Start from Scratch - Strixhaven - Battlecruiser Upgrades
We hope you enjoy reading the writeup about the changes made in the 4 decks for our ‘Start from Scratch’ Twitch stream series - where we take 4 precon decks and play them as is, then upgrade them for Battlecruiser followed by Low and Mid power.
These games are streamed live:
Sunday the 2nd, 9th, 16th and 23rdof May
14:00 UTC / 10:00 ET at https://twitch.tv/playedh.
Necronami - Lorehold
Osgir, the Resonstructor as a face commander plays quite a lot different than Alibou, Ancient Witness wants to so you’ll notice quite a few changes from the precon as we shift focus from the face commander to Alibou. We’re going all in on Alibou’s triggered ability to take advantage of the damage portion as well the card advantage she provides which the Lorehold deck desperately needs.
This means adding more artifacts that can tap down freely and adding more tokens that give us a higher artifact count. The land count at 38 is incredibly high, especially when we’re playing artifacts which we want to tap (helloooo, mana rocks). So that’ll be the first place we look for cuts.
Secondly we need more instant speed interaction for sure. The precon came with only 3 pieces - if we’re looking at instant speed interaction - we’ll definitely need to fix that.
Lastly we want to add in a few more cards that synergize with Alibou and her ability to really drive it home in this second BC power game. That’s where the extra tokens and artifacts we can tap comes in.
Out with the old:
Artifacts:
The following artifacts seemed a way better fit for Osgir and synergise poorly with Alibou: Ichor Wellspring, Battlemage’s Bracers and Mycosynth Wellspring.
The mana value versus synergy in the deck was deemed too high for both Unstable Obelisk and Dispeller’s Capsule.
We’ll slot replacements at lower mana value for Boros Locket and Key to the City.
Creatures:
Alibou cares less about artifacts being in the graveyard so Hellkite Igniter got cut.
we’re not anticipating the other 3 precons to become too artifact heavy so Hoard-Smelter Dragon got taken out too. Scrap Trawler and Bosh, Iron Golem were better suited for the graveyard-matters playstyle that Osgir focussed on. Laelia, the Blade Reforged lacked synergy with the rest of the deck.
Angel of the Ruins felt too mana heavy to keep for it’s effect, and Steel Hellkite went out because it feels like a needless lackluster threat. Pilgrim’s Eye felt too slow and inefficient to keep it for its ramp.
Sorceries:
Better, less conditional boardwipes exist in the lorehold colors - goodbye Chain Reaction.
While I’m not against drawing opponents cards as a way of politicking in Battlecruiser, there are better options than Secret Rendezvous and we should look towards more synergetic cards for our game plan rather than slotting flat out draw.
Lands:
Well be cutting some basics (3 Mountains , 1 Plains) and replace some of the worse lands in the deck (Boros Garrison, Temple of the False God) while adding lower mana value, more consistent ramp.
In with the new:
Ramp:
Some more (efficient) rocks like Fellwar Stone and Boros Signet. Although not the most efficient, Thran Dynamo, Palladium Myr and Gold Myr synergize well with Alibou both for her artifact count and tapped clause.
Removal / Protection:
Some extra singular instant speed removal, Chaos Warp, Path to Exile, Generous Gift, and a staple boardwipe, Blasphemous Act. Both Semester’s End and Teferi’s Protection will make us somewhat more resilient to our opponents boardwipes.
Utility/Synergy/Game plan enhancers:
Tempered Steel buffs our entire artifact board, and we’ll be generating more tokens by means of Master’s Call, Myr Turbine and Shrine of Loyal Legions. Wurmcoil Engine is a great threat that works well with our commander.
Clock of Omens, Trading Post, Springleaf Drum, Retrofitter Foundry, Strionic Resonator all fulfill the same goal: providing us with a higher artifact count and means of tapping down artifacts on demand.
Lands:
Sacred Foundry and Buried Ruin felt like reasonable includes for their speed and synergy here.
