The decklists for each of the five Secrets of Strixhaven Commander precons were fully revealed on April 1st, 2026. Quintorius, History Chaser and Excava, the Risen Past serve as the face Commanders for the Red-White Lorehold School Commander deck. The primary strategy for this deck is discarding cards and gaining value from bringing things back from the graveyard.

As we dive into the decklist for Lorehold Spirit, we'll talk about which reprints are worth seeking out and which neat new cards have been included for us to enjoy. With a focus on Quintorius, History Chaser, let's dig into what this deck is trying to do and how well it accomplishes its gameplan.

Much Needed Reprints

There are some big-name reprints in this deck. Drumbellower hasn't been printed since Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty Commander and is a huge card for a lot of strategies. Decks like Baylen, the Haymaker and Kelsien, the Plague use it as a way to get multiple triggers a turn cycle. It's a strong card that we needed more access to.

Emeria, the Sky Ruin is another awesome reprint. It hasn't been reprinted since a Secret Lair Drop in 2023. Before that it was in Commander 2014. The card was going for around $25, so it definitely needed a reprint.

In terms of power, it does its thing a little bit slow for reanimation decks, but with enough ramp it can really start going off. In a Commander precon that will likely get to turn seven+, it's well worth it.

Getting another Moonshaker Cavalry printing is awesome. Considering how important its become for the Commander format, only having one printing in Wilds of Eldraine back in 2023 is absurd. Moonshaker is a big blow-out, game-ender like Craterhoof Behemoth for decks that run White, so it definitely needed a new printing.

Commander 2016 was the last major printing of Wave of Reckoning. It's the kind of board wipe that's good in toughness matters decks like Arcades, the Strategist, Felothar the Steadfast, and Doran, Besieged by Time. Turns out it's great for decks full of low power/high toughness creatures. More access to a unique board wipe for those decks is great.

Currency Converter hasn't been reprinted since Streets of New Capenna Commander in early 2022. It's the sort of card that is good in discard-centered decks, like Captain Howler, Sea Scourge, Flubs, the Fool, and Raffine, Scheming Seer.

Potentially getting Treasures off this card is what makes it so strong. It was previously going for around $10, so hopefully another printing brings that price down.

March of the Machine Commander in 2023 was the last time Bitterthorn, Nissa's Animus was printed. It's a generically good card. Sword of the Animist, another good card, is fairly comparable in power and ability. But for decks that care about making tokens, Bitterthorn is a bit better. It was going for $22, so it'll be nice to see the price go down a bit.

Quintorius's Discard Strategy

Before we can get into any of the things that the deck wants to do, we must talk about the Commander. Quintorius, History Chaser has a static ability that rewards you for cards leaving your Graveyard by creating a 3/2 Red and White Spirit creature token. Making blockers that can protect him is huge for a Planeswalker.

His +1 allows you to discard a card. If you do, you draw two cards and mill a card. This is perfect because you get to put two cards into your hands and two into your grave to cast or remove with an ability.

His -4 gives Spirits you control Double Strike and Vigilance until end of turn. The built-in synergy with his token-making ability is welcome and allows for a big game ending turn. Each token being able to deal six damage and gain first strike is so important. Additionally, Quintorius enters with five loyalty so he can use this ability the turn he enters.

Discarding Cards and Draw

Quintorius's core strategy relies on cycling cards into the Graveyard to later remove. Cards that help that strategy out are at a premium in Lorehold Spirit.

Faithless Looting is great because it's a cheap way to discard cards and fill your graveyard. It also has Flashback, so it's a great to mill incidentally off of Quintorius's +1 and triggers his static ability when you cast it from your Graveyard.

Staff of the Storyteller gets story counters when creature tokens are created, and you can pay and tap it to remove a counter to draw a card. This deck makes a lot of tokens, so the Staff will be a pretty consistent way to draw extra cards. Tocasia's Welcome draws a card once per turn if a creature with mana value 3 or less entered, which your Quintorius tokens will trigger.

