"Phantom Premonition" Precon Upgrade | $20, $200 | Foretell | Exile
Kaldheim preconstructed decks have just 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, and the various directions that you can upgrade the deck and make it your own, including sample $20 and $200 upgrade lists.
We kick things off with Phantom Premonition, an Azorius Foretell deck with two subthemes: Blink and Flying. The goal of this precon is to grind out the rest of the table by drawing tons of cards with cards like Behold the Multiverse and Ethereal Valkyrie, deal with opposing threats with cards like Spectral Deluge and Saw It Coming, and eventually overwhelm your opponents with growing threats like Hero of Bretagard or massive token armies like Storm Herd.
The precon's main themes merge together with its commander, Ranar the Ever-Watchful:
Since Foretell is a new mechanic with not a lot of cards to work with, the archetype needs a powerful commander to carry it across the finish line, and luckily Ranar the Ever-Watchful does so perfectly: since foretelling a card costs 2 mana, Ranar offers a two mana discount on the first card you foretell each turn, which is solid ramp in a deck looking to foretell each turn.
Not only that, but whenever you exile one or more cards from your hand and/or permanents from the battlefield, you create a 1/1 white Spirit creature token with flying. So not only do you get a token every time you foretell, but you also get a token any time you blink a creature with cards like Mistmeadow Witch or exile a permanent with Banishing Light as well. These tokens quickly add up, first providing cheap blockers to keep you safe from attacks, then later turning into game-winning threats, especially when you pump them up with cards like Thunderclap Wyvern.
Combining both solid ramp and value engine together at just 4cmc, Ranar the Ever-Watchful is the ideal leader for a Foretell deck.
So if you're interested in a grindy Azorius value engine that controls the board while drawing tons of cards and filling the skies with a token army, then Phantom Premonition is the deck for you! Let's check out the list and see how well it accomplishes its goals:
Phantom Premonition does an okay job at showcasing the Foretell mechanic. I count 14 cards that mention the foretell mechanic, with a few others that indirectly support the mechanic. The Blink subtheme is actually more represented; I count a combined 26 cards that support the Blink theme, which includes both cards that can blink your permanents and permanents that want to be blinked for extra value. Finally there's 24 cards that are either flying creatures or create flying creature tokens, though there's only 2 cards that support flyers.
At a glance I think this precon suffers from a lack of focus on what it wants to support. While there are overlapping synergies between its themes, most notably Foretell and other exile effects like Blink, trying to juggle those plus supporting Flying stretches the deck thin and makes it less consistent than if it just focused on one or two themes instead. My upgrade section will make this list more focused.
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 surprise "I Win" card; 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 Phantom Premonition and how it compares. I count:
- 50 mana; 36 lands and Ranar the Ever-Watchful, Burnished Hart, Kor Cartographer, Stoic Farmer, Sage of the Beyond, Surtland Elementalist, Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Azorius Signet, Marble Diamond, Mind Stone, Sky Diamond, Commander's Sphere, Replicating Ring
- 10 card draw; Wall of Omens, Sea Gate Oracle, Vega, the Watcher, Cloudblazer, Mulldrifter, Ethereal Valkyrie, Inspired Sphinx, Windfall, Behold the Multiverse, Tales of the Ancestors
- 9 targeted removal; Mist Raven, Angel of Serenity, Meteor Golem, Iron Verdict, Ravenform, Saw It Coming, Return to Dust, Banishing Light, Curse of the Swine
- 2 board wipes; Cleansing Nova, Spectral Deluge
- 3 graveyard recursion; Sun Titan, Niko Defies Destiny, Marshal's Anthem
- 0 flexible tutors;
- 1 graveyard hate; Angel of Finality
- 3 surprise "I Win" card; Synthetic Destiny, Storm Herd, Day of the Dragons
From just a numbers perspective, this actually looks like amazing ratios for a precon! I'm really impressed! Now let's take a deeper dive at each section:
36 Lands. This is a surprisingly low number at least compared to other precons, which generally average closer to 40 lands. While 36 lands is still a fine number for a lot of commander decks, I do feel it's a bit on the low end here since the deck runs a ton of high cmc cards: there's 7 cards at 7+cmc, which even considering some being foretell cards is still very high. The deck will struggle to cast those spells on time with just 36 lands.
As for the lands themselves, they're solid but not exceptional. The best land is Command Tower and the rest are basic lands or tapped duals, which work fine. The only two duds I see here are Opal Palace, which doesn't do a whole lot with our commander, and Cryptic Caves, which sticks out as an odd choice in a deck with a low land count and only Sun Titan to recur it.
14 Ramp. The ramp in this precon is excellent and plentiful. The deck offers up some format staples like Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, and Azorius Signet, along with some new stuff that fit well in the deck. Stoic Farmer, while underwhelming by itself, does get significantly better due to Foretell synergies in this deck. Same goes for Sage of the Beyond which is pretty much unplayable anywhere else but can let you cast multiple foretell spells per turn later in the game. I also think Replicating Ring is at the very least a cool card, even though it's often just a Manalith that opponents will destroy before you get eight counters on it.
10 Card Draw. The card draw in the deck is also overall excellent. We've got some cards here that are exceptional in a Foretell deck, like Vega, the Watcher, which draws you a card whenever you cast a foretell spell, and Tales of the Ancestors which rewards you for quickly exiling your hand away and then refill it before starting to cast your foretell spells; the same logic applies to Windfall. There's also cards that get better when Blinked, like Mulldrifter, Inspired Sphinx, and Wall of Omens.
