5 Awesome Combos For New Secrets of Strixhaven Commander

Last updated on March 9, 2026

Zimone, Infinite Analyst | Illustration by Carly Milligan

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles just released but I can’t stop thinking about Secrets of Strixhaven. Official spoilers from January revealed the face commanders of the five precons.

While all these commanders look intriguing, Zimone, Infinite Analyst stood out as a promising Simic () commander, especially alongside the official spoiler for Mathemagics, which I definitely understand how to resolve. With an eye towards upgrading the Simic precon, here are five Simic combos to play with Zimone.

Devoted Druid + Machine God’s Effigy

All you need is Devoted Druid in play and Machine God's Effigy in hand. Cast the Effigy and have it enter as a copy of Devoted Druid. The artifact copy has no power and toughness, so you can activate the untap ability freely for infinite mana.

This works particularly well in a deck full of X-spells such as these, as they’re mana sinks. The Druid also plays well with +1/+1 counters; you can set up turns where it taps for four or five mana easily.

Be warned that this is a very Spike-y combo; it’s a two-card combo that comes down as early as turn 3, so we’re talking high, high power—cEDH uses this combo. Only use it if you want to wildly increase the power.

Ezuri, Claw of Progress + Sage of Hours

In addition to controlling the above permanents, this combo requires five or more experience counters. It’s another simple one: Move to combat, put 5 +1/+1 counters on Sage of Hours with Ezuri, Claw of Progress, then remove them for an extra turn. Since you get another combat trigger, you get another turn, and so on.

This is another 2-card combo, but not a particularly quick one since it takes time to reach 5 experience counters, plus it’s easy to interact with. Infinite turns are wonky in a Bracket that asks not to chain turns; I consider this a combo win, but your experience may vary. Just have a good rule 0!

Body of Research + Simic Ascendancy

This combo brings us towards the more casual spectrum: We’re still talking about two cards, but at a far higher cost. You need to control Simic Ascendancy, then cast Body of Research when your library has 20 or more cards. So, basically any point you have .

This combo works well because Simic Ascendancy is already a realistic alternate win condition in +1/+1 counter decks. Put a counter somewhere, proliferate, then you have three counters; do it a few more times and your opponents will be digging for Nature's Claim. Body of Research simply provides Quandrix flavor and an impressive thesis that’s a threat in its own right.

Evolution Witness + Inexorable Tide + X-mana 0/0s

This combo gets trickier. You need to control Evolution Witness with a +1/+1 counter and Inexorable Tide, plus you need two creatures that cost X with 0/0 stat lines, like Walking Ballista and Ugin's Conjurant in hand (one can start in the graveyard).

Cast your first creature for x=0, triggering Inexorable Tide to proliferate. Add a counter to the Witness. Then cast the next one. With this proliferate trigger, add a +1/+1 counter to the Witness and recur your first 0/0. See where we’re going? You can keep doing this for infinite storm, infinite proliferate, infinite +1/+1 counters on your creatures, and so on.

This is the first combo that synergizes with Zimone, Infinite Analyst instead of working in the 99. Infinite +1/+1 counters on Zimone means infinite cost reduction for your X-spells—functionally the same as infinite mana. And didn’t we use Walking Ballista as part of the combo?

Tanazir Quandrix + Deadeye Navigator + Crystalline Crawler

To bring it home, we have a combo that uses the founder of Zimone’s school at Strixhaven, Tanazir Quandrix.

To start, you need all three permanents in play, Tanazir and Deadeye Navigator must be soulbonded, and Crystalline Crawler needs to have 3 +1/+1 counters.

Flicker Tanazir for , then re-soulbond it with the Navigator when it enters. This also triggers Tanazir’s enter ability; double the counters on the Crawler from 3 to 6. You can then remove two to flicker Tanazir again, gaining infinite mana from the loop. You can also start with 1 counter if you have the mana to flicker Tanazir thrice without Crawler’s mana.

This is the combo best suited for Bracket 3 play: Fiddly yet powerful, and it uses cards that stand well on their own to assemble a sneaky win. It’s even counter-themed! I might not use all these combos with Zimone, but they’re great starting points.