Living Energy precon upgrade guide

Eight cards in this box want to spend six or more energy, one of them fifty, and Saheeli takes three of what is left at every combat.

Saheeli, Radiant Creator pays {E}{E}{E} at the start of your combat to make a hasty 5/5 copy of any permanent you control, and she earns one energy for each Artificer or artifact spell you cast. Thirty-four of the box's 61 other nonland cards are one or the other: 26 artifacts and 8 Artificers. Twenty-four cards also make energy on their own, 23 spells and Aether Hub. The supply is fine, so the question is what the pool gets spent on. Nissa, Architect of the Untamed, Aethersquall Ancient and Lightning Runner each want eight, Peema Trailblazer, Aetherworks Marvel and Era of Innovation want six, and Aetherflux Conduit wants fifty. All eight draw on the same pool the commander does. Most of them earn the wait. The Conduit, for one, hands back energy equal to the mana you spend on every spell you cast. Lightning Runner is the one I'd take out of the queue.

Three smaller findings came out of the same numbers. Five cards print {R}{R} and the box has 27 red sources. Fifteen cards cost five or more. And the answers to a single creature are Reality Shift, Chaos Warp, Duplicant and Confiscation Coup, with Blasphemous Act and Chain Reaction as the sweepers, both of which kill your own Thopters.

What are the best Living Energy upgrades?

Ranked by how much each does for this deck. Prices are October 2026 market prices at the cheapest released printing.

1. Etherium Sculptor ($0.34). Artifact spells you cast cost {1} less. It's an artifact and an Artificer, so casting it is one of Saheeli's triggers, and 26 other artifact spells in the deck get cheaper once it's out.
2. Harnessed Lightning ($0.29). Two mana at instant speed: you get {E}{E}{E}, then pay any amount of energy to deal that much damage to a target creature. Pay it all to kill something, or pay nothing and bank a full Saheeli trigger.
3. Master of Etherium ($0.44). Its power and toughness equal the number of artifacts you control, and your other artifact creatures get +1/+1. Nine cards in the deck make Thopters or Servos, and every one of those tokens is an artifact that grows it and gets grown by it.
4. Beast Within ($0.44). Destroy any permanent at instant speed and its controller gets a 3/3. With Chaos Warp it's one of two answers in the deck that reach a planeswalker or an enchantment.
5. Abrade ($0.17). Three damage to a creature or destroy an artifact, for two mana at instant speed. It takes over the artifact half of the job that Druid of Purification did.
6. Steam Vents ($9.95) and Stomping Ground ($7.20). Two lands that enter untapped for 2 life, argued in the mana section. They're $17.15 of the $18.83 total, so they're the part to buy last.

Three permanents refund the energy their own copy costs

The token Saheeli makes copies the permanent as printed, and anything that triggers when that permanent enters triggers on the copy. Three cards in the box give at least three energy when they enter. Whirler Virtuoso gives {E}{E}{E}, Solar Transformer gives {E}{E}{E} and Aethertide Whale gives six. Copy one of them and the combat trigger pays for itself, and the Whale leaves you three ahead. The Virtuoso copy is also a 5/5 with haste for no net energy, and it keeps the Virtuoso's own ability to turn {E}{E}{E} into a Thopter.

Panharmonicon makes an artifact or creature entering trigger an additional time, and a token copy counts. The Virtuoso copy then gives six, so you come out three ahead every turn you have one to copy. Solemn Simulacrum is the other good target. The copy fetches a basic land when it enters, which is a landfall for Nissa and for Architect of the Untamed, and draws a card when it's sacrificed at the end step.

The best target in the box costs nine. Triplicate Titan makes three 3/3 Golems when it dies, and Saheeli's copy is sacrificed at the end step, which is dying. If the Titan is on the battlefield, every {E}{E}{E} you pay buys three Golems at the end of turn along with a 5/5 flier that can attack.

None of those cards is touched by a cut, and neither is the supply side. The cuts below go after cards that spend energy badly or don't fit a wide board.

