Overview

Science! revolves around the energy mechanic introduced in Kaladesh. Dr. Madison Li generates one energy counter every time you cast an artifact spell. Once you have accumulated enough energy, you can tap her to spend it in three different ways: one energy to give a creature +1/+0, trample, and haste until end of turn; three energy to draw a card; or five energy to return a target artifact from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped. The deck is designed to cast a steady stream of artifacts, stockpile energy, and then spend that stockpile on high-value abilities each turn.

Liberty Prime, Recharged serves as both a secondary commander and a major payoff within the 99. An 8/8 with vigilance, trample, and haste, Liberty Prime must be sacrificed whenever he attacks or blocks unless you pay two energy, but he can also tap and sacrifice an artifact himself to gain two energy and draw a card, letting him fund his own upkeep by feeding him spare artifacts. In a deck generating energy through artifact casts, Liberty Prime is consistently fuelled and provides an immediate game-ending threat the turn it enters. The deck can pivot between Dr. Madison Li's incremental resource game and Liberty Prime's aggressive combat strategy depending on the state of the board.

Key Cards

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Liberty Prime, Recharged
Secondary Commander · Combat Finisher
An 8/8 with vigilance, trample, and haste that must be sacrificed whenever he attacks or blocks unless you pay two energy. He also carries his own draw engine: pay {2}, tap, and sacrifice an artifact to gain two energy and draw a card, which both refuels the energy needed to keep attacking and turns a spare artifact into a card. Liberty Prime functions as a simultaneous clock and draw engine: he attacks the turn he enters because of haste, his vigilance means he can also hold back to block without missing an attack, and feeding him artifacts keeps the energy flowing to cover his own upkeep. In the Science! deck he is almost always energy-funded and is frequently the game-ending threat.
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Panharmonicon
ETB Doubler · Artifact Synergy
Doubles all triggered abilities of artifacts and creatures entering the battlefield. In a deck full of artifact ETB effects, Panharmonicon immediately doubles the value of every new permanent that enters. Casting an artifact with Dr. Madison Li in play generates two energy instead of one. Any artifact with an enters-the-battlefield draw trigger draws two cards. Panharmonicon compounds the existing value engine at every point and is one of the most powerful reprints in the deck.
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The Prydwen, Steel Flagship
Vehicle · Token Maker
A six-mana legendary Vehicle, 6/6 with flying and crew 2. Whenever another nontoken artifact you control enters, create a 2/2 white Human Knight token that gets +2/+2 as long as an artifact entered the battlefield under your control this turn. Every artifact you cast brings a body with it.
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Behemoth of Vault 0
Energy Source · Removal
A six-mana 6/6 artifact creature with trample. When it enters you get four energy, and when it dies you may pay energy equal to a target nonland permanent's mana value to destroy that permanent. It is a threat, an energy battery and removal in one.

Playing the Deck

Science! rewards patience in the early game. The first few turns are about establishing the mana base and getting low-cost artifacts into play to begin accumulating energy. Even a single artifact cast per turn with Dr. Madison Li in play generates enough energy over four or five turns to start spending on card draw. Sol Ring and Arcane Signet both trigger Li's energy generation on cast and provide the acceleration to deploy her on curve.

The mid game is about reaching the energy thresholds that make Dr. Madison Li's activated abilities valuable. Drawing a card for three energy is efficient when you are generating one or two energy per turn from artifact casts alone. Plasma Caster gives you two energy whenever the equipped creature attacks, Automated Assembly Line pays three energy for a 3/3 Robot, and Behemoth of Vault 0 gives four energy when it enters, which Panharmonicon doubles by triggering the ability an extra time.

The late game hinges on Liberty Prime's ability to end games quickly once he is deployed. With haste, Liberty Prime attacks the turn he arrives, often representing eight or more damage immediately, and you only have to pay two energy to keep him each time he attacks or blocks. Dr. Madison Li's five-energy recursion ability retrieves any artifact removed from the battlefield, meaning key pieces like Panharmonicon or The Prydwen rarely stay dead for long.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths: The deck has two distinct win conditions in Dr. Madison Li's resource game and Liberty Prime's combat threat, giving it flexibility to adapt to the game state. The energy mechanic is resilient because energy counters persist between turns and cannot be interacted with directly by most removal. Panharmonicon and The Prydwen are powerful cards that provide immediate impact.

Weaknesses: The stock list suffers from too few energy generators relative to how many activations it wants to make. Drawing three cards for three energy or returning an artifact for five energy is strong, but reaching those thresholds consistently requires a density of artifact casts the precon struggles to maintain in the mid game. The deck improves significantly with additional low-cost artifacts and Kaladesh-block energy producers added to the list.

Want to improve it? See the Science! upgrade guide: ten cheap swaps with the data behind each one.

Verdict
Science! is a flavourfully cohesive precon with a genuinely interesting energy mechanic and a commanding reprint in Panharmonicon. Liberty Prime is an impressive new card that demands immediate answers and can pay for its own upkeep by sacrificing spare artifacts for energy and a card. The weakness of the out-of-the-box list is density: the energy engine needs more generators to fire consistently, and the deck plays better once additional low-cost artifact cyclers and energy producers are added. Players interested in upgrading should look to the Kaladesh and Aether Revolt sets for the best energy payoffs in the format.

Ready to optimise the energy engine? Build a synergy-focused upgrade with the Oracle.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What cards are in the Science! decklist?
The Science! precon is a 100-card Commander deck led by Dr. Madison Li. The full Science! decklist, with every card, current prices and a button to copy the list into your deck builder, is on this page.

Who is the commander of Science!?
Science! is led by Dr. Madison Li, a white, blue and red commander.

Which set is Science! from?
Science! was released in 2024 as part of Fallout Commander.

How can I upgrade Science!?
We have a step-by-step upgrade guide for Science! that lists specific cards to cut and add, with the reason for each swap.

Full Decklist

All 100 cards from the out-of-the-box Science! precon, enriched with current prices. Click any card to expand it.

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