5 Thematic Commanders to Build Before Secrets of Strixhaven

Last updated on March 12, 2026

Quintorius, History Chaser | Illustration by Darren Tan

I can’t resist brewing with Secrets of Strixhaven on the horizon to purge the sewers of shelled menaces. Today I’m offering five commanders to build before SOS drops that will receive a few upgrades. Each commander is themed around one of the schools, using what we know of the Secrets of Strixhaven precon commanders plus the previous set to guess what gets support.

Witherbloom: Savra, Queen of the Golgari

Savra, Queen of the Golgari | Illustration by Aurore Folny

Witherbloom loves token sacrifice centered around Pests. Savra, Queen of the Golgari is the perfect commander for this build; it doesn’t care if you sacrifice tokens or nontokens and the multicolored Pests trigger both its abilities. Since the Pests gain a life when they die, you even net life while punishing your opponents!

Since Savra acts as removal, feed your Pests into sacrifice outlets with a big impact on the game, like Warren Soultrader and a personal favorite, Plumb the Forbidden. Plumb copied thrice is amazing; it’s game-changing with a triple edict. Don’t forget sacrifice payoffs like Blood Artist, too; just avoid cards like Midnight Reaper that don’t see tokens die.

Lorehold: Quintorius, Loremaster

Quintorius, Loremaster | Illustration by Lie Setiawan

Picking a Strixhaven character isn’t particularly novel, but Boros () “leaves the graveyard” is such a young archetype it needs the help and Quintorius, Loremaster fits beautifully. It makes cards leave the graveyard for effects like Quintorius, History Chaser and On Wings of Gold, plus Lorehold cares about buffing spirits.

Also, the two Lorehold cards previewed so far (Quint from SOC and Lorehold, the Historian) care about discarding as part of their kits, suggesting a possible pivot towards discard-matters in addition to leaves the graveyard. Q-Loremaster fits that perfectly since it needs cards in the graveyard. That’s the trick of this commander: It makes spirits and causes cards to leave the graveyard, two things Lorehold cares about, plus it works with discard synergies and cast-from-exile synergies, which red more broadly cares about. Whatever Lorehold looks like in the new set, this commander can adapt to it.

Quandrix: Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix + Eligeth, Crossroads Augur

Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix | Illustration by Bastien L. Deharme

Quandrix cared about having lots of mana and dropping big Fractals; the face commander Zimone, Infinite Analyst suggests the merging of the two into an X-spells theme. This time, I picked a partner pairing I thought was well suited to the archetype:

Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix gets the spotlight as the partner ramping for X-spells while Eligeth, Crossroads Augur converts scrying into card draw to fuel Kydele. At its best, this turns cantrips like Preordain and Serum Visions into rituals.

Once the mana engine’s up and humming, X-spells win. Mathemagics draws towards Walking Ballista to finish things, and Genesis Wave can be solid with the right build.

Silverquill: Eriette of the Charmed Apple

Eriette of the Charmed Apple | Illustration by Magali Villeneuve

Silverquill was tricky to pin down; it cared about +1/+1 counters in the original Strixhaven, yet the precon face commander is Killian, Decisive Mentor, which explicitly cares about enchantments. It’s a strange pivot for the instant and sorceries flavored plane, so I’m focusing hard on the precon with this commander: Eriette of the Charmed Apple, which encourages a similar archetype.

This deck slaps auras on opposing creatures. While Eriette doesn’t do this itself (which makes Killian an excellent inclusion!), cards like Eye of Nidhogg and Martial Impetus goad the creatures they enchant. You can also go political, offering power boosts from Ethereal Armor and the like in exchange for attacking opposing players.

Prismari: Magnus the Red

Magnus the Red | Illustration by Wonchun Choi

Prismari doesn’t just care about instants and sorceries, it cares about big, flashy, explosive instants and sorceries that often result in an Elemental token or two. Cards like Magma Opus and Elemental Masterpiece are marque examples, and Magnus the Red looks like the perfect commander to enable this.

Spells this big need help getting cast, which Magnus provides because it’s so easy to set it up with a board full of tokens. Cards like Third Path Iconoclast, Young Pyromancer, and Saheeli, Sublime Artificer turn cheap spells into tokens, which Magnus uses to sponsor artistic masterpieces like Crackle with Power that leave the table in such awe they won’t mind their loss. But Magma Opus and Crackle are yesterday’s finales; I’m sure Secrets of Strixhaven is hiding an even better climax.