Seven cuts, starting with the energy card I could argue to keep

Lightning Runner is a five-mana double striker with haste that gets {E}{E} each time it attacks, and it can pay eight energy to untap your creatures and take an extra combat. An extra combat is a second beginning of combat, which is a second Saheeli trigger, and that's the real case for it. The price is eight energy to pay, two of which it supplies itself, on top of the three Saheeli takes at the start of the same combat, plus {R}{R} to cast. Seven other cards in the box are bidding for the same bank, and the Runner is the only one of the eight that also needs {R}{R}. This is a close call, and I'd understand keeping it.

Chain Reaction deals damage to each creature equal to the number of creatures on the battlefield. In a deck with nine cards that make Thopters or Servos, that's mostly your own board. It's also the second {R}{R} card to go. With it and Lightning Runner out, the cards that print {R}{R} are Combustible Gearhulk, Pia and Kiran Nalaar and Territorial Aetherkite.

Druid of Purification lets each player choose an artifact or enchantment you don't control, and everything chosen is destroyed. You pick one and each opponent may pick one too, always from permanents you don't control, so it can't touch your own. It's a four-mana creature that is neither an artifact nor an Artificer, so it earns Saheeli nothing. Abrade and Beast Within cover the artifact half and the enchantment half at instant speed, for two and three mana.

Arcane Denial counters a spell, and then its controller may draw up to two cards at the next upkeep while you draw one. The caster can come out a card ahead of you, which is a poor deal for two mana. Disallow stays as the counterspell.

Soul-Guide Lantern exiles one card from a graveyard when it enters, and for {1} more it can be sacrificed to draw a card. It's an artifact, so it still triggers Saheeli, but it's the smallest effect in the deck for a slot, and Etherium Sculptor and Master of Etherium trigger her too and do more.

The last two cuts are lands, and they're the next section.

Two lands, and what they do to red

Temple of Epiphany always enters tapped for a scry 1, and it makes blue or red. Steam Vents makes the same two colors and enters untapped if you pay 2 life, and I'd rather pay the life than lose the turn. Treasure Vault is an artifact land that makes only colorless mana, which is little use to a three-color deck that's short on red. Stomping Ground makes red or green, and the swap moves red from 27 sources to 28 and green from 30 to 31. Blue stays at 30.

That's a small move, and I'd be overselling it to call the mana fixed. On the play, the odds of having {R}{R} by turn four go from 81.8% to 83.7%, and getting to 90% by turn four takes 33 red sources. Some of the help comes from two {R}{R} cards leaving, which takes the number of cards that print {R}{R} from five to three. Chasing 33 sources with more shocklands in a three-color deck isn't worth the money.

Both lands are reprinted in Star Trek on 13 November 2026, so $17.15 may come down. They're the one part of this list I'd wait on.

The box could answer one creature four ways, and now it's seven

The box answers a single creature with Reality Shift (two mana, exile, they manifest the top card), Chaos Warp (three, the owner shuffles the permanent away and puts the top card of their library onto the battlefield if it's a permanent), Confiscation Coup (five, a sorcery that steals with energy equal to the target's mana value) and Duplicant (six, exile on entering). Only the first two are instants. Harnessed Lightning, Beast Within and Abrade make seven answers and five instants, and none of the three costs more than three mana. Harnessed Lightning is the one that feeds the deck instead of draining it.

The cards flagged for a cut that stay

Aetherflux Conduit costs six, which is why it's flagged, and I kept it. It gives energy equal to the mana spent on every spell you cast, which covers Saheeli's three a turn with room to spare, and fifty is the endgame, where it draws seven cards and casts what you like for free. Blasphemous Act is the one sweeper left, for the reasons in the FAQ below. Combustible Gearhulk is a six-mana artifact creature with first strike, so it triggers Saheeli, and its enter ability has the target opponent choose between you drawing three cards and you milling three, with the Gearhulk dealing them damage equal to the total mana value of what you milled. Either answer is fine for six mana, so it stays despite the {R}{R}. Conjurer's Closet costs five and blinks a creature at your end step, which looks slow until you count the enter abilities that pay out: Whirler Virtuoso gives {E}{E}{E}, Servant of the Conduit gives {E}{E} and Rogue Refiner draws a card and gives {E}{E}. Confiscation Coup gives you {E}{E}{E}{E} before the payment, so any artifact or creature worth four or less is stolen outright and anything bigger needs a bank. Stealing a creature beats killing it.

