The 14 Best Silverquill Cards in Secrets of Strixhaven Ranked

Abigale, Poet Laureate | Illustration by Olivier Bernard

The new school year offers Silverquill () students daring challenges like erratic archaics attacking the school and devious professors manipulating the students for their schemes. At least there’s plenty of material for the poetry slam next week?

Silverquill has a new mechanic in this set, repartee, which encourages players to target creatures—theirs or their opponents. It also has exciting new cards for Commander!

What Are Silverquill Cards in Secrets of Strixhaven?

Silverquill, the Disputant | Illustration by Antonio José Manzanedo

Silverquill cards have a white-black or Orzhov () color identity. Silverquill cards cover a range of effects, though they generally boil down to caring about creatures and/or targeting creatures, though there’s room for a few oddball effects that don’t fit those definitions. It has a lot going on, so let’s dig in!

Best Reprints and Bonus Sheet Cards

#3. Eriette of the Charmed Apple

Eriette of the Charmed Apple is a popular Orzhov commander that got a reprint in the Silverquill Influence precon. It has a pretty unique ability to drain your opponents based off the number of auras you control, giving enchantress decks an aggressive spin rather than a controlling, pillow fort one.

#2. Anguished Unmaking

Anguished Unmaking is a tidy little removal spell that handles anything, and that makes it a staple in Commander. Losing 3 life is a price worth playing to deal with any permanent controlled by any player while it gets around recursion and indestructible.

#1. Vanishing Verse

Vanishing Verse is just efficient removal. Only hitting mono-colored permanents is a restriction, but one you can overlook when you spend 2 mana to remove nearly anything at instant speed.

Best New Cards

#11. Killian’s Confidence

Killian's Confidence isn't a big player, but there are no small parts in Magic. Put a counter on a creature and draw a card is a tidy little spell, and I like that you can recur it. It probably needs synergy to reach its full potential, like repartee cards, but that’s an easy threshold to reach.

#10. Silverquill Charm

Silverquill Charm only works in decks that synergize with the first or last mode; the removal is far too restrictive at 2 mana for most formats. But, while you can’t justify running it as removal alone, I don’t hate a lifegain enabler or counter distributor that occasionally snipes a Llanowar Elves.

#9. Social Snub

Edicts have a strong place in Commander since they often impact all players while synergizing with an aristocrats strategy or cards like Tergrid, God of Fright. Social Snub doubles down on that and enables lifegain synergies. It’s not flashy, but I like the potential.

#8. Stirring Honormancer

Stirring Honormancer has a decent enters trigger but the cost holds it back. If you control no other creatures, it’s just a 5-mana creature that draws a card, which is relatively meh. Cantrip creatures are good, but you need more than that in modern Magic. Still, this could be a promising flicker target or good top-end in a lower-power format.

#7. Abigale, Poet Laureate

Abigale, Poet Laureate has a pretty low prepared cost since it only requires casting creatures, which Orzhov generally does anyway. I appreciate that it can target itself; a continuously growing threat that provides a mana sink could be decent in midrange decks, though not in high-powered formats—maybe Standard?

#6. Scriv, the Obligator

Scriv, the Obligator pushes your opponents to attack each other by punishing them for attacking you with creatures you enchant with contracts. It’s a pretty sick commander for decks that want to enchant opposing creatures and make them attack each other, though it faces competition in the new Killian.

#5. Moment of Reckoning

Moment of Reckoning reminds me Casualties of War: It’s a big, color-intensive sorcery that can flip a game on its head. This never reaches 5-for-1 status, but who needs that when you blow up two good permanents and flip some bombs into play? The flexibility carries this card far.

#4. Killian, Decisive Mentor

Killian, Decisive Mentor goads your opponents with a well-placed aura or two. Since the card ability can trigger on each player’s turn, it incentivizes you to enchant opposing creatures as well as your own. That adds an exciting flavor to Orzhov enchantress and a new path other than pillow fort or Voltron.

#3. Fix What’s Broken

Fix What's Broken is a rather puzzling name as it seems to be the thing that’s broken, or at least it has potential to be. Imagine casting this and paying 1 or 2 life to reanimate all your trinkets and baubles for an eggs deck! You don’t even need to have sacrificed them that turn like with Second Sunrise or similar effect. At 4 mana and two colors, I doubt it warps anything, but it has incredible potential if you stick to a specific mana cost.

#2. Conciliator’s Duelist

I heavily appreciate that Conciliator's Duelist can target itself; that’s sure to be an ugly threat in midrange decks. Kill an opposing creature, draw a card is a devastating play pattern. It also has plenty of potential as a flicker engine, of course; you can target one creature with Ephemerate, then flicker another as a bonus.

#1. Silverquill, the Disputant

While Silverquill, the Disputant doesn’t look like the strongest commander among the five elder dragons, it might be the most exciting because it opens the door to all sorts of possibilities. Giving your spells casualty doubles the value while triggering all sorts of aristocrat payoffs—two Infernal Grasps that draw a card off Morbid Opportunist sounds fantastic, but that’s only the beginning.

Wrap Up

Killian, Decisive Mentor | Illustration by Billy Christian

Silverquill got cool cards, but most of the pool feels rather lackluster, with lots of finicky cards that are good with the right set up. Still, I look forward to playing with the commanders and finding room to cast Moment of Reckoning.

How do you feel about Silverquill’s cards? Are you excited, or do you wish that Wizards had taken a different direction? Let me know in the comments below! For more Secrets of Strixhaven coverage, check out Draftsim’s YouTube channel, The Daily Upkeep!

Stay safe, and thanks for reading!