Warhammer 40,000 Precon Upgrade Guide : The Ruinous Powers - $30
Warhammer 40,000 preconstructed decks have been revealed and with it comes another round of my precon upgrades. We're going to do a thorough analysis of each deck, highlighting its goals and how well it accomplishes them, check out its deckbuilding fundamentals, identify its strongest and weakest cards, then use all that information to create a high-impact list of upgrades for under $30. Looking for upgrade guides for the other #WH40KxMTG decks?
Check out our upgrade guides for Forces of the Imperium, Necron Dynasties, and Tyranid Swarm.
Ruinous Powers is Grixis midrange deck that allows you to harness the powers of Chaos! The precon fully embraces randomness with mechanics such as cascade (Dark Apostle) and transformation (Aspiring Champion), tapping into the power of the Warp to summon Demons (Keeper of Secrets). There's also a Spellslinger subtheme to the deck, with many of the Demons also supporting instants/sorceries (Exalted Flamer of Tzeentch).
If you want a chaotic deck full of variance and wonderfully merges Cascade, Demons, and Spellslinger together, then Ruinous Powers is for you!
The Precon List
Before we talk upgrades, let's take a look at the stock list to see what we're working with:
Ruinous Powers has a whole lot of themes: I count 16 "Exile Matters" cards either casting from exile or triggering off exile, 17 Demon cards but only 3 payoffs for Demon Tribal, and "22" cards that work for Spellslinger (17 instants/sorceries and 5 payoff cards). There's a tiny Sacrifice subtheme too but it's insignificant.
In regards to upgrades, we have Abaddon the Despoiler which supports Exile Matters and kinda Spellslinger, or Be'lakor, the Dark Master which is Demon Tribal. Since Exile and Spellslinger are the primary archetypes of this precon, we will stick with Abaddon for upgrades and focus on strengthening Exile Matters and Spellslinger.
Upgrade Goals
I have some specific goals when upgrading Ruinous Powers:
- Remove cards that don't fit our themes
- Upgrade the ramp
- Add more cards that promote Exile Matters and Spellslinger
- Add more Abaddon enablers
To enable Abaddon more consistently we're going to run a bunch of efficient pingers like Thermo-Alchemist and Firebrand Archer, which let us trigger Abaddon without even needing to attack. They also pair wonderfully with Curiosity effects for absurd card draw.
We're also going to make our cascade targets super juicy with the "0-drop" suspend spells Inevitable Betrayal and such.
$30 Upgrades
Disclaimer: Card prices are volatile and may be different at the time you read this article.
Here's how I'd swap in $30 worth of upgrades. If you want to upgrade on a smaller budget then just makes less swaps:
Additions:
Cuts:
ALL DONE!
We'll be back with Brother's War precon upgrades soon!
