Precon Upgrade Guide
Sultai Arisen Upgrade Guide
What to cut, what to add, and how to play the Sultai graveyard precon from Tarkir: Dragonstorm, commanded by Teval, the Balanced Scale.
Tarkir: Dragonstorm
Sultai Arisen
Graveyard recursion takes some practice. Out of the box, before any upgrades. How we rate precons
Buy Sultai Arisen on TCGplayer →Quick verdict
Sultai Arisen is a graveyard deck where almost every recursion effect also makes a creature. Teval, the Balanced Scale creates a 2/2 Zombie whenever cards leave your graveyard, and the box is full of ways to do that, from delve spells to Life from the Loam to Conduit of Worlds . The engine is good. What holds the deck back is a mana base with nine lands that enter tapped, few answers to an opponent's spell, and some top-end cards that cost more than they return.
TurnZero HQ rates Sultai Arisen 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 Sultai Arisen decklist page, and every other precon we cover is on the precon directory.
How the precon plays
Teval, the Balanced Scale is a four-mana 4/4 flier. When it attacks you mill three cards, then you may return a land card from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped. Separately, whenever one or more cards leave your graveyard, you create a 2/2 black Zombie Druid. That second ability is the engine: casting Gravecrawler from the graveyard, exiling cards to delve, or returning a land all make a Zombie.
The early game is about filling the graveyard and ramping. Stitcher's Supplier , Satyr Wayfinder , Hedron Crab and Skull Prophet put cards into the graveyard, and Cultivate , Farseek and Sakura-Tribe Elder get lands out so Teval comes down on turn three or four.
From there each turn has several ways to pull cards back. Life from the Loam returns lands, Conduit of Worlds lets you play lands from your graveyard, Phyrexian Reclamation returns creatures, and Treasure Cruise exiles cards to cast cheaply. Teval's Judgment and Kishla Skimmer add cards or Treasure on top of the Zombie each time.
What works out of the box
Teval, the Balanced Scale ↗
Makes a 2/2 Zombie whenever one or more cards leave your graveyard, and returns a land when it attacks. Almost every card in the deck feeds it.
Teval's Judgment ↗
Whenever cards leave your graveyard, you choose a card, a Treasure or a Zombie, each mode once per turn. Next to Teval, a single recursion spell becomes three or four things.
Conduit of Worlds ↗
Lets you play lands from your graveyard, and each one that leaves makes a Zombie with Teval out. It also recasts a nonland permanent from the graveyard on a turn you haven't cast a spell.
Life from the Loam ↗
Returns up to three lands from the graveyard to your hand, and dredge brings it back instead of a draw. It is a repeatable trigger for Teval and keeps your land drops coming.
Kishla Skimmer ↗
Two mana for a 2/2 flier that draws a card the first time a card leaves your graveyard during your turn. Cheap, and it turns on the same way Teval does.
Avenger of Zendikar ↗
Makes a 0/1 Plant per land, then grows them with every land drop. A deck that returns lands from the graveyard each turn grows them quickly.
What needs improvement
The mana base is the biggest drag. Temple of Malady , Opulent Palace , Haunted Mire , Contaminated Aquifer , Fetid Pools , Golgari Rot Farm , Crypt of Agadeem , Memorial to Folly and Myriad Landscape all enter tapped. That is a lot for a three-color deck that wants a two-drop self-mill creature on turn two.
The deck can remove creatures and has Casualties of War for bigger problems, but it has nothing that stops a spell. It also spends slots on cards like Necromantic Selection that cost seven and work against your own board of Zombies. See how much removal a Commander deck needs for a target 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. Untap more of your lands
Nine tapped lands slow every opening. The deck needs blue, black and green early, so untapped duals help both speed and color.
What to look for Two-color lands in Sultai pairs that enter untapped: painlands, checklands or shocklands. Keep the utility lands that return from the graveyard; cut the plain tapped duals.
