Wretched Ranks Precon Upgrades: Best Swaps for Gisa

The Wretched Ranks precon already has an army: 28 of its 32 creatures are Zombies. What it's short on is cheap ways to sacrifice them and creatures with enough power to make Ghoulcaller Gisa fdc-6fdc-6Shop on TCGplayer pay off. Those are the two holes we'd fix first. The ten swaps below come from the 1,476 Gisa decks built from this precon on EDHREC on October 23, 2026, and the adds cost about $28 at the cheapest printings that day.

Wretched Ranks is the mono-black deck of the five Foundations Commander precons. It released on October 2, 2026, with an MSRP of $29.99, and ships Gisa, 33 Swamps, 66 other cards and ten double-sided tokens.

What's in the Wretched Ranks precon

Gisa costs {3}{B}{B} for a 3/4, and her whole game is one line: "{B}, {T}, Sacrifice another creature: Create X 2/2 black Zombie creature tokens, where X is the sacrificed creature's power."

The rest of the box backs that up:

The average mana value of the 61 nonland cards, Gisa included, is 3.20. None of the 100 cards is on the Game Changers list, and Wizards' Commander page says "bracket 1 and 2 decks exclude game changers," so the box fits a Bracket 2 table as printed. Our Commander brackets guide covers what else decides a bracket.

Why the Wretched Ranks precon needs fodder, not more Zombies

Gisa turns power into bodies. Sacrifice a 2/2 Zombie and you get two 2/2 Zombies back, a net gain of one creature for {B} and a tap. Sacrifice a 7-power creature and you get seven. The precon is full of 2/2s and short on the second kind.

The cards EDHREC players cut most tell the same story. Moan of the Unhallowed fdc-116fdc-116Shop on TCGplayer (cut by 73.2% of Gisa decks) spends four mana on two 2/2 tokens, which Gisa already makes. Marchesa's Decree (68.7%) and Infernal Idol (65.8%) are slow. None of them sacrifices anything or gives Gisa a big body to sacrifice.

Orange: share of Gisa decks that cut the card. Cyan: share that added its replacement. Data: EDHREC, October 23, 2026. Image: BaseMTG chart.

Steps for the ten Wretched Ranks precon swaps, by job

Percentages are EDHREC's figures for the 1,476 Gisa decks built from the precon, read on October 23, 2026. Prices are the cheapest nonfoil printing on Scryfall the same day.

1. Give Gisa big creatures to sacrifice. Eternal Taskmaster (cut by 60.4%) becomes Rotting Regisaur, a 7/6 for three mana that makes you discard a card each upkeep (370 decks, 25.1%, $2.13). Sacrificed to Gisa, it's seven 2/2 Zombies. Wight of Precinct Six (47.4%) becomes Plague Belcher, a 5/4 with menace for three (372 decks, 25.2%, $0.37). Belcher has to put two -1/-1 counters on a creature you control when it enters, so put them on a Zombie token. The token dies, and Belcher's other line, "Whenever another Zombie you control dies, each opponent loses 1 life," pays you for it.

2. Add sacrifice outlets that draw or return cards. Ambition's Cost (56.4%) becomes Village Rites sta-35sta-35Shop on TCGplayer, an instant that sacrifices a creature to draw two for {B} (352 decks, 23.8%, $0.28). Cast it in response to removal and you lose nothing. Moan of the Unhallowed becomes Victimize (512 decks, 34.7%, $0.63): sacrifice one creature, return two creature cards from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped. Sacrifice a token and get Grave Titan and Gray Merchant back.

3. Turn tokens into a drain. Syphon Flesh (57.5%) becomes Mirkwood Bats, a 2/3 flier for four (380 decks, 25.7%, $0.89) that reads "Whenever you create or sacrifice a token, each opponent loses 1 life." Gisa does both. Mire Triton (61.9%) becomes Accursed Marauder (409 decks, 27.7%, $0.32), which makes each player sacrifice a nontoken creature. Your tokens are safe, and your opponents usually lose something better than the Marauder.

4. Make the mana faster. Commander's Sphere (57.2%) becomes Dark Ritual msc-793msc-793Shop on TCGplayer, three black mana for {B} (614 decks, 41.6%, $0.25), the most-added card on the page. Infernal Idol becomes Jet Medallion (502 decks, 34.0%, $13.42), which makes every black spell cost {1} less. That includes Gisa: she drops from five mana to four.

5. Swap the weak removal and the monarch card. Tendrils of Corruption (56.5%) becomes Feed the Swarm fdn-712fdn-712Shop on TCGplayer, which destroys a creature or an enchantment an opponent controls for two mana (478 decks, 32.4%, $0.21). You lose life equal to its mana value, which a drain deck can afford. Marchesa's Decree becomes Liliana, Dreadhorde General fdn-176fdn-176Shop on TCGplayer (418 decks, 28.3%, $9.56). Six mana is a lot, but "Whenever a creature you control dies, draw a card" turns every Gisa activation into card draw, and her −4 makes each player sacrifice two creatures while you sacrifice tokens.

