Phantom Premonition precon upgrade guide

Below three mana, Ravenform is the one way this box exiles an opponent's creature or artifact, and it has to be foretold a turn ahead.

Ranar the Ever-Watchful makes a 1/1 white Spirit with flying whenever cards are put into exile from your hand, or a spell or ability you control exiles permanents from the battlefield. The box leans on both halves. Ten cards have foretell, and Ranar makes the first foretell each turn free. Fifteen can exile a permanent from the battlefield, mostly as blink but also as removal.

The gap is at the cheap end. Banishing Light and Flickerwisp cost three. Ravenform costs {U} once foretold, which with Ranar can be one mana in all, but it's a sorcery, it waits a turn and it hands the target's controller a 1/1 Bird. The only nonland card at mana value 1 is Sol Ring. So the Spirits come from your own blink and foretell, and the removal that could feed Ranar at instant speed arrives late.

Eleven swaps fix it for $19.99. Swords to Plowshares and Skyclave Apparition are the missing exile that needs no setup. Glorious Protector, Ephemerate and Starnheim Unleashed are three more cards Ranar notices, and Panharmonicon doubles the enters trigger on twenty creatures. Five lands fix the mana. Going out are six cards that cost too much or exile nothing, and five lands that enter tapped or make no colour.

What are the best Phantom Premonition upgrades?

In buying order. The eleven cards cost $19.99 at the cheapest released printing of each, against $83.92 for the 100 cards the box ships.

1. Swords to Plowshares ($0.99). {W} at instant speed to exile target creature, and its controller gains life equal to its power. One mana, and Ranar makes a Spirit.
2. Skyclave Apparition ($0.26) and Glorious Protector ($0.32). Skyclave is a 2/2 for {1}{W}{W} that exiles up to one nonland, nontoken permanent you don't control with mana value 4 or less. Glorious Protector is a 3/4 flash flier for {2}{W}{W}, or {2}{W} from exile once foretold, that exiles any number of non-Angel creatures you control until it leaves the battlefield. Cast in response to a sweeper, it takes the creatures you choose out of reach. Angels can't be exiled this way.
3. Starnheim Unleashed ($1.69). {2}{W}{W} makes one 4/4 flying, vigilance Angel Warrior. Foretold, it costs {X}{X}{W} and makes X of them, so seven mana buys three. With Ranar the foretell itself can be free.
4. Ephemerate ($3.81). {W} to exile a creature you control and return it. Cast from your hand it rebounds, so it comes back at your next upkeep for a second blink at no cost, and that is two exile events from one card.
5. Panharmonicon ($4.61). {4} for an artifact that makes a triggered ability of your permanents trigger an extra time whenever an artifact or creature entering caused it. Twenty creatures in the upgraded list have an enters trigger, so every blink of one of them pays out twice.
6. Hallowed Fountain ($7.41), Glacial Fortress ($0.20), Prairie Stream ($0.18), Adarkar Wastes ($0.33) and Port Town ($0.19). Five lands that can enter untapped, in place of four that never do and a colourless one.

Two cards I priced and left out. Thassa, Deep-Dwelling is $23.21 and blinks one creature at your end step, which Soulherder in the box already does. Alrund's Epiphany is $3.22 and makes two Birds and takes an extra turn. It would be a fine foretell card, but the bracket table lists extra turns as none in Bracket 1, and this list sets no bracket floor, so I left it out. The eleven cards that go out are argued in their own section below.

One Spirit per exile, not per card

Ranar counts events. Foretelling is a special action that exiles one card, so every foretell is its own trigger. Eerie Interlude is the other way round: it exiles any number of your creatures at once, and Ranar makes one Spirit. Ghostly Flicker, Day of the Dragons and Synthetic Destiny work the same way. A turn with six mana can foretell three cards for four of it, and that's three Spirits. One big blink makes one.

