Invent Superiority precon upgrade guide

The box holds 34 nonland artifacts and one way to spend one on damage, and that is the commander’s own ability.

Breya, Etherium Shaper makes two Thopters when it enters. After that, two mana and any two artifacts buy 3 damage to a player, −4/−4 on a creature, or 5 life. Thirty-four of the 63 nonland cards in this box are artifacts, so fodder is the one thing the deck never runs short of. What it runs short of is a reason to sacrifice.

Look at what the rest of the box does with artifacts. Eight cards count them: Master of Etherium, Cranial Plating, Hellkite Igniter, Akiri, Line-Slinger, Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer, Filigree Angel, Blinkmoth Urn and Hellkite Tyrant. Eleven bring one back from a graveyard or let you cast it from there. Two react when an artifact enters or leaves, the two Wellsprings, and they pay in a card and a land. Nothing in the box hurts an opponent when an artifact enters or dies. The recursion is all here, and the thing worth recurring for is not.

Four cheap cards fix that: Disciple of the Vault, Reckless Fireweaver, Sai and Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast. The other half is mana. Breya wants all four colours, ten lands always enter tapped, and black and red, which the new cards lean on hardest, are the thinnest. The whole list costs $45.46.

What are the best Invent Superiority upgrades?

Buy the first two lines before anything else, because they decide whether the rest has a point. Every price below is the lowest one for any released printing in October 2026, and a few are promos.

1. Disciple of the Vault ($1.17) and Reckless Fireweaver ($0.40). One costs an opponent a life whenever any artifact goes to a graveyard, the other hits every opponent whenever one of yours enters. Together they put a price on both ends of every artifact the deck already plays.
2. Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast ($4.94). A defender Construct token every turn, and a way to sacrifice an artifact to destroy another artifact or a creature, which is a use for fodder that doesn’t spend Breya’s activation.
3. Sai, Master Thopterist ($0.34). A flying Thopter for every artifact spell you cast, and a second sacrifice outlet (two mana, one of them blue, and two artifacts to draw a card) that doesn’t spend Breya’s activation.
4. Arcane Signet ($0.40), Talisman of Indulgence ($0.51) and Chromatic Lantern ($0.45). Three rocks that make black and red, which is where the deck is short.
5. Blood Crypt ($8.55), Godless Shrine ($8.49), Watery Grave ($9.90) and Sacred Foundry ($10.31). Four duals that enter untapped for 2 life, and $37.25 of the $45.46.

Eleven cards come out to make room. That list is further down.

Every artifact costs the table something

Start with the part the box already gives you for free. Breya enters and two Thopter tokens appear. With Reckless Fireweaver in play that is 2 damage to each opponent. Each of the deck’s 33 artifact spells is another 1 when it resolves, and with Sai out the same cast makes a Thopter first, so it’s 2. Both creatures cost two or three mana, and neither asks for a sacrifice.

The sacrifice side is where Breya turns into an engine. Breya’s activation is 3 damage, and with Disciple of the Vault out it is also two life lost, one per artifact paid, which can go to one opponent or two. Thopter Foundry is the cheaper loop. It costs one mana and a nontoken artifact and makes a Thopter, so sacrificing an Ichor Wellspring to it draws a card, gains a life, pings each opponent for the Thopter arriving and costs one opponent a life through Disciple. All of that is the one mana the Foundry asks.

Disciple counts any artifact, not only yours. Scryfall’s rulings for Marionette Master, which has the same trigger wording, say a sacrificed or destroyed token reaches the graveyard before it ceases to exist, so Thopters, Constructs and Myr all count. And Nevinyrral's Disk, already in the box, destroys every artifact at once and triggers Disciple for each of them, itself included.

The big spells change too. Myr Battlesphere brings four Myr and arrives as an artifact itself, so with Fireweaver out it is 5 damage to each opponent before it attacks. Open the Vaults returns every artifact in every graveyard, and each of yours that comes back is 1 more damage to each opponent. Those two cards were closers in the box. With Fireweaver they are the plays a graveyard full of artifacts was waiting for.

