Precon Upgrade Guide
Science! Upgrade Guide
What to cut, what to add, and how to play the Jeskai artifacts and energy precon from Fallout, commanded by Dr. Madison Li.
Fallout
Science!
Energy counters brought back to Commander, with a little bookkeeping. Out of the box, before any upgrades. How we rate precons
Buy Science! on TCGplayer →Quick verdict
Science! is a Jeskai artifact deck that turns every artifact spell into energy and spends that energy on cards and threats. Dr. Madison Li gives you an energy counter each time you cast an artifact, and her three tap abilities turn that energy into a hasty attacker, a card, or an artifact back from the graveyard. The engine is sound. The deck is held back by too many artifacts that cost three mana or more and do little, a slow mana base, and a few cards that help opponents as much as you.
TurnZero HQ rates Science! a 3 out of 5 on difficulty and a 3 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 Science! decklist page, and every other precon we cover is on the precon directory.
How the precon plays
Dr. Madison Li costs three mana, one each of blue, red and white. Whenever you cast an artifact spell you get one energy counter. She can tap and pay one energy to give a creature +1/+0, trample and haste until end of turn, pay three to draw a card, or pay five to return an artifact card from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped. Only one of those happens per turn, since each costs a tap, so cheap artifacts that let you draw a card every turn are the most reliable use.
Many of the deck's artifacts make energy on their own. Assaultron Dominator and T-45 Power Armor give two energy when they enter, Plasma Caster gives two each attack, and Glimmer of Genius draws two cards and adds two more. Liberty Prime, Recharged is an 8/8 with vigilance, trample and haste that costs two energy each time it attacks or blocks, and it can sacrifice spare artifacts to draw.
The deck's big turns come from artifacts entering in bunches. Sentinel Sarah Lyons gives your creatures +2/+2 on any turn an artifact entered, The Prydwen, Steel Flagship makes a Knight token for each other nontoken artifact that enters, and Wake the Past returns every artifact from your graveyard with haste.
What works out of the box
Dr. Madison Li ↗
Every artifact you cast is an energy counter, and three energy is a card. She turns a deck of cheap artifacts into a steady stream of draws.
Liberty Prime, Recharged ↗
Five mana for an 8/8 with vigilance, trample and haste. It costs two energy to keep each attack, and it can sacrifice a spare artifact to give some back and draw a card.
Sentinel Sarah Lyons ↗
Creatures get +2/+2 on any turn an artifact entered under your control, and her battalion trigger hits a player for the number of artifacts you control.
Thirst for Knowledge ↗
Three mana at instant speed to draw three, and you only discard one card if it is an artifact. In this deck that is nearly always the case.
Mystic Forge ↗
Lets you cast artifacts from the top of your library, so each artifact you play from it is card advantage and another energy counter.
Wake the Past ↗
Returns every artifact card in your graveyard to the battlefield with haste. After a board wipe it rebuilds the whole deck in one turn.
What needs improvement
Too many of the artifacts are slow and do little once they land. Expert-Level Safe asks you to guess an opponent's number to get two cards back, Nuka-Cola Vending Machine makes Food for mana, and C.A.M.P. costs three to cast and three more to attach to a land. Madison only cares that you cast an artifact, so cheap artifacts that replace themselves do her job better.
The mana base has nine lands that enter tapped, counting the two temples, Irrigated Farmland , the three Bridges, Mystic Monastery , Path of Ancestry and Myriad Landscape . The deck also has few ways to stop an opponent's spell, which matters because Austere Command and similar wipes are exactly what an artifact deck fears.
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. Cast more cheap artifacts that replace themselves
Madison rewards the number of artifacts you cast, not their size. One- and two-mana artifacts that draw a card give you energy and a card back, so you can cast several in a turn.
What to look for Artifacts costing zero to two mana that draw a card on entering, leaving or being sacrificed, or creatures that reward each artifact you cast.
Cut, for example
Expert-Level Safe Two mana for a guessing game against an opponent. When it works you get two cards, but you can spend several turns and activations without a match.
Nuka-Cola Vending Machine Three mana and more mana each turn for a Food, which only turns into a tapped Treasure when sacrificed. It is slow ramp in a deck with better rocks.
C.A.M.P. Three mana to cast and three to fortify a land before it does anything. That is six mana for a +1/+1 counter a turn.
Add, for example
Ichor Wellspring ↗
Two mana. It draws a card when it enters and another when it goes to the graveyard, so Liberty Prime's sacrifice ability draws you two.
Chromatic Star ↗
One mana. Sacrifice it to fix a color and draw a card.
Mishra's Bauble ↗
Costs nothing, so it is a free energy counter for Madison, and you draw a card at the next upkeep after sacrificing it.
2. Enter untapped more often
Madison costs one of each color on turn three, and the deck wants to cast artifacts every turn after that. Nine tapped lands make both harder.
What to look for Two-color lands in the deck's three pairs that enter untapped. Keep the artifact Bridges if you want artifact count, and cut the lands that only add tempo loss.
Cut, for example
Temple of Epiphany Always enters tapped, for a scry 1.
Temple of Enlightenment The white-blue temple, with the same problem.
Myriad Landscape Enters tapped, taps for colorless and needs two more mana to fetch two basics of one type. Too slow for three colors.
3. Hold up a counterspell
The deck's main fear is an artifact wipe or a mass removal spell. Electrosiphon is its only counterspell, so one more or two cheap ones protect the board you spent turns building.
What to look for Counterspells costing two mana. Ones that counter any spell, or any noncreature spell, cover board wipes.
Cut, for example
Plasma Caster Two energy per attack is useful, but the coin flip that exiles a blocker is unreliable. The deck has better ways to make energy.
Overencumbered Gives an opponent three artifact tokens and taxes their attacks. It slows one player down a little and gives them a Clue to draw with.
4. Turn each artifact into damage or a body
Casting artifacts already makes energy. A cheap creature that also triggers on each artifact gives the deck a clock without needing more cards.
What to look for Creatures or enchantments costing three mana or less that trigger whenever an artifact enters or you cast an artifact spell.
Cut, for example
Open the Vaults Returns all artifacts and enchantments from every graveyard, so opponents get theirs back too. Wake the Past does the one-sided version.
Red Death, Shipwrecker Goads an opponent's creature but gives that player a card each time. It does nothing with artifacts or energy.
Win conditions
The deck wins with large artifact creatures and wide attacks. Liberty Prime, Recharged and Behemoth of Vault 0 hit hard on their own, Madison can give one of them haste and trample with a single energy, and Sentinel Sarah Lyons pumps the whole team on a turn when artifacts land. Mechanized Production is an alternate win if you can copy one artifact until you control eight with the same name. The upgrades add cheaper artifacts so each of those turns comes sooner.
Who should buy this precon
A moderate pick for a player who enjoys counting resources. You track energy, decide each turn which of Madison's three abilities is worth it, and sequence cheap artifacts to set up big turns. That is more to manage than a typical creature deck, but none of it is hard to learn. It suits someone who likes artifact decks and wants a commander that rewards efficient play.
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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