Evasive Maneuvers precon upgrade guide

Eleven of the box's 38 lands always enter tapped, and each colour is still 11 to 15 sources short of what two pips on turn three asks for.

Derevi, Empyrial Tactician taps or untaps a permanent when she enters and again whenever any creature you control deals combat damage to a player, so the box wants creatures that get through. It has them. Fourteen of its 30 creatures have flying, horsemanship or can't be blocked (Hada Spy Patrol only once it has a level counter), and Faerie Conclave and Azorius Keyrune can join them for a turn.

What it lacks is the mana to cast them on time. The calculator wants 36 sources of a colour to have two pips of it by turn three on the play. The box has 21 green, 23 blue and 25 white, which is 61%, 67% and 72%. Blue is the hardest case, with seven spells that want two blue pips and two of them (Azami and Blue Sun's Zenith) wanting three. Green is the least pressing, because only Acidic Slime and Bane of Progress need two green pips and the two hybrid cards can be paid in other colours. Eleven of the 38 lands enter tapped without a condition, and two of those (Transguild Promenade and Rupture Spire) also ask for {1} the turn they arrive. No swap list under $50 closes a gap that size, so this one doesn't claim to.

What eleven swaps for $47.35 do is stop the deck paying a turn of tempo for fixing it never gets. Always-tapped lands go from eleven to six, ramp goes from 7 cards to 9, spot removal from 7 to 9, and two cards that draw (Mulldrifter and Sylvan Library) arrive. The upgraded list stays at the box's Bracket 1 floor.

Which cards should Derevi's deck buy first?

In buying order. The eleven cards cost $47.35 at the cheapest released printing of each (that can be a promo or a Secret Lair), against at least $95.95 for the box.

1. Temple Garden ($6.87), Breeding Pool ($9.16), Botanical Sanctum ($1.41), Seachrome Coast ($0.37) and Razorverge Thicket ($0.33). Five lands that can enter untapped, in place of three Guildgates and two lands that cost {1} to keep.
2. Arcane Signet ($0.34) and Cultivate ($0.39). Signet taps for one mana of any colour in Derevi's identity, so green, white or blue. Cultivate puts one basic land onto the battlefield tapped and the other into your hand.
3. Mulldrifter ($0.28). A five-mana flier that draws two cards, or {2}{U} to evoke it for the two cards alone. Conjurer's Closet, already in the box, returns it at your end step to draw two more.
4. Swords to Plowshares ($1.07) and Beast Within ($0.53). Swords is {W} to exile a creature, whose controller gains life equal to the creature's power. Beast Within is {2}{G} to destroy any permanent, and its controller gets a 3/3 Beast. The box's Krosan Grip only reaches artifacts and enchantments.
5. Sylvan Library ($26.60). At your draw step you may draw two extra cards, then put two of the cards you drew that turn back on top of your library or pay 4 life for each you keep. In a deck that wants specific colours, three looks per turn is the point.

Four cards I priced and left out. Rhystic Study ($67.12), Cyclonic Rift ($28.93) and Seedborn Muse ($15.74) are all Game Changers, and any one of them would move the list to a Bracket 3 floor. Hallowed Fountain ($7.13) is the only one skipped on mana. White is the best-served colour at 25 sources, and Seachrome Coast, Azorius Chancery and Sejiri Refuge already cover white-blue. The six cards that go out besides the lands are argued in their own section below.

Each creature that connects is another untap

Derevi triggers once for every creature you control that deals combat damage to a player, so three fliers connecting is three triggers. Her enter trigger, if she arrives before combat, can tap a blocker. The damage triggers come after blockers are declared, so they're for untapping.

Two things in the box are worth untapping. Basalt Monolith taps for {C}{C}{C}, doesn't untap on its own and costs {3} to untap by hand, so a trigger pointed at a tapped one saves that {3}. Azami is the other. Her cost is to tap an untapped Wizard you control, and that cost doesn't use the {T} symbol, so summoning sickness never applies. By printed type the box has six Wizards, and Mirror Entity, a changeling, makes seven. Tap one for a card, connect, untap it, tap it again.

Rubinia Soulsinger is the card to keep Derevi away from. She controls a stolen creature only while she stays tapped, and an untap pointed at her hands it back.

What the mana looks like after five lands change

Out go Azorius Guildgate, Selesnya Guildgate and Simic Guildgate, which enter tapped with no condition, plus Transguild Promenade and Rupture Spire. Those two make any colour, but each is sacrificed unless you pay {1} as it enters, so the turn they arrive costs a mana and a land drop.

In come two shocklands, which cost 2 life to come down untapped, and three fast lands, which come down untapped only while you control two or fewer other lands. That makes the fast lands a turn one to three fix and a tapped land after it. Each of the three colour pairs gets at least one: Temple Garden and Razorverge Thicket for green and white, Breeding Pool and Botanical Sanctum for green and blue, Seachrome Coast for white and blue.

The source counts barely move: green 21 to 22, blue 23 to 23, white 25 to 25. The lands alone leave green at 21 and cost blue and white a source each, because Transguild Promenade and Rupture Spire make every colour. Arcane Signet gives one back in all three, and the calculator counts it. Cultivate's basics aren't in that count. Two pips by turn three goes from 61% to 64% in green and stays at 67% in blue and 72% in white. That isn't a fixed mana base. What changed is how many of those sources come down tapped.

