Built From Scratch precon upgrade guide

The box holds 36 artifact cards and nothing that pays you when one arrives, so the swaps add the payoffs and the graveyard engine around Daretti.

Daretti, Scrap Savant sacrifices an artifact and returns another from the graveyard, and the rest of the box treats artifacts as furniture. 36 of the 99 other cards are artifacts, 22 of them not creatures, and none of them is rewarded for another artifact arriving. Every trigger in the deck reads its own card. Six cards return an artifact card from the graveyard: Goblin Welder, Myr Retriever, Junk Diver, Buried Ruin, Trading Post and Scrap Mastery. Not one of them goes and gets a card to return.

So the page is nine swaps, $29.06 at the cheapest released printing as of October 2026 (which can be a promo), and most of them are cards that make the existing artifacts do something. The mana is the second finding and a smaller one. The box runs 41 lands and 12 ramp cards, 53 of its 100, and it tops out at 16 cards costing six or more.

What are the best Built From Scratch upgrades?

Nine swaps for $29.06. In the order I'd buy them:

1. Skullclamp ($4.88). It gives +1/-1 and draws two when the creature dies, and every 1/1 the deck makes dies the moment it's equipped. Argued in the payoffs section.
2. Reckless Fireweaver ($0.41). One damage to each opponent for every artifact that enters, tokens and the two artifact lands included.
3. Goblin Engineer ($8.38). It puts any artifact card from the library into the graveyard, which is the card Daretti's minus ability needs to find. Argued in the graveyard section.
4. Scrap Trawler ($1.34). Whenever another of your artifacts is put into a graveyard, it returns a cheaper artifact card to your hand.
5. Goldspan Dragon ($11.18). A 4/4 flying haste Dragon that makes a Treasure each time it attacks. The dearest card here, and the one to buy last.
6. Hellkite Tyrant ($1.75) and Mimic Vat ($0.57). The two sixth and seventh buys, both argued in the graveyard section.
7. Abrade ($0.16) and Arcane Signet ($0.39). A two-mana answer that kills a creature or an artifact, and a two-mana rock that makes {R}. They replace the cuts that did the same jobs worse.

Nothing in the box pays you for an artifact arriving

Reckless Fireweaver is a 1/3 for {1}{R} and deals 1 damage to each opponent whenever an artifact you control enters. Count what enters in this deck. Myr Battlesphere is five artifacts at once, itself and four 1/1 Myr tokens. Wurmcoil Engine leaves two artifact tokens when it dies. Myr Sire, Pentavus and Tuktuk the Explorer all make artifact tokens, and Darksteel Citadel and Great Furnace are artifact lands. Goldspan Dragon adds a Treasure on every attack. None of that was a clock in the box, and with the Fireweaver out it is.

Skullclamp looks like a single-creature attachment in a go-wide deck, and it plays as the opposite. A 1/1 that gets +1/-1 becomes a 2/0 and dies, and its controller draws two. The 1/1 supply is Beetleback Chief's two Goblins, Myr Sire's token, Pentavus's flying Pentavites and the four Myr from Battlesphere. Those four Myr are four equips at {1} each and eight cards.

Mimic Vat may exile a nontoken creature when it dies, and {3} plus a tap makes a hasty copy of it until end of turn. The Vat has five damage sweepers to feed on, and it holds one exiled card at a time, so a new imprint sends the old one back to the graveyard. The copies matter more than they look. A copy of Flametongue Kavu deals its 4 damage again, a copy of Bogardan Hellkite splits another 5, and a copy of an artifact creature is an artifact entering, so the Fireweaver fires. The cost is real: a creature the Vat exiles is a creature Daretti and Goblin Welder can't return, so you choose which card you want back.

Daretti can only ask for what is already in the graveyard

Daretti's minus ability targets an artifact card in your graveyard when you activate it, and makes you sacrifice an artifact as it resolves. Cast for {3}{R} he enters with 3 loyalty and drops to 1, so each use is nearly the whole planeswalker. The box fills the graveyard by accident: things die, you sacrifice a rock, you discard to Daretti's plus ability or to Faithless Looting. Goblin Engineer does it on purpose. It searches the library for any artifact card, with no mana value limit, and puts it in the graveyard. Then Daretti sacrifices a spare rock and returns Wurmcoil Engine or Myr Battlesphere for nothing but the loyalty. Engineer's own ability returns an artifact of mana value 3 or less for {R}, a tap and a sacrifice, and it can't target the artifact it sacrifices.

