Bedecked Brokers precon upgrade guide

Perrie's pump counts kinds of counters, the box can reach 21 kinds, and the 22 cards that place +1/+1 counters have almost nothing to make them bigger.

Perrie, the Pulverizer has two jobs. When she enters she puts a shield counter on a creature, and when she attacks one creature you control gains trample and +X/+X, where X is the number of different kinds of counters among permanents you control. By my count the box can produce 21 kinds. Seventeen of them come from ordinary cards: +1/+1, shield, flying, first strike, vigilance, deathtouch, hexproof, double strike, feather, charge, hour, fate, brick, hoofprint, -1/-1, -0/-1 and loyalty. The other four (lifelink, menace, reach and trample) are only reachable through the random pick on Crystalline Giant. Kinds aren't the scarce thing.

A Vivid land enters with two charge counters, Llanowar Reborn enters with a +1/+1 counter, and Perrie's own shield counter is a third kind, so X can be 3 before any creature carries a counter. What the list can't do is make those counters count for more. 22 cards in the box put +1/+1 counters on something and 8 proliferate, and the only effect that multiplies anything is Vorel of the Hull Clade, who has to tap and pay {G}{U} each time. The nine swaps add three effects that raise every +1/+1 counter placed on a creature you control, a draw spell that pays for each creature wearing one, a one-mana exile, Cultivate, and three duals that can enter untapped, which takes the always-tapped lands from 9 to 6. They cost $34.37. None of them changes X, and I'd rather say that here than let the page imply it.

What are the best Bedecked Brokers upgrades?

Best first, judged on how many of the box's counters each card improves. The cut list pays for the slots, and each price is the lowest one for a printing that's out today, promos included.

1. Hardened Scales ($1.84): {G} adds one to every batch of +1/+1 counters that lands on a creature you control, each proliferate included.
2. Branching Evolution ($7.07): {2}{G} doubles those batches. With both out you pick the order, so Luminarch Aspirant's one counter each combat can become four.
3. Inspiring Call ($0.28): an instant for {2}{G} that draws a card for each creature you control with a +1/+1 counter and makes those creatures indestructible until end of turn.
4. Swords to Plowshares ($0.98): {W} exiles a creature at instant speed, and its controller gains life equal to its power. The box's cheapest creature answer is Declaration in Stone, a two-mana sorcery.
5. Conclave Mentor ($0.34): {G}{W} is a 2/2 that adds the same extra counter as Hardened Scales, and it gains you life equal to its power when it dies.
6. Cultivate ($0.39): {2}{G} puts one basic onto the battlefield tapped and another in your hand, and it triggers landfall for Evolution Sage.
7. Temple Garden ($6.50), Hallowed Fountain ($7.41) and Breeding Pool ($9.56): enter untapped for 2 life or tapped. Each carries two basic land types.

Eight proliferate cards with nothing to multiply

Evolution Sage proliferates on every land drop. Thrummingbird, Grateful Apparition and Park Heights Maverick proliferate when they connect, Karn's Bastion does it for {4} and a tap, and Tezzeret's Gambit draws two and then proliferates. Brokers Confluence can proliferate three times in one instant, and Roalesk, Apex Hybrid does it twice when it dies. Each one adds a single counter of each kind you choose from what's already on the table.

That's a small return on eight cards, and the three new effects are where it grows. A replacement effect applies to every +1/+1 counter put on a creature you control, wherever it came from. Hardened Scales turns a proliferate from one counter per creature to two, Branching Evolution does the same, and the pair together make four if you apply Scales first. Skyboon Evangelist's support 6 gives each of six creatures two counters under Branching Evolution. Luminarch Aspirant, which can target itself, adds a counter every turn, so it collects the multiplier every turn. Conclave Mentor stacks with Hardened Scales for a second plus one, but it's a 2/2 that can be killed, so I count it as a bonus and not a replacement.

Perrie's trigger only cares that a kind exists, so none of this raises X. What it raises is the creature the +X/+X lands on, which has usually been growing for turns by the time she attacks.

