Precon Upgrade Guide
Tyranid Swarm Upgrade Guide
What to cut, what to add, and how to play the Temur +1/+1 counters and ramp precon from Warhammer 40,000 Commander, commanded by The Swarmlord.
Magic: The Gathering Warhammer 40,000
Tyranid Swarm
Big ravenous threats, well regarded straight out of the box. Out of the box, before any upgrades. How we rate precons
Buy Tyranid Swarm on TCGplayer →Quick verdict
Tyranid Swarm is a ramp deck that turns its extra mana into enormous creatures, and it is one of the strongest Warhammer 40,000 decks out of the box. Most of its creatures have ravenous, so every point of mana becomes a +1/+1 counter, and The Swarmlord draws a card whenever one of those countered creatures dies. The deck's weak spots are interaction, where it has almost no way to stop a spell, a few slow or narrow cards that don't help the counters plan, and a three-color mana base with too many tapped lands.
TurnZero HQ rates Tyranid Swarm a 3 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 Tyranid Swarm decklist page, and every other precon we cover is on the precon directory.
How the precon plays
The Swarmlord is a six-mana 5/5. It enters with two +1/+1 counters for each time you've cast it from the command zone, so it gets bigger after each removal spell. Its other ability is the one that matters most: whenever a creature you control with a counter on it dies, you draw a card. That turns trades, removal and even board wipes into card draw.
The deck ramps hard to make its creatures big. Rampant Growth , Farseek , Cultivate , Harrow , Overgrowth and New Horizons add lands and mana, and Nexos makes your basic lands tap for two colorless mana to spend on costs with {X}. That mana goes into ravenous creatures like Tervigon , Termagant Swarm , Mawloc and Zoanthrope , each of which enters with X +1/+1 counters and draws a card if X is 5 or more.
The counters then get multiplied. Hardened Scales adds one more each time, Broodlord spreads counters across your board, and The First Tyrannic War puts a big X creature into play and then doubles its counters twice. Magus Lucea Kane copies your next X spell or ability, which can turn one ravenous creature into two.
What works out of the box
The Swarmlord ↗
Draws a card whenever a creature you control with a counter on it dies. In a deck where nearly every creature has counters, that protects your hand from trades and wipes.
Magus Lucea Kane ↗
Taps for two colorless mana and copies your next spell or ability with X in its cost. A copied ravenous creature becomes a token with the same X.
The First Tyrannic War ↗
Puts a creature from your hand onto the battlefield, with counters equal to your lands if it has X in its cost, then doubles its counters on chapters II and III.
Hardened Scales ↗
One mana: every time counters go on your creatures, one more goes on. Ravenous creatures and Broodlord get extra value from it.
Nexos ↗
Your basic lands tap for two colorless mana to spend on X costs, which roughly doubles the size of every ravenous creature you cast.
Zoanthrope ↗
A flying ravenous creature that deals X damage to any target when it enters. It's removal, reach and a threat in one card.
What needs improvement
The deck can remove some creatures through Mawloc and Zoanthrope , but it has no counterspells and very few instant-speed answers. An opponent's board wipe, combo or game-winning spell resolves unless you've already won. For a three-color deck that includes blue, that is a big hole. See how much removal a Commander deck needs for a number to build toward.
Several cards also sit off the plan. Aetherize is a defensive trick in a deck that wants to attack, Hull Breach only hits artifacts and enchantments at sorcery speed, and Death's Presence costs six mana to do something the deck's counter cards already do. The mana base has three tapped Temples, two gain lands and Frontier Bivouac , all of which enter tapped.
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. Add answers that work at instant speed
Blue gives this deck access to counterspells, and green and red give it flexible permanent removal. Right now it uses almost none of that, so a single opposing spell can undo several turns of ramp.
What to look for Counterspells and instant-speed answers to any permanent, costing three or four mana or less. A creature with flash that counters a spell also gives the Swarmlord a body to work with.
Cut, for example
Aetherize Returns attacking creatures to hand. It stops one attack, but a deck this big rarely needs a fog, and it does nothing on your own turn.
