Virtue and Valor precon upgrade guide

Ellivere's Roles are never cast, so they wake six of the eight cards in this box that pay out for enchantments.

Ellivere makes a Virtuous Role every time she enters or attacks, and Gylwain and Syr Armont make Roles of their own. A Role is a token, which means it enters the battlefield and is never cast. Six cards in the box pay out when an enchantment enters or an Aura becomes attached: Archon of Sun's Grace, Eidolon of Blossoms, Setessan Champion, Ajani's Chosen, Tanglespan Lookout and Siona. Two pay out when you cast one: Enchantress's Presence and Kor Spiritdancer. The box has 28 enchantment cards to cast, 20 of them Auras, so the casting side is where the volume sits and where the deck has the least to show for it.

The mana is the second finding. Twelve spells print {W}{W}, the cheapest at two mana, and the 27 white sources in the box give you {W}{W} by turn three 76.4% of the time on the play. Four of the 39 lands tap for colorless only: Hall of Heliod's Generosity, Krosan Verge, Myriad Landscape and Vitu-Ghazi. Prices are October 2026 market prices at the cheapest released printing, which can be a promo.

What are the best Virtue and Valor upgrades?

Seven swaps for $11.36 in total. In the order I'd buy them:

1. Sythis, Harvest's Hand ($2.81). It draws you a card and gains 1 life for every enchantment spell you cast. It's an enchantment creature, so its own arrival triggers four of the six enter payoffs.
2. Sigil of the Empty Throne ($0.44). Each enchantment spell you cast after it lands makes a 4/4 Angel with flying. The upgraded list has 28 enchantment cards.
3. Council's Judgment ($0.40) and Path to Exile ($0.71). The box answers an opposing permanent with four cards, and neither of these is one of them. Both are argued in the answers section.
4. Sunpetal Grove ($0.30), Brushland ($0.38) and Temple Garden ($6.32). Three lands that make green or white, argued in the mana section. Temple Garden is more than half the total and the one to buy last.

Four spells out, and what each one costs the deck

Pollenbright Wings costs {4}{G}{W} and gives an enchanted creature flying and a Saproling for each point of combat damage it deals to a player. Flying is the part Ellivere wants, because her draw needs combat damage to reach a player. Angelic Destiny gives flying and first strike with +4/+4 for four mana. Six mana for flying alone is the most expensive way to get it.

Timely Ward gives indestructible, and it has flash only if it targets a commander. Indestructible doesn't stop exile or bounce, and Umbra Mystic already gives every Aura attached to your permanents umbra armor, which covers destruction by itself. Tithe Taker is a 2/1 for {1}{W} that taxes opponents' spells and abilities by {1} on your turn. There's no Aura in it, and the list still has 16 cards at two mana after it goes. Unfinished Business returns a creature from the graveyard and then up to two Auras or Equipment attached to it, which needs a creature card in the yard before it does anything and wants two Auras beside it. Retether and Mantle of the Ancients return Auras of any cost, and Sun Titan returns the cheap ones, and none of the three asks for a creature card.

Roles can't be cast, and that decides which payoffs to add

Ellivere's Role goes on another creature each time she enters or attacks, which is one Role per trigger. That feeds the six enter payoffs one trigger at a time. The 28 enchantment cards are the bigger supply: 18 Auras, 8 enchantment creatures and two plain enchantments, Enchantress's Presence and Sigil of the Empty Throne. Every one of them is cast, and the box has two cards that care. Kor Spiritdancer only counts Aura spells, so it misses an enchantment creature cast the ordinary way.

An Aura spell pays on both sides of the stack. The casting trigger resolves before the Aura does, then the Aura enters and the six enter payoffs fire. That is the case for Sythis and Sigil, and it's why they come in over another enter payoff. The cost reducers in the box already point the same way. Danitha Capashen and Transcendent Envoy take {1} off Auras, and Jukai Naturalist and Starfield Mystic take {1} off every enchantment spell.

Sigil needs a caveat. Its trigger is on casting, so it doesn't count itself, and it never counts a Role or an Aura put onto the battlefield by Songbirds' Blessing or Sun Titan. Those still feed the enter payoffs. The two sides are separate, and the casting side goes from two cards to four.

A Forest and two colorless lands make way for three duals

Myriad Landscape enters tapped and taps for {C}. For {2} and a sacrifice it fetches two basic lands that share a type, which is two Plains on a turn when white is the problem. With 39 lands the deck isn't short of them, so the fetch is the less useful half. Hall of Heliod's Generosity taps for {C}, and its ability puts an enchantment card from your graveyard on top of your library for {1}{W} and a tap. That costs you your next draw to get the card back.

In their place go Sunpetal Grove (green or white, untapped if you control a Forest or a Plains), Brushland (green or white for 1 damage, or colorless for none) and Temple Garden (green or white, untapped if you pay 2 life). Temple Garden is a Forest Plains, so it counts for Sunpetal Grove and Utopia Sprawl, and it's the only one of the three that's a Forest. The third land comes out of the basics, a Forest.

The calculator counts a fetch land as a source of both colors, so Myriad Landscape leaving costs a counted source. Net, white goes from 27 to 29 and green from 28 to 29. Always-tapped lands drop from three to two, and the two that remain are Temple of Plenty, which scries, and Krosan Verge, which fetches a Forest and a Plains. {W}{W} by turn three goes from 76.4% to 80.4%, and {G}{G} by turn four from 83.7% to 85.3%.

That's still short. Thirteen spells want {W}{W} now, because the two I added print it and Unfinished Business, which also did, leaves. Getting {W}{W} on turn three to 90% takes 36 white sources, and the list has 29. I'd rather say that than call it fixed. Temple Garden is reprinted in Star Trek on 13 November 2026, so its $6.32 may fall.

