Hey friends! Welcome back for another precon guide here on EDHREC. Today we’ve got our first upgrade guide for Modern Horizons 3, and we’re kicking things off by powering up Creative Energy. In case you missed it, take a peek at my review of the deck to see what it does and how to play it.

I gave this precon an extremely good rating and commended it for finally giving us the energy deck we’ve always wanted. With it being so strong right out of the box, upgrading it gets a bit more challenging. But that certainly doesn’t mean we can’t try.

What’s in the Original Deck?

Creative Energy is blue, red, and white (Jeskai) and led by Satya, Aetherflux Genius. Satya’s a 3/5 Human Artificer for four mana with menace and haste. When he attacks you can make a token copy of a nontoken creature you control that’s tapped and attacking, and when you do you get two energy counters. At the beginning of your end step, you have to sacrifice the token unless you pay energy equal to its mana value.

Our backup commander is Cayth, Famed Mechanist, a 3/3 Dwarf Artificer for four mana that has fabricate 1 (when she enters she gets a +1/+1 counter or you make a 1/1 Servo token) and gives all of your nontoken creatures fabricate 1. Then you can pay two mana and tap her to either populate (create a copy of a creature token you control) or proliferate (choose any number of permanents and players with counters on them and add one of each kind of those counters).

Here’s the original deck list:

What Budget Cards Can We Add to Creative Energy?

We’ll break our upgrades up into two sections, one for the budget-conscious ($5 or less per card) and one for the big spenders (over $5 per card).

The first thing I wanted to improve was our low-mana creatures. These are the dudes we want to get out early so that Satya has something to copy as soon as he hits the board. So we’re bringing in Brotherhood Scribe from the Fallout set, who can give us energy as well as pump our gang when we make energy. We’re also bringing in a handful of energy makers from the main Modern Horizons 3 set, with Conduit Goblin, Riddle Gate Gargoyle, and Inspired Inventor, all of which can make energy on entry. Last for our cheaper creatures is Rumor Gatherer. The card advantage we’ll get from this one is fantastic. At the very least, we’ll get to scry every turn.

We’re not just beefing up our small critters though. Let’s throw in some big stuff too. The Motherlode, Excavator is also from Fallout. This Robot is gonna give us a bunch of energy on entry, and lets us spend four energy on attacks to blow up a nonbasic land and make blocking more difficult. Angel of the Ruins exiles up to two artifacts and/or enchantments on entry. If we’re copying it with Satya, that’s gonna really wreck some game plans. Junk Winder loves tokens. Whenever we make a copy with Satya, we’ll get to tap down a nonland permanent for a couple turns. Stalking Vengeance deals damage to a player or planeswalker whenever a creature we control dies. Since Satya makes us sacrifice the tokens he makes unless we pay for them, we can reap the rewards whether we pay or not.

Our last creature deserves special mention, because it can be a literal game ender. Port Razer gives you an extra combat step when it deals combat damage to an opponent. So if you’ve got an opponent with no blockers, copy Port Razer with Satya and attack that player. When you hit them, you’ll untap Satya and your other creatures and get another combat. Just attack again, making another Port Razer, and keep going until that player is dead. Unfortunately your token copies can’t attack again in your additional combats since they won’t have haste. But you’ll have a bunch of energy available to save one or two of them. Or if Stalking Vengeance is on the board just let them all die and deal a bunch of damage to another player. Or maybe you had Junk Winder on the board and tapped down all the blockers of another player. Then you can just keep going! Or if you want to end the game, tap down all blockers at the start of combat with Bond of Discipline. Game over.

For our last couple of budget additions, we’re throwing in HELIOS One, Swiftfoot Boots, and Late to Dinner.

To make room for these new cards, we’ve gotta cut some. So we’re breaking up with: Demolition Field, Aethergeode Miner, Grenzo, Havoc Raiser, Aethersphere Harvester, Hourglass of the Lost, Overclocked Electromancer, Razorfield Ripper, Filigree Racer, Scurry of Gremlins, Angel of Invention, Goldspan Dragon, Coveted Jewel, Farewell and Legion Loyalty.

Here’s the budget upgraded deck list:

And a few more options to consider: Automated Assembly Line, Hexgold Slith, Strionic Resonator, Dr. Madison Li, Flux Channeler, Odric, Lunarch Marshal, Inexorable Tide, Liberty Prime, Recharged, Sentry Bot, Voltstorm Angel, Archetype of Imagination

What Are Some Good Expensive Cards We Can Add to Creative Energy?

With no budget considerations, we can really go crazy with our token strategy. Anointed Procession and Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation give us extra creature tokens with Satya, which means a lot more power on the board. We’re also adding Terror of the Peaks to speed games up with all these tokens we’re making. With Terror and Ojer Taq on the board, you attack with Satya and copy Terror. The original will see three copies of five power enter, dealing out 15 damage, and the copies will see ten power each, for 30 more damage, for a total of 45 damage dealt.

If that’s not enough, we’ll also throw in Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines to copy all those enter-the-battlefield (ETB) effects. 

We’ll add a couple of smaller creatures too. Esper Sentinel gives us some card draw, and Guide of Souls provides energy and life gain, in addition to giving our creatures flying.

Skullclamp is coming in for some card draw, since we’re gonna sacrifice most of the tokens we make. Alternatively, we can skip Satya’s sacrifice requirement by activating Sundial of the Infinite with the end of turn trigger on the stack, and keep all of our tokens.

Our last expensive addition is Moonshaker Cavalry. Its ETB has the potential to end games, especially if we can make several of them.

These cards aren’t creative enough: Amped Raptor, Conduit Goblin, Era of Innovation, Unstable Amulet, Bident of Thassa, Tezzeret’s Gambit, Bond of Discipline, Silverquill Lecturer, Myr Battlesphere

Here’s the non-budget upgraded list:

And a few more cards to consider: Volatile Stormdrake, Warleader’s Call, Bennie Bracks, Zoologist, Unwinding Clock

Boost Your Creativity

That’s our Upgrade Guide for Creative Energy from Modern Horizons 3. This deck was already really solid, but with these upgrades, we’re gonna have enough energy to power the deck to victory in the toughest Commander pods.

What do you think? Did I make this deck better? Any good cards I missed? Sound off below. And don’t go anywhere. We’ve got more MH3 precon fun coming your way, right 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.