Sneak Attack precon upgrade guide

Twenty-three other Rogues get Anowon's bonus and 14 creatures fly or can't be blocked, but 11 cards cost six or more and one of them destroys the whole team.

Anowon, the Ruin Thief gives every other Rogue +1/+1, and whenever your Rogues deal combat damage to a player he mills that player one card for each point of damage and draws you a card if a creature card was among them. The box is built for it. Twenty-two of its 30 creature cards are Rogues, a 23rd is a changeling, and 14 of the 30 fly or can't be blocked at all: five unblockable bodies (Slither Blade, Triton Shorestalker, Invisible Stalker, Marang River Prowler and Changeling Outcast) and nine fliers. Rogue's Passage and Whirler Rogue can make a creature unblockable for a turn on top of that.

The weak points are the top of the curve and the answers. Eleven of the 61 nonland cards besides Anowon cost six or more and average mana value is 3.75, with seven mana rocks to pay for it. Murder and Price of Fame are the only two cards that destroy a target creature, and Silumgar's Command shrinks one by 3. Necromantic Selection destroys every creature, Anowon's team included. Both colours have 27 sources and 13 black spells and 10 blue spells print two pips of one colour, which, on the play, finds two sources by turn three 76.4% of the time. Notion Thief is a Game Changer, so the box sits at Bracket 3 and the swaps leave it there.

What are the best Sneak Attack upgrades?

Answers first, then the Rankle chain, then the cuts. Prices are October 2026 market prices at the cheapest released printing, which is sometimes a promo or a special-guest card, and the ten adds together come to $36.21.

1. Rankle, Master of Pranks ($2.60). A four-mana 3/3 flier with haste that is a Faerie Rogue, so it is 4/4 under Anowon and mills four on its first hit. Each hit also lets you choose any of three modes, covered in the next section.
2. Bitterblossom ($28.22). A Faerie Rogue token with flying every upkeep for 1 life each time. Every token is a Rogue, so it gets Anowon's bonus on arrival and mills for 2 or more.
3. Tinybones, Bauble Burglar ($1.49). A two-mana Rogue that exiles whatever your opponents discard so you can play it, and for {3}{B} and a tap makes each opponent discard one at sorcery speed.
4. Brazen Borrower ($0.49). A flash 3/1 flying Faerie Rogue, or Petty Theft for two mana to bounce any nonland permanent an opponent controls.
5. Ninja of the Deep Hours ($1.44). Ninjutsu for {1}{U} off any of the box's 14 evasive creatures, and it draws on its own hit.
6. Infernal Grasp ($0.25) and Go for the Throat ($0.29). Two-mana instant removal that takes the answers from three to five. Go for the Throat can't hit an artifact creature and Infernal Grasp costs 2 life.
7. Talisman of Dominance ($0.45). The eighth mana rock, and it fixes both colours at a 1 damage cost.
8. Underground River ($0.56) and Drowned Catacomb ($0.42). Two lands replacing two tapped ones, argued in the mana section.

A discard that Tinybones turns into your hand

Oona's Blackguard is in the box already. Each other Rogue you control enters with an extra +1/+1 counter, and whenever a creature with a +1/+1 counter deals combat damage to a player, that player discards a card. A Bitterblossom token with that counter is a 1/1 plus the counter plus Anowon, a 3/3 flier, so one swing mills three cards and takes one from their hand. Tinybones then exiles that discarded card with a stash counter, and on your turn you may play it with mana of any type. Rankle's first mode makes every player discard, so the same exile applies to what your opponents lose and you give up a card too.

Rankle's other modes are worth a sentence each. The third makes each player sacrifice a creature of their choice, and yours can be a token. The second has each player lose 1 life and draw a card, and with Notion Thief on the battlefield every opponent's draw is replaced by yours, so in a four-player pod you draw four cards.

Notorious Throng is the payoff for all of this and it is already in the deck. It makes a 1/1 flying Faerie Rogue for each point of damage dealt to your opponents this turn, and cast for its prowl cost of {5}{U} after a Rogue has connected it also takes an extra turn.

Ninjutsu with a creature you want to replay

Ninja of the Deep Hours is a Human Ninja, so it gets nothing from Anowon, and the Rogue you return to hand never deals its damage. The trick is worth it when the returned creature has an enter ability. Whirler Rogue makes two more Thopters, Marsh Flitter two more Goblin Rogues, Master Thief steals another artifact, and Latchkey Faerie draws if you pay its prowl cost after a Rogue has connected. Ninjutsu needs an unblocked attacker, and an unblockable creature is always one. The other Rogues in the attack still trigger Anowon.

