We Are the Borg Hides a Second Queen in Its Mana Base. Here's How the Precon Plays, and What to Upgrade

Commander · by Nora Kessler · October 27, 2026

One land in the We Are the Borg precon turns into a second Borg Queen for a turn: two anthems, two assimilations, and every Borg token a 5/5. Here's how the Esper hive plays, the Skullclamp rule people will get wrong, five swaps for $1.98 that add no combos and no Game Changers, and the $4.81 artifact that makes it a Bracket 3 deck.

We Are the Borg Hides a Second Queen in Its Mana Base. Here's How the Precon Plays, and What to Upgrade

The Borg Queen is already on the table. You pay , and the land you've been tapping for blue since turn three stands up as a second Borg Queen. Both Queens are 8/8 now, every Borg token you control is a 5/5, and when the two of them attack, each one assimilates a creature. That land is Shore Leave Planet, one of the 33 new cards in We Are the Borg, and it's the best introduction to how this deck thinks. In the Collective, one creature's text box is everybody's text box.

We Are the Borg is the Esper deck () among the four Star Trek Commander precons. It hits tables November 13 at $74.99. All 20 of its creatures are artifact creatures, and eight of them hand their abilities to every artifact creature you control, including the 1/1 tokens the deck makes and the creatures it steals. Out of the box it has no Game Changers and no combos. Below you'll find how the hive works, three tricks in the box that are easy to miss, the rule people will get wrong, five swaps for $1.98 that keep it at Bracket 2, and the one $4.81 card that doesn't.

(When we first looked at the set in July, early reports had this deck as mono-black, and we flagged the color pairs as unconfirmed. The list Wizards published on October 26 is white-blue-black.)

The full stock list is in DeckCortex, card for card, as a deck you can open, copy and edit:

Two commanders, one keyword

The Borg Queen costs and is a 4/4. Artifact creatures you control get +2/+2, and she's one of them, so she's really a 6/6. Whenever she enters or attacks, an opponent you target exiles cards from the top of their library until they exile a creature card. You assimilate that card, and they put the rest on the bottom in a random order.

To assimilate a card, you put it onto the battlefield under your control with a +1/+1 counter. It's a Borg artifact creature and loses all its other creature types. The target doesn't have to be the player you're attacking, so point it at the deck with the best creatures in it. And ignore the product blurb on Wizards' decklist page, which says she "pulls creatures from your opponents' graveyards." Her card says library.

The set has no official rulings yet, but the reminder text and the Comprehensive Rules settle what matters at the table:

The second commander, Locutus of Borg, is the faster start: for a 3/3 with lifelink, and artifact creatures you control have "Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, create a 1/1 colorless Borg artifact creature token." The token is an artifact creature, so it gets the same ability. The Queen is the seven-mana finisher; Locutus is the four-drop that builds the board she finishes.

One brain, many bodies

This is the engine. Each of these Borg gives its line of text to every artifact creature you control:

| Borg | Cost | What every artifact creature you control gets | |---|---|---| | Locutus of Borg | | Combat damage to a player: create a 1/1 Borg token | | Co-Option Adjutant | | Combat damage to a player: draw a card | | Supplementation Node | | Combat damage to a player: put a +1/+1 counter on it | | Hive Mind Coprocessor | | Combat damage to a player: you may pay 1 life to draw a card | | Extraction Integrant | | Menace, and a creature blocking it gets −1/−1 until end of turn | | Command Subadjunct | | Vigilance | | Ambulatory Reactor | | : Add , spendable only on artifact spells and abilities of artifacts | | One, Borg Evolved | | Flying, double strike, vigilance, menace, lifelink and ward |

Different lords stack on the same body, and every granted trigger fires on its own. With Locutus and the Adjutant out, each 1/1 token that connects makes another token and draws a card, and the new token already has both abilities. On top of that sit the anthems: the Queen and Tempered Steel give artifact creatures +2/+2, Locutus, the One Who Speaks gives +1/+1, and Forsaken Monument gives +2/+2 to every colorless creature, which covers every Borg token.

That's why this deck wants evasion more than size. Extraction Integrant's menace gets the whole team through, Borg Scout Sphere gives artifact creatures flying once it has six charge counters, Transwarp Hub makes one creature unblockable each turn once it has three, and One gives everything flying. The Sphere and the Hub are Spacecraft: you station them by tapping another creature you control, which puts charge counters equal to its power on the ship. Hold that thought.

