So, you’ve got the new blue-green precon in your hands, and you want to improve it. That’s great, because in this Jump Scare! Upgrade Guide, I’ll let you know which cards are trash, (they should be obliterated from the deck at once) and which are the hidden gems that you really want to add.
The goal is to make the deck more fun, and play out better, while still keeping it on theme. Thus, I won’t just recommend the most generic and boring staples, but will instead highlight cards that really shine in this specific shell.
Hopefully, your deck will then play more smoothly, but still feel unique and special. So, without further ado, let’s get right to it.
Top 3 Additions
We’re starting with just three cards, but each of them will play absolutely spectacularly in this deck. This is a great way to start with upgrading the Jump Scare! precon, so you’re not completely overhauling the deck all at once.
All of these work great with your main commander Zimone, Mystery Unraveler.
Hauntwoods Shrieker
First up, here’s a card from the main Duskmourn set. You’ll manifests dread whenever it attacks. Now, that’s certainly quite useful, but even more power comes from its second ability.
For just a couple of mana you can turn any face-down permanent face up, as long as there’s a creature card underneath. This can enable some pretty bonkers turns, as you are trying to “cheat” massive creatures into play by manifesting them.
Thassa, Deep-Dwelling
However, if the cards aren’t creatures, it might be a bit harder to turn them face up. That’s what Thassa can help you with. You manifest an expensive card from the top of your library, then you target it with Thassa’s ability at the end of your turn. It returns to the battlefield face-up, even if it isn’t a creature. Pretty neat, right?
On top of that, Thassa also plays quite nicely with various enters effects, which gives it more utility, besides the broken play patterns with face down cards.
Kozilek, the Broken Reality
Finally, you’ll also want to add some expensive cards to the mix. Your plan A is to sneak them into play with playing them face-down with Zimone, or some of the other cards in your deck. However, given that this deck offers quite a lot of ramping, casting expensive cards is not a hard task.
Anyway, Kozilek is an awesome card to cast and still a fine one to sneak into play. A 9/9 that gives all of your colorless creatures +3/+2 is a massive board presence. (And yes, face-down creatures count as colorless.)
However, when you get its cast trigger, it’s even more fun. You can mess with opponent’s hands plus you get to manifest cards from your hand too. Jump Scare has plenty of synergies with face-down cards, so that’s quite welcome. On top of that, you get to draw up to four cards. What’s not to like?
Cards to Add
So, those were three excellent cards to add. But what if you’d like to make a major overhaul, or if you’re looking for additional suggestions. That’s what these next sections are here for. I grouped the suggested cards into different groups, based on what they’re trying to do.
We’re starting with some more face-down synergies.
Face-Down Synergies
First up, Kozilek, the Broken Reality will work spectacularly. A large part of this deck’s strategy should be using Zimone to the fullest. That’s putting expensive cards into play face-down and turning them up with a cheap cost, or Zimone’s second landfall trigger.
However, sometimes you’ll draw your expensive cards. Vannifar can help you put them into play face-down. On top of that, you can buff the army of your face-down creatures, which can often come in handy. (Another card in a similar role might be Sensei’s Divining Top.)
Surprisingly, a great payoff for face-down creatures, Secret Plans is missing from the Jump Scare deck. This card could easily draw you 3+ cards in a game, so it definitely deserves in inclusion.
As far as face-down creatures go, a lot of them are already including in the precon. However, here are three notable omissions:
- Experiment Twelve can provide a massive boost when you’re turning creatures face up. Especially powerful when you’re turning up a massive creature.
- Getting another use from cards in your graveyard, is always useful, and Den Protector lets you do that, while being on theme.
- Some artifact and enchantment removal is necessary, that’s why Ainok Survivalist might deserve an inclusion.
Expensive Permanents
As mentioned, the biggest power of this deck comes from using Zimone, Mystery Unraveler‘s landfall ability twice in a single turn. In order to really maximize that, you’ll want some expensive permanents, that will really pay you off.
The most iconic one is most likely Omniscience. If you manage to get in in play, you’ll stop caring about your cards’ mana values, and simply play all of them.
Virtue of Strength is somewhat similar, if you’re playing a deck with lots of basics. Obviously it’s a lot less powerful, but it does come with a fail-case. You can cast it for a single mana to get back one of your creatures or lands from the graveyard.
