The Secrets of Strixhaven Commander decks contains the following:

• 1 Ready-to-play 100-card Commander deck
• 1 Traditional foil face commander with borderless art
• 1 Traditional foil featured commander with borderless art
• 98 Non-foil cards, including 10 new-to-Magic cards
• 10 Double-sided tokens
• 1 Reference card
• 1 Deck box

Quintorius, History ChaserQuintorius, History Chaser

With Lorehold Spirit, we get the only commander in the set that's also a planeswalker in Quintorius, History Chaser. The elephant man's still all about unearthing antiquities of yore, with a static ability that provides a 3/2 red and white Spirit token whenever one or more cards leave your graveyard.

With such an open-ended condition, there's a lot of room for creativity when it comes to exactly how you'll get a card or cards out of the 'yard. But as you'll see, Lorehold Spirit tends to focus on just one such way: reanimation. We'll get to that in a bit.

Quintorius comes into play with five loyalty counters, which is a pretty good rate for a four-mana planeswalker, especially one who sees both abilities priced reasonably enough to fire off either right away.

For +1, Quint puts two cards into the graveyard for you to later retrieve, via discard and mill. You also get to replace that one discard with two cards drawn.

And if you've already got an army of Spirits at your beck and call, Quint supercharges them for -4, providing double strike and vigilance to your spectral squad.

Being able to use either ability the turn Quint hits the battlefield is excellent, as there's no effort needed to build up to an ultimate ability. But really, a deck led by Quintorius, History Chaser is one that's focused most on the static ability.

Excava, the Risen PastExcava, the Risen Past

Joining Quintorius is Excava, the Risen Past, a four-mana 3/3 Spirit Horse with flying and haste. Yes, it has flying, despite not having wings. Expect that detail to be forgotten frequently.

Excava's similar to Quintorius, but in a way mirrored to be complementary. Where Quint wants to see cards leave the graveyard to make Spirit tokens, Excava does the excavations - hence the name - by returning an artifact, creature, or non-Aura enchantment with a mana value three or less to the battlefield every time it attacks.

The exhumed card, regardless of its type, becomes a 1/1 Spirit creature with flying, and gets a finality counter. That finality counter is a detail that some may see as a hindrance to Excava's power level, as you won't be able to forever loop resurrectable spells from the graveyard, but that's probably a good thing.

Regardless, Excava's a good addition to Lorehold Spirit, but like most alternate commanders, a deck built specifically for it will see it do wonders.

Augusta, Order ReturnedAugusta, Order Returned

The first new card in Lorehold Spirit is another legendary creature: Augusta, Order Returned. For three mana you're getting a 1/3 Spirit Advisor with flying and vigilance that vacuums up one card from each player's graveyard per attack. Each player chooses their own target for Augusta to eat.

For each of those cards that are nonlands, you'll bestow a +1/+1 counter on target attacking creature. So, for an average game of Commander, Augusta will boost an attacking creature (including Augusta itself, possibly) with up to four +1/+1 counters possible. Likely, it'll be less than that, should an opponent choose a land to exile, or they simply don't have any cards in their 'yard to pitch.

It's still a fine rate, albeit a bit underwhelming if Augusta doesn't get rolling until the late game. However, as an enabler for Quintorius, that's a guaranteed Spirit token every turn.

Lorehold ArchivistLorehold Archivist

Our first prepared creature of the Lorehold Spirit deck is Lorehold Archivist, who has a spell called Restore Relic in its pocket. Restore Relic, for four mana, exiles target artifact or creature from your graveyard, then makes a token copy of it.

To become prepared, Lorehold Archivist needs to see on your upkeep at least three artifacts or creatures in your graveyard to restore.

Having a way to reliably get a second copy of any artifact or creature in your deck is very powerful, and even though you're only going to restore that relic once, once should be enough when you're doing it every turn. Any self-respecting self-mill deck will satisfy the conditions of the Archivist's prep easily.

