Silverquill Previews Write Themselves Into Secrets of Strixhaven

Posted on April 9, 2026

Secrets of Strixhaven preview season rolls on as we hit the halfway point of week two. We've seen the near-complete showcase of the Mystical Archive bonus sheet, and before that we got a look at Prismari, Lorehold, and Quandrix cards.

This time around, we're covering the Silverquill, the White and Black school of Strixhaven. There's a ton of awesome stuff to cover, so let's not waste any time and get right to it.

Who Are The Silverquill?

The Silverquill are a school known for their sharp tongues and sharper writing capabilities. Their skills in both areas lead to their ability to use their fierce and often harsh vocabulary to cast mighty spells that can do great harm or offer potent protections.

The Founder dragon, Silverquill, the Disputant, encourages students to use their wit, their writing, and their ability to debate to perform great feats.

Killian Lu, the Silverquill champion from the original Strixhaven: School of Mages returns once again with another side story for Secrets of Strixhaven. Here, he loses a duel and helps a pair of younger Silverquill students in their own dueling efforts.

One of the students is a Leonin named Crown, and we get a card previewed in the story to represent his character. This card, Eager Glyphmage, is standard Limited fare that provides a decent body and makes a small 1/1 Creature with Flying alongside it. These kinds of cards always prove powerful in Limited and should be excellent here as well.

A Cool New Legend

Only one new Legendary Creature was revealed today, but it's a powerful one all the same.

Nita, Forum Conciliator was previewed via Lua Stardust on social media. This card provides a sacrifice outlet for your Creatures, which can easily be taken advantage of. For doing so, you're able to cast an Instant or Sorcery from your opponent's graveyard, which then fuels your board in the process.

I'd be shocked if this doesn't become a really fun Commander for players to build around. Doing so may lead your group to try minimizing their Instant and Sorcery count, however, so do be mindful of that.

Powerful New Spells

We've also been shown a handful of awesome spells as part of the Silverquill previews.

Some of these came through yesterday to help fill out the day alongside the various Mystical Archive cards. Each of these is an outstanding piece of removal that are sure to make a splash in Limited and Constructed alike. Stand Up for Yourself might be a bit too low rate for Standard, but the other two cards certainly have quite a bit of potential.

We have our fourth Mythic Rare Lesson of the set, courtesy of mtg_baron_ttv.

Decorum Dissertation is a four-mana Sign in Blood that allows you to repeatedly cast it over and over again. Just one is good enough to leave a major impact on the game. Just imagine how it'll play out if you can drown your opponents in card advantage turn after turn. If you have the mana to do so, of course. You're not required to cast it, so you can hold back on casting it to prevent yourself from dying if you choose to.

Comicbook.com provided us with another cool preview in Fix What's Broken. This spell allows players to return plenty of Artifacts and Creatures from their graveyard to the battlefield, but only for a specific mana value. This can still prove quite strong in the right deck and is certain to be something to watch out for.

Also, while it's not necessarily Witherbloom day yet, we did get one sneaky Witherbloom preview via comicbook.com as well. Vicious Rivalry provides an interesting new take on Pernicious Deed-style effects that will no doubt be a powerful way to devastate opponents.

Both cards feature the same pair of Silverquill and Witherbloom students, which is likely why they were previewed together.

A Sharp Repartee

The Silverquill mechanic for this set is Repartee. This is a variation of Heroic and Valiant that cares about Instants and Sorceries targeting Creatures. Doing so will typically grant you a bonus of some kind.

Stirring Hopesinger, previewed by the Italian Magic: The Gathering Facebook page, is a great example of this. It provides every Creature you control with a +1/+1 counter whenever you cast a spell targeting a Creature. If you build your deck right, that can get out of hand fast, and even turns itself into a massive threat with both Flying and Lifelink.

Lua Stardust also previewed a powerful Repartee rare alongside Nita. Informed Inkwright gives you lots of 1/1 tokens with Flying for casting spells. Casting this on turn two followed by Stirring Hopesinger on turn three means you can set up to generate a monstrous board on turn four.

Making Preparations

First we get Scheming Silvertongue, previewed via bilibili. This card provides a great rate to be somewhat aggressive with a solid rate and both Flying and Lifelink. If you can pump it or use an additional means of life gain, you can also Prepare it and then cast Sign in Blood turn after turn.

That's quite powerful and should definitely see some play in the future simply on raw rate. You should definitely fear this when it comes to Limited play.

The second card with the Prepare mechanic is the fourth official preview containing a spell from Limited Edition Alpha. Previously we saw the likes of Ancestral Recall, Lightning Bolt, and Regrowth on Prepare cards. Now we get the mighty removal spell Swords to Plowshares appearing on a Creature with a fair casting cost and modest Prepare condition.

I'd definitely expect this one to see quite a bit of play in Standard in the near future.

Conclusion

That wraps things up for another stellar day of previews. Secrets of Strixhaven continues to look awesome and these new Silverquill cards look especially potent.

We'll be receiving our final batch of individual previews soon as we look at the last Strixhaven school of Witherbloom. You can expect plenty of Black and Green powerhouses being revealed with the entire set finally dropping soon after.

All that will be left after that is the Prerelease next week, so make sure you check with your local game store and see what events they'll be hosting.

If you want to get some Secrets of Strixhaven cards yourself, be sure to check the set page here on CoolStuffInc as well. Singles, sealed products, and supplies are all ready and available for preorder. They'll all be shipping out on April 17th as the Prerelease events kick off.