You might prefer Zendikar Resurgent though. It essentially doubles the mana your lands produce, doesn’t just affect basics, plus it can draw you some cards, as you cast creatures.
For the last enchantment in this section, I wanted to shout-out Mind’s Dilation. Now, this card is more fun than powerful, and something of a pet card. If your play group isn’t full of cutthroat competitive players, you too might enjoy playing with it and casting opponent’s spells for free.
Hullbreaker Horror can quickly turn the game in your favor, by locking down all the relevant cards. (Provided you can follow it up with some spells.) If you want multiples, or just a more budget-friendly suggestion, there’s also Tidespout Tyrant.
Rampaging Baloth is actually not that expensive, but since this deck tries to maximize land drops, you’ll easily be able to get multiple 4/4s in play with it. Speaking of multiple lands drops, that’s what this next section is all about.
Landfall Ramping
These cards might feel like a bit of generic upgrades, but you really want to get multiple landfall triggers and the best way to do so is with ramp spells. Even the ones that give you a single land are good enough, as they combine with the land you play for the turn to trigger Zimone twice.
There are already some good options, such as Cultivate and Explosive Vegetation included in the deck. However, there are some other ones you’ll want to add.
For example, Harrow can trigger Zimone twice, and do so on the opponent’s turn. That’s extremely useful. On the other hand, Entish Restoration is a sorcery, but can grab up to three basics in some scenarios.
Both of these cards make you sacrifice lands. So do the fetch lands, which you’ll probably want to include in this deck. This means that you’ll want ways to play lands from your graveyard, by using cards like Ramunap Excavator, Conduit of Worlds, and Ancient Greenwarden. The latter is especially potent for triggering landfall cards twice with a single land.
Finally, Flourishing Bloom-Kin is a ramp spell, that play well with the face-down theme. Not the strongest card out there, but very budget friendly.
Mana Base
Improving the mana base is probably the least exciting part of a deck upgrade. However, it is likely the most important one. It doesn’t matter if there are tons of powerful cards in your deck, if you’re unable to cast them.
So, don’t skip on upgrading your lands.
Utility Lands
Here are some lands that have additional uses, besides providing mana:
- Branch of Vitu-Ghazi doubles as a face-down creature. Certainly useful in a deck full of synergies with face-down cards.
- Mosswort Bridge can cast a spell for free. Pretty neat in a deck with lots of expensive cards.
- Disciple of Freyalise is a very low-cost way to make sure you aren’t flooded in the late game.
- Fetch lands such as Fabled Passage and Misty Rainforest don’t just fix your mana, but are also an extremely easy way to trigger landfalls twice in a single turn.
Better Fixing
Here are some 2-color lands that can tap for both green and blue, and can enter the play untapped under the right circumstances:
These should remove either some basic lands or lands that always come into play tapped. Keep in mind, that if you’re playing lots of ramp spells that grab basic lands, you don’t want to remove too many of those.
Cards to Remove
But what about the nonland cards? Which are the ones you should remove first? While you could find a use for most cards included in the precon, some of them are just too weak, or don’t fit the deck’s theme.
For example, Skaab Ruinator is just so whatever, while Kianne doesn’t do anything with the face-down theme.
So, with that in mind, these would be the cards, I’d suggest you remove first:
- Biomass Mutation
- Cackling Counterpart
- Giggling Skitterspiker
- Greater Tanuki
- Kefnet the Mindful
- Kianne, Corrupted Memory
- Skaab Ruinator
Jump Scare! Upgraded Decklist Example
Here’s an example of what an upgraded Jump Scare! precon could look like. Of course, there’s no need to follow this idea completely. Use the cards that are fun to you, and will play well against your play group. The following decklist is just one of the many possibilities.
Conclusion
That’s it for the Jump Scare! upgrade guide. Hopefully, now you’re full of ideas on how to make the deck better and more fun. Of course, with so many Magic cards out there nowadays, I surely missed some great additions. So, if you know of a perfect card for this precon’s upgrade let me and our readers know in the comments below.
If you want to learn more about the other decks released alongside this one, check our article about the Duskmourn Commander precons.
Until next time, have fun, and enjoy playing with your upgraded Jump Scare! deck.