The Ruinous Powers Upgrade Guide: 17 Easy Changes You Can Make

Abaddon the Despoiler | Illustration by Johan Grenier

The Ruinous Powers is one of Warhammer 40K’s Commander precons, showing what this franchise can do in Grixis () colors. It has many different themes, but they’re all cool. Cast big demons, cascade into other spells, and get a lot of value.

This precon is strong because the card quality is very high, as most modern precons tend to be. However, it has some problems we can easily address, notably its high mana curve. Today, I’ll show you 17 easy changes you can make to improve The Ruinous Powers, while also respecting a certain budget. Let’s dive in!

The Ruinous Powers Deck Overview

The Ruinous Powers is an interesting Commander precon. It’s basically a red and black deck with a touch of blue that’s built around many themes, one of them demons. Abaddon the Despoiler is the face of the precon, and it’s a 5-mana creature that can give your spells cascade if you’re dealing constant damage. Be'lakor, the Dark Master is the second option, and it gives you some value with demons – it’s my favorite choice for this deck, with a few upgrades.

This deck has many different themes: You’re either casting instants and sorceries for cards like Exalted Flamer of Tzeentch and Magnus the Red, you’re casting cards from different zones, which synergizes with cascade, or you’re benefiting from having demon creatures around. Demon typal as a theme is complicated because demons tend to be powerful but expensive, but sometimes you just need one or two of them on the battlefield.

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Upgrade Plan

To upgrade this deck, I’ll focus on some key goals. Although the deck was designed with Abaddon the Despoiler in mind, the commander will be Be'lakor, the Dark Master. We’ll have to improve ramp, and reduce the incentives for casting instants and sorceries, or cards from outside our hand, because cascade is going to be a minor theme. I’m also focusing on getting some staple cards into this decklist, taking out more situational ones. This deck has many cards that cost 6+ mana, so we’ll need to improve the high curve.

#1. Mana Base Upgrade

Cards to Add:

• Sulfur Falls
• Dragonskull Summit
• Drowned Catacomb
• Shipwreck Marsh
• Haunted Ridge
• Stormcarved Coast

Suggested Cuts:

• Dismal Backwater
• Molten Slagheap
• Swiftwater Cliffs
• Mountain
• Swamp
• Island

First, let’s address the mana base. Thirty-eight lands is solid, and I want to keep it at 37. I want to take out Dismal Backwater, Molten Slagheap, and Swiftwater Cliffs and replace them with check lands: Sulfur Falls, Dragonskull Summit, and Drowned Catacomb.

I’ll also take out one of each of the basics in favor of more dual lands: Shipwreck Marsh, Haunted Ridge, and Stormcarved Coast.

#2. Heartless Summoning

Suggested Cut:

Heartless Summoning is a very interesting card in this deck. Cost reduction is excellent for your expensive creatures, and the -1/-1 won’t be too detrimental for your giant demons. The deck’s creature curve is high, with many creatures costing between 3-7, and Be’lakor costing 4 instead of 6 doesn’t hurt either.

I’m not seeing a world where I want to cast Past in Flames in a creature-heavy deck, so that’s out.

#3. Herald’s Horn

Suggested Cut:

Herald's Horn is more cost reduction for our demon deck. It’s usually more effective when you have cheap creature types like elves and goblins, but it’s still a nice addition here. Sometimes you’ll even draw a demon or two with this.

I’m cutting cascade spells and their synergies from this deck, with less focus on instants and sorceries or casting cards from outside your hand, so the first cascade cut is Deny Reality.

#4. Fellwar Stone

Suggested Cut:

With Fellwar Stone, I want to add more ramp and mana fixing. This deck is mana-hungry and wants a mana rock or two in the first few turns of the game. To make room for it, I’m cutting a very expensive sweeper in Decree of Pain to improve the mana curve.

#5. Relic of Sauron

Suggested Cut:

Relic of Sauron is a more expensive mana rock, but it fixes your mana and adds 2 instead of 1. This is more for the midgame when you need to recast your commander or cast more expensive spells. You’re have to pretend this isn’t from the Lord of the Rings universe if that matters for you.

I don’t think Bituminous Blast is that great if I’m not exploring cascade synergies, so that’s leaving.

#6. Demonic Counsel

Suggested Cut:

Demonic Counsel is a nice tutor in this deck because its “worst” mode is to tutor for a demon card. Unfortunately it can’t tutor for Liliana's Contract unless you have delirium, so I’d play this mainly as a demon tutor. Considering that we have different demons for different parts of the game, it’s a nice card in this deck.

With the lesser emphasis on cascade and without that many fetch lands, I think it’s easy to cut Brainstorm here.

#7. Ghostly Flicker

Suggested Cut:

Our commander has an enter effect, and so do many other cards in this deck. Ghostly Flicker doubles as a way to get more cards and more damage. When you have a 6/6 demon plus Be'lakor, the Dark Master in play and you flicker both, that’s at least two cards and 6 damage.

