Want to take the Magic: The Gathering Jump Scare! Commander precon to the next level? We’ve got a list of the best upgrades to this Duskmourn deck.
Jump Scare! has dozens of powerful and easy upgrades. Most of these upgrades happen to be very budget cards; however, there are a few opportunities to add big money upgrades to the deck.
The face Commander for the Jump Scare! precon is Zimone, Mystery Unraveler.
This is a Landfall Commander, which means it triggers an ability whenever a land enters the battlefield. In the case of Zimone, it will trigger manifest dread the first time the ability triggers on a turn. If it’s a second trigger or beyond, you can flip a face-down permanent face up.
For this upgrade list, we’re focused on high-synergy, on-theme cards to improve your win rate and play experience. We won’t be looking at upgrades that are powerful but not on theme. For instance, we won’t be recommending Rhystic Study or Cyclonic Rift, but those are certainly powerful cards you could add to any blue Commander deck.
Now that we know what this deck is all about, here’s our list of the 40 Best Jump Scare! Precon Upgrades:
#1 Burgeoning
If you’ve got some budget to spare, Burgeoning is one of the most powerful upgrades for Jump Scare. It enables you to play lands on each of your opponents’ turns, so you can manifest dread every turn. It can also give you explosive starts.
#2 Planar Genesis
Planar Genesis is similar to Growth Spiral, and you’ll want to run both in this deck. It’s a draw card, a way to ramp, and a way to trigger Zimone on anyone’s turn.
#3 The Great Henge
Manifest Dread cards are not tokens. That means every time you manifest dread, you’ll get to draw a card and put a +1/+1 counter on it. If you’ve got the budget, The Great Henge is going to be an extremely powerful addition to bring this precon to the next level.
#4 Ghostly Flicker
Ghostly Flicker is deceptively amazing in the Jump Scare! precon. You can use it to either trigger Zimone by exiling and returning lands to play, or use it to exile and return manifest dread creatures back as their face-up version, or both. You can also use it to save your creatures from targeted removal. This is hands down one of the best upgrades for the deck.
#5 Oblivious Bookworm
Freshly printed in Duskmourn is Oblivious Bookworm. This loot card is a perfect fit for the Jump Scare! precon. It draws you a card every turn, including the turn you play it. Once your Commander is out, you won’t have to discard anymore.
#6 Paranormal Analyst
Every time you manifest dread, you’ll be putting a card into your graveyard. With Paranormal Analyst, when you manifest dread, you’ll be drawing a card. As we can see, this deck has quite a few draw engine cards that are powerful and underrated when combined with Zimone.
#7 Threats Around Every Corner
Also from Duskmourn is Threats Around Every Corner. Whenever Zimone manifests dread, this will ramp you a land, which coincidentally also triggers Zimone!
#8 Vannifar, Evolved Enigma
Vannifar is a new Simic legend from Karlov Manor that slots in quite nicely in the Jump Scare! precon. Every turn you cloak a card from your hand, plus it can put counters on all your manifest dread creatures.
#9 Secret Plans
Secret Plans is a draw engine for this build. If this draws you two cards, it’s already above rate. If you drop this early, there is a good chance it will draw you 4 at minimum, and the sky’s the limit.
#10 Flourishing Bloom-Kin
Flourishing Bloom-Kin does a little bit of everything in this deck. It can flip to ramp you and trigger an additional Zimone/landfall trigger while also being capable of becoming a beat-stick late game.
#11 Khalni Heart Expedition
Khalni is one of the strongest mana-to-land rate cards you can run. You can also activate it at instant speed to trigger Zimone on an opponent’s turn.
#12 Crop Rotation
Trigger Zimone and put the most powerful land for any occasion into play. Crop Rotation is a Commander all-star, especially in any land-based deck.
#13 Harrow
What makes Harrow so good is it puts both lands into play untapped, so it effectively only costs you one mana. It will trigger Zimone on opponents’ turns.
#14 Archdruid’s Charm
The mana cost can make this tricky to cast, but Archdruid’s Charm is a Swiss army knife in Commander, and particularly powerful in this precon. The primary mode here is putting a land into play on an opponent’s turn, but every ability is relevant.
#15 Lotus Cobra
I’d ditch the mana rocks in this build. We want to focus on getting lands into play, and landfall triggers are a powerful synergy. Lotus Cobra will be doing quite a bit of work over time. Playing it with cards like Harrow is quite the combination.
#16 Thousand Winds
If you want something classier and on theme than Cyclonic Rift, Thousand Winds is a perfect fit. While it won’t return all creatures to hands, it will hit a few things, plus you’ll end up with a 5/6. This is a perfectly respectable target to manifest dread in the mid or even late game.
#17 Den Protector
Den Protector synergizes with Jump Scare! in multiple ways. When you manifest dread, you’ll be putting cards in your graveyard, giving you plenty of juicy targets for Den Protector. Notice that it doesn’t restrict itself to sorcery cards. This is a legitimate Eternal Witness when flipped.
