Lorehold Legacies $50 Precon Upgrade | Artifact | Reanimator | Osgir
Commander 2021 preconstructed decks have been revealed which means it's time for another round of my precon upgrades! I'll go over how each preconstructed deck plays, why you should buy it, analyze its strengths and weaknesses, then use that information to recommend an optimal and impactful $50 upgrade.
Today we're covering the precon Lorehold Legacies, a White/Red Artifact Reanimator deck. The precon is filled with powerful artifacts that fill numerous roles in the deck, such as ramping with Solemn Simulacrum, blowing up permanents with Angel of the Ruins, and drawing cards off Combustible Gearhulk. The rest of the deck supports artifacts with powerful Sacrifice and Reanimator themes, sacrificing artifacts to get new ones with Audacious Reshapers, rummaging and reanimating artifacts with Daretti, Scrap Savant, or mass reanimating all artifacts with Wake the Past. The end result is a unique Boros deck that grinds out the table with an artifact value engine that is hard to keep down.
Our Commander
The face commander of the deck, Osgir, the Reconstructor, does a great job representing what the precon is all about: the first ability lets you sacrifice artifacts for value and extra beatdown damage, and the second ability is supercharged artifact reanimation, exiling an artifact in your graveyard to make two tokens copies of it. This makes Osgir an insane value engine in the deck: early on you can sacrifice or discard cheap artifacts like Sol Ring, Ichor Wellspring, or even artifact lands like Ancient Den to ramp, and then later on make copies of huge game-winning bombs like Triplicate Titan, Bronze Guardian, and Myr Battlesphere.
Osgir is such a powerful and cool commander, so I'm definitely keeping it in the command zone for the upgrades.
Alright, let's check out the decklist and see how well it accomplishes its goals:
Right out of the box, Lorehold Legacies is incredibly focused on Artifacts: I count 36 artifacts in the deck, plus a few non-artifacts cards that create artifact tokens. There are also 19 cards that directly support artifacts as well. The deck's tight focus is one of it's greatest strengths, making it incredibly consistent in advancing its goals.
Now that we've glanced at the list as a whole, let's take a look at the deck's ratios.
Analyzing the Precon
As I often explain in my Budget Commander articles, every time I build a rough draft of a deck, I make sure I have a certain ratio of mana, interaction, card advantage, etc. This gives me a reference point to compare to the deck and see which areas may need improvement. My general ratio is:
- 50 mana; lands and ramp, usually a 37–13 split
- 10 card draw; cards that net you 2+ cards in hand
- 8 targeted removal; split between creature / artifact / enchantment removal and countermagic
- 3 board wipes; creature-light decks might want one more, creature-heavy decks might want one less
- 2 graveyard recursion
- 2 flexible tutors; higher budgets I recommend more tutors
- 1 graveyard hate; since you need to keep Graveyard decks honest
- 1 finisher; something that can win games the turn you cast it without too much setup
That's always my starting point, which is then tweaked to suit the individual deck's strategy and further tweaked with playtesting. I always find it immensely useful to figure out some quick ways to improve the deck in question.
Let's see what the rough ratios are for Lorehold Legacies and how it compares. I count:
- 51 mana; 38 lands and Osgir, the Reconstructor, Burnished Hart, Solemn Simulacrum, Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Mind Stone, Archaeomancer's Map, Boros Locket, Commander's Sphere, Cursed Mirror, Unstable Obelisk, Hedron Archive, Monologue Tax
- 6 card draw; Laelia, the Blade Reforged, Losheel, Clockwork Scholar, Combustible Gearhulk, Ruin Grinder, Secret Rendezvous, Ichor Wellspring, plus 4 looters
- 15 targeted removal; Alibou, Ancient Witness, Duplicant, Hellkite Tyrant, Hoard-Smelter Dragon, Steel Hellkite, Angel of the Ruins, Meteor Golem, Bosh, Iron Golem, Dispatch, Rip Apart, Excavation Technique, Return to Dust, Dispeller's Capsule, Unstable Obelisk, Darksteel Mutation
- 3 board wipes; Chain Reaction, Cleansing Nova, Rout
- 8 graveyard recursion; Osgir, the Reconstructor, Feldon of the Third Path, Scrap Trawler, Sanctum Gargoyle, Sun Titan, Daretti, Scrap Savant, Reconstruct History, Wake the Past
- 0 flexible tutors;
- 0 graveyard hate;
- 3 finishers; Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer, Hellkite Igniter, Wake the Past
The ratios look really good here at a glance. I'd prefer a bit more card draw in the deck, though the extra looters are pseudo-draw in this deck thanks to the high density of recursion in the deck.
Now that we have the ratios in mind, let's take a look at the individual cards, highlighting the strongest and weakest in each category.
38 Lands. There's clearly been a lot of thought designing the lands, which I appreciate. We've got all three artifact lands (Ancient Den) available in the deck, which work perfectly with all of our artifact recursion. I also really like the cycling lands (Forgotten Cave) and Myriad Landscape in the deck here too as they can be recurred by Sun Titan. There's only a few subpar land choices here, like Study Hall and Temple of the False God. Exceptional stuff.
