Political Puppets precon upgrade guide

The box ships a banned card and gives its three-colour commander 16 red sources and 16 white ones, so these swaps fix the mana first and the give-away engine second.

Zedruu the Greathearted draws and gains life at the start of your upkeep for each permanent you own that an opponent controls. The way to raise that number is his own ability, {U}{R}{W}: target opponent gains control of target permanent you control. One coloured mana of each colour per gift, in a box that runs 16 red sources and 16 white ones.

The other problem is a card. Trade Secrets is in the stock list, and Scryfall lists it as banned in Commander today, so the first cut isn't a judgement call.

That leaves ten swaps for $44.40 at the cheapest released printing as of October 2026 (which can be a promo). Four are lands, two are mana rocks, two hand a permanent to an opponent and two draw cards.

What are the best Political Puppets upgrades?

Buy and play them in this order:

1. Harmless Offering ($0.26): for {2}{R} an opponent gains control of a permanent you control. That's Zedruu's ability with one coloured pip in place of three, and it works when he isn't on the battlefield.
2. Akroan Horse ($0.50): a 0/4 defender for four generic mana that goes to an opponent as it enters, so it counts for Zedruu at each of your upkeeps for as long as they keep it.
3. Raugrin Triome ($15.33), Sacred Foundry ($10.03), Steam Vents ($9.84) and Hallowed Fountain ($7.13): four lands that, with the two rocks below, take red, white and blue to 21 sources each.
4. Arcane Signet ($0.38) and Talisman of Conviction ($0.35): the Signet makes any of the three colours and the Talisman makes red or white, the two colours the box is shortest on.
5. Sphinx's Revelation ($0.30) and Mulldrifter ($0.28): the first is Zedruu's own upkeep trigger on demand, the second is a flier that draws two.

Sixteen red sources behind an ability that costs {U}{R}{W}

The box runs 34 lands, 28 of them basic: twelve Islands, eight Plains and eight Mountains, plus Command Tower, Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic Expanse and the three bounce lands. Counting lands and rocks together, the calculator finds 16 red sources, 16 white and 20 blue. A spell with one red pip wants 24 sources to be castable on turn two 90% of the time on the play. With 16 the box manages 77%, and white is the same. Blue's 20 gives 84.8%.

Zedruu's ability needs all three colours in one activation. Nothing scores that combination, but every colour that's short makes the engine later.

The swaps take all three colours to 21 sources, which is 86.3% for a single pip by turn two. That's still short of 24 and I'd rather say so than call it fixed. Three Islands leave and four lands arrive, so the deck goes from 34 lands to 35 and from 28 basics to 25.

Sacred Foundry, Steam Vents and Hallowed Fountain are shocklands: you pay 2 life for an untapped entry or let them come in tapped. Raugrin Triome is the second land after Command Tower that makes all three colours, and it enters tapped and cycles for {3}. It makes four always-tapped lands where the box had three (Azorius Chancery, Boros Garrison and Izzet Boilerworks), and I'm fine with that because each bounce land taps for two mana.

Star Trek releases on 13 November 2026 with all three shocklands in it, so those three prices are the ones I'd expect to move. The Triome isn't in that set.

The box has six mana artifacts (Sol Ring, Armillary Sphere, Fellwar Stone, Darksteel Ingot, Prophetic Prism and Dreamstone Hedron). Three make coloured mana and Armillary Sphere fetches two basic lands. Fellwar Stone only makes what an opponent's land could, so it depends on the table. Arcane Signet taps for any colour in Zedruu's identity, which is all three, and Talisman of Conviction taps for red or white, pinging you for 1 each time.

One correction to the raw numbers. In the upgraded list three spells ask for double red by turn four: Death by Dragons, Wild Ricochet and Dominus of Fealty. Dominus costs five hybrid blue-or-red pips, so Islands alone cast it, and the other two are the real red double-pips.

Seven spells and three Islands leave

Trade Secrets goes first for the reason above. Nothing replaces it one for one, since the draw it was meant to give is the job of the Revelation and the Mulldrifter.

Insurrection costs {5}{R}{R}{R} and untaps and steals every creature for a turn. It's the box's only eight-drop, it wants three red sources at once when red has 16, and it hands you nothing that lasts to the next upkeep.

Arbiter of Knollridge is a 5/5 vigilance for seven that sets every life total to the highest one. It helps the lowest life total at the table, and at seven mana it's two more than the dearest fixed-cost card I'm adding, Mulldrifter at five.

Martyr's Bond costs {4}{W}{W}. It makes opponents sacrifice a permanent sharing a type with each nonland permanent of yours that goes to a graveyard, and a deck whose permanents leave by being handed over rarely trips it.

Champion's Helm gives +2/+2, and hexproof only if the creature is legendary, and only five creatures in the deck are legendary. Lightning Greaves already covers protection and equips for {0}.

Guard Gomazoa is a 1/3 flying defender that takes no combat damage. Gomazoa is a 0/3 flying defender that can tap to put itself and the creature it's blocking on top of their owners' libraries, so the attacker gets redrawn instead of attacking again. The box runs six defenders and I'd keep the one that does something.