#18 Brine Elemental
Brine Elemental is a semi-Time Walk as your opponents won’t be able to untap their creatures or lands. If you include ways to turn your creatures back face-down, this can loop every turn to shut out opponents.
#19 Chromeshell Crab
The reason to run creatures like Chromeshell Crab that have morph is you are trying to manifest dread them from your library to play with Zimone, then later flip them with Zimone for free.
Chromeshell Crab can be a surprise maneuver to instantly swap one of your misses of manifest dread with the strongest creature in play. If you end up paying the morph cost, it doesn’t use the stack and can result in some unexpected surprises in your favor.
#20 Willbender
Willbender is a very powerful answer to a spell or ability of an opponent and will force everyone to respect your face-down creatures.
#21 Entish Restoration
Entish Restoration is some serious ramp, potentially putting up to three lands into play on an opponent’s turn and triggering Zimone. Not bad.
#22 Roiling Regrowth
Roiling Regrowth is the worst of the three-mana Harrow-type cards as it puts the lands into play tapped. Nevertheless, it does grab two lands and is instant speed!
#23 Wayfarer’s Bauble
Wayfarer’s Bauble is actually better than Rampant Growth in this deck, since you can use it on an opponent’s turn to get an extra Zimone trigger. It’s rather surprising this wasn’t included in the precon, as it often is.
#24 Font of Fertility
Hey, it’s Wayfarer’s Bauble, but in green.
#25 Kozilek, the Broken Reality
Do you want an epic manifest dread flip with Zimone? Few cards can achieve that better than Kozilek, the Broken Reality. When flipped, it’s a 9/9, plus it will pump all your other manifest dread cards by +3/+2.
#26 Ixidron
Ixidron is a devastating card for most opponents. They’ll lose access to their Commanders as they get turned over. Unlike your opponents, your deck has ways to flip your creatures back up, and often can do so for benefit, such as with Brine Elemental.
#27 Nissa, Resurgent Animist
While Lotus Cobra is a step above at two mana, Nissa, Resurgent Animist still comes down a turn earlier than your Commander and will have plenty of turns to pump out additional mana. Combine it with at least one other Elf or Elemental in your deck for extra card advantage.
#28 Avenger of Zendikar
This deck needs good top end, and Avenger of Zendikar is a classic. Zimone is very much a landfall deck, and your plant tokens will become win conditions in no time. Keep in mind, flipping Avenger of Zendikar over will not create Plant tokens; it has to enter face up for that to happen.
#29 Rampaging Baloths
Rampaging Baloths is a powerhouse in every landfall deck and one of the biggest creature upgrades you can run. Not a bad card to manifest dread into and flip on a later turn.
#30 Hauntwoods Shrieker
Do you have some big face-down manifest dread threats you want to flip? Hauntwood Shrieker provides another way to flip them over if your Commander isn’t in play. It also triggers manifest dread on its own.
#31 Voidmage Apprentice
If you want to run a little bit of countermagic to stop those Torment of Hailfire type win conditions, this is the on-theme card to do it with.
#32 Stratus Dancer
Most game-winning or impactful cards end up being a sorcery or instant, which makes Stratus Dancer a good answer card to keep the game under control.
#33 Exit Specialist
Exit Specialist is a great way to bounce a threat that is swinging at you in combat, or to protect one of your creatures from removal. You could also return a card with an ETB for added value.
#34 Experiment Twelve
Experiment Twelve will be doubling the power of all your flipped manifest dread creatures. That will help your deck put out the finishing power needed to knock out your opponents.
#35 Vesuvan Shapeshifter
This is basically a three mana clone in this deck. If you manifest dread this, it can be a zero mana clone that you can turn face up for free with Zimone’s ability.
#36 Primal Whisperer
Primal Whisperer is a beatstick! You’re going to have 4-5 manifest dread cards out easily in this build. If you do, that makes this at least a 10/10, and you’re likely only playing this for free with Zimone.
#37 Eternity Vessel
Eternity Vessel is the kind of card that does nothing or does everything. Against combat-based decks and chip shot decks, this is an absolute beast and will reset your life total to 40 over and over again. Against combo metas and extreme go-wide decks like Krenko, Mob Boss, it doesn’t do much at all.
#38 Joint Exploration
Joint Exploration is basically a three mana Growth Spiral, which is still good in this deck.
#39 Mischievous Quanar
If you want to add some spice, consider Mischievous Quanar. You can keep turning it face down again for 5 mana, or with other cards like Ixidron, and use it over again to copy spells.
#40 Kadena’s Silencer
Lastly we have Kadena’s Silencer. If you’d like to add control elements to your deck, Kadena’s Silencer is a strong fit. While it doesn’t counter any spells, it will stop powerful abilities from triggering. This is a bit of a meta call, depending on how many reactive cards you want to run.
That’s our list of the best precon upgrades to the Jump Scare! Commander deck. If you want to add some more ramp and power to your list, we recommend checking out our Best Green Ramp in Commander listicle.
READ MORE: The Best Blue Card Draw in MTG for Commander
