Secrets of Strixhaven — The Elder Dragons Return to School

— Legendary Creature — Elder Dragon 5/5

Flying, haste. Each instant and sorcery card in your hand has miracle . At the beginning of each opponent's upkeep, you may discard a card. If you do, draw a card.

Lorehold is, at her heart, a miracle engine — and a particularly generous one. The upkeep trigger fires at the start of each opponent's upkeep. In a four-player game, that is three additional draw-discard cycles every turn cycle. Each time you draw a card this way, it is the first card you have drawn that turn (from the perspective of the game state at that moment), meaning you can immediately cast it for its miracle cost of .

The result is a remarkable puzzle to build around. Library of Leng is perhaps the most elegant addition: instead of discarding to the graveyard, you place the card on top of your library — which you then draw, enabling the miracle. Scroll Rack and Sensei's Divining Top let you arrange exactly what you will draw. Monument to Endurance transforms each discard trigger into a rotating choice of drawing a card, making a Treasure, or draining each opponent for 3 — turning Lorehold's upkeep ability into a standalone win condition on its own.

— Legendary Creature — Elder Dragon 7/7

Flying. Ward — Pay 5 life. Instant and sorcery spells you cast have storm.

Prismari is, in a word, dangerous. Seven mana is a real commitment, but the ward tax makes her extraordinarily difficult to remove once she resolves — five life is a steep price in a multiplayer game, and opponents who want to hold up removal for her are making a significant sacrifice. What she offers in return is storm on every instant and sorcery you cast.

The gameplan is ambitious in its simplicity: ramp to seven mana, resolve Prismari, then chain enough spells to go lethal. Jeska's Will fuels the engine with mana and card access in one burst. Rhystic Study and Mystical Tutor find the pieces. Past in Flames and Underworld Breach replay the graveyard. Then finish with Lightning Bolt or Galvanic Blast copying fifteen or more times.

— Legendary Creature — Elder Dragon 4/4

Flying, vigilance. Each instant and sorcery spell you cast has casualty 1.

Silverquill is the most accessible of the five. Four mana for a 4/4 with flying and vigilance is already a solid body — and casualty 1 on every instant and sorcery is the kind of passive that quietly accumulates enormous advantage. Sacrifice any creature with power 1 or greater, and you copy the spell. In a deck designed to generate a constant stream of small tokens, this becomes extraordinary.

Sedgemoor Witch is the linchpin — her magecraft ability creates a Pest token whenever you cast or copy an instant or sorcery. The copy produced by casualty does not itself have casualty (copies are not cast, so Silverquill's ability does not apply to them), but Sedgemoor Witch still triggers on the copy. The result: each spell you cast while paying casualty sacrifices one creature and produces two Pest tokens — one from the cast, one from the copy. You net a creature with every spell, and the board grows steadily with each instant or sorcery you play. Monastery Mentor functions similarly, flooding the board with prowess Monks. Ophiomancer provides a deathtouch Snake at each upkeep. Grand Crescendo copied via casualty makes a massive board of indestructible tokens in one burst. Swords to Plowshares copied once removes two threats for the cost of one creature token.

— Legendary Creature — Elder Dragon 5/5

Affinity for creatures. Flying, deathtouch. Instant and sorcery spells you cast have affinity for creatures.

Witherbloom is the most interesting to me, and once you understand why, it is difficult to unsee. Affinity for creatures reduces its cost by for each creature you control. With six creatures in play — a straightforward threshold in green — Witherbloom costs nothing at all. And then every instant and sorcery you cast benefits from the same reduction.

The deck builds around cheap creature production. Llanowar Elves, Elves of Deep Shadow, Gwenna, Eyes of Gaea, and Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma build the creature count early. Once Witherbloom is in play, cast Exsanguinate or Torment of Hailfire for free or near-free with an enormous X value.

