Wizards of the Coast has experimented with many different supplemental Magic: The Gathering products over the years, but there hasn't been one quite like the Premium Deck Series.
The Premium Deck Series made its debut in November of 2009. Each entry in the short-lived, one-release-per-year series consisted of a Legacy-playable out-of-the-box all-foil 60-card deck, a special spindown life counter die, a foil cardboard deck box, a strategy insert, and a "learn to play" guide.
The first deck in the series was Premium Deck Series: Slivers. As one could expect, it's a deck based around the sliver creature type.
The Slivers deck consists of a 60-card, Legacy-playable cards (though in the then-current modern card frame).
Retailing for $34.99 at the time, the deck features 30 creatures (one being a changeling -- Ameoboid Changeling) plus various slivers such as Crystalline Sliver, Heart Sliver, Sliver Overlord, and Winged Sliver. The deck also has two artifacts (Coat of Arms and Heartstone), one enchantment (Wild Pair), and two sorceries (Aphetto Dredging and Distant Melody). It also has 25 lands, including 14 basics and others of note such as a pair of Ancient Ziggurat, a Rootbound Crag, and two Rupture Spire, among others.
VIDEO: MTG's Premium Deck Series: A look at Magic's line of short-lived all-foil decks
The second deck, which came out November 2010, is Premium Deck Series: Fire & Ice.
Also retailing for $34.99, it was a tournament-ready Legacy burn deck and proved rather formidable right out of the box.
Like the Slivers deck, it contained 25 land cards (though most Legacy burn deck have only 18 or 19 lands), including 21 Mountains, two Teetering Peaks, and one each of Barbarian Ring and Ghitu Encampment.
It also had 20 creatures, which is far more than one would expect for a burn deck. Among those are some that you would expect in such a deck, such as Ball Lightning, Grim Lavamancer, and Mogg Fanatic, along with a number of others that really make you scratch your head like Figure of Destiny, Keldon Champion, and Jaya Ballard, Task Mage (though, that last one is on-flavor).
There are no artifacts nor enchantments, but the deck does contain ten instants, including a Fireblast, a playset of Lightning Bolt, and a Price of Progress. There are also five sorceries, including Chain Lightning, Browbeat, and Fireball.
Two cards in the deck feature artwork original to this release: Jackal Pup and Chain Lightning.
The third and final release in the Premium Deck Series came out in November of 2011, called Premium Deck Series: Graveborn.
Featuring a reanimation theme, this (technically) mono-black deck also retailed for $34.99 and included a number of noteworthy cards.
The deck’s 24 lands consists of 21 Swamps along with one each of Crystal Vein, Ebon Stronghold, and Polluted Mire.
It boasted 13 creatures, surprisingly fewer than Fire & Lightning’s 20 creatures despite it being a creature-reanimation deck. Most notable amongst those are Avatar of Woe, Faceless Butcher, Inkwell Leviathan, and Verdant Force.
Six enchantments are in the deck, including three Animate Dead, two Diabolic Servitude, and a Zombie Infestation. There are also 16 sorceries, such as Buried Alive, Exhume, and Reanimate. One instant, Entomb, is also in the deck.
After Graveborn, no more Premium Deck Series entries were ever released. As for why this is, "not enough of you loved it," said Magic Head Designer Mark Rosewater.
