It’s time to explore which Secrets of Strixhaven precon will fit you, your pod, your upgrade budget, and your tolerance for reading a seven-card combo chain at 11 p.m. on a Friday? Secrets of Strixhaven brings back all five colleges from the original Strixhaven settings, each one representing a distinct mechanical identity and a very different play experience.
Choosing the best college for yourself is important. What’s your school of choice?
Here are the highlights of the five Strixhaven schools:
Silverquill Influence — White/Black, goad, and politicking
Prismari Artistry — Blue/Red, big spells, and Elementals
Witherbloom Pestilence — Black/Green, sacrifice, life drain, and grind-based value
Lorehold Spirit — White/Red. Spirits, graveyard recursion, and token generation
Quandrix Unlimited —Blue/Green, X-spells, +1/+1 counters, and mathematical whimsy
Who’s going to love which deck? Here are my early takes.
At #5 – Lorehold Spirit: Solid & Great for a New Player
Spirits and graveyards are a fun combination, but if you’ve played Commander for a while, you want more novelty. Lorehold Spirit leans into white-red recursion with a token-generation backbone that should play cleanly right out of the box. This likely won’t offer anything unexpected for a seasoned player.
For newer players or anyone buying their first precon, this is a benefit. It’s an approachable deck that (probably) won’t get you killed for doing something weird, and the gameplay patterns should be easy to follow.
Early Upgrade Thoughts: You’ve got a powerful Commander, Quintorius, History Chaser that has great potential to help you close out a game. Choose wisely as you’re upgrading your 99. You probably want to swap in recursion targets and better haste enablers, and some cards that trigger off leaving the graveyard. A $40–$50 upgrade budget should get you a still straightforward, but more competitive deck.
Best for: New players, players who prefer straightforward board-state games, and anyone who wants a precon ready to share with a friend.
At #4 – Silverquill Influence: The Politics Deck Nobody Expects to Win
Goad is one of my favorite mechanics. Forcing your opponents’ creatures to attack each other, dropping some payoffs, and controlling the table without ever being the biggest threat. I’m in. Silverquill Influence should deliver that along with a coherent identity that feels good to pilot.
One of the drawbacks is that goad-based strategies live and die by your pod’s meta. At a more aggressive table, it fits. Against five-color goodstuff piles with minimal creature bases, you have a limited toolkit.
Early Upgrade Thoughts: Killian, Decisive Mentor will keep your opponents on guard, and the white-black color combination gives you access to solid staples. Orzhov has a deep well of efficient support cards, such as removal, recursion, and wrath effects. You’ve got some depth to work with, and a $50–$60 upgrade should really power up this deck.
Best for: Players who love affecting the game without painting a target on themselves, and anyone whose pod runs lots of creatures.
At #3 – Witherbloom Pestilence: Stealthy Wins
Sacrifice decks are never really behind. As long as you have something dying, you’re drawing cards, draining life, and generating resources. Witherbloom Pestilence is going to lean into that loop, pairing a life-gain-matters engine with a steady stream of death triggers.
This deck might get you the W before anyone is the wiser.
Early Upgrade Thoughts: Witherbloom Pestilence should be consistent right out of the box with dense synergies and ample resource generation. You’ve got a serviceable sacrifice commander in Dina, Essence Brewer. Golgari has a massive and affordable card pool for upgrades. You can pick up cheap tutors, efficient removal, and recursive threats that should fit naturally. There are also ample choices at various price points that let you take advantage of the Scavange and Dredge mechanics. For $50–$60, you can build this out nicely. I recommend focusing on faster mana and more resilient sacrifice outlets. These are areas where even modest investments will make a difference.
Best for: Players who like incremental advantage, anyone who enjoys the tactical puzzle of sacrifice loops, and people who want a deck that doesn’t fold to a single board wipe.
At #2 – Quandrix Unlimited: Math for The Win
X-spells and +1/+1 counters sound casual until you realize the math gets out of hand very quickly. Quandrix Unlimited is built around scaling. Play big X-spells, put counters on things, repeat at double the size next turn. Green-blue’s ramp package means you’re doing it faster than most tables expect.
This deck’s combo ceiling looks intriguing. The spell-centric and cost-reduction archetypes are hot right now, and Quandrix sits right at that intersection. Zimone, Infinite Analyst, opens up lines that Commander fans will recognize immediately. I predict this will be one of the most analyzed decks once it gets into people’s hands. Be sure to bring extra dice to the table for this deck. You’re going to need them.
Early Upgrade Thoughts: Focus on mana doublers and creatures that grow exponentially with counter support. A $40 targeted upgrade package will probably push this deck from “fun casual” to “table threat.”
Best for: Players who enjoy combo-adjacent gameplay, math-minded brewers who want to build out the archetype, and anyone who wants a deck that scales dramatically with modest upgrades.
At #1 — Prismari Artistry: The Chase Deck
Be ready for big spells, elementals, and a spell-slinging payoff engine that rewards you for doing exactly what blue-red players love. I predict Prismari Artistry will be the breakout favorite of the five Commander offerings coming our way in April. It’s tuned to an aggressive play style, I anticipate a powerful shell, and Izzet colors are teeming with options to add more oomph. Granted, there is some unfair information advantage due to card leaks, but I’m all in on this deck irrespective of that information.
Early Upgrade Thoughts: Rootha, Mastering the Moment synergizes with a massive card pool of existing elemental and instant/sorcery payoffs, so the sky’s the limit. For $40 – $60, you can make all of your big-spell archetype dreams come true.
Best for: Spike-adjacent players, streamers, brewers who want a high-upgrade ceiling, players looking for the must-own deck out of the five.
What to Buy:
If I could only buy one deck, it would be Prismari Artistry. I know it’s going to be fun out of the box. I think it’s going to have some great cards, and this should be easily modifiable for casual and (very) competitive games.
Lorehold Spirit is the deck to introduce someone new to Commander. It’s going to be easy to follow, and a great deck for them to play around with upgrades.
Witherbloom Pestilence is the deck I most want to mod out with upgrades. I see a lot of potential to get creative and stack up sneaky wins.
Whether you’re a first-year student or a post-doc, each of the Secrets of Strixhaven Commander decks looks incredibly fun to play out of the box. I want to put on my lab coat and experiment with them all. If your Strixhaven course load has you too busy to pick up all five, may these predictions help you choose wisely.
Share your takes on these decks and your upgrade picks.