Guided by Nature (Commander Anthology) precon upgrade guide

The box can remove a creature that doesn't fly three ways, and none of them works at instant speed for under seven mana.

Guided by Nature is built around a planeswalker. Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury makes a 1/1 Elf Druid with a mana ability every time her plus ability resolves, and 23 of the box's 37 creatures are Elves, so the commander feeds the count that the deck's Elf payoffs read. Elvish Archdruid and Imperious Perfect each pump every other Elf, Priest of Titania taps for one green per Elf on the battlefield, and Ezuri, Renegade Leader gives the whole team +3/+3 and trample for five mana. All of that is already in the box.

What the box lacks is a cheap instant-speed answer for the other side of the table. Four cards carry removal text that only touches fliers: Elvish Skysweeper, Whirlwind, Silklash Spider and Tornado Elemental. Three reach anything else. Song of the Dryads turns a permanent into a Forest for three mana, but it is an Aura and lands at sorcery speed. Desert Twister destroys target permanent for six, also at sorcery speed. Predator, Flagship is the only one at instant speed, and it takes two steps, {2} to give a creature flying and then {5} and a tap to destroy it, which is seven mana a kill once the artifact is out. Reclamation Sage and Freyalise's minus ability reach artifacts and enchantments only.

Fourteen swaps, $60.11 at the cheapest printing of each add (priced 16 October 2026), change the shape of that. The cards that can remove a creature without flying go from three to four, the instant-speed ones go from a single seven-mana option to two that cost two and three, the flier-only cards fall from four to three, and the Elf count rises from 23 to 27. Average mana value falls from 3.76 to 3.47, the cards costing six or more drop from 14 to 10, and the land count goes from 37 to 35.

What are the best Guided by Nature upgrades?

1. Beast Within and Ram Through ($0.78 for both). Beast Within destroys any permanent at instant speed and hands its controller a 3/3 Beast. Ram Through has a creature I control deal its power in damage to a creature I don't, and mine takes nothing back. Both are instants, at three mana and two, where the box's only instant-speed removal for a ground creature was Predator, Flagship at seven mana a kill.
2. Elvish Clancaller (49 cents). Two green for an Elf Druid that gives every other Elf I control +1/+1. Elvish Archdruid and Imperious Perfect do the same for three mana each, which makes this the third flat anthem.
3. Rishkar's Expertise ($1.86). Draws as many cards as my biggest creature has power, then lets me cast anything with mana value 5 or less from my hand for free. With three anthems on the table the first half is large, and the second half can be Overrun.
4. Elvish Warmaster ($3.62). Makes a 1/1 Elf Warrior the first time each turn another Elf enters under my control. The token walks in under every anthem I already have.
5. Guardian Project ($13.21). Draws a card whenever a nontoken creature enters that shares no name with a creature I control or a creature card in my graveyard. In a singleton list that is nearly every nontoken creature that enters.
6. Craterhoof Behemoth ($23.43). It has haste, and when it arrives my whole team gains trample and a bonus equal to how many creatures I control. At $23.43 it is the priciest add, and the list still works if it stays in the shop.

The other seven adds and the full list of what leaves are below.

Four cards hit fliers and three reach everything else

Whirlwind destroys every creature with flying, Tornado Elemental deals 6 damage to each one when it enters for seven mana, and Predator, Flagship costs five to cast. Its two abilities combine into removal for anything, because {2} gives a creature flying and {5} plus a tap destroys a creature with flying, so a ground creature costs seven mana to remove once the artifact is out. Those three leave. Elvish Skysweeper stays because it is a one-mana Elf that can pay {4}{G} and a creature to destroy a flier, and Silklash Spider stays as a reach body with an X ability that damages every flier.

Scattershot Archer replaces the cards that left. It costs one, it is an Elf, and it taps to deal 1 damage to each creature with flying. That includes mine, which in this deck means the Gargoyle Castle token and nothing else.

For everything else the list keeps Song of the Dryads, a three-mana Aura, and Desert Twister, a six-mana sorcery that destroys target permanent. Beast Within does Desert Twister's job at instant speed for three, and the 3/3 Beast it leaves behind is the price, so it goes at a permanent worth more than that. Ram Through is cheaper and cleaner. It is one-way damage, not a fight: the creature I choose deals damage equal to its power and takes none, and if that creature has trample the excess over lethal goes to its controller. With all three anthems out, a 1/1 Elf token is a 4/4.

Fourteen cuts, six of them at six mana or more

Terastodon costs eight and destroys up to three noncreature permanents, and every controller of a permanent it destroys gets a 3/3 Elephant, so aimed at an opponent it makes them a body for each. Praetor's Counsel costs eight to return a graveyard this deck never set out to fill. Wave of Vitriol makes every player sacrifice all artifacts, enchantments and nonbasic lands, and the box has twelve nonbasic lands of its own. Grave Sifter lets every player pick a creature type and return that type from their graveyard, which helps every other player as much as it helps me. Grim Flowering draws a card for each creature card in my graveyard, and that is the same missing plan again.

Assault Suit is four mana plus an equip of three for +2/+2 and haste on one creature in a deck of 37. Wellwisher is an Elf that gains me life, and five Elves come in that do more. Sylvan Safekeeper is the one Human, and its trick is shroud for a land. The average mana value falls from 3.76 to 3.47 across these swaps, and the cards costing six or more fall from 14 to 10.

Three lands go. Jungle Basin enters tapped and is sacrificed unless I bounce an untapped Forest. Slippery Karst enters tapped. Ghost Quarter taps for colourless in a deck with 24 spells that want two green by turn three. Castle Garenbrig replaces them, entering untapped with a Forest and turning {2}{G}{G} into six green for creature spells and creature abilities. Always-tapped lands drop from six to four, and green sources, counting the mana Elves, rise from 39 to 40. The odds of two green by turn three go from 93.4 percent with 24 such spells to 94.2 percent with 25.