Where the mana changes, and where it doesn't

The box runs 38 lands and 14 are basic. Nine always enter tapped (Littjara Mirrorlake, Llanowar Reborn, Myriad Landscape, Path of Ancestry, Seaside Citadel, Temple of Mystery and the three Vivid lands), and four more are conditional. Colour sources read 28 green, 25 blue and 25 white. A one-pip spell on turn two wants 24 sources, so all three clear it. Two pips by turn three is where they fall short.

White is the colour that looks worst on paper, short by 11 sources for a double pip at 71.8%, and the cause is four spells: Together Forever, Avenging Huntbonder, Planar Outburst and Damning Verdict. Three of them are cuts, so the problem leaves with the cards and no land has to be bought for it. The check left standing is Damning Verdict at five mana, 82.4% by turn five. Green is different. Rishkar's Expertise, Roalesk and Steelbane Hydra need GG, and the swaps leave that line where it was, at 78.5% with 28 sources. Steelbane Hydra at two mana is the only one asking early, since the other two cost five or six.

The three shocklands take the slots of Littjara Mirrorlake, Myriad Landscape and Path of Ancestry. The count of sources doesn't rise, because Myriad Landscape and Path of Ancestry each count as a source of all three colours, and after the swaps it reads green 28, blue 24 and white 25. Blue sits exactly on the 24 a one-pip spell wants (90.1%). What improves is tempo: six lands enter tapped instead of nine, and the three new ones cost 2 life each time you want them untapped. Cultivate covers the colour that runs short in a given game, since it finds a basic of whichever one you need.

Nine cards that go

• Power Conduit: {T} and remove a counter from a permanent you control to put a charge counter on an artifact or a +1/+1 counter on a creature. It spends a counter to place one, and if the counter it removes is the last of its kind, it takes that kind out of Perrie's count.
• Gavel of the Righteous: one charge counter each of your combats, +1/+1 per counter, and double strike at four. That's four turns before it does anything unusual, on a single creature, and the Vivid lands and Everflowing Chalice already supply charge counters.
• Wickerbough Elder: a 4/4 that enters with a -1/-1 counter and destroys one artifact or enchantment for {G} and then stops. Bant Charm, Brokers Charm, Generous Gift and Steelbane Hydra all answer the same permanents, and Devoted Druid still supplies a -1/-1 counter.
• Planar Outburst: destroys every nonland creature, and for eight mana it also awakens a land. The box has 31 creatures and the plan is to grow them. Damning Verdict and Oblivion Stone stay as the sweepers that can spare your board.
• Together Forever: {W}{W} for support 2 and a {1} ability that returns a creature with a counter to hand if it dies. The ability is a real protection effect, and that's why it was close. Double white on turn two in a three-colour deck is the cost, and Conclave Mentor gets more out of every counter for {G}{W}.
• Avenging Huntbonder: a 3/3 double striker for {3}{W}{W} that gives another attacker a double strike counter. It's the only double strike counter in the box, so cutting it takes the count of reachable kinds from 21 to 20. It's also one of eight five-drops, and the cards at five mana or more go from 11 to 9.
• Myriad Landscape: enters tapped, then costs {2} and its own tap to fetch two basics that also enter tapped. It does ramp, but it's slow for the mana.
• Path of Ancestry: a tapped land whose scry only happens when the mana pays for a Rhino or Soldier. Besides Perrie, only Bribe Taker and Park Heights Maverick share a type.
• Littjara Mirrorlake: a tapped land that makes only blue. Its copy ability costs {2}{G}{G}{U}, sacrifices the land and works at sorcery speed.

Five cards that earn their slots

Luminarch Aspirant buffs one creature a turn, but it's the single best card in the deck for Hardened Scales and Branching Evolution to sit on. Skyboon Evangelist is a flying five-drop with support 6, and it lets any creature carrying a counter fly when it attacks an opponent. Ajani Unyielding at six mana digs three cards deep for nonland permanents with +2, exiles a creature with -2, and puts five +1/+1 counters on each creature you control with -9.

