Riveteers Rampage precon upgrade guide

Henzie gives blitz to 27 of the 29 other creatures in this box, and only five cards in the 99 react when one of them dies.

Henzie "Toolbox" Torre costs {B}{R}{G} and gives every creature spell you cast with mana value 4 or greater blitz, at its own mana cost. A blitzed creature has haste, draws you a card when it dies and is sacrificed at the beginning of the next end step. In this box that covers 27 of the 29 other creatures. The two it skips are Weathered Sentinels ({3}) and Overgrown Battlement ({1}{G}). Once Henzie has been cast from the command zone, every blitz cost you pay is {1} cheaper, and {1} cheaper again for each recast.

That makes the deck a rental shop. Each big creature arrives with haste, uses its enters or attacks trigger, replaces itself with a card and leaves a death behind. Five cards in the 99 do something when a creature dies. Caldaia Guardian makes two 1/1 Citizens when a creature of yours with mana value 4 or greater dies, Kresh the Bloodbraided grows by the dead creature's power, Stalking Vengeance deals damage equal to that power to a player or planeswalker, Deathreap Ritual lets you draw a card at an end step if a creature died earlier in the turn, and Next of Kin puts a cheaper creature onto the battlefield when its enchanted creature dies.

Two cards in the box work against the rental. Aether Snap exiles every token on the table, which takes in the Citizens, Plants, Oozes and Beasts this deck makes, and Turf War marks a land of yours as well as theirs, so any attacker that connects with you can take it. The swaps pull both out along with three other spells, add three cards that pay out on the sacrifice itself, and replace three tapped lands with three that can enter untapped. That's eight cards for $23.57.

What are the best Riveteers Rampage upgrades?

The payoffs first, then the mana, then the instant-speed answers. Prices are October 2026 market prices at the cheapest released printing, which can be a promo.

1. Pitiless Plunderer ($3.04). It makes a Treasure whenever another creature you control dies. A blitzed creature dies at the end of every turn it's cast, so the next rental starts with a Treasure, and a Treasure is mana of any color for the {B}{B} and {G}{G} spells the lands can't always cast.
2. Mayhem Devil ($0.30). It deals 1 damage to any target whenever a player sacrifices a permanent. The end-step sacrifice counts and so does every Treasure you crack. It's also one of three creatures in the 99 that cost less than four.
3. Syr Konrad, the Grim ($1.00). It deals 1 damage to each opponent whenever another creature dies, whoever controls it. At a four-player table that's three damage in total for every blitz sacrifice.
4. Overgrown Tomb ($8.09), Blood Crypt ($9.34) and Woodland Cemetery ($0.62). Three lands that replace three tapped ones, argued in the mana section. The two shock lands are $17.43 of the $23.57 and are the part to buy last.
5. Assassin's Trophy ($0.99) and Putrefy ($0.19). Instant-speed removal for {B}{G} and {1}{B}{G}. The only removal in the box that costs less than three mana is Terminate, and it only hits creatures.

Which creatures to blitz, and which to keep on the table

Blitz is a one-turn rental, so the creatures worth renting are the ones that pay out on arriving or on leaving. Thragtusk gains you 5 life when it enters and leaves a 3/3 Beast when it's sacrificed, so renting it costs only the 5/3 body. Inferno Titan deals 3 damage divided as you choose when it enters and 3 more when it attacks, and haste means both happen the turn it lands. Solemn Simulacrum fetches a basic land when it enters and draws a card when it dies, and the blitz draw is a second one. Treeshaker Chimera draws three when it dies, which makes four with the blitz draw, and it's an 8/5 that every creature able to block it has to block. Greenwarden of Murasa returns a card from your graveyard to your hand when it enters, and when it dies you may exile it to return another. Caldaia Guardian has a blitz cost of its own, {2}{G}, and leaves two Citizens behind when it goes.

Wave of Rats is the odd one. If it dealt combat damage to a player before the end step, its own death trigger returns it to the battlefield, so you keep the creature and the card.

