Best Precons Ever? Secrets of Strixhaven Commander Decklists

The constant spoiler seasons have long felt like a Sisyphean race to the top for Wizards of the Coast, battling against itself to one-up the last spoiler season and wow the Magic community in bigger and crazier ways. This time, I think they may have just completely blown the lid off the formula for Commander precons.

Check out the full spoilers for the Secrets of Strixhaven Commander decklists on Wizards' official website when you're done so you can get the full picture. Let's dive straight in to these brand-new decks and discover some surprising new cards and impressive reprints.

Silverquill Influence

Here's the Silverquill Influence decklist ready for playtesting or online multiplayer.

Current TCGplayer value estimate of reprints only: $214.62 (!!!)

Salespeople are often poorly trained to open with their weakest pitch, but those in sales with an impressive track record know to open with the biggest, strongest, most bombastic one when it counts. Safe to say, Wizards did that here in Silverquill. As someone who used to buy every single available precon every year, I've been studying precons closely for a long time, and I can safely say that this might be the single best first impression I've ever gotten from looking at a decklist. To start, the initial reprint value is over $200 at time of writing this article which is already a huge jump in value estimation, especially for an in-universe precon.

But I'm burying the lede — the real story here is LAND TAX. When I read those two precious words, I almost choked on my own saliva. I heard a heavenly chorus, saw the pearly gates. I figured I must have died sometime last night and gone to a heaven where precons got to swing some weight around. No, I was not in heaven, but we have been gifted a piece of it here on earth — one of the most sought-after white cards in all of Commander. Land Tax is one of the most powerful card advantage spells in the entire format and while it has slowly seen more reprints in recent years, putting a $25 all-star format staple in a precon is a bold statement. This practically guarantees a huge sellout of this precon cycle, and it's an unprecedented show of willingness to put big-ticket reprints in Commander decks.

Moving on to other notable and useful reprints, there are some really fun on-theme cards like Inkshield and Breena, the Demagogue, each a signature Silverquill card from the original Strixhaven: School of Mages Commander precon that are currently valued over $10 apiece, as well as obscure or useful reprints of cards like Arcane Lighthouse, which is still an $8 card despite its recent reprint in CMM. In terms of regular Enchantress support cards, they played a lot of the hits: Armored Skyhunter, Kor Spiritdancer, and Sram, Senior Edificer. They also brought a lot of protection and removal auras like Darksteel Mutation and Gift of Immortality. Special shoutout to Flickering Ward, a really cool Enchantress tech card that bounces itself to hand, which lets you repeatedly trigger Killian.

Like a Silverquill student doing debate prep, let's go over the hottest highlights of the new cards:

• Scriv, the Obligator is the new backup commander that achieves the old Silverquill Politics theme by way of creating a Contract, an aura token that punishes your opponents for attacking you but buffs the enchanted creature when they attack other opponents
• Eiganjo Dynastorian is this deck's entry to a new cycle of creatures with prepare-able spells that reference well-known and powerful spells from Magic's history — in this case that spell is Replenish, in open defiance of the Reserved List, prepared by attacking with two or more creatures
• Intermediate Chirography, a new Class enchantment (another new cycle for each precon) that cares about life loss and modified creatures
• Forum Filibuster, a Dreadhorde Invasion-style enchantment that gives you an Inkling token every turn which additionally receives an Aura or Equipment attached to it from your graveyard. This card will likely be a popular pickup for equipment and aura-stacking archetypes
• Eclipsed Steppe and Umbral Expanse, each of them an entry for white-black into existing land cycles, as well as Turbulent Moor from a brand-new land cycle with basic land types that enters untapped as long as your opponents collectively control at least eight lands

There is so, so much more I could talk about in this decklist, but I need to keep things moving. Even ignoring the financial aspect, this deck looks great. While the Politics theme in Commander is kind of nebulous and unfocused and tends to feel a little played out, this Enchantress spin is a new, narrower direction for the deck that gives it more chutzpah and better capability to meaningfully affect the board. This precon packs plenty of card draw, removal, and interaction spells, and although it seems somewhat light on ramp, the overall curve of the deck is pretty low and it includes some discount effects like Pearl-Ear, Imperial Advisor and Killian, Ink Duelist. Overall, as a creative writer and professional Reddit debater, I am a Silverquill man through and through. I can confidently say that in both flavor and mechanics, this deck looks insanely fun to me.

