Adaptive Enchantment precon upgrade guide

Adaptive Enchantment lists four spot removal spells, and only two of them can touch a creature.

Estrid, the Masked is a planeswalker commander with 3 loyalty. Her plus two untaps each enchanted permanent you control, her minus one makes a white Aura token called Mask with umbra armor, and her minus seven mills seven cards and returns the non-Aura enchantments from your graveyard, then the Auras. The box is built around that. 32 of its 60 nonland cards are enchantments, 16 of those are Auras, and 7 are enchantment creatures.

The trouble sits around that plan. The removal count reads four, but Reclamation Sage and Dismantling Blow can only destroy an artifact or an enchantment, so Bant Charm and Soul Snare are the only creature answers outside the three sweepers. Twelve of the 39 lands enter tapped. 21 cards cost five or more. Past four Auras that make mana, the only ramp is Sol Ring and Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle, and blue has 19 sources while four cards print {U}{U} and Cold-Eyed Selkie can pay with blue or green. The box holds no Game Changer and sits at Bracket 1, and the swaps keep it there.

What are the best Adaptive Enchantment upgrades?

Here they are in the order I'd buy them. Prices are October 2026 market prices at the cheapest released printing, which can be a promo, and the twelve together come to $36.98. The cuts are argued in the cuts section and the lands in the mana section.

1. Swords to Plowshares ($0.99). One mana, instant, exile target creature, and its controller gains as much life as its power. With Generous Gift it takes the creature answers outside the sweepers from two to four.
2. Sythis, Harvest's Hand ($2.38). A two-mana enchantment creature that gains you 1 life and draws a card whenever you cast an enchantment spell. She is an enchantment herself, so her arrival sets off Eidolon of Blossoms and the other constellation cards, though not her own trigger.
3. Setessan Champion ($3.63). Three mana. Whenever an enchantment enters under your control it gets a +1/+1 counter and you draw a card. A Mask token counts, though a cast trigger like Sythis's never sees one.
4. Sterling Grove ($3.93). Other enchantments you control get shroud, and for {1} and a sacrifice it finds an enchantment and puts it on top of your library. It protects Sythis and Eidolon of Blossoms from targeted removal. The price is that you can't target your own enchantments either, which the FAQ spells out.
5. Generous Gift ($0.93). Three mana at instant speed to destroy any permanent and hand its controller a 3/3 Elephant. It answers the planeswalkers and artifacts the creature removal can't.
6. Cultivate ($0.39) and Farseek ($0.45). Cultivate puts one basic onto the battlefield tapped and another in your hand. Farseek fetches a Plains or an Island tapped, and that includes a shockland like Hallowed Fountain, Breeding Pool or Temple Garden. The deck is shortest of white and blue, so those are the lands to go and get.
7. Arcane Signet ($0.39). It taps for any colour in Estrid's identity, which is all three of the deck's colours.
8. Starfield Mystic ($0.34). A two-mana 2/2 that makes enchantment spells cost {1} less. It stacks with Herald of the Pantheon already in the box.
9. Breeding Pool ($9.46), Hallowed Fountain ($7.41) and Temple Garden ($6.68). Three shocklands for the three plain tapped duals, argued in the mana section. A Star Trek set in mid-November prints new copies of the shocklands, so these three may get cheaper.

Winds of Rath spares whatever is wearing an Aura

Winds of Rath costs five and destroys all creatures that aren't enchanted. A creature counts as enchanted if it has any Aura attached, and this deck has a lot of ways to arrange that. After the swaps seven Auras go on creatures: Bear Umbra, Eel Umbra, Snake Umbra, Sage's Reverie, Unquestioned Authority, Unflinching Courage and Vow of Flight. Celestial Archon, Boon Satyr and Kestia, the Cultivator all become Auras when bestowed, and Estrid's minus one can attach a Mask to any other permanent she can target.

That makes the Winds a one-sided sweeper in a way the box's other two aren't. Martial Coup needs X of 5 or more, so seven mana, and then destroys every other creature you control along with theirs. Phyrexian Rebirth costs six, destroys every creature, and leaves a Horror as large as the number of creatures it destroyed.

Umbra armor protects against both. It replaces a destroy effect, so the enchanted creature stays and the Aura goes instead. A creature saved that way wasn't destroyed, which means Phyrexian Rebirth doesn't count it toward the Horror. Bear Umbra, Eel Umbra, Snake Umbra and every Mask carry it. I cut Octopus Umbra, which has it too, and I'll defend that next.

Two more draw engines, and what a Mask counts as

Estrid's Mask is a token, and a token is never cast. So it sets off the cards that watch for an enchantment entering (Eidolon of Blossoms, Setessan Champion, Whitewater Naiads and Ajani's Chosen) and none of the cards that watch for a cast (Enchantress's Presence, Sythis, Tuvasa the Sunlit and Sigil of the Empty Throne). Both kinds are in the deck, so it's worth knowing which cards the minus one feeds.