9 Targeted Removal. The targeted removal here is pretty solid. We've got some great thematic choices like Saw It Coming and Ravenform, along with some that get better when blinked like Meteor Golem. The only card I'd look to cut would be Mist Raven which is overcosted even if you consider blink and flying synergies.
2 Board Wipes. Cleansing Nova is a great board wipe that offers much-needed flexibility on what you're looking to remove. Spectral Deluge would work better in a Mono Blue deck, but it's still great here too as an assymmetrical creature wipe, and foretell synergies makes it much better here.
3 Graveyard Recursion. Sun Titan is a staple of the format that only gets better in a deck loaded with Blink synergies like this one. Niko Defies Destiny is flavorful but not particularly good. Finally Marshal's Anthem is a great way for this deck to not just get back some creatures but also pump up your 1/1's into lethal threats, really good here.
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.
1 Graveyard Hate. Well this is a welcome surprise! I've long since been critical of the precons for not offering any graveyard hate, but luckily we have a good piece here with Angel of Finality. Bonus points for having extra syngery in the deck due to flying and being blink-friendly.
3 Surprise "I Win" Cards. I count 3ish here. Synthetic Destiny can turn an army of 1/1 tokens into a game-winning board of good creatures. Day of the Dragons does a similar thing but works better with nontokens, potentially re-using their ETB triggers. Storm Herd is very expensive but dropping 20+ 1/1 flyers will usually win you the game if you get a chance to swing with them. None of these options are fantastic but they do the job well enough.
The Verdict. Overall, I'm very impressed with the precon! It would be nice if we got lands that mana-fixed and entered untapped, but we've hit our ratios nicely and most of the cards included here are solid.
Focusing On Foretell
I think the biggest problem with the deck is not its ratios or individual cards but rather the split focus between too many themes, which dilute the deck's power. My upgrades will strengthen the main focus of the deck: foretell. It's the unique selling point of this precon, and while you could focus the deck on Blink instead, I feel like there's far more interesting/powerful commanders that support that archetype better, like the Brago, King Eternal hanging out in the 99.
Foretell has a pretty small card pool so while it will be the primary focus, I think it's good to keep some of the Blink secondary focus as temporarily exiling things plays well with the Foretell support cards. However, I'm going to ditch the focus on Flying, so I'll cut cards like Thunderclap Wyvern from the deck.
$20 Upgrade
We have some specific goals when upgrading the deck:
- Strengthen the main theme, Foretell
- Lower the deck's top-end
- Cut cards that don't synergize with Foretell
With that in mind, here's how I'd swap in $20 worth of upgrades:
| In | Out | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Cosmos Charger | Empyrean Eagle | Charger is probably the single best upgrade for the deck. It's amazing Foretell support on its own and when paired with Ranar lets you foretell one card for free each turn, not just your own turn. I'm cutting the two Flying Tribal cards to focus the deck more on Foretell and Blink. |
| Drogskol Captain | Thunderclap Wyvern |
While I'm cutting the Flying Tribal theme, I do recommend running the Captain as a way to protect Ranar while still buffing the Spirit tokens our commander provides. |
| Samurai of the Pale Curtain | Arcane Artisan |
Samurai is not only great graveyard hate, but it works really well with Ranar, as cards exiled will trigger our Commander. Every cracked fetchland is another spirit token! Arcane Artisan is slow, fragile, and there's not much payoff to running it here. |
| Amphin Mutineer | Goldnight Commander |
Mutineer is creature exile on a stick, synergizing with our commander and our Blink subtheme. Goldnight Commander fits our themes but it's just too weak. |
| Glorious Protector | Cloudgoat Ranger | Protector is a great Foretell card that provides board protection along with overlapping synergy with our Blink subtheme. Ranger fits the Blink subtheme but it's underwhelming. |
| Depart the Realm | Evangel of Heliod | Depart is a solid Foretell card. Evangel is better in Mono White and we're trying to cut down on our high cmc spells. |
|
Doomskar is a fantastic board wipe that we can foretell early on and then cheaply cast for just three mana later on. The Elementalist costs way too much mana and doesn't have much synergy in the deck, an easy cut. |
||
| Yorion is one of the most powerful upgrades for our Blink subtheme: when paired with cards like Restoration Angel or Flickerwisp, you can blink Yorion, which will then blink the rest of your board, causing a blink loop every single turn that lets you get extra enter the battlefield triggers. Route's flexibility isn't needed in a 2C deck. | ||
| Alrund's Epiphany | Storm Herd | Extra turn spells are incredibly powerful, and one with foretell synergy is too good to pass up. Herd just costs too much mana. |
| Reconnaissance Mission | Mistmeadow Witch | This deck is loaded with evasive creatures. A timely Mission can draw us tons of cards, and we can always cycle it when it's not needed. Witch fits the Blink subtheme but it's simply too slow. |
Here's how the cuts look in lists.
Additions:
Cuts:
And here's the deck with the upgrades installed:
$200 Upgrade
A bigger budget lets us pick up all the remaining good Foretell cards: Mystic Reflection, Starnheim Unleashed, and Shepherd of the Cosmos. We've also added blink-friendly exile cards like Skyclave Apparition, and better, well, everything else.
Additions:
Cuts:
And the upgrades installed:
"Elven Upgrade" Precon Upgrade Soon!
Next up is the Golgari Elf Tribal deck, Elven Upgrade! We're going to turn Lathril, Blade of the Elves into a true powerhouse!
