Silverquill Influence Upgrade Guide: 21 Easy Changes You Can Make

Last updated on April 10, 2026

Scriv, the Obligator | Illustration by Brian Valeza

I gotta say, it’s fun to catch up with some of the original Strixhaven characters. As a teacher’s kid, I really identify with the flavor text on Killian, Ink Duelist, and it’s a shame that we’ve had to wait this long to see him again. Zimone had three cards in 2024 between Duskmourn, its Jump Scare! precon, and Foundations, while my other boy Quintorius Kand went off and became a planeswalker.

Magic: The Gathering Secrets of Strixhaven Commander Deck - Silverquill Influence (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
• INSTIGATE A WAR OF WORDS—Weaponize your words with Silverquill standout Killian, who encourages the rest of the table to attack targets that aren’t you. Tap, goad, and control creatures with every enchantment you cast while you sit back, draw cards, and savor the mayhem
• 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

$49.99

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The Silverquill Influence deck from the Secrets of Strixhaven lineup of Commander precons finds Killian, Decisive Mentor acting almost as a spymaster: You’ll use auras to goad your opponents’ creatures into attacking anyone but you, with some other bribes and incentives for your opponents to leave you to your meticulous planning.

Silverquill Influence Deck Overview

Silverquill Influence is an Orzhov/Silverquill () aura deck headed by Killian, Decisive Mentor, a commander that goads creatures when your enchantments enter and draws cards when creatures you’ve enchanted attack. Without multiple combats, Killian draws you just one card per turn, so you need to enchant your opponents’ creatures to get card draw during their turns, too. The issue with goad is that it becomes irrelevant when the game becomes a 1v1.

The alternate commander is Scriv, the Obligator, an inkling bird that creates aura tokens when it enters or attacks. Between flying and deathtouch, it’s evasive and trades well with many creatures. Not a bad creature to enchant with your Eidolon of Countless Battles to close out a game, either.

This deck is heavily biased towards creatures and enchantments; there are only 11 slots for instants, sorceries, and artifacts combined. No Swiftfoot Boots or Lightning Greaves, and just one dedicated sweeper. But you’ll find interaction in other forms, usually auras, or mass reanimation synergies.

There’s a subtheme of cards that pay you off when your opponents attack you or that pay them off when they attack someone else, which to me is a core part of its identity. They called it “Silverquill Influence” after all.

Upgrade Plan

I’m not going to try to elevate the Bracket level on this deck, but I want to simplify the game plan into two phases. At first, you build your board by enchanting your opponents’ creatures and loading up on enchantresses and incentives for your opponents to attack each other. Then, once your opponents are low on health and left without suitable blockers (dead or tapped out), swing in with one or many of your own threats, preferably your Herald of Amity or something enchanted by one or more of your scaling auras. Mass enchantment reanimation taps down most of your opponents’ threats while Killian, Decisive Mentor is on the board, which is one of the reasons you don’t need as many sweepers as you might expect.

While there are enchantment creatures, I want a higher number of auras to focus the build a bit more.

I’m barely touching the mana base’s color balance, but I’d recommend swapping out a Swamp or two for some basic Plains. This deck could use more white in the mana base with the number of costs and mono-white auras; I don’t want to rely on Land Tax to grab my Plains.

One final rule I’ll follow in this build is that I won’t recommend any cards from Universes Beyond products. While they could be fun or good cards, I’m leaving out things like Super State, Codsworth, Handy Helper, and Ishgard, the Holy See for flavor reasons. That’s a little unfortunate, because Nurgle's Rot is a really thematic aura from Warhammer 40,000.

In terms of budget, these upgrades top out at about $90 total as of the week before the Secrets of Strixhaven Prerelease, depending on the printing you choose. Prices are subject to change as always, especially if brewers start to buy niche cards that haven’t been printed much.

Minion’s Return

Suggested Cut: Intermediate Chirography

Minion's Return represents a whole subtheme you could add into the deck if you want: Black auras that reanimate creatures under your control. That strategy fizzles against flicker decks or when the creature you want is exiled, but it’s still fun to have as a tool in your kit without making it your entire trade.

Intermediate Chirography is fine, but it pays you off more when you enchant your own creatures consistently. An aura build of Alela, Artful Provocateur wants this, but I’ll opt for a different mana sink.

Daxos the Returned

Suggested Cut: Armored Skyhunter

You’ll cast your enchantments more than cheat them out most of the time, so Daxos the Returned has the chance to give you a lot of experience counters, which in turn means the tokens it pumps out can be huge.