Six tapped lands stay and five of them do something. Azorius Chancery and Selesnya Sanctuary tap for two mana and return a land you control, Seaside Citadel makes all three colours, Faerie Conclave becomes a 2/1 flier for {1}{U}, which is another creature for Derevi, and Secluded Steppe cycles for {W}. Sejiri Refuge gains 1 life and is the next land to replace. It would be Hallowed Fountain's slot.

Breeding Pool and Temple Garden are two of the ten shocklands in Star Trek, due 13 November 2026. A reprint can pull a price down. If the $16.03 for the two is the part of this list you hesitate over, the three fast lands, Signet and Cultivate cost $2.84 together and do most of the early work.

The six non-lands going out

Curse of the Forsaken gives a creature's controller 1 life whenever it attacks the cursed player, so it pays whoever attacks that player. Curse of Predation puts a +1/+1 counter on every creature that attacks the cursed player, mine or an opponent's. Neither does anything for Derevi.

Presence of Gond gives one creature a tap ability that makes a 1/1 Elf Warrior, and the Aura goes when the creature does. Flickerform is {1}{W} to enchant a creature and {2}{W}{W} more to blink it, and the box already blinks with Flickerwisp, Roon of the Hidden Realm, Mistmeadow Witch and Conjurer's Closet.

Sword of the Paruns costs four, then {3} to equip, then {3} more each time you want to tap or untap the holder. Surveyor's Scope fetches one basic for each player who controls at least two more lands than you, and at an even table that's none.

Five expensive cards look like cuts next to these and stay. Skyward Eye Prophets costs six, which is the usual reason to cut a card, but it reveals the top card each turn and either puts a land onto the battlefield or the card into your hand, from the turn after it lands. Rubinia Soulsinger and Control Magic steal a creature outright, at five mana and four. Conjurer's Closet costs five and is the reason Mulldrifter, Pilgrim's Eye and Farhaven Elf can each trigger again at your end step.

Curse of Inertia is the close call. Whenever a player attacks the cursed player, that attacker may tap or untap a permanent, so it gives every attacker of that player a small Derevi, me included. It goes on the opponent I'm attacking, and it helps every other attacker of that player just as much.

The upgraded decklist

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FAQ

Can Derevi untap a Wizard so Azami draws a second time?

Yes. Azami's cost is to tap an untapped Wizard you control, which isn't the {T} symbol on that creature, so summoning sickness doesn't stop a Wizard that just arrived. The box has six Wizards by printed type (Derevi, Aerie Mystics, Azami, Mistmeadow Witch, Selesnya Guildmage and Skyward Eye Prophets) and Mirror Entity, a changeling, makes seven. Tap one for a card, connect with a flier, and Derevi's trigger untaps that Wizard so Azami can tap it again. Each creature that connects is one more card. Azami costs {2}{U}{U}{U} and the box has 23 blue sources, so she's the card to protect the blue for.

How does Derevi come back from the command zone, and does the cost rise?

While she's in the command zone, {1}{G}{W}{U} puts her onto the battlefield. That's an ability, not a cast, so no commander tax is added, a counterspell that only answers spells can't stop it, and it doesn't raise the tax on a later cast. She triggers on arrival either way, so every return is another free tap or untap.

Can I add Rhystic Study or Cyclonic Rift and still be in Bracket 1?

No. The box has no Game Changers, and Rhystic Study ($67.12), Cyclonic Rift ($28.93) and Seedborn Muse ($15.74) are all on the list. One of them sets a floor of Bracket 3, because Bracket 2 allows none and Bracket 1 only as pre-discussed theme picks. The eleven swaps here add none, so the upgraded list keeps the box's Bracket 1 floor.

How many of the box's lands enter tapped, and how many after the swaps?

Eleven of the 38 always enter tapped in the box. After the swaps six do: Azorius Chancery, Selesnya Sanctuary, Seaside Citadel, Faerie Conclave, Secluded Steppe and Sejiri Refuge. Five more can enter untapped, two for 2 life each (Temple Garden and Breeding Pool) and three while you control two or fewer other lands (Botanical Sanctum, Seachrome Coast and Razorverge Thicket).

What does the whole Evasive Maneuvers upgrade cost, and what can I skip?

$47.35 for eleven cards at the cheapest released printing of each. Sylvan Library is $26.60 of that and the simplest part to leave out, because the other ten come to $20.75. Temple Garden ($6.87) and Breeding Pool ($9.16) are the next to skip, and Star Trek, due 13 November 2026, reprints all ten shocklands, so those two prices may fall. I can't say by how much. Botanical Sanctum, Seachrome Coast, Razorverge Thicket, Arcane Signet and Cultivate come to $2.84 together and can be bought now.

Which creatures in Evasive Maneuvers have evasion?

Fourteen of the 30. Twelve have flying: Derevi, Aerie Mystics, Angel of Finality, Djinn of Infinite Deceits, Dungeon Geists, Flickerwisp, Karmic Guide, Pilgrim's Eye, Stonecloaker, Thornwind Faeries, Winged Coatl and Wonder. Lu Xun, Scholar General has horsemanship. Hada Spy Patrol can't be blocked, but only once it has a level counter, which costs {2}{U}. Faerie Conclave and Azorius Keyrune can also become fliers for a turn.