What Daretti sacrifices matters too. Ichor Wellspring draws a card when it goes to the graveyard, Mycosynth Wellspring fetches a basic land to hand, and Panic Spellbomb draws for {R}. Scrap Trawler turns each of those into a second return, because it triggers when another artifact you control is put into a graveyard and returns a card with a lesser mana value. Sacrificing a mana value 2 Mind Stone can return Sol Ring, and a dying Wurmcoil Engine can return any artifact card in the deck that costs five or less. Trawler is a 3/2 and counts as one of the deck's 15 artifact creatures after the swaps.

Hellkite Tyrant costs six and is a 6/5 with flying and trample. When it deals combat damage to a player, you gain control of all artifacts that player controls. Its upkeep clause, twenty artifacts and you win, is a bonus the deck can reach late with tokens and not a plan. I'd buy it for the steal. The deck already runs five Dragons, and this makes seven with Goldspan.

Why five damage sweepers and eight six-drops stay

The box has five damage sweepers: Whipflare, Magmaquake, Starstorm, Blasphemous Act and Incite Rebellion. Only Whipflare skips artifact creatures. That sounds like a deck fighting itself, until you count what dies and leaves something. Nine creatures in the upgraded list do: Epochrasite comes back from exile, Myr Retriever and Junk Diver return an artifact, Myr Sire and Tuktuk the Explorer make a token, Wurmcoil Engine makes two, Solemn Simulacrum draws, Cathodion adds {C}{C}{C} and Scrap Trawler returns a card. Three artifact creatures fly (Pilgrim's Eye, Junk Diver and Steel Hellkite), so Magmaquake can leave them alone. It also hits Daretti, so don't cast it with him on the table.

Scrap Mastery looks like a mutual reset, and it is one. Every player exiles the artifact cards in their graveyard, sacrifices all their artifacts, then puts the exiled cards onto the battlefield, so the opponent's graveyard comes back as well. What it does for you is the sacrificed artifacts. They land in the graveyard after the exile step, so Daretti has a full list to choose from the next turn. Incite Rebellion is the sweeper I'd drop first if your pod doesn't go wide, because it damages you for your own creature count.

The six and seven drops a normal deckbuilder would cut are Wurmcoil Engine, Spitebellows, Myr Battlesphere and Spine of Ish Sah, and each earns its slot. Spitebellows deals 6 damage to a creature when it leaves the battlefield, and evoking it for {1}{R}{R} makes that a three mana removal spell. Spine of Ish Sah destroys a permanent when it enters and comes back to hand each time it goes from the battlefield to the graveyard, which makes every sacrifice effect another cast.

Two colorless lands out, and red stays at 37 sources

The deck keeps 39 lands after the swaps, which is above the 35 to 38 most Commander decks run. Reliquary Tower and Ghost Quarter both tap for colorless only, so red sources hold at 37. The odds of {R}{R} by turn three on the play stay at 91.6%, and the number of spells that print {R}{R} goes from 12 to 14, because Goldspan Dragon and Hellkite Tyrant both do. Always-tapped lands stay at three (Dormant Volcano, Forgotten Cave and Smoldering Crater), and I'd keep them: the two cycling lands turn into cards when the hand floods.

Three I priced and skipped, and two Game Changers

Trash for Treasure ($1.11) sacrifices an artifact and returns one from the graveyard to the battlefield, which is Daretti's minus ability without the loyalty cost. I passed because Engineer and Trawler fill the graveyard and it would be the ninth card asking for the same thing. Kuldotha Forgemaster ($12.02) taps and sacrifices three artifacts to put an artifact onto the battlefield from the library, which is slow at five mana. Krark-Clan Ironworks ($13.08) turns every artifact into {C}{C} and the deck has the mana already.

Mana Vault ($92.31) and Grim Monolith ($476.08) are both Game Changers, so either would put the floor at Bracket 3, and the price rules them out before that does. Neither list has a Game Changer.

