Wayfarer — No-Draft Optional Upgrade Guide
Hello Wayfarers! This guide will be giving you a quick resource to upgrade your decks from Tier 1 (Episode 1) to Tier 2 (Episode 2). Every tier of content increases typically from Episode to Episode, and in the future, we’ll be looking at extra episodes that take place either after Episode 5 of a journey (which would be Tier 5), and any sorts of combinations in between. We’re still hard at work on a dedicated website to create draft packs, which will also allow you to print proxies through CardTrader’s lovely MTG Print site! This way, you can upgrade your cards, play with what you might not have and power up your deck!
UPGRADING YOUR DECK TO TIER 2 (and Beyond!)
To start off, we recommend removing 20 cards from your deck, so you go down to 80 cards total to start. You’ll also want to do this for any other tier afterward, so 70 for Tier 3, 60 for Tier 4, then 50 at Tier 5 for the base upgrade. Also, we’ll be removing lands from our deck so we can have the right amount for what we need, so we don’t draw an excess of them.
Here’s a basic guide for mana bases for each tier:
LAND PER WAYFARER DECK (Upgrade Path)
TIER 1 — 100 cards: 38–42
TIER 2 — 90 cards: 34–38
TIER 3 — 80 cards: 30–34
TIER 4 — 70 cards: 26–29
TIER 5 — 60 cards: 22–25
If you’re using a preconstructed deck, your mana base will be better served toward the higher end of the spectrum, so 38 lands should be enough to cast most of your spells. If your spell curve (how much each card costs in your deck to cast) changes, we recommend going up or down on lands accordingly. Homebrew and other decks will need to be modified to suit as well. If you’re upgrading for other Tiers, make sure to use the guide above for mana base building.
ADDING CARDS TO YOUR DECK
Once you’ve removed 20 cards and fixed your mana base to the right amount of lands, you’ll want to add 10 cards (or less, if you had to keep some lands in) back to your deck to go back up to 90 (including the Commander, of course). We recommend using EDHREC to look up your Commander and upgrade with your own cards in your collection, making sure to stick with your Commander’s color identity.
Once you feel satisfied with what you’ve added to your deck, you’re now ready to do one final thing before Episode 2 (or other Episodes); selecting your Spark Emblem! If you’ve run a previous Spark Emblem, such as Justice or Prophecy, you can now upgrade to the Tier 2 version of that Emblem, such as Justice, Lesser Protection, or Prophecy, Lesser Knowledge.
But wait, there’s more — you can SWAP Spark Emblems at Tier 2 and Tier 4 to another one! That’s right, if you didn’t enjoy the gameplay a Spark Emblem did for you in Episodes 1 or 3, you can change it as you move higher in tier, giving you variability in your gameplay. Just as a reminder; Spark Emblems do not have color identity, so you can change them to any others as you see fit! So for example, as I upgrade my Justice Spark Emblem to Tier 2, I can decide to run Courage, Lesser Resolve instead as my Tier 2 emblem if I felt Justice wasn’t enough.
Once you’ve upgraded or picked a different Emblem at Tier 2, you’re ready to take on Episode 2!
Good journeys to you, Wayfarers!
— Ashodin, Lead Dev
