Open Hostility precon upgrade guide

Saskia doubles every hit that lands, and the box gives her seven creatures that can slip past a blocker. Nine swaps add an equipment that makes one creature unblockable and a spell that gives the team flying and double strike, for $50.92.

Saskia the Unyielding does nothing until a creature deals combat damage to a player. Then that creature deals the same amount again to the player she chose when she entered. The 99 around her put creatures on the table quickly, with 22 nonland cards at mana value 2, and are thin at making them connect. Seven of the 29 creature cards can get damage past a blocker on their own: Managorger Hydra, Wilderness Elemental, Tana, Ravos, Den Protector, Thunderfoot Baloth and Stonehoof Chieftain. The last two cost six and eight, and the other 22 rely on the table choosing not to block.

Two more findings shaped the swaps. Black is the thinnest colour, with 16 sources for 15 black spells, which gives a 77% chance of a black source by turn two on the play. And two enchantments, Evolutionary Escalation and Everlasting Torment, work against the rest of the deck. Each price on this page is for the lowest-priced released printing of that card in October 2026, which can be a promo. The nine swaps add up to $50.92, and three shocklands are $25.81 of it.

What are the best Open Hostility upgrades?

Ordered by how much each one raises the odds that Saskia's trigger happens at all, not by price.

1. Whispersilk Cloak ($2.18): equipped creature can't be blocked and has shroud, for an equip cost of {2}. A creature that can't be blocked connects every turn unless something removes it first, and that is a Saskia trigger every turn.
2. Akroma's Will ($16.19): with Saskia on the battlefield you get both modes, which is flying, vigilance and double strike plus lifelink, indestructible and protection from each colour. Double strike makes each unblocked creature deal damage twice, and Saskia answers each time.
3. Fervent Charge ($0.42) and Rhythm of the Wild ($4.41): +2/+2 for every creature that attacks, and a +1/+1 counter or haste, your choice, on every nontoken creature as it arrives.
4. Blood Crypt ($8.55), Overgrown Tomb ($8.77), Godless Shrine ($8.49) and Arcane Signet ($0.40): black goes from 16 sources to 20, and white from 17 to 19.
5. Return of the Wildspeaker ($1.51): for {4}{G} either draw cards equal to your largest non-Human creature's power, or give the non-Humans +3/+3 until end of turn.

Nine cards come out to make room, and they are further down.

Naming the player who takes it twice

Saskia's trigger fires when a creature you control deals combat damage to any player. The chosen player takes the same amount again. A hit on the chosen player therefore lands twice, and a hit on anyone else sends the same damage to the chosen player on top. Name the opponent you expect to attack most often, because their life total is the one that moves at double speed.

The extra damage isn't combat damage, which matters in three places in this list. It doesn't count as commander damage. It doesn't make Saprolings for Tana, whose trigger reads combat damage. And it doesn't add to Tymna's count of opponents dealt combat damage. It does count for Spinerock Knoll, which only asks whether an opponent was dealt seven damage this turn. One 4-power creature connecting with the chosen player is eight, already past that line.

Seven creatures can slip a blocker, and the other 22 need help

Managorger Hydra, Wilderness Elemental, Tana and Thunderfoot Baloth have trample. Stonehoof Chieftain has it too and hands it to every other attacker. Ravos flies, and Den Protector can't be blocked by a creature with less power than it has. That is the whole list, and Stonehoof costs eight.

The box does carry tools against blockers, but each is narrow. Iroas, God of Victory gives your creatures menace, which two blockers beat. Chaos stops all blocking for one turn. Naya Charm taps one player's creatures. The Hordechief can force blocks for five mana, and Blind Obedience only slows creatures that arrive after it does. Whispersilk Cloak is the only one that stops blocks outright every turn, on whichever creature has the most power. Sunforger makes that choice matter, because +4 power on a creature that connects with the chosen player is eight extra damage.

Akroma's Will is the team-wide version, and the only card in the swap list that gives every creature evasion at once. A creature with 3 power that connects with the chosen player while double strike is on deals 3 and 3 in the two damage steps, and Saskia sends another 3 each time, for 12 in total. Choosing both modes needs a commander you control as you cast it, so without Saskia out it is one mode.

Black has 16 sources for 15 spells

White is next at 17 sources for 18 spells, which is 79.2% for one white source by turn two. Red's 21 sources cover 25 spells at 86.3%, and green's 22 cover 32 at 87.7%. The two colours with the most sources are the two that Gruul Signet and Gruul Turf make, which is why those go. Neither adds black or white.

Blood Crypt (black and red), Overgrown Tomb (black and green) and Godless Shrine (white and black) each enter untapped for 2 life. Together with Arcane Signet, which makes any colour in Saskia's identity, they take black to 20 sources and 84.8%, and white to 19 and 83.1%. Green stays at 22 because Overgrown Tomb and Arcane Signet replace Gruul Turf and Gruul Signet. Ash Barrens is the other land out. It makes colourless mana in a deck short of two colours, and it was the land I'd miss least.

Lands that always enter tapped go from ten to nine. The other nine each make three or more colours, make two with a bounce, or carry a hideaway trigger that this deck meets by design: three attackers for Windbrisk Heights, seven damage to an opponent for Spinerock Knoll, and creatures with 10 power between them for Mosswort Bridge. Star Trek reprints all ten shocklands on 13 November 2026, which could cheapen the three bought here.