6. Optional land swap. Barren Moor is EDHREC's most-cut land (35.4%). Unholy Grotto replaces it in 262 decks (17.8%, $0.49) and can put a Zombie card from your graveyard back on top of your library.

Four of the ten adds. Card images: Wizards of the Coast, via Scryfall.

How the swaps change the Wretched Ranks precon

The ten swaps side by side, with EDHREC counts and Scryfall prices as of October 23, 2026:

The deck stays at 28 Zombies (three Zombies out, three in) and goes from 32 creatures to 33. Average nonland mana value drops from 3.20 to 3.10. The ten adds total $28.06, and two cards are most of that: Jet Medallion and Liliana together are $22.98. The other eight cost $5.08, so on a tight budget, buy those first. None of the ten adds is a Game Changer either.

Gisa or Ayara as commander?

On October 23, EDHREC's page for the precon listed 1,476 decks with Gisa in charge and 82 with Ayara, First of Locthwain, the next most common pick. MTG Flatfish's upgrade video, posted a week before release, asks "whether you should play Ghoulcaller Gisa or Ayara, First of Locthwain" and leans toward Ayara, mostly because she costs three and starts draining the turn she lands.

MTG Flatfish, September 2026. His ten adds include Plague Belcher, also on our list.

We'd keep Gisa in the command zone and Ayara in the 99. Gisa is the card that makes tokens in bulk, and Ayara turns each of those tokens into a point of drain. One r/EDH player described it well in a thread about the deck: "The zombie tokens are black, so every zombie you bring out with her on the battlefield will trigger that effect. The Ayara and Gisa synergy is diabolical," wrote u/Still_Dentist1010.

Playing Ghoulcaller Gisa: timing, tax and life

Don't rush her out. Gisa's ability needs {T}, so she can't use it the turn she arrives unless she has haste (rule 302.6). Recasting her after removal costs {2} more each time (rule 903.8), so seven mana the second time. Our commander tax guide has the math.

Use her on other players' turns. The ability has no timing limit. Hold {B} open and sacrifice a creature in response to removal aimed at it, or at the end of an opponent's turn so the new Zombies can attack on yours.

Sacrifice the biggest body you can spare. A 2/2 token turns into two tokens. Rotting Regisaur, Plague Belcher or Grave Titan turn into seven, five or six.

Pay life freely. Between Phyrexian Arena, Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper and Feed the Swarm, you pay a lot of life. In an r/EDH thread about Gisa, u/n1ckkt put it plainly: "I think by the time you get your sac chain going the life doesnt really matter." Another player's list of additions on r/magicTCG, from u/LePereMecanique, includes Mirkwood Bats, Rotting Regisaur, Liliana, Dreadhorde General and Dark Ritual, four of our ten.

How we checked this

On October 23, 2026 we read EDHREC's JSON page for the Wretched Ranks precon: its Gisa deck count, the "Cards to Add" and "Cards to Cut" lists, the land lists and the commander counts. We checked the precon's 100 cards against Wizards' Foundations Commander decklist article, which matched EDHREC's list card for card. Card text, Game Changer flags and prices come from Scryfall's API the same day; each price is the cheapest nonfoil paper printing in US dollars. Mana values and creature counts are our own count from that list.

Our take

The Wretched Ranks precon is a better Gisa deck than it looks, because the Zombies, the lords and Grave Titan are already in the box. Don't buy more Zombies. Buy things that sacrifice them, things worth sacrificing and Ayara-style payoffs for doing it. Start with the eight cheap swaps ($5.08 on October 23), play a few games, then decide whether Jet Medallion and Liliana are worth another $22.98.

For the other Foundations decks, see our Foundations Commander precons ranked, the Tramplesaurus Rex upgrade guide, the Calling All Angels upgrade guide, the Reign of Dragons upgrade guide and the Keen Engineering upgrade guide. New to the format? Start with our Commander guide.

References

• Wizards of the Coast: Foundations Commander decklists
• Wizards of the Coast: Reality Fracture buyer's guide for Commander
• Wizards of the Coast: Commander format page
• EDHREC: Wretched Ranks precon page
• Scryfall: Ghoulcaller Gisa (Foundations Commander)
• Wizards of the Coast: Comprehensive Rules, September 25, 2026 (text file)
• YouTube: "Wretched Ranks" Foundations Commander Precon Upgrade Guide (MTG Flatfish)
• Reddit: r/EDH, Ghoul Caller Gisa
• Reddit: r/magicTCG, Wretched Ranks deck help