The ones to keep on the table are the payoffs. A sacrificed Kresh the Bloodbraided keeps none of the counters it earned, and Stalking Vengeance can only fire for creatures that die after it arrives. Deathbringer Regent is a judgment call. It destroys all other creatures when it enters if you cast it from your hand with five or more other creatures on the battlefield. Cast the normal way, it leaves a 5/6 flier standing on the board it just emptied.

Put the three new payoffs and Stalking Vengeance on the table and one rented Thragtusk does a lot at the end step. Its sacrifice pings once through Mayhem Devil. Its death makes a Treasure for Pitiless Plunderer, deals 1 damage to each opponent through Syr Konrad, and deals 5 damage to a chosen player through Stalking Vengeance, because 5 is its power. At a four-player table one opponent takes 7 and the other two take 1 each, and you also get the Beast and Henzie's card.

Five spells out, and Aether Snap goes first

Aether Snap costs {3}{B}{B} and removes all counters from all permanents and exiles all tokens. This deck makes Citizens, Plants, Oozes and Beasts, and with the swaps it makes Treasures too. It also strips the counters off Kresh the Bloodbraided and Grime Gorger. It's the clearest case in the box of a card undoing the plan around it.

Turf War costs {4}{R} and puts a contested counter on a land for each player, yours included. Hasty creatures can use it, but any creature that deals combat damage to you takes one of your contested lands, so the opponents get the same trick against your mana.

Next of Kin costs {2}{G} to aim at one creature, and puts a creature of lesser mana value from your hand or command zone onto the battlefield when the enchanted creature dies. A deck that casts a creature a turn wants those three mana on the creature. Rain of Riches costs {3}{R}{R} for two Treasure tokens and a cascade on the first spell each turn that Treasure mana helped cast. Pitiless Plunderer makes Treasures as a side effect of the plan, for {3}{B}.

Indrik Stomphowler is a 4/4 for {4}{G} whose enters trigger needs an artifact or enchantment to destroy. The job moves to Assassin's Trophy, which also hits enchantments, and Putrefy, which doesn't.

Three tapped lands out, three that can enter untapped

Mosswort Bridge, Spinerock Knoll and Temple of Malady always enter tapped. The first two tap for a single color and carry hideaway. Mosswort Bridge plays its exiled card free if your creatures have total power of 10 or more, and Spinerock Knoll does if an opponent was dealt 7 or more damage this turn. Both conditions are reachable with hasty six-drops, and I'd still take a land that's on time, because each ability costs a mana of its color and a tap and only matters late. Temple of Malady is black-green with a scry 1, also tapped.

In their place go Blood Crypt (black-red) and Overgrown Tomb (black-green), which cost 2 life to put down untapped, and Woodland Cemetery (black-green), which enters untapped if you control a Swamp or a Forest. Both shock lands carry basic land types, so Woodland Cemetery counts them, and Farseek can fetch either one. The list goes from nine always-tapped lands to six and from four conditional ones to seven.

Black is the color those lands are chosen for. Three spells print {B}{B} after the swaps (Deathbringer Regent, Noxious Gearhulk and Syr Konrad, the Grim), black sources go from 24 to 26, and the calculator gives {B}{B} by turn five at 84.4% on the play, up from 80.3% with the box's three. Green sits at 28 sources and red at 27, unchanged.

Bellowing Mauler, Artisan of Kozilek and two others stay

Bellowing Mauler makes each player lose 4 life at the beginning of your end step unless they sacrifice a nontoken creature. It looks symmetrical, but a blitzed creature is sacrificed at that same end step and you choose the order of your own triggers. Feed the Mauler's trigger the creature that was about to be sacrificed anyway and you lose nothing, while each opponent pays 4 life or a creature.

Artisan of Kozilek costs {9}, which is the reason to cut it and the reason Henzie keeps it. Blitzed after one cast of Henzie it costs {8}, it has haste. Casting it lets you reanimate a creature of yours from the graveyard, and its attack makes the defending player sacrifice two permanents. Stalking Vengeance is the box's best payoff for the end-step sacrifice, since it turns each death into damage equal to the dead creature's power. Warstorm Surge stays for the same reason: every creature you control that enters deals damage equal to its power to any target, so a hasty six-drop hits twice.

