Tuesday Night Takeover

Budget Upgrades for the Living Energy Precon from Aetherdrift (All under $10!)

“Control yourself, take only what you need from it.”

Art:Saheeli, Radiant Creator by Ernanda Souza

Welcome to Aetherdrift! We are starting off strong with Budget upgrades for all of the precons and all of them are under $10! I have loved precons for a really long time, they are a great opportunity for new players to get into the game, can provide key reprints for existing players, and being able to play them out of the box can help a ton with getting players into the game with minimal investment. Precons are a blast to play and pilot and overall just push a lot of positivity into the community all of my group got our starts on precons; shoutout Nahiri, the Lithomancer! Upgrading pre-cons was pretty much the first step after we played a few rounds with our newly acquired precons. Without further ado, let’s get it!

Original Living Energy Precon Decklist:

Click here to copy full decklist to your clipboard!

Original Living Energy Precon!

Commander (1)
Saheeli, Radiant Creator

Creatures (27)
Loyal Apprentice
Ornithopter of Paradise
Reckless Fireweaver
Servant of the Conduit
Architect of the Untamed
Peema Trailblazer
Pia Nalaar, Chief Mechanic
Rogue Refiner
Sai, Master Thopterist
Stridehangar Automaton
Whirler Virtuoso
Druid of Purification
Nissa, Worldsoul Speaker
Peema Aether-Seer
Pia and Kiran Nalaar
Solemn Simulacrum
Whirler Rogue
Elder Gargaroth
Lightning Runner
Rampaging Aetherhood
Aethertide Whale
Combustible Gearhulk
Duplicant
Territorial Aetherkite
Aethersquall Ancient
Aetherwind Basker
Triplicate Titan

Planeswalkers (1)
Saheeli, Sublime Artificer

Instants (5)
Arcane Denial
Chaos Warp
Disallow
Glimmer of Genius
Reality Shift

Sorceries (6)
Attune with Aether
Blasphemous Act
Chain Reaction
Confiscation Coup
Explosive Vegetation
One with the Machine

Artifacts (20)
Retrofitter Foundry
Sol Ring
Soul-Guide Lantern
Adaptive Omnitool
Arcane Signet
Decoction Module
Lightning Greaves
Solar Transformer
Talisman of Curiosity
Aetheric Amplifier
Chromatic Lantern
Commander’s Sphere
Cultivator’s Caravan
Midnight Clock
Aetherworks Marvel
Bespoke Battlewagon
Panharmonicon
Conjurer’s Closet
Aetherflux Conduit
Bootleggers’ Stash

Enchantments (2)
Era of Innovation
Thopter Spy Network
Lands (38)
Academy Ruins
Aether Hub
Command Tower
Evolving Wilds
Exotic Orchard
Forest
Frontier Bivouac
Frostboil Snarl
Hinterland Harbor
Island
Karplusan Forest
Mountain
Overflowing Basin
Path of Ancestry
Rootbound Crag
Sheltered Thicket
Shivan Reef
Slagwoods Bridge
Spire of Industry
Sulfur Falls
Tanglepool Bridge
Temple of Epiphany
Treasure Vault
Vineglimmer Snarl
Yavimaya Coast

Add and Drop Budget Upgrades:

Please note: All prices are from TCGPlayer.com (If you want to support our site you can use this affiliate link!) All prices are current as of 2/3/25; they are, of course, subject to change!

Below are all of the changes we have made!

Add: Drop:

Gonti's Aether Heart is quite cheap coming at around $1.00

With such a cheap price tag I’m kind of shocked that they didn’t include Gonti's Aether Heart already, this card is just perfect for the deck, it can help us produce a ton of energy and allows us to take an extra turn which in the late-game or when we are getting close to killing someone can be very good! We are already in Temur and can draw a ton of cards pretty easily so I don’t think that Midnight Clock provides much of a value-add.

Add: Drop:

Behemoth of Vault 0 is extremely cheap most copies are averaging around $0.25

Elder Gargaroth can be a nice utility piece for the deck, but overall, it doesn’t help further the gameplan that much, I prefer a much more direct energy approach, and I am a big fan of making copies of Behemoth of Vault 0 to get additional energy and get their leave the battlefield trigger, in my testing games Behemoth put in work and was devasting to my opponents.

Add: Drop:

Wurmcoil Engine is absolutely nasty in this deck, while it doesn’t provide energy being able to copy it and get its death triggers can help us build up our board quite a bit and allow us to be very dominant in combat, I cut Duplicant because while it does trigger Saheeli it doesn’t support the overall gameplan.

Wurmcoils can be a little pricey, averaging around 9-10 dollars.

Add: Drop:

Stone Idol Generator is a powerhouse in this deck; while I rarely care about the token creation ability, their first ability can net us a ridiculous amount of energy and help us always be able to trigger Saheeli or dump energy into whatever we want to. I was able to produce a crazy amount of energy with this card, and overall, it made the game plan a lot smoother. I don’t like Conjurer's Closet very much within this deck. We already Re-ETB our creatures quite a bit because of Saheeli, and I don’t think the effect is that great in this deck.

