Exquisite Invention precon upgrade guide

Sixteen of the 61 spells in this box cost six or more, and its commander is a planeswalker who takes one generic mana off a spell for every artifact you control. Eleven swaps feed that discount and give it some protection, and the cheapest released printings of the eleven add up to $32.94.

Every figure on this page comes from resolving the shipped Commander 2018 decklist card by card: the artifact count, the land classifications, the pip odds, the bracket floor. Figures about the deck after the swaps were recomputed on the post-swap list. Prices are October 2026 market prices for the lowest-priced released printing, so a few are promos or reprints from newer sets.

What are the best Exquisite Invention upgrades?

Ranked by how far each one moves this particular deck. The whole list totals $32.94, and the cuts that free the slots are argued further down.

1. Sai, Master Thopterist ($0.30). A 1/1 flying Thopter for every artifact spell you cast, and 36 of the 61 spells on this list are artifacts.
2. Urza, Lord High Artificer ($15.26). Its Construct token counts every artifact you control, itself included, and any untapped artifact taps for blue mana, including a Servo or Thopter that arrived this turn.
3. Tezzeret, Artifice Master ($4.99). Plus one makes a flying Thopter, and the zero ability draws two cards once you control three artifacts, which 39 of the other 99 cards in this deck are.
4. Reckless Fireweaver ($0.41). One damage to each opponent every time an artifact enters under your control, tokens included.
5. Lightning Bolt ($0.74). Three damage for one mana at instant speed, against the two mana the box's Into the Roil asks just to bounce an attacker.
6. Abrade ($0.17). Three damage to a creature, or destroy an artifact when the problem is an opponent's Sol Ring instead of their attacker.
7. Smuggler's Copter ($0.69). A two-mana artifact that loots every time it attacks, crewed by any Servo or Thopter, and the easiest way to bin a six-drop you can't cast yet.
8. Sulfur Falls ($0.20). An untapped dual for any hand that has already played a basic.
9. Shivan Reef ($0.19). The untapped dual that costs a point of life per coloured tap, which suits a deck that rarely taps lands for anything else.
10. Steam Vents ($9.60). Untapped for two life, and an Island and a Mountain at once, so it also keeps Sulfur Falls untapped.
11. Arcane Signet ($0.39). A two-mana rock for either of the deck's colours, and another cheap artifact for the discount to count.

The discount is the engine, and the engine has four loyalty

Saheeli, the Gifted costs four and enters with four loyalty. Her second plus-one gives the next spell you cast that turn affinity for artifacts, which takes one generic mana off for each artifact you control. It never touches coloured pips, and the cost is locked in before you pay it, so tapping or sacrificing artifacts for mana afterwards doesn't undo the discount. Sixteen of the box's 61 spells cost six or more, and 13 of those 16 are artifacts themselves. With six artifacts out, Myr Battlesphere costs one mana instead of seven.

That makes her the whole mana engine, and the box gives her very little protection. The answers it ships for an attacker are Chaos Warp at three, Into the Roil at two, Duplicant at six and Magmaquake for X, and Magmaquake hits each planeswalker, including hers. Her first plus-one makes a Servo each turn to chump with.

So the removal gets cheaper before anything else does. Lightning Bolt and Abrade cost one and two, and Sai and Tezzeret each hand her a stream of Thopters to block with.

Tapped duals out, untapped duals in, red still short

The box runs 38 lands, 15 Islands, 12 Mountains and 11 others, and four of those enter tapped. After the swaps one does. Steam Vents is untapped for two life, Sulfur Falls is untapped whenever you control an Island or a Mountain (and with 27 basics that's nearly always), and Shivan Reef is untapped for a point of damage whenever you tap it for colour.

The swap trades like for like, so it doesn't add sources. Red stays at 23 and blue at 26 from lands and rocks. Counting Urza as a 27th blue source is generous, because that source exists only once he's on the battlefield.

Red is the colour that's short. One red pip by turn two wants 24 sources and has 23, which is 89%. Double red by turn three, the check the box's Hellkite Igniter, Magmaquake and Saheeli's Directive run into, wants 36 and has 23, a 66.7% chance. Hellkite Igniter costs seven and the other two scale with X, so turn three is the harshest way to ask the question. Saheeli's Directive needs three red pips on top of X, and improvise can only pay for generic mana, so the tapped artifacts don't help with the pips.

Blue has nine spells with a double pip, and getting both pips by turn four would take 33 sources. With 27, counting Urza, the chance is 81.8%. That's why Counterspell, at UU, isn't on the list.

Eleven cards that don't feed the discount

Start with the two that need something your opponents may not have. Enchanter's Bane asks for an enchantment to aim at, and the only other enchantment in this deck is Thopter Spy Network. Treasure Nabber triggers when an opponent taps an artifact for mana, and a rule worth knowing is that tapping an artifact to pay for improvise doesn't count. A pod without Sol Rings or Signets turns it into a three-mana vanilla body.

Echo Storm is the closest call on the list. It copies itself once for every time you've cast Saheeli from the command zone, so after a first cast it makes two copies of one artifact for five mana. Saheeli's Artistry does the same job at six, adds the option of copying a creature, and stays. Aether Gale is five mana that needs six legal targets and returns them to hand, which is a reset button in a deck that mostly wants to keep building.