Cut, for example
Contaminated Aquifer A blue-black land that always enters tapped. Its land types rarely matter in this deck.
Haunted Mire The same problem in black-green. The box already has untapped black-green options in Llanowar Wastes and Woodland Cemetery .
Temple of Malady Enters tapped every time. Scry 1 is less useful than usual in a deck that wants cards in the graveyard anyway.
Add, for example
Underground River ↗
The blue-black painland. Always untapped, and the 1 damage only matters when you use it for colored mana.
Yavimaya Coast ↗
The green-blue painland, an untapped source for Kishla Skimmer and Teval itself.
Drowned Catacomb ↗
Enters untapped if you control an Island or a Swamp, which the deck usually does by turn two.
2. Add cheap repeatable ways to empty the graveyard
Teval rewards every turn a card leaves your graveyard. Cheap permanents that do it on their own, turn after turn, make Zombies without costing you a card each time.
What to look for Creatures or permanents costing three mana or less that return themselves or other cards from the graveyard, or let you play lands from it.
Cut, for example
Millikin Taps for colorless and mills one. The mill is small, and the deck has many better mana sources.
Wonder Gives your creatures flying only while it sits in your graveyard and you control an Island. This deck exiles graveyard cards constantly for delve and escape, so the effect is easy to lose.
Add, for example
Ramunap Excavator ↗
Three mana: you may play lands from your graveyard. A second copy of Conduit's land ability on a body, and each land played from the graveyard makes a Zombie.
Bloodghast ↗
Returns from the graveyard to the battlefield whenever a land enters under your control. Every return is a card leaving your graveyard.
Eternal Witness ↗
Three mana to return any card from your graveyard to your hand. A second copy of Timeless Witness's effect that triggers Teval on the way.
3. Add answers that stop a spell
The deck has no counterspells, so an opponent's board wipe or exile effect for your graveyard resolves every time. A few instant-speed answers cover that.
What to look for Two-mana instants that counter a spell or remove any permanent, so you can hold them up while Teval attacks.
Cut, for example
Necromantic Selection Seven mana to destroy all creatures and steal one back. It kills your own Zombies and Teval along with everything else.
Consuming Aberration Mills your opponents, not you, so it does nothing for Teval's engine. Its size depends on their graveyards, which this deck doesn't care about.
Add, for example
Counterspell ↗
Two mana, counters anything. The clean answer to a board wipe or a graveyard exile spell.
Drown in the Loch ↗
Counters a spell or destroys a creature with mana value up to the number of cards in its controller's graveyard. It counts the opponent's graveyard, so it gets stronger as a game goes long.
Assassin's Trophy ↗
Destroys any permanent an opponent controls at instant speed for two mana.
4. Protect Teval
Teval is the engine, and losing it to one removal spell stops the Zombies. The box has no way to protect it.
What to look for Cheap equipment or instants that give your commander hexproof, shroud or indestructible.
Cut, for example
Disciple of Bolas Sacrifices another creature to draw cards equal to its power. Most of your sacrifice fodder is a 2/2 Zombie, so it usually draws two.
Lord of Extinction A five-mana creature sized by all graveyards. Big, but it does nothing to make Zombies or return cards.
Win conditions
The deck wins with a wide board of Zombies and a few large creatures. Each turn Teval and the recursion spells add 2/2s, and Avenger of Zendikar or Colossal Grave-Reaver add a second wave. Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord and Ob Nixilis, the Fallen give you reach when combat stalls. Living Death can reset the board in your favor if the graveyard holds better creatures than the battlefield. The upgrades mainly keep the engine running long enough to get there.
Who should buy this precon
A good choice for a player who has a few games behind them and enjoys tracking a lot of small triggers. Graveyard decks ask you to count cards, remember which cards are in your graveyard and choose what to return, so there is more to manage than in a creature deck. It suits someone who likes long, grinding games.
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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