The card that rewards the big blink is Hero of Bretagard. Its trigger is Ranar's word for word, and it puts one +1/+1 counter on itself for each card or permanent exiled, so Eerie Interlude on four creatures gives it four counters. At five counters it has flying and is an Angel. Ethereal Valkyrie is a quiet source for both: each time it enters or attacks it exiles a card from your hand face down and the card becomes foretold, which is an exile from hand. That's a Spirit for Ranar and a counter for Hero of Bretagard.

Soulherder gets a counter whenever a creature is exiled from the battlefield and blinks another of your creatures at each end step, so it grows every turn you have another creature to send through.

The Spirits are the first thing a blink spell loses

A token that is exiled ceases to exist. Ephemerate, Eerie Interlude, Ghostly Flicker, Flickerwisp, Restoration Angel and Soulherder all send a Spirit, Thopter or Soldier to the same place, and Glorious Protector exiles whatever non-Angel creatures you choose as it resolves, tokens included. Counters go too: a Hero of Bretagard that blinks itself returns with none. The targets are always the real cards, and the Spirits stay home.

Day of the Dragons has its own version. It counts token creatures when it makes Dragons, but only the nontoken ones come back when it leaves. Skyclave Apparition's version is in the FAQ.

Blink pays in cards, and Panharmonicon doubles the bill

Twenty creatures in the upgraded list have an enters trigger, eighteen of them already in the box. Mulldrifter draws two, Cloudblazer draws two and gains two life, Geist-Honored Monk makes two Spirits, Whirler Rogue makes two Thopters, Cloudgoat Ranger makes three Kithkin, and Sun Titan returns a permanent card with mana value 3 or less when it enters and when it attacks. Panharmonicon doubles each enters trigger, and Sun Titan's attack trigger stays single. It doesn't double Ranar or Hero of Bretagard, because those trigger on exile and not on a creature entering.

Vega and Sage of the Beyond are the other half of the foretell plan. Vega draws a card whenever you cast a spell from anywhere other than your hand, and Sage takes {2} of generic mana off those spells. A foretold card is cast from exile, and Momentary Blink's flashback is cast from the graveyard. That's eleven cards in the list, ten with foretell plus the flashback, that can draw a card with Vega out.

What the eleven replace

Meteor Golem is seven mana to destroy a nonland permanent an opponent controls. Destroy makes no Spirit, and Banishing Light does the same job for three and does make one. Surtland Elementalist is seven mana, or nine with no Giant in hand to reveal, and its attack trigger only helps if an instant or sorcery is waiting in your hand. Storm Herd is the only card at mana value ten and makes a Pegasus for each point of life, which only finishes a game you were already winning.

Spectral Deluge bounces each opposing creature with toughness no greater than the number of Islands you control. The box has 13 Island-type lands in 99 cards, so by turn six on the play, with twelve cards seen, you've drawn 1.6 of them on average and played fewer. It's a sweeper for small creatures. Warhorn Blast is +2/+1 for a turn, and Goldnight Commander and Marshal's Anthem already pump the team.

Swiftfoot Boots is the close call. It gives one creature hexproof and haste, and the creature worth protecting is Ranar, a 2/3 flier you can recast but only with a tax. In a list with 32 creatures I'd rather have Glorious Protector, which takes the creatures you choose out of a sweeper's reach.

Four of the box's eight tapped lands go: Sejiri Refuge and Tranquil Cove (each gains 1 life), Azorius Guildgate and Meandering River. Cryptic Caves goes as well, and it enters untapped. It makes only colourless mana in a list where blue and white each have spells wanting two pips of one colour.

The cards flagged as cuts that stay

Soulherder is a 1/1 for three, which looks small until you read the first ability: every creature exiled from the battlefield is a counter, and this deck exiles creatures on purpose. Sun Titan costs six, and its enters-or-attacks trigger can return Soulherder, Skyclave Apparition or a mana rock from the graveyard every turn. Evangel of Heliod costs six too, and it stays because its Soldiers give Ranar's team more bodies and Panharmonicon doubles it. Return to Dust only hits artifacts and enchantments, but it exiles two of them in your main phase for one Spirit.