Hull Breach A sorcery that destroys an artifact, an enchantment or one of each. Beast Within or Chaos Warp answer those and more, at instant speed.
Add, for example
Arcane Denial ↗
Two mana to counter any spell. Its controller draws up to two cards later and you draw one, so it's best saved for a spell that matters.
Mystic Snake ↗
A four-mana creature with flash that counters a spell when it enters. It answers a board wipe and leaves a body behind.
Beast Within ↗
Three mana at instant speed to destroy any permanent. The 3/3 its controller gets is small next to your creatures.
Chaos Warp ↗
Shuffles any permanent into its owner's library. It handles indestructible threats and things green can't touch.
2. Put more counters on everything
Every ravenous creature enters with counters, and the Swarmlord draws whenever a creature with counters dies. More counters per creature makes each of those cards bigger without needing more mana.
What to look for Cheap permanents that add extra +1/+1 counters, or that keep counters around when your creatures die.
Cut, for example
Death's Presence Six mana to put counters on a creature whenever another dies. It's slow, and the Swarmlord already rewards creatures dying.
Goliath Truck A Vehicle that puts two counters on another attacker, but needs crew 2. Cheaper counter sources do more for the deck.
Add, for example
Branching Evolution ↗
Doubles the +1/+1 counters put on your creatures, so a ravenous creature with X of 4 enters with eight counters.
Ozolith, the Shattered Spire ↗
Adds one more +1/+1 counter whenever counters go on your artifacts or creatures, and can add a counter itself for two mana. It can also cycle when you don't need it.
The Ozolith ↗
When a creature with counters leaves, its counters move to The Ozolith, and you can put them all on another creature at the start of your combat. Removal stops costing you the counters.
3. Keep the biggest threat alive
After you sink eight or ten mana into one ravenous creature, a single removal spell undoes the whole turn. The Swarmlord draws you a card when it dies, but that's a poor trade for a creature that cost your whole turn.
What to look for One- or two-mana instants that give your creatures hexproof or indestructible. Ones that also add a +1/+1 counter fit the deck twice over.
Cut, for example
Acolyte Hybrid Destroys an artifact when it attacks, but the artifact's controller draws a card. A 2/2 for three rarely attacks safely in this deck's games.
Genestealer Locus A four-mana 3/3 that shrinks attackers coming at you by 1. It does nothing for the counters plan.
Add, for example
Heroic Intervention ↗
Two mana at instant speed: your permanents gain hexproof and indestructible until end of turn. It stops a destroy wipe or a targeted removal spell.
Snakeskin Veil ↗
One mana: put a +1/+1 counter on a creature and give it hexproof until end of turn. Hardened Scales makes that counter two.
4. Untap the three-color mana base
This deck ramps early and wants to spend all its mana on X spells. Each land that enters tapped costs a point of X, and the box has six of them that always do.
What to look for Two-color lands in the deck's three pairs that enter untapped. Ones with basic land types also let Game Trail enter untapped more often.
Cut, for example
Temple of Mystery Always enters tapped. Scry 1 is a small reward for a lost point of mana.
Temple of Epiphany The same tapped Temple in blue-red.
Rugged Highlands Enters tapped for 1 life. The life rarely matters, and the tempo does.
Win conditions
The upgraded deck still wins with very large creatures. Ramp into a big X on Tervigon , Mawloc or Termagant Swarm , put even more counters on them with Hardened Scales and Branching Evolution , and attack. Winged Hive Tyrant gives every creature with counters flying and haste, which often ends the game the turn it lands. The Swarmlord refills your hand whenever the board gets wiped, and the new counterspells give you a way to stop the wipe in the first place.
Who should buy this precon
A good pick for a player with some Commander experience who likes ramp and big creatures. X spells ask you to decide how much to spend each turn, and the counters stack up quickly, so there's some math to keep track of. The deck is strong out of the box and doesn't need much tuning to hold its own at most casual tables.
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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