Every New Card from the Secrets of Strixhaven Commander Decks

Hello and welcome back! New set, new cards, specifically new cards from new Commander preconstructed decks! Best time to cover cards!

Super hyped for these decks to be completely honest, but my reviews of the new cards will remain impartial. With the excitement I feel though, I’m going to jump right into it. To be clear, I’m only covering the new cards in the upcoming Commander decks for Secrets of Strixhaven.

THE TURBULENT LANDS

First I am going to cheat a little and group these cycles of cards together. They are the same cards essentially, just providing different mana to their respective decks. Likely going to be called the Turbulent lands (though I vote for collision lands as the name), each has two basic land types which makes them tutorable by various cards like the Fetch lands and Farseek. I don’t think this will make them staples by any means though. Many decks wont need these to be viable. If you get them they are good lands to add to decks. If you don’t have them, don’t worry about it.

The lands are good for casual Commander, with the stipulation for them to come into play untapped being decent. In “fair” magic, assuming land drops every turn, these come into play untap on turn four. Likely with how much Commander is played today, turn three is more viable.

I’m always excited for more land cycles to help filling out land bases, especially if we can get them at a decent rate. That I think will be a problem with these though. Only being in these Commander precons will probably make them higher in price.

In that vein, I would like to point out that the enemy colored (Green / Blue, White / Black, etc) Slow lands from Midnight Hunt and Crimson Vow are being reprinted in Secrets to Strixhaven, probably bringing some prices down. These lands are some of my faves for Commander so if you don’t want to or can’t get the new lands from these precons consider those.

THE TANGO LANDS (CYCLE FINISHED)

Printed in these decks are also lands that care about the number of basic lands you have on the battlefield, namely two. These lands are excellent in simpler mana bases that need the fixing, and work well with Fetch and Check lands or mana bases that carry a lot of basic lands, like two colored decks.

With these last few printed in these decks, the cycle of the Tango lands are finally finished.

THE BI-CYCLE LANDS (CYCLE FINISHED)

Another cycle of lands getting completed with this Commander set are the Bi-Cycle lands, so named because they are dual typed lands you can cycle to draw a card. These do alway scome into play tapped, but can also be fetched and tutored for based on their land types like the previous lands mentioned about.

With the lands out of the way, there will be less entries for this article, but fear not. Almost each card is a doozy, with the lesser card being good as a floor.

SILVERQUILL INFLUENCE

KILLIAN, DECISIVE MENTOR

The face commander for the Silverquill deck, Killian wants to win the argument by having others argue their points to opponents’ faces. Largely, he aims to abuse enchantments to cause some creatures to be goaded into attacking your opponents. He also taps them, meaning he can clear away some blockers temporarily for other opponents to take advantage of.

Killian goes on to reward you for specifically using Auras, enchanting opponents’ creatures and drawing you cards when they attack while enchanted with your enchantments.

Stacking up those advantages is likely the name of the game, and some other new cards I’m going to cover in a bit here definitely help doing that.

SCRIV, THE OBLIGATOR

Every insults new best friend, this four drop legend has an okay body but makes it deadly with deathtouch and flying. An excellent blocker if you need one to most likely definitely put a chill on attackers, but it gets better. As an enters or attacks trigger, you create an aura token that gets to be attached to an opponent’s creature and incentives them to attack with that creature to get a bonus against the other opponents. Otherwise, they can attack you and hurt themselves with life loss.

There are few things to unpack here. You get an immediate benefit with the enters trigger, so using some blink or reanimation effects get you mileage even if you can’t attack. This also synergizes with Killian of course, as you control those enchant tokens. Third, these are tokens, so Populate and similar mechanics work to make more of them, and each one will trigger separately on the same creature.

I am much looking forward to using this lovely creature in Isshin myself.

EIGANJO DYNASTORIAN

We got some interesting surprises in the form of the “guest lecturer” cards in each deck (unrelated mechanically to the new Ral Zarek card in the main set). This one contains a foxfolk from Kamigawa, who when you attack with two or more creatures, becomes prepared. This allows you to cast the spell on the card, Replenish!

Alright, so first thing to cover is Prepared. A card can enter or become prepared if a condition is met. As long as the card is prepared, you can cast the spell on the card by paying its mana cost. So in this case, you can pay 3 generic mana and a White mana to cast Replenish. The creature then becomes unprepared, and must be prepared again to recast the spell. You cannot be more prepared than the one time, at a time. Different cards that can become prepared can become that way in different ways.

