Star Trek Draft Guide: Best Commons, Colors and BREAD Picks

The Short Version

Take removal early, stay open for the first few picks, and let the gold uncommons tell you which two colors are flowing. Black has the best removal in the set, led by He's Dead, Jim, the only common that destroys any creature with no condition. Red and white are close behind it. Blue answers creatures for a turn or two rather than for good, and green has one common removal spell.

Star Trek's prerelease runs November 6 to 12, 2026, and the set releases November 13. Every card here was read from the card gallery Wizards completed on October 30 (one card was not yet public). The rankings are our read of the card text before anyone has played the format, so treat them as a starting point.

The Colors, Ranked

Each color has 15 commons and 16 uncommons, so the difference is in what those cards do. The ranking below is mostly about removal, because in a 40-card deck the cards that deal with your opponent's best creature are the ones you can't replace later in the draft.

Black is first on quality. Red has more damage spells at common, but black's best removal kills a creature of any size: He's Dead, Jim at common, Impossible Choice at uncommon, and Resistance Is Futile for any nonartifact creature. Its creatures sacrifice and grow, which suits the Klingon and Borg decks.

Red has the most common removal: Plasma Cascade, Planetary Bombardment and Genesis Effect. Damage misses the largest creatures, which is why it sits just behind black.

White has the most flexible removal. Malfunctioning Holodeck exiles any nonland permanent for as long as it stays, Command Decision kills the big creatures red can't, and Set Phasers to . . . is a one-mana stun or a kill on an attacker.

Blue delays creatures rather than killing them. Marooned locks down a creature for good once you pay the extra {3}, while Guidance Failure and Interstellar Effigy buy a turn or two. It has two fliers and a flying Spacecraft at common, as many as any color, and the best card draw, so it's a good second color.

Green has Common Goal and Amok Time to remove creatures, and big bodies instead. Mugato, a five-mana 6/6 with reach, vigilance and deathtouch, is one of the best uncommons in the set. Green is a color to move into when it's open, not one to start in.

The 10 Best Commons

Most of the picks in a draft are commons, so this is the list to learn. All ten are removal: in a set where every color gets good creatures at common, the answers run out first. Between two cards of similar strength, take the one in a color you already have.

He's Dead, Jim ↗

Four mana, instant speed, destroy target creature, then surveil 1. The only common in the set that destroys any creature with no condition attached.

Plasma Cascade ↗

Three mana for 3 damage to any target at instant speed, and you may discard a card to draw one. Kills most of the set's two- and three-drops.

Malfunctioning Holodeck ↗

Three mana to exile any nonland permanent an opponent controls for as long as the Holodeck stays. Ward {2} makes it expensive to get the card back.

Eject the Warp Core ↗

Two mana for -2/-2, or -6/-6 if you sacrifice an artifact or creature as you cast it. Sacrifice a Klingon token and it kills almost anything.

Genesis Effect ↗

Five mana for 6 damage to a creature. You destroy one of your own lands, but you get a New Planet token that taps for any color, so you stay even on mana.

Set Phasers to . . . ↗

One mana: stun any creature (tap it and skip its next untap), or deal 3 damage to an attacking creature. Both modes are useful in any white deck.

Planetary Bombardment ↗

One mana for 2 damage to a creature, or 4 if a creature died this turn. Cheap enough to pair with a trade in combat.

Command Decision ↗

Two mana to destroy a creature with power 4 or greater, or draw a card when there is no target. The big threats are the ones you need to answer.

Guidance Failure ↗

Puts a creature or Spacecraft on the top or bottom of its owner's library (their choice). It costs three against an attacker, four otherwise.

Common Goal ↗

Two mana: one or two of your creatures each deal damage equal to their power to an opposing creature. Green's only common removal, and a good one.

BREAD, Card by Card

BREAD is an old pick-order rule in Limited: Bombs, Removal, Evasion, Aggro, and avoid the Duds. It's a rule of thumb, not a law. A fourth removal spell is worth less than your deck's first good two-drop. Here is each letter filled in with Star Trek cards.

B: Bombs. Rares and mythics that win a game by themselves if your opponent can't answer them. Take these first and work out the colors later.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard ↗

Three mana. Your other creatures get +1/+1, and every creature or Spacecraft you cast makes a 1/1 Officer. It takes over a board by itself.

U.S.S. Enterprise-A, Free Spirit ↗

Five mana for three 1/1 Officers and a Spacecraft with ward {2}. Station it to 6 charge counters and it attacks as a 5/5 flier with lifelink.

The Wrath of Khan ↗

Three mana for 4 damage to a creature, and you attack with it that turn if it survives. Next turn you can swap a card in hand for a new one, and the turn after, each opponent sacrifices a nontoken permanent.

Borg Cube ↗

Seven mana, cheaper for each artifact creature you control. It exiles a creature when it enters. Station it to 12 and it attacks as a 6/6, puts the exiled creature onto the battlefield on your side, and gives your artifact creatures flying.

Gul Dukat, Colonial Prefect ↗

A seven-mana 6/6 with menace. At each end step, each opponent loses as much life again as they lost that turn, and you gain it. If it survives a turn cycle, the game usually ends soon after.

Crystalline Entity ↗

An eight-mana 7/7 flier that destroys all nonartifact creatures when you cast it. Colorless, so any deck can play it; best in an artifact-creature deck that keeps its own board.

