Aura of Courage precon upgrade guide

Thirty Auras and Equipment, sixteen creatures to wear them, and two of those creatures that draw cards for playing them. Twelve swaps fix the ratio for $29.91.

Galea lets me cast Aura and Equipment spells off the top of the library, and the box is built around that: 15 Auras and 15 Equipment, 30 of the 100 cards. About 30 in every 99 library cards are therefore castable from the top. What the box doesn’t have is enough to put them on. It runs 16 creatures counting Galea, and only eight of the 15 Auras go on one of my own creatures. Two more are removal for opposing permanents (Imprisoned in the Moon and Kenrith's Transformation), four go on lands and Curse of Verbosity goes on a player. Sram and Puresteel Paladin are the only two creatures that draw cards for the pile.

The swaps take the creature count from 16 to 22, add three cards that fetch an Aura or Equipment and three that make them cheaper or pay for them, and trade three tapped lands for ones that make white. White is the short colour, and two of the 14 basics are Plains.

What are the best Aura of Courage upgrades?

The list runs best-first, so stop wherever your budget runs out. Prices are the cheapest released printing as of October 2026, promos included.

1. Danitha Capashen, Paragon ($0.37). A 2/2 for three with first strike, vigilance and lifelink, and every Aura and Equipment spell I cast costs {1} less, including the ones cast off the top. 22 of the 27 Auras and Equipment in the upgraded list have generic mana for her to trim.
2. Kemba, Kha Regent ($0.19). A 2/4 that makes a 2/2 Cat at my upkeep for each Equipment attached to her. The list runs 13 Equipment, and any Equipment Galea casts off the top can attach to her without an equip payment.
3. Sythis, Harvest's Hand ($2.34). Gain 1 life and draw a card whenever I cast an enchantment spell. All 14 Auras in the list are enchantment spells, and with Sram out an Aura draws twice.
4. Stonehewer Giant ($7.95). Pay {1}{W} and tap it to search for an Equipment, put it onto the battlefield and attach it to a creature. Argentum Armor costs six to cast and six to equip, and this puts it on for two.
5. Heliod's Pilgrim ($0.19) and Open the Armory ($2.73). The Pilgrim fetches any Aura when it enters and the Armory fetches an Aura or an Equipment for two mana. The box had no way to find a specific attachment.
6. Skyclave Apparition ($0.24) and Swords to Plowshares ($0.98). The Apparition exiles a nonland, nontoken permanent an opponent controls with mana value four or less, and Swords exiles any creature for one white mana.
7. Cultivate ($0.39). Two basic lands for three mana, and with only two Plains in the box it can be the one that finds white.
8. Temple Garden ($6.82), Hallowed Fountain ($7.41) and Sunpetal Grove ($0.30). Three white-producing lands that can come in untapped, replacing three tapped lands that make no white at all.

None of the twelve is a Game Changer, and the list sits at the box’s Bracket 1 floor. The twelve cards that come out are further down.

Twelve cards that can go

Four of the box’s seven dice cards go: Netherese Puzzle-Ward, Diviner's Portent, Valiant Endeavor and Ebony Fly. The Ward is the engine for the others, because it draws a card whenever I roll the highest natural result, and it rolls a d4 of its own at every upkeep of mine, so on its own it draws one upkeep in four. The three that stay do a job without it. Clay Golem is a 4/4 for four that can destroy a permanent once it goes monstrous, Sword of Hours puts a counter on an attacker, and Song of Inspiration returns two permanent cards at instant speed. Diviner’s Portent needs UUU in a deck where blue is the colour I took two sources from. Valiant Endeavor costs six, rolls two d6, destroys every creature with power at least the result I pick and makes that many 2/2 Knights from the other, and the deck already has two five-mana sweepers that suit it better. Ebony Fly enters tapped and makes only colourless, in a deck with a white shortage.

