Lorehold Legacies precon upgrade guide

Osgir usually has to sit a turn before his main ability works, and the box ships six lands that enter tapped. Eleven swaps for $26.92 take that to two and put unconditional removal where the narrow removal was.

The second of Osgir's abilities costs mana, a tap and an artifact card exiled from your graveyard, and it makes two copies of that card. The tap is the catch. A creature with a tap symbol in an ability cost can't use it the turn it arrives. Thopter Engineer and Alibou both give haste to artifact creatures, and Osgir is a Giant Artificer, so neither helps. The box has three real fixes: Thousand-Year Elixir lets you activate his abilities as though he had haste, Slayers' Stronghold can hand him haste for two mana, and Battlemage's Bracers gives it to him outright.

Without one of those three out, the engine starts a turn late, and the box spends six of its 38 lands on entering tapped. It also runs 14 spells of mana value six or more out of 61, at an average mana value of 3.87 (all stock figures). The cards are fine. The tempo is what I'd fix first, then the graveyard Osgir eats from, then the removal.

What are the best Lorehold Legacies upgrades?

In buying order, if you would rather pick up a few cards than eleven. Prices are the cheapest released paper printing the day I wrote this, which can be a promo, and they will have moved.

1. Goblin Engineer, $8.70. It puts any artifact from your library into the graveyard when it enters, and the graveyard is where Osgir shops. The line is in the section on the graveyard below.
2. The four lands, $5.23 for the set: Clifftop Retreat, Sundown Pass, Inspiring Vantage and Rugged Prairie. They replace four lands that always enter tapped.
3. Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile and Generous Gift, $2.74 together. They take over from three cuts that only handled one card type or left the target on the table.
4. Wurmcoil Engine, $9.15. The most expensive card in the list, and it replaces a six-drop, so it moves the deck less than the cheap cards above it.
5. Reckless Fireweaver, $0.40, and Smuggler's Copter, $0.70. Cheap cards that turn Osgir's tokens into damage and a discard outlet.

The graveyard Osgir eats from

Osgir's cost is X, where X is the mana value of the artifact card you exile. That makes the cheap artifacts the efficient targets: one mana doubles a one-drop, and six mana doubles a six-drop. This list runs 17 artifact spells with mana value three or less after the swaps (the stock list had 19).

The box fills the graveyard by accident: artifacts that die, the ones you sacrifice to Osgir's own first ability, and whatever Faithless Looting makes you discard. Nothing in it lets you choose which artifact goes there. Goblin Engineer does. When it enters it searches for any artifact card and puts it in the graveyard, so a two-mana creature sets up the next turn's activation. If Sol Ring is still in your library, that card is Sol Ring and one mana makes two of them. If you've already drawn it, Mind Stone or Arcane Signet do the same job for two.

The other end of that line is also in the box. Ichor Wellspring draws a card when it enters and again when it goes to the graveyard from the battlefield, and Mycosynth Wellspring searches for a basic land card at both moments. Sacrifice one to Osgir for one mana, then exile it for two and you get two more of them entering, each of which pays out again.

Reckless Fireweaver deals 1 damage to each opponent whenever an artifact enters under your control. Osgir makes two tokens per activation, so every one is 2 damage to each opponent, and Myr Battlesphere alone is five artifacts entering, with the Treasures from Monologue Tax on top. Smuggler's Copter is a two-mana vehicle that loots when it attacks and blocks, and the discard can be an artifact you want in the yard.

Wurmcoil Engine is the 6-drop I swap in. Sacrifice it to Osgir and it dies, leaving two 3/3 bodies, and the card sits in the graveyard for a six-mana double later.

Seven spells that stop earning their slot

Return to Dust and Dispeller's Capsule only answer artifacts and enchantments. The list already has Angel of the Ruins for both types and Hoard-Smelter Dragon for artifacts, and Meteor Golem and Unstable Obelisk for anything else. Darksteel Mutation leaves the creature on the battlefield as an indestructible 0/1, where Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile remove it.

Duplicant goes for the same reason, since creature exile now costs one mana. Key to the City spends a card each turn to get one creature through, and its draw costs another two mana. Wake the Past is seven mana for a one-shot return of every artifact card in the graveyard. That can be a huge turn, but Osgir spreads the same graveyard across several turns, two copies of one card at a time for its mana value, and the deck has six other cards at seven or more.

The close call is Battlemage's Bracers. It gives the equipped creature haste, but Thousand-Year Elixir and Slayers' Stronghold already do that job in the box, and it copies an activated ability for one extra mana. I haven't found a ruling on how a copy of Osgir's ability treats the card it exiled, so I don't build the page on that. Equipping costs two on top of the three to cast it, behind a four-mana commander. If the Elixir and the Stronghold both stay buried in your library, this is the card to put back.

Thirteen spells in the upgraded list still cost six or more. These are the ones I'd defend. Sun Titan returns a permanent with mana value 3 or less on entering and on every attack, and that describes 17 of the list's 34 artifacts. Angel of the Ruins costs seven but has plainscycling for two, so it fixes white early, and late it exiles up to two artifacts or enchantments. Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer gives your creatures +3/+0 with three artifacts out, which is a low bar when 34 cards in the list are artifacts (three of them lands).