Close behind are Mr. Spock, Science Officer, who doubles every card you draw, and Khan, Vengeful Heart, a four-mana 5/3 that can sacrifice a spare creature to draw two cards.

R: Removal. The commons are in the list above. These are the uncommons worth taking over almost anything but a bomb.

Impossible Choice ↗

Three mana, instant: destroy a creature (its controller gets two 1/1s), or draw two while each player loses 2 life. The tokens are a real cost, and the kill is still worth it.

Resistance Is Futile ↗

Two mana to destroy a nonartifact creature, or return an artifact creature with mana value 3 or less from your graveyard. Watch for the Borg drones it can't hit.

Khaaaaaaaaaaaannn! ↗

X plus one red mana for twice X damage to a creature, and it is exiled if it would die. Four mana kills a 6-toughness creature.

70,000 Light-Years from Home ↗

Two mana to exile a creature or Spacecraft. Its controller gets to search for a basic land, which matters little against a big threat.

E: Evasion. Creatures that get damage through. Fliers are the main kind here, and Spacecraft add more of them later in the game.

Automated Warfare System ↗

A three-mana 2/2 flier that can sacrifice a spare creature or artifact on the attack to draw a card. Good in black-red and white-black.

DOT-7 Repair Squad ↗

A four-mana 3/3 flier. The untap ability lets a creature station a Spacecraft and still block.

Suurok-Class Science Vessel ↗

Three mana and a card drawn when it enters, then a 3/2 flier once it has 5 charge counters. A card that replaces itself and becomes a threat.

Shuttle Ace ↗

A five-mana 4/4 that flies on your turn and gains you 2 life whenever it taps. It attacks in the air and blocks on the ground.

A: Aggro. Efficient attackers that punish a slow opponent. Klingons and red-white's power-8 deck are where these live.

Cha'DIch Investigator ↗

Five mana for a 4/4 and a 2/1 haste Klingon token. Two bodies, and the token can attack right away.

Boarding Action ↗

Two mana for a 2/1 haste Klingon, and you can cast it again from your graveyard with beam me up for {2}{R}.

Tactical Officer ↗

A two-mana 2/1 that grows and untaps whenever you attack with 8 or more total power. The red-white attacker.

Xindi Surveyors ↗

A three-mana 3/2 that gets a +1/+1 counter for every land you play. On turn three it's a 3/2, by turn five it's usually a 5/4.

D: Duds. Cards that look playable and rarely make a good deck. Take them late, if at all.

Tricorder ↗

+1/+1 and a surveil on attack for {1} to equip. Fine in theory, and a slot better spent on a creature or a removal spell.

Andromedan Automatons ↗

A 3/1 for three that finds other copies of itself. In draft you rarely have a second copy, so it's a fragile three-drop.

Warp Core ↗

Fetches a basic land and charges Spacecraft. Only worth a slot in a deck with three or more Spacecraft to charge.

Mechanics That Change Your Picks

Beam me up lets you cast an instant or sorcery again from your graveyard if you also return one of your creatures to your hand. It's on ten cards, five of them common. Treat a beam me up card as one and a half cards, and remember that bouncing a creature with an enters ability (such as Cha'DIch Investigator) is an upside, not a cost.

You face a dilemma whenever you choose a mode for a spell or ability. Every "choose one" card counts, including Set Phasers to . . ., Consider the Prime Directive and Federation Probe. That makes cheap modal cards better in blue-black, where Obsidian Order Operative and Seven of Nine pay you for each one.

Station is back from Edge of Eternities on 17 cards: tap another creature to put charge counters on a Spacecraft equal to that creature's power, and at the printed number it gets its ability, which usually means it becomes a creature. Spacecraft are strong when you can afford to tap creatures, so they reward a deck with spare bodies and lose value when you are behind on board.

Federation counts the creature types among your non-Borg creatures. It's on a few uncommons draft decks will play, such as Saavik, Stoic Student, who deals that much damage to an attacking or blocking creature. A board of different crew members turns it on; a board of Borg drones doesn't.

Strange new worlds counts your differently named lands. In draft you'll have two basic types, so the count comes from the common Planet duals and the New Planet tokens some cards make. It belongs in the green-blue deck; elsewhere, read the number as two or three.

Stay Open, Then Find Your Lane

Each of the ten color pairs has two gold uncommons that show what the deck wants, such as Seven of Nine for blue-black dilemmas or Locutus, the One Who Speaks for white-black artifact creatures. When one of those comes to you around picks five to eight of the first pack, that's a sign the pair is open to your right.

Splashing is easy in this set. Nine of the ten pairs get a common Planet dual that enters tapped and gains you 1 life, and five commons have basic landcycling {2}. White-blue is the one pair with no common Planet.

All ten pairs, with their signposts, the commons that carry them and the rares to hope for, are in the next article. Star Trek draft archetypes: all 10 color pairs →

What We Don't Know Yet

Nobody has played this format yet. There are no win rates until the set is out, so the color ranking and the pick order above are a read of the card text. Formats often surprise people: a mechanic that looks slow on paper can turn out to be the best deck.

One main-set card, number 260, was not yet on Scryfall when we wrote this. It sits among the colorless artifacts, so it is unlikely to change the color ranking.

FAQ