Wade into Battle precon upgrade guide

Twenty-three of the 31 creatures in this box (counting Kalemne) give Kalemne an experience counter when you cast them, and the box is thin on the three things that keep him alive: cards, answers and untapped mana.

Kalemne is a 3/3 for {2}{R}{W} with double strike and vigilance. Whenever you cast a creature spell with mana value 5 or greater you get an experience counter, and he gets +1/+1 for each counter you have. The trigger reads mana value off the card and counts only spells you cast. Dawnbreak Reclaimer returning one from a graveyard doesn't count. A cost reducer like Stinkdrinker Daredevil or Urza's Incubator makes a six-drop cheaper to cast without making it any less of a six-drop, so it still pays.

In this box 23 creatures clear that bar, and 16 of them cost six or more. Fifteen creatures have the Giant type, Kalemne included, and Taurean Mauler is a changeling, so the box has 16 Giants for its Giant payoffs. That's why it runs two Giant cost reducers, and why Thundercloud Shaman, Sunrise Sovereign and Borderland Behemoth are in it at all.

What the box is short of shows up one card at a time. Five cards draw, and only Staff of Nin does it without being asked: Mind Stone and Boros Cluestone draw when you sacrifice them, Seer's Sundial wants {2} per land, and Dreamstone Hedron wants {3} and a sacrifice. Five more answer a single permanent: Banishing Light, Crib Swap, Faith's Fetters, Fall of the Hammer, and Orim's Thunder, which only hurts a creature when it has an artifact or enchantment to destroy first. Nine lands always enter tapped. Nine swaps follow.

What are the best upgrades for the Anthology II Wade into Battle?

In buying order. Nine cards, $8.87 at the cheapest released printing of each (a printing can be a promo or a bonus-sheet card, and the hover is pinned to it). Prices are from 15 October 2026. The box's own cards total at least $79.52, and five copies have no price, so that figure is a floor.

1. Swords to Plowshares ($1.07) and Path to Exile ($0.93). Each is a {W} instant that exiles target creature. Swords gives its controller life equal to the creature's power and Path lets them fetch a basic land onto the battlefield tapped. They go in because they cost one mana: at six lands you can answer a threat and still cast a five-drop in the same turn, which Banishing Light and Crib Swap at three mana each can't do. Pick whichever you'd rather hand an opponent, life or a land.
2. Glorybringer ($0.31). A {3}{R}{R} Dragon with flying and haste. When it attacks you may exert it, and it deals 4 damage to target non-Dragon creature an opponent controls. That's one-way damage, not a fight, so nothing hits back. An exerted creature skips your next untap step, so it's a removal spell every other turn. It's also a five-drop, which means a counter for Kalemne.
3. Vanquisher's Banner ($2.88). {5} artifact. You choose a creature type as it enters, creatures of that type get +1/+1, and you draw a card whenever you cast a creature spell of it. Name Giant: 15 of the 30 creatures after the swaps are Giants (Kalemne is one of them). It's the deck's best answer to being short of cards, and the next section explains the choice.
4. Council's Judgment ($0.40). {1}{W}{W} sorcery. Each player votes for one nonland permanent you don't control, starting with you, and each permanent with the most votes or tied for most is exiled. It doesn't target, so hexproof and protection don't stop it. Votes are cast in turn order, so opponents see yours first, and in a four-player pod a split vote can exile more than one permanent. It can't touch a land.
5. Big Score ($0.42). {3}{R} instant. Discard a card, draw two and create two Treasures. That's a net card, and the two Treasures are mana for a five-drop one turn early. The cost is a discard, so it wants a spare land late or a seven-drop you aren't going to reach.
6. Clifftop Retreat ($0.22), Battlefield Forge ($0.21) and Inspiring Vantage ($2.43). Three red-white lands that enter untapped far more often, in place of Boros Guildgate, Wind-Scarred Crag and Drifting Meadow. The mana section has the details.

Cards I looked at and passed over. Archangel of Thune is the card Kalemne's Angels want, a lifelink flyer that puts a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control whenever you gain life, but its cheapest printing is $19.01, so nine swaps for $8.87 doesn't stretch to it. If you want to spend more, that's where I'd put it. Sacred Foundry's cheapest printing is $10.04, against $0.22 for Clifftop Retreat in a deck with 25 basics. Star Trek reprints all ten shock lands on 13 November 2026, so that price may move. Smothering Tithe is $55.24 and a Game Changer, which would put the deck in bracket 3 on its own. Herald's Horn ($2.87) takes only {1} off a Giant spell and Door of Destinies ($2.40) only grows the team, while the Banner draws on every cast, which is the thing this box is short of. Siege-Gang Commander costs $0.26 and would be a fine five-drop, but a deck that has Desolation Giant and Earthquake in it doesn't need more small bodies to sweep away.

