Secrets of Strixhaven is already proving to have a major impact on the MTG Standard format. While the set has only been out for a handful of days, it's interesting to see how certain strategies are incorporating new cards from the set. Since Standard features a three-year rotation cycle now, instead of the previous two-year cycle, decks stay around for longer and we usually don't see as many new strategies pop up.

For example, in the first Secrets of Strixhaven Standard Challenge on Magic Online, the Top 8 was comprised of five Izzet-based decks (two Izzet Prowess, two Izzet Lessons, and one Izzet Elementals), Dimir Midrange, a Golgari Midrange deck, and a Rakdos Monument deck. Looking at the recent 5-0 League decks on MTGO, Izzet and Jeskai Control performed the best.

Standard Challenge Top 8 decklists for Tuesday, April 21 (39 players; post-SOS by a couple hours, but limited availability) #mtg #mtgStandard

Izzet Elementals and Izzet Prowess split the finals! ???

Dimir Midrange gets 3rd ?

Izzet Lessons finished 4th ??? pic.twitter.com/sQ0vna83hQ

— Robert Taylor ? ? PT SOS (@fireshoes) April 22, 2026

Funny enough, a lot of the decks in this Top 8 don't even feature new cards, but that can also be due to the set being so new and players sticking to what they know before experimenting. Secrets of Strixhaven has a bevy of powerful new cards, but there's one in particular that's caught my eye.

Introducing Professor Dellian Fel

Professor Dellian Fel is a callback to the kind of Planeswalker design that got me into Magic. Planeswalkers with four abilities, like Chandra, Torch of Defiance and Garruk, Apex Predator, have historically been Standard-defining cards. Jace, the Mind Sculptor, a Planeswalker that was banned in its Standard format, is the perfect example of this.

Professor Dellian Fel has the key ingredients that make up a solid Midrange Planeswalker:

• Protection in his -3 ability
• Card advantage in his 0 ability
• An "ultimate" or game-ender in his +3 and -6 abilities

I appreciate this design of a Planeswalker that sort of just does it all. In recent years, for variety, Planeswalker designs have shifted to be more experimental, so they don't all fall into the trap of this "classic" design, as listed above (cards like Jace Reawakened and Oko, the Ringleader come to mind).

The question becomes, how can you best utilize Professor Dellian Fel? While this card is both a card advantage engine and a game-ending threat all on his own, it's important to realize how best he can be put to work with existing cards already in the Standard format.

Here's where I ended up after some play-testing and tinkering.

The Initial Decklist

I wanted this deck to focus on Professor Dellian Fel while also incorporating some of the stronger plays of the Standard format. While not an Ouroboroid or Landfall-centric deck, I still wanted to utilize fast mana to ramp into my expensive cards. Llanowar Elves on the play can be unbeatable in certain matchups, especially if you're able to stick a turn two Unholy Annex or Sentinel of the Nameless City. You can start accruing card advantage, and use this tempo to keep piling threats.

Eventually, your goal is to get to a position where you either can overwhelm your opponent with Unholy Annex or pave a path for your Professor Dellian Fel to use his -6 ability. Once you have Dellian Fel's emblem, it's not hard to whittle down your opponent's life total. Whether it's a combination of Unholy Annex and a Soulstone Sanctuary, multiple Witherbloom Charms, Food tokens, or just more Dellian Fels, you can deal your opponent lots of damage without even having to attack them.

You can also utilize Witherbloom Charm to get yourself out of situations where you have an active Unholy Annex, but no demon around to get the lifegain from. Charm can cash your Annex in for a few cards, and guarantee that you don't die to your own spell. Charm can also cash in your Map and Food tokens, or just a Llanowar Elves that's already done its duty.

Overall this deck has a pretty simple gameplan and design. What makes this great as just a best-of-one MTG Arena deck is that you can either win fast by powering out a Dellian Fel or unlocking Unholy Annexes, or play the long game. With cards like Ba Sing Se and the ability to dig deeper into your deck with Witherbloom Charm and Map tokens, you can still keep pace with some of the grindier decks in the format.

Building the Sideboard

While this deck was originally built just for the MTG Arena best-of-one ladder, there's lots of room to iterate on its sideboard. The next cycle of Regional Championships are using Standard, and Store Championships are also coming up. So, it's a matter of figuring out how the format evolves with Secrets of Strixhaven and what ways we can build this Golgari deck to attack them.

First and foremost, Duress may not be a four-of inclusion in the maindeck. I primarily wanted four of this card to attack Izzet and Jeskai Control. Because landing Unholy Annex and Professor Dellian Fel is so crucial to this deck's success, you want to be able to pave a way for these cards by removing answers like Get Lost, Negate, or Spell Pierce early on.

Looking at the current format, with Izzet, Badgermole Cub decks, and Jeskai Control being popular, there are a number of answers you can play to combat these decks. Withering Curse is probably one of my favorite ways to combat Creature decks, especially the Bant Airbending deck. It gives you a cheap wrath you can board out Creatures for. With Professor Dellian Fel you can easily gain some life to meet this card's cost to destroy all Creatures.

The Ooze and Soul-Guide Lantern are easy ways to attack the graveyard, especially against Izzet Lessons and Elementals, or the occasional Sultai Reanimator deck. Requiting Hex is another cheap way to attack cards like Slickshot Show-Off, while also gaining some life in the process. Gumdrop Poisoner is another card suited for Prowess and Mono-Red, but that also plays into your lifegain theme with Professor Dellian Fel.

I can see Jeskai Control being a tough matchup for this deck, due to how much varied removal and card advantage they have. Jeskai Revelation specifically can be a pretty backbreaking card against Professor Dellian Fel, and with the printing of Flashback the Jeskai Control decks can cast Revelations over and over again.

Your best options are cards like Vivien Reid and Surrak, Elusive Hunter. The goal against Jeskai is to either get under them fast enough or keep pace with them in terms of card advantage. Since the latter is harder to accomplish, you want to utilize Duress to clear their hand of counterspells and removal, so you can stick a variety of hard to remove threats on the board. Hopefully your maindeck Duress and Planeswalkers can do the trick here.

The Final Decklist

If I had to play this deck in an even tomorrow, here's the 75 I'd register:

Golgari Midrange | Standard | Roman Fusco, Test Deck

• Creatures (14)
• 2 Unstoppable Slasher
• 4 Badgermole Cub
• 4 Llanowar Elves
• 4 Sentinel of the Nameless City

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 Professor Dellian Fel

• Instants (9)
• 2 Bitter Triumph
• 3 Shoot the Sheriff
• 4 Witherbloom charm

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Duress

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber

• Lands (25)
• 4 Swamp
• 6 Forest
• 1 Ba Sing Se
• 2 Blooming Marsh
• 2 Restless Cottage
• 2 Soulstone Sanctuary
• 4 Overgrown Tomb
• 4 Deathcap Glade

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Soul-Guide Lantern
• 1 Vivien Reid
• 1 The Rise of Sozin
• 2 The Ooze
• 2 Heritage Reclamation
• 2 Surrak, Elusive Hunter
• 2 Withering Curse
• 4 Requiting Hex

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Conclusion

Overall, Professor Dellian Fel is by far one of the most fun Green-Black cards I've played in Standard. HIs design harkens back to that of some of Standard's strongest Planeswalkers. Utilizing mana ramp like Llanowar Elves and Badgermole Cub, you can gain card advantage fast. Even if the game goes long, being able to "ultimate" Dellian Fel once can leave your opponent struggling to keep up, with various ways to gain life in Witherbloom Charm, Restless Cottage, and Unholy Annex.