Recursion From Graveyards

The stock Lorehold Spirit decklist includes a lot of ways to trigger Quintorius's static ability. You can cast spells from graveyards, exile things from graveyards, or even bring permanents back to the battlefield from the Graveyard. This deck blends a handful of different methods, which might be difficult to manage. However, its primary strategy seems to focus on returning permanents to the battlefield.

Angel of indemnity, Guardian Scalelord, and Sun Titan all return permanents with a certain mana value to the Battlefield from the Graveyard. Usually those permanents have a mana value of four or less. Excava, the Risen Past operates under a similar restriction, with the added limitation of only returning Artifacts, Creatures, or Auras.

Cards like Karmic Guide and Quintorius, Loremaster - with some finagling - can get any creature back to the battlefield. They have less options on the type of permanents they can get but they have less restrictions on the mana value.

Regardless of the restrictions, all of these cards are great ways to trigger Quintorius, History Chaser's static ability.

New Cards From Lorehold Spirit

There are 12 new cards newly introduced to Magic in Lorehold Spirit. Most of them benefit both Commander options. The deck is filled with cards that care about removing things from the graveyard. Luckily, both Quintorius, History Chaser and Excava, the Risen Past care about these types of cards.

Augusta, Order Returned forces players to exile cards out of the graveyard on attack. That is exactly what Quintorius wants, making a 3/2 Spirit token every time. It also puts +1/+1 counters equal to the number of nonland cards exiled this way on target attacking creature. That's perfect for Excava since it has to attack to trigger its ability and you can do that more easily when it's harder to block and kill. Playing Augusta on three and attacking with Excava and Augusta on four could potentially make Excava up to a 7/7 attacker.

Relic Retriever creates a Treasure token on each end step if a card left your graveyard that turn. It's every end step. If I can manage to meet that condition on other players' turns, that's a lot of Treasure tokens. It's balanced, since it can only trigger once each turn and not whenever a card leaves your Graveyard. It would probably be too good if it did that, so it's perfect as is for a precon. Both Excava and Quintorius want to remove things from graveyards, so they'll want this.

Fateful Tempest is so neat. It's a burn spell that fills your graveyard through mill, or it's a cool way to give yourself card advantage until your next turn. It's tricky in a Quintorius deck because it's a lose/lose for your opponents. They don't want to give you either option.

Getting a vote from each player means you might even get the best of both worlds if there is split thinking. They might burn themselves and give you card advantage.

Lorehold Archivist is neat in this deck. It becomes Prepared on upkeep, which means it will take a whole turn cycle for it to become scary. You can play around that. Once its Prepared, then you can put something truly scary in the Graveyard to exile and make a copy of.

It makes a token copy, which is good for triggering Staff of the Storyteller if it's a Creature. It also exiles from your Graveyard for Quintorious's trigger.

Naktamun Lorespinner gives us a Wheel of Fortune on a Creature we can loop. That's really good, especially if I can discard cards repeatedly with something like Tireless Tribe to Prepare it. Filling up my graveyard to reanimate something with Excava is pretty good after a Wheel. It also disrupts other players' hands and gameplans.

Spirit of Resilience is like a Cursed Mirror that doesn't get an enters trigger. Being able to turn this into a Sun Titan in the graveyard and attack and reanimate something is powerful. Potentially making a 7/7 Sun Titan that triggers Quintorius is huge.

Vanguard of the Restless buffs Spirits by how many times your Commander has been cast. That's good for Quintorus and Excava since they both make Spirits. Planeswalker commanders are more vulnerable to being removed in combat, so it's likely you'll cast Quintorius a few times in a game.

Additionally, when you make a Spirit via Quintorius, you can pay to reanimate Vangaurd and trigger Quintorius again.

Advanced Reconstruction mills, so it fills your Graveyard. It exiles a card at random which is good for Quintorius's trigger. It gives you the ability to play a card at random this turn, so it's card advantage. At level two, it deals two damage to each opponent whenever one or more cards leave your graveyard. Once again, this is good for both Excava and Quintorius.

