First Flight precon upgrade guide

Twenty-six of First Flight's 27 creatures fly, and Isperia only draws when a creature attacks you, so these swaps go at the mana and the clunky top end.

Isperia, Supreme Judge is a 6/4 flyer that costs {2}{W}{W}{U}{U}, and her trigger watches the other side of the table: you may draw whenever a creature attacks you or a planeswalker you control. Your own flyers don't trigger her. That makes First Flight an unusual build. Twenty-six of its 27 creatures have flying (Angler Turtle is the exception), seven are Birds, and no creature type reaches half the deck, so the plan is evasion rather than a tribe, with Isperia refilling the hand while the table decides whether to attack into all those flyers.

The finding that drives the swaps is the mana. The box runs 39 lands and 30 of them are basic, and five always enter tapped. Thirteen spells want {U}{U} by turn three and twelve want {W}{W}. The stock lands give 28 blue sources and 27 white, against the 36 the calculator wants for a 90% chance on the play, and reaching 36 would mean nearly every land and rock made both colours. So I'm not chasing that number. The swaps spend on speed instead, and five of the ten cuts are mana.

The other half is the top end. The curve has five seven-drops and a ten, and two Auras, a ten-mana sorcery and a six-mana enchantment do little for a commander who wants you alive and attacked. Replacing them and the tapped lands costs $15.42 in total.

What are the best First Flight upgrades?

Ranked by what each does for Isperia's deck. Each price is the cheapest released printing as of October 2026.

1. Restoration Angel ($0.31). Flash, flying, 3/4, and it blinks any non-Angel creature you control. Nine creatures in the upgraded list have an enters trigger worth repeating, and it also pulls a creature out of the way of removal at instant speed.
2. Baneslayer Angel ($3.16). A 5/5 for five with flying, first strike and lifelink. Archon of Redemption gains you life equal to the power of any flyer you control that enters, so it arrives as five life on top of that. The cheapest printing is a promo.
3. Reflector Mage ($0.36) and Brazen Borrower ($0.53). Both buy a turn. Reflector Mage returns an opposing creature, and its owner can't cast a spell with that name until your next turn. Petty Theft is the Borrower's Adventure half: {1}{U} at instant speed to return any nonland permanent an opponent controls, after which the 3/1 flash flyer is still castable from exile.
4. Sublime Archangel ($2.25). A 4/3 flyer where every other creature you control has exalted too. See the adds section for why it's the card that pulls against the rest of the deck.
5. Elspeth Conquers Death ($0.62). Exiles an opponent's permanent with mana value 3 or more, then taxes their noncreature spells, then brings a creature back from your graveyard.
6. Three lands and a rock, argued in the mana section: Hallowed Fountain ($7.45), Glacial Fortress ($0.19), Adarkar Wastes ($0.34) and Mind Stone ($0.21), $8.19 together.

Storm Herd costs ten and the Auras fight the commander

Storm Herd makes a 1/1 flying Pegasus for each point of your life, which is 40 at the start of a game. It's also the only card in the box that costs more than seven, and the box already has five seven-drops. I'd rather the top of the curve be cards that act at five.

True Conviction gives every creature you control double strike and lifelink for {3}{W}{W}{W}. That's a real finisher on a board of flyers, and it's also the card that asks for a third white pip in a deck whose white is already nine sources short on two. On its own it's a six-mana enchantment that adds no body to the board, and Baneslayer Angel is a threat for one mana less.

Vow of Duty and Staggering Insight are both Auras. Vow of Duty gives a creature +2/+2 and vigilance and stops it attacking you or your planeswalkers. Put it on an opponent's creature and it removes an attack that would have drawn Isperia a card. Staggering Insight draws a card only when the enchanted creature connects, and dies with it. Disenchant is the last card out, because Crush Contraband exiles an artifact and an enchantment in one cast, Banishing Light takes any nonland permanent, and Cleansing Nova's second mode wipes both kinds.

Five tapped lands under a six-mana commander

Coastal Tower and Meandering River are plain taplands. Sejiri Refuge and Tranquil Cove are word for word the same card (tapped, gain 1 life, add {W} or {U}), and I cut Sejiri Refuge and left Tranquil Cove. Temple of Enlightenment stays for its scry. That takes always-tapped lands from five to two.

The replacements all make both colours and are usually untapped. Glacial Fortress enters untapped if you control a Plains or an Island, which is a check on land types, so Prairie Stream and Hallowed Fountain count as well as the 29 basics that remain. Hallowed Fountain enters untapped for 2 life. Adarkar Wastes taps for colourless for free or for {W} or {U} at the cost of 1 damage. Seachrome Coast ($0.34) is the dual I left out, because it enters untapped only while you control two or fewer other lands, so from turn four it's a tapland, and Isperia costs six.

None of this adds a source. Three duals replace three duals, and the other two changes cost one each: a Plains goes out, and Sky Diamond (a blue source that enters tapped) is swapped for Mind Stone, which makes only colourless but works the turn it lands and can be cashed in for a card later. Blue goes from 28 sources to 27 and white from 27 to 26, so the double-pip shortfall grows by one in each colour. I took the trade because it buys 38 lands instead of 39, two fewer tapped lands and a rock that works at once. Moorland Haunt stays, the one land that makes only colourless, since it turns creature cards in the graveyard into 1/1 flyers.

