Landing Party Triggers Spock Twice a Turn. Here's How the Precon Plays, and What to Upgrade
Attack with Spock, play your land after combat, and Chief Kyle beams him out until your end step: the Landing Party precon triggers its commander twice a turn, and every trigger is a card. Here's how strange new worlds plays, the commander rule that decides the blink, five swaps for $7.33 that add no combos and no Game Changers, and the $26 land that makes it a Bracket 3 deck.
You attack with Commander Spock. His trigger reveals the top card of your library, and you cast it for free, put it onto the battlefield or draw it. After combat, in your second main phase, you play your land for the turn. Chief Kyle, Transporter Tech has landfall: whenever a land you control enters, he exiles up to one other target creature you control and returns that card to the battlefield at the beginning of the next end step. You exile Spock. At the beginning of your end step he comes back, and since Spock's ability says "enters or attacks", it triggers again. One land drop, two Spock triggers in one turn, and both cards are in Landing Party.
Landing Party is the Bant deck () among the four Star Trek Commander precons, and it hits tables November 13 at $74.99. It plays 40 lands with 35 different names, because its new ability word, strange new worlds, counts differently named lands. The rest is landfall and blink. Out of the box it has no Game Changers and no combos. Below you'll find how strange new worlds works, three tricks in the box, the commander rule that decides whether the blink works at all, five swaps for $7.33 that keep it at Bracket 2, and the $26 land that doesn't.
(When we first looked at the set in July, this deck was reported as Bant, Original Series, explore and led by Spock. Three of the four held; explore is one card, Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu. We also called Captain Kirk, Boldly Going the face commander back then. He's the second one. Wizards published the full list on October 29.)
The full stock list is in DeckCortex, card for card, as a deck you can open, copy and edit:
Two commanders, two plans
Spock costs and is a 3/5. Whenever he enters or attacks, you reveal the top card of your library. If it's a spell with mana value equal to or less than the number of differently named lands you control, you may cast it without paying its mana cost. If it's a land card, you may put it onto the battlefield tapped. If the card is still on top after all that, you draw it. So every trigger gets you exactly one card: cast, on the battlefield or in your hand. It never whiffs, and it never gets you two.
Captain Kirk, Boldly Going is the other plan: for a 3/4 with vigilance. Spacecraft creatures you control get +3/+3, and whenever Kirk enters or attacks, you search your library and/or graveyard for a basic land card or a card named Starship Enterprise and put it into your hand. Spock turns the whole deck into cards. Kirk turns it into one very large starship, and he costs one less.
Strange new worlds counts names, not lands
Strange new worlds is an ability word, so it has no rules meaning of its own. Every card with it counts the same thing: the number of differently named lands you control. Four Forests are one name. A tapped land counts. Six cards in the box use it:
| Card | Cost | What it does with your land names | |---|---|---| | Commander Spock | | casts the revealed spell for free if its mana value is at most your land names | | Lt. Arex, Ever-Adapting | | trample; power and toughness equal your land names; when it enters, draw three cards and put up to three lands from your hand onto the battlefield tapped | | Colossal Clone Master | | enters as a copy of any creature on the battlefield, not legendary, with power and toughness equal to your land names | | Christine Chapel, Combat Medic | | when she enters, you gain life equal to your land names | | Chief Montgomery Scott | | , : put a creature or Spacecraft from your hand onto the battlefield with that many extra +1/+1 or charge counters | | Lieutenant Nyota Uhura | | , : target opponent exiles that many cards from the top of their library, and you may cast an instant or sorcery among them for free |
The deck is built for that count. Its 40 lands are 32 different nonbasic lands plus 8 basics (4 Forest, 2 Plains, 2 Island), which makes 35 names. With five names on the battlefield, Spock can cast 49 of the 59 nonland cards in the 99 for free. From eight names on, he can cast every one of them, because the most expensive card in the deck, Planet Killer, costs eight.
So when you fetch a basic, fetch the one you don't have yet. A second Forest adds nothing.
Three tricks in the box
Attack first, then play your land
This is the opener, and the order is the whole trick. If you play your land before combat, Chief Kyle exiles Spock before he can attack, and you get one trigger. Attack first, then play the land, and you get the attack trigger and the end-step trigger.
It can go further. If Spock's end-step trigger reveals a land and you put it onto the battlefield, that's another landfall, so Kyle can exile Spock again. It's already your end step, though, so he comes back at the beginning of the next turn's end step, which belongs to your opponent. That's a third trigger, on their turn. Kyle can do the same to Lt. Arex, Ever-Adapting (three more cards), Christine Chapel or Sun Titan on the turns Spock is busy.
