Secrets of Strixhaven (SOS): Most Fun Commanders + Decklists

It's time to explore some of the most interesting commanders for eDH, that is, not the most powerful ones or the most competitive, but the most curious, the ones with the coolest deck-building restrictions or unique game plans.

This article is not a definitive ranking. After all, the great thing about Commander is how open it is and how you can get a lot out of a card that others might just consider weird. So, let's go over some legendary Secrets of Strixhaven commanders that stand out because of their game plans, either in already consolidated archetypes or experimental strategies.

Putting all the Dragons behind each magic school in this article was an extremely easy choice. They're all multicolored and leaders of their respective Strixhaven schools, and if there is one thing MTG players love, it's a guild, clan, or multicolored group to identify with. Furthermore, each of them gives a keyword to their instants or sorceries, and they're all great ones. Like so, building decks with them is easy, intuitive, and quite fun.

It's hard to say which one is more fun, cool, or objectively better because the abilities they give to their spells are quite different. I don't really enjoy Quandrix, the Proof's Cascade, but I simply love having easy access to Storm because of Prismari, the Inspiration. Your favorite Strixhaven magic school also really matters.

You can't go wrong if you decide to build your main deck with your favorite Dragon out of the five above. They're quite fun to play precisely because they were designed to be great commanders. They're in the main set, it's true, but if they're what you want, just invest in your favorite!

If you'd like to see more about them, check out our Quandrix, the Proof and our Prismari, the Inspiration deck techs.

Arnyn, Deathbloom Botanist is a Monoblack, low-cost commander that fits Aristocrat strategies really well. She comes with a small deck-building restriction that actually makes her even more interesting and unusual, as it prevents you from playing the same cards and combos in her lists. Her ability only affects creatures with power or resistance of 1 or less, so the idea is to build around small tokens and fragile creatures that do more than give you the obvious payoffs Aristocrat strategies do.

She also has deathtouch, which is far from irrelevant. With this ability, you'll be able to deal with bigger creatures and use Arnyn as an inconvenient blocker in Commander pods centered around combat. Your main game plan for this commander should involve cards like Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat, Skullclamp, and anything that creates small creatures constantly. Like so, you'll exhaust your opponents even if you don't attack every chance you get. Who knows, maybe you can build a deck centered around Thrull and its synergies with Arnyn.

This commander is nothing new, but she definitely has style, as she combines useful, discardable bodies with the always-welcome life drain. She will be pretty fun in your matches and is relatively unusual for her archetype.

Excava, the Risen Past is a Boros commander that stands out because it doesn't center around equipment like other Boros commanders (which Wizards of the Coast started pushing for since Commander got more popular). Excava is all about reanimating small permanents and can impact the board immediately because it has flying and haste. It attacks on the same turn it enters play and brings back an artifact, creature, or non-aura enchantment that costs 3 mana or less from your graveyard. Like so, you can play lots of utility pieces with this commander because you can easily recycle them according to your needs.

Finality counters are pretty annoying, and if I could change one thing in MTG, I'd probably get rid of them. In this list, they'll prevent you from simply recycling the same permanents forever and will force you to think of a way to get around this, most probably by adding lots of relevant targets to the graveyard. For this list, you want cards like Solemn Simulacrum, Burnished Hart, Wayfarer's Bauble, and Seal of Cleansing, which are great in strategies like this.

These permanents also come back into play as 1/1 flying Spirits, which is pretty interesting. Like so, artifacts and enchantments will be active participants in combat as evasive bodies and can put pressure on planeswalkers or carry equipment and other buffs.

In the end, Excava, the Risen Past seems fun precisely because of this "poltergeist" effect. It will make Spirits carry artifacts in battle and bring back each small permanent in your graveyard another time to do something else before they disappear for good.

Mica, Reader of Ruins is a Monored commander that combines two pretty common strategies for this color: spellslinger and discardable artifacts. The result seems simple but actually needs balance to work consistently. Its ability lets you sacrifice an artifact whenever you cast an instant or sorcery, copy that spell, and then pick new targets for it. This will turn even the most simple card draw, ramp, or removal effects into very efficient strategies.

The most interesting thing about it is that you actually want to play more than just good artifacts with this commander. You need artifacts that can die stress-free, like Ichor Wellspring, Experimental Synthesizer, Mishra's Bauble, and Treasures you'll create with cards like Big Score and Unexpected Windfall. Like so, Mica will turn disposable resources into real value, all while copying important spells. With this commander, you'll be able to set up pretty strong turns without "closed" combos.

Finally, its Ward (pay 3 life) will help it stay on the board, particularly as removing Mica several times will often be annoying for the opponent. In a list that plays Storm-Kiln Artist, Birgi, God of Storytelling, Crackle with Power, and Comet Storm, this card is almost like an "analogical" Storm commander. Each artifact you sacrifice will give you more than it costs in return and will help you set up long turns and bigger strategies.

Blech, Loafing Pest is a Golgari commander that takes one of the creature types Strixhaven fans like the most and combines it with many other friends into a cohesive strategy. Its ability affects Pests as well as Bats, Insects, Snakes, and Spiders. Whenever you gain life, each of these creatures will get a +1/+1 counter, so Blech is a sort of "scalable" Lord for all the rats and plagues in MTG. It will get a lot from small creatures that enter play early and even cards that create tokens and fill your board with bodies, as they'll grow as the match goes on.

The most interesting thing about it is that Pests usually already give you life when they die, so they'll also activate Blech, Loafing Pest's ability, and will be pretty great whenever you want to sacrifice them. Cards like Pest Infestation, Sedgemoor Witch, Scute Swarm, Hornet Queen, and Ishkanah, Grafwidow are great in this game plan, whereas Essence Warden, Blood Artist, and Zulaport Cutthroat will turn each card that leaves play into more counters.

Blech is not great in fast tables but will be incredible in a very "in-theme" Golgari list full of small, slimy, crawling creatures that will give you life and eventually form a board your opponents won't be able to answer.

The Dawning Archaic is a pretty curious colorless commander because it brings a game plan centered around instants and sorceries in your graveyard, typical of archetypes like Izzet, Jeskai, or Grixis, to colorless lists. The Dawning Archaic will discount its own cost according to the spells in your graveyard and then let you reuse those same spells for free when it attacks. It does cost 10 mana, which seems scary at first, but all this does is encourage you to play interaction, card draw, and removals throughout the game so that they end up in your graveyard and discount its cost.

The biggest problem, of course, is building a spellslinger deck that can't play the colors that have traditionally supported this archetype for ages as well as colors in general. You'll have to play weird cards, and, precisely for that reason, this list will be more interesting. Cards like Warping Wail, Spatial Contortion, Titan's Presence, Scour from Existence, All Is Dust, and Kozilek's Command will be quite helpful. Meanwhile, Sol Ring, Mind Stone, Hedron Archive, and other colorless accelerators will help you get to your commander when you can't discount it enough in time.

The Dawning Archaic is the real payoff card in this list. Recasting spells from the graveyard for free can make an expensive spell even more valuable or even allow you to reuse heavy effects for a second time before they're exiled. This commander isn't simple to build, nor one of the most efficient choices in this set, but there is something very fun about playing a colorless spellslinger strategy.

Secrets of Strixhaven has been quite fun. As we mentioned before, WotC really put some effort into this plane, considering it wasn't really all that great before. Arcavios and Strixhaven still have a lot of space to grow in MTG, that much is clear. After all, Reality Fracture will give us an altered version of this plane with new magic schools based on the ones we already have.

But, before that, we'll get another Universes Beyond set. The next one is Marvel SuperHeroes.

What do you think? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!