And Lorehold Spirit might just be a self-respecting self-mill deck.

Naktamun LorespinnerNaktamun Lorespinner

From one creature with prepare to another, but this one, Naktamun Lorespinner, brings with it a much more famous spell in Wheel of FortuneWheel of Fortune.

Wheel's got its supporters and its detractors in Commander, but the one thing everyone can agree on is that it's insanely powerful, so stapling that onto a 3/3 Jackal Wizard should get your attention. It must be really hard to prepare Naktamun Lorespinner, then, right? If it can just cast Wheel?

Well, no. Not at all difficult, really. The only thing that needs to happen is that at the beginning of your upkeep, a player has to have one or fewer cards in hand. That's it.

This'll be a good way to fill the graveyard for Quint-related shenanigans, but look for Naktamun Lorespinner to revive people's hatred of playing against Nekusar, the MindrazerNekusar, the Mindrazer decks.

Relic RetrieverRelic Retriever

A 2/1 first strike for two mana, Relic Retriever is a Spirit Monkey that doesn't need a wall of text to make an impact on the game.

At the beginning of each end step, if a card left your graveyard - something that you're doing regularly anyway, if you're playing Lorehold Spirit - then you create a Treasure token. That might be four Treasure tokens per turn cycle, should your 'yard be adequately stocked.

Relic Retriever won't be an auto-include in every red deck like a certain other Treasure-making two-dropTreasure-making two-drop used to be, but for decks that can reliably trigger its condition, it's going to be a fine substitute.

Spirit of ResilienceSpirit of Resilience

Fittingly, Spirit of Resilience is a Spirit Warrior, specifically a 2/2 for three mana.

Like Quintorius, Spirit of Resilience also loves seeing cards leave your graveyard, but instead of making a Spirit token, you're making, well, anything. Kinda.

When Spirit of Resilience sees a card or cards leave your 'yard, it gets a +1/+1 counter on it then becomes a copy of an artifact or creature that just left the graveyard. It's limiting in its ability to morph into something else, but unlike Lorehold Archivist, there's the possibility of using the same card repeatedly. Spirit of Resilience doesn't care how a card is leaving the graveyard, after all.

Vanguard of the RestlessVanguard of the Restless

Another 2/2 for three mana, Vanguard of the Restless is a Spirit Knight with flying that fits right in among a deck centered around the Spirit creature type.

Vanguard serves as an AnthemAnthem for Spirits, getting one better every time you cast your commander, which is obviously more powerful in a deck that might see you cast your commander three or more times - likely not this one, when Quint will likely only be cast a few times, starting at four mana.

That said, it's got a built-in way to trigger Quint and every other card in Lorehold Spirit that cares about cards leaving the graveyard, which will come in handy.

Advanced ReconstructionAdvanced Reconstruction

Lorehold Spirit's class is Advanced Reconstruction, a four-mana enchantment that starts off by providing a small but very powerful bit of card advantage, allowing you at the beginning of your first main phase to first mill a card, then exile a card at random from the graveyard, which can then be played.

That by itself is already good enough for consideration, but when Advanced Reconstruction ramps up to levels two and three, it really gets going. Level 2 adds on an addendum that deals two damage to each opponent whenever one or more cards leave your graveyard, and Level 3 goes even further, giving any spell cast from anywhere other than your hand a generic two-mana discount.

You know what costs two mana and is casting a spell from a place that's not your hand? Airbending.

Ceaseless ConflictCeaseless Conflict

A new board wipe is always welcome, even one that costs five mana.

Ceaseless Conflict wipes the board and wipes it good, flatly destroying all creatures without conditions. But you're paying that extra one mana over Day of JudgmentDay of Judgment because for each nontoken creature of yours destroyed, you get refunded a 3/2 Spirit token.

Board wipes are played because they allow slower decks to restore parity to a game. Board wipes that give you a bunch of creatures after they resolve do not restore parity; they tilt everything in your favor.