One fetch land gets Starship Enterprise flying
Starship Enterprise costs and has landfall: whenever a land you control enters, put four charge counters on it. At 16 counters it's a 4/6 artifact creature with flying, and whenever it deals combat damage to a player, you draw that many cards. Ancient Greenwarden says that if a land entering causes a triggered ability of a permanent you control to trigger, that ability triggers an additional time. That's eight counters per land.
Now play Evolving Wilds. It enters: eight counters. Sacrifice it for a basic land, which enters too: eight more. One land drop, 16 counters, and the Enterprise is a flying creature. If it's been on the battlefield since the start of your turn, it can attack right away. With Captain Kirk on the battlefield it's a 7/9, and if it connects, you draw seven. Terramorphic Expanse, Fabled Passage and Tranquil Landscape do the same, and Exploration gives you a second land drop if you don't have a fetch land.
The Doctors give the whole team lifelink
McCoy, Not a Bricklayer puts a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control whenever he or another Doctor you control enters, and creatures you control with counters on them have lifelink. Christine Chapel is a Doctor. Cast her with McCoy on the battlefield and every creature you control gets a counter and lifelink, and she gains you life equal to your land names on the way in.
Chapel puts two +1/+1 counters on herself whenever you gain life. Each creature with lifelink that deals damage is its own life gain event, even when they all deal combat damage at the same time (Comprehensive Rules 702.15e). Attack with five creatures that have counters, and if all five connect, Chapel triggers five times: ten more counters. The three planets in the land base, Earth, Sector 001, Risa and Vulcan, each gain you 1 life when they enter, so each one is two more counters too.
The rule that decides the blink: your commander can stay in exile
When Chief Kyle exiles Spock, the game asks whether you want to put him into the command zone. You may, and that's the mistake. Comprehensive Rules 903.9a lets you move a commander from exile or the graveyard to the command zone, but you don't have to. If you do, Kyle's ability can't find him anymore. He stays in the command zone, and the next time you cast him from there he costs more. Leave him in exile and he comes back at the beginning of the next end step.
The same goes for every other way the box blinks Spock: Temporal Tribulation exiles two permanents you control until the next end step, Balance of Terror's chapters II and III exile one other permanent you control until the next end step, and The Guardian of Forever lets you pay and sacrifice another nontoken creature to return that card at the beginning of the next end step. When you sacrifice Spock to the Guardian, leave him in the graveyard.
Two more details matter. First, the timing: if you exile something during an end step, it doesn't come back until the next turn's end step (rule 513.2). Second, if you cast Spock's revealed card or put the land onto the battlefield, it isn't on top of your library anymore, so you don't draw. If you'd rather have the land in your hand, decline it, and you draw it instead.
Three more notes for the pilot
- Spock's free spell ignores timing. An attack trigger that reveals a sorcery lets you cast it in the middle of combat. That includes Wrath of God and Austere Command, and the cast is optional, so you can decline and draw the card instead.
- Command Chair taps for five. It costs and enters tapped, then taps for three mana of any one color, or for X mana of any one color, where X is the greatest mana value among commanders you control. With Spock out, X is 5, and Spock can cast the Chair for free once you have six land names.
- Starfleet Communicator copies itself when you cast it, so you get two. Put them on two different creatures. Each one counts the other creatures with a Communicator attached, so two on the same creature draw nothing.
Where it struggles
- The mana is slow. Thirteen lands always enter tapped: the three Temples, the three planets, Shore Leave Planet, Seaside Citadel, Path of Ancestry, Mosswort Bridge and the three cycling duals, Rain-Slicked Copse, Scattered Groves and Irrigated Farmland. Three more fetch a basic land that enters tapped, and Canopy Vista, Prairie Stream and Sodden Verdure need two basic lands, in a deck with eight.
- Spock costs five and has no evasion. The protection in the box is Heroic Intervention, U.S.S. Defiant, Mirror Migrant, which has flash and phases out itself and up to one target creature you control when it enters, and Temporal Tribulation.
- Spot removal is thin: Path to Exile, Reality Shift, Beast Within and T'Pring, Never Parted's fight. Balance of Terror's first chapter only hits an artifact or an enchantment.
- Wrath of God destroys all creatures, in a deck with 29 of them besides Spock.