The enchantment count falls from 32 to 28 after the swaps, because six enchantments leave and two arrive. Five of the six are Auras. Four cards in the box draw because of enchantments (Eidolon of Blossoms, Enchantress's Presence, Tuvasa the Sunlit and Kestia), and Sythis and Setessan Champion make it six. Starfield Mystic goes next to Herald of the Pantheon, and both take {1} off an enchantment spell, so a three-mana Aura like Snake Umbra costs {G}. Fewer enchantments feeding more engines is the trade.

Two removal spells that can reach a creature

The box is better at answering artifacts and enchantments than creatures. Reclamation Sage and Dismantling Blow handle artifacts and enchantments, Bant Charm puts a creature on the bottom of its owner's library but costs {G}{W}{U}, and Soul Snare exiles only a creature that is attacking you or a planeswalker you control. Swords to Plowshares and Generous Gift join them. Swords is one mana and gives the creature's controller life equal to its power. Gift costs three, kills any permanent, and hands over a 3/3 Elephant, so I'd point it at a threat bigger than a 3/3.

Three plain tapped duals out, and Forge of Heroes with them

Tranquil Expanse, Woodland Stream and Meandering River each enter tapped, make two colours and do nothing else. Temple Garden, Breeding Pool and Hallowed Fountain make the same pairs and enter untapped if you pay 2 life. The three shocklands make the same colours as the lands they replace, so what they buy is speed, plus one thing the source count notices: Krosan Verge can fetch a Forest and a Plains, and with Breeding Pool or Hallowed Fountain in the deck one of the lands it finds makes blue.

Forge of Heroes is the cut I expect an argument about. It taps for {C}, and in a three-colour deck short on blue and white that's a real cost. Its second ability puts a loyalty counter on a commander planeswalker that entered this turn. That gives Estrid 4 loyalty on arrival and 6 after a plus two. It doesn't get her to her minus seven any sooner, because 6 is one short of 7, but it lets her survive it at 1 loyalty instead of leaving at 0. I'd rather have the coloured source. If the ultimate is how you want to win, keep it and cut Krosan Verge.

The nine tapped lands that stay each do something. Azorius Chancery, Selesnya Sanctuary and Simic Growth Chamber return a land and tap for two mana. Blossoming Sands, Thornwood Falls and Tranquil Cove gain 1 life. Seaside Citadel makes all three colours. Mosswort Bridge hides a card from the top four that you can play for free, for {G} and a tap, once your creatures have 10 power between them, and Krosan Verge sacrifices itself for {2} to fetch a Forest and a Plains. Fertile Ground and Dawn's Reflection add mana of any colour, so they fix blue as well as speed the deck up.

Blue goes from 19 sources to 21. Arcane Signet is one and Krosan Verge is the other. The chance of having a blue source by turn two on the play goes from 83.1% to 86.3%, and two by turn three from 54.8% to 61%. White goes from 22 sources to 23, with the chance of one by turn two going from 87.7% to 89% and of two by turn three from 63.9% to 66.7%. Green goes from 25 sources to 26, and the chance of two by turn three from 71.8% to 74.2%. Cultivate and Farseek aren't counted in any of that, and they go and fetch the Islands and Plains. None of the numbers reaches 90%.

What leaves: the top end, and the Auras that cost more than they return

Spawning Grounds sits at the very top of the curve at eight mana. It's an Aura for a land that lets the land make a 5/5 trampling Beast each turn it taps. Eight mana is a lot to pay to start a clock that one land removal spell can end. Nylea's Colossus is the only seven-drop that isn't Silent Sentinel. It's a 6/6 whose constellation trigger doubles a creature's power and toughness until end of turn, which is real in a deck that casts two enchantments a turn, but Setessan Champion and Sythis turn the same enchantments into cards.

Hydra Omnivore is an 8/8 for six that deals its combat damage to each other opponent too. It has no evasion and does nothing for an enchantment count, and the box has eight six-drops. After the cuts it has five. Genesis Storm reveals cards until it finds a nonland permanent and lets you put it onto the battlefield, with the rest going to the bottom. That's six mana for one random permanent, and it can be a Vow.

Epic Proportions is a flash Aura that gives +5/+5 and trample for six. Boon Satyr bestowed at flash speed gives +4/+2 for five and leaves a creature behind if the target dies. Vow of Wildness gives +3/+3 and trample for three, and it can't make the creature attack you. Unflinching Courage is +2/+2 with trample and lifelink at the same cost, and Snake Umbra draws cards and carries umbra armor. Vow of Flight stays because it gives flying for three mana.

Righteous Authority gives +1/+1 for each card in the creature's controller's hand and an extra draw each turn. The draw is real. It's five mana and two colours for an Aura that stops working the moment its creature is removed or bounced.

