Hello and welcome back! Secrets of Strixhaven is upon us with the prerelease, and that means our roster of commander decks are about to get some potential boosts. However, if this is your first foray into Commander and you’re picking up some of these new awesome decks as your first or early go, I’m going to suggest some cards for those decks that you may not know about! Let the exploration begin!
SILQUILL INFLUNECE
The deck is pretty straight forward about what it wants to do here. Get people to attack not you, and profit from doing so. The deck itself is very Aura centric, so having resilient Auras and/or ways to get them back is probably going to be the most important thing to do, plus having targets to enchant.
ONDU SPIRITDANCER
Maybe an obvious kind of inclusion, but getting double of something is always better than getting one of something as long as it's in your favor. This lets you double up on enchantments, and not just Auras, once per turn. If you have an enchantment with Flash, it can be on opponents’ turns as well. With this card, you get to keep some gas in hand and commit to the board safer from mass removal all the while pressuring opponents.
COURT OF ARDENVALE
Having ways to get your enchantments back, and some other goodies like your commander, is always going to be a big plus for resiliency to the deck strategy. While not as flashy as some other recursion, this court helps to trigger some enchantment effects and give a bit of extra card draw. On top of that, you get the recursion either way, it’s just better when you have the monarchy. Not having the monarchy work in your favor as well, and you play the board with aura and entice your opponents to attack the player with the hat when you don’t have it.
NECROMANCY
While this is a little less synergistic with Killian, it and its like enchantments (Reanimate is in the deck) gives you a little more control over what might attack where if someone has a nice dead creature for you to have. This however also allows you to cast it at instant speed. It goes to the graveyard afterward if you do, and likely kills the creature you get, but it can be good in a pinch to keep or get a good creature effect back.
FLICKERFORM
Lastly, I suggest Flickerform. Since Killian triggers on enchantments entering, this could be a very good card to have to trigger a number of effects like his Goad, protect a creature, and get general use out of. A bit expensive for an up front do nothing, the meat is in the activated ability. Triggering Doomwake Giant a bunch or to draw a few extra cards with it can’t hurt, and so I think the payoff is there for the dedication.
COMEUPPANCE
When diplomacy or lack thereof fails, you’re going to have to protect yourself. Comeuppance does a decent job of this, making attacking you difficult for creatures and possibly leaving your remaining opponent to counter attack. This card has the added upside for also deflecting large amounts of non-creature damage back at opponents as well.
PRISMARI ARTISTRY
Big spells into big beats, Rootha wants to be inspired with big ideas. Again, the deck is decently straight forward but has a little more wiggle room compared to the Silverquill one.
FULL THROTTLE
This is a card you might have seen mentioned already, but it does a really good job of getting the beats across the table on top of the three 6/6s it makes with Rootha over the course of those combats.
CLONE LEGION
Sometimes the best weapon you have is your opponent. Just cast this to get the same army of critters they do, or copy your own for double the punch.
WARSTORM SURGE
Making big tokens that can go to combat immediately are better when they deal damage coming into play.
HAUGHTY DJINN
Why pay full price when you can have a little discount for being magical? This creature gives some early discount on instants and sorceries you have, has a decent blocking toughness, and gets bigger power as the game goes on. It helps finish the game incrementally over both axis of the deck’s strategy.
AMINATOU’S AUGURY
Big investments to get big things, this card will usually net you 2-3 cards to cast from free, plus that extra land. In addition with Rootha out you’ll get at least an 8/8 token, which can big a big problem with the evasion it gets.
WHITERBLOOM PESTILENCE
Being healthy and swole is the name of the game in this deck. Benefit from all kinds of things, like life gain, death triggers, and +1/+1 counters. That means we need a few things that might benefit all these things if we can manage them.
WILLOWDUSK, ESSENCE SEER
Present in the original Witherbloom precon, Willowdusk has very obvious synergy with the deck, somewhat mirroring Dina in giving counters. This creature however depends on how much life you gain or lose, whichever is greater. Having used this card myself, it can get out of hand quickly, and with Dina also on the field, something is going to get big fast.
As a quick note, the ability says only to use it as sorcery speed. The ability is worth the drawback. Generally you won't be blocking or attacking with Willowdusk, and as a combat trick your guys are usually disposable anyway so a surprise buff doesn’t matter much. The crunching into combat is better here, or sacrificing for the other abilities in the deck.
JOURNEY TO ETERNITY // ATZAL, CAVE OF ETERNITY
An enchantment that can bring back a creature you sacrifice and then becomes a land that can help you bring back your dead guys to be sacrificed again. Continuous value that just sits waiting to be used later in the game.
DISCIPLE OF FREYALISE // GARDEN OF FREYALISE
Another card kind of along the same lines as Dina, this creature you get some card draw and life gain, triggering those effects and potentially getting you cards to cast that care about the life you gained this turn. It also knocks a creature into you graveyard, drawing you an extra card with Dina and giving a new reanimation target.