Bracket 2 out of the box, and the $26 land that changes that
Open the list in DeckCortex and Bracket Fit says Bracket 2, with a power level of 2.6 out of 10. It finds no Game Changers and no two-card combos. Two cards keep the deck out of Bracket 1: Sol Ring, which counts as fast mana, and Captain Kirk, who counts as a tutor because he can find Starship Enterprise. Bracket 2 allows one fast-mana card and up to three tutors.
Here's the catch with the most obvious upgrade. Field of the Dead ($26.26) makes a 2/2 black Zombie whenever it or another land you control enters, if you control seven or more lands with different names. A deck with 35 names gets there by the seventh land drop, which is why every Spock upgrade list starts with it. It's also on the Game Changers list, and Bracket 2 allows none. Add Field of the Dead and nothing else, and Bracket Fit moves the deck to Bracket 3.
The combo engine has a second route, and it's cheaper. Springheart Nantuko ($6.67) completes a combo with Lotus Cobra, and the third piece is already in the box: Mutavault. Activate Mutavault for so it's a 2/2 creature, then cast the Nantuko for its bestow cost of and attach it to Mutavault. Play a land. Lotus Cobra adds one mana, and the Nantuko lets you pay to create a token that's a copy of the enchanted creature. The copy is a plain Mutavault, a land, because animating it isn't part of what gets copied. It enters, so Lotus Cobra adds another mana and the Nantuko triggers again, and the new Mutavault taps for . That's the for the next copy, every time. Infinite landfall triggers, and Scute Swarm, M'Ress, Crew Coordinator and Tireless Tracker trigger on every one of them. The engine counts it as a two-card combo, and Bracket Fit moves the deck to Bracket 3.
Upgrades in three stages
Every swap below replaces a card that does the same job. Prices are current Scryfall paper prices for each card's default printing in DeckCortex. The main-set Star Trek card is a preorder.
Stage 1: five swaps for $7.33, still Bracket 2
Two make Spock trigger more, one fixes the removal, and two stop lands from entering tapped.
| In | Price | Out | Why | |---|---|---|---| | Ephemerate | $5.02 | Temporal Tribulation | Both are instant-speed blinks for your own creatures. Temporal Tribulation exiles two permanents until the next end step and has flashback. Ephemerate returns Spock right away, and rebound casts it again in your next upkeep: two Spock triggers for . You lose the second target, the flashback, and the end-step return that also dodges a wrath. | | Wood Elves | $0.23 | Satyr Wayfinder | Both are cheap creatures that find you a land. The Wayfinder puts one from the top four into your hand. Wood Elves puts a Forest card onto the battlefield, untapped unless the land says otherwise, so it's ramp and a landfall trigger, and Chief Kyle can blink it for another. It can fetch Canopy Vista or Sodden Verdure, which are new names. You lose the self-mill and pay one mana more. | | Swords to Plowshares | $1.41 | Reality Shift | Both exile a creature at instant speed. Reality Shift leaves its controller a 2/2 manifest. Swords costs and leaves nothing; they gain life equal to its power instead. | | Yavimaya Coast | $0.33 | Rain-Slicked Copse | Both are green-blue dual lands with their own name, so Spock's count stays the same. The Copse always enters tapped. The Coast never does, and it deals 1 damage to you when you tap it for colored mana. You lose cycling. | | Adarkar Wastes | $0.34 | Irrigated Farmland | Same deal in white-blue. |
With all five in, the engine still finds no combo and no Game Changer, and Bracket Fit still says Bracket 2.
Stage 2: five swaps for $21.14, still no combos and no Game Changers
A Spock trigger every turn, a second commander-sized threat that plays lands off the top, and two more untapped duals.
| In | Price | Out | Why | |---|---|---|---| | Teleportation Circle | $11.48 | Balance of Terror | Both are enchantments that blink your permanents. Balance of Terror does it in chapters II and III, before combat, so the blinked Spock can't attack that turn and returns at the end step. Teleportation Circle exiles up to one artifact or creature you control at the beginning of every end step of yours and returns it immediately: Spock attacks, then triggers again, every turn. You lose chapter I, which destroys an artifact or enchantment. | | Captain Pike, Fullness of Time | $5.41 | Tribble Cluster | Both are three-mana creatures that grow. The Cluster gets a +1/+1 counter at each of your combats. Pike's power and toughness equal your land names, you may look at the top card of your library any time, and you may play lands from the top. You always know what Spock will reveal. You lose the Tribbles it leaves behind. | | Felidar Retreat | $1.05 | Shuttlecraft Galileo | Both make a creature whenever a land you control enters. Galileo makes a 1/1 Officer and needs 6 charge counters before it flies. The Retreat makes a 2/2 Cat Beast, or puts a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control, which with McCoy on the battlefield means lifelink for the team. You lose a Spacecraft for Kirk and Galileo's team-wide flying. | | Brushland | $1.43 | Scattered Groves | Same deal as stage 1, in green-white. | | Botanical Sanctum | $1.77 | Temple of the False God | Both are lands Spock counts. The Temple taps for , but only once you control five or more lands, and never for a color. The Sanctum taps for or and enters untapped while you control two or fewer other lands. |
With stages 1 and 2 in, the engine still finds no complete combo and no Game Changer, Sol Ring and Captain Kirk are still the only fast-mana card and tutor, and Bracket Fit says Bracket 2, with a power level of 2.6.