Which creature type to name, and what Kalemne is worth with it

Urza's Incubator and Vanquisher's Banner both make you choose a type, and the box has two real candidates. Giant covers 15 of the 30 creatures after the swaps, 12 of the 21 that cost five or more, and Kalemne himself. Angel covers the 6 printed Angels, and all six cost five or more. Name Giant on both. Naming Angel would cheapen Herald of the Host and Victory's Herald and do nothing for Sun Titan, Inferno Titan or Hammerfist Giant.

There's an arithmetic reason to want the Banner on Kalemne beyond the draw. He needs 21 commander damage in a game to kill an opponent alone. At 3/3 with double strike he deals 6 a turn unblocked, and each counter adds 2. With no help that takes 8 counters (3 + 8 = 11 power, 22 damage). Loxodon Warhammer, already in the box, adds +3 power and lifelink and makes it 5 counters (3 + 5 + 3 = 11). Add the Banner's +1/+1 and it's 4 counters. Those are unblocked, undisrupted numbers, and nothing in the box makes Kalemne unblockable, so treat them as a measure of how fast he grows and not as a clock.

Incubator and Daredevil each take {2} off a Giant spell, so with both out a seven-mana Giant costs three, and with the Banner out each of those casts draws a card as well. Kalemne is a Giant, so casting him from the command zone draws one too.

Nine tapped lands become six, and the curve drops a little

Nine lands always enter tapped: Boros Garrison, Boros Guildgate, Drifting Meadow, Forgotten Cave, Secluded Steppe, Smoldering Crater, Vivid Crag, Vivid Meadow and Wind-Scarred Crag. Terramorphic Expanse and Evolving Wilds sacrifice to fetch a tapped basic, so they cost a turn too. Ancient Amphitheater is untapped if you reveal a Giant from hand, which with 14 Giants in the other 99 after the swaps (one of them the changeling) is often possible.

The swaps remove Boros Guildgate, Wind-Scarred Crag and Drifting Meadow, which leaves six lands that always enter tapped. Clifftop Retreat enters untapped whenever you control a Mountain or a Plains, and with 25 basics that's most turns after the first. Battlefield Forge always enters untapped, and coloured mana costs you 1 life. Inspiring Vantage is untapped on your first three land drops and tapped afterwards, so it's good on turns one to three and a tapped land after that. The cyclers stay: Forgotten Cave and Secluded Steppe cycle for {R} and {W}, and the box is short of cards.

Red sources go from 30 to 31 and white stays at 27. Red is the colour to watch. Sixteen spells want {R}{R} both before and after, because Glorybringer takes Hostility's place, and on the play, the chance of having two red sources by turn three is 82.2 percent stock and 83.9 percent after the swaps, against the 90 the calculator treats as reliable. White's double-pip check shifts from turn five to turn three, 86.1 percent down to 76.4, and that's only because Council's Judgment at {1}{W}{W} is the first white double-pip card to cost three. The other eight want it at five or later.

Average mana value falls from 4.27 to 4.12. Seven-drops go from nine to seven, six-drops from eleven to ten, and five-drops rise from eight to ten, because Glorybringer and Vanquisher's Banner both cost five. One-drops go from two to four with Swords and Path in. The box still runs 39 lands and 11 mana rocks, against a typical 35 to 38 lands, and the cycling lands and Big Score are what keep that from being a flood.

Sweepers that kill your own side

Eight cards in the box deal damage or destroy creatures across the board, and they don't all agree with Kalemne. Thundercloud Shaman deals damage equal to the number of Giants you control to each non-Giant creature, which includes your six Angels. Desolation Giant destroys all other creatures you control when it enters, or every other creature if you pay the {W}{W} kicker. Magma Giant deals 2 damage to each creature and each player, and Kalemne at 3/3 lives through it.

Hammerfist Giant is the one to read twice. Its tap ability deals 4 damage to every player and every creature without flying. Kalemne has toughness 3, so he dies to it unless he has two counters, and Hammerfist is a 5/4 without flying, so it takes 4 itself and dies too unless Sunrise Sovereign or the Banner has pushed its toughness up. Kicked Breath of Darigaaz is the same 4 damage, and Earthquake is X. Disaster Radius is the one-sided sweeper. It deals damage to each creature your opponents control equal to the mana value of a creature card you reveal from your hand, so reveal a seven-drop and it hits for 7.