Second, Replenish is a much older card that is very powerful for certain decks, specifically ones that revolve around the use of enchantments like this precon does. It is extremely powerful in the right mix of cards, and with this card’s ability being repeatable, it will give your opponents headaches and likely eat removal.

This card will be an all-star in a deck like this.

HERALD OF AMITY

This card digs super deep for an Aura for you to cast. This deck already comes with 22 Auras, so being unable to hit one is going to be very unlucky when it digs for those 8 cards. Then, in a very un-White color identity fashion, it lets you cast that Aura for FREE. Did I mention Eldrazi Conscription is in this deck?

Some Auras in the deck hurt your opponents or their creatures too (although Conscription does a great job the old fashion way). In this deck, the Griffin will help win games.

Oh, it will also get a bonus +X/+X from each aura you control as well. Remember those token Auras from Scriv? Those count too!

DEFACING DUSKMAGE

How such a good doggo learn such good magics? Like Eiganjo Dynastorian, this card also has a spell you can cast when it becomes prepared. Its preparation is different however, and the Duskmage only becomes prepared when an opponent draws a second card on a turn. In Commander, that’s almost as good as breathing, so I imagine this card will be prepared a lot.

The spell you get to cast lets you draw two cards and drains each player for 2 life. Not only does that help you stay caught up with resources against the table, you also progress the game towards the end. Keep in mind it does hurt you as well, but at instant speed you get to choose the best timing to cast the spell.

This is going to be best in show in my Y’Shtola deck I’d bet. In precon, it’s all about the card advantage and a bit of reach into those life totals.

FORUM FILIBUSTER

This is an interesting form of enchantment and equipment recursion, as it provides a body for you to attach it to in the form of a 2/1 flying inkling. The flying on the token itself is really good, providing sometimes much needed evasion. However, it does lock you into enchanting the token instead of some other creature. I think this downside is negligible however, and there are cards that can switch auras around a bit if needed, like Kitsune Mystic // Autumn-Tail, Kitsune Sage. Equipment doesn’t need that help in that regard.

Overall, the card in this precon is going to be good at helping close the game and cover some of the eggs-in-basket costs of using Auras on creatures, even if they aren’t always going to be on your own.

CHANGING LOYALTY

Really excited for this card. It essentially lets you save a creature you have and bring it back (albeit with no other aura returning) to re-enchant OR potentially steal a creature you happened to goad into combat. With flash, the job of doing either becomes super easy at two mana.

Then, on top of that, you can pay 2 generic mana to Replicate it (a mechanic last seen in original Ravnica and related reprinted cards I believe) the spell, which creates a copy of it for every time the replicate cost was paid! Of course with enough mana and a board wipe you could steal an entire board of stuff, but the option even on the low end is getting the two best things on the table with just two more mana spent. Frankly I think this card is excellent on its own, but paired with Killian for some extra advantages? Superb.

Can’t wait to add this to Maralen Fae Ascendant myself.

COERCIVE IMPETUS

Another for the Impeti! Impeties? Impetusses? Anyway, yet another of the name joins the rank of a goad time with this enchantment. Simpler than some, this one just lets you draw a card and you lose one life when the goaded creature attacks with the slight boost of +1/+1.

Obviously with Killian or Scriv around it gives a bunch of synergistic benefits, but on its own it's a fine card.

INTERMEDIATE CHIROGRAPHY

Time for class! I do love this design space with enchantments because it allows you to be a little more flexible with when you want something or can get it than the automatic Sagas (which I also love). This one rewards you with an Inkling token for the first level.

The second level helps you a little by slightly buffing a creature if you lose life each turn with a +1/+1 counter. Potentially, that's four +1/+1 counters per go around the table.

The final level replaces you dead modified creatures with inklings when they die. Remember that modified creatures have counters, enchantments or equipment attack to them, so it will count the counters level 2 gives as well as any auras you have on creatures you control. This will trigger only once per creature, not per thing on them.

Overall solid for the deck itself, helping survive stuff in the late game and in a small way deterring opponents from attacking you. The costs seem good as well, as the enchantment all together isn’t too powerful but will do work.

PRISMARY ARTISTRY

ROOTHA, MASTERING THE MOMENT

One paragraph, a lot of pain for your opponents. Encouraging you to cast the largest spell on your turn possible before combat, you can get a large hasty and flying elemental to punch your opponents.

