Upgrades Unleashed precon upgrade guide

Chishiro makes a 2/2 menace Spirit whenever an Aura or Equipment enters, and 12 of the 15 Auras and Equipment in this box cost three mana or more.

The box has seven Auras and eight Equipment, which is fifteen chances to trigger Chishiro. Only Ordeal of Nylea, Blackblade Reforged and Swiftfoot Boots cost two or less. Five cost four: One with the Kami, Elemental Mastery, Bear Umbra, Tanuki Transplanter and Bonehoard. Two of the eight Equipment are creatures, Komainu Battle Armor and Tanuki Transplanter, and both still trigger Chishiro, because they enter as Equipment. A commander that pays out once per permanent is best fed cheap ones, and this box hands it expensive ones. After the swaps the list runs 16 Auras and Equipment, seven of them at two mana or less and three at four.

The second finding is about what the Spirits do next. Each one arrives with no counter, Aura or Equipment on it, so it isn't modified and Chishiro's end step trigger skips it. The box has a few ways to change that. Grumgully, the Generous gives a non-Human creature a +1/+1 counter as it enters, Rishkar, Peema Renegade and Silkguard place counters, and any Equipment you attach makes its creature modified. Branching Evolution doubles what Rishkar and Silkguard place, and the prices below are October 2026 market prices at the cheapest released printing, sometimes a promo.

What are the best Upgrades Unleashed upgrades?

Ranked by how much each swap changes what Chishiro's two triggers are worth. The full cut list is in the next section.

1. Branching Evolution ($7.07). Every +1/+1 counter that would go on a creature you control is doubled. Chishiro's end step gives each modified creature one counter, so it becomes two, and the same goes for the pair from Rishkar, Peema Renegade, Silkguard and a kicked Vastwood Surge, which puts two on each creature and makes it four.
2. Kalonian Hydra ($6.07). A 0/0 trampler that enters with four counters and doubles the counters on every creature you control each time it attacks. With Branching Evolution on the battlefield it enters with eight, and its first attack puts it on 24.
3. Rancor ($1.03). It costs {G}, gives +2/+0 and trample, and returns to your hand when it goes to a graveyard from the battlefield. Every recast is another Spirit.
4. Tanglespan Lookout ($0.25), Setessan Training ($0.20) and Abundant Growth ($0.15). Lookout draws a card whenever an Aura you control enters, and the other two draw one when they enter. They are what turns an Aura from a Spirit into a Spirit and a card.
5. Signature Slam ($0.26) and Kami's Flare ($0.15). Two cheap instants that damage a creature, in a box whose spot answers are Chaos Warp, Beast Within and Decimate.
6. Hydra's Growth ($1.19) and Lightning Greaves ($3.80). One Aura that doubles the counters on a creature every upkeep, and one Equipment that gives haste and shroud for {0} to equip.
7. Stomping Ground ($7.35), Rootbound Crag ($0.23) and Copperline Gorge ($0.71). Three red and green lands for three Forests, argued in the mana section. Stomping Ground is $7.35 of the $28.46 total, and it's the card to buy last.

The Auras and Equipment that leave, and the ones that replace them

Four of the fifteen go. Shifting Shadow is the one I'd cut first. At your upkeep it destroys the creature it enchants, reveals cards until you find a creature card, puts that creature onto the battlefield and moves to it. Every counter on the old creature leaves with it, which is the opposite of what a deck built on Chishiro's end step wants from an Aura. Elemental Mastery costs four, taps its creature for X 1/1 hasty Elementals where X is its power, and exiles them at the next end step. Those tokens last one turn, and the creature has to tap to make them.

Fireshrieker gives double strike for {3} and {2} to equip, while Sword of Vengeance, which stays, gives +2/+0, first strike, vigilance, trample and haste for {3} and {3}. Bonehoard makes a Germ that is 0/0 plus the number of creature cards in all graveyards, and the ruling is that with none there it dies on the spot. Creature tokens never count toward that number, and the Spirits are tokens. Bonehoard still triggers Chishiro when it enters, so the Spirit is the reliable part of the card and the Germ is not.

