Quintorius, History ChaserQuintorius, History Chaser | Art by Darren Tan

Welcome back to Plot Twist, the series where we build a Commander deck that looks like it's going to tell one kind of story, only to throw out a twist for our opponents mid-game.

Last time, we built a mono-blue Exchange / Theft deck helmed by Kitsune, Dragon's DaughterKitsune, Dragon's Daughter from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that won the game mostly by exchanging bad creatures like Rust ElementalRust Elemental or Thought EaterThought Eater for our opponents' much better creatures.

This week we're taking a look at our first commander from Secrets of Strixhaven and our first ever planeswalker commander: Quintorius, History ChaserQuintorius, History Chaser.

I love building decks with weird restrictions on Plot Twist, so the idea of building around a planeswalker seems like a particularly interesting challenge. Especially since there are now 22 planeswalkers who can be your commander.

Let's dive in!

How Does Quintorius, History ChaserQuintorius, History Chaser Work?

Quintorius, History ChaserQuintorius, History Chaser might be the most complicated commander we've ever featured on Plot Twist. Such is the life of a planeswalker, I suppose. With two activated abilities and a static ability, there's certainly a lot to do and track with Quint.

His static ability is crucial to why we picked him this week and reads: "Whenever one or more cards leave your graveyard, create a 3/2 red and white Spirit creature token." Notably, there's no cap on how many times this ability can trigger, but that it triggers only once no matter how many cards leave our graveyard at once.

We'll lean pretty heavily on Quint's +1 ability, "You may discard a card. If you do, draw two cards, then mill a card" as a form of card advantage and a great way to quickly and repeatedly fill up our graveyard. And while his -4 ability "Spirits you control gain double strike and vigilance until end of turn" is the least likely for us to use, it gives us access to a win condition in the command zone.

In looking at Quint's EDHREC Page, we can see over 150 brewers have already started tinkering with him at the time of writing. There's surprisingly not a clear direction they're going in though, with the most common tag being "tokens" with nine decks. This lack of direction is further reinforced by Swords to PlowsharesSwords to Plowshares and Path to ExilePath to Exile being the two most-played cards in Quintorius decks so far.

There's strong evidence for Spirits typal decks as well with creatures like Selfless SpiritSelfless Spirit, Drogskol ReinforcementsDrogskol Reinforcements, and Venerable WarsingerVenerable Warsinger appearing amongst the most commonly played cards in Quintorius decks so far. These inclusions make a lot of sense given Quintorius both makes Spirits and can help us quickly close out games with them too.

But this is Plot Twist, where we never want to be too expected. So we're building a Quintorius, History Chaser deck with zero Spirits in the list.

Doing the Twist

That's right, zero actual Spirits in this week's deck list. But that isn't quite twisty enough, so we'll still be relying on Spirits and Quintorius as one of our main win conditions. We'll have a ton of ways to trigger Quint's static ability, plus other cards like Storm of SoulsStorm of Souls and Thalia's GeistcallerThalia's Geistcaller that can help us make Spirit tokens while we go about our game plan.

We'll lean heavily on spells we can cast or play from the graveyard like Angel of SanctionsAngel of Sanctions, Waves of AggressionWaves of Aggression, and Unquenchable FuryUnquenchable Fury since they'll trigger our commander when we do, while also being cards we're perfectly fine discarding to a Faithless LootingFaithless Looting-style effect for some card advantage early in the game.

To keep accruing steady advantage over the course of the game we have a lot of reanimator effects, like Abuelo's AwakeningAbuelo's Awakening and Pulsemage AdvocatePulsemage Advocate, to help us get our best creatures back into play again and again. Many of them are repeatable effects or ones we're hoping to cheat to rack up as many Quint triggers as possible.

Overall, this looks to be a Spirits-meets-Reanimator deck that will look at a lot of cards every game. Sounds like fun!

Putting Cards Into Our Graveyard Quickly

We have a lot of "looting" style effects, like the namesake Faithless LootingFaithless Looting, that we're running in this list. They help us churn through our deck rather quickly, so we're playing Bitter ReunionBitter Reunion, Electric RevelationElectric Revelation, and Laughing MadLaughing Mad, to name a few more. So many of these can even be cast from our graveyard too!

Cavalier of FlameCavalier of Flame is rather expensive for a draw and discard effect, but it gives our deck a bit of reach since there's bound to be some amount of lands in our graveyard by the time it dies. It also has the ability to buff our creatures and give them haste for , giving us quite a few different effects that we want on a single card.

SnortSnort is a really interesting Wheel of FortuneWheel of Fortune-effect that we're running. First and foremost it has flashback, so we can cast it an additional time. It can net us cards since we'll always draw five cards off of it too, while many of these effects will leave us down a card or neutral at best. Plus it can do five damage to each of our opponents that decides they want to discard and draw too!