Jötun Grunt is a 4/4 for two with cumulative upkeep: two cards from a single graveyard on the bottom of a library for each age counter. That's two cards at the first upkeep, four at the second and six at the third, a bill nobody pays for long on a 4/4 body.

The three Islands are the cheapest cut, since Steam Vents, Hallowed Fountain and the Triome all tap for blue, and blue still rises from 20 sources to 21.

Zedruu counts gifts, and the box gives away three

The box has three cards that move a permanent of yours under an opponent's control without spending Zedruu's ability. Goblin Cadets goes to an opponent whenever it blocks or becomes blocked. Vedalken Plotter swaps one of your lands for one of theirs. Chromeshell Crab swaps a creature of yours for one of theirs when it's turned face up. The box's other control cards, Reins of Power, Insurrection and Dominus of Fealty, take things for a turn, so nothing they do survives to your next upkeep.

Harmless Offering and Akroan Horse make it five, and neither needs a colour you're short of.

Akroan Horse enters, and an opponent of your choice gains control of it. At the start of its new controller's upkeep, each of that player's opponents creates a 1/1 white Soldier. The ruling is plain that "each opponent" means opponents of the Horse's controller, so you get a Soldier as well, and so does every other player except that opponent. That's the cost of the card and it's real.

Harmless Offering is a sorcery, and the ruling says the opponent can't refuse it. Zedruu's ability repeats and the Offering doesn't, but it needs only red and it works while he's in the command zone.

Donate does the same job for {2}{U} and can name any player. It costs $15.25 against the Offering's $0.26, and with all three colours at 21 sources the deck has no colour reason to pay for the blue version.

Smothering Tithe ($54.06), Rhystic Study ($67.12) and Cyclonic Rift ($28.93) all suit a deck that wants opponents to draw and cast spells. Smothering Tithe pairs with Howling Mine, Skyscribing and Vision Skeins in this list, which all give opponents cards. All three are Game Changers, and a single one would lift the box's Bracket 1 floor to Bracket 3. I left them out for that reason first and the price second.

The draw half of Zedruu gets help as well. Sphinx's Revelation reads "You gain X life and draw X cards", which is the pair Zedruu gives you at upkeep, at instant speed. It costs {X}{W}{U}{U}, so X of 3 is six mana. Mulldrifter is a 2/2 flier for five that draws two when it enters, or three mana to evoke it for the cards alone. Both fit where the cuts above leave room.

Ten cards a deckbuilder would question, and why they stay

Chromeshell Crab costs five and does nothing until it's turned face up, but turning it up is the swap of a creature of yours for one of theirs, which is a gift Zedruu counts, and you choose both creatures. Izzet Chronarch is another five-drop and returns an instant or sorcery from the graveyard, which can be Austere Command, Sphinx's Revelation or a counterspell.

Vow of Lightning, Vow of Duty and Vow of Flight are three Auras that give an opponent's creature +2/+2 and a keyword in exchange for it never attacking you. The target matters: each belongs on the one creature actually pointed at me. Prison Term is the cheap answer in the box: the creature can't attack, block or use activated abilities, and it follows to a new creature when one enters.

Lightning Greaves gives haste and shroud and equips for {0}. Azorius Chancery, Boros Garrison and Izzet Boilerworks enter tapped and bounce a land, and each taps for two, which is why a 35-land deck can run three of them.

The upgraded decklist

Hover any name for the card. The list is the upgraded 100, with the Trade Secrets and the nine other cuts gone.

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“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

If I give a permanent to an opponent with Zedruu, can I take it back?

Nothing about the gift is temporary. Zedruu's ability, Harmless Offering and Akroan Horse all hand over control for good. Zedruu's rulings give one way back: if an opponent leaves the game, the permanents you gave them with his ability return to you. If you leave, everything you own leaves with you.

Is Trade Secrets legal in the Political Puppets precon?

No. Scryfall lists Trade Secrets as banned in Commander, so the card that shipped in the box can't be played in the format the deck was built for. It's the first cut, and the draw it was meant to give is the job of Sphinx's Revelation and Mulldrifter.

How many lands should Political Puppets run after the swaps?

35. The box has 34, below the 35 to 38 most Commander lists run, and the swaps add one land net (four in, three Islands out). With eight mana artifacts the list has 43 mana sources in 100 cards and an average mana value of 3.02.

Does Harmless Offering work without Zedruu on the battlefield?

Yes. It's a sorcery that doesn't mention him, so it works with Zedruu in the command zone. The card draw and life gain only happen while he's on the battlefield at your upkeep.

Can I add Rhystic Study and Smothering Tithe to Political Puppets?

You can, and both suit the deck, but each is a Game Changer. One is enough to lift the box's Bracket 1 floor to Bracket 3, and the cheapest printings are $67.12 and $54.06. I left them out for the bracket first and the price second.

How much does it cost to upgrade Political Puppets?

$44.40 for all ten swaps at the cheapest released printing as of October 2026, which can be a promo. The four lands are $42.33 of that and the other six cards are $2.07 together. The shocklands are in Star Trek on 13 November 2026, so those three prices may fall.