Magic: The Gathering | Star Trek Set Guide: Mechanics, Commander Decks and What to Log in Your Collection

Star Trek landed in Magic on Friday 13 November, and it's a full set, not a few captains dropped into someone else's expansion. It's built around 60 years of the franchise, so crews, enemies and ships from every era turn up, not just one series.

Here's what's in it, what each product actually contains, what it costs in euros, and who I'd point at what. Then a quick word on keeping track of what you open.

The basics

It's a Universes Beyond set, and the prerelease events ran from 6 to 12 November.

There are three set codes worth knowing when you go looking for singles. TRK is the main set. TRC is the Star Trek Commander cards. SDS is the Stardates bonus sheet, which is all reprints.

Legality is simple. TRK is legal in Standard, and it stays legal after the February rotation, so it isn't going anywhere soon. TRC and SDS cards are legal in Commander, Legacy and Vintage, but not in Standard.

The new mechanics

• Beam me up lets you cast some instants and sorceries from your graveyard. You pay the cost listed on the card and return a creature you control to its owner's hand. The spell is always exiled afterwards, so it's a one-time second use, a bit like Flashback with a price.

• Face a dilemma rewards you for the choices you make on modal cards. Cards that care about it pay off every time you pick a mode.

• Federation counts creature types among your creatures. A Borg creature doesn't count its other creature types, though.

• Strange new worlds counts the number of differently named lands you control. Three Forests, an Island and a Breeding Pool count as three. It pushes you towards a longer game with lots of different lands.

• Assimilate is a keyword action that brings one of your opponent's creatures over to your side. Resistance is futile, apparently.

• Spacecraft and station return from Edge of Eternities. Spacecraft arrive as artifacts, charge up with station and eventually turn into attacking creatures.

• The Commander cards add Battlefront, which counts the opponents you attacked this turn.

That's a summary, not the rules. Read the actual card text before you build around any of it.

The four Commander decks

Four 100-card decks, each with a deck box, double-sided tokens and a strategy insert.

• Federation Fleet (blue, red, white) with Picard as the commander. It leans on the Next Generation and Voyager eras.

• Landing Party (green, white, blue) with Spock as the commander. It follows the aesthetics of the original series.

• Klingon Fury (red, white, black) is the aggressive one.

• We Are the Borg (white, blue, black) is built around Assimilate and artifact creatures.

The standard decks are $74.99 each in the US. The Collector's Edition versions are $159.99 and come in surge foil.

What's in the boosters

A Play Booster has 14 cards plus a token, with at least one traditional foil. There are 30 in a display, and they're $6.99 each in the US.

A Collector Booster has 15 cards and costs $37.99, with 12 in a display. This is where the headline cards live. There are seven signed headliner cards, hand-signed by Star Trek actors such as Patrick Stewart and Jeri Ryan, limited to around 250 copies each. Retailers list them in under 1% of Collector Booster packs. Collector Boosters are also the only place for Klingon script cards, and the only place for surge foil LCARS shock lands.

The ten LCARS shock lands also show up in regular Play Boosters, in non-foil and traditional foil. If you want one for a Commander mana base, you don't need to open Collector Boosters.

There are also 29 LCARS frame cards, styled after the Enterprise computer interface, and 30 Stardates cards, all reprints. Plus the Enterprise treatment, which is a nod to vintage Star Trek movie posters.

What it costs

US list prices first, then the euro prices I found at European retailers during pre-order. Your local shop may differ.

• Commander deck: $74.99 in the US, around €75 to €77.50 in Europe

• Collector's Edition Commander deck: $159.99, around €170

• Play Booster: $6.99, around €7

• Play Booster display (30): around $210, around €210

• Collector Booster: $37.99 (I couldn't find a reliable euro price)

• Bundle: $69.99, around €73

• Beam Me Up Bundle: $99.99 (8 Play Boosters, a Collector Booster and 2 of 8 foil promo cards)

• Draft Night: $119.99

• Scene Box: $41.99 (Enterprise-Q or Divergent Timelines)

Who should buy what

You're new to Magic. Look at the Welcome Decks. There are five, one for each colour, built to be playable out of the box. The Beginner Box that was announced earlier didn't make it to release.

You play Commander. The four decks are the obvious starting point. A precon is a perfectly good deck out of the box and a better one after a few upgrades.

You like to open packs. Play Boosters, or the Draft Night box if you've got a group of four.

You collect. Collector Boosters, and the Beam Me Up Bundle if you want the foil Spacecraft promos.

My own rule for any crossover launch: I don't pay launch-weekend prices for singles I don't need yet. Hype cools down. The deck you actually play doesn't care what the card cost last Saturday.

Keeping track of what you open

If you crack boosters, add what you pulled to your collection in Odhinbox, and write down where you bought it and what you paid. That's the part most spreadsheets skip, and it's the part you'll wish you had a year from now. Prices and condition stay up to date on their own.

If you took a Commander deck home, build it as a deck in Odhinbox and you'll see straight away which cards you'd still need for upgrades. And if Commander is new to you, our Commander format guide covers the rules and how decks are built.

Played it already? Tell us on Discord which commander you picked. I'm curious whether Picard or Spock is winning the popularity contest.