One of our Game Changers is, of course, GambleGamble (AKA the red EntombEntomb) because sometimes we need to keep ourselves humble by tutoring up a card and then immediately discarding it. There are plenty of cards like Squee, Goblin NabobSquee, Goblin Nabob and Arden AngelArden Angel that we'll be happy to discard with Gamble too.

Interacting with / from the Graveyard

Speaking of Squee, Goblin NabobSquee, Goblin Nabob and Arden AngelArden Angel (which I had never seen before building this week's list) are two engines that can potentially power this deck. Given both have the ability to return themselves from our graveyard to our hand / battlefield for free, turn after turn, we'll be more than happy to have them in our opening hand. I have a distinct memory of opening Squee in a pack as a kid and being disappointed, but maybe 12-year-old me just didn't know his potential!

Release to MemoryRelease to Memory can be a huge, swing-y effect if we time it right. If we can exile an opponent's graveyard on the end step before our turn, then untap and cast Quintorius, History ChaserQuintorius, History Chaser and give all our new spirits vigilance and double strike we should be able to knock out at least one opponent. Plus, we can show other graveyard decks who's the boss too.

Normally, Auras get a lot of flack, but two potentially good ones for Quintorius decks are The Sound of DrumsThe Sound of Drums and Unquenchable FuryUnquenchable Fury. The Sound of Drums acts as a way for us to interact with the most serious creature on the board that we can get back from our graveyard for .

Meanwhile, Unquenchable Fury helps us close out the game faster with our Spirits and returns itself to our hand whenever it goes to our graveyard from the battlefield.

We've got a ton of of cards with flashback and similar effects to cast/recur from our graveyard too. Phlage, Titan of Fire's FuryPhlage, Titan of Fire's Fury is an early removal spell that can become a game-ending threat later on, ShenanigansShenanigans is artifact removal that can return itself to our hand, and GloryGlory can be a protection spell or a way to give our team evasion when we need it to.

With so many cards we can recast from our graveyard, it's like having an whole extra hand sometimes.

More Quintorius-Like Effects

We're definitely going to be relying on Quintorius to generate a lot of value as cards enter and leave our graveyard, but we don't want Quintorius, History ChaserQuintorius, History Chaser to be the only version of this effect in our deck. Fortunately, two other version of Quint are here to help: Quintorius, Field HistorianQuintorius, Field Historian and Quintorius, LoremasterQuintorius, Loremaster.

Quintorius, Field HistorianQuintorius, Field Historian has the exact same text as our commander's static ability, giving us a functional second copy in our 99. Meanwhile, Quintorius, LoremasterQuintorius, Loremaster will also net us a 3/2 Spirit token, and trigger both our commander and Quintorius, Field Historian.

Apparently we've accidentally created some sort of Quintorius perepetual motion machine in our list this week.

On Wings of GoldOn Wings of Gold is a relatively new effect that will net us a 1/1 Zombie when one or more cards leave our graveyard, but it also buffs our tokens and gives them flying which will help out all the 3/2 Spirits we have running around.

Thalia's GeistcallerThalia's Geistcaller is probably the most limited version of this effect, but we are running a healthy amount of spells we can cast from our graveyard.

Hofri GhostforgeHofri Ghostforge isn't exactly the same as the various Quintoriuses in our deck, but it will create Spirit token copies of our other creatures when they die, which might be even better.

SéanceSéance does a similar effect on a more limited scale than Hofri, and while we don't love exiling our creatures for good, we're happy to get the extra token copies and potential "card leaves graveyard" triggers.

Reanimating Everything

If you've been following Plot Twist, then you know I'm a sucker for Reanimator decks, and boy do we have a lot of great options to run in this week's deck list.

Abuelo's AwakeningAbuelo's Awakening will reanimate an artifact or enchantment and turn it into a Spirit for us. That's so many things we want to do at once! We can even pump more mana into it to buff the now-creature if we want to. There aren't a ton of effects out there that will allow us to return artifacts and enchantments in red and white, so we're happy to have this one to get back a Smothering TitheSmothering Tithe or Cathars' CrusadeCathars' Crusade.

We have a couple of effects that will reliably get us back one creature a turn in Celestine, the Living SaintCelestine, the Living Saint, Emeria ShepherdEmeria Shepherd, Guardian ScalelordGuardian Scalelord, Pulsemage AdvocatePulsemage Advocate, and Reya DawnbringerReya Dawnbringer. We might actually prefer these effects to mass reanimation spells like Storm of SoulsStorm of Souls since they'll trigger Quintorius and our other similar effects more often.