Deck with sideboard for cuts and considering for includes:
https://www.moxfield.com/decks/WiaRRkB-tEybPYEzvw-rMw
Deck as a 100 card list:
https://www.moxfield.com/decks/WDp6__Uuh0e3e0fXDGfZjg
Smerz - Silverquill
The main upgrades I focused on for this deck were bringing out more of the synergy between all the +1/+1 counters matter cards and all the token production that swapping to Felisa, Fang of Silverquill brings. This also means stepping away from the ‘politic by giving your opponents resources’ support cards that came in the precon. Some of the changes we made may look a bit odd now, but they’re to prepare for some plans for the next few weeks. Breena is definitely a cool card but Felisa has a lot more room to grow and do some really fun things at all the stages we’ll be visiting.
I started with looking at the manabase. We’ve added a good number of lands to help with our fixing with all the color heavy costs as well as trimming a few because 40 is way too many for almost any deck. After that, I looked at the removal and decided to start with a few good upgrades there by slotting in some good targeted removal.
Out with the old:
Artifacts:
Coveted Jewel and Pendant of Prosperity both help out opponents a little bit too much to my liking.
Creatures:
Guardian Archon was quite out there mana value wise with little payoff and leans into the politic theme we’re stepping away from. The same can be said for Hunted Lammasu. Scholarship Sponsor will not only potentially get us ahead, but other players too so it had to go.
Zetalpa, Primal Dawn … is a card that exists and seems to be the magical ‘filler’ card to include in precons at high mana value. I don’t understand why this got included.
Enchantments:
Soul Snare can be replaced by instant speed removal that’s less conditional and Debtor’s Knell is quite out there mana value wise, on top of our deck not really being ‘graveyard recursion’ focussed.
Parasitic Impetus falls into the ‘forced politics’ category and we’re not caring too much about lifegain/drain for it to stay in the deck.
Sorceries:
Secret Rendezvous provides our opponents with too much of an advantage and Incarnation Technique felt too gimmicky for it’s mana value. We also don’t really want to give our opponents a free body from their graveyard.
Planeswalkers:
While it could be funny to drop Gideon, Champion of Justice on a board where people are potentially playing creature token heavy decks, should Gideon reach 15 loyalty that immediately points all aggro from the table your way. It’s worth mentioning Gideon’s minus 15 doesn’t read ‘nonland’, just ‘other permanents’, this includes lands, and this includes our own board. This card will needlessly slow down the entire game to a halt.
Lands:
Out go 2 basic Plains, some enters tapped lands that only make one color (Barren Moor and Secluded Steppe), ‘ramp/bounce’ lands we’ll no longer need by adding regular ramp to the deck (Myriad Landscape and Orzhov Basilica) the ‘flavor from the standard legal set’ lands (Silverquill Campus and Study Hall) and lands that provide little to no synergy in the deck (Mikokoro, Center of the Sea and Temple of the False God).
In with the new:
Ramp:
Prismatic Lens and Talisman of Hierarchy for some better ramp at lower mana value.
Removal:
Swords to Plowshares, Despark, and Anguished Unmaking as well as a relatively standard boardwipe with Wrath of God felt in order here.
Utility/Synergy/Game plan enhancers:
Let’s get to the core of what I was planning on upgrading, the +1/+1 counter synergies and the token making.
We have a few good ways to take advantage of all the tokens we plan on making with Ayara, First of Locthwain, Corpse Knight, Soul Warden, and Soul’s Attendant.
For +1/+1 counter synergy, we have Felidar Retreat, Luminarch Aspirant, Shadrix Silverquill, and Shaile, Dean of Radiance//Embrose, Dean of Shadow.
Adding more counters to our board to end up making more tokens that we can make huge and just go wide and tall at the same time.
The two additions that may stand out as a little odd are Thalisse, Reverent Medium and Teysa Karlov. These are some early includes that still work plenty with what we’re doing but may hint at some plans for the next few Low and Mid power upgrades.
Night’s Whisper for some more ‘me’ drawing cards at lower mana value, over giving some to my opponents.
Lands:
Brightclimb Pathway, Godless Shrine, Isolated Chapel, Vault of Champions and Shineshadow Snarl for better, less conditional color fixing as the deck is quite color pip heavy.