The infinite I want to highlight: Sprout Swarm has both convoke and buyback. With Witherbloom and three other creatures in play, Sprout Swarm's affinity-for-creatures and convoke together cover its mana cost entirely. Tap creatures to pay convoke, create a Saproling, repeat indefinitely. An arbitrarily large board of creatures then enables an X-spell for an arbitrarily large value. Witherbloom rewards the mathematically inclined.

— Legendary Creature — Elder Dragon 6/6

Flying, trample. Cascade. Instant and sorcery spells you cast from your hand have cascade.

Quandrix is the most immediately thrilling of the five to resolve. A 6/6 with flying, trample, and cascade for six mana already represents excellent value the moment it enters — you cascade into a free spell immediately. But the second ability is what makes Quandrix genuinely unique: every instant and sorcery you cast from your hand also has cascade.

In a deck built around instants and sorceries, every spell cascades into another spell. The primary challenge becomes controlling what you cascade into — you want productive hits, not misfires. Ponder, Preordain, and Serum Visions arrange the top of the library. Palantír of Orthanc scrys 2 at each end step, giving constant control over cascade targets. Force of Will and Misdirection are particularly elegant — you pay their alternative costs, but they still cascade for their full mana value of five, consistently hitting powerful free spells.

A one-mana 1/1 Merfolk Bard Wizard. Its prepare ability reads: tap this creature, and tap two other untapped creatures you control — this creature becomes prepared. While prepared, you may cast a copy of its spell. The spell is Brainstorm.

I have read this card several times now. It is, in practice, a creature that generates a Brainstorm whenever you can tap three creatures. In Commander, where boards fill quickly and tapping creatures at end of turn is common, this translates to a repeatable Brainstorm every turn cycle. Brainstorm in Commander is already a powerful top-deck management tool; on a recurring creature that costs one mana, it becomes something genuinely special. Any deck that cares about the top of the library — Quandrix, Lorehold, any combo build — will want this card.

For , you get a 2/2 with first strike. Its prepare trigger fires whenever you cast your third spell each turn — at which point it becomes prepared and you may cast a copy of its spell, which is Lightning Bolt.

Cast three spells in a turn — a threshold that any spellslinger deck crosses routinely — and you get a free Lightning Bolt. This is, quietly, one of the strongest cards in the set for red Commander strategies. Three damage to any target, no mana required, repeating as long as you keep casting spells. In a Prismari storm deck, or any red deck that regularly casts three spells, this creature generates substantial reach over the course of a game. The first strike keeps it alive through combat, which is a small but meaningful bonus given how often utility creatures get traded away.

For , you receive a 3/3 Troll Warlock with two lines of text. At the beginning of your upkeep, surveil 1. Then, if there are three or more creature cards in your graveyard, this creature becomes prepared. While prepared, its spell is Reanimate — return any creature from any graveyard to the battlefield under your control, losing life equal to its mana value.

What makes this card particularly interesting is how it enables itself. The upkeep surveil actively fills the graveyard with creature cards, working toward its own condition. In any black deck that trades creatures through combat, runs sacrifice effects, or simply mills cards, Grave Researcher will reliably become prepared after a few turns and begin generating a free Reanimate each cycle. The target does not have to be from your graveyard — in a multiplayer game, you have access to every creature that has ever died at the table. I expect this card to enable some memorable plays.

A mythic sorcery for . Target player draws 2ˣ cards.

I want to dwell on the mathematics here, because I find them genuinely beautiful. 2⁰ is 1 card. 2¹ is 2. 2³ is 8. 2⁵ is 32. 2¹⁰ is 1,024. The card does not cap. In a Quandrix deck — where you are generating enormous amounts of mana and cascading into additional spells — Mathemagics with X equal to 6 draws 64 cards. The mana cost (two instances of X plus ) is significant, but in a format where mana doubling effects and ritual spells exist, the ceiling is essentially the size of your library. This is the largest draw spell ever printed, made accessible by the right shell. It will find a permanent home in Simic Commander decks for years.