We Are the Borg Upgrade Guide

Quick verdict

We Are the Borg is a go-wide artifact creature deck, and its upgrades are about getting that board out sooner and keeping it. Every creature in the box is an artifact creature, so The Borg Queen, Tempered Steel and Locutus, the One Who Speaks pump the whole team, and every creature you assimilate joins in. The weak spots are a creature curve that starts late (four of the 19 creatures in the 99 cost two or less, and the commander costs seven), a seven-mana wipe that kills your own board, and only two instants that protect the whole team, neither of which stops an exile or -X/-X wipe. Start with cheap artifact creatures, then protection.

TurnZero HQ rates We Are the Borg 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 We Are the Borg decklist page, and every other precon we cover is on the precon directory.

How the precon plays

The Borg Queen gives your artifact creatures +2/+2. When she enters and whenever she attacks, an opponent exiles cards from the top of their library until they hit a creature card, and you assimilate it: it enters under your control with a +1/+1 counter as a Borg artifact creature. She takes from the library, not the graveyard. Assimilation Assessor and Assimilate the Wounded are the two cards that work from the graveyard, and Gift of Perfection reveals from each opponent's library and lets you pick one creature.

Since every creature you own or steal is an artifact creature, the anthems stack on all of them. Tempered Steel adds +2/+2, Locutus, the One Who Speaks adds +1/+1, Door of Destinies (name Borg) grows with each Borg spell you cast, and Class-4 Tactical Cube adds another +1/+1 once it is stationed to 7. The Borg tokens from Locutus of Borg, Borg Incursion, Conquest Mission and Maturation Chamber start at 1/1 and are 3/3 or bigger once the Queen or Tempered Steel is out.

That size changes how some cards play. Skullclamp kills a 1/1 token and draws two only before an anthem is out; once tokens are 3/3 it gives them +1/-1 and they survive, so it becomes a way to draw when a creature dies in combat. Toxic Deluge works the other way: you choose X, so with the Queen and Tempered Steel out you can pick an X that kills the other boards and leaves your bigger Borg standing.

Hugh, First of Many gives every artifact spell replicate {2}{U}, so a spare three mana copies a creature, a mana rock or a Spacecraft, and each copy becomes a token. Late in the game, One, Borg Evolved gives every artifact creature flying, double strike, vigilance, menace, lifelink and ward {2}, which turns a wide board into a finishing attack.

What works out of the box

The Borg Queen ↗

Artifact creatures you control get +2/+2, and every time she enters or attacks she assimilates the next creature card in an opponent's library.

Locutus of Borg ↗

Four mana with lifelink. Every artifact creature you control makes a 1/1 Borg token whenever it deals combat damage to a player, so each good attack grows the board.

Battle of Wolf 359 ↗

Nonartifact creatures get -X/-X, where X is the number of artifact creatures you control. Your Borg, stolen ones included, are all artifacts and survive it.

Assimilate the Wounded ↗

An instant that assimilates a creature card from each opponent's graveyard if it died this turn. Cast it after Battle of Wolf 359 or Toxic Deluge and you take up to three of the creatures you just killed.

Collective Override ↗

With your commander out you get both modes: a 1/1 Borg token and a card for each attacking creature. Cast it after attackers are declared.

One, Borg Evolved ↗

Seven mana. Every artifact creature you control gains flying, double strike, vigilance, menace, lifelink and ward {2}, which usually ends the game on the next attack.

What needs improvement

Ramp is not the problem. The deck runs 37 lands and ten mana artifacts and land fetchers (Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Commander's Sphere, Everflowing Chalice, Stonespeaker Crystal, three Talismans, Wayfarer's Bauble and Astral Cornucopia), plus Queen's Diamond for the commander and Type-03 Borg Vessel's discount on artifact spells. What it lacks is cheap creatures for all that mana to support: of the 19 creatures in the 99, four cost two or less, and every anthem waits for a board that shows up around turn four or five.

The interaction is reasonable in number (six targeted answers, three wipes and Disallow) but not all of it fits a creature deck. Join the Collective destroys every creature, yours included, for seven mana. Protection is thin for a deck that puts everything into one board: Emergency Regeneration and Borg Incursion are the only instants that cover the whole team, and Darksteel Plate and Swiftfoot Boots cover one creature each. Nothing in the 99 protects the board from an exile or -X/-X wipe.

The mana base is decent for a precon, but Skycloud Expanse needs a mana to make two, and six lands always enter tapped (Arcane Sanctum, Fetid Pools, Irrigated Farmland, Umbral Expanse, Path of Ancestry and Shore Leave Planet). Add the three lands that fetch a tapped basic and the duals that enter tapped unless a condition is met, and a three-color opening hand often can't cast a two-drop on turn two.

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. Put artifact creatures on the table before turn four

Every anthem in the deck multiplies the number of artifact creatures you have, so a two-mana creature on turn two is worth more here than in most decks. The box has plenty of mana artifacts and few cheap bodies.