That’s it. While nothing to sneeze at and having only the one hoop to jump will make this card pretty good, I do wish it had done one more thing. Still, it is an ability that will win games by producing those flying tokens of various sizes. The synergy to build Rootha is probably where deck built around her will shine, and as we’ll see, the precon isn’t a slouch in that department.

MUDDLE, THE EVER-CHANGING

Alright, first I want to say that having the type Otter seems very tacked on. Obviously it’s because Otters are essentially the spell-caring type of animal (somehow), but seems random to me otherwise besides that?

Anyway, the card itself is interesting. It becomes a copy of a nonlegendary creature you control until end of turn whenever you cast an instant or sorcery. This is a very flexible ability as long as you have something to copy, giving you potentially a slew of options for getting extra effects and combat shenanigans.

Speaking of combat, it also gains Myriad. So, it can create some more copies on the attack depending on how many opponents you have. Do note that it doesn’t have Myriad natively, so you'd have to cast a spell first. You don’t have to have it become something else though.

INSPIRED SKYPAINTER

Another one of the new cards with Prepare, this one enters ready to go. At two mana to cast, it make be a second before you’re ready to get the spell from this lively fellow, but the Prismari care about big spells and you’d want to create a cool token to copy with Maestro’s Gift anyway.

The flying tokens that Rootha creates can both help prepare this card and are going to be good target to copy as well, not to mention anything else you might create with other spells or abilities. Its spell also triggers Rootha, so each feeds off the other.

A good card for the deck and potentially others with big bad tokens to get some more of.

DIRGUR FOCUSMAGE

This is an interesting look into how a card is balanced in my opinion. The card can prepare itself and helps it get there by reducing the cost of its own and other spells. In exchange it doesn’t come into play prepared, so you still have to work for it first.

The spell it casts is Braingeyser, and the X in its cost allows a lot of flexibility when you need a higher mana value spell and when you don’t. To clarify, a spell with X in its cost is whatever the pips without the X are anywhere except on the stack (where the spell resolves when cast). So, Brain Geyser has a mana value of two when it isn’t being cast. On the stack, it counts whatever X is plus the pips, so if the mana spent for X is 3, the spell has a mana value of five on the sack (3 + Blue + Blue =5). This matters for cards like Rootha and itself, where casting something with a mana value of five triggers this card's ability and has Rootha make a 5/5 elemental.

With that out of the way, you can prepare this card with itself by casting a 5 mana value Braingeyser or some other instant or sorcery of that value. With enough mana, you can also force your opponent to draw their deck as well since you get to choose the player to draw those cards.

LEITMOTIF COMPOSER

A creature that can clone itself when you cast a large enough instant or sorcery and can draw you cards. Not bad at all. I especially like that even if you can’t cast the large spells, you can pay to make this creature (and creatures with the same name as it) unblockable to get that card draw.

Clone creatures will work with that ability as long as they copy the name as well. My favorite clone, Dack’s Duplicant, comes to mind, but something like Mirrorform could also be hilarious with this.

PRISMARI PIANIST

Young Pyromancer’s uncle probably. In the same vein, casting instants or sorceries gets you a 1/1 elemental token, but if you cast one of those spells with a mana value of five or greater, you get three. It’s a good added effect to spells you cast to help keep some defenses up as you build to your crescendo.

RENEGADE BULL

We’ve seen this kind of card before. Well, at least the first half. Sometimes paired with evasion, a creature gets a bonus for a spell being cast, usually to its power. It’s a sometimes staple of Red cards that care about smashing face. However, I don’t recall a card that has that effect that also gets us a spell to recast on attack as well.

Having these effects together, it can essentially get fuel twice to power up and trample over opposing creatures. Not too shabby with the extra spell effect in play as well, and of course the Primsari love the larger spells.

ABSTRACT PERFORMANCE

This card digs deep into your deck, giving you an opportunity to draw three and cast a spell for free. The other four cards the get picked by an opponent get sent to the graveyard.

At six mana, this is very good in this deck generally. While there is a small chance to not get something out of it, like the Herald of Amity in the Silverquill deck, you’re probably not going to miss often at all. Keep in mind it does say cast a spell, so anything is on the table besides lands. This doesn’t limit you to instant and sorceries that the deck likes to focus on.

