Precon Upgrade Guide
Planar Portal Upgrade Guide
What to cut, what to add, and how to play the Rakdos exile and Treasure precon from Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, commanded by Prosper, Tome-Bound.
Adventures in the Forgotten Realms
Planar Portal
Treasure and exile card advantage, the most played of the four. Out of the box, before any upgrades. How we rate precons
Buy Planar Portal on TCGplayer →Quick verdict
Planar Portal is one of the stronger precons from its set because Prosper, Tome-Bound is a card advantage and ramp engine on its own. Every end step it gives you an extra card to play, and every card you play from exile makes a Treasure. The deck around it has plenty of ways to exile and play cards, but also several random dice and artifact cards, removal that is clunky to cast, and a slow mana base.
TurnZero HQ rates Planar Portal a 2 out of 5 on difficulty and a 4 out of 5 on power, as it comes in the box. That is our editorial read, not an official Wizards rating. The full hundred cards are on the Planar Portal decklist page, and every other precon we cover is on the precon directory.
How the precon plays
Prosper, Tome-Bound is a 1/4 deathtouch creature with two abilities. At the beginning of your end step, it exiles the top card of your library, and you may play that card until the end of your next turn. Whenever you play a card from exile, from Prosper or any other source, you create a Treasure. In practice Prosper draws you a card each turn and refunds part of its cost.
The rest of the deck exiles more cards to play. Light Up the Stage , Commune with Lava , Ignite the Future and Theater of Horrors work like card draw from exile, while Gonti, Lord of Luxury , Hurl Through Hell and Fevered Suspicion let you play cards that belonged to opponents. Each one also makes a Treasure through Prosper.
Those Treasures have uses beyond mana. Marionette Master makes an opponent lose life equal to its power whenever an artifact of yours goes to the graveyard, so sacrificing Treasures becomes a way to win, and Grim Hireling turns them into removal.
What works out of the box
Prosper, Tome-Bound ↗
An extra card to play every turn, and a Treasure each time you play a card from exile. It keeps the deck fueled with no setup.
Marionette Master ↗
Every Treasure you sacrifice makes an opponent lose life equal to its power. With counters on it, a few Treasures can finish a player.
Theater of Horrors ↗
Exiles a card each upkeep, and you can play those cards on any of your turns after an opponent has lost life that turn. It builds a second hand over time.
Gonti, Lord of Luxury ↗
Exiles a card from an opponent's library for you to cast, which also makes a Treasure through Prosper.
Light Up the Stage ↗
Exile two cards to play until the end of your next turn, often for one red mana with spectacle. Each card played is a Treasure.
Hurl Through Hell ↗
Exiles an opponent's creature, then lets you cast it yourself, with mana of any color. Removal that turns into a threat and a Treasure.
What needs improvement
The deck has a handful of cards that don't help Prosper. Bucknard's Everfull Purse goes to another player after you use it, Ebony Fly and Orazca Relic are slow mana rocks, and Chaos Wand costs four mana each time you activate it. Underdark Rift is a colorless land with an expensive, random removal ability.
The removal is uneven. Hex needs exactly six targets to cast, which many tables won't offer, and Hellish Rebuke only works if opponents attack you that turn. The mana base also includes Zhalfirin Void and Rakdos Carnarium , and colorless or tapped lands slow a deck whose best plays are cheap. See how much removal a Commander deck needs for a count to build toward.
Upgrade ideas
Each upgrade below starts from something the deck does poorly and says what a replacement card has to do. The cards named are examples, not the only answer: if you own something else that does the same job, or a newer printing does it better, it goes in the same slot. Make one change at a time and play a few games between them, so you can tell which change helped. The general method is in how to upgrade a Commander precon →
1. Play more cards from exile
Prosper makes a Treasure for every card you play from exile, from any source. Cheap impulse draw doubles as ramp in this deck.
What to look for Spells or creatures costing three mana or less that exile cards from your library for you to play, ideally more than once.
Cut, for example
Chaos Wand Four mana per activation to cast a random instant or sorcery from an opponent's library. Too expensive to use often.
Orazca Relic A colorless rock that only draws a card after you control ten permanents. The deck has better ramp.
Add, for example
Professional Face-Breaker ↗
Makes a Treasure when your creatures connect, and sacrifices Treasures to exile cards you can play. Each card played from exile makes another Treasure with Prosper.
Laelia, the Blade Reforged ↗
Exiles a card to play every time it attacks, and grows whenever cards are exiled from your library, including by Prosper.
Reckless Impulse ↗
Two mana to exile two cards you can play until the end of your next turn.
2. Turn Treasures into damage
Prosper creates more Treasures than the deck can spend. Cards that punish opponents when artifacts enter or leave turn each Treasure into damage.
What to look for Cheap permanents that trigger when an artifact enters or goes to the graveyard and make opponents lose life.
Cut, for example
Bucknard's Everfull Purse Makes Treasure on a die roll, then passes to the player on your right. You lose it after one use.
Ebony Fly A rock that enters tapped and makes colorless mana. Prosper's Treasures already cover the ramp.
Add, for example
Disciple of the Vault ↗
One mana: an opponent loses 1 life whenever an artifact goes to the graveyard from the battlefield. Every Treasure you spend counts.
Reckless Fireweaver ↗
Deals 1 damage to each opponent whenever an artifact enters under your control, which covers every Treasure Prosper makes.
3. Removal that is easy to cast
Two of the deck's answers only work in specific situations. Cheap, flexible removal is easier to fit around a turn of playing exiled cards.
What to look for Removal costing two mana or less, or removal that scales with your mana, that destroys a creature without conditions on the board.
Cut, for example
Hex Destroys six target creatures, but needs exactly six legal targets to cast. On many boards it can't be cast at all.
Hellish Rebuke Only matters if opponents attack you on the turn you cast it. It does nothing against creatures that stay home.
4. Faster, colored mana
Colorless and tapped lands slow down a deck that wants to cast exiled cards in both colors on the turn it gets them.
What to look for Black-red lands that enter untapped, so any card Prosper exiles can be cast on time.
Cut, for example
Underdark Rift Makes colorless mana, and its removal costs five mana plus the land itself.
Zhalfirin Void A colorless land whose only bonus is a scry 1 when it enters.
Rakdos Carnarium Enters tapped and returns a land to your hand, which costs you tempo in the early turns.
Win conditions
Prosper rarely wins on its own. The deck wins by out-carding the table and converting the extra resources into damage. Marionette Master , Disciple of the Vault and Reckless Fireweaver make each Treasure hurt, while Etali, Primal Storm and Dream Pillager turn attacks into free spells. In a long game, the volume of cards Prosper provides usually leaves you with more threats than opponents can answer.
Who should buy this precon
A good fit for a newer player who wants a deck that keeps giving them options. Prosper's card each turn is easy to track: play it before the end of your next turn or lose it. The Treasures add a small amount of bookkeeping, but nothing complicated. It is also strong enough that experienced players will enjoy it, and it rewards learning when to save Treasures instead of spending them.
Checked against the printed decklist on October 10, 2026.
Track how the upgrades actually perform.
TurnZero HQ keeps a win rate per deck version, so you can change a few cards, play some games, and see the difference instead of guessing.
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