Three tricks in the box

The land that becomes a second Queen

Shore Leave Planet enters tapped and taps for . Its other ability: , this land becomes a copy of target creature you control until end of turn, except it isn't legendary and it's a Robot artifact in addition to its other types. Point it at The Borg Queen and the legend rule never comes up. Two Queens means two +2/+2 anthems, so each Queen is an 8/8 and every 1/1 token is a 5/5. Attack with both and both attack triggers assimilate, from any opponents you choose.

Two things keep it honest. The copy can only attack if the land has been under your control since your turn began, so play it early and leave it in your mana base until the turn you need it. And if the copy dies in combat, you've lost a land. The Queen isn't the only good target, either: copy Locutus of Borg or Co-Option Adjutant and every artifact creature has that trigger twice, so each one that connects makes two tokens or draws two cards.

The two-mana Borg that improves eleven cards

Optimization Annex is a 1/3 with one line of text: if one or more charge counters would be put on an artifact you control, that many plus one are put on it instead. Eleven other cards in this deck use charge counters:

Queen's Diamond is the one to watch. It taps for one mana of a color per charge counter, spendable only on your commander, so every station with the Annex out is one more mana toward the Queen. A kicked-once Chalice that taps for two is a nice bonus too.

Wipe their board, keep the best three

Battle of Wolf 359 costs : all nonartifact creatures get −X/−X until end of turn, where X is the number of artifact creatures you control. Every creature in this deck is an artifact creature, the stolen ones included, so it never touches your board. Then hold up for Assimilate the Wounded, an instant: for each opponent, assimilate up to one creature card from that player's graveyard that was put there from the battlefield this turn. For eight mana, each opponent's best fallen creature changes sides, with a +1/+1 counter on it.

The deck's other big sweeper, Join the Collective (), destroys all creatures, yours too, and gives you a 1/1 Borg for each nonartifact creature destroyed. Cast Emergency Regeneration () first. Your artifacts gain hexproof and indestructible until end of turn, so only their creatures die, and each of their nonartifact creatures becomes a token on your side.

The rule people will get wrong: your anthems switch off Skullclamp

Skullclamp is in the box, and on a 1/1 Borg token it's a card machine. Equip it for , the token becomes a 2/0 and dies, and you draw two. Then the Queen lands. Her +2/+2 makes the token a 3/3, the clamp makes it a 4/2, and nothing dies. Tempered Steel does the same. So does Locutus, the One Who Speaks (2/2, clamped to 3/1), and so does Forsaken Monument for every colorless token.

So clamp tokens early, before the anthems arrive. Early on, the clamp's other great target is Stratagem Emulator: a 2/1 that becomes a 3/0 and dies, and you draw two cards and get three Borg tokens, because its death trigger counts its power.

Three more notes for the pilot

Where it struggles

Bracket 2 out of the box, and the $4.81 card that changes that

Open the list in DeckCortex and Bracket Fit says Bracket 2, with a power level of 3.1 out of 10. It finds no Game Changers, no tutors and no two-card combos. The one thing keeping the deck out of Bracket 1 is Sol Ring, which counts as fast mana, and Bracket 2 allows one such card.

The engine also lists near misses, combos that are one card away. The one to know is Basalt Monolith, a $4.81 artifact that looks like an innocent upgrade for an artifact deck. The Monolith taps for . Forsaken Monument adds a fourth, because you tapped a permanent for . Untapping the Monolith costs , so every loop nets one colorless mana, as many times as you like. With the Monolith in the list, the engine counts one complete two-card combo, and Bracket Fit moves the deck straight to Bracket 3. Bracket 2 allows no two-card combos. If your pod plays Bracket 2, leave the Monolith in the binder, or tell them it's in the deck. If the pair sounds familiar, it's the same Monument loop that made Basalt Monolith the one card to watch in the Foundations Keen Engineering deck.

The other near miss, Filigree Sages with Astral Cornucopia, goes away with the first upgrade below.

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.