Fateful TempestFateful Tempest

We get the first new council's dilemma card in three years in Fateful Tempest, a three-mana sorcery.

This time, we're breaking out the ballots to vote "past" or "present." For each "past" vote, you mill a card, then Fateful Tempest nukes each opponent equal to the mana value of all the cards milled. For a "present" vote, you instead exile the top card of your library, and those cards are able to be played until the end of your next turn.

Both voting outcomes benefit you, but like all cards that provide a choice to opponents, whichever option benefits you the least in that moment is the one everyone's going to pick.

Turbulent SteppeTurbulent Steppe

Like all Secrets of Strixhaven Commander decks, Lorehold Spirit gets a Turbulent land in its colors, with Steppe being the red/white entry.

Debates on if the art depicts a land made entirely of cinnamon rolls aside, Turbulent lands are going to be very good in Commander and are worth stocking up on.

The key to Lorehold Spirit is to, well, make Spirits. It's a Spirit typal deck with extra steps, but it's those extra steps that make the deck interesting.

First, if we look at which creatures in the deck are already Spirits on their own, we'll see that there are a lot of them. To be exact, 19. And that's not counting the cards that make Spirits, like our elephant friend Quintorius, History Chaser.

• Quintorius, LoremasterQuintorius, Loremaster
• Quintorius, Field HistorianQuintorius, Field Historian
• Hofri GhostforgeHofri Ghostforge
• Excava, the Risen PastExcava, the Risen Past
• Staff of the StorytellerStaff of the Storyteller
• Ceaseless ConflictCeaseless Conflict

So that's 19 Spirits, plus six more cards that can create Spirit tokens. That's a pretty solid foundation for a deck built around a specific creature type, as this one is. And among those 25 cards, there are also a number of cards that support a type-specific build, like Vanguard of the RestlessVanguard of the Restless or Patchwork BannerPatchwork Banner.

What sets Lorehold Spirit apart from your run-of-the-mill Spirit typal deck, however, is its devotion to the strategy encouraged by Quintorius, namely the whole "take stuff out of the graveyard" schtick. That comes in several forms in the deck, with the most powerful being straight-up Reanimator-esque.

• Primary ResearchPrimary Research
• Venerable WarsingerVenerable Warsinger
• Teshar, Ancestor's ApostleTeshar, Ancestor's Apostle
• Sun TitanSun Titan
• Serra ParagonSerra Paragon
• Karmic GuideKarmic Guide
• Guardian ScalelordGuardian Scalelord
• Angel of IndemnityAngel of Indemnity
• Sevinne's ReclamationSevinne's Reclamation

That's a whopping nine cards dedicated to reanimation (10 if you count Emeria, the Sky RuinEmeria, the Sky Ruin), but you'll notice most of those cards carry conditions on them, namely that the reanimation targets will need to be permanents - and cheap ones, at that. Hence why Lorehold Spirit only has a total of 12 nonpermanent spells, and only 11 permanent spells (out of 50) that cost five or more mana.

The hope is that every time one of those cards is used to pull something out of the graveyard, you'll get a number of favorable triggers, like Quintorius's, to make the good proposition of returning a permanent even better.

While this deck has not one, not two, but three Quints, they all largely do the same thing. But there are a few other cards that care about cards exiting the 'yard that aren't anthropomorphic elephants:

• Primary ResearchPrimary Research
• Spirit of ResilienceSpirit of Resilience
• Laelia, the Blade ReforgedLaelia, the Blade Reforged
• Kirol, History BuffKirol, History Buff

It takes a bit of build-up to really get the machine of in-graveyard-out going, which is where we see card advantage and interaction play a role:

• Path to ExilePath to Exile
• Swords to PlowsharesSwords to Plowshares
• Lorehold CharmLorehold Charm
• Tocasia's WelcomeTocasia's Welcome
• Kami of Ancient LawKami of Ancient Law
• Skyclave ApparitionSkyclave Apparition
• Wave of ReckoningWave of Reckoning
• Tragic ArroganceTragic Arrogance
• Seize the SpoilsSeize the Spoils
• Rip ApartRip Apart
• Faithless LootingFaithless Looting

The one benefit of having a planeswalker as a commander is that creature-specific board wipes can be cast with impunity. We know Quint will just amass another Spirit token team shortly thereafter.

