Riveteer Rampage Precon Upgrade Guide | $50 | Blitz | Stompy | Aristocrats | Henzie | Streets of New Capenna
Streets of New Capenna 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 $50.
Riveteer Rampage is a Black / Red / Green precon that combines two archetypes: Stompy and Aristocrats, sometimes called a "Sneak Attack" deck. The goal of this deck is to get huge creatures on the battlefield like Inferno Titan and Giant Adephage, smash face with them in combat, and then sacrifice them for value, such as getting more creatures off the top of your library with Industrial Advancement or burning targets with Stalking Vengeance.
If you love smashing in with big beefy creatures and then sacrificing them for extra value, then Riveteer Rampage 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:
Riveteers Rampage is tasked with providing a focused and powerful Blitz style deck, combining Stompy and Aristocrats archetypes together. Luckily this style of deck already has tons of support in Jund colors so it's not difficult to assemble a precon deck with this goal in mind, and the stock list does a decent job pulling this off: I count 17 creatures that have 5+ power or grow to that much power quickly and 12 cards that support stompy creatures by scaling up in power, such as drawing cards with Garruk's Uprising or drawing cards and gaining life off Disciple of Bolas. The deck is focused on playing huge creatures and then generating extra value off your beaters with few distractions mixed into the list. Focused lists are good so I approve of this.
Choosing Our Commander
There's actually three different cards in the deck that could be swapped in as the commander for this deck: Henzie "Toolbox" Torre, The Beamtown Bullies, and Kresh the Bloodbraided. Each have their own strengths and weaknesses, and unlike Maestros Massacre I think there's a decent argument for having any of them as your commander:
- Henzie "Toolbox" Torre is the face commander of the precon and is my pick as the strongest choice out of the box. Our deck wants to cast big beaters, smash face, and then sacrifice them for value, and Henzie promotes exactly that strategy by providing the blitz mechanic to our beaters, giving our creatures haste, card draw, and a scaling mana discount. Sacrificing our creatures isn't a drawback because we were going to do that anyway, so this is all upside for us. Henzie is also a 3-drop so he'll consistently be on the battlefield when we need him.
- The Beamtown Bullies are a unique commander that cheats in your creatures onto your opponents' control and goads them into attacking mutual enemies. This is a weird and kinda meh ability on its own, but pair this with obscure cards with horrible drawbacks like Leveler and Eater of Days and you straight-up murder your opponents with your "gifts." While this commander has captivated players and speculators (mostly speculators), none of these haymakers are in the stock list and speculators have made sure all the sweetest targets are out of the budget range of this article, so The Beamtown Bullies is neither a great commander option for the stock list nor a $50 upgrade.
- Kresh the Bloodbraided is a sweet oldschool commander that I fondly remember getting dunked on by when I first started playing Commander and honestly is still scary in the right build here in 2022. Kresh can get huge fast and start 1-shotting opponents with combat damage or 1-shotting everyone with a Chandra's Ignition or similar. However, Kresh functions best in a more Voltron style build where the goal is to quickly grow Kresh and then utilize his thicc booty to win the game, and he doesn't provide as much support as Henzie to this Blitz style deck.
So after looking at our options, Henzie is an easy choice for our commander.
Analyzing the Precon
Now that we've glanced at the stock list and settled on our commander, let's take a closer look at the deck itself to identify what parts benefit the most from upgrades.
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 Riveteer Rampage and how it compares. I count:
- 54 mana; 39 lands and Henzie "Toolbox" Torre, Overgrown Battlement, Jolene, the Plunder Queen, Solemn Simulacrum, Explore, Farseek, Rampant Growth, Kodama's Reach, Migration Path, Riveteers Confluence, Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Fellwar Stone, Commander's Sphere, Glittering Stockpile
- 16 card draw; Henzie "Toolbox" Torre, Disciple of Bolas, Etali, Primal Storm, Mezzio Mugger, Treeshaker Chimera, Life's Legacy, Painful Truths, Riveteers Charm, Riveteers Confluence, Lifecrafter's Bestiary, Evolutionary Leap, Garruk's Uprising, Protection Racket, Deathreap Ritual, Industrial Advancement, Rain of Riches
- 9 targeted removal; Indrik Stomphowler, Inferno Titan, Noxious Gearhulk, Woodfall Primus, Terminate, Chaos Warp, Riveteers Charm, Turf War, Warstorm Surge
- 5 board wipes; Deathbringer Regent, Aether Snap, Riveteers Confluence, Windgrace's Judgment, Blasphemous Act
- 5 graveyard recursion; World Shaper, Greenwarden of Murasa, Artisan of Kozilek, Victimize, Riveteers Confluence
- 0 flexible tutors;
- 2 graveyard hate; Grime Gorger, Riveteers Charm
- 2 finishers; Stalking Vengeance, Warstorm Surge, but basically any stompy creature in the deck can end it
Things look great in terms of ratios. Now let's take a deeper dive and check out the individual cards!