Deck with sideboard for cuts and considering for includes:
https://www.moxfield.com/decks/6JL36g5YFkiYL6wR-7AfLA
Deck as a 100 card list:
https://www.moxfield.com/decks/4wOnowOaWESmCQODtF9a1w
Alchmyst - Prismari
My upgrades this week focused largely on making the list feel a lot more comfortable for Veyran compared to the normal Prismari Performance face commander - Zaffai - while still keeping the list restricted enough to function well within the boundaries of Battlecruiser.
The way the deck is built out of the box, it is packed full with ways to make big mana in order to cast big spells that, while not actually accomplishing all that much as we noticed in last week’s game, will trigger Zaffai’s ability to pump out 4/4s and eventually shoot everyone down with the 10 damage blasts. By nature, Veyran wants to play in the exact opposite fashion- meaning spells don’t have to be great, they just need to be cast fast and often in order to get double triggers off of her ability.
Balancing this is incredibly tricky, especially for Battlecruiser as you want to make use of your commander’s ability while also not playing a fast manual storm deck. That is when I the idea- token decks are tons of fun and yet it is not a strategy that Blue-Red decks are known for. Thus my goal going forward with Veyran upgrades was to take off the higher mana value spells that really drag my mana curve down, including a big mana spell or two to keep me in check, and slot in more ways to generate tokens off of spell slinging. My final goal was to clean up the mana base- traditionally precons always come with far too many lands and too many of those are tap lands. As you can see in many of my lists, you don’t have to break the bank to make a good land base, and so I put some special care into fixing up this portion of the deck as well.
Out with the old:
Artifacts:
I actually chose to leave most of the artifacts that came with the precon as the Prismari Performance deck got some of the best includes as far as mana rocks go. However I did end up cutting Hedron Archive as I find it to be a bit too slow- almost every game I have cast it has been less out of necessity and more because I have extra mana floating and nothing to actually cast with it.
Creatures:
Charmbreaker Devils, Diluvian Primordial, Etali, Primal Storm and Wildfire Devils got cut. One thing these all have in common is a rather high mana value - while this is Battlecruiser and we don’t want to get Ad Nauseam appropriate average mana values, in this deck we do want to make sure if we are casting expensive spells they will still further our goal of powering out tokens and therefore should be reserved to instants and sorceries. Furthermore, with the latter three, I wanted to avoid having to rely on whatever opponents may happen to have, as well as cut down on ways for my deck to free-cast spells in order to keep it a bit tame.
Instants:
I cut a few of the clunkier instants here that I felt weren’t worth the mana they cost for their effect, especially since we are looking to cast more cheap spells in order to pump out tokens. Even with cycling options, I decided to lose Traumatic Visions and Fiery fall as I never see myself actually casting them, and so at that point I should just slot better draw spells.
Sorceries:
Similarly to the instants, I cut a lot of the clunkier stuff that I feel isn’t worth tapping out for here. Apex of Power was cut because it is a whopping 10 mana, but also enables the storm threat very easily in this deck, something I wanted to pump the breaks on as I upgraded further. Call the Skybreaker and Elemental Masterpiece are fun, but I'd rather cast a few cantrips for that cost instead and get more - albeit smaller - tokens.
Inspiring Refrain was a tough cut because I wanted to keep as many Prismari-thematic cards as possible in here for the Battlecruiser version of the deck. In the end I could not justify 6 mana to draw two cards even if I did get to then suspend the spell. Volcanic Vision was cut both because I feel it is a bit over costed for what it does and because I wanted to eliminate some ways to get my big mana spells back from my graveyard, reducing how much I could really storm in a given turn.
Lands:
This was by far my biggest section of cuts for the precon. All of the lands I cut either entered the battlefield tapped, or were rather clunky utility lands that would be better swapped for a basic land. Thus, we wave farewell to Blighted Cataract, Desert of the Fervent, Desert of the Mindful, Forgotten Cave, Izzet Boilerworks, Lonely Sandbar, Mage-Ring Network, Memorial to Genius, Myriad Landscape, Prismari Campus, Temple of Epiphany, and Temple of the False Gods.
