Lorehold Spirit Upgrade Guide: 20 Easy Changes You Can Make

Excava, the Risen Past | Illustration by Ilse Gort

If you picked up the Secrets of Strixhaven Commander (SOC) deck built around Quintorius, History Chaser, you probably noticed pretty quickly that there’s a strong idea there. You’re clearly meant to discard cards, move them through your graveyard, and generate value when they leave it. That’s a cool direction for a Commander precon, especially in Boros (), where that style of gameplay is a lot less common than all-out aggro.

Magic: The Gathering Secrets of Strixhaven Commander Deck - Lorehold Spirit (100-Card Deck, Deck Box + Accessories)

• FACE YOUR GREATEST TEST YET—The hallowed halls of Strixhaven welcome you back to school! Choose your college of magical study and expand your education in the greater world of Arcavios as you stand against mysterious threats plaguing the plane
• HARNESS THE GHOSTS OF THE PAST—Set out on a Lorehold expedition with Quintorius and planeswalk a lethal path across the table. Create Spirits when cards leave your graveyard, then pile on typal Spirit bonuses and buffs to bury your opponents six feet deep!
• 2 FOIL BORDERLESS COMMANDERS—Every Secrets of Strixhaven Commander Deck includes 2 Traditional Foil Mythic Rare Legendary Creature cards featuring Borderless art that can be played as your commander
• INTRODUCES 12 COMMANDER CARDS—Each deck introduces 12 never-before-seen Commander cards to Magic: The Gathering
• THRILLING MULTIPLAYER BATTLES—Commander is a multiplayer way to play Magic, an epic, free-for-all battle full of strategic plays and social intrigue

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The problem is that this precon doesn’t always stay focused on that plan. There are a lot of cards in the stock list that are fine in a vacuum, but they don’t really help the deck’s strategy. That’s where these upgrades come in.

I want to tighten up the Lorehold Spirit plan, cut off-theme cards, and improve consistency, all to help you get more out of Quintorius without turning the deck into a completely different build. If you’ve been looking at recent Boros precons and you want one with a little more engine and a little less slamming your head against a wall, give the elephant planeswalker a look!

Lorehold Spirit Deck Overview

At its core, this deck wants you to do three things:

• Put cards into your graveyard.
• Move those cards back out of your graveyard.
• Get paid with spirit tokens and value whenever that happens.

Quintorius, History Chaser does a lot of the heavy lifting for you. Its +1 ability helps you to discard and refill your hand while it also stocks the graveyard. Quint’s static ability then rewards you whenever cards leave your graveyard, which gives you a steady stream of 3/2 spirit tokens. Once your board starts to fill up, Quintorius can also help you to push damage and close games. That’s the version of the deck worth improving.

Like a lot of Commander precons, Lorehold Spirit has a few cards that make me say: “Why?” Some cards lean toward generic Boros midrange. Some seem to care about death triggers. Some are just broad value cards that don’t really connect to the main strategy. If you leave all of those competing themes in place, the deck can feel a little unfocused.

My goal is to focus on the part of the deck that feels the strongest and most unique: the Lorehold Spirit engine built around getting paid off for discard and recursion.

Upgrade Plan

When you upgrade a precon, “making it better” can mean a lot of things. Sometimes you just want stronger cards. Sometimes you want a better mana base. Sometimes you want to cut clunky filler and make the deck more consistent.

My goal today is a mix of all three, but with one big priority: Every card should either help your engine or reward you for using it.

I’ve focused my upgrades on:

• Adding more discard outlets and card filtering.
• Improving the deck’s ability to use the graveyard as a resource.
• Replacing low-synergy cards with cards that actually support Quintorius.
• Upgrading a few weaker lands so you lose less tempo.
• Adding cleaner answers to cards that shut your strategy down.

Not every upgrade has to be a splashy powerhouse or ho-hum staple. One of the biggest traps when tuning any Commander deck is to stuff them with generically strong cards and accidentally make them less cohesive. You absolutely can play staples here, but this deck really rewards you for focusing on its specific strategy. With that said, I leaned into more synergy and fewer staples with this upgrade. Make your version what you want; I just love to play cards that do something incredible, and ones many at the table have never seen before.

Inti, Seneschal of the Sun

Suggested Cut: Kami of Ancient Law

Kami of Ancient Law isn’t bad, but it’s aimed at the wrong kind of problem. In a deck like this, a lot of the cards that really hurt you are artifacts, especially graveyard hate pieces. A random enchantment answer just doesn’t do enough, even if you can recur it multiple times. Anyone who has ever had a Decimate rotting in their hand because they didn't have an enchantment to target knows why this card just isn’t enough on its own.