Four tapped lands stay because each one does something a Forest does not. Oran-Rief, the Vastwood puts a +1/+1 counter on every green creature that entered this turn, and Freyalise, Imperious Perfect and Elvish Warmaster each make bodies. Tranquil Thicket cycles for {G}. Myriad Landscape fetches two Forests. Havenwood Battleground sacrifices for {G}{G}.

Four Elves on the table pay for Craterhoof

Priest of Titania taps for one green per Elf on the battlefield, and the ruling is specific that it counts every Elf, opponents' included. Elvish Archdruid taps for one green per Elf I control, itself counted. Put both out with two more Elves of mine and each taps for four. That is eight mana, which is exactly what Craterhoof Behemoth costs. Both need to have been under my control since the turn began, because both tap.

The new Elves are chosen to get the count there sooner. Elvish Clancaller and Elvish Warmaster make the bodies bigger and more numerous. Llanowar Tribe taps for three green on its own, and it costs three. Elvish Harbinger finds an Elf and puts it on top of the library, then taps for mana of any colour, so it can set up Archdruid or Imperious Perfect for the next draw. Scattershot Archer is the fifth. The count goes from 23 Elves to 27, and from 62 percent of the creatures to 71.

Freyalise adds one per turn, and her Elf Druid tokens count for Priest and Archdruid like any other Elf. Garruk Wildspeaker is a second planeswalker that makes bodies, a 3/3 Beast for a minus ability. His plus ability untaps two lands, and his bottom one is an Overrun effect. Harmonize and Return of the Wildspeaker round out the draw. Return of the Wildspeaker counts non-Human creatures, and Elves are not Human, so at instant speed it either draws cards equal to my biggest one's power or gives all of them +3/+3.

Titania, the Magistrate and Siege Behemoth stay

Titania, Protector of Argoth is a five-mana Elemental in a deck of Elves, and she is better here than the type line suggests. Each time a land I control hits the graveyard from the battlefield, she makes a 5/3. Seven lands in the list sacrifice themselves (Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic Expanse, Myriad Landscape, Havenwood Battleground, Crystal Vein, Gargoyle Castle and Haunted Fengraf) and Harrow sacrifices one more as a cost. Her enter ability also returns one of them from the graveyard.

Immaculate Magistrate looks like a one-creature buff, and it is one with a long reach. It puts a +1/+1 counter on any creature for each Elf I control, the number is counted as the ability resolves, and the counters stay. Siege Behemoth costs seven and has hexproof, and while it attacks every creature I control may assign combat damage as though it weren't blocked. On a board of Elf tokens that means blockers stop mattering across the whole team.

The green staples I passed on

Elvish Champion is $13.29 and gives other Elves +1/+1 and forestwalk. The ruling is that it affects Elves controlled by all players, so it pumps every Elf an opponent has too, and Clancaller gives my Elves the +1/+1 for 49 cents. Sylvan Library is the draw card I left off. It costs $26.60 at its cheapest printing, which is a Secret Lair, and it would be the first thing I bought after this list. Wirewood Lodge ($10.58) untaps an Elf for {G}, but it taps for colourless in a deck with 25 two-green spells.

Five more are Game Changers, so price is the second reason: Gaea's Cradle ($1,635.37), Survival of the Fittest ($443.30), Worldly Tutor ($26.36), Seedborn Muse ($15.74) and Natural Order ($14.45). Any one of them sets a Bracket 3 floor, and the upgraded list has none, so the floor holds at Bracket 1.

The upgraded decklist

Hover any card name for the card. Each add is priced at its lowest-priced printing released so far, a promo or a Secret Lair in some cases.

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 four Elves really pay for Craterhoof Behemoth?

Yes, if two of them are Priest of Titania and Elvish Archdruid and both have been on the battlefield since your turn began. Priest of Titania taps for one green per Elf on the battlefield and Elvish Archdruid for one per Elf you control, so with four Elves out each makes four. That is eight mana, which is Craterhoof Behemoth's mana value, and it all arrives as green.

Do Freyalise's Elf Druid tokens count for Priest of Titania?

They do. Each token is an Elf, so it raises the count that Priest of Titania and Elvish Archdruid both read, and it can tap for green itself once it has been under your control since the start of a turn. Priest of Titania also counts Elves your opponents control, which Elvish Archdruid does not.

Is the Commander Anthology Guided by Nature the same deck as the Commander 2014 one?

Card for card, yes. Commander Anthology reprinted the Commander 2014 list with the same 100 cards, so every swap on this page applies to either box. What differs is the price of the box and of the singles, and the data page for each printing tracks those separately.

Does Guided by Nature stay in Bracket 1 after these swaps?

It does. Nothing I added is a Game Changer, which keeps the floor at Bracket 1. Five green staples are Game Changers, and any one of them would set a Bracket 3 floor: Gaea's Cradle, Survival of the Fittest, Worldly Tutor, Seedborn Muse and Natural Order.

What does it cost to fix Guided by Nature?

$60.11 for all fourteen adds at the cheapest printing of each, priced on 16 October 2026. Craterhoof Behemoth is $23.43, Guardian Project $13.21 and Castle Garenbrig $9.00, which leaves the other eleven at $14.47 together. Beast Within, Ram Through and Elvish Clancaller come to $1.27 and cover the removal gap and the cheapest anthem.

Should I run fewer than 37 lands after the swaps?

I cut two, to 35, which is the bottom of the 35 to 38 band the audit treats as typical. The reasons are on the page: the ramp count goes from 10 to 12, average mana value falls from 3.76 to 3.47, and the three lands that leave are the ones that enter tapped or make no green.