Blame Game precon upgrade guide

Nelly Borca pays a card to whichever opponent just hit another opponent, and two enchantments already in this box take that card straight back.

The commander charges you a card, and the box knows how to collect it

Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser draws you a card whenever creatures an opponent controls deal combat damage to one of your other opponents. That clause has a second half most reviews skip: the controller of those creatures draws one too. Every time the plan works, you are paying the person whose creature you just aimed at someone else.

Two white enchantments in the ninety-nine collect that debt. Trouble in Pairs draws you a card whenever an opponent draws their second card in a turn. Smuggler's Share draws you one at each end step for every opponent who drew two or more that turn. An opponent's draw step is their first card. Nelly's gift is normally their second.

Nothing on the packaging mentions it, and it is the best piece of design in the box.

The attack trigger rewards a close reading too. Nelly suspects one creature, then goads every suspected creature. Suspect is permanent, and a suspected creature has menace and can't block for the rest of the game. Goad only runs until your next turn. So the pool of creatures that can never block you grows by one per attack, and Nelly re-goads that entire pool every time she swings. Four combats in, four of the table's creatures are permanently unable to block and are being pointed at each other on a loop.

What are the best Blame Game upgrades?

Five purchases, heaviest first. Price had no say in the order. The mana counts as one purchase, because a single dual land bought on its own moves nothing you could measure.

1. Repercussion ($14.28). Whenever a creature is dealt damage, it deals that much damage to that creature's controller. This deck's entire plan is creatures dealing damage to each other, and Repercussion bills both players for every block. It is the card that turns goad from an irritation into a clock.
2. Fumiko the Lowblood ($0.58). Creatures your opponents control attack each combat if able. Thirteen cards in this box use the word goad and nine of them handle one creature at a time. Fumiko does it to everybody, permanently, for four mana, and the box's own Ghostly Prison and Windborn Muse are what make sure the attack lands somewhere other than on you.
3. Five lands ($10.82 for Battlefield Forge, Clifftop Retreat, Inspiring Vantage, Sundown Pass and Spectator Seating). Red sits on eighteen sources supporting ten spells that want two red pips. The section below has the arithmetic.
4. Swords to Plowshares ($1.31). The box ships four spot removal spells in a hundred cards, under the range a deck this interactive needs.
5. Norn's Annex ($5.10). A third tax on attacking you, and the only one you can cast off white mana and life instead of mana alone, which matters in a deck this colour-hungry.

Nine cards need an opponent to point something at me first

Here is the contradiction at the centre of the box. The commander exists to make other people's creatures attack other people. Nine cards in the ninety-nine carry a clause that only switches on when an attack or a damage source is aimed at me.

• Darien, King of Kjeldor, {4}{W}{W}: makes Soldiers when you're dealt damage.
• Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs, {3}{R}{R}: makes Ogres when a creature attacks and you're the defending player.
• Selfless Squire, {3}{W}: grows when damage to you is prevented.
• Comeuppance, {3}{W}: prevents damage aimed at you and reflects it.
• Deflecting Palm, {R}{W}: the same trick, for one source.
• Gideon's Sacrifice, {W}: redirects damage that would hit you.
• Soul Snare, {W}: exiles a creature that's attacking you.
• Stalking Leonin, {2}{W}: exiles a creature that's attacking you.
• Otherworldly Escort, {3}{W}: destroys a creature that dealt damage to you this turn.

That isn't automatically wrong. Goad expires at your next turn, Nelly can only suspect one creature per attack, and a table that has worked out what you're doing will eventually send something your way. Insurance belongs in the deck.

Nine slots of insurance does not, and the three priciest offenders are the clearest cuts. Darien and Kazuul ask for six and five mana to reward a thing you have spent the whole game preventing. Selfless Squire is a four-mana flash blocker whose upside scales with how badly the plan is failing. Those three leave. The six cheap instants and one-mana enchantments stay, because a card that costs one or two mana and answers the game going wrong is the right shape for insurance.