Inti, Seneschal of the Sun is way more on-plan. It gives you another discard outlet, helps filter your hand, and turns all your other discard outlets into extra value. That kind of card velocity matters a lot more than a narrow removal body.

Banon, the Returners' Leader

Suggested Cut: Ao, the Dawn Sky

Ao, the Dawn Sky is a powerful card, but it asks a lot from a deck that isn’t built to support it. If you want Ao to shine, you usually want sacrifice outlets or a strategy that actively tries to cash in on death triggers. That isn’t really what’s happening here. In this deck, Ao often ends up as a generically good flier that you hope someone removes for you at the right time. Additionally, this deck mostly gets cards into the graveyard through discard, which bypasses Ao’s best usage.

Banon, the Returners' Leader is much closer to what you actually want. It helps you discard, supports graveyard-exile play patterns, and gets your engine rolling without asking you to wait around for a creature to die first. In a deck where you want constant movement between zones, Banon is just more immediately useful.

The Warring Triad

Suggested Cut: Atsushi, the Blazing Sky

Atsushi, the Blazing Sky has similar issues to Ao. I get that these two like to go to the graveyard, but there really isn’t much in the deck to make sure they get there outside of discard, which actually makes them a pretty poor fit.

The Warring Triad gives you ramp and self-mill on a body that still matters later in the game. That’s much more on plan for Quintorius. You want cards that help set up your engine early and that still contribute once the game goes long, and Triad checks both boxes.

Monument to Endurance

Suggested Cut: Claim Jumper

Claim Jumper is the kind of ramp spell that looks better than it plays. Three mana to maybe ramp if you’re behind isn’t where you want to be, and if you draw it while you’re ahead or even, it can feel pretty awful.

Monument to Endurance makes basically every part of your deck better. You’re already playing a commander that discards cards, and this deck has a high density of other discard effects too (these upgrades added more). Monument turns all of that into even more value. It’s an engine multiplier, and that’s a big deal in a Secrets of Strixhaven list that already wants to churn through cards.

Hardened Academic

Suggested Cut: White Orchid Phantom

White Orchid Phantom is fine. That’s really the problem. It’s fine, but it isn’t doing anything especially important for your strategy. Land removal on a spirit body isn’t meaningless, but it doesn’t help your deck to do the thing it most wants to do.

On the other hand, Hardened Academic gives you more of what this deck actually needs: discard and graveyard exile payoff in the same card. If your game plan is to move cards through your graveyard constantly and profit from the motion, a card that helps to enable that while scaling with the rest of the deck is a much better fit than a narrow utility creature.

Impulsive Pilferer

Suggested Cut: Laelia, the Blade Reforged

Laelia, the Blade Reforged looks like it should be perfect here because it cares about cards that leave the graveyard, and it can grow over time. In practice, Laelia isn’t as synergistic as it first appears. A lot of the “leave the graveyard” effects in this deck bring cards back to the battlefield, so they don’t exile them in a way Laelia can fully exploit.

Impulsive Pilferer may not look nearly as flashy, but it does a lot of useful work. It blocks early, helps ramp you with Treasure, and contributes to your token-based board presence. It gives you real utility at a part of the curve where this deck wants more setup pieces. Additionally, with all the discard outlets, you can easily dump it directly into the graveyard where you can use its encore ability later.

Idol of Oblivion

Suggested Cut: Balefire Liege

Balefire Liege is another card that’s sort of a head-scratcher. It isn’t embarrassing or anything, but it isn’t doing anything to support your game plan.

Idol of Oblivion is much more targeted. The base list has lots of recursion but not as much card advantage. Quintorius is going to make a lot of tokens, and Idol turns that into a clean extra card every turn. That’s exactly the kind of payoff you want from a low-cost artifact in this deck.

Crucible of Worlds

Suggested Cut: Drumbellower

This cut is going to surprise some people because Drumbellower is a very good card. It just isn’t especially good here. There isn’t enough tap and untap synergy in the deck to justify the slot, and a lot of the time it functionally gives your board vigilance, which isn’t enough.

Crucible of Worlds is much more exciting in this shell. Yes, this and Monument are expensive, but they’re the only two I’ve included with a hefty price tag, and in this deck they’re absolutely worth it. The ability to replay lands from the graveyard gives you steady value over time, and because Quintorius cares about when cards leave your graveyard, even something as simple as replaying a land can help feed your broader plan. That kind of low-maintenance synergy is exactly what you want.

Yidaro, Wandering Monster

Suggested Cut: Wave of Reckoning

It feels like a WotC executive announced that they had to reprint Wave of Reckoning and the Lorehold Spirit design team touched their nose last. Your spirit tokens are 3/2s, and this sweeper doesn’t line up with the board you’re usually trying to build.