What goes out, and the cards that stay

Sandstone Oracle costs {7} and draws only if the opponent you choose has more cards in hand than you. Arbiter of Knollridge costs {6}{W}, and its life reset lifts every player to the highest total at the table, including the opponent you're trying to kill. Hostility is {3}{R}{R}{R}, and it only does anything when a spell you control would damage an opponent, which in this box is a handful of sweepers and burn spells. All three cost six or seven, so each is a counter for Kalemne, but 20 other creatures give him the same counter. Cutting them and adding Glorybringer moves the count from 23 of 31 creatures costing five or more to 21 of 30 (Kalemne counted in both).

Curse of the Nightly Hunt makes one player's creatures attack each combat if able, which does nothing for a deck whose plan is a growing commander. Orim's Thunder is the conditional answer from above, and the swaps replace it with two that always work. Blade of Selves is the cut I like least. It gives an equipped creature myriad, which on a double striker would be a copy attacking every other opponent, but casting it and equipping once is six mana, in a deck that already has Herald of the Host and Warchief Giant with myriad printed on them.

Some expensive or awkward cards stay. Loxodon Warhammer is a single-creature equipment, and the single creature is a double striker, so +3 power and lifelink is applied twice. Lightning Greaves is equip {0} haste and shroud, and a Kalemne or a Giant with haste on the turn it's cast is worth the {2}. Inferno Titan and Sun Titan cost six and have no evasion, but one deals 3 damage divided among up to three targets on entering and every attack, and the other returns a permanent card with mana value up to 3 on entering and every attack. Rite of the Raging Storm stays too. Each player's upkeep makes a 5/1 trample haste Lightning Rager for them, and Ragers can't attack you or your planeswalkers, so every one made for an opponent is aimed at somebody else.

The upgraded decklist

Hover any card name on this page to see the card and what it currently costs.

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

Does Kalemne care how cheaply I cast a big creature?

No. His trigger checks the creature spell's mana value, and cost reducers don't change that. A seven-mana Giant that Urza's Incubator and Stinkdrinker Daredevil bring down to three still gives you an experience counter. Creatures that arrive any other way, such as Dawnbreak Reclaimer returning one from a graveyard, don't, because the trigger needs you to cast the spell.

How much does the Wade into Battle upgrade cost?

Nine swaps cost $8.87 at the cheapest released printing of each card. The box's own cards total at least $79.52, with five copies unpriced, so that is a floor. The most expensive add is Vanquisher's Banner at $2.88. The one big-ticket card I passed over is Archangel of Thune at $19.01.

Does Hammerfist Giant kill Kalemne?

Yes, unless he has two experience counters. Hammerfist's tap ability deals 4 damage to every player and to every creature without flying, and Kalemne has toughness 3 plus one for each counter. Hammerfist is a 5/4 without flying, so it takes the 4 damage as well and dies unless Sunrise Sovereign or Vanquisher's Banner has raised its toughness.

Which creature type should Urza's Incubator and Vanquisher's Banner name?

Giant. After the swaps 15 of the 30 creatures are Giants, counting the changeling Taurean Mauler, and 12 of the 21 creatures costing five or more are Giants. Angel covers six printed Angels, and naming it does nothing for Sun Titan, Inferno Titan or Hammerfist Giant.

What bracket is the Wade into Battle precon?

The bracket checker puts its floor at Bracket 1, with no Game Changers, and the upgraded list has the same floor because none of the nine adds is a Game Changer. A floor says only what the list can't be lower than. It doesn't describe how the table will feel about a deck with eight board-affecting damage and destroy effects.

What does Council's Judgment do in a four-player pod?

You vote first for one nonland permanent you don't control, then each opponent votes in turn order, and every permanent with the most votes or tied for the most is exiled. It doesn't target, so hexproof and protection from white don't stop it. If the three opponents each vote for a different permanent, all four candidates are tied and all are exiled.

How many experience counters does Kalemne need to win by himself?

Eight, unblocked. Kalemne is a 3/3 with double strike, so at eight counters he is 11/11 and deals 22 in a turn, past the 21 commander damage that kills. Loxodon Warhammer's +3 power cuts that to five counters, and adding Vanquisher's Banner's +1/+1 cuts it to four. Nothing in the box gives him evasion, so treat those as a measure of how fast he grows.