Fourteen of the thirty-seven lands make no coloured mana

This is the number behind the deck's stumbling draws. Thirty-seven lands is a fine count. Fourteen of them tap for colourless only: Access Tunnel, Ash Barrens, Escape Tunnel, Kher Keep, Labyrinth of Skophos, Myriad Landscape, Reliquary Tower, Rogue's Passage, Scavenger Grounds, Slayers' Stronghold, Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion, Temple of the False God, Throne of the High City and War Room.

Several of those earn the slot. War Room draws cards, Rogue's Passage gets Nelly through a blocker, and Slayers' Stronghold and Sunhome both push her damage. It is the arithmetic they leave behind that hurts. Red ends up on eighteen sources. Ten spells want two red pips, Disrupt Decorum, Vengeful Ancestor, Mob Verdict and Rite of the Raging Storm among them, and the chance of having double red available on turn three works out at 51.5%. In roughly half your games the four-mana goad spell that defines the deck is sitting in your hand.

Four more lands enter tapped and give nothing back for it: Needle Spires, Temple of Triumph, Boros Garrison and Myriad Landscape.

Five swaps fix most of this without touching a utility land anyone would miss. Battlefield Forge is always untapped and charges a life for coloured mana. Clifftop Retreat is untapped whenever you control a Mountain or a Plains, which with sixteen basics is nearly every turn after the first. Spectator Seating asks only that somebody else is sitting at the table, so at any pod it is simply a dual. Inspiring Vantage and Sundown Pass are a matched pair pulling opposite ways. One rewards an empty board and the other a developed one, and their thresholds overlap at exactly two other lands, so whichever turn the pair arrives, one of them comes down untapped.

Thirteen cards leave

Three are the hedges above. Three more are top-end cards that do nothing for the plan: Ancient Stone Idol at ten mana, Sun Titan at six, and Havoc Eater at seven for one round of goad that Bloodthirsty Blade performs every turn for two.

Two are board wipes, and they leave for a reason peculiar to this deck. Winds of Rath and Promise of Loyalty both clear opponents' creatures. Opponents' creatures are the thing this deck draws cards off. A goad deck that resolves a sweeper has switched off its own commander. Elspeth, Sun's Champion stays as the one sweeper worth keeping, because her minus three only takes power four and up, which is a fair description of the thing that was actually about to kill you.

The last five are lands. Needle Spires and Temple of Triumph go for entering tapped with no compensation, and Temple of the False God, Access Tunnel and Labyrinth of Skophos for making no coloured mana. Labyrinth is the one worth defending. Four mana to pull a creature out of combat is a defensive rate, and pulling a goaded attacker out of combat is undoing your own work.

Five auras and an Equipment that go on their side of the table

A three-mana aura that buffs one creature reads like filler in a deck with twenty-seven of them. Six of this box's attachments are not meant for your creatures at all.

Martial Impetus and Shiny Impetus both goad the creature they enchant and pay you for the attack, with a team pump and a Treasure respectively. Redemption Arc goads and hands you an exile button at {1}{W}, which makes it the tidiest removal spell in the deck once the creature has finished attacking somebody else. Vow of Duty and Vow of Lightning make a creature bigger and forbid it from attacking you, which is the same effect approached from the other side. Bloodthirsty Blade goads for two and relocates to a new target for one, every turn, with no card spent.

Hot Pursuit belongs to that family without being an aura, and Curse of Opulence enchants a player rather than a creature. All eight stay.

Two other keeps are worth a sentence. Fiendish Duo doubles any damage dealt to an opponent, which is the front half of Gisela, Blade of Goldnight for one mana less, and in a deck engineering opponent-on-opponent combat that half is the useful one. Duelist's Heritage grants double strike to any attacking creature rather than only yours, so it doubles a goaded attacker's damage against whichever player you least want winning.

