Merciless Rage precon upgrade guide

Nineteen cards in this box have madness, and none of the 100 is a spell that discards a card as part of its cost.

Anje Falkenrath untaps whenever you discard a card that has madness, so every madness card in hand is a free activation of her {T}, discard: draw ability. The box prints 19 of them. What it prints for discarding on demand is thin. Apart from Anje there are six cards that let you choose a card to discard on demand: Chainer, Nightmare Adept, Key to the City, Zombie Infestation, Grimoire of the Dead, Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace and Geier Reach Sanitarium. The last two make every player discard or draw and discard. Two other cards pay you for any discard, Bone Miser and Faith of the Devoted. So the deck holds a pile of madness spells and not much to throw them away with.

The mana is the second finding. Eighteen spells print {B}{B}, the cheapest at three mana, and the 25 black sources in the box give you {B}{B} by turn three 71.8% of the time on the play. Ten of the 40 lands always enter tapped, and the box has 5 ramp cards where a deck like this usually runs 8 to 12. I priced each add at its lowest-cost released printing in October 2026, promos included.

What are the best Merciless Rage upgrades?

Eleven swaps, $36.20 all told. In the order I'd buy them:

1. Tormenting Voice ($0.04) and Cathartic Reunion ($0.17). Each is a {1}{R} sorcery that takes a discard as part of its cost, one card for two drawn or two cards for three. The box has nothing like them, and the discard section argues why they come first.
2. Glint-Horn Buccaneer ($8.81). It pings every opponent for 1 each time you discard a card, with no mana to pay, where Faith of the Devoted asks for {1} each time.
3. Terminal Agony ($0.14). It destroys a creature for {2}{B}{R}, or for {B}{R} when it's discarded to madness. It takes the slot of a seven-mana removal spell, argued in the cuts.
4. Dragonskull Summit ($0.45), Sulfurous Springs ($0.42), Arcane Signet ($0.39), Rakdos Signet ($0.40) and Talisman of Indulgence ($0.50). Five cheap pieces of fixing and ramp, argued in the mana section.
5. Monument to Endurance ($15.66) and Blood Crypt ($9.22). Together they are $24.88 of the $36.20, so they are the two to buy last. The Monument is the second discard payoff I add, and Blood Crypt is the only dual in the list with the Swamp and Mountain types.

Anje only untaps for madness, so the supply of discards decides the deck

Her untap checks the discarded card for madness. A land or a creature without madness gets you the draw and nothing more. Discard a madness card to Anje's own ability and its trigger goes on the stack, you untap her before or after you decide whether to cast it, and you draw last. Four of the 19 cost one mana or nothing to cast that way: Big Game Hunter and Dark Withering for {B}, Fiery Temper for {R} and Call to the Netherworld for {0}. Eight more cost two. That's the engine, and the box feeds it with whatever happens to be in hand.

Tormenting Voice and Cathartic Reunion make the hand into a supply. Cast Tormenting Voice by discarding a madness card and you pay {1}{R}, draw two, untap Anje, and still get the option to cast what you threw away. Cathartic Reunion discards two and draws three, and it can't be cast without two other cards in hand. Terminal Agony is a sorcery, but a madness cast ignores timing rules, so Terminal Agony thrown away to Anje on an opponent's turn is a removal spell at instant speed. Anje has haste, and her ability works on any turn she's untapped.

Glint-Horn Buccaneer deals its damage on any discard, which includes cycling and a madness card thrown to Anje, and it hits each opponent. Only its own loot ability needs it to be attacking. That pairs with Anje's Ravager, which discards your whole hand when it attacks: every card in that hand is a ping. Monument to Endurance triggers on the same discards and lets you choose a different mode each time, to draw a card, make a Treasure or make each opponent lose 3 life. A mode can only be chosen once a turn, so the fourth discard in a turn does nothing. With Bone Miser and Faith of the Devoted already in the box, that makes four cards besides Anje that pay out when you discard.

I skipped one discard payoff on purpose. Necropotence ($33.97) is a Game Changer, so it would set a Bracket 3 floor on a list that has none, and it exiles each discard that reaches the graveyard. That empties the pile Beacon of Unrest, Soul of Innistrad and Chainer are there to dig through. Thrill of Possibility ($0.20) is the next loot spell I'd buy. I stopped at two because draw is already at the top of its usual range after the swaps.

Eight spells leave, and three of them cost seven

Meteor Golem, Boneyard Parley and Hedonist's Trove all cost seven. Meteor Golem destroys a nonland permanent for seven colorless mana. Boneyard Parley exiles up to five creature cards from graveyards and gives an opponent the job of splitting them into two piles, and the deck already has Beacon of Unrest for five mana and Chainer lets you recast a creature from your graveyard for a discard. Hedonist's Trove exiles only an opponent's graveyard and then lets you play lands and cast one spell a turn from it, and it prints {B}{B} at seven mana. That takes the seven-drops from six to three, and with the cheaper adds the average mana value falls from 4.19 to 3.81. Terminal Agony takes the Golem's job against creatures for {2}{B}{R}, and Chaos Warp is still there for the permanents it can't hit.