Sublime Archangel and the single big attacker

Exalted gives +1/+1 to a creature that attacks alone, once for each instance you control. Sublime Archangel has one and gives one to every other creature, so with eight creatures out, Sublime Archangel and Isperia among them, Isperia attacking alone is a 14/12 flyer. That's the opposite of the rest of the deck, which rewards attacking with several flyers at once: Steel-Plume Marshal gives other attacking flyers +2/+2, Kangee, Sky Warden gives +2/+0 and Kangee's Lieutenant gives +1/+1. The two plans don't need to coexist in a turn. Attack alone when one creature is far ahead, and wide when the lords are out.

Restoration Angel and Reflector Mage matter for a second reason: they're the cards that make the existing enters-the-battlefield creatures better. Blinking Cloudblazer is two more cards and 2 life, and blinking Hanged Executioner is a second 1/1 flyer. Elspeth Conquers Death costs five and exiles any permanent with mana value 3 or more, so the target can be a planeswalker or an artifact as well as a creature. Its third chapter, two turns later, returns a creature or planeswalker from your graveyard with a counter on it.

Why the wipes, the Turtle and Gideon stay

Two board wipes in a deck of 26 flying creatures looks like a mistake. Time Wipe returns one of your creatures to your hand first, so it's a reset that saves the card you most want. Cleansing Nova can choose to destroy artifacts and enchantments instead. They stay because a hand of flyers loses to a board wider than its own, and these are the only two cards in the deck that destroy more than one creature at once.

Gideon Jura is five mana with no evasion, the usual reason to cut a planeswalker, but his +2 forces one opponent's creatures to attack him, and every attacker is a card for Isperia. Angler Turtle is a seven-mana 5/7 with hexproof that makes opponents' creatures attack each combat if able. They choose who to attack, so only some of those attacks will come at you, but it pairs with Aetherize, which returns all attacking creatures to their owners' hands after Isperia has already drawn.

Four Game Changers fit and I left them out

Cyclonic Rift ($29.77), Rhystic Study ($65.98), Smothering Tithe ($56.23) and Teferi's Protection ($36.13) are all in Isperia's colours and all on the Game Changers list. Any one rules out Bracket 2, and the box as it ships has none. Mana Drain ($50.79) isn't a Game Changer, but the box already has the hard counters Counterspell and Absorb, and a third at $50.79 doesn't change what the deck does. I'd buy the ten above before any of them.

The upgraded decklist

Hover a card name to see the card. The list is the box with the ten swaps applied, and Hallowed Fountain's price may move after its Star Trek reprint on 13 November 2026.

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

Does Isperia draw when my own flyers attack?

No. Her trigger asks for a creature attacking you or a planeswalker you control, so only other players' attackers draw you a card. Other draw cards do count your own attacks: Windreader Sphinx triggers on any creature with flying attacking, whoever controls it, and on itself, and Tide Skimmer draws when you attack with two or more flyers. Gideon Jura helps on the other side: his +2 forces one opponent's creatures to attack him, and each one that does is attacking a planeswalker you control, so Isperia draws for each of them.

Which Game Changers fit Isperia, and would they change the bracket?

Four fit the colours: Cyclonic Rift ($29.77), Rhystic Study ($65.98), Smothering Tithe ($56.23) and Teferi's Protection ($36.13), all at their cheapest printing as of October 2026. Any single Game Changer rules out Bracket 2, so each of them moves this list up. The upgraded list has none, and the bracket checker gives it a floor of Bracket 1.

What does Restoration Angel blink in First Flight?

Any creature you control that isn't an Angel. The useful targets after the swaps are Cloudblazer, Hanged Executioner, Sphinx of Enlightenment, Inspired Sphinx, Aven Gagglemaster, Diluvian Primordial, Skyscanner, Pilgrim's Eye and Reflector Mage. It can't blink itself, Baneslayer Angel, Sublime Archangel, Emeria Angel or Sephara, because they are all Angels.

Is Hallowed Fountain worth $7.45 here?

It's the one land in the list that costs real money, and it does the same job as the $0.19 Glacial Fortress and the $0.34 Adarkar Wastes: a white or blue source that is usually untapped. It enters untapped for 2 life. Scryfall lists a Star Trek printing releasing on 13 November 2026, so the price may fall after that. If you'd rather wait, Glacial Fortress and Adarkar Wastes do the same job for 53 cents together.

How much does the First Flight upgrade cost?

The ten adds come to $15.42 at the cheapest released printing, as of October 2026. Hallowed Fountain is $7.45 of that, so the other nine cost $7.97 between them. Baneslayer Angel ($3.16) and Sublime Archangel ($2.25) are the next two, and the cheapest printing of Baneslayer Angel is a promo.

Should a deck with 26 flyers keep two board wipes?

Yes, but for different reasons. Time Wipe makes you return one of your creatures to your hand before it destroys them all, so it saves your best creature when you need a reset. Cleansing Nova has a second mode that destroys artifacts and enchantments instead of creatures, which makes it the deck's only mass answer to non-creature permanents. They're there for the game where the table builds a wider board than your flyers can beat.

How many lands should First Flight play?

After the swaps it runs 38 lands and nine ramp cards, down from 39 lands. The calculator puts the typical range at 35 to 38 lands, and the deck's average mana value falls from 3.72 to 3.67. I'd stay at 38 while Isperia costs six and five cards cost seven.