Nine cards leave, five for what they cost and four for what they don't do

Pristine Talisman costs {3} for one colorless mana and gains you 1 life. Arcane Signet costs {2} and makes {R}, since Daretti's identity is red, so the mana rock gets cheaper and fixes. Loreseeker's Stone costs {6}, and its draw costs {3} plus {1} for each card in your hand, so drawing three with a full hand costs ten to activate. Caged Sun is a six mana rock that adds a mana when a land taps for red and gives red creatures +1/+1. Twelve of the box's 26 creatures are red, and with eight six-drops already on the list it's the card I'd cut first. Reliquary Tower says you have no maximum hand size, and nothing in this deck wants a hand that big.

Ghost Quarter is a land that does nothing until an opponent has a land worth destroying, and Volcanic Offering and Spine of Ish Sah already answer those. Bitter Feud costs five, makes you choose two players and doubles damage between them in both directions. Pick yourself and an opponent and it doubles what they do to you as well. Swiftfoot Boots gives hexproof and haste to one creature, and the biggest creatures here already leave a body or a card behind when they die. Liquimetal Coating makes a permanent an artifact until end of turn, and the deck has 36 already. Ingot Chewer is a five mana creature whose evoke for {R} destroys an artifact. Abrade does that at instant speed for {1}{R} and also kills a creature with 3 toughness or less.

The nine swaps, counted

Lands go from 41 to 39 and average mana value from 3.79 to 3.62. Cards costing six or more fall from 16 to 15, cards at one mana rise from 5 to 6 and cards at two from 14 to 16. Creatures go from 26 to 30 and Dragons from five to seven. Artifact cards go from 36 to 35, because five artifacts leave and four arrive, and cards that return an artifact card from the graveyard go from six to eight. Sources of red stay at 37, ramp stays at 12, and the bracket floor stays at 1.

The upgraded decklist

Daretti and the 99 with all nine swaps made, sorted by card type. Hovering any name shows 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

Can Daretti bring an artifact back the turn he lands?

Only if an artifact card is already in your graveyard. Daretti costs {3}{R} and enters with 3 loyalty, so his minus ability leaves him at 1. It targets the graveyard card when you activate it and makes you sacrifice an artifact as it resolves, so you need one on the battlefield too. Goblin Engineer puts a card there from the library, but its own ability taps, so it can't start the loop the turn it arrives.

Does Reckless Fireweaver count tokens?

Yes. It deals 1 damage to each opponent whenever an artifact you control enters, and a token that is an artifact enters like any other. Myr Battlesphere is five pings, because it brings four Myr artifact tokens. Wurmcoil Engine is two when it dies, a Treasure from Goldspan Dragon is one, and the deck's two artifact lands count as well.

Which of the box's sweepers leave my own creatures alone?

Only Whipflare, which deals 2 damage to each nonartifact creature. Magmaquake hits every creature without flying and every planeswalker, Daretti included, and Starstorm and Blasphemous Act hit every creature. Incite Rebellion damages each player and their creatures by how many creatures they control, you included. Nine creatures in the upgraded list leave something behind when they die, which is why the deck can afford them.

Is twenty artifacts a realistic number for Hellkite Tyrant?

Not as a plan. The upgraded list has 35 artifact cards, and Myr Battlesphere, Myr Sire, Pentavus and Goldspan Dragon add tokens, but twenty on the battlefield at once is a late-game bonus. The Tyrant is in for the other half of its text. It's a 6/5 with flying and trample, and each combat damage to a player takes every artifact that player controls.

What do the nine swaps cost, and which one do I buy last?

$29.06 in total at the cheapest released printing as of October 2026. Goldspan Dragon at $11.18 and Goblin Engineer at $8.38 are two thirds of it. Goldspan Dragon is the one I'd buy last, because the deck doesn't need it to start working and the other eight come to $17.88. Its cheapest printing is a promo, so check the one you're buying.

Why does the list keep 39 lands after cutting two?

Fifteen cards in the upgraded list cost six or more, and eight of them cost six exactly. The box ran 41 lands and 12 ramp cards, 53 of its 100 cards, and the swaps take that to 51. Two of the three lands that enter tapped, Forgotten Cave and Smoldering Crater, cycle, so a flooded hand has a way out.