Looking to spend a few bottle caps to upgrade the Scrappy Survivors precon from Universes Beyond: Fallout? I’ve got you covered with today’s Upgrade Guide, here on EDHREC. 

In case you missed it, go check out my review of the deck here. The TL;DR is that the deck plays extremely well, we just need to cut some of the less powerful legends in the deck, and maybe add a bit more card draw. Junk tokens are great, but you just can’t beat having extra cards in your hand.

Let’s tune up.

What’s In the Original Deck?

Scrappy Survivors is red, white, and green, and led by Dogmeat, Ever Loyal, a 3/3 Dog for three mana that mills you for five on entry and brings an Aura or Equipment back to your hand from the grave. And whenever you attack with an equipped or enchanted creature, you make a Junk token. Junk can be sacrificed at sorcery speed to exile the top card of your library, and you can play that card until end of turn.

Our backup commander is Preston Garvey, Minuteman, a 4/4 Human Soldier for five mana that untaps all your enchanted permanents when he attacks, and at the beginning of combat he puts a Settlement Aura on a land you control.

Here’s the original list:

What Budget Cards Can We Add to Scrappy Survivors?

We’ll break our upgrade up into two parts, one budget ($5 or less) and one non-budget (>$5).

The trouble I ran into when setting up this upgrade is that there are so many creatures that interact with Auras and Equipment in these colors, and I wanted to add them all! The problem with that is the more creatures you add to the deck, the more Auras and Equipment you have to remove. But I think I’ve managed to find a good balance.

First up, we’ve added a bit more card advantage, with Sram, Senior Edificer, Setessan Champion, and Sage’s Reverie. Graveyard recursion is a type of card advantage, so I’ve increased that as well, with Danitha, New Benalia’s Light and Koll, the Forgemaster. 

For a bit of extra protection, we’ll add Umbra Mystic, which gives all of our Auras Totem Armor, meaning our creatures will survive if they’re destroyed as long as they’re enchanted. And to prevent our opponents from interfering with our attacks, we’ll bring in Conqueror’s Flail.

Akki Battle Squad ensures that we get two combats each turn, which will be incredible in this deck with all of the attack triggers. And Chishiro, the Shattered Blade will gives us a 2/2 creature token whenever we drop an Aura or Equipment, in addition to pumping up our Modified creatures.

Reckless Fireweaver hits our opponents for damage whenever we drop an artifact, which seems decent with all of the Equipment and Junk we’re making. Dispatch gives us cheap and easy removal. Crime Novelist makes us a red mana whenever we sacrifice an artifact, fantastic for when we sacrifice a Junk token in our main phases. Nettlecyst is the Equipment variant of All That Glitters, so it’s also entering the chat.

Last, two of my favorite additions to the deck are Stangg, Echo Warrior and Gylwain, Casting Director. Stangg makes a token copy of himself on attacks, including copies of all the Auras and Equipment attached to him. And Gylwain ensures that all of our nontoken creatures enter the battlefield enchanted with Role tokens.

Here are the cards getting left in the wasteland: Abundant Growth, Agility Bobblehead, Bloodforged Battle-Axe, Brass Knuckles, Brotherhood Outcast, Cait, Cage Brawler, Duchess, Wayward Tavernkeep, Ian the Reckless, Mister Gutsy, Moira Brown, Guide Author, Perception Bobblehead, Pre-War Formalwear, Temple of the False God, Vault 101: Birthday Party, Vault 21: House Gambit

Here’s the budget upgraded deck list:

Other cards to consider: Armored Skyhunter, Belt of Giant Strength, Cloudsteel Kirin, Eidolon of Blossoms, Elvish Archivist, Forge Anew, Ingenious Artillerist, Kami of Celebration, Kellan, the Fae-Blooded, Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar, Late to Dinner, Magnetic Snuffler, Redemption Arc, Sarinth Steelseeker, Silkguard, Sovereign Okinec Ahau, Toggo, Goblin Weaponsmith, Yenna, Redtooth Regent

What Are Some Good Expensive Cards We Can Add to Scrappy Survivors?

If you’ve been raking it in at the Atomic Wrangler Casino and are looking to buy the pricey upgrades, then this section is for you.

Doubling Season will make you twice as many Junk and Settlement tokens, in addition to the other tokens and the counters we’re putting on our creatures. And Krark-Clan Ironworks can turn all that Junk into mana. We’ve also got some extra ramp coming with combat, with Kodama of the West Tree, Sword of the Animist, and The Reaver Cleaver.

To protect an important creature, we’ll add in Robe of Stars, and for some more recursion we’ve got Hall of Heliod’s Generosity.

These ghouls are getting taken out: Ash Barrens, Codsworth, Handy Helper, Commander Sofia Daguerre, Explorer’s Scope, Sticky Fingers, Umbra Mystic, and Veronica, Dissident Scribe

Here’s the non-budget upgraded list:

And a few other cards to consider: Displaced Dinosaurs (turn all your Junk into 7/7 Dinos!), Halvar, God of Battle, Ondu Spiritdancer, and Sigarda’s Aid

Out of the Vault

That’s our Upgrade Guide for Scrappy Survivors! What do you think? Anything I missed? Bad cards I added? What’s your favorite open-world RPG video game? Sound off in the comments below. And keep checking back for more precon guides, here on EDHREC.

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Andy Zupke

Andy's been playing Magic on and off since Fallen Empires. He loves to travel, drink, eat, and spend time with family and friends.