My goal is to improve on the demons and add more of them, but Sloppity Bilepiper won’t make the final list.

#8. Rite of Replication

Suggested Cut:

Rite of Replication is another way to trigger your commander and get more benefits from your creatures. Kicking this card on Be’lakor is an incredible amount of damage to throw around, even if you don’t keep the token copies.

Like many cards I’m cutting from this list, Noise Marine is tied to the damage and cascade theme, and it’s not a demon, so away it goes.

#9. Liliana’s Contract

Suggested Cut:

Liliana's Contract can be an interesting win condition in this deck. You’ll draw some cards, lose some life, and maybe you can win on a later turn, provided you have four demons in play.

I’m not feeling Reverberate in this list, because I don’t have many targets for it, and this deck operates more at sorcery speed anyway.

#10. Dream Devourer

Suggested Cut:

Dream Devourer is another cheap demon that reduces the amount of mana needed to cast future spells, considering that you can foretell them to cast on a later turn.

You profit from dealing damage with Abaddon the Despoiler as the commander, so a 5/3 haste creature like Lucius the Eternal is a good card, but it’s one of the non-demons I want to cut with Be’lakor in charge.

#11. Kardur, Doomscourge

Suggested Cut:

Kardur, Doomscourge is a cheap demon that has a strong enters trigger. It’s like a mega goad, and something you’ll definitely want to flicker.

Knight Rampager is the card leaving here. I get that it works with the damage-dealing aggressive theme, but since I’m changing the deck’s focus, let’s cut it.

#12. Scourge of the Skyclaves

Suggested Cut:

Aiming to further lower the curve, here’s a flexible card in Scourge of the Skyclaves, doubling as a 2-drop and a 7-drop. Granted, sometimes you won’t be able to cast this in the early game, but in the late game, if you have your commander out, sometimes you can deal a massive amount of damage by kicking this card.

Since I’m minimizing the spellcasting themes, Heralds of Tzeentch is one of the less exciting demons that we can afford to lose.

#13. Raphael, Fiendish Savior

Suggested Cut:

Raphael, Fiendish Savior isn’t a demon, but it’s a nice demon lord and lifelink enabler. It’s an important ability to have, considering the many ways we have to pay life to get more cards.

Dark Apostle is a non-demon creature that works better with the whole cascade and expensive spells theme, so it’s out.

#14. Curse-Marred Demon

Suggested Cut:

Curse-Marred Demon is a reasonably-sized creature that Gambles, and it’s not even that expensive, both in terms of mana and money.

Chaos Terminator Lord is another 4-mana creature that’s not even a demon, and giving double strike to a creature works better when Abaddon the Despoiler is the commander.

#15. Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire

Suggested Cut:

Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire is a cheap, flexible card that attaches a tutor to its attacks. While we don’t have any relevant combos in this deck, a tutor is very flexible, and you can find lands or bigger creatures to keep pressuring your opponents.

Bloodcrusher of Khorne is one of the weakest cards here, and most of our demons fly or already have trample.

#16. Embodiment of Agonies

Suggested Cut:

Embodiment of Agonies fits the bill as a cheap and effective demon that can enter the battlefield with a huge amount of +1/+1 counters in the late game because this deck doesn’t have many cards with the same mana cost aside from lands.

I’ve cut basically all the cascade-related cards, so The Lost and the Damned doesn’t make sense in this decklist anymore because of how closely it’s supported by cascade.

#17. Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber

Suggested Cut:

Unholy Annex sees plenty of Constructed play because you can draw cards and drain your opponents for 2 each turn, provided you have a demon. Ritual Chamber gives you that 6/6 demon token, which is pretty interesting in this deck. It’s a Phyrexian Arena or demon for our deck, and it’s good early and late.

I wanted to cut one more land, so we’ll pocket one of the Islands as a final cut.

The Final Deck and New Cards

This is my final decklist for The Ruinous Power after all the upgrades. It has a much leaner curve and a more focused theme. It’s not perfect, of course, but I think it’s got game in a Bracket 3 environment.

The decklist below contains only the cards I’ve added. You can get all of them at once just by clicking the shopping cart button.

Commanding Conclusion

Be'lakor, the Dark Master | Illustration by Daarken

Both commanders in The Ruinous Powers are powerful and can be built in different ways. Abaddon the Despoiler wants you to consistently deal damage to your opponents so you can cast expensive spells that will cascade. To better develop this commander, you’ll need more direct damage, trample, and evasion enablers.

I’ve taken a leaner approach by opting for Be'lakor, the Dark Master, playing more demon creatures and turning this into a more midrange value deck, relying a lot on casting the commander for card draw and powerful demons for more value.

You can also focus on an extra turns approach, using cards like Karlach, Fury of Avernus and Moraug, Fury of Akoum. Many cards that give your creatures trample or double strike already support this strategy.

Have you ever played with this precon or upgraded it? What did you do differently? Let me know in the comments below or over in the Draftsim Discord! And for more Commander coverage, check out our YouTube Channel, The Daily Upkeep.

Until next time!

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