The four tapped lands that stay each do something. Azorius Chancery returns a land to your hand and taps for two mana, Gates of Istfell sacrifices for two cards, Myriad Landscape fetches two basics, and Glacial Floodplain is a snow dual with both basic types.

Four fewer tapped lands, and white gets heavier

The swaps take the box's always-tapped lands from eight to four and add four lands with a condition. Blue sources rise from 27 to 28 and white from 29 to 30, because five two-colour lands replace four two-colour lands and one colourless land. Neither number is near the 36 sources the calculator wants for two pips of one colour by turn three. Double blue (Curse of the Swine, Day of the Dragons, Inspired Sphinx, Mist Raven, Sage of the Beyond, Saw It Coming, Synthetic Destiny and Whirler Rogue) goes from ten spells to eight and the chance of having UU on turn three on the play rises from 76.4 to 78.5 percent. White goes the other way: double white goes from ten spells to twelve, with Skyclave Apparition, Glorious Protector and Starnheim Unleashed arriving and Storm Herd leaving, and the chance of WW on turn three moves from 80.4 to 82.2 percent.

The new lands depend on land types. Glacial Fortress wants a Plains or an Island and 28 of the 36 lands have one: 25 basics, Glacial Floodplain, Hallowed Fountain and Prairie Stream. Prairie Stream wants two basic lands. Port Town wants a Plains or Island card revealed from your hand, and Hallowed Fountain costs 2 life to enter untapped. Adarkar Wastes makes {W} or {U} for 1 damage, or {C} for free.

The average mana value drops from 3.98 to 3.67, and the 1-drops go from one to three.

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

How many Spirits does Ranar make when I foretell several cards in one turn?

One for each foretell. Foretelling is a special action that exiles a single card from your hand, so every foretell is its own exile event and its own trigger. The first card you foretell each turn costs nothing to foretell and each later one costs {2}, so foretelling three cards in a turn costs four mana in total and leaves three 1/1 fliers behind. The list has ten cards with foretell: Sage of the Beyond, Stoic Farmer, Behold the Multiverse, Cosmic Intervention, Iron Verdict, Saw It Coming, Ravenform, Tales of the Ancestors, Starnheim Unleashed and Glorious Protector.

Does Eerie Interlude make a Spirit for every creature it exiles?

No. Ranar triggers once for each exile event, however many permanents leave together, so Eerie Interlude on four creatures makes one Spirit. The better payoff for a big blink is Hero of Bretagard, which has the same trigger and puts one +1/+1 counter on itself for each card or permanent exiled. Four creatures is four counters. Keep Ranar's own Spirit tokens out of the targets, because a token that is exiled ceases to exist and does not return.

What does the whole upgrade cost?

$19.99 for eleven cards at the cheapest released printing of each. Hallowed Fountain is $7.41 of that and the easiest part to skip, because the other ten come to $12.58. The other four lands already do most of its job. Star Trek reprints Hallowed Fountain on 13 November 2026, so expect that price to move.

Can I blink Skyclave Apparition?

You can, and you pay for it. When Skyclave Apparition leaves the battlefield, the owner of the card it exiled creates an X/X blue Illusion token, where X is that card's mana value, and the exiled card stays exiled. Blinking it with Ephemerate or Soulherder buys a second exile and hands the first target's owner a token, so do it when the second target is worth more than the first. It can only exile a nonland, nontoken permanent with mana value 4 or less.

Why isn't Thassa, Deep-Dwelling in the list?

It costs $23.21 at its cheapest printing and does a job the box already covers. At your end step it exiles up to one other creature you control and returns it, which is what Soulherder does, and Thassa is only a creature while your devotion to blue is five or more.

Does Teferi's Protection belong in a Ranar deck?

Not here. It is on the Game Changers list, and one Game Changer rules out Bracket 2, which neither the box nor this list does. It also phases your permanents out instead of exiling them, and phasing does not trigger Ranar.