Nine cards out

Evolutionary Escalation puts three +1/+1 counters on one of your creatures and three on an opponent's creature at every one of your upkeeps. The deck's job is getting past their creatures. Everlasting Torment stops all life gain, stops all damage prevention and makes every source deal damage as if it had wither. Five cards in the 99 depend on exactly what it turns off: Iroas prevents damage to your attackers, Tymna has lifelink, Brutal Hordechief gains 1 life per attacker, Blind Obedience has extort, and Shamanic Revelation gains 4 life per creature with power 4 or more. It also beats a fog effect, which is the only thing it does for Saskia.

Stalking Vengeance is a 5/5 haste for seven mana, with {R}{R} in it, that deals a dead creature's power to a player whenever another creature of yours dies. Divergent Transformations has undaunted, so it costs four at a three-opponent table and six one-on-one. It exiles two creatures and puts a random creature from the exiled creature's controller's library onto the battlefield for each one, so it swaps blockers where it should remove them. Sylvan Reclamation is five mana for up to two artifacts or enchantments, and Artifact Mutation, Aura Mutation and Utter End already cover that job at lower cost. Its landcycling matters less with a 37th land coming in.

Breath of Fury is the closest call. For {2}{R}{R} it sacrifices a creature that has just connected to untap the team and add a combat, which is a real engine next to Skullclamp and the Saproling makers. It goes because it needs two red sources in four colours and works only after a creature has already got through, and that is the thing this page is trying to make likelier.

The top end that stays

Order // Chaos shows as mana value 7, which is the two halves added together. You pay {2}{R} for Chaos, so creatures can't block this turn and every attacker goes unblocked. Primeval Protector costs {1} less for each creature your opponents control, and three opponents with three creatures each bring it down to {1}{G}. Grave Upheaval and Treacherous Terrain each landcycle for {2}, so the card is never dead when you need a land instead.

The equipment looks like single-creature attachments in a go-wide deck, but here the wearer is the creature that connects, and its power is doubled by Saskia. Skullclamp, Lightning Greaves, Conqueror's Flail and Sunforger all stay. Frenzied Fugue stays too, because a creature it steals is a creature you control and so triggers Saskia.

Two cards I left out

Craterhoof Behemoth ($23.08) gives the team trample and +X/+X, where X is the number of creatures you control. It costs eight, and Stonehoof Chieftain and Treacherous Terrain are already the deck's eight-drops. Sylvan Library ($26.64, cheapest printing a Secret Lair) lets you draw two extra cards a turn and pay 4 life for each one you keep, and Return of the Wildspeaker covers the draw problem for $1.51. Neither is a Game Changer. Craterhoof is out for curve and price, and Sylvan Library for price alone. Craterhoof is the one I'd buy next.

What the nine swaps move

Black sources go from 16 to 20 and white from 17 to 19. Average mana value falls from 3.46 to 3.37, and the cards at mana value 7 from three to one. Creatures drop from 30 to 29 when Stalking Vengeance leaves, and lands rise from 36 to 37, the top of the usual 35 to 38. If 37 feels like too many, trim a tapped land before anything else. Bracket 1 is the floor before and after, with no Game Changer in or out.

The upgraded decklist

The hundred cards after the nine swaps. Hover any name to see the card.

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

What happens to Saskia's chosen player if they leave the game?

Her ability stops doing anything for the rest of that game, and your creatures go back to dealing damage only once. If Saskia leaves the battlefield and comes back, you choose a player again, and she doesn't remember the first one. Naming an opponent who is about to be knocked out by someone else is the one choice that wastes her.

Does Saskia's extra damage count as commander damage?

No. The damage her ability causes is dealt by the creature but it isn't combat damage, and only combat damage from a commander counts toward the 21. Saskia's own hits on a player do count as ordinary commander damage. The extra damage also won't pay out Tana, the Bloodsower, who makes Saprolings equal to the combat damage she deals.

What does it cost to upgrade Open Hostility?

$50.92 for the nine added cards, each at its cheapest released printing in October 2026, which can be a promo. Akroma's Will is $16.19 and the three shocklands are $25.81, so the other five cards come to $8.92. Blood Crypt, Godless Shrine and Overgrown Tomb get reprinted in the Star Trek set, so expect them to cheapen after it releases.

Can Whispersilk Cloak and Lightning Greaves go on the same creature?

No. Both give shroud, and equipping is an ability that targets, so a creature that already has shroud can't be equipped again. Put Whispersilk Cloak on the creature with the most power and keep Lightning Greaves moving to whatever you cast next, since its equip cost is {0}. The other direction fails the same way.

Is Evolutionary Escalation worth keeping in Open Hostility?

Not in this list. Every upkeep it puts three +1/+1 counters on a creature an opponent controls as well as one of yours, and this deck is trying to get its creatures past theirs. It's a fair card where you want one opponent's board to grow, which is a different job from forcing damage through all three.

Should I put Craterhoof Behemoth in the Open Hostility deck?

It would work, since every creature you control gets trample and +X/+X, and Saskia then repeats each hit onto the chosen player. It costs eight, though, and Stonehoof Chieftain and Treacherous Terrain are already the deck's eight-drops. At $23.08 it's the card I'd add after Akroma's Will, not before it.