Swell the Host precon upgrade guide

Twenty-six of this box’s 33 other creatures hand Ezuri an experience counter on arrival, and nothing in the 99 makes the counters he gives out any bigger. Twelve swaps add the multipliers and fix the mana under them.

Ezuri gives you an experience counter whenever a creature with power two or less enters under your control. At the beginning of your combat he puts that many +1/+1 counters on another target creature. The experience counters sit on you rather than on him, so the total only climbs. Swell the Host is stocked for exactly that: 26 of its 33 other creatures have power two or less, and nine of the 33 are Snakes.

The engine is fine. The things around it aren’t. No card in the box doubles or adds to the counters Ezuri places, so each combat is worth exactly the number on your side. Five of the 41 lands (Command Beacon, High Market, Reliquary Tower, Zoetic Cavern and Novijen) tap for colourless only in a deck that wants double green and double blue, and eight more enter tapped. Double blue by turn three comes up 61.0% of the time on the calculator, double green 76.4%. Twelve nonland cards cost six or more.

The swaps go after all three: the multipliers, the mana, and the pile of six-drops.

What are the best Swell the Host upgrades?

Buying order, first to last:

1. Hardened Scales and Branching Evolution: the multipliers the box doesn’t have. $8.63 between them.
2. Hinterland Harbor, Botanical Sanctum and Breeding Pool: three Simic duals that mostly enter untapped, in place of two that always enter tapped, plus the colourless lands that come out beside them.
3. Birds of Paradise, Arcane Signet, Cultivate and Farseek: four more ways to find the colours, and Birds is a power-zero body that pays Ezuri on the way in.
4. Guardian Project and Beast Whisperer: a draw for nearly every creature that arrives, in a deck that casts 34 of them.
5. Beast Within: an instant that destroys any permanent, for the sorcery that cost twice as much.

Twelve cards leave. The list is below, and every price on this page is for whichever released printing is cheapest, as of 10 October 2026.

The twelve that leave

Four lands, argued in the mana section below: High Market, Reliquary Tower, Simic Guildgate and Thornwood Falls. Eight spells remain.

• Scytheclaw: five mana for a Germ that becomes a 1/1, plus an equip cost of three. Its Germ does pay Ezuri a counter, but so does a three-mana creature.
• Sword of Vengeance: +2/+0 and four keywords for three mana, then three more to attach it, which is six mana before it has done anything. Swiftfoot Boots already covers the protecting job.
• Verdant Confluence: six mana to choose three modes, which at its best is six counters spread over up to three creatures. Ezuri hands out counters every combat without spending a card.
• Ezuri's Predation: eight mana for a 4/4 Beast per opposing creature, each fighting one of them. The Beasts have power four, so they pay Ezuri nothing.
• Desert Twister: six mana, sorcery speed, destroy target permanent. Beast Within does the same for three at instant speed and hands its controller a 3/3. Rapid Hybridization in the box already charges that price on a creature, so the trade isn’t new to this deck.
• Mirror Match: six mana, double blue, and only legal during the declare blockers step. It needs someone to attack you first.
• Illusory Ambusher: a 4/1 flash body for five that draws when it’s damaged. Power four means no counter for Ezuri, and the draw is already covered.
• Bane of Progress: it destroys every artifact and enchantment, yours too. The box runs 13 of them, Sol Ring among them, and the new Hardened Scales, Branching Evolution, Guardian Project and Arcane Signet would join them. It’s the one card in the deck that works against the new plan.

Nothing in the box multiplies what Ezuri hands out

Take a table with six experience counters on it. Ezuri’s trigger puts six +1/+1 counters on one creature. With Hardened Scales out it puts seven. With Branching Evolution it puts twelve. With both, and Hardened Scales applied first, it puts fourteen. Applied the other way round it’s thirteen, and the rules let you pick the order when two effects change the same number. Both cards read “would be put on a creature you control”, so a trigger that places counters on a creature qualifies without any special case.

They cost $1.85 and $6.78. Nothing else on the list changes a single combat by that much. Kaseto is already in the box, and he can make the creature carrying the counters unblockable, with +2/+2 on top if it’s one of the deck’s nine Snakes.

Two draw engines go in beside them. Guardian Project draws a card whenever a nontoken creature enters, as long as it shares no name with a creature you control or a creature card in your graveyard. The deck is singleton, so nearly every creature is the first of its name. Beast Whisperer draws when you cast a creature spell, and it draws even if the spell is countered. At 2/3 it’s also a power-two body, so it pays Ezuri as well. Birds of Paradise is a 0/1 flier that taps for any colour, and its power of zero pays Ezuri on arrival.

Five lands that make no coloured mana

High Market and Reliquary Tower tap for colourless and do one thing more. Market sacrifices a creature for 1 life, which a deck trying to keep its creatures alive rarely wants. Tower lifts your maximum hand size, which the new draw engines could use, so it is the closer call. A land that adds no coloured mana is still the dearest slot to spend on that. Both go. Zoetic Cavern stays because it can be cast face down as a 2/2 for three, and a face-down 2/2 is still a power-two creature entering. Command Beacon stays because it moves Ezuri from the command zone to your hand, where he can be cast without the tax, and Novijen stays because its ability puts a counter on every creature that entered this turn.

