verdure do unless you control two basics.

Cut, for example

✕

Rampant Growth Two mana for a tapped basic. It ramps, but it never adds a name once you have a Forest, a Plains and an Island out.

✕

Command Chair Six mana for an artifact that enters tapped, so it makes mana from the turn after. It taps for five with Spock out, which helps cast Lt. Arex or Planet Killer, but the deck's ramp is built on lands, and the Chair adds no land to count for Spock.

Add, for example

Skyshroud Claim ↗

Four mana for two Forest cards onto the battlefield, untapped unless the land itself enters tapped. Point it at two typed duals and it is two new names at once, plus two landfall triggers.

Three Visits ↗

Two mana for any Forest card onto the battlefield, untapped unless the land itself enters tapped. It is the same card as Nature's Lore, which is already in the box.

3. More land drops instead of a fresh hand for everyone

Echo of Eons refills three opponents to seven cards each, and the deck's card advantage already comes from Spock, Lt. Arex, Tireless Tracker and Harmonize. A card that lets you play extra lands, or play them off the top of your library, feeds every landfall card and clears lands off the top before Spock reveals.

What to look for Creatures or enchantments that give extra land drops or let you play lands from the top of your library.

Cut, for example

✕

Echo of Eons Each player shuffles their hand and graveyard into their library and draws seven. You get seven too, but so does every opponent, and its flashback lets you do it again later.

✕

Fleet Captain Christopher Pike Three mana for a creature that untaps two creatures for {1} or taps two for {2}. It can untap creatures you tapped to station a ship, but the slot does more as a land engine.

Add, for example

Oracle of Mul Daya ↗

An extra land drop every turn, and you can play lands from the top of your library. With Exploration out too, that is three land drops a turn.

Courser of Kruphix ↗

Play lands from the top of your library and gain 1 life on every landfall. Each life gain puts two +1/+1 counters on Christine Chapel, Combat Medic.

4. Get Spock attacking the turn he lands

Spock triggers when he enters and when he attacks. With haste, the turn you cast him is two reveals instead of one, and if he is removed later, the turn you recast him is two reveals again.

What to look for Cheap equipment that gives haste and stops your opponents' targeted removal, so Spock and Kirk can both use it. Hexproof is better than shroud here, because Chief Kyle, Temporal Tribulation and U.S.S. Defiant all need to target Spock.

Cut, for example

✕

Sam Kirk, Xenoanthropologist A Clue whenever an opponent casts a creature spell. Useful card flow, but it doesn't touch lands or Spock.

✕

Tribble Cluster Grows a counter each combat and leaves Tribbles when it dies. Fine on its own, but it has nothing to do with the deck's plan.

Add, for example

Swiftfoot Boots ↗

Haste and hexproof for {1} to equip, so Spock attacks the turn he is cast. Hexproof only stops your opponents, so Chief Kyle, Temporal Tribulation and U.S.S. Defiant can still target him.

Lightning Greaves ↗

Haste and shroud, and equip costs nothing. Shroud stops your own spells too, so move it off Spock before you blink him with Chief Kyle or save him with Temporal Tribulation.

Win conditions

The deck wins with big creatures once the lands are out. Lt. Arex, Ever-Adapting tramples for your number of land names, Starship Enterprise flies at 16 charge counters and draws for every hit, and Planet Killer is an indestructible flier that grows by every land the player it hits controls. Shuttlecraft Galileo, once stationed to 6, gives up to seven attacking creatures flying, which turns a board of M'Ress's Officer tokens into an evasive attack. Giant Space Amoeba makes a copy of itself every time it attacks.

Who should buy this precon

A good fit for players who like ramp and big turns, and an easy deck to pilot: make your land drop, then attack with Spock when he can survive it. The work is in deckbuilding rather than play, since the upgrades are mostly about which lands to run. Players who want a single big threat can lead with Captain Kirk, Boldly Going instead, since he comes in the same box and builds the game around the Enterprise.

Checked against the printed decklist on November 1, 2026.