I like Armored Skyhunter’s ability to filter the top of your deck and cheat out auras, but it needs to attack, and my upgrade plan only wants to attack in the end game. It can go find a home in a more combat-oriented aura deck.

Ondu Spiritdancer

Suggested Cut: Defacing Duskmage

The more enchantments, the better. Ondu Spiritdancer’s extra tokens are great to help spread your auras around the table and trigger your enchantresses. While I like Defacing Duskmage in principle, it also relies on combat to make it repeatable.

Phyrexian Arena

Suggested Cut: Mangara, the Diplomat

Enough with the 3D chess. I said give me card draw! Sure, Mangara, the Diplomat could reward you multiple times per turn cycle, but your other rattlesnakes mean that you’re less likely to gain cards when your opponents attack you because they won’t. That leaves the second spell trigger, and do you really want to count on your opponents to double-spell?

I’ll take the slower but consistent Phyrexian Arena over Mangara’s variance, especially since it’s an enchantment.

Sigil of the Empty Throne

Suggested Cut: Ajani's Chosen

I swapped Ajani's Chosen for Sigil of the Empty Throne to turn a 4-mana creature that pumps out 2/2 cats into a 5-mana enchantment that pumps out 4/4 angel tokens. I don’t mind paying a little more mana here because I know I can find savings elsewhere.

Mantle of the Ancients

Suggested Cut: Doomwake Giant

Most of the time, Doomwake Giant sits around taking out X/1s (mainly tokens) during the turns that you cast enchantments, though it has the upside of a one-sided sweeper when you reanimate all your auras at once. It just comes in a little too late for my liking.

Mantle of the Ancients subs in for redundancy both for the scaling auras and the reanimation. This kind of card is your endgame: Attach all your previously used auras to the same creature, and swing in for the win.

All That Glitters + Ethereal Armor

Suggested Cuts: Raffine's Guidance + Sentinel's Eyes

Raffine's Guidance and Sentinel's Eyes have a modest impact on the board, but I wanted to find auras with more oomph. You lose something from your early to mid game because these are easy to bring back from the graveyard without outside help, but it improves the top end a bit.

The precon already has a similar options to All That Glitters and Ethereal Armor in Eidolon of Countless Battles and Sage's Reverie, but I want even more redundancy.

Retether

Suggested Cut: Screams from Within

I hate to cut another self-recursive enchantment, but I’m also taking out two basic Swamps. Screams from Within becomes less playable and especially replayable. I’ll sub in mass reanimation in the form of Retether.

Light-Paws, Emperor’s Voice

Suggested Cut: Firemane Commando

I like Light-Paws, Emperor's Voice as part of the mid and end game in this deck since it’ll help you to buff two of your threats at once, or you can go get a Darksteel Mutation if you need an answer to an opposing threat more.

Once again, I prefer to attack late in this deck, and I’ve bribed players with cards with other additions, so Firemane Commando can come out.

Boon of the Spirit Realm

Suggested Cut: Shadrix Silverquill

Shadrix Silverquill is a victim of the specific avenue I’m taking. I want more auras and fewer creatures, and while the modality and politicking can be useful, I want my 5-drops to be enchantments or payoffs for them. Like Boon of the Spirit Realm! It’s a progressive anthem gets better over time, and it almost acts like a mini-Craterhoof Behemoth when you reanimate all your enchantments at once.

Norn’s Decree

Suggested Cut: Tomik, Wielder of Law

Tomik, Wielder of Law isn’t the worst card to leave in this deck to preserve its original identity, but Norn's Decree is a spicy way to get a similar rattlesnake effect. You become literally poisonous once you have an enchantment that slaps a big FAFO sticker on your life total. You can use Necrogen Communion instead for a similar poison effect on a budget, while Sphere of Safety is a tax option that costs more mana but less money.

Trespasser’s Curse

Suggested Cut: Keen Duelist

Some go-wide decks and those with flicker combos are going to be too tough to handle, but Trespasser's Curse can be a deterrent. And it’s another aura you can fetch with Light-Paws! Keen Duelist is part of the influence subtheme in this deck, but I want a higher aura count, even if it doesn’t enchant a creature.

If you seek pure power, you can still improve on slots like this and Minion's Return; these cards just help to give you a different look at the various enchantments available in Orzhov.

Tenuous Truce

Suggested Cut: Secret Rendezvous

Tenuous Truce is another enchantment that you won’t stick onto a creature, but it still adds to your aura count and restores some of the other politicking that I’ve been trimming. It offers the same value as Secret Rendezvous if you and your chosen opponent keep the peace for three turns, and more if things continue.