I would not touch Feldon of the Third Path or Pia Nalaar either. Pia makes a Thopter, which is an artifact for Osgir and a crew member for the Copter, and Feldon turns any dead creature in your graveyard into a hasty attacker for a turn.

Four lands, and why the colour counts barely move

The box has six lands that always enter tapped: Temple of Triumph, Lorehold Campus, Boros Garrison, Forgotten Cave, Myriad Landscape and Secluded Steppe. I cut four of them. Temple of Triumph pays a scry for the tempo and Lorehold Campus pays a four-mana scry. The cycling lands, Forgotten Cave and Secluded Steppe, each spend a mana to turn into a card, and the list has other ways to draw.

Boros Garrison stays because it taps for red and white together (it returns a land to your hand when it enters), and Myriad Landscape stays because it turns into two basics of the same type for two mana and a sacrifice. Both do more than a tapped land with a scry. The tapped count goes from six to two.

The three replacements that come in untapped do it under different conditions, which is why I wanted all three. Clifftop Retreat enters untapped if you control a Mountain or a Plains, and this list runs 12 Mountains and 8 Plains. Inspiring Vantage is untapped while you control two or fewer other lands, which covers the first three land drops. Sundown Pass is the reverse, untapped once you control two or more other lands. Together they cover every turn. Rugged Prairie is the fourth: it taps for colourless, or filters one red or white mana into two mana in any mix of red and white.

Don't expect the source counts to change much. Red goes from 26 sources to 27 and white from 21 to 22 (the count includes Rugged Prairie as both, which is generous), so the double-pip checks barely move (double red by turn three goes from 74.2% to 76.4%, double white from 61% to 63.9%). Only six spells want double red and only five want double white, and 23 of the 61 spells cost no coloured mana at all. This list was never short of colour in the way a three-colour deck is. It was short of untapped lands, and that is the thing the swap fixes.

Four cards I priced and left out

Sacred Foundry would be the fifth land, but its cheapest printing is a promo at $10.04 and a new printing arrives with Star Trek on 13 November 2026, so the price is likely to move. It is a Mountain Plains, which would also turn on Clifftop Retreat. Smothering Tithe is $57.07 and a Game Changer, so it isn't a cheap upgrade and it moves the bracket. Urza's Saga is $35.27, and its third chapter fetches an artifact with mana cost 0 or 1, which would be Sol Ring here. Goblin Welder is $22.40. It swaps an artifact you control for one in your graveyard, so it pairs with Goblin Engineer and it would be my first purchase if the budget stretched.

The upgraded decklist

Hover a card name to see it. The box ships 100 cards, and the list below is the box with the eleven swaps made.

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

Can Osgir use his copy ability the turn he comes down?

Not unless you have help. The ability has a tap symbol in its cost, so Osgir needs to have been under your control since the start of the turn. Thousand-Year Elixir lets you activate his abilities as though he had haste, and Slayers' Stronghold gives him haste for two mana. Thopter Engineer and Alibou only hand haste to artifact creatures, and Osgir is a Giant Artificer, so they don't count. Without the Elixir or the Stronghold, plan on the turn after you cast him.

Which artifacts should Osgir copy first?

The cheap ones, because X is the mana value of the card you exile. One mana turns a Sol Ring in the graveyard into two Sol Rings. Two mana turns a Mind Stone, an Arcane Signet or an Ichor Wellspring into two of them. A six-drop like Wurmcoil Engine costs six to double, which is a fine use of a turn but a poor use of the first one.

How do I get an artifact into the graveyard on purpose?

Four ways in this list. Goblin Engineer searches your library for any artifact and puts it there when it enters. Osgir's first ability sacrifices an artifact for one mana. Smuggler's Copter lets you discard one when it loots, and Faithless Looting does the same with its two discards. The Wellsprings are the best things to feed it, since each one draws or fetches a land when it enters and again when it goes to the graveyard.

Why does the guide keep six-drops after cutting Duplicant?

Because the ones left each do something a one-mana removal spell cannot. Sun Titan returns a permanent with mana value 3 or less on entering and on every attack, and this list has 17 artifacts at that cost or lower. Steel Hellkite flies, Hoard-Smelter Dragon destroys an artifact, and Wurmcoil Engine replaces itself with two bodies when it dies.

Is Rugged Prairie a real source of both colours?

Only once you already have one. It taps for colourless on its own, and for one red or white mana it gives you two red, one of each, or two white. The mana audit counts it as a source of both colours, so the upgraded list's 27 red and 22 white sources are a touch generous. It still earns its slot because it turns a single Plains into the double white that Sun Titan wants.

What does the whole upgrade cost?

$26.92 for eleven cards at the cheapest released printing of each. The four lands are $5.23 of that. Wurmcoil Engine and Goblin Engineer are $9.15 and $8.70, so the other five cards together are $3.84. Not one of the eleven is a Game Changer.

Does Goblin Engineer raise the bracket?

The checker still gives this list a floor of Bracket 1, with nothing on the Game Changers list and no land destruction. Goblin Engineer counts as a tutor, but the card goes to your graveyard rather than your hand. Say it out loud before the game anyway, since two Sol Rings from one mana is a faster start than the box promises.