FURYGALE FLOCKING

Something I forgot to mention earlier with Dirgur Focusmage is that the cost reduction of abilities doesn’t lower the mana value of a spell, just what you pay for it. So while this spell can cost as little as Red Red to cast, it is still a ten mana value spell.

As the cost gets lowered, the spell becomes better. Even at  six mana this spell does some work, making 2 3/3 flyers for each opponent you have. Granted, that’s a game with 4 players giving you 6 tokens. As the game goes on, you get less economy from this card but ideally its cost should also be way down, into the three mana range.

It’s an okay card, and works well with the deck. Not sure it would stay there though it if comes to cuts. First oof the reviews.

WITHERBLOOM PESTILENCE

DINA, ESSENCE BREWER

The face Commander of the Witherbloom deck is none other than Dina, and her card is similar to her prior incarnation but only just so. We’re still able to sacrifice creatures and there is a buff, but the payoffs and targets are different.

Now when we sacrifice a creature, we get a card. It only happens once per turn, but that’s still four potential cards per go around the table. Dina herself can supply the sacrifice outlet with her ability, which costs two mana and a tap. This gains us life and some +1/+1 counters to a creature we control equal to the sacrificed creature’s power. All in all not a bad card to help support the deck and trigger various effects and synergies.

GORMA, THE GULLET

This freaky little dude does something similar to Dina, but doesn’t let you sacrifice things itself. It has Lifelink for the life gain, and can get bigger when stuff dies. It also can buff nontoken creatures you control with counters for each creature that died that turn, potentially making a small army very large in an instant with something like a mass reanimation spell. Definitely a cycle of life and death through the graveyard here.

MERCHANT OF VENOM

Another edict effects stapled to a creature, but if you choose to keep him around he can get quite large and has some built in evasion with menace. Very much a meta call I think outside of this deck but it seems within the list it could threaten to win the long game if left unchecked. I think that is about all it has going for it outside of being some big fodder for other effects itself and surviving the in-deck Toxic Deluge.

DEFILING DAEMOGOTH

The daemogoth having evasion and the ability to gain you some life when you hit a player is fine. I think the real meat on the card however is the third ability, which is affected by other sources of life gain and a potential way to eliminate players the turn you play this, or at least do a lot of life loss. Combine with Dina, there is potential for large life swings.

While not combo specific, it can be added to some combos that aren’t infinite to help finish a table.

STENSIAN SANGUINIST

A guest lecturer. They’ll let anyone teach these days.

To prepare for the spell this creature allows you to cast, a creature you control has to draw blo.. damage a player in combat to make it prepared. The sanguinist helps by giving a creature you control death touch to make trading unfavorable to get that preparation going.

When you do have this card ready to go, it allows you to cast Sanguinate, a simple but powerful spell that can fell whole tables if they aren’t prepared. Couple with the Daemogoth for insurance on that.

PEST RESCUER

A green version of Ophiomancer, you get a pest as long as you don’t control a pest. In this deck, you can gain a pest a few ways, so I imagine that’s why there is more text that says you can gain a little bit extra life whenever you would do so by one more point.

Not a bad card, but I don’t think it’ll do much when ahead. I think it will do more when behind to help you get back into a game though.

RIBTRUSS ROASTER

Haven’t seen the Devour ability in a minute. The reminder text says what it does, but just for reference, when this card enters, you may sacrifice any number of creatures. This card gets that many +1/+1 counters.

After that’s said and done, it replaces the creatures you sacrificed with pests at your end step, so the payoff is pretty much immediate for both abilities. Better, if he sticks around, you’re getting more and more delicious little guys to squeeze for effects and triggers.

ECCENTRIC PESTFINDER

I really like this card. The body you get for the cost is already pretty good, and preparing for the spell it can cast is not too hard to do in this deck. Speaking of, the spell creates up to three pest tokens, and so sets you up to prepare this card again to make more and at a decent cost to boot. It might be clunky without a source of life gain to start it off, but once it gets going it should be a good source of tokens to help gain you life and block stuff while doing so.

OMINOUS HARVEST

This is a card I’m really excited about. It can essentially fell a table with enough sacrificed permanents, and loops for this are beyond well established at this point.

It’s more flexible than that though. It can be used politically if you’re not into the combo side of it, and trigger a number of effects across a table depending on the decks involved. It also has some protection against most counter magic since the copies usually can’t be countered.