Stage 3: Bracket 3 on purpose, three Game Changers for $113.03
| In | Price | Out | Why | |---|---|---|---| | Field of the Dead | $26.26 | Mosswort Bridge | Both are lands that enter tapped and pay you for a big board. Mosswort Bridge's hidden card needs creatures with total power 10 or greater. Field of the Dead makes a Zombie with every land once you have seven names. | | Cyclonic Rift | $39.05 | Austere Command | Both answer a board you can't beat. Austere Command destroys two categories, yours included. Overloaded for , the Rift returns every nonland permanent you don't control to its owner's hand, at instant speed. | | Teferi's Protection | $47.72 | Heroic Intervention | Both save your board for one turn. Heroic Intervention gives your permanents hexproof and indestructible until end of turn. The Protection phases out everything you control and keeps your life total from changing until your next turn, so it also stops exile and bounce. |
With all three, DeckCortex counts three Game Changers, and Bracket Fit says Bracket 3; Bracket 2 allows none. We'd stop at stage 2. Teleportation Circle and Chief Kyle already give you two Spock triggers a turn, and neither is a Game Changer.
Is it worth $74.99?
Most of today's value is in the reprints. At current prices for their existing printings, the 62 reprints in the box add up to $173.85, basics included, led by Exploration ($31.36), Sea of Clouds ($20.79), Heroic Intervention ($15.36), Ancient Greenwarden ($12.99) and Guardian Project ($12.31). That's the highest reprint total of the four Star Trek precons we've counted, each on the day we covered it: We Are the Borg came to $138.12, Klingon Fury to $127.67 and Federation Fleet to $115.49. Of the new cards, Command Chair and Starship Enterprise carry the biggest preorder prices so far, $19.95 each. Don't count on any of that holding. A precon reprint tends to push those prices down, and a preorder price is an ask, not a sale.
It's also the lowest power level of the four in Bracket Fit, 2.6 against 2.9 to 3.1 for the others. The most value and the least power: at a Bracket 2 table, that's a trade you can live with.
Your call
If you want a commander that turns every turn into a free card, this is the one. Copy the list in DeckCortex, make the five stage-1 swaps for $7.33, and play it at a Bracket 2 table. Stage 2 adds Teleportation Circle and two untapped duals for another $21.14 without a single Game Changer. Whatever you add, run the combo scan before game night. If Field of the Dead or Springheart Nantuko shows up in the list, your Bracket 2 deck isn't one anymore.
Data notes: The decklist is Wizards' official Landing Party list, published October 29, 2026; the DeckCortex deck holds the same 100 cards. Card text is live Oracle data (Scryfall, via DeckCortex) retrieved October 30, 2026. The set releases November 13, 2026 and has no official rulings yet, so the rules readings here (Spock with Chief Kyle, Ancient Greenwarden with Starship Enterprise, McCoy with Christine Chapel, the Springheart Nantuko line) are ours, from the Oracle text and the Comprehensive Rules (513.2, 702.15e, 707.2, 903.9a). Prices are Scryfall paper-aggregate prices for each card's default printing in DeckCortex, retrieved October 30, 2026; the reprint total uses existing printings, and new Star Trek cards carry preorder prices that move daily. The sister-precon totals come from our articles of October 27, 28 and 29. MSRP per ICv2. Combo counts come from DeckCortex's combo engine, run on the exact lists described on October 30, 2026, with each removed card replaced by the named card (a basic land made room for Springheart Nantuko). The Bracket 2 verdict, the 2.6 power level and the stage results are DeckCortex's Bracket Fit model run on the deck's cards on October 30, 2026; the power level is a simulation estimate. No upgrade adds a card that DeckCortex counts as fast mana or a tutor.