Maestros Massacre precon upgrade guide

All 14 creatures in this box can pay for casualty, so the part of the plan that needs work is what they get sacrificed for.

Anhelo, the Painter gives the first instant or sorcery you cast each turn casualty 2. Sacrifice a creature with power 2 or more as you cast it, and you copy the spell. Every one of the box's other 14 creatures clears that bar, from Bloodsoaked Champion at 2/1 to Parnesse, the Subtle Brush at 4/4, and five of them (Bloodsoaked Champion, Squee, the Immortal, Skyclave Shade, Woe Strider and Rekindling Phoenix) come back from the graveyard. Fodder isn't scarce. The weight sits in the spells it feeds. Nine of the box's 31 instants and sorceries cost six mana or more, and 17 nonland cards cost five or more against an average mana value of 3.65.

The ten swaps take the nonland cards at six mana or more from 10 to 4 and those at five or more from 17 to 8, and average mana value falls to 3.03. What comes in is cheap: removal and a sweeper that are worth two of themselves when copied, three more ways to copy a spell, and a creature that draws on every instant or sorcery you cast or copy. The adds cost $14.59. Every figure here comes from resolving the shipped decklist card by card.

What are the best Maestros Massacre upgrades?

Best first, judged on how well each card works with casualty. The cut list pays for the slots, and each price is the lowest one for a printing that's out today, promos included.

1. Increasing Vengeance ($0.86): {R}{R} copies an instant or sorcery you control, and cast from the graveyard for its {3}{R}{R} flashback it copies twice.
2. Archmage Emeritus ($0.74): draws a card whenever you cast or copy an instant or sorcery, so a spell with a casualty copy draws two.
3. Dualcaster Mage ($3.62): a flash 2/2 that copies any instant or sorcery spell when it enters, yours or an opponent's.
4. Narset's Reversal ($2.04): {U}{U} copies an instant or sorcery spell, then returns the original to its owner's hand. On your own spell you keep the card.
5. Terminate ($0.29): {B}{R} destroys a creature, and as your first spell of the turn with a sacrifice it destroys two.
6. Lightning Bolt ($0.81): 3 damage to any target for {R}.
7. Chaos Warp ($0.31): shuffles any permanent into its owner's library, lands included.
8. Toxic Deluge ($4.97): pay X life and every creature gets -X/-X, for three mana.
9. Talisman of Indulgence ($0.46): black or red mana for two, and it deals you 1 damage each time it makes a coloured mana.
10. Talisman of Creativity ($0.49): blue or red, on the same terms.

A cheap spell is the best thing to copy

The copy that casualty makes resolves before the original, and you can choose new targets for it. That makes the price of a spell and the value of its copy two separate numbers, and too much of the box's list sits on the expensive end of that bargain. Feed the Swarm at two mana and Bedevil at three kill two creatures when either is the first spell of your turn and the casualty is paid, while Hex at six mana needs six creatures to point at.

Terminate and Lightning Bolt are the cheap instant-speed versions, with Bolt limited to creatures with 3 toughness or less. Chaos Warp answers any permanent at instant speed, enchantments included, which Audacious Swap (nonenchantments only, and four mana) can't. Toxic Deluge is the sweeper: X is the life you pay, every creature gets -X/-X including yours, and with a big enough X, the creature you sacrifice for casualty as you cast it is one that was going to die anyway. Rekindling Phoenix and Squee, the Immortal are the creatures that come back afterwards.

The three copy spells and the draw engine fit together. Archmage Emeritus triggers on the cast and on each copy, so a spell with Anhelo's casualty copy draws two cards, and one that Double Vision copies as well draws three. Every extra copy from Increasing Vengeance is another card. Copies aren't cast, so Cryptic Pursuit doesn't care about them and the cost reducers don't discount them. Narset's Reversal can copy the original and send it back to your hand, so you keep the card to cast again, and Dualcaster Mage brings a body with power 2 that can be the next sacrifice.

Ten cards that go

• Clone Legion: {7}{U}{U} for a token copy of every creature target player controls, and the deck has 14 creatures besides Anhelo.
• Army of the Damned: thirteen tapped 2/2 Zombies for {5}{B}{B}{B}, which is eight mana with three black pips, and the flashback costs ten.
• Dig Through Time: {6}{U}{U} with delve, and delve can exile the very cards that Kess, Dissident Mage, Deep Analysis's flashback and Woe Strider's escape need to find in the graveyard.
• Hex: destroys exactly six target creatures, so it needs six on the battlefield between you and the table before it does anything.
• River's Rebuke: returns one player's nonland permanents to their hand at sorcery speed for six. A casualty copy could hit a second player, which is why it was close.
• Extravagant Replication: {4}{U}{U} and nothing happens until your next upkeep, when it copies another nonland permanent. At six mana it's the slowest way in the deck to copy anything.
• Zndrsplt's Judgment: five mana for a creature copy or a creature bounce, per player. It needs a creature worth copying, and the foe half only bounces.
• Flawless Forgery: needs an instant or sorcery in an opponent's graveyard and casualty 3, and only seven of the box's 14 creatures have power 3 or more.
• Parnesse, the Subtle Brush: "whenever you copy a spell, up to one target opponent may also copy that spell." Anhelo's casualty copies a spell every turn you pay for it, and each time an opponent could copy it as well. Its other ability makes opponents pay 4 life to target you or your permanents, but five mana for a card that gives your engine to the table is the wrong trade.
• Smuggler's Buggy: {4} for a Vehicle with crew 2 that has to connect with a player before it casts anything.

