Creative Energy Upgrade Guide: 21 Easy Changes You Can Make

Last updated on October 15, 2024

Satya, Aetherflux Genius | Illustration by Cosmin Podar

When I last upgraded a Jeskai energy deck, with Science!, my hope was that the Creative Energy precon from Modern Horizons 3 Commander precon decks would have the energy payoffs the Fallout precon lacked. And the good news is that it sort of does. But it also has the two-deck problem of so many precons.

So we’re going to focus the deck and spice in enough good cards from the Modern Horizons 3 Magic set, the Science! Deck, and Kaladesh block to make this deck keep going and going and going.

Deck Overview

Sai, Master Thopterist | Illustration by Adam Paquette

The Creative Energy Commander precon deck from Modern Horizons 3 wants to make a lot of energy and use it to accelerate attacking with creatures. That’s not enough to win, so its additional plan is to swarm out even more stuff and find Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer to make everything swole then win by attacking with bigger things. It also has a few big energy combo payoffs, even if it doesn’t quite have the combo pieces.

The trouble is that the energy part, helmed by face Jeskai commander Satya, Aetherflux Genius in the command zone, doesn’t exactly synergize really well with the fabricate focus of Cayth, Famed Mechanist, the sort-of backup commander of the deck.

Old reliable Whirler Virtuoso can convert energy into tokens, and so can newcomers Stone Idol Generator and Aether Refinery, but that’s not reliable enough. Gonti's Aether Heart can go infinite by generating energy in response to artifact creature ETBs, which feed the Heart, etc., as long as there’s another card like Izzet Generatorium in the mix to add 1 more energy to each loop.

But you need more focus on that plan!

Upgrade Plan

To fix this, let’s perform a more delicate surgery than my usual approach, which is just to chop out the backup commander’s theme. You just need a bit more efficiency there, adding some more efficient Thopter generation for that segment while culling a lot of it and adding better support for the energy elements of the deck.

The new deck will be focused on some fair wincons, yes, but there’ll also be some infinite combos, which is inevitable in a deck packing one out of the box, with Gonti's Aether Heart, Decoction Module, and Whirler Virtuoso!

Note that I’m going to cross the streams with some Fallout cards, so if Universes Beyond frosts your cupcakes, you can skip those.

Retrofitter Foundry

Suggested Cut: Wayfarer's Bauble

We start with some efficient Thopter generation cards. If you’ve played high powered formats like Cube or Historic on MTG Arena, you know how busted this cheap little artifact can be if left unchecked. Retrofitter Foundry’s most annoying ability is to sacrifice a removal target or doomed blocker to make another creature, which synergizes especially well with cards that give you energy on creature ETB, like Decoction Module. Don't confuse this with Thopter Foundry, an excellent Esper card which might also be a candidate for this deck.

Wayfarer's Bauble is what you don't want to do with a 1-mana artifact in bad fixing.

Thopter Spy Network makes Thopters and acts like a giga-Curiosity. Yes, please.

Bident of Thassa is gonna be sweet in another one of your decks!

Thopter Spy Network

Suggested Cut: Bident of Thassa

Thopter Spy Network makes Thopters and acts like a giga-Curiosity. Yes, please.

Bident of Thassa is gonna be sweet in another one of your decks!

Sai, Master Thopterist

Suggested Cut: Combustible Gearhulk

What’s happening? This legendary blue creature is in so many precons, but not the one where it belongs? Sai, Master Thopterist, I’m sorry for cutting you so often. Here’s your chance to shine.

Combustible Gearhulk is a card that really crackle if you build around it, but that’s not what we’re doing here, so let’s lower the curve.

Phyrexian Ironworks

Suggested Cut: Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer

This banger of an uncommon from Modern Horizons 3 should already be in this decklist, but it’s easy enough to slot Phyrexian Ironworks into the deck. You absolutely need energy payoffs, and this is a fine one.

Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer is a wincon looking for a different deck. It’s a lot to imagine you’ll get one the few cards that generating big tokens after having made a bunch of Thopters and then draw Brudiclad.

Mechanized Production

Suggested Cut: Myr Battlesphere

Now we shift into the combo payoff element. If you want more of that, be sure to pull in Animation Module, Fabrication Module, and an Ashnod's Altar or something to go with your Decoction Module.

Mechanized Production is a cheesy alternate wincon, but no more so than, say, Simic Ascendancy. This blue enchantment also copies your stuff that makes big energy.

Myr Battlesphere is an interesting synergy with Brudiclad, but nothing else, really. You need 7-drops that work with energy in some way if you’re going to cast things that expensive.

Aether Revolt

Suggested Cut: Legion Loyalty

The wincon energy decks have been looking for is here in Modern Horizons 3. So why is Aether Revolt not shipped with the energy precon?

Legion Loyalty is wicked cool in a deck that has enough ramp to be able to cast it before the game is over, so port it over to a different deck!

Dr. Madison Li

Suggested Cut: Burnished Hart

Fallout time! Dr. Madison Li is value time for an energy deck, and it does everything you want here that the other energy cards might not. If you wanna really lean into Fallout, you can always fold in Liberty Prime, Recharged as well.

Burnished Hart can go because this deck doesn’t need inefficient ramp. If you polish the dual lands in the mana base, you also won’t feel like you need this for fixing.

Automated Assembly Line

Suggested Cut: Solemn Simulacrum

This white artifact is pretty nuts, and it goes infinite with Gonti's Aether Heart plus one of two cards already in the precon, Izzet Generatorium and Aether Refinery.

