Forces of the Imperium Upgrade Guide: 17 Easy Changes You Can Make

Inquisitor Greyfax | Background Illustration by Lie Setiawan

Wizards recently announced a new print run of the Warhammer 40,000 decklists. This is a major win for players as the supply of staple cards increases, but it also means that players will have a fresh chance to actually play with these decks.

With this in mind, I have an upgrade guide for Forces of the Imperium for you today. This Esper precon () leans into the token space under the watchful eye of Inquisitor Greyfax, going wide and crushing your opponents with numbers.

Forces of the Imperium Deck Overview

Forces of the Imperium gives Esper a token precon, with Inquisitor Greyfax as the face commander and Marneus Calgar as the backup. It introduced and makes ample use of squad, a kicker-adjacent mechanic exclusive to creatures that lets you pay additional mana to make token copies of them. Once you have that wide board, the decks wants to pump the tokens and go to town on opposing life totals. It’s standard fare for token decks of any color combination.

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Upgrade Plan

This upgrade has a handful of goals. First and foremost, I’m changing the commander: Marneus Calgar is superior to Greyfax. It rewards you for making tokens better and makes them itself. Additionally, most of the token synergies care about creature tokens, not Clues, so Greyfax is very out of place, though I’m happy to have an anthem in the 99.

I also want to trim the deck’s curve and cut weak cards. In particular, it has lots of clunky flash creatures that I assume have thematic synergy with the source material but don’t do much here. Many of them cost 5+ mana for little benefit. I’m cutting these in part for power and in part to improve the squad cards. Take Sicarian Infiltrator, for example: You can cast it for 3 mana, or 5, or 7, etc. With that sort of flexibility, the deck doesn’t need many expensive cards; in fact, the squad cards get stronger without competing cards.

For the most part, I’m just bringing in cards that are more efficient and/or stronger than the cards leaving. None of the added cards cost more than $12, and most considerably less.

Adeline, Resplendent Cathar

Suggested Cut:

I’m thoroughly unimpressed with Redemptor Dreadnought. Maybe if it did something with the exiled card, like got it back into your hand, but it’s just a beatstick. Adeline, Resplendent Cathar also hits hard, but it makes three tokens each combat and at a lower cost.

Ainok Strike Leader

Suggested Cut:

Vexilus Praetor hits the ugly intersection between too costly and too narrow—you need a Voltron plan to make any protection you give to Calgar (or even Greyfax) impactful. Ainok Strike Leader protects a much more significant portion of your board, and adds to it.

Call the Coppercoats

Suggested Cut:

Belisarius Cawl looks pretty strong, but it’s under-supported; the deck doesn’t have the critical mass of artifacts necessary to use it every turn, especially since Astartes Warrior tokens aren’t artifacts themselves. Call the Coppercoats is a much more reliable token generator, especially if you hit a board stall.

Caretaker’s Talent

Suggested Cut:

If you only add one card I recommend, make it Caretaker's Talent. It’s simply sublime. Card draw, copies of your best tokens (which works very well with squad), and an anthem to round everything out. This is one of the best token support cards ever printed, and very much worth the cost. Inquisitor Eisenhorn makes a decent token, but the deck’s too creature heavy for this to have a great hit rate.

Corpse Knight

Suggested Cut:

I could get behind Sister of Silence if it was just a counterspell, but the cost and restriction make it so clunky.

Corpse Knight is a top-tier token staple, despite only being an uncommon. It’s one of the few Impact Tremor-adjacent effects outside of red, and it’s so valuable. Pressuring opposing life totals whenever creatures enter means you keep eking out an advantage even if you can’t attack.

Dollmaker’s Shop // Porcelain Gallery

Suggested Cut:

I detest Wizards’ insistence on putting symmetrical board wipes in decks that play to the board, and that goes double for one so expensive. Exterminatus has no business being in a token deck.

Dollmaker's Shop, on the other hand, does. It helps build your forces early, then the Porcelain Gallery makes your squad huge to close things out. A finisher like this is actually worth the mana it costs.

Emrakul’s Messenger

Suggested Cut:

I am a cog in a machine that exorcises Commander's Sphere. You can do so much better.

Emrakul's Messenger works very well with Marneus Calgar. Your first Calgar trigger on your turn draws your second card, which makes an Eldrazi Spawn that triggers Calgar again.