Prismari Artistry

Here's the Prismari Artistry decklist ready for playtesting or online multiplayer.

Current TCGplayer value estimate of reprints only: $165.16

I had high expectations for this precon after the success of the Quick Draw precon from Outlaws of Thunder Junction, and I have to say that I was actually pretty pleased with this decklist. The big highlight is the hefty reprint of Faerie Mastermind sporting a new haircut — another $25 card. In the higher-priced range, several synergy pieces like Harmonic Prodigy and Determined Iteration both increase the overall reprint value and differentiate this Spellslinger brew from other takes on the archetype. Still, this precon packs a punch with high-demand staples like Veyran, Voice of Duality and Rionya, Fire Dancer, which are also hallmark cards from the OG Strixhaven Prismari list.

I like that this deck sets itself apart from Quick Draw, a deck much more focused on conventional Spellslinger strategies, by focusing on both high mana value spells and the creation of tokens. These themes are supported by spells with discounts or cheaty ways to play them like Volcanic Salvo or Rousing Refrain, as well as token synergies with Twinflame and Rite of Replication.

Here are some of the hit singles off the new Prismari album:

• Muddle, the Ever-Changing is a new spin on typical clone-and-copy decks which, whenever you cast an instant or sorcery, turns itself into a copy of another nonlegendary creature you control and gains myriad
• Dirgur Focusmage comes packed with both a spell discount effect and Braingeyser as its prepared classic spell (also a Reserved List treasure), triggered in a manner similar to the Opus mechanic
• Prismari Pianist takes the old formula of giving tokens for cast triggers and amps it up by generating three tokens for spells instants or sorceries that cost at least five mana
• Abstract Performance takes the minigame aspect of Fact or Fiction and raises the stakes of your opponent's choice of pile by allowing you to cast a spell for free from the non-chosen pile
• Coastal Peak, Scorched Geyser, and Turbulent Springs, which finally completes the "bi-cycle" and "tango" land cycles

I've slowly fallen off the blue-red Spellslinger wagon over the years, but Prismari Artistry is a take on the archetype that actually catches my interest. Caring about the mana value of spells is a theme that runs in opposition to traditional Spellslinger strategies that want to chain together cheap, low-cost, and efficient instant and sorcery spells, and consistent token generation gives the deck a more impactful board presence to fend off attacks. My only real criticism of the deck is that the creature count seems a little high, and I wish that instead we could get at least one or two more new instant or sorcery spells.

This deck will be a fresh and exciting way to interact with a strategy that is ordinarily considered too complicated for a lot of newer or more casual players, or too boring for veterans, and for that I am highly appreciative.

Witherbloom Pestilence

Here's the Witherbloom Pestilence decklist ready for playtesting or online multiplayer.

Current TCGplayer value estimate of reprints only: $133.75

I'll get into it a bit more in my summary article of this deck, but I was a little less excited while reading the Witherbloom decklist. It's the lowest reprint price point of the five decks, with a staggering ~$80 drop from the Silverquill list. The actual gameplay feel of the deck is solid. While gaining and draining have long been staples of the Aristocrats archetype, this decklist feels like a better marriage of those two themes. Both the face commander Dina and the old Dina, Soul Steeper care about lifegain and sacrificing creatures, and Beledros Witherbloom herself helps to contribute to that theme really well, not to mention payoffs like Veinwitch Coven and Blight Mound (both reprints from the OG Strixhaven precons).