The two Bridges, Slagwoods Bridge and Tanglepool Bridge, always enter tapped, and besides making two colors they stay because they're artifacts. When Era of Innovation is out each one is worth {E}{E} for {1}, with Reckless Fireweaver each one pings every opponent for 1, and each one counts for Master of Etherium. Bootleggers' Stash is the call I'm least sure of. A land taps for a Treasure or for mana, not both, so it adds no mana by itself, but with Stridehangar Automaton out every Treasure comes with a Thopter. That needs two specific cards from a 99, so I left it in and I'd understand cutting it. Lightning Greaves and Adaptive Omnitool are single-creature equipment in a wide deck, but the Greaves give Saheeli shroud for {0} and the Omnitool digs six cards deep for an artifact whenever the equipped creature attacks.

Where I'd spend the next $20

Foundry Inspector ($0.29) is the next card to buy. It's a second artifact discount and itself an artifact creature, and I held it back to keep the list short. Cyclonic Rift ($30.25) and Rhystic Study ($59.95) are both Game Changers, and one of either lifts the bracket floor from 1 to 3. Wurmcoil Engine ($9.74) is a fine card, but ten cards in the upgraded list already cost six or more. Ketria Triome ($16.29) enters tapped and makes the same three colors as Frontier Bivouac, which the box already runs.

What changes once the seven swaps are in

The deck stays at 38 lands, and the average mana value only falls from 3.67 to 3.61, because the cuts are mostly cheap and the curve isn't where this deck's problems are. Cards costing five or more go from 15 to 14, and cards costing six or more stay at 10. Always-tapped lands go from six to five. The cards that trigger Saheeli go from 34 of the 61 to 35, the cards that make energy stay at 24, and the cards that want six or more of it go from eight to seven. The bracket floor stays at 1, and none of the seven adds is a Game Changer.

The upgraded decklist

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

Load into the deck builder Copy decklist

“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 — no account needed.

FAQ

If Saheeli copies Whirler Virtuoso, do I get the energy back?

Yes. The copy is a token that enters the battlefield, so Whirler Virtuoso's enter ability triggers and gives you {E}{E}{E}, which repays what Saheeli's trigger cost. The token is a 5/5 with haste and is sacrificed at the next end step. With Panharmonicon out the enter ability triggers twice, so the copy leaves you three energy ahead.

Can I cast Harnessed Lightning just for the energy?

Yes, as long as the creature it targets is still a legal target when it resolves. You get {E}{E}{E} first and then choose how much to pay, and paying nothing is allowed, so it banks three energy for two mana. If the target is gone by then, the spell doesn't resolve and you get no energy at all.

Does Etherium Sculptor discount Sai, Master Thopterist?

No. Sai is an Artificer and not an artifact, and the Sculptor only discounts artifact spells. Of the 35 cards that trigger Saheeli after the swaps, 27 are artifacts, 26 of them besides the Sculptor, and the other 8 are Artificers that pay full price: Pia Nalaar, Sai, Pia and Kiran Nalaar, Architect of the Untamed, Whirler Rogue, Loyal Apprentice, Reckless Fireweaver and Whirler Virtuoso. The discount also only takes generic mana, so Bespoke Battlewagon at {3}{U} costs {2}{U}.

What does upgrading Living Energy cost?

$18.83 for all seven adds at October 2026 market prices, using the cheapest released printing of each. Steam Vents ($9.95) and Stomping Ground ($7.20) are $17.15 of that, and the five spells together are $1.68. Both lands are reprinted in Star Trek on 13 November 2026, so their prices may fall.

Why isn't Cyclonic Rift in the upgrade?

It's a Game Changer at $30.25, and one Game Changer lifts a deck's bracket floor from 1 to 3. Living Energy has none today. If your table already plays Bracket 3, Cyclonic Rift is a two-mana instant that returns one nonland permanent, or seven mana to return every nonland permanent you don't control, and it's worth a slot then.

Should Blasphemous Act stay in a deck that makes this many Thopters?

Yes, as the only sweeper. It costs {1} less for each creature on the battlefield and deals 13 damage to each creature, so it kills your own Thopters, Servos and token copies along with everything else. Vehicles such as Bespoke Battlewagon and Nalaar Aetherjet aren't creatures until they're crewed, so they survive it, and the deck can rebuild from them. Keeping exactly one means the reset exists and you choose when to use it.