Colossus Hammer and Belt of Giant Strength are the equip-cost cuts. The Hammer gives +10/+10 and costs {8} to move, and the Belt sets a creature to 10/10 for {10} minus its power, so a 3-power Fleecemane Lion would cost 7. Both hit hard when they come off the top and attach without an equip payment, and with Puresteel Paladin and three artifacts out they cost nothing to move. Without that, they are a lot of mana for a late turn, and the box has one Paladin. This is the cut on the page I’d most expect an argument about.

Curse of Verbosity is the one Aura that can never be on a creature, and it hands a card to every other opponent of mine who attacks the cursed player. Ride the Avalanche is two mana that does nothing until I cast a second spell the same turn, and the counters it adds equal that spell’s mana value, which averages 2.77 across the box. Greater Good wants a creature to sacrifice and then makes me discard three, and the cheap fodder in the list is a Saproling from Verdant Embrace or Vitu-Ghazi, which draws one card for a three-card discard.

Halimar Depths, Simic Growth Chamber and Lumbering Falls all enter tapped, and none makes white. Halimar Depths lets me look at the top three cards, which does help Galea, but a land that taps for one blue isn’t worth a turn in a deck that wants white by turn 3.

The cuts take the Aura and Equipment count from 30 to 27, so Galea’s top card is castable about 27 times in 99 instead of 30. The extra finders are there to make up the gap.

Sixteen creatures for thirty attachments

The box’s own bodies are spread thin. No creature type reaches 20% (three Knights, two Elves, two Giants, two Merfolk), so nothing about the creature half of the deck is typal, and 4 of the 16 are legendary. Sram and Puresteel Paladin reward the attachments, and the one that scales with them is Catti-brie of Mithral Hall, who puts a +1/+1 counter on herself for each Equipment attached whenever she attacks and has reach and first strike to begin with.

Six more creatures change the ratio from 30 attachments to 16 creatures into 27 to 22. Danitha, Kemba and Sythis are the payoffs. The Pilgrim and Stonehewer Giant are the finders. Skyclave Apparition is the one addition that has nothing to do with attachments. It is a body that also answers a planeswalker, and the other answers to one in the list are Imprisoned in the Moon, Argentum Armor and a monstrous Clay Golem.

The sweepers sit differently in this deck. Winds of Rath destroys every creature that isn’t enchanted, and eight of the Auras go on my own creatures, so it is close to a one-sided sweeper when I have prepared for it. Equipment doesn’t protect against it. Cast Off, the adventure half of Realm-Cloaked Giant, destroys all non-Giant creatures, and three of the list’s creatures are Giants (Storvald, Stonehewer Giant and the Realm-Cloaked Giant itself).

Puresteel Paladin is the creature that cares most about the Equipment count. It draws a card whenever an Equipment enters under my control, and with metalcraft (three or more artifacts) every Equipment I control has equip {0}. The upgraded list runs 16 artifacts, 13 of them Equipment, so Sol Ring, Arcane Signet and one Equipment are enough to switch it on.

White is the colour that fails

The box has 26 white sources, and six cards want both white pips by turn 3 (Fey Steed, Mantle of the Ancients, Puresteel Paladin, Cast Off, Valiant Endeavor, Winds of Rath). The calculator gives 74.2% on that, and the deck has only two Plains to its name. Green has 31 sources and blue 28, with the basics split eight Forests, four Islands and two Plains.

After the swaps white has 29 sources and the double-pip odds are 80.4%, even though I added three more cards that ask for WW (Kemba, Skyclave Apparition and Stonehewer Giant) and took out one (Valiant Endeavor). Green stays at 31. Blue falls from 28 sources to 26, and that costs less than it sounds: only Prognostic Sphinx needs two blue, because Cold-Eyed Selkie’s cost is hybrid and can be paid in green. Diviner’s Portent, the third card asking for blue pips, is out.

Always-tapped lands go from 11 to 8, and Cultivate can fetch the Plains the box is short of. Flood Plain and Grasslands stay, and they can fetch the two shock lands I added, which are typed Plains Island and Forest Plains. Hallowed Fountain and Temple Garden cost 2 life to come in untapped, and both are reprinted in Star Trek on 13 November 2026, so those two prices may fall. I left out Glacial Fortress ($0.20), which enters untapped only once a Plains or Island is already out, and took the shock land that makes the same two colours.

