If F is a subclass of the objects in an abelian category C, an essential requirement for certain aspects of relative homological algebra is that F be a precovering class (a.k.a. right-approximating class) in C. An often-used fact is that deconstructible classes (in the sense of Saorín-Št'ovíček [31]) are always precovering classes. We provide a new characterization of deconstructibility for classes of modules and of complexes of modules, in terms of traces of partially elementary submodels of the universe of sets; this provides a kind of "top-down" way of verifying deconstructibility. We use this characterization to isolate a certain necessary condition for a class to be deconstructible, and prove that if there are enough large cardinals in the universe, this necessary condition is also sufficient; so large cardinals imply, in a certain sense, the maximum possible amount of deconstructibility. In particular, large cardinals imply that for every ring R and every class X of R-modules, the class of X-Gorenstein Projective modules is deconstructible (and hence precovering). In the case X = {projectives}, this yields an alternate proof of a recent theorem of Šaroch, though from a stronger large cardinal hypothesis than his.