In their place go Rancor, Setessan Training (enchant a creature you control, +1/+0 and trample), Abundant Growth (enchant a land, it taps for any color) and Hydra's Growth, plus Lightning Greaves. Rancor, Setessan Training, Abundant Growth and Lightning Greaves each cost one or two mana, which is four new ways to trigger Chishiro cheaply, and Hydra's Growth is a fifth at three. Tanglespan Lookout is the payoff: with it out, Abundant Growth draws two cards, Setessan Training draws two and every recast Rancor draws one. The box already has Smoke Spirits' Aid, which creates a Smoke Blessing Aura token on each of up to X creatures. Each token entering triggers Chishiro, and with the Lookout out each draws a card too. At X equal to three that's three Spirits and three cards for {3}{R}.

One caution on Lightning Greaves. Shroud applies to your own spells as well, so a creature wearing it can't be targeted by Rancor, Setessan Training or the equip cost of other Equipment. Enchant first and equip second, or move Greaves to another creature for {0}, as the FAQ below spells out. The same shroud protects whichever creature is carrying the most counters.

Counters that triple, and one 0/0 that carries them

Branching Evolution doubles the counters put on a creature, and cards that double a creature's counters put the number it already has on it again. The two stack: Evolution doubles that put. Kalonian Hydra enters with four counters, which is eight under Evolution. Its attack trigger then puts eight more on, which Evolution makes sixteen, so the Hydra has 24 counters and is a 24/24 trampler, and every other creature you control has triple what it had. Hydra's Growth gets the same treatment. With Evolution out, its one counter becomes two, then six at the next upkeep and 18 the upkeep after that.

I'd call this the deck's ceiling, with the usual price for it. Twenty-four counters on one creature is exactly one removal spell from nothing, which is why Lightning Greaves sits beside it: haste means the Hydra can attack the turn it lands, and shroud stops targeted removal while the Greaves stay on. It also costs five mana. Hardened Scales ($1.86) is the one-mana version and it ties Evolution on a single counter, since one becomes two either way. It falls behind as soon as more than one counter goes on at once, because Scales adds one to the number put on and Evolution doubles it, so Evolution is the one in the list.

Six cards that don't do what this board wants

Collision of Realms is the clearest. It shuffles every creature each player owns into their libraries and then each player who shuffled a nontoken creature in puts at most one creature card onto the battlefield. A board of counters and Spirits turns into one random creature, the Spirits stop existing and the Auras fall off. Chain Reaction deals X damage to each creature, where X is the number of creatures on the battlefield, and you can't choose X, so it kills the Spirits and anything the deck hasn't yet grown past X toughness. Starstorm stays because its X is chosen, so I can keep it under my own creatures' toughness, and it cycles for {3}.

Spearbreaker Behemoth is seven mana for a 5/5 indestructible whose ability needs a creature with power 5 or more. Lightning Greaves does the protecting job for {0}. Soul's Majesty draws cards equal to one creature's power for {4}{G}, and Rishkar's Expertise does the same with the greatest power on the board plus a free spell, so the Majesty goes and the Expertise stays. Hunter's Insight draws only if the target connects, and the new Auras draw the turn they enter. Kami of Celebration lets you play the exiled card only that turn, so each use competes for the same mana as the Auras and Equipment that make the deck work.

Two answers the box doesn't have

The box's spot answers to a creature are Chaos Warp, Beast Within and Decimate, plus the damage Ulasht can ping off its counters. Beast Within gives the owner a 3/3, Chaos Warp gives them the top card of their library if it's a permanent, and Decimate can't be cast unless there is an artifact, an enchantment, a creature and a land to target.

Signature Slam puts a +1/+1 counter on a creature you control and then each modified creature you control deals damage equal to its power to a creature you don't control. It's one-way damage, so nothing hits back, and it scales with the board: after Chishiro's end step, a board of five modified creatures is five sources of damage. Kami's Flare deals 3 damage to a creature or planeswalker for {1}{R}, plus 2 to its controller if you control a modified creature. It can't hit a player on its own, and at two mana it undercuts Chaos Warp's three.

Three Forests become three red and green lands

Green is the deeper color in this box with 29 sources, and red has 23, with {R}{R} by turn three arriving 66.7% of the time on the play. Four cards print {R}{R}: Chain Reaction, Goblin Razerunners, Ox of Agonas and Starstorm. Chain Reaction is a cut, so three remain.

