As of late, Wizards has done a decent job designing their Commander Precons. The five examples from Secrets of Strixhaven are no exception, as they showcase cool, well-supported themes with a mix of strong reprints. Nonetheless, for those interested in tinkering with the decklists, there’s still plenty of room for improvement.
The Prismari Artistry Precon, for instance, incorporates some clunky choices that don’t directly pair with the face Commander. Luckily, there are plenty of synergistic upgrades that can take the Prismari Artistry deck to the next level.
Beefing Up the Synergies
The Prismari Artistry Precon is largely built to maximize its Commander, Rootha, Mastering the Moment. This legend specifically rewards you for casting big instants and sorcery spells by pumping out tokens that can kill your opponents. Given that it’s in your best interest to cast instants and sorceries with high mana values every turn cycle, clunky creatures don’t have much of a place here.
Unfortunately, current Precon inclusions like Mirrorwing Dragon and Plargg and Nassari fall into this camp. While these creatures are powerful in a vacuum, they require a lot of mana to get into play and don’t immediately advance your game plan. As such, cutting these cards in favor of cheaper thematic payoffs like Zaffai, Thunder Conductor, who rewards you for playing big spells, and Propaganda, which helps offset the lack of board presence, seems like a better addition.
Since Rootha really cares about the biggest spell you cast, you’re seriously incentivized to have gigantic spells with mana cost reductions in your deck. As a result, Prismari Charm, Aether Gale, and other mediocre spells with low or medium mana values can be improved. Instead, Temporal Trespass, Blazing Shoal, and similar spells with high mana values that can be cast at a discount are worthy additions.
Once you have enough big spells in your deck to maximize Rootha, making your tokens connect multiple times becomes important. Full Throttle and World at War are elite examples, since you can cast them during your first main phase to ensure Rootha’s ability triggers during each combat step. Notably, you can even set up infinite combats with Rootha and Breath of Fury as explained here. All of these effects let you keep your extra tokens around permanently, making them stronger inclusions than Manaform Hellkite, Twinflame, and Determined Iteration.
While they do somewhat support the game plan, Rootha, Mercurial Artist and Dance with Calamity also seem a bit inefficient for this deck. Since you want to cast massive spells all the time, it will be really easy to go over Dance’s 13-mana limit. Instead, to further abuse Rootha, Mastering the Moment’s triggered ability, along with trigger doublers from Strionic Resonator to Peter Parker’s Camera, helps flood the board with even more tokens.
Trimming Unnecessary Sub-Packages
Beyond the deck’s expensive creatures and unimpactful spells, the Prismari Artist Precon incorporates a few different packages that don’t fit the best thematically. Whether you’re Cascading into multiple small spells, or copying your clunky creatures, none of these help Rootha execute its core game plan.
Replication Technique, Rite of Replication, Rionya, Fire Dancer, Inspired Skypainter, and even the secondary Commander Muddle, the Ever-Changing aren’t at their best in a deck without many strong nonlegendary creatures to copy. Cursed Mirror is a bit of an exception because it doubles as a mana rock, but the other five cards can easily be replaced. Cutting them for big spell payoffs, like Shark Typhoon, Metallurgic Summonings, and Double Vision, as well as cards like Quantum Misalignment and Spark Double that can ignore the Legend Rule, is a strong pivot.
Another subset of cards that don’t quite live up to expectations in this Precon are the Treasure-focused enablers. While making Treasures with Goldpan Dragon, Storm-Kiln Artist, Big Score, and Galazeth Prismari does make it easier to cast your big spells but, in most cases, the mana is only temporary. Magma Opus and Prismari Command are fine exceptions since they have other powerful modes that pull their weight, but leaning more on basic mana rocks that stay in play forever is certainly recommended. So, missing mana rocks like Izzet Signet, Thought Vessel, Sapphire Medallion, and Ruby Medallion can make your starts more consistent. Cutting Solemn Simulacrum in favor of a cheaper ramp option with a higher ceiling in Midnight Clock also has merit.
In addition to ramp, this deck also falls short on card draw elements. Big card draw spells like Silver Scrutiny and Finale of Revelation are unfortunately lacking from the Precon. These cards are much stronger than the middling Cascade spells the deck includes in the form of Throes of Chaos and Volcanic Torrent, making them decent swaps.
Pricier Upgrades
Up to this point, our upgrade recommendations have all been reasonably priced, with each card selling for under $15. For those interested in elite upgrades regardless of price, there are some other cards of note that aren’t budget-friendly.
Unsurprisingly, the first place to look is the Game Changers list. Rhystic Study does an incredible job in the card advantage department, while Jeska’s Will sets you up nicely to cast some enormous spells and trigger Rootha well in advance. Force of Will is also a great addition to protect your Commander for free, even if Rootha only triggers during your turn. As a result, these three cards are well worth adding, but they all cost well over $40 due to consistent demand.
Besides just Game Changers, Mana Drain, and Vivi Ornitier make for strong, cheap ways to bolster your mana production. From there, these powerhouses can set up some nice, expensive payoffs, like Call Forth the Tempest.
Of course, it’s also essential not to forget about adjustments to your manabase. Even ignoring original Alpha Duals, adding in Steam Vents, Thundering Falls, and a handful of Fetch Lands can be quite costly. At the same time, though, the consistency these cards add is quite valuable, especially when you factor in that Fetch Lands help enable your Delve spells.
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