Otherwise, in this deck is often at least a draw 2-4 cards and lose that much life at a minimum, which is a good floor at three mana.

IMMORAL BARGAIN

The desolation this card will cause. Granted, you do have to have the creatures to sacrifice, but at three mana you can set up to get most or all of the back, too. The best part of this card, besides probably getting yourself a bunch of value, is that what it can destroy is anything but lands. Planeswalkers? Yep. That one battle that one player uses? You bet. The other player hiding behind ghostly prison and propaganda? Get those out of the way. As long as you can sacrifice some critters, you have a very versatile spell here.

FERAL APPETITE

A boosts to attacking pests is fine I guess. The real meat here (heh) is the ability to have some graveyard removal against other decks. Exiling a creature gives you a pest token.

While this is a fine card, I’m not sure I’d keep it in the deck. Pests are great but there are likely better cards that are more useful generally. Second oof, but it is a meta call if you need the graveyard interaction.

LOREHOLD SPIRIT

QUINTORIUS, HISTORY CHASER

A new planeswalker but favorite character of many, Quint leads the Lorehold deck and helps creature a historically accurate spirit army. He also powers them up and provides some cards advantage and selection otherwise. History and reading prior Magic cards has taught me that almost any planeswalker with the word “draw” on it is probably going to be good, especially if it’s a positive loyalty ability.

Looking through the deck, there aren’t too many spirits. They’re in there, even got some new ones, but you’re going to want to make spirits with Quint as opposed to relying on having a mass of them otherwise. So that means using other cards to get stuff out of the graveyard to fuel his static effect.

His discard, draw and mill ability helps with that a little, letting you fuel whatever game plan is currently happening, whether concentrating on the graveyard centric effects or the battlefield you have. Having options is always nice.

His last ability helps finish the game, but it probably wont be used much until then unless you can put pressure on the table. Luckily he comes with enough loyalty straight away to activate that ability, so even if he gets removed once or twice he can still be a game ending threat if you have the army to back him up.

EXCAVA, THE RISEN PAST

Not sure what I’m looking at here but it says its a horse and not a bull so its a horse (the fluffy tail helps).

An aggressive legend, Excava gets to attack immediately for its effect, bringing back your choice of an artifact, creature or non-Aura enchantment mana value three or less to the field with a finality counter in tow. It also becomes a 1/1 spirit creature.

So a few things to note here. The finality counter is a bit pesky, but it can be removed by some effects like Scholar of New Horizons or blinked away with Teleportation Circle or other cards. Not the worst thing, and it restores its original power and toughness if that matters. You likely lose the spirit synergy with Quintorius, but the payoff is likely worth it.

Second, this makes enchantments and artifacts creatures. Flying ones at that, too. The back side of the coin has benefits, as it allows for static effects to come back and the repeatable nature of the recursion isn’t to be ignored over time either. If you focus more on this kind of value, the card Solemnity might be a staple if you pick this for you commander.

In the precon, the synergies are obvious with Quint, netting value on both sides of the grave.

LOREHOLD ARCHIVIST

Once again we have a creature that allows you to cast a spell. To prepare this creature you need only three or more artifact or creature cards in your graveyard. Lorehold does have a milling subtheme, and Quint will help you mill some cards as well. The spell you get to cast when the creature is prepared lets you create a copy of one of those cards types in your graveyard by also exiling it. That loss of the card is always a bummer but without a limitation to define what you get outside of card type your options are wide open within those card types.

The creature itself also comes with a good body with first strike for the cost as well, making surviving combat a bit easier as well.

AUGUSTA, ORDER RETURNED

Poor Agusta didn’t survive the invasion it seems, but she returns to guide her students. Stat-wise she is fine, with built in evasion and vigilance for some easy blocking. Her effect can make her larger as long as players are exiling nonland cards by providing some counters, but it also acts as a vehicle for all those leaves graveyard trigger this deck wants to have happen a little at a time.

I do think the card is a little lackluster but effective for what it does if only because you don’t get to pick the other cards to exile from opponents’ graveyards. It will do work in the deck, but depend on your own yard and think of your opponents’ yards as a bonus.

VANGUARD OF THE RESTLESS

Specifically here to support spirits, this is quite easily recurrable and buffs your spirits bit to a bunch, depending on how many times your commander goes to to the command zone.