Yidaro, Wandering Monster is much more interesting. If you read this card for what it does with Quintorius out, it reads: “Instant: Discard this card, draw a card, and make a 3/2 spirit.” Then you get the chance to do it again later. It’s exactly the sort of card that looks a little weird until you realize how nicely it supports the deck’s engine.

Decaying Time Loop

Suggested Cut: Seize the Spoils

Seize the Spoils is playable, but it’s one of those cards that feels a little replaceable once you start upgrading. It’s sorcery speed, fairly basic, and not especially exciting.

Decaying Time Loop does a better job of fueling the graveyard while keeping your options open. The ability to keep cards moving at instant speed matters, especially when you want to be a little more flexible with how you sequence your turns. This is just a stronger fit for the strategy. If you don’t want the higher mana value, Laughing Mad and Electric Revelation do a great instant-speed version of Seize the Spoils and also have flashback, which I’d argue is much better than a Treasure.

Neyali, Suns’ Vanguard

Suggested Cut: Secret Rendezvous

I obviously haven’t had time to playtest this deck, so cutting Secret Rendezvous could trim a needed card draw spell. But giving even your weakest opponent three cards is a pretty steep cost.

Neyali, Suns' Vanguard is much more appealing. It gives your tokens double strike and also helps you to generate card advantage, which means it capitalizes on what your deck already tries to do. Plus, the way Neyali is worded, you can gain access to three cards each turn. That’s a big upgrade!

Boros Charm

Suggested Cut: Lorehold Charm

Lorehold Charm is trying to be flexible, but all three modes end up feeling a little too narrow or underpowered for what you’re paying. Lots of the cards you want to recur also aren’t 2 mana, so this just feels too weak on any mode.

Boros Charm is just better. It can win combats or go face in a pinch. Mostly, it keeps your board protected from tons of mass removal. And with this game plan, your opponents are going to want to wipe your board.

Vandalblast

Suggested Cut: Bitterthorn, Nissa's Animus

Bitterthorn, Nissa's Animus looks like ramp, but the play pattern is painfully clunky. You spend 3 mana to cast it, wait a turn because of summoning sickness, then attack with your basic 1/1 to get one land. All your opponents have blockers by turn 4, so it dies. Then you have to pay 3 more mana to equip it to something else. If this were a signet, you’d be up 4 mana by the time you’d have paid 6 to fish out two lands.

Vandalblast solves a much more relevant problem. Artifact-based hate can completely derail your strategy, and if you’re sitting across from cards like Tormod's Crypt or Grafdigger's Cage, you want a clean answer. This is one of those upgrades that’s less about being flashy and more about making sure your deck actually gets to function.

Witch Enchanter / Witch-Blessed Meadow

Suggested Cut: Monologue Tax

Monologue Tax is the sort of card that reads like it should generate value, but in real games, people often decide between a bigger spell or two smaller setup pieces. If this is out, it makes the decision for them. Smothering Tithe this is not, and the last few times I’ve played it (before removing it from my decks), I didn’t get my mana back for its casting cost.

Witch Enchanter is just more practical. It answers relevant permanents, it’s recurrable if needed, and it has the bonus of functioning as a land when you need one. That kind of flexibility is always underrated, and I think this card should probably make it into almost all white decks.

Gerrard, Weatherlight Hero

Suggested Cut: Spirit of Resilience

Spirit of Resilience is a card that asks for a lot of setup and doesn’t pay you very much for the effort. You can make it work, but it never feels especially efficient. This is a debate, I’ll admit, because it does say leave your graveyard and not exile, so recurring something to the battlefield counts, and your deck will do that… a lot. But I needed 20 cuts, and your primary payoff is in the command zone, so this is additional value and doesn’t enable your plan.

Gerrard, Weatherlight Hero is a much stronger protection piece. Outside of Farewell, Gerrard can make board wipes a disaster for your opponents instead of for you. Note: Quintorius gives you two tokens if someone board wipes with Gerrard on the battlefield. Gerrard’s wording means it hits the graveyard and then exiles (much like Hofri Ghostforge), which makes one spirit. Then the rest of the ability returns all creature cards from your graveyard in another instance of cards leaving your graveyard, which gives you an additional spirit.

Rowan's Talent

Suggested Cut: Venerable Warsinger

Venerable Warsinger isn’t terrible, but it’s one of the weaker cards once you start to look for that elusive 20th cut. A 3/3 that has to connect in combat to recur things just isn’t especially reliable.

Rowan's Talent, meanwhile, is a real engine enabler. Putting it on Quintorius makes its +1 dramatically better, letting you discard more, draw more, and mill more all at once. That’s exactly the kind of card that turns your commander from “solid value engine” into “this is getting out of hand.”