Hallowed Haunting

Suggested Cut: Forum Filibuster

Forum Filibuster creates tokens and reanimates your auras, but I don’t necessarily want to reanimate them one at a time, and I certainly don’t want them on itty bitty Inklings.

Hallowed Haunting costs a little less and its tokens scale over time like the ones from Daxos the Returned. It shouldn’t be terribly hard to reach seven enchantments in this deck, at which point your board gets both flying and vigilance. It’s a good draw almost any time.

Spirit Link

Suggested Cut: Chains of Custody

This was a last-minute cut I made because I want to illustrate the kinds of auras available if you want to overhaul the deck and plan to enchant your opponents’ creatures. Spirit Link doesn’t have “Enchanted creature has…” wording, so you can gain life when your opponent’s battlecruiser deals damage. There’s a whole deck built around similar auras and Test of Endurance win conditions, methinks. I cut Chains of Custody simply because something had to go, and I’d already cut enough self-recursive auras.

Archaeomancer’s Map

Suggested Cut: Eldrazi Conscription

This one hurts, but I have to be realistic: I wouldn’t want to use Eldrazi Conscription any time other than the endgame, and at that point, I’ll need that mana for something like mass enchantment reanimation or a sweeper. So, to get that mana a little more consistently, I’ve added an Archaeomancer's Map to get more lands out and ensure you have access to white. It hurts to cut an enchantment in favor of an artifact (retches), but sometimes the needs of the deck outweigh our ability to live out our dreams….

Hall of Heliod’s Generosity

Suggested Cut: Swamp

Hall of Heliod's Generosity was likely left out so that Arcane Lighthouse could take its spot as the premium utility land reprint. I cut a Swamp rather than a Plains for obvious reasons.

Adagia, Windswept Bastion

Suggested Cut: War Room

I have little patience for mana sources that give me colorless besides Sol Ring and Hall of Heliod's Generosity in this deck, and I typically only like War Room in mono-color or colorless decks. If this deck had payoffs for draining yourself, I could see it, but 3 mana, a tapped War Room, and 2 life for one card doesn’t entice me enough.

Instead, Adagia, Windswept Bastion is a slow path to a mana sink that you can use to copy your best enchantments. It’s a little grindy unless you can station it quickly due to a pump from an All That Glitters or something, but this is a dream that I’ll allow.

Rogue’s Passage

Suggested Cut: Swamp

I might be harming the mana base here, but I want the added inevitability an unblockable enabler like Rogue's Passage adds to a deck with an endgame like this. It’s like Arcane Lighthouse in its ability to help mitigate threats that might otherwise be in your way.

Glasswing Grace / Age-Graced Chapel

Suggested Cut: Study Hall

Glasswing Grace adds modality to the mana base that mitigates mana screw. If you want more MDFCs in your mana base, you can consider Witch Enchanter, too.

I’m not interested in a mana-neutral color fixer like Study Hall, not in the slightest.

The Final Deck and New Cards

And with that, here’s my rework of the SOC Silverquill Influence precon.

This separate decklist has just my upgrades, and you can click the shopping cart to snag them all (and support Draftsim, too!).

Semester’s End

Killian, Decisive Mentor | Illustration by Billy Christian

While it didn’t wow me at first, Silverquill Influence has a fair amount of thought put into it. The new Killian is a grown up version of the original that also plays well with it, the designers included plenty of cards so that you really get the “influence” part of the name, and the reprints are killer, with plenty of staples of aura decks that needed reprints (hello, Sram).

If you want some more cards to consider, Greater Auramancy‘s really good, if pricey. Spirit Loop is self-recursive option if you aim to enchant your own creatures a bit more. Necrotic Plague could be a delightful card for Silverquill brewers who choose chaos, but be mindful that it could blow back on you like a plugged cartoon shotgun.

I also think there’s a build here that goes all-in on cards like Spirit Link and Vampiric Link to gain a bunch of life and make a Test of Endurance type win condition possible, but that sounds more like a rebuild to me. What do you think?

How would you upgrade or tweak the Silverquill Influence precon? Do you think this build is a true upgrade, or is it more of a move sideways? Let me know in the comments below or over on the Draftsim Discord. If you want more from Draftsim, subscribe to our newsletter, or come find us on YouTube at The Daily Upkeep.

And remember: The future is littered with prizes, if you’re willing to work for it… or bribe for it.

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