Black and red are the thin colours

The box plays 37 lands, which fits a 3.52 average mana value, and 10 of them always enter tapped: four bounce lands, four tri-lands, Rupture Spire and Transguild Promenade. That count doesn’t move, because every land that leaves enters untapped (the shocklands come in tapped if you decline the 2 life). The case here is colours, and speed doesn’t come into it.

The mana check gives 16 sources each of black and red, so the chance of holding a source of either by turn two on the play is 77%. Those totals include Exotic Orchard and Fellwar Stone, which make only what opposing lands make, and Vedalken Engineer, whose mana only pays for artifacts. Without them the reliable count is 13 for each colour. Disciple of the Vault, the cheapest card in the plan, needs black on turn one.

After the swaps the same check reads 21 black sources (86.3% by turn two) and 20 red (84.8%), or 19 and 18 without the three conditional ones. Counting lands alone, black goes from 12 to 15 and red from 12 to 14, white from 13 to 14, and blue stays at 14. Blood Crypt makes both short colours, Talisman of Indulgence makes either and takes a point of damage each time it taps for one, and Chromatic Lantern is more than the one source it’s counted as, because it lets every land you control tap for any colour. Four shocklands can cost 8 life if you pay for all of them. Breya’s life mode and Thopter Foundry give some of it back.

Rupture Spire and Transguild Promenade stay. They and Command Tower are the only lands that make all four colours without depending on an opponent, and a land that costs a mana is still better than a land that doesn’t make the colour.

Eleven cards leave. Cranial Plating, Skullclamp and Whipflare stay.

Curse of Vengeance is the cleanest cut. It puts a counter on an Aura each time the enchanted player casts a spell, and it pays only when that player loses the game, which means arranging for that player to lose. Disciple of the Vault takes the same one-mana slot and starts costing an opponent life the first time any artifact dies.

Three cards go for three different reasons, and three rocks replace them. Fellwar Stone makes only the colours opposing lands can make, which is the table’s decision and not yours. Arcane Signet reads Breya and always makes any of the four. Blinkmoth Urn adds colourless mana at the start of each player’s first main phase, one for each artifact that player controls, so every opponent is paid too, for a five-mana rock. Filigree Angel is the box’s only eight-drop, a 4/4 flier that gains 3 life per artifact, and Breya already gains 5 life for two mana and two artifacts.

Coastal Breach has undaunted, so it costs four in a four-player pod, but it returns every nonland permanent to its owner’s hand, which includes every nonland artifact you control and every Thopter and Myr token, and tokens don’t come back. It resets the board this deck spends its early turns building.

Godo, Bandit Warlord is six mana for a tutor that finds one of five Equipment, and only Skullclamp and Cranial Plating matter. Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder is the close call. A 3/3 for four that hands double strike and lifelink to a creature each time it enters or attacks is real, and it asks for both red and white. I cut him because double strike matters on a creature with power, and in this deck that means Cranial Plating or Jor Kadeen has to show up first. Reckless Fireweaver costs two and works alone. If you own the card, it is the first to put back.

Four lands go. Darksteel Citadel and Temple of the False God make only colourless mana in a deck short of colours, and the Temple needs five lands before it does that. A Plains and an Island go for Godless Shrine and Watery Grave, which keep white and blue and add black. Blood Crypt takes the Citadel’s place and Sacred Foundry the Temple’s.

The curve that comes out averages 3.24 mana value against the box’s 3.52, with two cards at seven or more where there were four.

Cranial Plating reads as a one-creature buff in a deck of 31 creatures. It counts itself and every other artifact, so a Thopter carrying it, with ten artifacts in play counting the Thopter and the Plating, attacks as an 11/1 flier, and for two black mana the Plating moves to another creature at instant speed. Equip costs one. It turns a 1/1 Thopter into a real threat for one mana, and it wants black, which the swaps provide. Skullclamp goes on a Thopter and kills it on the spot, which draws two cards for the one mana of equip and gives Disciple a trigger.