Eight cards leave, five of them from the six-mana tail

Necromantic Selection costs {4}{B}{B}{B}, destroys all creatures and returns one of them to you. The deck has 23 other Rogues that Anowon pumps, so a sweeper is the opposite of its plan, and BBB is a hard ask from 27 black sources. Fated Return is another seven mana with BBB, an instant that puts a creature from any graveyard onto the battlefield with indestructible. Sepulchral Primordial is a seven-mana Avatar that takes a creature from each opponent's graveyard, and Anowon gives it nothing. Rise from the Grave is the plain five-mana version of that. Six cards in the box reanimate from a graveyard, and Extract from Darkness (five mana, mills each player two first) and Endless Obedience (convoke, so Rogue tokens pay for it) do it with a mill or a convoke discount attached, so those two stay.

Spinal Embrace only works during combat, costs six and gains control of a creature until the end step, when you sacrifice it and gain life equal to its toughness. It removes one creature once. Murder does that for three mana and it stays.

Blackblade Reforged is the closest call among the equipment. It gives +1/+1 for each land you control, which is huge on an unblockable creature, but it equips for 3 only to a legendary creature and for 7 otherwise. Six of the 31 creatures are legendary, and only Oona flies. Scytheclaw costs five, comes with a Germ that is a 1/1 with no evasion, and costs 3 more to move to a creature that can connect. The deck keeps Whispersteel Dagger, Heirloom Blade and Bonehoard, going from five equipment to three.

In Garruk's Wake is the hardest cut to defend on power. It destroys only creatures and planeswalkers you don't control, so it is the one sweeper that fits a go-wide deck. It costs {7}{B}{B} in a deck that averages 3.75 with seven mana rocks. If your pod stalls on big blockers, it is the first card I would put back, in place of Aetherize.

The last two cuts are lands, and they are next.

Cards the cut list would take that I kept

Stolen Identity costs six, which is why it looks like a cut. Its cipher is the reason it stays. Encode it on Slither Blade or Triton Shorestalker, one-mana creatures that can't be blocked, and every hit lets you cast a copy of the spell for free, creating a token copy of an artifact or creature each time. The copy of Whirler Rogue makes two more Thopters and a copy of Master Thief takes another artifact. Each hit also mills with Anowon.

Lazav, Dimir Mastermind is off-type, but when a creature card is put into an opponent's graveyard from anywhere he can become a copy of it, and Anowon's mill supplies that every turn. The copy is a Rogue if the card was, and he keeps hexproof. Syr Konrad, the Grim deals 1 damage to each opponent whenever a creature card is put into a graveyard from anywhere other than the battlefield, so every milled creature pings. Consuming Aberration is as large as the cards in your opponents' graveyards and mills them more on every spell you cast, which makes it a payoff for the engine rather than a body.

Both type-naming cards name Rogue. After the swaps 27 of the 34 creatures are Rogues, 10 are Humans and 9 are Faeries, and the changeling counts in every one of those totals. Naming Faerie on Obelisk of Urd would leave 19 of the 27 Rogues without the +2/+2.

With the sweepers gone, Aetherize and Scourge of Fleets are the only ways to answer a board at once. Scourge returns each opposing creature whose toughness is at most the number of Islands you control, and with 15 basic Islands it is a late-game card, but a one-sided one.

Two tapped lands out for two that need only basics

Myriad Landscape enters tapped and taps for {C}, and its sacrifice fetches two basics that share a land type, which thickens one colour and does nothing for the other. Dimir Guildgate enters tapped and makes nothing the other duals don't. Black and blue are each short on double pips, so neither earns a slot.

Drowned Catacomb enters untapped if you control an Island or a Swamp, and with 30 basics it nearly always does. Underground River always enters untapped and taps for {C} for free, but costs you 1 damage whenever it makes {U} or {B}. That is a cost in a list that also runs Bitterblossom and Infernal Grasp, so I rank it second of the two, but an untapped dual on turn two keeps the 23 cards that cost one or two on schedule. Always-tapped lands go from six to four. Dimir Aqueduct, Dismal Backwater, Jwar Isle Refuge and Submerged Boneyard stay. Dimir Guildgate and Submerged Boneyard are the same land in this deck, so cutting the Guildgate was a coin flip.

