Every Warhammer 40,000 Commander deck plays well straight out of the box, but anyone who has run one for a few game nights starts noticing the same thing: certain slots are clearly weaker than others. The good news is each deck has a genuinely different, affordable upgrade path once you know where to look.
Rather than treating all four decks the same way, this guide compares their upgrade priorities side by side, so you can decide which deck rewards an early investment the most.
None of these upgrade paths require chasing expensive staples. Each deck's core mechanic points toward a specific, budget-friendly category of card worth adding first.
If you own more than one of the four decks, this comparison also helps you prioritize which one to upgrade first based on how much impact a small investment actually has.
Necron Dynasties benefits the most from budget upgrades of any deck in the set, since mono-Black keeps your mana base simple and lets you spend your whole budget on spells instead of fixing. Adding a handful of efficient unearth or reanimation effects noticeably smooths out its grindy game plan.
Because it's the easiest deck to pilot already, a small upgrade here has an outsized effect on consistency, making it the best first upgrade target if you only own one deck from the set.
As a three-color deck built around cascade, Ruinous Powers benefits most from budget mana-fixing lands and rocks before anything else, since inconsistent mana undercuts the deck's explosive card-advantage engine. Cascade triggers feel much better when you can reliably cast your spells on curve.
Once your mana base is solid, a few additional cheap cascade-triggering spells are the next natural upgrade, compounding the deck's existing strength rather than changing its identity.
Forces of the Imperium's squad strategy rewards cheap anthem effects and token-generation support more than big individual threats, since the deck already wants to flood the board. A handful of affordable go-wide payoffs noticeably raises its overall power level without needing a single expensive card.
This deck also benefits from budget board wipes that spare your own small creatures, since squad-based strategies are vulnerable to generic sweepers otherwise.
Tyranid Swarm's ravenous mechanic rewards cheap, efficient creatures that trigger it easily, making small, affordable creature additions the most efficient upgrade path for this deck specifically. You don't need big, expensive Tyranid bombs to noticeably improve its consistency.
Graveyard recursion on a budget is the natural second upgrade step here, since it keeps your ravenous triggers coming even after your early threats get removed.
Necron Dynasties and Tyranid Swarm are the two cheapest decks to meaningfully upgrade, since both lean on efficient, affordable role-players rather than expensive bombs. Ruinous Powers and Forces of the Imperium cost a bit more upfront because mana fixing and go-wide payoffs both carry a modest premium over generic creatures.
If budget is your primary constraint across multiple decks, upgrading Necron Dynasties first and Tyranid Swarm second gets you the most noticeable improvement per dollar spent.
If you own all four decks, spreading a small budget across mana fixing for Ruinous Powers and efficient creatures for Tyranid Swarm first gives you the broadest overall improvement before circling back to anthem effects for Forces of the Imperium. Necron Dynasties can wait slightly longer since it already performs well unmodified.
Tracking your upgrades deck by deck, rather than buying singles at random, keeps your budget focused on the changes that actually move each deck's win rate.
It's easy to keep chasing marginal upgrades indefinitely, but each of these four decks reaches a point of diminishing returns once its core mechanic is consistently functioning the way it should. Once Ruinous Powers is reliably casting its spells on curve or Tyranid Swarm is consistently triggering ravenous, further spending yields much smaller improvements.
A good signal that you've reached that point is winning or competing in most games against similarly-powered decks at your table, rather than losing primarily to your own deck's inconsistency. At that stage, it often makes more sense to put further budget toward a different deck in the set than to keep polishing one that already performs well.
Necron Dynasties, since its mono-Black identity keeps mana-fixing costs out of the equation.
Yes, mana fixing should come first in any three-color deck like this one.
No, each deck's mechanic rewards efficient, affordable cards over big single purchases.
Start with Ruinous Powers' mana base and Tyranid Swarm's creature base for the broadest improvement.
Keep your upgraded decks organized and protected with sleeves and a deck box from EVORETRO's Magic the Gathering Collection as you build out each faction.
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