Storm of SoulsStorm of Souls is our only true mass reanimation spell in the list. It's great because it'll get us a bunch of Spirits at once, and notably it doesn't exile the creatures from our graveyard to make token copies so they'll go back to our graveyard again when they die. We probably don't want to run more mass reanimation effects since they'd only trigger Quint once, but it's hard to pass up on the value of getting so many creatures back for six mana.

Angelic RenewalAngelic Renewal merits a special callout because it works so well with Sun TitanSun Titan, Guardian ScalelordGuardian Scalelord, and Emeria ShepherdEmeria Shepherd. Being able to get Angelic Renewal back again and again after it returns our creatures creates the sort of value engines this deck will thrive off of. While it's clunky, it's also not the sort of card an opponent is going to be happy to spend removal on.

Winning the Game With Quintorius, History ChaserQuintorius, History Chaser

Like many Plot Twist decks, our commander is going to be one of our main win conditions. Quintorius, History ChaserQuintorius, History Chaser can build out a solid board state of Spirits for us over the course of the game with his static ability, and his -4 ability gives all of our Spirits double strike and vigilance so they can quickly attack for lethal. We don't even need to wait a turn for Quint to have enough loyalty since he enters with five.

Hallowed HauntingHallowed Haunting also seems tailor made for this deck since it makes Spirit tokens that grow stronger the more Spirits we control and gives our creatures flying and vigilance as long as we control seven or more enchantments. This card definitely wants us to run even more enchantments if we could, but hopefully the amount of cards we're drawing and discarding each game can help somewhat.

We've got quite a few ways to buff our team in Cathars' CrusadeCathars' Crusade, Auron's InspirationAuron's Inspiration, and Rally the PeasantsRally the Peasants. Auron's Inspiration and Rally the Peasants are even instants if we find a good time to buff our unblocked spirits to knock out an opponent. They'll be more telegraphed if we flash them back from our graveyard, but there are plenty of games we'll want to discard them early to another draw spell.

Waves of AggressionWaves of Aggression is a fantastic extra combat spell that we can cast again and again as long as we have a land to discard. If we have Quintorius or another effect that cares about cards leaving our graveyard, we'll net a nice little bonus every time we cast it using retrace too.

A Few Additional Twists for Good Measure

It's the best time of the week! The time where we talk about weird cards that made this week's deck list.

First and foremost, the colorless utility lands this deck is running are fantastic. Drownyard TempleDrownyard Temple is a fantastic card to pitch to any of our red "looting" effects since we can later pay to play it from our graveyard as a sort of weird Natural ConnectionNatural Connection-esque ramp effect. Hall of Heliod's GenerosityHall of Heliod's Generosity always merits including in a deck with this many enchantments and it triggers our commander too.

Squee, Goblin NabobSquee, Goblin Nabob is the sort of card you'd be disappointed to open in a booster pack, but it's another amazing card to discard since it returns itself to our hand at the beginning of our upkeep so we can discard it all over again. Arden AngelArden Angel is a similar effect, if less reliable. These two cards trigger Quintorius and similar effects without any additional effort or mana on our part so we can build a little extra value turn after turn.

Pulsemage AdvocatePulsemage Advocate is such an interesting reanimation effect. Giving an opponent three cards back from their graveyard is a steep cost, but we can play around that downside in a variety of ways. It's fantastic if we're planning to win the game that turn, an opponent has a full grip of cards already, has a bunch of lands in their graveyard, etc. We can also use it as a political tool or a way to help an opponent catch back up.

Finally, Ghost VacuumGhost Vacuum seems like it'll really shine here, much like it did in Plot Twist #30. It can repeatedly trigger our commander, provided we're exiling our own graveyard, and then create a huge board of Spirits when we're ready to attack. It also gives us a way to disrupt other graveyard decks, thus filling so many roles for us at once.

Quintorius, History ChaserQuintorius, History Chaser Commander Deck List

Here's the full deck list for you to peruse:

Roll the Credits

I hope you enjoyed reading the latest edition of Plot Twist featuring Quintorius, History ChaserQuintorius, History Chaser. Next time you sit down for a game of Commander, see what sort of plot twists you can add to take the game's narrative in a new direction.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on today's deck and what cards could find a home in it in the comments below or on Archidekt. The Maybeboards of my deck lists are always filled with cards I thought could work but didn't make the final list.

You can check out my other articles here or see what decks I'm currently playing here. I've been actively updating a lot of my lists recently and playing as many games as I can get in with my Akiri / Keskit Artifact Tokens and Colorless Combo lists.

For you cEDH enjoyers out there, I also recently dove head-on into a turbo RogSi list that's teaching me the meaning of mulliganing aggressively.

Stay tuned to see what other twists and turns are headed your way in the next edition of Plot Twist.