Add: Drop:

Determined Iteration is so good in this deck, allowing us to make an additional token copy of one of our Saheeli tokens can get especially crazy when we copy something with a great ETB or death trigger since we are already running the superior Blasphemous Act I didn’t think Chain Reaction was really worth having in this deck.

Copies of Determined Iteration come in around 6-7 dollars

Add: Drop:

HELIOS One is a very strong card in this deck and can be a strong piece of removal for the deck; we typically have an abundance of energy within the deck, so this is effectively a removal spell at many points of the game. I decided to cut Treasure Vault because of all of the other cuts we made, making this deck far more focused on energy than big mana or ramping.

Copies of HELIOS One are quite cheap and come in around 0.25-0.50 cents.

Add: Drop:

Arcane Denial is a great card, there is no doubt, but in this deck and with our heavy focus on energy, I think that Electrosiphon at its worst it can gain us two or three energy and at its best, I was able to get seven or eight energy for only three mana, we have quite a bit of mana-fixing in this deck so we are easily able to cast this card at pretty much any stage of the game.

Copies of Electrosiphon are quite cheap and come in around 0.25-0.50 cents.

Add: Drop:

The Motherlode is a very interesting card for the deck, against a deck full of non-basics, it can be an absolute powerhouse, because of the large number of non-basics within the format,t this card ranges from insane against certain decks to pretty good against most decks, being able to take out a strong Triome or utility land can be very valuable. Retrofitter is cool but not a card I’m really in love with; I’m not a huge fan of the Thopter package at all in this deck, and while a lot of the cards that also produce Thopters are pretty good, I am not a big fan of retrofitter!

Copies of The Motherlode, Excavator are quite cheap and come in around 0.25-0.50 cents.

Add: Drop:

We have more than enough mana-fixing in this deck, so I don’t think that Solemn is super strong in this deck, Blaster Hulk on the other hand, is an absolute powerhouse for this deck, it can be super cheap in this deck, and we can trigger its ability with ease, this is a great crowd-control card and allows us to maintain a strong board presence and destroy a few small creatures or a couple bigger creatures.

Copies of Blaster Hulk are quite cheap and come in around 0.25-0.50 cents.

Our upgraded decklist:

Click here to copy full decklist to your clipboard!

Living Energy Precon with Upgrades!

Commander (1)
Saheeli, Radiant Creator

Creatures (28)
Loyal Apprentice
Ornithopter of Paradise
Reckless Fireweaver
Servant of the Conduit
Architect of the Untamed
Peema Trailblazer
Pia Nalaar, Chief Mechanic
Rogue Refiner
Sai, Master Thopterist
Stridehangar Automaton
Whirler Virtuoso
Druid of Purification
Nissa, Worldsoul Speaker
Peema Aether-Seer
Pia and Kiran Nalaar
Solemn Simulacrum
Whirler Rogue
Lightning Runner
Rampaging Aetherhood
The Motherlode, Excavator
Aethertide Whale
Behemoth of Vault 0
Combustible Gearhulk
Territorial Aetherkite
Wurmcoil Engine
Aethersquall Ancient
Aetherwind Basker
Triplicate Titan

Planeswalkers (1)
Saheeli, Sublime Artificer

Instants (5)
Chaos Warp
Disallow
Electrosiphon
Glimmer of Genius
Reality Shift

Sorceries (5)
Attune with Aether
Blasphemous Act
Confiscation Coup
Explosive Vegetation
One with the Machine

Artifacts (19)
Sol Ring
Soul-Guide Lantern
Adaptive Omnitool
Arcane Signet
Decoction Module
Lightning Greaves
Solar Transformer
Talisman of Curiosity
Aetheric Amplifier
Chromatic Lantern
Commander’s Sphere
Cultivator’s Caravan
Aetherworks Marvel
Bespoke Battlewagon
Panharmonicon
Stone Idol Generator
Aetherflux Conduit
Bootleggers’ Stash
Gonti’s Aether Heart

Enchantments (3)
Determined Iteration
Era of Innovation
Thopter Spy Network
Lands (38)
Academy Ruins
Aether Hub
Command Tower
Evolving Wilds
Exotic Orchard
Forest
Frontier Bivouac
Frostboil Snarl
HELIOS One
Hinterland Harbor
Island
Karplusan Forest
Mountain
Overflowing Basin
Path of Ancestry
Rootbound Crag
Sheltered Thicket
Shivan Reef
Slagwoods Bridge
Spire of Industry
Sulfur Falls
Tanglepool Bridge
Temple of Epiphany
Vineglimmer Snarl
Yavimaya Coast

Conclusion:

Thanks so much for reading to the end! This deck has been a blast to test and move some pieces around; I love being able to make this deck considerably stronger for a very small monetary investment! Magic doesn’t have to be expensive to be good or strong! While this deck certainly be a world-beater, it’s great at precon levels or a couple of levels above. Stay tuned and TAP IN!