Ranking the 5 New Secrets of Strixhaven Elder Dragons

Last updated on April 1, 2026

Witherbloom, the Balancer | Illustration by Chris Rahn

Yesterday’s Secrets of Strixhaven debut stream previewed new mechanics, the next designs of the students from Lorwyn Eclipsed, and more; you can check out Draftsim’s full recap here:

Among the most exciting reveals are the cycle of elder dragons! These represent the five founders of Strixhaven. Each of these gives your instants and sorceries an iconic mechanic from the past—perfect to represent the vast knowledge they hold. I’m ranking all five here on how I think they’ll fare as commanders. It’s worth noting these are exciting cards; ranking low doesn’t mean it’s not a viable commander.

#5. Lorehold, the Historian

Lorehold, the Historian was spoiled back in January. Not only does it miracle spells, it works well with effects that reward you for discarding cards. I’ll take three Monument to Endurance triggers a turn cycle any day!

That said, Boros’s range of big instants and sorceries is relatively limited—I built a Lorehold deck and while it’s cool, it’s just token creation and burn from cards like Storm Herd and Volcanic Vision. But there are plenty of ways to manipulate your deck even without blue, like Sensei's Divining Top and Scroll Rack, not to mention the killer interaction with Library of Leng. I’m not saying this is a bad card; I just find the top-end variety stale.

#4. Prismari, the Inspiration

It might seem strange to place Prismari, the Inspiration so low since it gives your instants and sorceries storm—famously one of Magic’s most broken mechanics. But 7 mana is a lot. Like, a lot, especially considering that cost is so high you’re extremely unlikely to storm off the turn you play Prismari.

The vision is there, of course. Prismari gives you a huge advantage: you don’t need to play actual storm cards to win, so you can build a deck of good cards that wins because ten Expressive Iterations drew the cards needed to play a million Lightning Bolts, or a couple Time Warps. But I feel like the table will run you down first, or Prismari eats a removal spell. Maybe I’m overestimating a table’s willingness to gang up on the combo player or run removal, but…7 mana is a lot.

#3. Silverquill, the Disputant

It’s always fun when cards ask you to balance different themes, like Silverquill, the Disputant; casualty requires mixing creatures and instants/sorceries to get the engine started, though cards like Release the Dogs blend the two concepts.

Once that balance is struck, the possibilities abound. Imagine a double Reanimate that also triggers Morbid Opportunist, or sacrificing Gravecrawler to Demonic Tutor twice for cards that combo with it! Of all the dragons, Silverquill seems most interesting—though not the most powerful.

#2. Witherbloom, the Balancer

Witherbloom, the Balancer takes another of stab at one of Magic’s most busted mechanics, though affinity for creatures is theoretically weaker than affinity for artifacts. It certainly restricts the range of what the commander can do, but plenty of instants and sorceries create tokens to snowball with.

Sprout Swarm deserves the spotlight here, what with the 0-mana infinite combo, but even cards like Pest Infestation and Awaken the Woods get the snowball rolling into cards like Torment of Hailfire. And once we’re talking about all this token creation, cards like Springleaf Parade become tempting to level up further. This dragon, in my mind, has the most potential at the highest levels of play in Bracket 4, maybe even 5.

#1. Quandrix, the Proof

While Quandrix, the Proof lacks the immense peaks of Witherbloom, I expect it to be far stronger commander at the average table. Giving your instants and sorceries cascade is pretty broken.

I appreciate that Quandrix imposes a deckbuilding restriction since countermagic and cascade don’t mix. You can get away with expensive modal counterspells, like Cryptic Command and Mystic Confluence, but cheap staples like Counterspell are out of the question unless you want to skip the cascade trigger. This meaningfully impacts the card’s potential, as you lose one of blue’s greatest tools to make it work.

Still, this easily looks to be the strongest elder dragon. Aminatou's Augury and Expropriate and similarly expensive cards are already powerful; imagine when that impact is heightened with an extra spell, even if it’s just more ramp or card draw. This can dominate a game quite quickly—and you get immediate impact from the cascade trigger to offset the higher cost.