ENDURING TENACITY
Combo piece extraordinaire, just having this card in play and Dina having a good, big sacrifice can really put the hurt on your opponents. Likewise, even small amounts of life gain over the course of the game can do work and bring it to a conclusion in your favor.
Better, the snake glimmer itself is decent sacrifice fodder, as it brings itself back as an enchantment which is usually more resilient than a creature.
VALENTIN, DEAN OF THE VEIN // LISETTE, DEAN OF THE VINE
Two sides of the same coin. Valentin helps you with some graveyard punishment and pest generation. He himself also has lifelink and menace, so you can get in for some early damage and triggers.
Lisette gives you a more go wide approach, allows you to gives your creatures +1/+1 counters and trample whenever you gain some life in exchange for 1 generic mana.
Generally this gives the deck a little utility early and late, even if giving you few bigger beater trample is all it takes.
LOREHOLD SPIRIT
COOL BUT RUDE
I thought when this was spoiled it might be a good inclusion for Lorehold, the HIstorian, but wouldn’t you know it’s good in this deck as well.
The first level gets you going through your deck, filling the graveyard with temporary visitors to fuel other effects while helping you get to those payoffs. The second level helps close the game with a bit of burn, and the last is a Gamble style tutor, which you don’t ever have to use but I find them kind of fun.
THE RESTORATION OF EIGANJO // ARCHITECT OF RESTORATION
A card I much enjoy using, it not only gets you a basic Plains for the early game, but also allows some discard to fill your graveyard and then a card can potentially be removed to trigger Quint and get something back. It could be as simple as discarding a land and bringing that back into play for a double land drop that turn.
It then eventually flips into the Architect of Restoration, which gives the opportunity to make some spirit tokens, synergizing with the other part of Quint.
SURLY BADGERSAUR
Some more discard payoffs, this time in the form of growth, mana and removal. It does cost four to get down initially, but coming into play just before Quint and just after some set up is decently valuable. The repeatably removal is nothing to sneeze at either, keeping the board manageable until you’re ready to strike with an army of spirits.
The other modes aren’t bad either. Being able to recoup some mana from a discarded land is always nice, and growing the Badgersaur to do the fighting and having a threat besides the spirits is good as well.
MONUMENT TO ENDURANCE
A generic value engine for when you discard cards, it can replace the card you discarded with another, give a bit of mana through a Treasure token, or help lower your opponents’ life totals. Whatever you need at the moment of discard.
INTI, SENECHAL OF THE SUN
Another discard payoff, but you have to attack. It also allows for some evasion in the form of trample and some impulse draw, increasing your options via card selection.
QUANDRIX UNLIMITED
This deck wants to go big and then bring it home, using large X spells and a lot of +1/+1 counters to get the job done. I’m not seeing a lot of reach though, so we’re going to fix that a bit.
COMBINE CHRYSALIS
Okay, I’ll admit this is largely just to give your tokens flying. Granted, that’s a great ability to have on your probably going to be decent sized tokens.
The second ability could be a way to upsize a token sometimes, but can also help you replace a token that may be going away, or some other token you may not be using and turning that into a body to attack with.
KODAMA OF THE WEST TREE
Gives Trample to your modified creatures, which in this deck is largely +1/+1 counters, and helps ramp you into more lands. Does everything the deck wants to do and gives you that sweet evasion.
HERALD OF SECRET STREAMS
Yet one more evasion-giving creature, this one makes your creatures with +1/+1 counters on them unblockable.
I’m really heavy into giving this deck evasion. The first Quandrix precon didn’t have much either, and as a player who likes to run face first into the Red Zone, I definitely want to be able to swing and hit stuff.
SEASON OF GATHERING
More evasion in this card as well, but also some mass removal for artifacts or enchantments, and some card draw. Since you get to pick the modes up to equaling five paws worth, this can easily be a finisher and help you get through for damage, and help set you up to do those things. Specifically, I won’t worry about the mass removal hitting you too much, since the deck has few artifacts and enchantments out of the box. If you need the removal, odds are it will hurt your opponents more than you.
SEASON OF WEAVING
This card also provides mass removal and card draw, hitting very similar but not quite the same notes as the prior card. However, this removal involves nonland, nontoken permanents. This can be really one sided if you’re the only player pumping out the tokens, leaving a near empty board to swing through.
Its second mode isn’t something to be ignored. Making a token copy of a creature you control is a way to keep a key piece on the board, even if it’s legendary. I use this in my Xyris deck to make a copy of the creature all the time to keep making snakes without having to set back up.
PRE-CONSTRUCTION
Those are my initial picks for the new precons coming out. I’ll admit, I actually went to add some cards already in the lists, so I had to take a harder look than normal. Out of the box, these precons seem very good, so don’t feel too rushed in upgrading before you get a feel for them. Any of them seem like great additions to a roster of Commander decks.
Let me know if you have some key cards you’re looking to include in the comments.
Until next time, please remember that you require written permission from a dean to wield counter magic off university grounds.