On the tapped side, Simic Guildgate and Thornwood Falls leave. Hinterland Harbor, Botanical Sanctum and Breeding Pool take their places. The deck has 14 Forests and 11 Islands, so Hinterland Harbor is untapped whenever a basic is already out. Botanical Sanctum enters untapped only while you have no more than two other lands. It helps on turns one to three and enters tapped after. Breeding Pool costs 2 life or a tapped entry, and it’s the dearest of the three at $9.57. A Star Trek printing arrives on 13 November 2026, which could pull the price down.

Cultivate and Farseek round it out. Cultivate fetches one basic onto the battlefield and one into your hand, so it takes either colour. Farseek can only fetch an Island-typed land, which makes it the blue one, and Breeding Pool counts. Arcane Signet taps for green or blue.

The effect, from the calculator: green sources go from 27 to 30 and blue from 21 to 24. Double green by turn three rises from 76.4% to 82.2%, double blue from 61.0% to 69.4%, and a single blue pip by turn two from 86.3% to 90.1%. Those counts include Birds and Arcane Signet, but not Cultivate or Farseek, which only find lands. Always-tapped lands fall from eight to six.

Lands go from 41 to 40, still above the calculator’s 35 to 38 band. That’s deliberate. The deck has real places to put spare mana, and the FAQ below says which land to cut if you disagree.

Why Zegana and Cobra Trap stay at six

Prime Speaker Zegana enters with counters equal to the greatest power among your other creatures, then draws cards equal to her power, which is that greatest power plus her own 1. After a few combats of Ezuri stacking counters on one creature, the number is large. The value is fixed as her first ability resolves, and a creature entering at the same time doesn’t count, so she wants to come down after the big creature.

Cobra Trap is the odd one. Its cheaper cost needs an opponent to destroy one of your noncreature permanents first, so treat it as a six-mana spell. At six mana it still makes four 1/1 Snakes at instant speed, and four Snakes entering is four experience counters.

Swiftfoot Boots stays too. It is the only equipment left, equips for 1, and it’s what keeps the creature carrying everything out of reach of targeted removal.

Three cards I looked at and left out

Rhystic Study ($61.06) and Cyclonic Rift ($30.13) both fit the colours, and both are Game Changers. Either one rules out Bracket 2, so the floor becomes Bracket 3, and at those prices neither is proportionate to a deck with a $99.50 market total. Sylvan Library ($26.64, not a Game Changer) is the third. I left it because the cheapest copy is a Secret Lair and Beast Whisperer and Guardian Project already do the card-flow job. If the budget stretches, it is the next buy.

The tally after twelve swaps

Average mana value goes from 3.79 to 3.36, and the nonland cards costing six or more fall from twelve to seven. Of the 33 other creatures, 27 now have power two or less, up from 26: Birds and Beast Whisperer come in, and the only small creature to leave is Bane of Progress. Artifacts and enchantments rise from 13 to 15.

Bracket 1 is the floor in the box and stays the floor after the swaps. None of the twelve adds is a Game Changer. The twelve cost $46.93 in total.

The upgraded decklist

This is the deck after all twelve swaps. Hover a card name to see it, and the buttons below take the list to your deck builder or your clipboard.

Load into the deck builder Copy decklist Playtest the upgraded deck

“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 Ezuri give himself an experience counter, and do tokens count?

Not himself. Ezuri is a 3/3, and the trigger needs power two or less. Tokens do count, because the text says any creature you control. That makes Cobra Trap worth more here than its six-mana price suggests: it makes four 1/1 Snakes, and four Snakes entering is four experience counters from one spell.

Do Hardened Scales and Branching Evolution work on Ezuri's combat trigger?

Yes, both. Ezuri puts counters on a creature, and both cards rewrite any +1/+1 counters going onto a creature you control. When two effects change the same count you choose the order. With six experience counters the trigger is worth six alone, seven with Hardened Scales, twelve with Branching Evolution, and fourteen with both if you apply Hardened Scales first (the other order gives thirteen).

How much does the whole upgrade cost?

The twelve adds total $46.93 using whichever released printing of each is cheapest, checked on 10 October 2026. Guardian Project is the dearest at $13.04, then Breeding Pool at $9.57 and Birds of Paradise at $8.03. Breeding Pool gets a new printing when the Star Trek set releases on 13 November 2026, so that price may move. If you want to spread the spend, the cheapest changes are Hardened Scales ($1.85) and Hinterland Harbor ($0.28).

Why is the land count still 40?

Because the swaps took out four lands and put three back, and three of the remaining forty only make colourless mana. The band the calculator uses is 35 to 38, so 40 is still above it. The deck does have places to spend the spare mana: Novijen, Kaseto, Mosswort Bridge and the five-mana activation on Orochi Hatchery all ask for it. If you want a 39, Command Beacon is the land to lose first.

Can I keep Bane of Progress?

You can, but it destroys every artifact and enchantment, yours included. The stock deck runs 13 of them, Sol Ring and the three other mana rocks among them, and the swaps raise that to 15 with Hardened Scales, Branching Evolution and Guardian Project in the mix. A 2/2 that wipes your own multipliers is the one card here that works against the new plan, so it goes.

What bracket is this deck after the swaps?

Bracket 1 on the floor, same as the box. None of the twelve adds is a Game Changer. Rhystic Study and Cyclonic Rift would be the obvious blue upgrades and both are Game Changers, so either one raises the floor to Bracket 3.