Whipflare kills every nonartifact creature with toughness 2 or less, and after the swaps that is 7 of the 15 in this deck. I kept it because those seven are 1/1s, 1/2s and 2/2s, every artifact creature walks away, and it hits opposing creatures that aren’t artifacts for two mana. One of the seven is Disciple of the Vault, so cast the sweep first.

What I priced out, and what I passed on

The card I most want to recommend is Mox Opal at $229.58. Its metalcraft turns on at three artifacts and this deck has 34, so it would work from the early turns. It isn’t a Game Changer, so the reason it’s missing is price and nothing else. Mana Vault ($91.72), Grim Monolith ($478.02) and Ancient Tomb ($119.25) are all Game Changers as well as expensive, and any one of them moves the deck to Bracket 3.

Two cheap cards I skipped on merit. Marionette Master ($1.75) drains for its own power each time one of your artifacts dies, which is more than Disciple’s one, at six mana with two black pips. Whirler Rogue ($0.07) makes two Thopters and can make a creature unblockable, but it needs UU at four mana. It is the first card I’d add if you swap further. Neither is a Game Changer.

The upgraded decklist

Hover any card name to see it. Prices on this page are the lowest for any released printing, taken in October 2026.

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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

What does the Invent Superiority upgrade cost?

Eleven swaps come to $45.46 at the cheapest released printing, October 2026. Four shocklands are $37.25 of that. The other seven cost $8.21 together: Disciple of the Vault, Reckless Fireweaver, Sai, Master Thopterist, Arcane Signet, Talisman of Indulgence, Chromatic Lantern and Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast. The engine is cheap and the mana is where the money goes. The shocklands are reprinted in Star Trek on November 13, 2026, so that $37.25 may fall.

Is there enough artifact fodder for Breya’s ability?

Plenty. It costs two mana and two artifacts, and Breya can be one of the two. The box has 34 nonland artifacts including her, and the count is still 34 after the swaps, because three mana rocks replace Fellwar Stone, Blinkmoth Urn and Filigree Angel. What the stock deck lacks is anything that rewards the sacrifice, which is the job of Disciple of the Vault, Reckless Fireweaver and Thopter Foundry.

Does Disciple of the Vault trigger on Thopter tokens?

Yes. An artifact token that is sacrificed or destroyed is put into its owner’s graveyard before it ceases to exist, and Disciple triggers on any artifact going to a graveyard from the battlefield. Its text says an artifact, not an artifact you control, so an opponent’s Treasure or Clue going to the graveyard triggers it too. Each trigger can target a different opponent.

Will Whipflare kill my own creatures?

Some of them. It deals 2 damage to each nonartifact creature, so every Thopter and every artifact creature walks away. After the swaps 7 of the 15 nonartifact creatures die to it: Vedalken Engineer, Slobad, Trinket Mage, Hanna, Sydri, Faerie Artisans and Disciple of the Vault. Reckless Fireweaver (1/3) and Sai (1/4) survive, and so do Chief Engineer, Akiri, Magus of the Will, Jor Kadeen and both Hellkites. It stays because it also hits opposing creatures that are not artifacts.

Which bracket is Invent Superiority after these swaps?

Bracket 1 on the floor, before and after. Nothing in the box is a Game Changer and nothing I add is either. The cards that would move it are the ones I priced out: Mana Vault and Grim Monolith are both on the Game Changers list, and either one puts the floor at Bracket 3.

Why cut Darksteel Citadel from a deck of artifacts?

Because it taps for colourless in a four-colour deck whose black and red are the thinnest. It is an artifact, so Master of Etherium counts it, and it is indestructible, so it survives Nevinyrral’s Disk. Both are real and both are small. Blood Crypt in its slot gives the deck black and red, and black is what Disciple of the Vault needs on turn one.

Do I need all four shocklands?

Black gains most. The four lift black lands from 12 to 15 and red lands from 12 to 14. If $37.25 is too much, Blood Crypt is the one to buy first, because it makes both of the colours the stock deck is shortest on.