Malevolent Whispers steals a creature until end of turn, which pays off when Greven or Champion of Stray Souls can sacrifice it. Its madness cost is the same {3}{R} as its mana cost, so madness saves no mana and only changes when you can cast it. Curse of Fool's Wisdom costs six with {B}{B} and takes 2 life from one player each time that player draws, which is a drain of at least 2 a turn from a single opponent. Hate Mirage copies up to two creatures you don't control, and the tokens are exiled at the end step, so the copies give you one attack and their enter effects. Aeon Engine enters tapped for five and reverses turn order once, which does nothing for a plan built on a hand and a graveyard. Bloodthirsty Blade is an equipment that gives +2/+0 and goad, and its second ability moves it onto an opponent's creature at sorcery speed. It's a politics card in a deck whose plan is its own graveyard and hand.

Three taplands out, and black picks up three sources

Rakdos Guildgate and Cinder Barrens enter tapped, tap for {B} or {R} and do nothing else, and Akoum Refuge is a copy of Bloodfell Caves that the deck already runs. In their place go Dragonskull Summit, which enters tapped unless you control a Swamp or a Mountain, Sulfurous Springs, which taps for {B} or {R} for 1 damage or for {C} for none, and Blood Crypt, a Swamp Mountain that comes in untapped for 2 life. The box has 20 basics, so the Summit is usually untapped, and Blood Crypt counts as a Swamp and a Mountain for it. Always-tapped lands go from ten to seven.

The three rocks take the slots of spells. Arcane Signet makes {B} or {R}, Rakdos Signet turns {1} into {B}{R}, and Talisman of Indulgence makes {C}, or {B} or {R} for 1 damage. The calculator counts all three rocks as a source of both colors. Ramp goes from 5 to 8, and the black sources from 25 to 28 and the red from 22 to 25. {B}{B} by turn three goes from 71.8% to 78.5% on the play, a first red pip by turn two from 87.7% to 91.2%, and {R}{R} by turn three from 63.9% to 71.8%. Glint-Horn Buccaneer is the fourth {R}{R} spell, beside Fiery Temper, Skyfire Phoenix and Violent Eruption.

That's still short, and I'd rather say so. Fifteen spells print {B}{B} after the swaps, and getting it on turn three to 90% takes 36 black sources against the 28 the list has. Blood Crypt is reprinted in Star Trek on 13 November 2026, so its $9.22 may fall.

Why K'rrik and the cycling lands stay

K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth is a seven on paper, one of three left in the list beside Archfiend of Spite and Overseer of the Damned. Its three Phyrexian black symbols can each be paid with 2 life, so it costs {4} and 6 life. It has lifelink and grows each time you cast a black spell, and the list has 30 other black spells to cast.

Barren Moor, Forgotten Cave and Ash Barrens look like the weakest lands in the box, since two enter tapped and the third taps only for {C}, and each is also a discard outlet. Cycling is a discard, so cycling Barren Moor for {B} triggers Glint-Horn Buccaneer, Monument to Endurance and Faith of the Devoted, and a land discarded to Bone Miser makes {B}{B}. None of them untaps Anje, because none has madness. Dark Withering costs six and hits only nonblack creatures, and Big Game Hunter needs a target with power 4 or more. Cast for {B} off a discard, each is one-mana removal, which is why both stay.

The upgraded decklist

The full list is below with the swaps already made. Hover a card name to see the card.

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FAQ

Does Anje untap if I discard a land or a creature without madness?

No. Her untap checks the discarded card for madness, so a land or a creature without madness gives you the draw and nothing else. Anje's ability costs {T} and a discard, and a madness card is the only discard that gives the tap back. If you discard one to her own ability, the madness trigger goes on the stack, you untap her before or after choosing whether to cast it, and the card you draw comes last.

How much does the Merciless Rage upgrade cost?

Eleven swaps cost $36.20 at October 2026 prices for the cheapest released printing. Monument to Endurance ($15.66) and Blood Crypt ($9.22) are $24.88 of that. The other nine cards come to $11.32 together.

Can Glint-Horn Buccaneer ping opponents without attacking?

Yes. The damage is a triggered ability that fires on any discard, including a cycled card or a madness card thrown away to Anje, and it hits each opponent for 1. Only its own loot ability, {1}{R} and a discard to draw a card, needs it to be attacking. It doesn't let you discard whenever you like, so it still needs an outlet beside it.

What happens when Anje's Ravager discards a hand full of madness cards?

Each madness card goes to exile as it is discarded, and its trigger waits until the Ravager's attack trigger has finished, so you draw your three cards first. Then you choose card by card whether to cast each one for its madness cost. Anje untaps if she is tapped. With Glint-Horn Buccaneer in play, every card in that hand pings each opponent for 1, and Monument to Endurance gives you up to three of its modes. The Ravager attacks each combat if able, so you can't hold it back for a better hand.

Would Necropotence fit in Anje Falkenrath?

I left it out. It costs $33.97 and it's a Game Changer, which puts the list in Bracket 3 or higher. It also exiles every card you discard that reaches the graveyard, which empties the pile that Beacon of Unrest, Soul of Innistrad and Chainer, Nightmare Adept dig through. A madness card you cast isn't exiled, so the madness side of the deck would be fine.

Is 40 lands too many with three more mana rocks?

The box runs 40, against the 35 to 38 most Commander decks run, and I kept the count. The swaps trade three taplands for three lands that are usually untapped, so the count stays at 40, and the list has 8 ramp cards. Seven of the lands tap for colorless only, and several of them double as discard outlets or recursion, which is why they stay. If you trim, those seven are where I'd look first.