Silverquill, the Disputant is my favorite new elder dragon from Secrets of Strixhaven. His unique ability to copy an Instant or Sorcery spell in Orzhov is a really different angle to take this color combination. The most common direction to take this brand new Legendary Dragon is to go wide with a massive token army. I would like to take this Commander in a different direction: Reanimator.

Reanimator is a very popular archetype for many different formats in Magic: the Gathering. From Standard to Commander to Cube, Reanimator is a fun, splashy way to take down your opponent. Reanimate is the best card for bringing a Creature back from the graveyard, but what if we had two of them. No, I am not suggesting we cheat in a game of Commander and include multiple copies in our list, however, our good friend Silverquill, the Disputant can copy the Reanimate spell for us.

Let's dive into how to get Creatures in the graveyard in Orzhov and how much better those cards can be when we have the ability to copy them.

Filling Up the Yard

Buried Alive is a Reanimator staple. Only paying three mana to put three of your best Creatures into the graveyard is a rate that cannot be beat. Copying this spell results in getting six Creatures into the graveyard for only three mana. Remember, if you're building up your graveyard that quickly, you have be to wary of cards like Scavenging Ooze and Bojuka Bog.

Entomb is also present in this list for the exact same reason as Buried Alive, but only gets one to two Creatures if copied. Diresight is another perfect example of an Instant or Sorcery that only gets better the more copies we have. It adds cards to our hand, but can also dump Creatures into the yard with its Surveil ability.

Price of Fame used to be a Commander staple, well at least for me. Removing someone's Commander for only two mana and getting some card selection seemed like a pretty great rate to me when I first started playing the format. Nowadays it is a little outshined by most other pieces of removal, but I believe copying it and being able to mill four cards is powerful enough to make the cut here.

Twilight Diviner is a pretty recent card from Lorwyn Eclipsed that goes absolutely crazy in any deck focused on bringing back the dead. It fills the graveyard when it enters and then creates a copy of the first card you Reanimate each turn. I personally have played with this card and can attest to the sheer power that this three-drop holds. It puts your opponents in a situation where they need to remove a three-cost Creature instead of your massive threats that will come out in the late game.

These cards are all great. However, to take full advantage of Silverquill's ability we need some sacrifice fodder.

Tokens for the Cause

Bitterblossom and Bitterbloom Bearer are probably the best that these colors have access to. It is incredibly easy to play these on turn two and slowly gain a few tokens in the early part of the game at the cost of a few life. That way you will be ready to copy an Instant or Sorcery spell the turn that Silverquill comes into play.

Skrelv's Hive and Dreadhorde Invasion essentially fill similar roles, but at a worse rate. Skrelv's Mite tokens can't block and Dreadhorde Invasion will just keep growing your single army token, but they still create a token each turn that you can sacrifice to Casualty. These two cards are also incredibly budget friendly if Bitterblossom and its bearer are a little out of your reach.

Infestation Sage and Greedy Freebooter do not create tokens each turn like the cards above, but they are only one-mana investment. These cards are perfect for when you are lacking a Creature to sacrifice to copy a spell, for only a single mana you can slam them down and sacrifice them immediately.

Purple Pentapus and Dogged Detective do not create Creature tokens, but they can keep coming back from the graveyard to be sacrificed again. They also have an enters-the-battlefield ability to Surveil. This pair can sneak off with lots of advantage for being in play or in the graveyard, making them great at any point of the game.

With the graveyard filled and Casualty fodder provided, now we need to figure out which spells we're going to be copying with Silverquill.

Reanimation Spells

One of the most important spells of this deck are the ones that the entire archetype is named after: the Reanimation spells. Reanimate is obviously present here, but there are many, many more. Grave Researcher is essentially another copy of the famous Black Sorcery, but on a Creature that helps fill the graveyard.

Dread Return and Persist are pretty common finds in a deck focused on bringing back massive threats from the graveyard. These cards double in power when you can copy them with Silverquill.

The real spicy inclusions are cards like Bond of Revival and Incarnation Technique. Bond of Revival is a card that doesn't see a ton of play thanks to its large mana cost, but giving a reanimated Creature Haste is very impactful, depending on what you decide to target with this spell. Incarnation Technique is one of the splashiest spells in the deck and almost feels like resolving multiple cascade triggers. Everyone holds their breath to see what cards you flip off the top of your library.

Breach the Multiverse and Rejoin the Fight bring back multiple Creatures at once, and if any of these spells happen to get copied by Silverquill, you are almost guaranteed victory. Breach the Multiverse also has a chance to ruin your opponents day by milling over a fifth of their library.

With a focus on filling the graveyard and bringing Creatures back from the dead, we need to decide which giant monsters we want to pitch and return as part of our gameplan.