Eight expensive cards I kept, and the reason for each

Eight cards at five mana or more survive, and each one does something a cheap spell can't. Double Vision copies your first instant or sorcery every turn, which is also the spell Anhelo copies, so the first spell becomes three. Rite of the Raging Storm hands you a 5/1 Lightning Rager at every upkeep of your own, and it can be sacrificed to casualty before it dies at end of turn. Each opponent gets one at theirs, but a Lightning Rager can't attack you.

Puppeteer Clique persists, so it pays for casualty twice: it returns as a 2/1 and still has power 2. The creature it takes from an opponent's graveyard has haste and can be the sacrifice as well, if its power is 2 or more. Call the Skybreaker retraces by discarding a land, and a deck with 37 lands has spare ones for a 5/5 flier each time. Reign of the Pit makes every player sacrifice a creature and gives you a flying Demon as big as the total power sacrificed. The creature you paid for casualty with isn't counted, because that sacrifice happened as you cast it. Xander's Pact and Maestros Confluence are the two other six-drops I kept. The Pact has casualty 2 of its own, and the Confluence picks three modes, which a copy picks again. Mystic Confluence is an instant at five mana, so it can be cast on someone else's turn.

Fixing comes from rocks, not shocklands

The box runs 37 lands and 18 are basic. Seven always enter tapped (Crumbling Necropolis, Myriad Landscape, Path of Ancestry, the three Thriving lands and Temple of Epiphany), and four more are conditional. Black counts 28 sources, red 26 and blue 28. A one-pip spell on turn two wants 24, so all three clear it. Two pips by turn three is where they fall short: black reads 78.5%, red 74.2%, and blue's double pip, which first appears at four mana in the stock list, reads 83.7% by turn four.

Red is the colour to fix, and the two Talismans do it. Talisman of Indulgence and Talisman of Creativity both make red, and they take sources to 29 black, 28 red and 29 blue. The double-pip lines get better but don't close: black 80.4%, red 78.5%. Blue's line moves to turn three, because Archmage Emeritus and Narset's Reversal both ask for two blue pips early, and it reads 80.4% there. The two lines aren't a like-for-like comparison.

I tried the three shocklands against the three Thriving lands. Watery Grave ($9.56), Blood Crypt ($9.34) and Steam Vents ($9.77) leave every colour one source lower, and a set due on 13 November 2026 reprints all ten shocklands.

The hundred afterwards

Creatures go from 15 to 16, counting Anhelo. Instants and sorceries go from 31 to 30. Two-drops rise from 16 to 21, and the cards at five mana or more drop from 17 to 8. Lands stay at 37 with the same seven tapped. Neither list contains a Game Changer, so both sit at the Bracket 1 floor, and the cards I left out for price alone aren't Game Changers either. The box resolves to $99.38 at today's Scryfall market prices with every copy priced and the upgraded hundred to $102.39, with the ten cuts worth $11.58.

Three good cards stayed out. Counterspell ($2.21) is the next one I'd buy, and I stopped before it because blue's double pip is already short. Fork ($33.74) copies any instant or sorcery, but Increasing Vengeance does the same for your own at under a dollar. Rhystic Study ($65.98) and Cyclonic Rift ($29.77) are both Game Changers, which would rule the deck out of Bracket 2, so they sit in the FAQ and not the list.

The upgraded decklist

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

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FAQ

Which creatures should I sacrifice to Anhelo's casualty?

Start with the ones that come back or pay you for dying. Cormela, Glamour Thief returns an instant or sorcery from your graveyard to your hand when she dies. Bloodsoaked Champion returns for {1}{B} once you've attacked, Squee, the Immortal can be cast from the graveyard, Woe Strider escapes for {3}{B}{B} with four other cards exiled, and Rekindling Phoenix leaves a token that returns it at your next upkeep. Skyclave Shade can be cast from the graveyard on your turn after a land enters. All 14 creatures in the box besides Anhelo have power 2 or more, so none of them is too small to pay the cost.

Do the copies from casualty count as spells I cast?

No. A casualty copy is put on the stack without being cast, and it resolves before the original. Cryptic Pursuit, which triggers when you cast an instant or sorcery from your hand, manifests once for a spell and its copy together, and Goblin Electromancer's discount applies only to the spell you cast. Archmage Emeritus is the exception worth building around, because its magecraft reads cast or copy. Pay the casualty cost on the first spell of a turn and it draws two cards.

What do the ten swaps cost?

The ten adds come to $14.59 at the lowest price for a printing that's out today. The box resolves to $99.38 at today's Scryfall market prices and the upgraded hundred to $102.39, because the ten cuts are worth $11.58 between them. Toxic Deluge at $4.97 and Dualcaster Mage at $3.62 are most of the bill.

Why leave out Rhystic Study and Cyclonic Rift?

Both are Game Changers, and a single Game Changer rules a deck out of Bracket 2. The box has none, so it can sit at the lowest brackets as it stands. Rhystic Study is $65.98 and Cyclonic Rift is $29.77 at their cheapest printings, so price is also against them, but the bracket is the real reason. If your table plays Bracket 3 they're the two blue cards I'd buy first.

Should the three Thriving lands become shocklands?

I tested it and every colour count drops by one (blue and black from 28 to 27, red from 26 to 25). What the swap buys is lands that enter untapped for 2 life each, at about $28.67 for Watery Grave, Blood Crypt and Steam Vents, and a set due on 13 November 2026 reprints all ten shocklands. I left them out.

Is Toxic Deluge safe in a deck with 16 creatures?

It's safe when you choose X. Every creature gets -X/-X, yours included, so you pay the life and decide how much of your own board lives. A creature that's about to die can be the one you sacrifice to casualty as you cast it, and Rekindling Phoenix, Squee and Bloodsoaked Champion can all return afterwards. It costs three mana, where Chain Reaction costs four and only hits hard once the board is full.