The final level says spells cast from anywhere other than you hand cost less to cast. Flashback and Aftermath spells just got a lot cheaper. Anything that allows you to cast spells from your Graveyard gets a big boost from this.

Ceaseless Conflict is a board wipe that sets you up fantastically if you controlled a bunch of nontoken Creatures. It's on rate for most board wipes, so the cost isn't too bad. It destroys all Creatures, including Excava, but it doesn't get Quintorus and makes a bunch of fresh blockers for him, all while adding more fuel to your Graveyard.

The Decklist

Lorehold Spirit | Commander | Wizards of the Coast

• Commander (1)
• 1 Quintorius, History Chaser

• Creatures (36)
• 1 Angel of Indemnity
• 1 Anger
• 1 Ao, the Dawn Sky
• 1 Atsushi, the Blazing Sky
• 1 Augusta, Order Returned
• 1 Balefire Liege
• 1 Claim Jumper
• 1 Conspiracy Theorist
• 1 Containment Construct
• 1 Drumbellower
• 1 Excava, the Risen Past
• 1 Guardian of Faith
• 1 Guardian Scalelord
• 1 Hofri Ghostforge
• 1 Kami of Ancient Law
• 1 Karmic Guide
• 1 Kirol, History Buff
• 1 Laelia, the Blade Reforged
• 1 Lorehold Archivist
• 1 Millikin
• 1 Moonshaker Cavalry
• 1 Naktamun Lorespinner
• 1 Quintorius, Field Historian
• 1 Quintorius, Loremaster
• 1 Relic Retriever
• 1 Remorseful Cleric
• 1 Selfless Spirit
• 1 Serra Paragon
• 1 Skyclave Apparition
• 1 Spirit of Resilience
• 1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
• 1 Sun Titan
• 1 Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle
• 1 Vanguard of the Restless
• 1 Venerable Warsinger
• 1 White Orchid Phantom

• Instants (3)
• 1 Lorehold Charm
• 1 Path to Exile
• 1 Swords to Plowshares

• Sorceries (9)
• 1 Ceaseless Conflict
• 1 Faithless Looting
• 1 Fateful Tempest
• 1 Rip Apart
• 1 Secret Rendezvous
• 1 Seize the Spoils
• 1 Sevinne's Reclamation
• 1 Tragic Arrogance
• 1 Wave of Reckoning

• Enchantments (4)
• 1 Advanced Reconstruction
• 1 Monologue Tax
• 1 Primary Research
• 1 Tocasia's Welcome

• Artifacts (10)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Archaeomancer's Map
• 1 Bitterthorn, Nissa's Animus
• 1 Currency Converter
• 1 Fellwar Stone
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Patchwork Banner
• 1 Perpetual Timepiece
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Staff of the Storyteller

• Lands (37)
• 11 Plains
• 6 Mountain
• 1 Battlefield Forge
• 1 Clifftop Retreat
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Fabled Passage
• 1 Fields of Strife
• 1 Furycalm Snarl
• 1 Glittering Massif
• 1 Lorehold Campus
• 1 Lotus Field
• 1 Mistveil Plains
• 1 Radiant Summit
• 1 Rugged Prairie
• 1 Sacred Peaks
• 1 Study Hall
• 1 Sunscorched Divide
• 1 Temple of Triumph
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Turbulent Steppe

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Conclusion

The Lorehold Spirit deck has both old tech and new tech worth picking up. This concept of playing from Graveyards is most often a Sultai () strategy, so it's interesting to see a Red-White take on it. Normally Boros is relegated to Voltron, Artifacts, spell slinger combat, or go wide token strategies.

It shouldn't be that surprising, though. White is good with permanent recursion from Graveyards. Red is good with discard strategies. Milling isn't impossible in either of these colors. All the pieces fit for an interesting Red-White Graveyard strategy.

Seeing it all come together in this precon is fascinating. It's synergistic enough to hold its own even though it's a precon. Lorehold Spirit is one of the stronger Boros precons I've seen in a long time, so don't ignore it.

I think this deck is going to become a new Boros mainstay even after the hype for this set dies down.

Until next time, I'm @strixhavendropout on everything.