Two cheap cards I passed on

Eternal Witness ($1.47) returns a card from your graveyard to your hand, which is good with creatures that die every turn. It costs {1}{G}{G}, and with 28 green sources the calculator gives {G}{G} by turn three at 78.5% on the play. That's the lowest figure on this page, and it falls on the color that's already the shortest, so it stayed out. Zulaport Cutthroat ($1.27) drains 1 whenever it or another creature you control dies, and Syr Konrad already pings every opponent for any creature that dies. Neither is a Game Changer.

The numbers before and after the swaps

Creatures go from 30 to 32 counting Henzie, and the other creatures costing under four go from two to three. Cards that react to a creature dying or being sacrificed go from five to seven. The average mana value moves from 4.27 to 4.17 and the whole list from $101.92 to $114.59 at market prices. Green is still the short color: {G}{G} by turn four is 83.7% with 28 sources, and Temur Sabertooth sets that number, since the other five double-green cards cost six or more. I left it alone, because the lands I added were chosen for black.

The upgraded decklist

This is the box with the eight swaps applied. Hover a card name to see the card.

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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, with no account needed.

FAQ

Which creatures should I blitz with Henzie, and which should I cast the normal way?

Blitz the ones whose value is in arriving or leaving. Thragtusk gains 5 life when it enters and leaves a 3/3 Beast when it's sacrificed. Solemn Simulacrum fetches a basic land and can draw two cards, one from its own death trigger and one from blitz. Treeshaker Chimera draws three when it dies, plus the blitz card. Cast the ones that need to stay on the normal way: Kresh the Bloodbraided and Stalking Vengeance pay off other creatures dying, and a sacrificed payoff stops paying. Caldaia Guardian is the exception, since it makes its two Citizens when it dies itself.

Is Riveteers Rampage a Bracket 1 deck?

It starts from a floor of Bracket 1. Neither the 100 cards as shipped nor any of the eight adds is a Game Changer, so nothing in the list pushes it higher. A floor isn't a rating, though, and the bracket checker will say what your own build can honestly claim.

Does Deathreap Ritual draw a card off the blitz sacrifice?

No. Its trigger needs a creature to have died before the end step begins, and the blitz sacrifice happens during that end step, so it can't switch the Ritual on. Something has to die earlier in the turn, such as a blitzed attacker that gets blocked and killed. The Ritual triggers at every end step, yours and your opponents', and it lets you draw one card however many creatures died.

Is it worth casting Henzie again after he dies?

It can pay for itself. Every cast from the command zone takes another {1} off each blitz cost you pay, and the recast costs {2} more than the last one. That tax is paid back after two blitzed creature spells. The discount only takes off generic mana, so the colored pips in a blitz cost stay.

Does Mayhem Devil trigger on the blitz sacrifice?

Yes. The end-step sacrifice is a player sacrificing a permanent, so each blitzed creature pings once for 1 damage to any target, and so does every Treasure you crack for mana. You choose the target even when an opponent is the one sacrificing, which matters with Bellowing Mauler: each opponent who sacrifices a creature to it gives you a ping.

What happens to my enchantment removal now that Indrik Stomphowler is out?

Assassin's Trophy destroys any permanent an opponent controls, enchantments included, for {B}{G}, and that opponent may fetch a basic land. Putrefy only hits artifacts and creatures. Chaos Warp and Windgrace's Judgment stay in the list and both can hit an enchantment, so three cards in the list can answer an enchantment.

What does upgrading Riveteers Rampage cost?

$23.57 for all eight adds at October 2026 market prices, using the cheapest released printing of each. Blood Crypt ($9.34) and Overgrown Tomb ($8.09) are $17.43 of that, and both are reprinted in Star Trek on 13 November 2026, so expect them to get cheaper. The other six together cost $6.14.