If math or physics are your favorite subjects at school, you will relate strongly to Quandrix College i Magic: The Gathering. This particular Strixhaven College is all about learning how the physical laws of the universe work, and this is reflected in its cards, which usually revolve around manipulation.
If you're keen to see which cards revealed so far are worthy of your next Standard or Commander deck, we've got the top five, plus some honorable mentions that just missed for now.
These are preview rankings based on available previews. We'll cover the overall best cards and decks once the set has launched.
Honorable mentions
Here are the cards that didn't quite crack the top five for us:
- Mathematics
- Zimone, infinite analyst
- Fractal mascot
- Cuboid colony
We're happy to have been proven wrong when Secrets of Strixhaven launches, but given that there are also many more cards to reveal, these will struggle to make much of an impact based on what we've seen so far.
Magic: The Gathering Secrets Of Strixhaven – Quandrix Unlimited Commander Deck Breakdown
Get your calculators out, as this Quandrix Commander pre-con focuses heavily on adding +1/+1 counters to creatures and augmenting X-cost spells.
5
Thoughtful professor
Standard & Commander
Thoughtful professor does good use of the Increment mechanic establishing itself as a creature well worth investing in. Its initial cost is only three mana, but then every time you cast an instant or sorcery once it's on the battlefield, it gets a +1/+1 counter, unless the mana spent to cast the spell is equal to or less than its power.
Given that this creature starts at 0/2, there is plenty of room for movement, and aCasting more expensive spells will only make it stronger.
As an added benefit, each time one or more +1/+1 counters are added to Pensive Professor, you draw a card.
4
Quandrix Charm
Standard & Commander
Despite not being one of the Strixhaven charm cards added to the Quandrix Unlimited Commander deck by default, we still like what Quandrix Charm brings to the table.
It's a moment too counters a target spell unless the owner pays two more mana, destroys a target enchantment, or grants a target creature 5/5 base power and toughness until end of turn.
Four of these in a deck offers plenty of utility in standard play, but it's perhaps a bit of a “blink, and it's gone” card in Commander if you don't have a way to bring it back from the graveyard to your hand.
3
Quandrix, the proof
Standard & Commander
This elder dragon that represents this Strixhaven College is not quite as effective as some of the othersbut it mainly depends on the initial cost relevant to its usefulness.
It costs six mana and is one 6/6 flying creature with stomp. But it also cascades all your spells, meaning that when you cast a spell, you exile cards from the top of your library until you draw a non-land card that costs less than the original spell, casting it for free.
Again, probably the high cost rules it out as a commanderbut it's well worth considering as part of a deck, and running a copy or two in Standard will be entirely profitable if surrounded by the right cards.
Standard & Commander
This four mana legendary can only come into play as a 1/4, but it depends it also comes with Incrementwhich we saw is put to good use by the thoughtful professor and is the exclusive mechanic of Quandrix College.
This means that whenever you cast a spell, if the mana used is greater than Berta's power, it gains a +1/+1 counter.
In addition to this, you can also pay X and press Submit to create a 0/0 green and blue fractal creature with X +1/+1 counters on it. There is enough versatility with this creature that it does worth playing in Simic Commander decksand while it may not have an immediate impact on the standard format, we're eager to see what players can come up with when it comes to Quandrix decks.
1
Tame, observant sequencer
Standard & Commander
When it comes to the best Quandrix card revealed so far, our pick is Tam, Observant Sequencer. It's not just pretty decent four mana, 4/3 legendary creaturebut it comes with a preparatory spell that lets you draw a card and gain a life.
Even better, the way to prepare Tam, the Observant Sequencer, is via landfalland the prep spell, Deep Sight, only costs one green and one blue mana, so it's entirely possible you can cast this multiple times per turn when paired with land fetch spells and lands like Fabled Passage.
We can see this essence a Commander staple for Simic decks going forwardand the card is also more than viable for Standard, although it may take time to find its feet in the current meta.
Magic: The Gathering – Secrets Of Strixhaven Commander Deck Guide
The mystical colleges of Magic: The Gathering return in five new Commander decks, each with their own unique playstyle and elegant leaders.