The six-mana Equipment, the Saproling Aura and Mantle all stay

Argentum Armor costs six to cast and six to equip, but cast off the top it attaches itself, it gives +6/+6, and its attack trigger destroys any permanent before blockers are declared. Stonehewer Giant puts it on for two. Verdant Embrace is five mana for +3/+3 and a Saproling at the beginning of each upkeep, which goes to the creature’s controller. That is four Saprolings a round in a four-player game. Mantle of the Ancients also stays. It returns any number of Auras and Equipment from the graveyard onto the enchanted creature, so a Rancor and a Gryff's Boon come back with it.

Five I left out

Stoneforge Mystic ($29.17) searches for an Equipment, and for {1}{W} later puts one from hand onto the battlefield, though not attached to anything. The price is why it isn’t among the twelve. Sigarda's Aid ($16.34) gives Auras and Equipment flash and attaches Equipment as it enters. Sword of Feast and Famine ($36.86) gives +2/+2 and protection from black and green, and untaps my lands when it connects. Kor Outfitter ($0.19) and Mesa Enchantress ($0.53) are cheap and in print, and each asks for WW, which is exactly the problem the previous section was about. None of the five is a Game Changer.

The upgraded decklist

All 100 cards after the twelve swaps. Hover a name to see the card.

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“Load into the deck builder” opens this list in your account, pinned to the printings the box shipped, ready to edit or save. “Copy decklist” gives you plain text for Moxfield, Archidekt or Arena, with no account needed.

FAQ

Does an Equipment cast off the top of the library attach itself?

Yes. Galea gives an Equipment spell cast that way a trigger that attaches it to a target creature I control as it enters, so I skip the first equip payment. An Aura cast off the top picks its target as it is cast, like any Aura. Galea doesn’t change when I can cast them, so it is still sorcery speed unless the card has flash. A top card that is neither an Aura nor an Equipment can’t be cast, and 27 of the 100 cards in the upgraded list qualify.

Does Danitha make the Auras and Equipment I cast off the top cheaper?

Yes, because her discount applies to every Aura and Equipment spell I cast, wherever it is cast from. It takes {1} off the generic part of the cost, so Argentum Armor costs five and Gryff's Boon stays at {W}. Five of the 27 attachments have no generic mana in their cost (Gryff's Boon, Rancor, Abundant Growth, Utopia Sprawl and Wild Growth). She doesn’t reduce equip costs.

Does Winds of Rath spare my creatures?

Only the ones with an Aura attached. An Equipment doesn’t count, so a creature wearing three of them still dies. The same goes for the other side of the table: an opponent’s creature I turned into an Elk with Kenrith's Transformation is still enchanted, and it survives too.

What do the twelve swaps cost?

$29.91 at the cheapest released printing, as of October 2026. The three lands are $14.53 together (Temple Garden $6.82, Hallowed Fountain $7.41, Sunpetal Grove $0.30) and the nine spells are $15.38, of which Stonehewer Giant is $7.95. The cheapest printing can be a promo, so the copy you buy may differ from the one in the box.

Which creature should wear the first Equipment?

Kemba, if she is on the battlefield, because each Equipment attached to her is a 2/2 Cat at my next upkeep. Catti-brie of Mithral Hall comes next, since she puts a +1/+1 counter on herself for each Equipment attached when she attacks. Danitha is the safest carrier for an early Equipment, with first strike, vigilance and lifelink, but she makes no tokens and grows nothing.

Is Stoneforge Mystic worth $29 in this deck?

It searches for an Equipment, and for {1}{W} puts one from hand onto the battlefield, though it doesn’t attach it. It isn’t a Game Changer. It costs two where Stonehewer Giant costs five, and if the budget stretched it is the card I’d add first, at $29.17 against the Giant’s $7.95.