Thirteen cards arrive, and one stays out over its bracket

Repercussion, Fumiko the Lowblood and Norn's Annex are the plan. Swords to Plowshares, Generous Gift and Chaos Warp take spot removal from four to six, which is where this deck should have started. Boros Signet is an eighth ramp piece that fixes colour on the way past. Swiftfoot Boots is the only protection in the deck for a four-mana 3/3 that has to attack before anything happens at all, and the box ships none.

Twelve of the thirteen come to $35.40 together. Chaos Warp is the thirteenth, and the printing these prices are read from carries no market number right now, so treat that total as a floor rather than the whole bill.

Smothering Tithe is the strongest white card this deck could run and it is not on the list. Money is not the reason. It sits on the Game Changer list, so one copy takes the bracket floor from one to three, and a precon somebody bought to play at a kitchen table ought to be allowed to stay where it is. Buy it if your pod is already playing at Bracket 3. Esper Sentinel stayed out on price alone, at $59.32, which is more than these thirteen cards cost together.

Grand Melee looks like it belongs here and doesn't. It forces all creatures to attack, yours included, and Wall of Omens and Keeper of the Accord would both rather stay home.

Twenty-two red sources, and what else changed

Red goes from eighteen sources to twenty-two, and double red on turn three from 51.5% to 63.9%. White goes from twenty-one to twenty-five, taking the single white pip from three sources short to one over, at 91.2%. Lands entering tapped for nothing drop from four to two.

Average mana value falls from 3.65 to 3.24. The ten-drop is gone, the six-drops go from six to four, and the three-slot grows from fifteen cards to eighteen. Ramp moves from seven to eight and spot removal from four to six, which puts both inside the normal range for the first time.

The bracket floor doesn't move. It was Bracket 1 in the box and it is Bracket 1 after thirteen swaps, because nothing added here is a Game Changer and nothing added here makes a two-card combo.

The upgraded decklist

Card names on this page are hoverable. Point at one to see the card, its printing and its current prices.

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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 — no account needed.

FAQ

Does Nelly Borca draw cards for my opponents as well?

Yes. When creatures an opponent controls deal combat damage to another opponent, you draw a card and so does the controller of those creatures. It is a real cost, and the box answers it. Trouble in Pairs and Smuggler's Share both pay you when an opponent draws a second card in a turn, and Nelly's gift is usually exactly that second card.

Can a goaded creature still block my attackers?

Goad on its own does not stop a creature blocking. It forces the creature to attack, and to attack somebody other than you if it can. The reason this deck's targets stop blocking is suspect, a separate keyword Nelly applies on each of her attacks, which gives the creature menace and takes blocking away permanently.

What bracket does the upgraded deck sit in?

Bracket 1, the same as the box. None of the thirteen additions is on the Game Changer list and none of them makes a two-card combo. Smothering Tithe would be the obvious pick on raw power and it is left out for exactly this reason, since one copy takes the floor to Bracket 3.

Do I still want Ghostly Prison and Windborn Muse if everything is goaded?

Yes, and they get better once Fumiko the Lowblood is on the battlefield. Goad expires at your next turn and only ever applies to creatures you have goaded. The two taxes apply to every creature at the table in every combat, and that is what converts a forced attack into an attack on somebody else.

What do the thirteen upgrades cost?

$35.40 for twelve of the thirteen, at market prices for their default printings. Chaos Warp is the thirteenth and carries no market price on the printing these numbers come from, so the real total runs a little higher. Repercussion is $14.28 of that, and the five land swaps together are $10.82.

Is Blame Game worth buying for the reprints alone?

The hundred cards price at a floor of $143.80. No single card carries that: Trouble in Pairs at $25.73 is the most expensive thing in the box, with Smuggler's Share at $9.57 behind it. Both are cards this deck genuinely wants, which is not usually true of a precon's price leaders.