In with the new:
I did not add more ramping artifacts as we want to limit how much additional ramp we bring in here to keep this tame, especially with our other upgrades!
Creatures:
We are swapping this list over from big explosive spells with Zaffai to tokens go brrr with Veyran. We have slotted Murmuring Mystic and Young Pyromancer for some more repeatable token generation. Archmage Emeritus is going to help us with our card draw issues, while Goblin Electromancer will discount our spells a little bit while being a very vulnerable body. Uvilda, Dean of Perfection//Nassari, Dean of Expression are in here for the flavor win, and Laboratory Maniac has been added as a failsafe because as we have seen from playtesting, this precon can actually naturally deck out.
Instants:
We have improved the counter suite a little bit here, adding in actual Counterspell and Negate as well-played classics, as well as Wizard’s Retort because Veyran effectively makes it a second copy of Counterspell.
We have also added a Lightning Bolt for a bit more targeted damage (and as a way to sneak more gorgeous Mystical Archives in here), and Aetherize to protect ourselves from attackers.
Teach by Example was our final addition, as I quite enjoyed the flavor of it and its wording means that we cannot create a copy loop with Rootha or Naru Meha (while any copy spell that says copy target spell would).
Sorceries:
Nothing too fancy here, just a Preordain as an easy way to trigger our token generators and draw some cards!
Planeswalkers:
No Prismari deck would be complete without two of its stellar students - Rowan Scholar of Sparks//Will Scholar of Frost. These two pack an awesome punch while also giving us a bit of a spell discount.
Lands:
I swapped in 2 more basic Islands and 2 more basic Mountains as this deck is quite pip intensive and these are better than the more “meh” utility lands. Frostboil Snarl, Riverglide Pathway, Steam Vents, Sulfur Falls, and Training Center were added for better dual land options.
Mystic Sanctuary allows us to grab one of our cantrips back and still taps for colored mana which works great here, and Rogue’s Passage found a slot because Veyran actually gets quite large in this deck and, while not the main goal, being able to sneak her in for substantial commander damage is an excellent back up plan!
Deck with sideboard for cuts and considering for includes:
https://www.moxfield.com/decks/iGSSig_mdUWiPthm8wH-Aw
Deck as a 100 card list:
https://www.moxfield.com/decks/DYUN2-Gf2k6aZoalkzS3QA
Exxaxl - Witherbloom
We’re shifting the focus from the food/token creature generation into more lifegain/drain/utilising life as a resource. The issue with the precon relying on food tokens is you need 2 open mana to sacrifice them to gain the life, so you're down two mana for every lifegain activation that way. Adding to that: Gyome food token / other tokens deck is something else I wish to build later so we’re completely going away from that part of the deck.
The base precon has an incredibly high landcount (39!), and was very lacking in ramp for its curve (3.88!) despite having access to green. I also found the deck to be quite unresponsive in dealing with singular threats, and board wipe heavy. Granted, it came with some 'weird' payoffs for wiping the board, but they never felt 'right' for the deck, if that makes sense. For now, Willowdusk, Essence Seer will be kept at the helm but this may change later.
Out with the Old:
Artifacts:
Paradise Plume to ‘ramp’ in a deck with access to green feels weird and the singular instance of lifegain felt too insignificant. Pristine Talisman doesn’t colorfix me and Sun Droplet felt way too slow to keep. Druidic Satchel will only gain life if we actually ‘lose’ our activation and we’re moving away from token support so the rest of the effects didn’t appeal to me.
Creatures:
Gluttonous Troll and Gyome Master Chef will get replaced by lower activation cost lifegain cards further down the line. We’re taking out food as a mechanic from this deck entirely.
We don’t really care about cards entering/leaving our graveyard enough to keep Silversmote Ghoul around, and Yedora feels like a card that needs its own dedicated deck to be functional.
Enchantments:
Blight mound and Trudge Garden focus on token support, which is part of the game plan we’re no longer focussing on. While I appreciate the lifegain trigger from Gift of Paradise, land-fetching ramp will be slotted over a deck that cares little about enchantments.
