Entropic Uprising precon upgrade guide

Yidris hands out cascade only after he connects, and the box has one card that helps him do it. The ten swaps give him haste and shroud, add cheap answers and trade four tapped lands for untapped duals.

Yidris is a 5/4 with trample, and his trigger is narrow. When he deals combat damage to a player, every spell you cast from your hand for the rest of that turn gains cascade. So the turn that matters is one where he attacks first and you still have mana for the second main phase. Whispersilk Cloak is the one card here that improves that attack, by making him unblockable. Nothing in the box gives him haste for less than another four mana, and a four-colour five-power creature is the obvious thing for a table to point removal at.

Three findings in the analysis shape the swaps. Only Parting Thoughts and Chaos Warp remove a creature for three mana or less at any table size, and Curtains' Call only gets there in a four-player pod. Twelve lands always enter tapped, and 24 of the nonland cards cost five or more. Six cards in the box do nothing for a Yidris attack. Ten swaps cost $40.73 at the cheapest released printing of each card as of October 2026 (sometimes a promo). Four of the ten are shocklands and make up $35.24 of it.

What are the best Entropic Uprising upgrades?

Ordered by what each one changes about the plan, not by price.

1. Imoti, Celebrant of Bounty ($0.33): it cascades on its own, and every spell you cast with mana value 6 or more gains cascade for as long as it is on the battlefield. Eleven spells in the upgraded list qualify, with no combat damage needed.
2. Lightning Greaves ($3.79): haste and shroud for {2} and an equip cost of {0}. Yidris can attack the turn he lands, and targeted removal can’t touch him on the way to the turn he pays out.
3. Terminate ($0.28), Infernal Grasp ($0.26) and Beast Within ($0.51): $1.05 for three instants, two of them two-mana creature kills.
4. Overgrown Tomb ($8.77), Stomping Ground ($7.00), Steam Vents ($9.57) and Watery Grave ($9.90): untapped for 2 life each, in place of four lands that always enter tapped.
5. Shardless Agent ($0.32): a three-mana cascade into one of the 16 nonland cards in the list with mana value 2 or less.

Six cards come out beside the four lands. That list is further down.

Cast the big spell second

Yidris gives cascade to spells cast from your hand, so cascaded spells don’t pass it on, and the gain lasts all turn even if he leaves the battlefield. It also only starts after the damage. A spell cast before combat gets nothing from him. At four lands that matters: cast Yidris with Lightning Greaves already out, equip it for nothing and swing for 5, and you have no mana left to cast anything with cascade. The payoff turn is the next one, when he is already on the table and your whole mana pool is free for the second main phase.

That is also why the expensive cards in the box are less dead than they look. A cascade resolves into a card that costs less than the spell that triggered it, so a seven-drop with cascade has most of the deck to hit and a two-drop has few. Imoti, Celebrant of Bounty moves the same idea earlier. Five of the eleven spells with mana value 6 or more are Grave Upheaval, Etherium-Horn Sorcerer, Spelltwine, Curtains' Call and Runehorn Hellkite. Three more are Dragon Mage, Blood Tyrant and Ghastly Conscription at seven, then Treacherous Terrain and Treasure Cruise at eight, and In Garruk's Wake at nine. Etherium-Horn Sorcerer already has cascade, so with Imoti out it triggers twice.

Shardless Agent is the cheap end of the same plan. It cascades into a card with mana value 2 or less, which in this list includes Sol Ring, both Signets, Chain of Vapor, Terminate and Infernal Grasp. A cascade into that range nearly always finds something.

Whispersilk Cloak stays, and Lightning Greaves joins it for a different job. The Cloak is the equip you pay {2} for when blockers are the problem, and Greaves is the {0} equip for the turn he lands. They don’t stack on him. Both give shroud, an equip ability targets, and a creature with shroud can’t be targeted, so the second one can’t be attached while the first is on him. Equip the first to another creature you control, and the second can go on.

Three answers for a box with two

Besides Parting Thoughts ({2}{B}) and Chaos Warp ({2}{R}), the creature answers in the box start at four: Decimate needs a legal artifact, creature, enchantment and land target all at once, Bituminous Blast is five mana for 4 damage with cascade, and Curtains' Call has mana value six, with undaunted taking {1} off for each opponent, so a four-player pod pays three for two dead creatures. Chain of Vapor costs {U} and bounces a creature, which buys a turn and not a kill.

Terminate ({B}{R}) and Infernal Grasp ({1}{B}) each destroy a creature at instant speed. Grasp costs 2 life, and Terminate asks for both black and red. Beast Within ({2}{G}) destroys any permanent and gives its controller a 3/3, so it is the answer for the artifact or enchantment in the way, not for a creature that Terminate could kill. Between them the box goes from two cheap answers to five.

Four shocklands for four tapped duals

Dismal Backwater, Jungle Hollow, Rugged Highlands and Swiftwater Cliffs all enter tapped and gain 1 life. Watery Grave, Overgrown Tomb, Stomping Ground and Steam Vents make the same two colours and enter untapped if you pay 2 life, which means no colour’s source count moves. What moves is speed. The lands that always enter tapped go from twelve to eight, and the other four become a choice. The analysis calls 39 lands high, but with 24 cards at five or more and four colours to find, I keep the count and spend on the tempo.

