The 15 Best Lorehold Cards in Secrets of Strixhaven Ranked

Lorehold Charm | Illustration by Ksenia Kim

Lorehold was a much maligned color pair in Strixhaven: School of Mages, and arguably the worst color pair in Draft and Constructed.

Now that we’ve returned to Arcavios, Lorehold looks much, much better. The theme is pretty much the same, but WotC paid special attention to the enablers and payoffs, and gave red and white the tools to fight back, including flashback. Let’s take a look at the best Lorehold cards in the set!

What Are Lorehold Cards in Secrets of Strixhaven?

Kirol, History Buff | Illustration by Bryan Sola

Lorehold cards in Secrets of Strixhaven have a red-white color identity. Just red or white won’t cut it. Unlike many MTG sets, Strixhaven makes the RW color combination a grindy, graveyard-focused guild, so expect many creatures that trigger from cards being removed from your graveyard, or cards that create spirit tokens.

For this list, I’m considering cards from the Secrets of Strixhaven (SOS) set, the Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC) set, and the set’s bonus sheets.

Best Reprints and Bonus Sheet Cards

#5. Sundown Pass

Although aggressive Boros decks aren’t interested in a Sundown Pass, midrange and control decks love it. This card being back in Standard gives Mardu dragons and Jeskai control decks an excellent mana base, and they can be more competitive.

#4. Deflecting Palm

When players attack you with a huge 25/25 double strike trampler, they might expect removal or a fog or something. What they won’t expect is to die because you have Deflecting Palm, which reflects all the damage to their faces. You can also pair this card with those red deal X damage to each player spells.

#3. Balefire Liege

Balefire Liege is an aggressive lord in colors that want to beat down and go wide. Of course, the more red plus white cards you have, the better this card is. It also casually turns your gold spells into Lightning Helixes

#2. Hofri Ghostforge

Giving +1/+1, trample, and haste to a creature type is already one of the best lord effects in MTG. But Hofri Ghostforge goes one step further. While it’s on the battlefield, whenever a creature you control dies, you get a copy of that creature, which is also a spirit that will receive Hofri’s bonuses. It’s nice when you have small utility creatures that die into powerful spirit beaters, or when you can steal opposing creatures and sacrifice them.

#1. Quintorius, Loremaster

Quintorius, Loremaster is an enabler and payoff for the same strategy. Lorehold cards either exile creatures from graveyards or gives you something nice if you do that, and this creature does both every turn. You can also activate its ability to cast cards exiled with Quintorius. It’s a competent commander if you reliably get cards in the graveyard.

Best New Cards

#10. Borrowed Knowledge

What calls my attention in Borrowed Knowledge is the mode “draw cards equal to the number of cards in target opponent’s hand.” Although it’s a 4-mana sorcery, it can potentially be a 4-mana draw 5-6 cards.  Lorehold actively wants cards in the graveyard, so the “discard your hand” mode isn’t even that bad.

#9. Lorehold Charm

Charms in MTG are situational cards you’re happy to maindeck because you never know which mode you’ll need.

Lorehold Charm is a little worse then the other charms from this set because there isn’t a main mode. With an empty board and graveyard, this card doesn’t do much. But it’s nice that if you’re on the beatdown plan, you can trample over them, or resurrect a good 2-drop you’ve lost on the way. And in Commander, maybe this card will be the bane of mana rocks.

#8. Practiced Scrollsmith

Sorcery speed Snapcaster Mage is nice, I guess. Practiced Scrollsmith isn’t as fancy or powerful as old snappy, but it’s a proactive beatdown card that enables the Lorehold leaves the graveyard synergies. On the plus side, it lets you recast artifacts, enchantments, or planeswalkers from your graveyard, so it’s a flexible value card.

#7. Excava, the Risen Past

Excava, the Risen Past is far from a 4-mana Sun Titan, but it’s an excellent support card in the Lorehold spirits deck. It does everything you want: creates spirits, provide recursion, all while turning on your synergies. That’s why it’s Quintorius’s right hand in the Lorehold Spirit precon. To get the most out of this card, you’ll need a lot of discard and draw to fill your graveyard, and good recursion targets—Enduring Innocence, Helpful Hunter, and so on.

#6. Suspend Aggression

Suspend Aggression is a new take on what RW can do. It’s a combination of airbend and impulse draw, so you can get rid of something for a turn until your opponent recasts it, and you get an extra card. It’s excellent to get rid of tokens or to mess with your opponent’s big cards or reanimation targets. You can also exile your own card and get another benefit by recasting it.

#5. Quintorius, History Chaser

Planeswalkers always call my attention, although I prefer those that are Standard-playable.

Quintorius, History Chaser starts with a lot of loyalty, and it has a +1 ability that gives you card advantage and fills your graveyard. It can also buff your spirits with the -4, which is interesting because not every planeswalker has the ultimate already prepared, so to speak. It’s important to note that this card doesn’t trigger its passive directly, so you need tons of ways to do that. But getting more cards and a 3/2 (or more) every turn is huge.

#4. Ark of Hunger

Ark of Hunger is a nice enabler and payoff, and an interesting engine. You can deal your opponents damage, gain life, get card advantage, and trigger your “leave the graveyard” synergies, all in one card. It’s the 4-mana artifact “planeswalker” with many abilities, if you will. Considering the number of cards that trigger when you gain life or deal damage to your opponent, this card can find its way into multiple decks.

#3. Aziza, Mage Tower Captain

Aziza, Mage Tower Captain let us double on spells cast, if we have some buddies around. It’s nice when you cast a token-making spell that provides bodies to double your next spell, or you can copy finishers like Rites of Initiation. Look out for cards like Young Pyromancer that create tokens when you cast instants and sorceries.

#2. Hardened Academic

Remember when the classic Boros card was a 2/2 flying haste for ? Hardened Academic gives us a 2/1 flying, haste, and sometimes lifelink for 1 mana less, and a discard outlet for graveyard shenanigans. This card will pair well with flashback, madness, and cards like Grim Lavamancer.

#1. Lorehold, the Historian

Lorehold, the Historian is already quite a playable card considering its stats. 5/5 flying haste is what we expect from dragons these days, and on each opponent’s upkeep, you get to rummage for free. Of course, that scales quickly in Commander games, but the best part is the miracle you’re adding to your spells. Since you’re drawing and discarding a bunch, your chances of triggering miracle are huge.

Wrap Up

Lorehold Archivist | Illustration by Matheus Graef

Lorehold is much better this time around, but I still don’t think they’re in the running for the best color pair. This set’s power level is pretty high, and while I’d say red and white mages got interesting tools, there’s nothing close to a sure staple. I like that WotC is being more creative with their color pairs, and that’s especially interesting for red and white, when they break the “attack you with a lot of small creatures and tokens” mold.

What do you think about Lorehold’s new offerings? Are they competing with the other schools in the big leagues? Please let me know in the comments section below. Thanks for reading, and for more coverage on Secrets of Strixhaven, do check out our YouTube Channel, The Daily Upkeep.

Until next time, stay safe!