Two answers where the box has four

Four cards in the box answer something an opponent controls: Swords to Plowshares, Generous Gift, Warbriar Blessing and Kenrith's Transformation. Warbriar Blessing makes your creature fight, which only kills what it outsizes, and Kenrith's Transformation leaves a 3/3 Elk with no abilities behind. Three board resets sit beside them, Winds of Rath, Austere Command and Cast Off, and they cost five or six mana at sorcery speed.

Path to Exile costs {W} at instant speed and exiles a creature. The controller may fetch a basic land tapped, which is the price, where Swords to Plowshares gives life equal to the creature's power. Council's Judgment costs {1}{W}{W} and doesn't target. Each player votes for a nonland permanent you don't control, you vote first, and every permanent tied for the most votes is exiled. In a four-player pod where each vote lands somewhere different, every voted permanent is tied and all of them go. It exiles hexproof permanents and anything with protection from white, which Path and Swords can't.

Why the six-drops, Mantle and Liberated Livestock stay

A normal deckbuilder looks at the top of this curve and sees four cards at six mana after the swaps, Sun Titan, Rishkar's Expertise, Austere Command and Liberated Livestock, plus a seven-mana Realm-Cloaked Giant. Liberated Livestock does nothing until it dies, and the box has no sacrifice outlet for creatures. It has three ways to die on your terms, though. Winds of Rath while it's unenchanted, Austere Command and Cast Off all kill Livestock, which gives you a 1/1 lifelink Cat, a 1/1 flying Bird and a 2/4 Ox, and you may put an Aura from your hand or graveyard onto each. Three Auras entering at once fire every enter payoff you have out three times.

Mantle of the Ancients is a five-mana Aura that only enchants your own creature. It returns Auras and Equipment from the graveyard attached to that creature, and every Aura that returns fires the enter payoffs. Auras that can't enchant a creature stay put, so Fertile Ground and Utopia Sprawl don't come back. Rishkar's Expertise draws cards equal to your greatest power and casts a spell of mana value 5 or less free. A creature wearing Angelic Destiny has 4 more power than printed, which is 4 more cards.

The cards I priced and passed on

Rancor ($1.03) is the next card I'd buy. It costs {G}, gives +2/+0 and trample, and returns to your hand when it goes to the graveyard. Trample helps a creature connect, and connecting is what Ellivere's draw needs. I stopped at seven swaps because I couldn't name an eighth Aura worth cutting for it. Sterling Grove ($4.15) gives your other enchantments shroud and sacrifices to tutor an enchantment to the top of your library. Heliod's Pilgrim ($0.18) fetches an Aura, and Cultivate ($0.38) puts one basic on the battlefield tapped and another in your hand. The three lands do that job without spending a spell slot.

Argothian Enchantress ($64.91) draws a card per enchantment spell with shroud on a 0/1 body. It's the one card I skipped purely on price. Enlightened Tutor ($32.40) and Teferi's Protection ($35.74) are both Game Changers, and either would put the deck's floor at Bracket 3, so they're skipped for that reason before the price. Horizon Canopy ($3.04) taps for green or white at 1 life a tap and is the next land after the three I picked.

What the seven swaps change

The deck stays at 39 lands, 28 of them basic. Average mana value falls from 3.30 to 3.22, cards costing four or more go from 24 to 23, and cards costing one go from 5 to 6. Creatures stay at 31 and legendary creatures go from 6 to 7. Sources of green and white go to 29 each. The bracket floor stays at 1, and neither list has a Game Changer.

The upgraded decklist

Ellivere and the 99 with all seven swaps made, sorted by card type. Hovering any name shows 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

Do Ellivere's Role tokens trigger Sythis or Sigil of the Empty Throne?

No. Both trigger when you cast an enchantment spell, and a Role is a token that is created, never cast. Ellivere's Roles do trigger the six cards that watch for an enchantment entering or an Aura becoming attached: Archon of Sun's Grace, Eidolon of Blossoms, Setessan Champion, Ajani's Chosen, Tanglespan Lookout and Siona. The other enchantment cards in the upgraded list are what feed Sythis and Sigil once they're out.

Which of my creatures survive Winds of Rath?

Every creature with an Aura attached, because the ruling says a creature is enchanted if it has any Aura on it and a Role is an Aura. Ellivere's own Virtuous Role goes on another creature, so she survives only if she wears an Aura from somewhere else, such as a Royal Role from Gylwain or one of the 18 Aura cards.

Why is white still short after the new lands?

Thirteen spells in the upgraded list print {W}{W}, and getting {W}{W} by turn three 90% of the time on the play takes 36 white sources. The list has 29, up from 27, which is 80.4% against 76.4% for the box. Council's Judgment and Sigil of the Empty Throne both print {W}{W}, so the gain is net of that. Closing the rest means cutting white double-pip spells, and the 13 include all three of the deck's board resets.

What do the seven swaps cost?

$11.36 in October 2026 prices at the cheapest released printing, which can be a promo. Temple Garden is $6.32 of that and is reprinted in Star Trek on 13 November 2026, so it is the one to wait on. The other six come to $5.04.

Is Argothian Enchantress worth $64.91 here?

It does the same job as Sythis, a card for every enchantment spell you cast, and adds shroud on a 0/1 body. Sythis costs $2.81 and gains 1 life, but it can be targeted. For a deck whose plan is enchanting its own creatures, I'd pay $62.10 less and accept that.

Can I add Enlightened Tutor or Teferi's Protection?

Both are Game Changers, and adding either one makes Bracket 3 the lowest the deck can honestly claim. Enlightened Tutor is $32.40 and Teferi's Protection is $35.74 at their cheapest printings. The upgraded list as written has no Game Changers and stays at the box's floor of Bracket 1.