Codex Shredder

Suggested Cut: Fateful Tempest

Fateful Tempest can do some cute things, but most of the time it doesn’t give you the consistency you want. It’s one of those cards where the ceiling is interesting, but the floor is too mediocre. Most often, this is 3 mana to mill three and impulse draw one with 4-6 damage to each opponent. In a Neheb deck that rewards you for damage, this would be great, but not here.

Codex Shredder is much cleaner. It gets the mill train going early, and later it can buy back your best card. In a deck that cares about graveyard movement, that’s exactly the kind of small engine piece that ends up pulling a lot of weight over time.

Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance

Suggested Cut: Lorehold Campus

Tapped lands are always easy upgrade candidates, and Lorehold Campus is especially easy to cut because you’re almost never going to spend mana activating that scry ability. I only put a few of the tapped duals here because I didn’t want to explode the cost too much, but any tapped lands you can swap out will be a benefit (outside of Elegant Parlor).

Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance is just much more useful. It’s a land when you need it, but it can also become part of your discard and graveyard setup when the game demands it. After the upgrade, you’ll also rock 14 legendary creatures, and the tokens it makes are even spirits. That kind of flexibility is exactly what you want from your mana base.

Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire

Suggested Cut: Sacred Peaks

This is another easy land upgrade. Sacred Peaks slows you down, and there’s just no real reason to keep mediocre tapped lands once you start tuning the list.

Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire gives you interaction without costing you tempo. Not as flexible as Sokenzan for this list, but getting cards in your graveyard that you can recur is always a good play. Also, playing this to snipe an opponent’s creature with Crucible of Worlds out and then playing it as your land for your next turn should be an achievement.

Pit of Offerings

Suggested Cut: Study Hall

Study Hall is one of the rougher lands in the stock list. If your deck isn’t deeply invested in scrying and commander recasting, it’s basically just a colorless land with a line of text you probably aren’t using.

Pit of Offerings gives you a much more relevant kind of utility. It helps support graveyard-exile synergy while it’s also more likely to produce the mana you actually need. That’s a straightforward upgrade in both synergy and function.

Warning: Non-bo Alert!

There are a few cards I noticed making it into the EDHREC top cards for this commander that I wanted to call out as likely poor fits, even if they don’t appear that way at first.

Bag of Holding

One mana for the static ability to turn all your discard into 3/2s looks incredible! However, there are over 20 cards in the main deck, and many more in this upgrade, that depend on having creatures or cards in your graveyard so you can recur them. Bag of Holding makes spirits at the cost of locking your deck out of staying on plan. Yes, you can get those cards back, but it often results in a wasted turn as you return cards to your hand and slow your strategy down. This card would be spectacular if the graveyard exile were a “may” ability, but it’s not, so it actively harms your game plan.

Flashback Spells

You get an initial cast and then a second cast that exiles something from your graveyard. Sounds great, right? I’ve included several of these cards in the upgrade, but over-indexing on them could spell doom for Quintorius (pun intended). If you wanted to build a flashback-focused version of this deck with Past in Flames and Mizzix's Mastery, that would be an awesome and distinct direction. As it stands, too many creatures and spells in the deck are designed to recur creatures from the graveyard, so leaning too heavily into flashback effects can leave your graveyard empty for your best synergies.

Pinnacle Monk / Mystic Peak

This would be a great fit in the spells-focused build I mentioned. Pinnacle Monk is a good card that can recur an instant or sorcery from the graveyard, but there aren’t enough of them in the base deck to make it a strong addition here.

Lorehold, the Historian

Yes, the elder dragon himself is a poor fit. There’s definitely an instant-and-sorcery, token build that could make great use of cards like Lorehold, the Historian, and I’d love to see some lists built around that idea. However, the base list only includes around 12 total instants and sorceries, so fully taking advantage of this card rebuilds the deck from the ground up.

The Final Deck and New Cards

And there you have it! This final list includes both the cards I’ve kept from the Lorehold Spirit precon and the cards I’ve added.

If you want to grab the cards I’ve added for yourself, just click the shopping cart icon. You’ll also support Draftsim if you do!

Commanding Conclusion

Quintorius, History Chaser | Illustration by Darren Tan

This Secrets of Strixhaven deck has a genuinely cool identity. It just needs a little help staying focused. With these upgrades, you cut cards that are generically fine but loosely connected and replace them with cards that actively support the deck’s best plan.

The result is a stronger Lorehold Spirit deck that is:

• More consistent
• Better at using the graveyard
• More resilient to disruption
• Better at actually ending games

If this version isn’t exactly what you want, there are still other directions you could take it. You could lean harder into a token-focused build, or you could push further into the spells-matter theme with lots of flashback spells that generate board presence while pressuring life totals.

What changes will you make to this precon? Let us know in the Draftsim Discord, and check out The Daily Upkeep newsletter to stay up to date on all the latest MTG news.

Until next time!

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