Black and blue go from 27 sources to 28 each. Underground River, Drowned Catacomb and Talisman of Dominance make both colours, and Myriad Landscape and Dimir Guildgate are the two they replace, with the Landscape counting as a source because it fetches basics. The odds of two sources of one colour by turn three on the play climb from 76.4% to 78.5% on both. Neither number reaches 90%.

Three cards I priced and passed on

Cavern of Souls ($48.02, cheapest printing from Avacyn Restored) names Rogue and makes your Rogue spells uncounterable, but it only helps creature spells and costs more than all ten adds together. Grim Hireling ($10.07, cheapest printing from The List) is a four-mana Rogue that makes two Treasures whenever your creatures deal combat damage to a player, and it is the card I would buy next for ramp. Watery Grave ($9.48) is an untapped Island Swamp for 2 life, and it would count toward Scourge of Fleets, but a Star Trek reprint is due on 13 November 2026, so I would wait. None of the ten adds, and none of these three, is a Game Changer. I also searched the sets that haven't released yet and found no reprint of any add other than the Rankle one noted above.

The numbers after ten swaps

Average mana value falls from 3.75 to 3.31, cards costing six or more go from 11 to 6, and those costing five or more from 18 to 11. Creature cards go from 31 to 34 with Anowon counted, Rogues from 24 to 27, and creatures that fly or can't be blocked from 14 to 16 of the 33 besides him. Removal goes from 3 to 5, ramp from 7 to 8, and sweepers from 2 to 0. The deck stays at 38 lands, always-tapped lands drop from six to four, and the bracket floor stays at 3. The market total goes from at least $55.35 to at least $83.71, and both are floors because one card has no price.

The upgraded decklist

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

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 Anowon mill a card for every point of damage a Rogue token deals?

Yes, but only for damage your Rogues deal. Anowon's trigger mills the player one card for each 1 damage dealt by your Rogues, so a Faerie Rogue token that is a 3/3 under Anowon and Oona's Blackguard mills three. You draw one card if at least one creature card was milled, however many creature cards that was, and damage from a creature that isn't a Rogue adds nothing to the count.

Can Ninja of the Deep Hours still trigger Anowon?

Not by itself. Ninja of the Deep Hours is a Human Ninja, so it gets no bonus from Anowon and its damage doesn't count, and the Rogue you return to hand for ninjutsu never deals its damage. Any other Rogue that connects still triggers Anowon, and the returned creature can be one whose enter ability you want again, such as Whirler Rogue, Marsh Flitter or Master Thief.

How much life does the upgraded Sneak Attack list pay?

Bitterblossom costs 1 life at each of your upkeeps and the loss is mandatory, Infernal Grasp costs 2, and Underground River and Talisman of Dominance each deal 1 damage to you when they make coloured mana. Rankle's second mode costs every player 1. Dismal Backwater and Jwar Isle Refuge gain 1 each on entering, and Zulaport Cutthroat gains 1 whenever one of your creatures dies, so the bill is real but it is paid over a 40-life game.

What does it cost to upgrade Sneak Attack?

$36.21 for all ten adds at October 2026 market prices, using the cheapest released printing of each. Bitterblossom is $28.22 of that, so the other nine come to $7.99. Rankle, Master of Pranks ($2.60) gets a printing in The List on 19 October 2026, so its price may move.

Which creature type should Distant Melody and Obelisk of Urd name?

Rogue, on both. After the swaps 27 of the 34 creatures in the list are Rogues, against 10 Humans and 9 Faeries, and the changeling counts in each of those totals. Distant Melody counts permanents of the type you control, so the Rogue tokens Bitterblossom makes count too, and Obelisk of Urd gives them +2/+2 on top of Anowon's +1/+1.

Does Notion Thief make Rankle's draw mode work for me?

Yes. Rankle's second mode has each player lose 1 life and draw a card, and Notion Thief replaces every card an opponent would draw other than the first in their own draw step, so each opponent's draw becomes yours. In a four-player game you draw four cards and each opponent loses 1 life. Notion Thief is a Game Changer, which is why the deck's bracket floor is 3 with or without the swaps.

Should In Garruk's Wake go back into the upgraded Sneak Attack list?

Only if your pod stalls on big blockers. It costs {7}{B}{B} and $3.15, and it destroys just the creatures and planeswalkers you don't control, so it is the one sweeper that leaves a Rogue board standing. The upgrade cuts it because nine mana is a lot for a deck averaging 3.31, and Aetherize is the card to take out for it.