And, as you might expect, all this effort is really just to win via combat damage, a goal sped up considerably by the hoofiest Spirit there is, Moonshaker CavalryMoonshaker Cavalry.

As we see from our friends at Commander Spellbook, there are no inherent combos contained within Lorehold Spirit.

We already highlighted one potential combo above, however, with Advanced Reconstruction, and there are plenty of cards in the deck that are known to be part of some nasty combos.

Since we have a Sun TitanSun Titan already, it's not that much further of a stretch to add a Fiend HunterFiend Hunter and Ashnod's AltarAshnod's Altar to get infinite colorless mana, death triggers, and more:

And speaking of Ashnod's Altar, it turns out that that card can be problematic when it comes to combos. Just pair it with the Karmic GuideKarmic Guide already in the deck, along with its good buddy ReveillarkReveillark, to once again go infinite:

It's a classic combo, and appears in more than 10,000 decks on EDHREC, so you know it's good.

Lorehold Spirit is pretty land-heavy, with 37 of them among the 99 of the deck. It makes sense, since with all the self-mill and graveyard manipulation, we want to avoid the feel-bad scenario of milling the one land we needed.

Most of those 37 lands are here to produce mana, be it one or two colors, but still, there are a few that see inclusions for the little spice they provide:

• Emeria, the Sky RuinEmeria, the Sky Ruin
• Mistveil PlainsMistveil Plains
• Fields of StrifeFields of Strife

Emeria, the Sky Ruin is pretty self-explanatory in a deck like this one, though amassing seven Plains to get it to trigger might be a challenge unless the game goes on for a long time.

Mistveil Plains, though, is a sneaky good inclusion, as the innocuous ability of putting a card in the graveyard onto the bottom of your library is a lot scarier in this deck than it normally would be. And, it's a Plains, for Emeria!

Similar to Mistveil Plains, Fields of Strife is a land that would usually be considered perfectly, maybe even aggressively, average. But in Lorehold Spirit? Surveil becomes much more useful to fill up the graveyard.

As for mana rocks, the standard trio of Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, and Fellwar Stone are here of course, but there are a few much more interesting picks, too:

• Archaeomancer's MapArchaeomancer's Map
• Bitterthorn, Nissa's AnimusBitterthorn, Nissa's Animus
• Patchwork BannerPatchwork Banner
• MillikinMillikin

All four of those cards fit in very well here, even Bitterthorn which at first seems wildly out-of-place. But if we thought it might be tough to hit seven lands for Emeria, Bitterthorn's a way to make it easier.

Like all of the Secrets of Strixhaven Commander decks, Lorehold Spirit retails for $49.99.

At the moment, the deck together, if you were to buy every card individually, would run you around $300, but much of that number is misleading due to the preorder prices for the 12 new cards being inflated.

If we throw those cards out, the remaining deck would be $153. That's still a pretty solid number, and it's helped out by a few very, very good reprints.

Of those reprints, the top five in terms of value are:

• Wave of ReckoningWave of Reckoning
• Emeria, the Sky RuinEmeria, the Sky Ruin
• Bitterthorn, Nissa's AnimusBitterthorn, Nissa's Animus
• Currency ConverterCurrency Converter
• DrumbellowerDrumbellower

The best preconstructed decks are the ones that take a known-to-be-fun strategy, add an interesting twist to it, and craft a synergistic core around it while sprinkling in a number of sought-after reprints.

That's a lot of boxes to check, but Lorehold Spirit checks them all. For that, the deck gets an A-.