Rishkar's Expertise is the sorcery I'd defend hardest. You draw as many cards as your biggest creature's power, then cast a spell of mana value 5 or less for free, and Perrie's +X/+X lasts until end of turn. Attack first, then cast it in the second main phase, and a pumped creature can set the number of cards. Swiftfoot Boots stays too: hexproof and haste for {1} to equip means Perrie can attack, and trigger, on the turn she lands.

Four good cards I left out

Doubling Season ($28.22) is the card for a table that wants more, and the FAQ says why it ranks behind the first nine. Heroic Intervention ($9.24) gives every permanent you control hexproof and indestructible for a turn and is the next protection buy after Inspiring Call. Teferi's Protection ($35.27) is a Game Changer, which would move the deck up from the Bracket 1 floor it has now to Bracket 3 at least, and Cathars' Crusade ($4.49) wants {W}{W} at five mana, the pip problem I just spent a section cutting. None of the nine adds is a Game Changer.

Priced at today's Scryfall market, the box is $102.92 and the upgraded deck $125.24. The nonland cards at five mana or more fall from 11 to 9 and average mana value from 3.18 to 3.07. Every count here comes from the 100 shipped cards resolved against Scryfall.

The upgraded decklist

The full hundred after the nine swaps. Hover any name to see the card and its current prices.

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

Do the shield counters Kros hands out count toward Perrie's pump?

No. Perrie counts the kinds of counters among permanents you control, and Kros puts its shield counters on creatures an opponent controls. Those creatures are tapped and goaded as well, so they have to attack someone other than you, but they add nothing to X. Shield counters on your own permanents do count: Perrie's enters trigger, Contractual Safeguard, Family's Favor and Agent's Toolkit all put them there.

Does proliferate make Perrie's pump bigger?

Not by itself. Proliferate gives another counter of each kind that's already there, so the number of kinds stays where it was. What it changes is the size of the creatures carrying +1/+1 counters, which is where Hardened Scales and Branching Evolution come in. With Hardened Scales out, a proliferate puts two +1/+1 counters on each creature that has one, and with Branching Evolution as well it puts four if you apply Scales first.

Is Damning Verdict safe to cast with my own creatures out?

Only the ones wearing a counter. It destroys every creature with no counters on it, yours included, so a creature that hasn't received a counter yet dies with the rest. Cast it after Luminarch Aspirant's trigger or Skyboon Evangelist's support has landed. Inspiring Call is the other half, because it makes every creature with a +1/+1 counter indestructible in response to someone else's wrath. Planar Outburst had no such filter, which is why it's one of the cuts.

What do the nine swaps cost?

The nine adds come to $34.37 at the lowest price for a printing that's out today. The box resolves to $102.92 at today's Scryfall market prices with every copy priced, and the upgraded hundred to $125.24, because the cuts are worth about $12 between them. The three shocklands are $23.47 of the bill, and Branching Evolution at $7.07 is the only other card above $2.

Should I buy the shocklands with a reprint coming?

Scryfall lists all ten shocklands in the Star Trek set due on 13 November 2026, so today's $6.50 to $9.56 prices may fall. What the three buy is lands that enter untapped for 2 life each, which takes the always-tapped count from nine to six. Colour sources don't rise, and blue slips from 25 to 24 because Myriad Landscape and Path of Ancestry each count as a source of every colour. If you'd rather wait for the reprint, the other six swaps work without them.

Why not Doubling Season?

It doubles counters of every kind and tokens too, and it isn't a Game Changer. It's $28.22 at its cheapest printing and costs five mana, against Branching Evolution at $7.07 and three, which already doubles the +1/+1 half. Doubling Season doesn't add a kind of counter, so Perrie's pump doesn't move either way. It's the next thing I'd buy for this deck if the first nine are in and you want more.