Last updated on April 9, 2026
Goldspan Dragon | Illustration by Andrew Mar
Boros players have a neat new infinite combo to mess with in Secrets of Strixhaven! And it just needs two cards: Spiritcall Enthusiast, one of the new prepare cards from SOS, plus oldie goldie Goldspan Dragon.
You get an infinitely large flying dragon, along with infinite cast triggers, artifacts, and artifact sac triggers. Let's see how that works!
How the Combo Works
Things are pretty straightforward here. First you need Goldspan Dragon on the battlefield…
… then Spiritcall Enthusiast, and any way to make a token (which includes having any spell that you can target at the Goldspan Dragon). You can even just attack with the Dragon, but will have to wait for after combat to pull off the combo since Scrollboost is a sorcery.
Once Enthusiast becomes prepared (after a token of any kind enters), you get access to a copy of Scrollboost in exile. Cast that copy targeting Goldspan Dragon (which also unprepares Spiritcall Enthusiast; more about that in a bit!).
When Goldspan Dragon sees itself become the target of a spell, it creates a treasure. That treasure does two things: it prepares Spiritcall Enthusiast again, and then lets you cast Scrollboost (because Goldspan Dragon makes each treasure worth two mana of any one color).
As you may guess, you point that Scrollboost towards your growing flying lizard… then you do it again… and again… and again!
How Prepare Works
Prepare is a new mechanic from Secrets of Strixhaven that reminds a bit of Adventures. When a creature becomes prepared, a copy of its spell appears in exile. You may cast that copy at any time (although you still have to pay its mana cost and follow normal timing rules based on the spell’s card type) as long as the prepared creature is on the battlefield and remains prepared. Once you cast the spell (from exile), the creature becomes unprepared and the copy of the spell disappears. And a creature cannot become prepared again while it is already prepared.
The thing about Spiritcall Enthusiast is that it becomes unprepared when you cast Scrollboost (like all prepare creatures once you cast their spell), but in the Enthusiast's case it gets prepared again when a treasure token shows up. And that's why it goes infinite with Goldspan Dragon.
Best Boros Friends for the Combo
Boros Charm | Illustration by Zoltan Boros
An arbitrarily large dragon has a good chance to kill one opponent in a casual Commander pod. But with a few additions this combo can have a lot more punch: you are repeatedly casting a sorcery (and casting it from exile), repeatedly making treasure artifacts, and sacrificing those tokens (to make mana).
And Boros has plenty of cards that care about one of those things.
Cast Trigger Payoffs
Guttersnipe is the cleanest way to kill the whole table with this combo. Every time you cast Scrollboost, Guttersnipe throws 2 damage at each opponent, which means the combo wins without ever needing to attack: your Goldspan Dragon just hangs in there getting bigger while Gutty burns everything down.
Firebrand Archer does a similar job; pings for half the damage, but in an infinite loop that's really no difference.
Treasure Payoffs
If you want the combo to care about the Treasure half instead of the spell half, Reckless Fireweaver and Ingenious Artillerist are excellent. Reckless Fireweaver pings each opponent whenever an artifact enters under your control, while Ingenious Artillerist hits each opponent for however many artifacts entered. Since Goldspan Dragon makes a treasure every loop, both cards turn the combo into infinite noncombat damage.
Cast-From-Exile Payoffs
The really fancy option here are exile-matters cards, with Quintorius Kand being a great example. Every Scrollboost cast from exile deals 2 damage to each opponent and gains you 2 life.
Or you can drop Pia Nalaar, Consul of Revival, and every Scrollboost you cast from exile gives you a 1/1 flying Thopter, and Pia also gives those Thopters haste. You do have to attack in this last case (rather than burn folks down), but no real Boros player would be against that!
Wrap Up
Guttersnipe | Illustration by Mathias Kollros
The Spiritcall Enthusiast – Goldspan Dragon combo won't be breaking any cEDH meta any day soon, of course, but for low-power Commander Bracket Boros decks that already want to lean on treasures, spell-cast triggers, or exile value, it looks like a ton of fun.
The nice thing here is the redundancy: you can win with a gigantic hasty Goldspan Dragon, with Guttersnipe-style spell payoffs, with Reckless Fireweaver-style artifact payoffs, or with cast-from-exile cards like Quintorius Kand. That is a lot of flexibility!
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