13 Ramp. All of the ramp here is artifact-based and therefore gains a lot more power due to deck synergies, being sacrificed or sacrificing themselves (Commander's Sphere) to be recurred later on. Sweet new inclusions, Archaeomancer's Map and Cursed Mirror, both have great potential in the deck. There are some weaker cards, like Boros Locket, Unstable Obelisk, and Hedron Archive, which are still solid due to synergies but just cost a bit too much mana for what they do.
6 Card Draw. While not a ton here, the card draw that is included is overall very good. I'm most excited for Ruin Grinder, a card you can cycle away early, reanimate, then sacrifice when you want to refill your hand -- absolutely fantastic with Osgir, the Reconstructor. Still, it would be nice to have just a few more card draw spells in the deck just to make the deck more consistent.
15 Targeted Removal. You definitely don't have to worry about interaction with this precon! There are a ton of powerful artifact options here that become insane with artifact synergies, such as Angel of the Ruins and Dispatch. There's nothing outrageously bad here, but some options are overcosted (Bosh, Iron Golem) or lack synergy in the deck to push it over the edge (Return to Dust).
3 Board Wipes. All three of the board wipes are great. 'Nuff said.
8 Graveyard Recursion. The highlight of the deck is its recursion potential. The best one is sitting in our command zone: Osgir, the Reconstructor, but the deck's got plenty. We have looters, cycling cards, and sac outlets to make sure we've got stuff in our graveyard to recur, so eight ways to recur is hopefully not overkill.
0 Flexible Tutors. Tutors are super helpful for any Commander deck to help you find the right card for any situation, but I'm fine with them not showing up in precons. These are decks that are meant to pick up and play without being intimately aware of the deck's contents so tutors would only serve to confuse new pilots.
0 Graveyard Hate. I wish all precons came with at least one graveyard hate card, but alas, the designers disagree.
3 Finishers. In a deck full of artifacts, Hellkite Tyrant and Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer is sure to lay some big beats. But my favorite is Wake the Past, which not only returns all our artifacts for a huge lategame bomb, but also gives our artifact creatures haste so they can immediately swing for that lethal amount!
The Verdict. This is honestly one of the best built precons I've ever reviewed. It's got layers of synergies here and shows a clear effort on the designer's part to put everything together. My only criticism is the relatively low amount of card draw; with some more cheap, efficient draw, the deck can smooth out bad draws to make sure its primary goal of reanimating artifacts is pulled off quickly and consistently.
Upgrade Goals
I have some specific goals when upgrading the deck:
- Add more card draw
- Add more tutors
- Add more artifacts
- Add graveyard hate
- Strengthen the Artifact Reanimator themes
The deck is already real good, so we're not going for a massive overhaul, just some easy swaps.
$50 Upgrade
Disclaimer: Card prices are volatile, especially during preview season. The prices listed here may be different at the time you read this article.
Here's how I'd swap in $50 worth of upgrades. If you want to upgrade on a smaller budget then just makes less swaps:
| In | Out | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Goblin Engineer | Pia Nalaar | Flexible tutor and recursion. |
| Kuldotha Forgemaster | Steel Overseer |
Repeatable tutor and sac outlet. |
| Scrapyard Recombiner | Digsite Engineer |
Flexible tutor, lots of amazing targets. |
| Myr Retriever | Sanctum Gargoyle |
Amazing recursion and sac fodder. |
| Goblin Welder | Hellkite Igniter |
Ridiculously efficient reanimation and sac outlet. |
| Junk Diver | Feldon of the Third Path | Amazing recursion and sac fodder. |
| Workshop Assistant | Reconstruct History |
Amazing recursion and sac fodder. |
|
Insane card draw engine. |
||
| Absurd card draw. | ||
| Mishra's Bauble | Thopter Engineer |
Draw 3 for 0 mana with Osgir. |
| Ugin, the Ineffable | Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer |
Ramp, removal, card draw. |
| Foundry Inspector | Hoard-Smelter Dragon |
Ramp. |
| Blinkmoth Urn | Unstable Obelisk |
Great ramp. |
| Boros Signet | Hedron Archive |
Way better ramp. |
| Talisman of Conviction | Boros Locket |
Better ramp. |
| Soul-Guide Lantern | Rip Apart |
GY Hate. |
| Lodestone Golem | Return to Dust |
Nice stax. |
| Scrap Mastery | Darksteel Mutation |
Great recursion. |
| Austere Command | Flexible wipe that avoids artifacts. | |
| Lightning Greaves | Excavation Technique |
Haste enabler and combo finisher. |
| Crackdown Construct | Bosh, Iron Golem |
Gets infinitely large with Greaves, can be easily tutored and given haste + unblockable. |
| Kazuul's Fury | Temple of the False God |
Flexible land, can fling the Construct for infinite damage. |
| Buried Ruin | Study Hall |
Better land. |
Here's how the cuts look in lists.
Additions:
Cuts:
And here's the deck with the upgrades installed:
Three Down, Two To Go!
I'll be back soon with the rest of the precon upgrades!
