If Magic: The Gathering As archetypes go, Witherbloom College of Strixhaven offers some of the most satisfying, thanks to a delicately balanced backdrop of life and death that reinforces the school's beliefs. Internally, there may be a power struggle between its deans, but it makes for fantastic lore and some even better deck mechanics.
There are some really powerful cards on display for the black and green clan in Secrets of Strixhaven, and we've picked our top five of those revealed so far, as well as a few honorable mentions.
Honorable Mentions
Here are some of our picks that didn't quite crack the top five, though they may do well across formats once the set launches.
- Intermediate chirography
- A bloody artist
- Oracle recovery
- Pest savior
- Lluwen, exchange student
- Pest mascot
Magic: The Gathering Secrets Of Strixhaven – Witherbloom Pestilence Commander Deck Breakdown
Witherbloom is all about life's gain and sacrifice, so here's what we know about his Commander prequels, including a list of decks and possible upgrades.
5
Witherbloom magic
Standard & Commander
One of the few cards in the charm cycle that we currently rate fairly highly is Witherbloom Charm, mainly because all three options on the tab are incredibly useful in most game situations and with four copies in a standard deck, it can add a lot of versatility to your immediate repertoire.
For one black and one green mana you can either gain five life, sacrifice a permanent to draw two cards, or destroy a target non-land permanent that costs two mana or less.
Both life gain and sacrifice they fit well with other Witherbloom mechanicswhile destroying a low-mana target can get you out of some sticky early-game situations against decks like Mono-White Auras.
4
The Withering Curse
Standard & Commander
This three-mana sorcery makes great use of the Infusion mechanic, which is exclusive to Witherbloom if at any point in your turn you gain life before playing an instant or sorcery, it turns into a stronger version of itself.
Infusion does not offer a chance to cast a spell at the cost of Infusion; if you gained life, the Infusion spell will be cast with only its Infusion effects.
Basic magic gives all creatures -2/-2 until end of turnand this will kill and remove all creatures that have a toughness of two or less. However, if you gained a life before casting, that place destroys all creatures.
It's a great way to improve a spell that's already very useful in certain situations. You may even find that you only want to cast this card for -2/-2 based on board state. Just be careful not to gain life before casting it if so.
3
Beledros Witherbloom
Commander
This Commander-only version of the Witherbloom Elder Dragon may cost seven mana to cast, but it's there well worth the expense if you can get him on the battlefield.
Not only is this creature a 4/4 flier but at the start of each upkeep you create a 1/1 black and green pest. Whenever one of these pests dies, you gain one life.
The card says “each upkeep” and not “your upkeep”, meaning you generate a token for each player's upkeep.
Besides, you can pay 10 life to untap all landsbut you can only do this once per round. It also doesn't say it has to be done as a sorcery, so it can be done at instant speed to save you if you're tapped but have cards in your hand to take advantage of.
2
Professor Dellian Fel
Standard & Commander
One of two new planeswalkers in the Secrets of Strixhaven set, Professor Dellian Fel has already appeared in the set's debut movie, and will see a lot of play based on this card after the set's launch.
This card comes with four abilities. +2 means you gain three life, while 0 lets you draw a card but lose one life. -3 lets you destroy the target creature and finally -6 gives you an emblem that says “whenever you gain life, the target opponent loses that much life.”
Since this card costs only four mana per hourt, like most Witherbloom, is pretty finely balanced and should see a lot of play across Standard and Commander.
1
Witherbloom, The Balancer
Standard & Commander
This terrifying legendary elder dragon is a 5/5 flying creature with deathtouchbut it costs a whopping eight mana to cast. Fortunately, he has affection for creaturesmeaning that for every creature you have on the board, it costs one less mana to cast.
Affinity only removes colorless mana costs, so Witherbloom, Balancer, in its cheapest version, will still cost one green and one black mana.
Given some potential combinations here get this creature onto the board earlywe can see this creature have quite a bit of impact in Standard, provided there is enough support from the rest of the green and black cards in the deck.
Besides creature affinity, Witherbloom, Balancer, too gives all your instant and sorcery spells creature affinityalso. This again means that spells cost one less mana for each creature you have on the board.
Magic: The Gathering – Secrets Of Strixhaven: 5 Best Silverquill Cards
We take a look at the best Strixhaven MTG cards revealed so far for Silverquill College, the home of white and black magic.