Coveted Jewel draws three on arrival and taps for three mana of one colour. It also hands the Jewel and three cards to any opponent whose creature attacks you without being blocked. Attacks aimed at a planeswalker don't count, so the card stays safe only while every attacker is blocked or pointed at Saheeli. Unwinding Clock untaps your artifacts during each other player's untap step, which pays off only if you hold mana for other people's turns, and this deck spends its mana on its own. Scrabbling Claws is a one-mana artifact whose real job is graveyard hate, and Smuggler's Copter takes its place as the cheap artifact. Swiftfoot Boots protects one creature in a deck whose commander is a planeswalker, which the Boots can't equip.

The last three cuts are lands. Highland Lake, Izzet Guildgate and Swiftwater Cliffs always enter tapped, and the three duals that replace them almost never do. Izzet Boilerworks stays, because a bounce land is two mana from one land drop.

Why the six-drops and the Act stay

On cost alone, Myr Battlesphere, Duplicant, Brudiclad, Saheeli's Artistry, Blinkmoth Urn and Mirrorworks look like cuts. Affinity applies to any spell, so the sorcery in that list gets the same discount as the five artifacts, and I'd keep all six. Myr Battlesphere is four more artifacts for the discount and five pings from Reckless Fireweaver. Duplicant can exile a nontoken creature when it arrives. Brudiclad gives your creature tokens haste, makes a 2/1 Myr at the start of every combat of yours, and lets you pick one token and turn the rest into copies of it.

Blinkmoth Urn is symmetrical, so an opponent with a few artifacts gets mana too, but it adds colourless mana for every artifact each player controls, and this list has 39. Mirrorworks lets you pay two to copy a nontoken artifact as it enters, which is the cheapest way in the deck to double a Battlesphere.

Blasphemous Act deals 13 damage to each creature, ours included, and keeps its slot because the deck owns two answers to its own damage. Darksteel Juggernaut is indestructible, and Soul of New Phyrexia gives every permanent you control indestructible for five mana. Magmaquake is an instant, so cast it with X below Saheeli's loyalty, or while she's still in the command zone.

The expensive things I left on the shelf

Cyclonic Rift is $29.26 and a Game Changer, so adding it lifts this list from a Bracket 1 floor to a Bracket 3 one. At a table that wants Bracket 3 it's a good add. At a precon table it's the one card on this page that changes who you can play with, and the money buys most of this list.

Counterspell is $2.26 and answers a removal spell aimed at Saheeli, but it asks for UU and this deck is already short there. Spirebluff Canal is $4.49 and comes in untapped only in the first three turns of a normal game, so after that it's a tapland that costs more than twenty times what Sulfur Falls does.

The curve, the artifacts and the bracket, recounted

Average mana value falls from 4.16 to 4.05. Cards costing three or less go from 29 to 31 of the 61 nonland spells, five-drops from 10 to 9, and six or more from 16 to 15. The creature count rises from 27 to 29, and legends from 4 to 6. The land count holds at 38, the top of the typical 35 to 38 band, and the always-tapped count falls from 4 to 1.

Artifacts dip. Four leave and two arrive, so the deck goes from 41 artifacts to 39 once the artifact lands are counted. What rises is the number of cards that can make artifact creature tokens: 12 in the box and 15 after Sai, Urza and Tezzeret, some of them conditionally. Smuggler's Copter and Arcane Signet carry the artifact count, and the tokens do the rest.

The bracket floor is still 1. The box carries no Game Changer and neither do the eleven adds, so nothing here argues for a higher number than the one the box earns.

The upgraded decklist

The full 100 after the eleven swaps. Hover any name to see 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

How cheap can Saheeli's affinity make Inkwell Leviathan?

Inkwell Leviathan costs {7}{U}{U}, and affinity for artifacts only trims the generic part. With six artifacts on the battlefield it costs {1}{U}{U}, and with seven or more it costs {U}{U}. The three artifact lands count, and so does every Servo, Thopter and Myr token. It only works on the turn you use her second plus-one ability, and it applies to the next spell you cast that turn, so cast the big one first.

What does upgrading Exquisite Invention cost?

The eleven adds total $32.94 at the cheapest released printing, priced in October 2026. Urza, Lord High Artificer is the dearest at $15.26 and Steam Vents is next at $9.60. Without the Vents the list is $23.34, and you'd leave one of the three tapped duals in its slot.

Does Magmaquake kill my own Saheeli?

It can. Magmaquake deals X damage to every creature without flying and to every planeswalker, and that includes yours. She starts at four loyalty and reaches five after a plus-one, so an X of three leaves her standing while it still clears Servos and anything on the ground. Your Thopters fly, so they survive at any X.

Is Cyclonic Rift worth adding to this deck?

Not in the box's bracket. Cyclonic Rift is a Game Changer and costs $29.26, and one Game Changer is enough to lift this list from a Bracket 1 floor to a Bracket 3 floor. It's a fine card for a table already playing at Bracket 3. At a precon table the same money buys most of this guide's list.

I can only buy a few of the swaps. Which ones first?

Lightning Bolt, Abrade, Sai, Master Thopterist and Reckless Fireweaver together cost $1.62. Two of them are removal for the attackers that threaten a four-loyalty commander, and the other two turn every artifact you play into a Thopter or a point of damage. The lands come next, then Tezzeret, Artifice Master, and Urza last because he's the expensive one.