I’ll stress a bit that the number of spirits in this deck by itself is a bit low, so depending on Quint to make some or some other source will be key to getting this card to give more value. It’s a good include overall, with flying being good for offense and defense, and its self recursion will be very good when you make those spirit tokens. Overall decent.

NAKTAMUN LORESPINNER

I was very excited for this card to add to my own Xyris deck until I saw the first text box. Having a player with one or less card in had in Commander really means someone is just having a bad game OR the strategy somehow revolves around or compliments having a low hand size. It’s not something that happens often to you opponents.

So, you're likely pitching cards yourself to get down to one or less cards to prepare this creature. The wheel is really for you to refill your own hand and maybe mess with an opponents hand sculpting. Granted, wheel effects can be dangerous by also refilling your opponents’ hands, but you can always play politics with that.

Overall I like the card and I think in this deck it will work fine. In a vacuum it will find some homes in Nekusar and other decks, but it’s not going to be a staple outside of those.

RELIC RETRIEVER

Decent body for the cost, and can generate a treasure for you at each end step when a card leaves your graveyard. It’s fine. I’d have to actually play the deck to see if you can get this to trigger each turn. If you can reach that ceiling half the time, this little guy and give you a good amount of treasure over time. If you do it once per turn rotation around the table, then it’s pretty meh.

Overall, I like the card but it is definitely a deck construction call whether it will benefit you enough to be worth it.

I do want to point out how many of these new Lorehold cards do okay in combat. Many have relevant abilities to help them survive a bit. Not a lot, but a bit. It’s nice to see.

SPIRIT OF RESILIENCE

An interesting take on cloning effects, and has some potential to generate value out of nowhere. It also gets larger with a +1/+1 counter.

I think it is also really deck dependant, but if you can find ways to get this to trigger when you need it to, it could be a great way to screw with opponents in combat or via effects you might have available in your graveyard.

CEASELESS CONFLICT

A mass removal spell that replaces your creatures with 3/2 spirit tokens. Generally, a decent mass removal but not the best. Taken with the context of the deck however, your planeswalker commander survives the wipe to then pump those spirits next turn and the wipe fills your own yard to help trigger the leaves graveyard effects. So, in the deck it’s a good wipe.

FATEFUL TEMPEST

Combustible Gearhulk is one of my favorite cards ever made simply because I like to find out what happens when it comes into play. I’m a Red Mage like that. I like a little tiny bit of random. This card gives me those same vibes, and it can be good either way since either choice from players progresses the game forward AND can be rewarding for you.

Choosing past mills cards, and then each opponent takes damage equal to the mana value of the milled cards. Could be zero damage, could be ten plus. Depends on what gets milled, but either way this fuels cards into your graveyard to fuel those leaves graveyard effects by giving you targets for them, which is something to consider over just the damage in this deck.

Choosing present lets you “Red draw” some cards, up to four if your opponents and you all choose present. In this deck having this happen is actually the lesser of the two modes, depending on your board state. The cards are exiled, and you have until your the end of your next turn to play them. The word “play” is important because it allows a land to be played since lands are never cast.

At three mana I really feel the floor on this card is decent but if built around can be much better if you try and maximize the value from both outcomes of the choices here.

QUANDRIX UNLIMITED

ZIMONE, INFINITE ANALYST

Like math? How about cost reduction? Zimone gives you reduction for your X in cost spells based on the amount of +1/+1 counters she has. It’s a narrow but excellent effect to help you cast larger and larger X spells for less and less, saving you some mana for other spells or effects.

Casting those X spells rewards you by putting those two of those counters on Zimone, looping the effects into each other.

It’s a fine card in a vacuum. Definitely have to build around her to get a nice consistency going, but doable. There are 29 spells in the deck that have X in their mana value, so hitting a few of those and getting the reduction out of the box is going to be mostly consistent.

PRIMO, THE UNBOUND

Free to find math for blockers on their own time, Primo here can trample over a large amount of damage if you put the mana into it. When it or another 0 base power and toughness creature hits a player, you get to make another and add counters based on the damage dealt.

I really like the card, but I feel like it has diminishing returns as the game goes on without recasting it or adding more counters. By itself its fine, but it definitely needs some support to make a strategy to keep its effect relevant.

In the deck it’s fine, but I think it will suffer the same diminishing returns issue.