Three of the box's 14 Forests come out for Stomping Ground (untapped if you pay 2 life), Rootbound Crag (untapped if you control a Mountain or a Forest) and Copperline Gorge (untapped while you control two or fewer other lands, so it's an early-game land). Twenty-five lands in the list carry the Mountain or Forest type that Rootbound Crag looks for: 12 Mountains, 11 Forests, Cinder Glade and Stomping Ground. Abundant Growth also lets any land tap for any color. With all four, red sources go from 23 to 27 and green from 29 to 30, and {R}{R} by turn three moves from 66.7% to 76.4%. Green's double pip by turn three moves from 80.4% to 82.2%.

I'd be overselling it to call red solved, because 90% on {R}{R} by turn three takes 36 sources and this ends at 27. None of the three {R}{R} cards is a turn-two play. Wooded Foothills ($17.23) can fetch Stomping Ground or Cinder Glade for a red source, but it costs more than half of the whole list and can only find what's already in the deck. The four always-tapped lands stay because each does something. Gruul Turf returns a land to your hand, Oran-Rief puts a counter on each green creature that entered the turn (and the Spirits are red, so it skips them), Raging Ravine becomes a 3/3 that grows each attack and Temple of Abandon scries.

Three expensive cards that stay

Primeval Protector prints {10}{G}, but it costs {1} less for each creature your opponents control, and the ruling puts the floor at {G}. At six opposing creatures it costs {4}{G}. It then puts a +1/+1 counter on each other creature you control, which modifies the whole board in time for Chishiro's end step. Rishkar's Expertise costs six, but it draws cards equal to the greatest power among your creatures and then casts a spell of mana value five or less from your hand for free. Unquenchable Fury looks like one more Aura on one creature, and it is, but it returns to your hand when it goes to your graveyard from the battlefield, so every time its creature dies the next cast is another Spirit.

The upgraded decklist

The list after all 13 swaps. Hover a card name to see the card.

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FAQ

Do the Spirit tokens grow at Chishiro's end step?

Only if something has already modified them. A Spirit arrives with no counter, Aura or Equipment on it, so Chishiro's end step trigger skips it. Grumgully, the Generous gives a non-Human creature a +1/+1 counter as it enters, Silkguard and Rishkar, Peema Renegade put counters on creatures you choose, and any Equipment you attach makes its creature modified. Once a Spirit has one of those it grows every turn.

What does Branching Evolution do to Hydra's Growth?

It triples the counters at each upkeep instead of doubling them. Hydra's Growth puts a counter on the enchanted creature when it enters, which Branching Evolution makes two, and then doubles the counters every upkeep by putting that many more on. Branching Evolution doubles that number again, so two counters become six at the next upkeep and 18 at the one after. The ruling on Hydra's Growth says other effects that change how many counters are put on a creature apply to the doubling.

Can I put my own Rancor or Setessan Training on a creature wearing Lightning Greaves?

No, not while it's equipped. Lightning Greaves gives shroud, and shroud stops your own spells and abilities from targeting the creature, including Auras and the equip cost of other Equipment. Put the Aura on first and equip Greaves second, or move Greaves to another creature for {0} and enchant the first one.

Does Signature Slam fight?

No. Each modified creature you control deals damage equal to its power to the target creature, and the target deals nothing back. The Slam's own counter goes on a creature you control first, so that creature is modified when the damage is dealt. Spirit tokens that have no counter, Aura or Equipment on them deal no damage, which is another reason to modify them.

Does moving Equipment around trigger Chishiro again?

No. Chishiro triggers when an Aura or Equipment enters the battlefield, and equipping, reconfiguring and moving Equipment between creatures doesn't make anything enter. Casting a new Aura does, and so does recasting one that came back to your hand. That's why Rancor is worth a slot: when the creature wearing it dies, it returns to your hand, and the next cast is another Spirit.

What does upgrading Upgrades Unleashed cost?

$28.46 for all 13 adds at October 2026 market prices, using the cheapest released printing of each. Stomping Ground is $7.35, Branching Evolution $7.07 and Kalonian Hydra $6.07, which is $20.49 of the total. The other ten cards come to $7.97. Stomping Ground is reprinted in Star Trek on 13 November 2026, so its price may fall.

What does Primeval Protector cost in a four-player game?

It prints {10}{G} and costs {1} less for each creature your opponents control, down to a floor of {G}. With six opposing creatures it costs {4}{G}, and with ten or more it costs {G}. When it enters it puts a +1/+1 counter on each other creature you control, which makes the whole board modified in time for Chishiro's end step.