As far as Magic: The Gathering archetypes go, Witherbloom College of Strixhaven offers some of the most satisfying, thanks to a finely balanced backdrop of life and death that drives the school's beliefs. Internally, there may be a power struggle between its deans, but it provides great skills and even better tire mechanics.
Secrets of Strixhaven features some truly powerful cards for the Black and Green clans, 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, although once the set launches they may well find they thrive in different formats.
- Intermediate Chirography
- Blood artist
- Oracle's restoration
- Pest savior
- Lluwen, exchange student
- Plague mascot
Magic: The Gathering Secrets Of Strixhaven – Witherbloom Pestilence Commander Deck Breakdown
Witherbloom is all about life gains and sacrifices, so here's what we know about its Commander pre-con, including decklist and possible upgrades.
5
Witherbloom Charm
Standard & Commander
One of the few cards from the charm cycle that we currently rate fairly highly is Witherbloom Charm, largely due to all three options on the card are incredibly useful in most game situations, and with four copies in a standard deck, it can add tons of versatility to your instant repertoire.
For only one black and one green mana you can either gain five life, sacrifice a permanent to draw two cards, or permanently destroy a target costing two mana or less.
Both life gain and sacrifices fits well with other Witherbloom mechanicswhile destroying a low mana target can get you out of some awkward early game situations against decks like Mono-White Auras.
4
Withering Curse
Standard & Commander
This three mana sorcery makes heavy use of the Witherbloom exclusive infusion mechanic, which means if you gain life at any time on your turn before playing an instant or sorcery, it transforms into a more powerful version of itself.
Infusion does not offer the chance to enchant for its infusion cost; if you have gained life, an infusion spell will only be cast with its infusion effects.
The basic spell gives all creatures -2/-2 until end of turnand this will kill and remove any creature that has a toughness of two or less. But if you have come to life before the casting, that instead destroy all creatures.
This is a great way to improve a spell that is already extremely useful in certain situations. You may even find that, based on the state of the board, you only want to cast this card for -2/-2. Just be careful not to gain life before casting it if so.
3
Beledros Witherbloom
Commander
This Commander-only version of Witherbloom elder dragon might cost seven mana to cast, but it is well worth the expense if you can get it 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 vermin. Whenever one of these pests dies, you gain a life.
The card states “each upkeep” and not “your upkeep”, meaning you generate a token on each player's upkeep.
In addition to this, you can pay 10 life to remove all landsbut you can only do this once per turn. It also doesn't say that this needs to be done as a sorcery, so this can be done at instant speed to save you if you get tapped but have cards in hand to use.
2
Professor Dellian Wrong
Standard & Commander
One of two new planewalkers in the Secrets of Strixhaven set, Professor Dellian Fel has already appeared in the debut cinematic for the set, and based on this card, he'll see a lot of play once the set launches.
This card is included four abilities. The +2 gives you three life, while the 0 lets you draw a card but lose a life. -3 lets you destroy a target creature, and finally -6 gives you an emblem that says “when you gain life, the target opponent loses that much life.”
Given that this card costs only four mana to cast, it is, like most of Witherbloom, fairly 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 one 5/5 flying creature with deathtouchbut it costs a whopping eight mana to cast. Thank goodness it has connection with beingsmeaning that for every creature you have on the board, it costs one less mana to cast.
Affinity only removes the colorless mana costs, so Witherbloom, the Balancer, at its cheapest, will still cost one green and one black mana.
Considering some of the potential combinations here to get this creature on the board earlywe could see this creature make a big impact in Standard, provided there is enough support from the rest of the green and black cards in the set.
In addition to having affinity for creatures, Witherbloom, Balancer, too gives all your instants and spells affinity with creaturesalso. 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 spells.