Sorceries:
I mentioned earlier the deck at its core was quite wipe heavy. Adding to that, it came with close to no way to rebuild after that, and some of the wipes were too niche/conditional/mana value heavy to keep. Gaze of Granite, Pest Infestation and Taste of Death can go. This still leaves Deadly Tempest and Essence Pulse in the deck - the precon really did come with quite some wipes - staple boardwipes will get added in the Low power version.
Paying 6 mana to ramp never felt right to me, so Nissa’s Renewal had to go. Ancient Craving will be replaced by lower mana value draw.
Planeswalkers:
I don’t quite understand why Ob Nixilis Reignited got included.
The +1 is too steep a mana cost for something that only potentially survives one turn cycle, -3 can be done cheaper at instant speed and the -8 doesn't synergise with the deck outside of ‘losing two life for Willowdusk to care about’. To me, Vraska, Golgari Queen would have made more sense with all the pest token support that came in the deck.
Lands:
Goodbye 2 Forests, 1 Swamp, food token support land (Gingerbread Cabin), tapped color fixer (Jungle Hollow), colorless land that conditionally can’t be used I wish they stopped reprinting (Temple of the False God), standard set flavor lands (Witherbloom Campus and Study Hall) and color restricted Myriad landscape for more mana (Blighted Woodland).
In with the new:
Ramp:
Time to add some staple green ramp the deck was lacking. Kodama’s Reach and Three Visits feel good here (and Three Visits can colorfix us via fetching a shockland if necessary).
Removal / Protection:
The brand new Culling Ritual to punish people who have a better start than us seemed like a good idea at the time. I feel this card will become a staple as time goes on. Some instant speed ‘delete this’ cards like Assassin’s Trophy, Beast Within and Return to Nature felt necessary. The precon was wipe heavy, but singular target removal lacking. Heroic Intervention for board wipe protection.
Utility/Synergy/Game plan enhancers:
For Battlecruiser I thought I’d include Blood Researcher which did well in my pre release kit. It’s an Ajani’s Pridesmate with menace, why not. Marauding Blightpriest to have another small drain effect.
Increasing the amount of times I get a life gain trigger by means of Scavenging Ooze, Nighthawk Scavenger, Cosmos Elixir and Retreat to Kazandu.
Some much needed keyword utility for combat by means of Swiftfoot Boots, Haunted Cloak and Shadowspear. The deck has several cards that wish to connect in combat, enabling those cards more will provide quite a benefit. Valentin, Dean of the Vein // Lisette, Dean of the Root will close to always be cast for it’s flip side, providing the board with some much needed buffs and trample enabling for all those +1/+1 bodies still present in the deck.
Extra draw with Sign in Blood and Return of the Wildspeaker, followed by some ‘life is a resource’ outlets like Phyrexian Reclamation and Command the Dreadhorde.
Beledros Witherbloom I was on the fence about at first. Untapping your lands more than once per turn has a tendency to get out of hand in Battlecruiser. I noticed I only had one large x spell (at sorcery speed, that drew me cards, and didn’t hit the entire table) and two outlets to really sink that mana into (Bloodtracker and Scavenging Ooze).
For a Battlecruiser deck I’d not slot Beledros if I had more outlets and larger X spells that could potentially finish the game right there and then. If there are no lifegain triggers happening in my turn, activating Beledros to lose 10 life while I have a higher life total, synergises well with Willowdusk’s ability. I’m not entirely sure the synergy is there to keep it in the deck, and ‘adding more synergy’ may mean having to cut Beledros for BC in the future. Big 7 drop Timmy card I picked up from my LGS, let’s keep him around just for flavor for now.
Deck with sideboard for cuts and considering for includes:
https://www.moxfield.com/decks/CzFpnavJg0qEnwhpsOOdzA
Deck as a 100 card list:
https://www.moxfield.com/decks/c3TvLFu6KUybs14PvTvC8A
And that was all for the Battlecruiser upgraded versions of the decks!
We hope this provides you with some insight into how we approach changing/upgrading a deck while still staying within the right power level on PlayEDH.
See you guys next week where we make further upgrades for Low power.
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