Every good botanist needs a list of ingredients, and here are Witherbloom's newest reagents:

• Gorma, the Gullet is yet another horrific and gross black-green legendary Frog commander that eats your creatures for a benefit, giving +1/+1 counters to each creature that enters based on how many creatures died under your control that turn
• Stensian Sanguinist prepares Exsanguinate (notably the only non-Reserved List, non-1990s prepared spell in this cycle) by dealing damage with a creature that gains deathtouch from the Sanguinist's trigger on attacks
• Ominous Harvest sports the classic Future Sight keyword of gravestorm, and is only the third card in the entire game with that ability
• Immoral Bargain may have finally broken a glass ceiling on premium removal in black-green, affording go-wide decks to deal with almost any amount of problematic nonland permanents while being a sacrifice outlet at the same time
• Turbulent Fen is the only new land to come from this precon, but it's still a welcome inclusion

This may be the only deck of the bunch that provoked a tepid response. While I can see that the deck is still constructed very competently, the difference in estimated price isn't the best start. The callbacks to the original Witherbloom Witchcraft deck in terms of overlapping cards feel much more frequent in this deck, and not for the better. Blight Mound, Trudge Garden, and Blossoming Bogbeast are all reprints from Witchcraft, and feel very same-y here.

As a brief mathematical aside (feel free to check my work, Quandrix nerds), here is a short comparison of non-generic/staple overlaps with the appropriate predecessor across each Secrets of Strixhaven Commander deck, not counting Sol Ring or Arcane Signet nor generic/staple lands:

• 7 cards from Silverquill Influence overlap with Silverquill Statement
• 10 cards in Witherbloom Pestilence to Witherbloom Witchcraft
• 10 cards in Prismari Artistry to Prismari Performance
• 5 cards in Lorehold Spirit to Lorehold Legacies
• 9 cards in Quandrix Unlimited to Quantum Quandrix

Seeing the data laid out as such, it's hard to justify my vibes-based analysis as anything more than a poorly calibrated vibes antenna. Still, I just can't shake my initial gut reaction. That being said, don't let my personal lack of enthusiasm for this deck deter you. If you're a lover of lifegain, Aristocrats, or just really love some pungent green, go for Witherbloom.

Lorehold Spirit

Here's the Lorehold Spirit decklist ready for playtesting or online multiplayer.

Current TCGplayer value estimate of reprints only: $188.96

Quintorius had himself some giant shoes to fill as the face of the Lorehold deck, quite literally in fact. Elderly Commander players like myself will recall the distant year of 2021, when Boros was widely considered the weakest guild in Commander and white was pooh-poohed as too weak and too difficult to play without access to stax. Then Lorehold Legacies burst onto the scene, and suddenly white-red got a shot of adrenaline straight to the heart. Hofri Ghostforge (from the main Strixhaven set), Archaeomancer's Map, and many more new Lorehold cards presented great solutions to problems faced by both Boros and white specifically. As a treat, those two cards have made a return in this list, along with some incredibly cool reprints of rarely-seen cards like Bitterthorn, Nissa's Animus and Wave of Reckoning, which was last printed a whole decade ago. There's also the surprise inclusion of Moonshaker Cavalry, which for its power feels like the white equivalent of getting Craterhoof Behemoth reprinted in a Commander precon. This deck absolutely rocks.