Thornwood Falls stays, and so does every three-colour tapped land. Crumbling Necropolis, Frontier Bivouac, Opulent Palace and Savage Lands each make three of the four colours, and no dual replaces that. Blood Crypt ($8.55) is the shockland I skipped. The only tapped land that makes only black and red is Rakdos Carnarium, and a bounce land is two mana from one land slot. Breeding Pool ($9.57) is the next land I would buy, and it would take Thornwood Falls out.

All ten shocklands are in Star Trek on 13 November 2026, so the four prices here may fall. Rupture Spire is the tapped land I would cut first after these. It makes any colour, but it enters tapped and asks for {1} to stay on the battlefield.

Six cuts, and the top end that stays

Cruel Entertainment costs seven to swap who controls two players’ next turns. Point it at yourself and an opponent and they get your turn in return. Whims of the Fates makes every player sort their permanents into three piles and sacrifice one pile at random, yours included. Boompile destroys all nonland permanents, yours included, whenever a coin flip comes up your way, and you can flip once a turn. None of the three helps a creature connect.

Frenzied Fugue borrows one permanent each turn to attack with, and Yidris’s trigger needs Yidris. It can give a fresh Yidris haste, but that is four mana for what Greaves does for two. Volcanic Vision costs seven with two red pips to return an instant or sorcery and deal damage equal to its mana value to your opponents’ creatures. Army of the Damned is thirteen tapped Zombies for {5}{B}{B}{B}, a real board, and a poor fit for a deck that has to find {B}{B}{B} in four colours.

The top end that stays is chosen by the cascade plan, and Curtains' Call stays for the discount above. Treacherous Terrain and Grave Upheaval have basic landcycling for {2}, so they are lands when the colours are short. Treasure Cruise delves down to a few mana. In Garruk's Wake is the one-sided wipe and the only card here that clears a board without touching Yidris. Average mana value across the nonland cards falls from 4.2 to 3.88, and the cards costing five or more from 24 to 21.

Notion Thief would suit the wheels, and it’s a Game Changer

The box has six cards that make everyone discard and draw: Wheel of Fate, Windfall, Whispering Madness, Reforge the Soul, Dragon Mage and Runehorn Hellkite. Notion Thief ($1.51) turns every card an opponent draws beyond the first in their draw step into a card for you. When a wheel makes an opponent draw seven, you draw seven and they only discard. It stays out because it is a Game Changer, and one is enough to lift the bracket floor from 1 to 3. The price isn’t the reason.

Maelstrom Wanderer ($0.34) gives haste to every creature you control and cascades twice. It costs eight, and this list is cutting top end, not adding to it. Waste Not, Nath of the Gilt-Leaf and Sangromancer already pay off the wheels in the box.

Where the deck lands afterwards

Removal that costs three or less at any table size goes from two cards to five. Always-tapped lands go from twelve to eight. The curve gains three cards at mana value 2, two at 3 and one at 5, and loses two each at 4 and 7 and one each at 6 and 8. Bracket 1 is the floor both before and after, and no Game Changer goes in.

The upgraded decklist

The hundred cards as they stand after the ten swaps. Hover any name for the card.

Load into the deck builder Copy decklist

“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 — no account needed.

FAQ

Does Yidris give cascade to a spell I cast before combat?

No. The trigger needs combat damage to a player, and only spells you cast from your hand after it resolves, in that same turn, gain cascade. Attack first and cast in the second main phase. A card you cast with cascade doesn't pass the ability on, because it didn't come from your hand. The gain lasts until end of turn even if Yidris leaves the battlefield.

Can I use Thrasios, Vial Smasher or Kydele as a second commander?

Not with Yidris. He doesn't have partner, so he can't share the command zone, and the box prints Thrasios, Triton Hero, Vial Smasher the Fierce and Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix as ordinary cards in the 99. All three carry partner, which only matters if you build a different deck around two of them.

How much do the ten Entropic Uprising swaps cost?

$40.73 at the cheapest released printing of each card, as of October 2026 (sometimes a promo). The four shocklands are $35.24 of that, and all ten shocklands are in Star Trek, out 13 November 2026, so those prices may fall. The other six cards cost $5.49 between them, and Lightning Greaves at $3.79 is most of that.

Is Imoti, Celebrant of Bounty worth running next to Yidris?

It does a job Yidris can't. Imoti gives cascade to every spell you cast with mana value 6 or more while it's on the battlefield, and eleven spells in the upgraded list qualify, with no combat damage needed. It's a 3/1 for five, so it's fragile, but a spell you've already cast keeps its cascade if Imoti dies in response.

Should I put Notion Thief in the Entropic Uprising deck?

It suits the six wheel effects in the box, since a wheel then draws you the cards your opponents would have drawn and they only discard. It's also a Game Changer, so one copy lifts the bracket floor from 1 to 3. That, and not the $1.51 price, is why it isn't in the list.