Sad Robot is better than the Hart, but it also doesn’t synergize enough with the deck to warrant inclusion, so Solemn Simulacrum can go be sad in someone else’s deck.

Brotherhood Scribe

Suggested Cut: Professional Face-Breaker

Brotherhood Scribe is fragile, but it can win the game out of nowhere with enough Thopters out. Note that it buffs every time you get energy, not just once a turn. Its limit means you only get one buff even though Amed Raptor gives you 2 energy.

Professional Face-Breaker is awesome in a Treasure-focused deck. But that’s not this one.

Synth Eradicator

Suggested Cut: Grenzo, Havoc Raiser

Direct damage, getting energy, getting cards. Everything Synth Eradicator brings to the table is good for this deck. Very flexible red creature!

Grenzo, Havoc Raiser is good precisely when you have a massive pile of Thopters, and that's it. Use it in a deck that gives you a better chance at getting its triggers.

Robobrain War Mind

Suggested
Cut: Angel of Invention

Robobrain War Mind is a bit win more, as it pays you off for having an army of Thopters. But if you’ve even lost a game with a board full of tokens, you know how nice something like this is to get you over the top with some big deck energy.

Angel of Invention, in this deck, is two Thopters and a fragile little angel for 5 mana. You can’t really do that here.

Sentry Bot

Suggested Cut: Goldspan Dragon

A 2/5 flash white creature that can come down for one to mass-pump your team as often as you like/can will save your bacon sometimes! Sentry Bot is especially devastating when they swing in while you have Aetherworks Marvel and other cards that use energy at instant speed.

I recognize it’s hilarious to cut a card like Goldspan Dragon. But it doesn’t help you that much in this deck! Let it go fly around in a deck that’ll appreciate its steady drip of Treasures!

The Motherlode, Excavator

Suggested Cut: Skyclave Apparition

The Motherlode, Excavator can drop with a ton of energy. It can also do mean things to an opponent's lands if you’re desperate.

Skyclave Apparition is another card that seems odd to cut since it can be a strong removal spell in white… but without blink, what’s it doing here?

HELIOS One

Suggested Cut: Plains

There’s plenty more Fallout cards to choose from, but I’ll close down this part with HELIOS One, which is a nice energy machine for board stalls and removal in a pinch.

Inventors’ Fair

Suggested Cut: Plains

You could also just add in more Tinker-style cards, but having it on a land with Inventor's Fair is simpler.

Guide of Souls

Suggested Cut: Plains

Energy for a creature is awesome, as well as a combo enabler for this deck. Guide of Souls does a whole lot more, though!

You can drop the land count to 37, especially since we’ve cut a lot of 6-mana and greater cards.

Rush of Inspiration / Crackling Falls

Suggested Cut: Mountain

Rush of Inspiration is a card you’d want for this deck anyway, even without the Crackling Falls land on the back!

Suppression Ray / Orderly Plaza

Suggested Cut: Plains

Suppression Ray is unlikely to make the deck without the land on the back, but Orderly Plaza is there, so the Ray makes it. And it can give you a win in a pinch!

Let these cards remind you to take a look at the lands and upgrade them to the best dual lands and trilands you own; this precon has a particularly terrible selection of lands.

Wrath of the Skies

Suggested Cut: Austere Command

You can wrath the board for only 2 mana if you have been banking a lot of energy. Wrath of the Skies goes hard!

Austere Command is fine, but it seems a bit slow and mopey.

Tune the Narrative

Suggested Cut: Tezzeret's Gambit

Tune the Narrative is a perfect little cantrip. Let this also stand in for cheap energy spells you can include if you find you need to lower this deck’s curve.

And let’s avoid card draw that was awesome two presidents ago, like Tezzeret's Gambit

Electrosiphon

Suggested Cut: Coveted Jewel

How much and what kind of interaction do you want in this deck? Along with Electrosiphon there are plenty of other counterspells you might think about like Aether Spike or Metallic Rebuke. Think also about other energy-based interaction like Harnessed Lightning and Galvanic Discharge if you need more of that.

Coveted Jewel is sweet in the right deck, but I’m not sure this one goes wide enough to defend it. You can likely get it back with your fliers, so keep it if you’d rather, but I have a few other decks that would like this Commander 2018 reprint a lot more.

The Final Deck and New Cards

Aether Revolt | Illustrationn by Filipe Pagliuso

If you want to one-click buy all of the suggested tweaks, here's the list of new cards to add to the precon; you use the shopping cart button on the decklist to buy them all from TCGPlayer:

Commanding Conclusion

Brotherhood Scribe | Illustration by Jarel Threat

The Creative Energy precon from Modern Horizons 3 seems like a lot of fun. It’s not the strongest deck at the table, but it packs a zap. There’s enough wincons in here that I think you can hold your own at a lot of mid-tier and above casual Commander tables. The deck might need to choose its wincons and speed it all up with some tutors and more interaction to ramp up the power, but for a quick EDH precon upgrade for FNM, I think this works well.

Note that from a rule 0 perspective this deck ships with an infinite combo, and I’ve added a few cards that add some more with those shipped pieces. Whether you upgrade or not, you’ll need to make sure you can manage that pre game conversation.

I like that energy is now firmly situated in Jeskai colors, as it always felt weird for green to have the best energy decks back in Kaladesh-era Standard. These are the colors of lightning, electricity, power and control. I think that resonates for me in Jeskai (). How about you? Does the new vibe with energy work for you? Let us know in the comments or on the Draftsim Discord, and if you'd like more ideas, check our full guide on how to upgrade Commander precons.

.Get amped, my friends!