OWLIN SPIRALMANCER

For the cost, this bird has a really good stat line and abilities in flying and vigilance. Its ability to copy spells with X in their costs makes it outrageous. Doubling anything for free, as we might know as Commander players, is always something we should look out for both for us and across the table. While it doesn’t do anything on its own except be a good flyer, don’t count it out at all in this deck. 29 spells within makes this card very dangerous with anything that is non -legendary, which is the majority of the spells here.

KINETIC OOZE

Ooze be squishy, like stress toys. Squeeze more mana into this to help solve your on board problems. Whatever X is, you get some removal for an artifact or enchantment if it costs X or less. If X is 5 or more it gets you a card to help solve another problem, and 10 or more increases the size of your army.

This spell is good on its own, but also gets better with Zimone out and any cost reduction or X spell manipulation. In this deck, it should do some good work. 

NEV, THE PRACTICAL DEAN

I’m going to talk about the need for evasion in this deck a bit here and there, but look no further than this new Dean of Green. A simple legend that adds to the line of creatures or effects that give trample to creatures with counters.

Nev himself gets X +1/+1 counters when you cast a spell with X in its mana cost, where X is the amount of mana put into the spells X cost.

He will get huge really quick and threaten opponents easily enough, not to mention the evasion he bring to your forces as well. Overall effective to get your point across.

YAVIMAYA BLOOMSAGE

Hope you’re ready to unleash a spell that’s actually banned in Commander! No not the creature, the spell it allows you to cast.

The creature itself gives you a free +1/+1 counter on your end step, making a creature you control slightly larger. Then if the creature you gave the counter to is sufficiently large, specifically power 7 or greater, this creature becomes prepared.

Once this creature is prepared, you then wait a turn around the table to be able to cast Channel. The actual card Channel is the card specifically banned in commander, but that doesn’t affect this card’s ability to let you cast a copy.

Casting that cop here means you can spend almost all of your life total by trading that total for colorless mana to spend on spells and abilities. It is quite powerful but comes with risk. I’m excited to see how this card does in Commander.

STRIDING SHOTCALLER

The quandrix casting-creature helps prepare itself after the initial contact with an opponent’s life total. It itself has reach and a high toughness, making it a good early-mid game defender. It can make itself bigger with its own ability, but the flexibility to spread the effect to other creatures, potentially all you other creatures, is really good.

You also get to draw a card and give flying regardless of what goes into X for the spell. This means you don’t have to give or get counters at all, but the evasion and card draw is still a viable option for just Green and Blue. It's a really good ability to have when needed. Just remember it needs to be prepared first.

EXPANSION ALGORITHM

Proliferate X times where X is the mana spent to pay the cost of X in this spells cost.

It’s fine. It doesn’t do anything else but in the right deck it doesn’t have to. Some planeswallker centric decks might want this, and this precon deck can use it. I’m not seeing it taking the place of another card in another deck without the support of the reduction or upside of planeswalker much though.

NEXUS MENTALITY

This is a super interesting card and probably the best combat trick in the deck. You could swell an unblocked creature into a huge behemoth or draw a bunch of cards. You ideally want to do both at the same time, and at instant speed this spell can do that at the best time possible.

I really like this card, and it can help trigger a number of effects via those counters being moved because that are being removed and added as part of the effect. The card draw wont trigger as much in this deck, but it can in other decks where there is an intersection of counters and draw matters.

LATTICE LIBRARY

If you need some tokens for free off your X spells, here you go. They are created as base 0/0 creatures that get counters on them equal to the counters on this enchantment. Decent under normal circumstances, but with Zimone on the field you probably have better than normal circumstances. It’s a good way to help overwhelm your opponents, especially if you can give them some evasion like trample, flying, or making them unblockable.

BRASS INFINISCOPE

A mana artifact that rewards you for casting spells with X in the cost. The life gain isn’t anything to sneeze at, but in this deck it might be a little too expensive to keep around unless you’re generating that value. It’s not bad, but with life gain not being of much focus in the deck, it might be better to replace this card with something else. Not an oof per se, but pretty darn close.

PENS DOWN, BOOKS CLOSED

That’s it for this review. Woo. I do apologize for the length, but between the excitement for these decks and my thoughts about the new cards I had to get those words out.

Which deck might you pick up to play or get new cards out of? Every list in this set seems good to great, so I think as long as you enjoy the strategy of one of these they are a good pick up, or if the cards within help another deck you have already. Looking forward to some Lorehold and Silverquill myself.

Until next time, enjoy a good book on the subject matter of your choice during the free period.