The Threats

Archon of Coronation and Archon of Cruelty are really cool Creatures in Orzhov colors. Both of them will help refill your hand with cards and provide a threat in the air for your opponents. Lord of the Void will provide you with some free spells almost to the effect of Etali, Primal Conqueror.

Crabomination has a home here as well since we play lots of Artifact ramp in White and Black, which we'll need to sacrifice to help pay for the Emerge cost. Valgavoth, Terror Eater puts the same fear in your opponent as an Eldrazi Titan does, giving you access to your opponents spells for the cost of some life. The Dawning Archaic can recast reanimation spells from the graveyard each time it attacks, turning it into a super Sun Titan.

Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts not only makes it miserable for your opponents to deal you combat damage, but provides you with 1/1 tokens you can sacrifice to Silverquill. Summon: Knights of Round and Overlord of the Mistmoors create small token armies which can be used for alpha striking or paying for Casualty.

Moonshaker Cavalry and Salvation Colossus help close out the game when you combine the power boosts they grant with the token generators this deck plays in the 99. Summon: Bahamut is an alternative way to end the game by dealing enough damage to knock out all opponents at once.

Behold the Beyond also can function as a one card win condition. If you copy it, you search for three cards and discard them immediately, which works as a Buried Alive. Then with the copy you search for all your reanimation spells, setting yourself up nicely for the remainder of the game. The only thing holding this little "combo" back is the seven mana investment that Behold the Beyond requires.

There are a few other cool massive threats to cheat into play, and you can check them out in the full decklist.

The Decklist

Silverquill, the Disputant | Commander | Nigel Kurtz

• Commander (1)
• 1 Silverquill, the Disputant

• Creatures (29)
• 1 Archon of Coronation
• 1 Archon of Cruelty
• 1 Ardyn, the Usurper
• 1 Bitterbloom Bearer
• 1 Boggart Trawler
• 1 Crabomination
• 1 Dogged Detective
• 1 Gold Myr
• 1 Grave Researcher
• 1 Greedy Freebooter
• 1 Infestation Sage
• 1 Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia
• 1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 1 Leaden Myr
• 1 Lord of the Void
• 1 Moonshaker Cavalry
• 1 Myr Convert
• 1 Overlord of the Mistmoors
• 1 Plague Myr
• 1 Purple Pentapus
• 1 Salvation Colossus
• 1 Summon: Bahamut
• 1 Summon: Knights of Round
• 1 Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts
• 1 The Dawning Archaic
• 1 Twilight Diviner
• 1 Valgavoth, Terror Eater
• 1 Vilis, Broker of Blood
• 1 Witch Enchanter

• Instants (10)
• 1 Bitter Triumph
• 1 Cabal Ritual
• 1 Dark Ritual
• 1 Entomb
• 1 Fell the Profane
• 1 Get Lost
• 1 Pile On
• 1 Price of Fame
• 1 Razorgrass Ambush
• 1 Soul Shatter

• Sorceries (17)
• 1 Behold the Beyond
• 1 Bond of Revival
• 1 Breach the Multiverse
• 1 Buried Alive
• 1 Diresight
• 1 Dread Return
• 1 Hymn of the Faller
• 1 Idyllic Tutor
• 1 Incarnation Technique
• 1 Makindi Stampede
• 1 Persist
• 1 Rankle's Prank
• 1 Reanimate
• 1 Rejoin the Fight
• 1 Summon Undead
• 1 Unburial Rites
• 1 Zof Consumption

• Enchantments (6)
• 1 Animate Dead
• 1 Bitterblossom
• 1 Dreadhorde Invasion
• 1 Necromancy
• 1 Ripples of Undeath
• 1 Skrelv's Hive

• Artifacts (8)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Coin of Fate
• 1 Coldsteel Heart
• 1 Collector's Vault
• 1 Everflowing Chalice
• 1 Fellwar Stone
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Wayfarer's Bauble

• Lands (29)
• 6 Plains
• 10 Swamp
• 1 Brightclimb Pathway
• 1 Castle Ardenvale
• 1 Caves of Koilos
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Isolated Chapel
• 1 Midgar, City of Mako
• 1 Shadowy Backstreet
• 1 Silent Clearing
• 1 Tomb Fortress
• 1 Vault of Champions

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Wrapping Up

That wraps up looking at Silverquill, the Disputant, a very unique Commander for Orzhov. I believe this is an interesting way to take this Legendary Fragon that doesn't require 50 different tokens with dice towers piled on all of them. If you enjoy that, more power to you.

All five of these brand new dragons from Secrets of Strixhaven are pretty awesome and have plenty of potential to be explored in Commander.

See you on the battlefield!

-Nigel