What to look for Artifact creatures that cost three or less and either pump the team or grow with it. Swap them for the weakest mana artifacts: after these cuts the deck still has eight mana rocks and land fetchers plus Reconnaissance Partition.

Cut, for example

✕

Astral Cornucopia Six mana for a rock that taps for two, or nine for three. Every other rock in the deck does more per mana.

✕

Stonespeaker Crystal Four mana for two colorless. Its graveyard exile is useful, but Assimilation Assessor already exiles a graveyard and turns it into creatures.

✕

Ambulatory Reactor Lets your artifact creatures tap for colorless mana that only pays for artifacts. Unless they have vigilance, every creature tapped for mana is one that didn't attack.

Add, for example

Steel Overseer ↗

Two mana. Tap it to put a +1/+1 counter on each artifact creature you control, every turn. It is colorless, so it fits any artifact deck.

Master of Etherium ↗

Three mana. Other artifact creatures get +1/+1, and its own power and toughness count every artifact you control, mana rocks included.

Collective Drone ↗

A two-mana Borg from the Star Trek main set whose power is the number of artifact creatures you control. It counts for Door of Destinies and Path of Ancestry.

2. Protect the board from a wipe

This deck puts its whole game into one board of artifact creatures, and one wipe resets it. The box has two instants that cover the whole team: Emergency Regeneration stops destroy effects and Borg Incursion stops damage and targeting from one color, and neither stops exile or -X/-X.

What to look for Instants that save every creature at once, ideally ones that also beat exile or -X/-X, since indestructible does not.

Cut, for example

✕

Hive Mind Coprocessor Five mana for the same draw-on-damage trigger Co-Option Adjutant gives for four, at the cost of a life per card.

✕

Forsaken Monument Its +2/+2 only reaches colorless creatures: the Borg tokens, Reconnaissance Partition and a stationed Class-4 Tactical Cube. The other Borg cost colored mana, so the Queen and Tempered Steel do that job better. Its extra colorless mana is real, but after the rock cuts above there is less of it to double.

Add, for example

Clever Concealment ↗

Phases out any number of your nonland permanents until your next turn, which beats exile and -X/-X wipes too. Convoke lets your Borg pay for it.

Flawless Maneuver ↗

Your creatures gain indestructible until end of turn, and it is free while you control a commander. Without the Queen out it costs three.

3. Trade slow answers for cheap instants

The deck already has two wipes it can tilt its way, Battle of Wolf 359 and Toxic Deluge. Its slowest cards are the seven-mana wipe that hits your own board and a six-mana Saga that only borrows a creature.

What to look for Removal or counterspells at two mana or less, at instant speed, so you can answer a threat and still develop the board on your own turn.

Cut, for example

✕

Join the Collective Seven mana to destroy every creature, your Borg included, unless you also hold Emergency Regeneration. The tokens it makes only count your opponents' nonartifact creatures.

✕

The Best of Both Worlds Six mana to take a creature for two turns. Chapter III gives it back to its owner.

Add, for example

Swords to Plowshares ↗

One mana to exile any creature. The life it gives back rarely matters against a deck that wins with a wide board.

Infernal Grasp ↗

Two mana to destroy any creature at instant speed, for 2 life.

Counterspell ↗

Two mana to counter anything, including the wipe aimed at your board. The deck has only one counterspell, Disallow.

4. Swap the slowest lands for untapped duals

Three colors and a curve that wants a creature every turn from turn two means a tapped land costs more than it looks. A few of the box's lands are easy to replace for little money.

What to look for Duals that enter untapped on turns one and two, when the two-drops need them. Swap one for one so the land count stays at 37.

Cut, for example

✕

Skycloud Expanse Needs a mana to make two, so it does nothing on turn one and slows you down on turn two.

✕

Terramorphic Expanse Fetches a basic that enters tapped. Keep Evolving Wilds or Contaminated Landscape if you like the fetchers, but three is too many.

Add, for example

Hengegate Pathway ↗

Always enters untapped, as a white land or a blue land, chosen when you play it.

Brightclimb Pathway ↗

Always enters untapped, as a white land or a black land, chosen when you play it.

Clearwater Pathway ↗

Always enters untapped, as a blue land or a black land, chosen when you play it.

Win conditions

The deck wins by attacking with a wide board of pumped Borg. The Queen and Tempered Steel alone turn every 1/1 token into a 5/5, Korok, Liberated Rage gives your creatures +1/+1 for each opponent you attacked when it attacks, and Locutus of Borg keeps making more tokens off each hit. One, Borg Evolved gives the whole team flying, double strike and lifelink, which ends most games the turn after it lands. Transwarp Hub, once stationed, and Rogue's Passage get a single big creature through when the board is stalled.

Who should buy this precon

A good fit for someone who likes building a board and swinging with it, and enjoys the moment the Queen takes a creature off the top of someone's library. It is easy to pilot turn to turn, but there are a lot of static bonuses to add up, and the assimilate cards mean tracking which creatures you own and which you took. Players who want a fast deck should know the commander costs seven, so the early game is the precon's weakest stretch until the cheap creatures above go in.

Checked against the printed decklist on November 1, 2026.