Endless Foot Assault

Suggested Cut:

The sin committed by Deploy to the Front is costing too much in a deck with ample ways to spend its mana. Its judgment is to be cut for Endless Foot Assault, which helps to build a board early and becomes a serious problem if you draw it late and kick it a few times.

Idol of Oblivion

Suggested Cut:

Despite Neyam Shai Murad’s interesting textbox, it doesn’t interact with the token strategy at all, and interesting doesn’t always correlate with good. But Idol of Oblivion ranks up there with the best token support cards due to its low cost and reliability. You even get an Eldrazi if you need it.

Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia

Suggested Cut:

Look, Celestine, the Living Saint is a fantastic card, one of the best lifegain payoffs in the format. But this isn’t a lifegain deck.

Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia works particularly well with Calgar because you can throw away the zombie token, reliably making one token per turn to trigger your commander and other synergies.

Kambal, Profiteering Mayor

Suggested Cut:

I’m cutting Grey Knight Paragon under the same logic as Sister of Silence; too much for too little impact.

Kambal, Profiteering Mayor is worth commenting on, though. The drain ability gives you another Corpse Knight effect to keep the pressure high. The token making ability gets better and better as most sets seem to introduce new token types or deepen the pool of cards that make established tokens like Clues and Treasure. It also means your opponents doing things like making Treasure can trigger Calgar.

Mirror Entity

Suggested Cut:

Thunderwolf Cavalry is another costly card I don’t believe in. The buff is good, but I dislike needing to wait a turn cycle, then hoping it deals combat damage. I’d rather have Mirror Entity, which has more flexible costs and immediate impact if you wish.

Nadir Kraken

Suggested Cut:

I respect Reaver Titan as a powerful card but have no interest in a super expensive card with no token synergies.

Nadir Kraken is famously powerful with Marneus Calgar: If you pay the to make a token, you draw a card, and can keep doing this. Spending all your excess mana to draw cards and make bodies is excellent for mana efficiency. If you want to upgrade this deck even further, chuck in Ashnod's Altar to draw your deck.

Perplexing Test

Suggested Cut:

Fell the Mighty can be useful in token decks but squad complicates it. The majority of tokens created are 1/1s, so most token decks can use this to destroy everything but their 20 1/1s. But squad means we’ll have lots of variety among the size of our tokens, so it’s unlikely to work as cleanly.

Perplexing Test is much better-suited to our needs, preserving our tokens and ditching everything else. As a bonus, it bounces the squad creatures so you can recast them.

Securitron Squadron

Suggested Cut:

Deny the Witch is clunky and expensive. I don’t really want instants like that in a deck so focused on tapping out.

Securitron Squadron is a perfect fit for this deck from Fallout as both token payoff and token creator. They really cooked with squad, and I look forward to seeing it again in the future.

Soul Shatter

Suggested Cut:

For me, Mortify falls into the same class as Commander's Sphere: A card that was outdated five years ago, and that I’m sick of cutting from every precon.

Soul Shatter puts in good work by tagging all your opponents at once. Like any edict, it won’t always hit what you want, but since your opponents have to sacrifice their most expensive creature, it won’t hit anything too irrelevant, either.

Will of the Mardu

Suggested Cut:

Reconnaissance Mission has two issues in this deck: First and foremost, the card draw section’s pretty good. The deck was already good at it and these upgrades added more. Secondly, it’s just rather outdated, with better variants like Enduring Curiosity or Curiosity Crafter.

Will of the Mardu embodies what this deck wants: flexibility. It can be a source of tokens or removal, or often both if you control Marneus. Like Caretaker's Talent and Idol of Oblivion, this is one of the first cards I want in any token deck.

Final Decklist and New Cards

Here’s the completed decklist, and a separate list below of just the new cards. If you want to pick up either, use the shopping cart button in the corner!

Commanding Conclusion

Marneus Calgar | Illustration by Slawomir Maniak

Forces of the Imperium has a decent strategy and strong options for commanders. Adding these efficient threats and more card draw enables more consistent draws without sacrificing power or flexibility.

How would you upgrade this deck? Are you planning to pick it up? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord! If you want more Draftsim, check out our YouTube channel and newsletter, both called The Daily Upkeep!

Stay safe, and thanks for reading!

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