Here's some new hotness:

• Excava, the Risen Past, a new option for a Horse commander (which, admittedly, does not care about Horses at all) that can reanimate any conventional permanent — artifact, creature, or non-Aura enchantment — in the form of a 1/1 flying Spirit token
• Naktamun Lorespinner, which becomes prepared when a player has one or fewer cards in their hand during your upkeep, allowing you to cast Wheel of Fortune (the last of the Reserved List entries in the cycle) to refill everyone's hands
• Advanced Reconstruction, another new Class enchantment that supports cast-from-exile or cast-from-top decks
• Relic Retriever, which I believe may have legs as a new format all-star at Bracket 4 power levels when it starts to make multiple Treasure tokens each turn cycle
• Turbulent Steppe, the expected white-red entry in the Turbulent lands cycle

If there was no Land Tax in Silverquill, Lorehold Spirit would have taken the prize for best precon of the cycle in my eyes. New planeswalker commanders are always a pleasure to see, and leaves-the-graveyard matters is an interesting design space with a ton of potential applications that can take the deck in a variety of directions. The reprint quality is very high, the ramp and recursion packages are solid, and I love that they even included some new Spirit creature type synergies. All around, I am very pleased with this list.

Quandrix Unlimited

Here's the Quandrix Unlimited decklist ready for playtesting or online multiplayer.

Current TCGplayer value estimate of reprints only: $150.47

While Silverquill is my Strixhaven College of choice and Gruul is my signature Ravnica guild, Quandrix has a special place in my heart as the guiltiest of guilty pleasures. Most players are pretty tired of generic blue-green value piles and archetypes, but I always find myself intrigued by Fractal tokens and the math-y theming of Quandrix College. Even considering the second-lowest reprint price point, Quandrix Unlimited's construction quality validates my love for the theme in a lot of really cool ways. Ozolith, the Shattered Spire, Kami of Whispered Hopes, and some of the pricier Hydras like Benevolent Hydra and Primordial Hydra are excellent reprints for +1/+1 counter decks, and Tanazir Quandrix as the obligatory Elder Dragon inclusion (which I've just realized was conspicuously absent from Lorehold) makes me nostalgic for my prerelease promo Tanazir deck that aimed to make the biggest Fractal possible. As a shoutout to the gentlemen over at the MTGGoldfish Commander podcast, this deck even comes packed with Open the Way, one of the most potent ramp spells in the format.

Quandrix students, help me count to five:

• Primo, the Unbounded, which I will absolutely be building, introducing the first-ever base-power-0 matters commander that builds big Fractal tokens when creatures with 0 base power deal combat damage
• Yavimaya Bloomsage, the only creature in the prepare cycle to feature a flat-out banned card in Channel, made ready by putting a +1/+1 counter on a creature that subsequently has power 7 or greater
• Owlin Spiralmancer, a powerful creature that copies the first X-cost spell you cast every turn (including on your opponents' turns)
• Nexus Mentality, a member of the highly exclusive club of cards that can move counters between nonland permanents (sadly, this doesn't let you rip counters away from Dark Depths)
• Turbulent Wilderness, the final land (for now) in the Turbulent cycle

When it comes to blue-green, it can sometimes be difficult to build a deck with a cohesive theme that doesn't lean too hard on broad themes like +1/+1 counters or Lands Matter. Quandrix Unlimited may have several synergies with +1/+1 counters, but it does so in a unique collaboration with X-cost spells while introducing new tools for both archetypes. While I'll be ripping the deck to shreds to rebuild it with Primo, I'm satisfied with the way that this deck panned out in the end.

Last-Minute Assignment

This precon cycle is really something special. Secrets of Strixhaven has me excited for a new Magic release in a way I haven't felt in a long while, and these precons are a huge part of it. We got so many treats and treasures in these decks: a brand-new land cycle featuring basic land types, creatures with game-warping prepared spells, new toys for established deck themes, and so much more. The reprint equity is also well-positioned for the majority of the decks — even at the lowest value point in Witherbloom, the actual reprinted cards like Toxic Deluge and Gyome, Master Chef are sought-after cards with high demand or low supply or both.

All in all, I can't wait for my full set of precons to arrive so I can get straight to brewing and upgrading. Which of these decks are you most excited for? I hope that your favorite deck has everything you need to rep your Strixhaven College (take the test if you aren't sure which!) at your regular pod! Don't forget to hop in our Discord to share your secret tech and spiciest includes for these new precons!

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