Stage 1: five swaps for $1.98, still Bracket 2

| In | Price | Out | Why | |---|---|---|---| | Etherium Sculptor | $0.66 | Astral Cornucopia | Both are mana. The Sculptor makes every artifact spell cost less, and it's an artifact creature, so it carries the hive's triggers. | | Foundry Inspector | $0.33 | Stonespeaker Crystal | The same discount on a three-mana 3/2 instead of a four-mana rock. You lose the Crystal's graveyard exile, but Assimilation Assessor still has one. | | Steel Overseer | $0.34 | Door of Destinies | Both grow the team. Each time the Overseer taps, every artifact creature you control gets a +1/+1 counter, starting the turn after it lands. | | Caves of Koilos | $0.30 | Evolving Wilds | Fixing that enters untapped. | | Adarkar Wastes | $0.35 | Terramorphic Expanse | Same. |

Stage 2: four swaps for $22.74, still no combos and no Game Changers

| In | Price | Out | Why | |---|---|---|---| | Primary Unimatrix Adjunct | $14.95 | Korok, Liberated Rage | Korok pumps the team when it attacks. The Adjunct gives every artifact creature double strike, so each one that connects deals damage twice and fires every combat-damage trigger twice. One, Borg Evolved does that for seven mana; this does it for four. The price is a preorder price. | | Agent of Treachery | $5.50 | Gift of Perfection | Both steal. The Agent takes any permanent, and each assimilated card is a permanent you control but don't own, which is exactly what its end-step draw-three counts. | | Thought Monitor | $0.39 | Thoughtcast | Both are draw-twos with affinity for artifacts. The Monitor leaves a flying artifact creature behind. | | Ornithopter of Paradise | $1.90 | Wayfarer's Bauble | Both fix your colors. The Ornithopter taps for any color every turn, and it's a flying artifact creature. |

With stages 1 and 2 in, the engine still finds no complete combo and no Game Changer, and Sol Ring is still the only fast mana.

Stage 3: Bracket 3 on purpose, three Game Changers for $173.04

| In | Price | Out | Why | |---|---|---|---| | Teferi's Protection | $46.87 | Emergency Regeneration | Both save your board. The Protection also covers exile, bounce, −X/−X and your life total. | | Smothering Tithe | $58.38 | Commander's Sphere | Both are mana. | | Rhystic Study | $67.79 | Thirst for Knowledge | Both draw cards. |

With all three, DeckCortex counts three Game Changers and Bracket Fit says Bracket 3; Bracket 2 allows none. That's the whole Bracket 3 allowance spent on cards that don't care about Borg. We'd stop at stage 2. The power in this deck is the hive, and $173 buys a lot of Borg.

Is it worth $74.99?

Most of today's value is in the reprints. At current prices for their existing printings, the reprints in the box add up to $138.12, led by Morphic Pool ($27.23), Unwinding Clock ($21.84), The Immortal Sun ($11.75) and Path of Ancestry ($11.73). Of the new cards, Locutus of Borg carries the biggest preorder price so far, $19.95. 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. Buy it because you want to play it. It plays well out of the box, and fixing its weak slots costs less than a booster.

Your call

If you want a deck that works the day you open it, this is one. Copy the list in DeckCortex, make the five stage-1 swaps for $1.98, and play it at a Bracket 2 table. If your pod plays Bracket 3, stage 2 makes the hive hit twice for another $22.74 without adding a Game Changer. Whatever you add, run the combo scan before game night. If Basalt Monolith shows up next to Forsaken Monument, your Bracket 2 deck isn't one anymore.

Data notes: The decklist is Wizards' official We Are the Borg list, published October 26, 2026; the DeckCortex deck holds the same 100 cards. Card text is live Oracle data (Scryfall, via DeckCortex) retrieved October 27, 2026. The set releases November 13, 2026 and has no official rulings yet, so the rules readings here (copying the Queen, assimilated cards keeping their colors and not counting as cast) are ours, from the Oracle text and the Comprehensive Rules. Prices are Scryfall paper-aggregate prices for each card's default printing in DeckCortex, retrieved October 27, 2026; the reprint total uses existing printings, and new Star Trek cards carry preorder prices that move daily. MSRP per ICv2. Combo counts and Bracket Fit results come from DeckCortex's combo engine and Bracket Fit model, run on the exact lists described on October 27, 2026, with each removed card replaced by the named card (a Swamp made room for Basalt Monolith). The Bracket 2 verdict and the 3.1 power level are DeckCortex's own Bracket Fit on the DeckCortex deck, read October 27, 2026; the power level is a simulation estimate. The upgrade stages and the Basalt Monolith list ran through the combo engine and a replication of the Bracket Fit model rather than the app itself, and no upgrade adds a card that DeckCortex counts as fast mana.

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