39 Lands. 39 lands is fine for a deck with such a high mana curve: you want to hit your land drops every single turn for at least the first 6 turns so you can reliably cast your 7-drop+ haymakers. The lands themselves are pretty good with a high amount of untapped duals like Cinder Glade and Twilight Mire, along with good utility lands like Kessig Wolf Run. I'm also a big fan of the hideaway lands Mosswort Bridge and Spinerock Knoll in Blitz decks, as it's card advantage and ramp that is easy to activate in this deck.
There's plenty of stinkers here though like Thriving Grove. I really wish these decks had bondlands in them and better lands in general. Maybe one day.
15 Ramp. There's a ton of ramp here, which is good because the deck is so top-heavy. Most of the options are great, such as the staples Arcane Signet and Fellwar Stone. There are a few questionable inclusions though, like Overgrown Battlement in a deck with 2 defenders, or Jolene, the Plunder Queen in a deck with 3 treasure makers.
16 Card Draw. The draw here is definitely the highlight of this deck: there are tons of high-synergy card advantage engines here to play with, the best riffing off our goal of blitzing in big beaters and sac'ing them for value. A common tactic for this deck is to blitz a beater in with Henzie "Toolbox" Torre, smack someone with it, and then sac it for value to something like Disciple of Bolas, refilling our hand and drawing an extra card off Henzie too. 16 cards that generate card advantage is a ton, usually more than what I'd recommend, but keep in mind that this deck wants you to blitz out all your creatures so you need more draw than usual to keep your hand filled with blitz targets.
Not all the card advantage engines here are great -- Rain of Riches needs way more treasure producers to be amazing, for example -- but what we do have is sweet. This deck can keep chucking haymakers at opponents all day long.
9 Targeted Removal. The targeted removal is solid. We have nice flexible options like Chaos Warp and Riveteers Charm but also some stompy answers like Woodfall Primus. The only card I'm not thrilled about is Turf War but otherwise everything else is good with me.
5 Board Wipes. We've got format staple Blasphemous Act and then a bunch of situationally awesome cards. I really like Deathbringer Regent here as it's wipe on a beatstick, Windgrace's Judgment is easy to get value out of though I usually leave it out of builds, and Riveteers Confluence is flexible mini-wipe when needed, and Aether Snap is the narrowest of the bunch but can be powerful if you're up against Token / Counter decks.
5 Graveyard Recursion. Greenwarden of Murasa and Artisan of Kozilek are brilliant with Henzie "Toolbox" Torre's blitz ability, getting those sweet triggers asap with a mana discount! Victimize is also an all-star here since you can blitz a creature in and sac it to get back two beaters from the GY. World Shaper is meh but it'd be stronger if we had more self-mill or fetchlands. Honestly though, this deck is so good at putting big creatures into the GY, we might as well have one or two more cards that can put them from the GY directly into play.
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.
2 Graveyard Hate. Grime Gorger is an okay aggressive version of Scavenging Ooze. Riveteers Charm is fantastic. No complaints.
2 Finishers. When you can't close the game with your big attacking creatures, two cards can give you the reach you need: Warstorm Surge and Stalking Vengeance send some extra damage to your opponents' faces. Great when your opponents can't be attacked or have a pesky fog effect!
The Verdict. Riveteers Rampage is very solid right out of the box. The game plan of blitzing in beaters, punching opponents in the face with them, then sac'ing them for extra value is a fun and effective strategy that the precon pulls off well. There's only a handful of cards that seem out of place here, while the majority of the deck is focused on the main game plan. There's plenty of room to upgrade the deck -- a lot of the ramp can be tuned, and the beaters themselves are a mixed bag -- but the deck is solid and consistent without changing anything either if you just want to pick up and go.
Upgrade Goals
I have some specific goals when upgrading Riveteers Rampage:
- Upgrade the haymakers
- Add one or two more graveyard reanimation
- Upgrade the ramp
- Upgrade / cut down on the draw
- Upgrade the lands
The two random Treasure cards, Jolene, the Plunder Queen, and Rain of Riches, are easy cuts. So is the Defender theme with only two defenders, Overgrown Battlement and Weathered Sentinels. But the main thing I want to upgrade are the haymakers we're cheating in: cards like Caldaia Guardian, Wave of Rats, and Bellowing Mauler are too low-impact for what we want to cheat in. We're going to upgrade our haymakers with cards like Hellkite Tyrant to smash and steal all artifacts, or Butcher of Malakir, which plays into our Sacrifice theme to wipe away opposing creatures. Pair that with even more burst draw, better reanimation, and better ramp, and we've got a powerhouse of a deck!
$50 Upgrades
Disclaimer: Card prices are volatile and 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:
Additions:
Cuts:
And here's the deck with the upgrades installed:
The upgraded version focuses on getting out scarier threats onto the battlefield faster, be it using Henzie's blitz mechanic or new inclusions like Kodama of the East Tree and Cauldron Dance. Our burst draw is far stronger too now with the inclusion of cards like Greater Good and burst ramp like Traverse the Outlands.
2 Down, 3 To Go!
I hope you liked this upgrade to Riveteers Rampage. We'll be back with the other four precons soon!