Octopus Umbra is the strongest Aura I'm cutting and the only cut with umbra armor. It sets a creature's base power and toughness to 8/8 and lets it tap a creature with power 8 or less when it attacks. It costs {3}{U}{U} in the colour with the fewest sources, and blue is the colour the mana section is trying to fix. If blue is your best-supported colour once you've played the deck, put it back in for Righteous Authority's slot.

Finest Hour stays even at five mana. It does nothing until something attacks alone, which is how an Aura-carrying creature wants to attack, and then it untaps that creature and adds a second combat phase after the first. Creeping Renaissance stays too. Choose enchantment and your graveyard comes back to your hand, and flashback does it a second time for seven. That puts the enchantments back in your hand, where Estrid's minus seven puts them straight onto the battlefield. Bear Umbra untaps all your lands when its creature attacks, so mana you spent before combat comes back, and any land wearing an Aura pays out again.

Cards I looked at and passed on

Argothian Enchantress ($64.51) is the draw engine this deck was made for. It has shroud and draws a card whenever you cast an enchantment spell. It costs more than the twelve adds put together, so it's the first card to buy if money isn't the question. Rhystic Study ($65.82) is a Game Changer, and one Game Changer puts a deck at Bracket 3 or higher, so it's out for a precon that stays at Bracket 1. Mirari's Wake ($3.05) gives your creatures +1/+1 and adds an extra mana of a type each land you tap produced. It would be my next add, as a thirteenth swap.

Path to Exile ($0.84) is cheaper than Swords to Plowshares, but it hands the creature's controller a basic land and Swords hands them life, and I'd rather give a table life than mana. Mesa Enchantress ($0.53) draws on every enchantment spell for {1}{W}{W}, and I left it out because two white sources by turn three is only 66.7% even after the swaps. None of the twelve cards I added is a Game Changer.

The numbers after twelve swaps

Average mana value falls from 3.9 to 3.41, and the cards costing five or more from 21 to 14. Creature cards rise from 25 to 26 and enchantments fall from 32 to 28. Creature answers outside the sweepers double from two to four. The deck goes from 39 lands to 38, always-tapped lands from 12 to 9, and ramp by the usual count from 2 to 5, not counting the four Auras that make mana. The bracket floor stays at 1.

The upgraded decklist

Estrid and the 99 with all twelve swaps made, sorted by card type. Hovering any name shows 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 Winds of Rath destroy a creature that is wearing a Mask?

No. Winds of Rath destroys every creature that isn't enchanted, and a creature counts as enchanted if any Aura is attached to it. The Mask token that Estrid's minus ability creates is an Aura, so a creature carrying one survives, as does one carrying Bear Umbra, Snake Umbra or any of the other creature Auras in the list.

Which enchantment triggers does Estrid's Mask token set off?

Only the ones that watch for an enchantment entering. Eidolon of Blossoms, Setessan Champion, Whitewater Naiads and Ajani's Chosen all trigger when the token arrives. Enchantress's Presence, Sythis, Tuvasa the Sunlit and Sigil of the Empty Throne wait for you to cast an enchantment spell, and a token is never cast, so none of them see it.

What will the twelve Adaptive Enchantment swaps set me back?

$36.98 at the cheapest released printing of each card, priced in October 2026. The three shocklands are $23.55 of that and the other nine cards come to $13.43. A Star Trek set due in mid-November prints new copies of the shocklands, so those three may fall.

Does Sterling Grove stop me from targeting my own Auras?

It does, and that is the one cost. Other enchantments you control get shroud, so Estrid's minus ability can't put a Mask on one and your own Reclamation Sage can't destroy one. Casting an Aura on a creature is unaffected, because the creature isn't shrouded. The upside is that Sythis and Eidolon of Blossoms, which are both enchantments, can't be targeted by removal.

How many turns does Estrid need to reach her minus seven?

She enters with 3 loyalty. Plus two gives 5 on the turn she lands and 7 the turn after, so the minus seven is available on her third active turn. At 7 it takes her to 0 and she leaves. Forge of Heroes would add one loyalty counter on the turn she enters and let her survive it at 1, which is the one thing I gave up when I cut it.

Do Starfield Mystic and Herald of the Pantheon stack?

Yes. Each makes enchantment spells cost {1} less, and the two reductions apply separately, so a three-mana Aura like Snake Umbra costs {G}. Neither can reduce a coloured mana requirement, so a card that is already only coloured pips, like Sythis, doesn't get cheaper.

Why does the upgraded list still have nine lands that enter tapped?

Because each one does a job that an untapped land can't. Azorius Chancery, Selesnya Sanctuary and Simic Growth Chamber each make two mana, Seaside Citadel makes all three colours, and Blossoming Sands, Thornwood Falls and Tranquil Cove gain 1 life. Mosswort Bridge hides a card and Krosan Verge fetches a Forest and a Plains. The three plain tapped duals are the ones that went.