Good people of the Jury, if it pleases the Court, I would like to present you with Exhibit A. Let the record show that the new Silverquill Statement Commander pre-constructed deck highlights the values of its associated college by utilizing political intrigue to influence its opponents’ decisions.
“Objection! Your Honor!”
Overruled.
In this Silverquill Statement upgrade guide I will offer ideas for cards to include, as well as cards to remove from the precon. Additionally, I will point out new cards that are coming out in the next Standard set: Strixhaven.
Table of Contents
A Brief Note on Budget
First, I want to make a quick note about these upgrade recommendations. These lists have a lot of ideas, but they definitely don’t include everything. Feel free to do your own research and find your favorite cards to upgrade the deck with.
Second, there are going to be way more ideas in this article than one deck can handle. You can follow any one upgrade path and focus on that, or pick and choose your favorite parts of multiple paths to make the deck your own.
Third, I am not considering any budget restrictions when making these recommendations. I only want to brainstorm as many fun ideas as possible. Unfortunately, this means that some of the cards I recommend might be outside of some people’s budget ranges. If they are available, I will also do my best to include budget options for a card or effect.
Regardless of your budget or play style, this article will have a ton of great suggestions for powering up your Silverquill Statement deck. If you would like to purchase the deck, you can order it on Amazon.
Silverquill Statement Decklist
Silverquill Statement – General Upgrades
The “problems” with the pre-constructed Commander decks are not so much that they are not powerful. In many instances I have seen precons hold their own against more optimized decks. Rather, I would say that the thing that they struggle with the most is consistency. So before we get into the five individual upgrade paths I chose for this deck, let’s talk about a few generic improvements that you can make.
The Mana Base
Often times the lands in precons don’t offer the support that the deck needs to play it’s spells. They are full of mostly basic lands or sub-par dual lands. That’s why the mana base is the first thing that I am recommending you upgrade. Including more lands that tap for any of your colors decreases the chances that you will have cards in your hand that you can’t cast on curve. As a result, the deck will play better more often.
In black-white, these are the best dual lands:
If you are on a budget (or if you just want to add more dual lands yet), these lands can offer a similar amount of consistency for a fraction of the cost:
Lest you forget that gold lands also count as dual lands in two-color decks:
- City of Brass
- Forbidden Orchard (especially good in the group hug version of the deck)
- Mana Confluence
- Path of Ancestry
- Reflecting Pool
General Commander Synergies
When playing a deck with Breena, the Demagogue as a commander, you can get creative with how you construct the deck. More on that in a minute.
But one thing that will probably be true in any game is that your opponents will like try to attack each other so they can draw a card. With this being the case, here are a few cards that care about your opponents drawing cards:
What to Take Out
As is the case with most precons, there are a few cards that just don’t make sense in the deck. Maybe they are powerful by themselves, but they might just be taking up space in the deck. In the case of the Silverquill Statement deck, these are a couple of those cards:
I recognize that some of these cards are important elements of the deck. Namely, Deathbringer Regent, Tragic Arrogance, and Angel of Serenity are pieces of removal. Most decks need some kind of interaction to deal with threats that the opponents present.
I am not trying to say that you shouldn’t play removal in your decks. Rather, I am advocating finding board wipes and kill spells that synergize with what your deck is trying to do. In other words, if you want to focus on +1/+1 counters, something like Ruinous Path or Sheer Drop kill two birds with one stone (figuratively, of course).
In short, feel free to include whatever removal spells you would like. This is simply my chance to get on a soap box to advocate for synergy over staples. Thank you for coming to my TedTalk.
5 Ways to Upgrade Silverquill Statement
And with all of that out of the way, here are the five directions I thought of taking this deck:
- Group Hug / Pillowfort
- +1/+1 Counters
- Combat Manipulation
- Life Manipulation
- Voting
Each of these paths focus on something that Breena, the Demagogue or Felisa, Fang of Silverquill are trying to do. These are not the only ways to upgrade this deck, just the ones I came up with. If you think of another cool idea, let me know in the comments below.
Power Level
At the beginning of each the next sections I included a range of numbers. That range is what I expect this deck to be able to perform at on a 1-10 power scale (Based on the power scale established by the Command Zone Podcast). For more information on the Commander power scale, you can take a look at the table below.
| Power Level | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1-2 | Jank | Very little synergy among cards. No Commander staples. Under powered on purpose. |
| 3-4 | Casual | Some synergies, but lacking the strong ones. The deck still lacks focus. Mana curves mostly neglected. A deck that a new player would build. |
| 4-6 | Focused | Synergy exists, the deck has a focused gameplan, although it doesn't always win in the exact same way, usually after turn 13. Includes staples and a small amount of tutors. On the same power level as most Commander precons. |
| 7-8 | Optimized | Powerful and varied synergies between the cards. A decent number of good tutors. Good mana curve. Has an efficient and consistent way to win on turns 10-12 (level 7) or 7-9 (level 8). Some social rules — like no mass land destruction, no consistent combo wins — still exist. |
| 9-10 | Competitive | The most powerful decks, on competitive EDH level. Quick and explosive, can win on turns 4-6 (level 9) or 1-3 (level 10). No social rules, no jank cards. Only the most powerful commanders and strategies can reach this level. |
Actual power levels may vary, but let those numbers be a guide when considering upgrading this deck in those ways.
Lastly, each of the Commander decks from C21 comes with two legendary creatures that can be the commanders for the deck. With each of these upgrade recommendations, I will include which one I think would be most suitable to lead that particular version.
And with that, I yield the remainder of my time to the defense:
1. Group Hug / Pillowfort (5-8)
Recommended Commander: Breena, the Demagogue
Group Hug
First off, we have one of the most obvious routes for this deck. Breena’s ability lets everyone draw cards as long as they don’t attack you. Any commander that gives your opponents value for aiming their threats elsewhere could make a good Group Hug commander.
Furthermore, Pillowfort seems like the natural extension of something that Breena is already trying to do. Because of this, let’s look at some Group Hug cards:
- Akroan Horse
- Arbiter of Knollridge
- Benevolent Offering
- Endless Whispers
- Enslaved Horror
- Exhume
- Font of Mythos
- Gate to the Aether
- Ghirapur Orrery
- Helm of Awakening
- Horn of Greed
- Howling Golem
- Howling Mine
- Hunted Horror
- Hunted Nightmare
- Oath of Ghouls
- Oath of Lieges
- Regna’s Sanction
- Seizan, Perverter of Truth
- Temple Bell
- Temporary Truce
- Truce
- Virtus’s Maneuver
- Wall of Shards
That’s quite the list, but there are a lot of cards that help all players at once. Feel free to choose your favorite few of these cards.
Also, Keeper of the Accord is a card that could capitalize on your opponents’ advantages by keeping you caught up with them.
Pillowfort
Pillowfort cards often go hand in hand with Group Hug cards. The reason for this is that you don’t really want your opponents to point all of the resources you just gave them at you. As a result, these are a few cards that make it more difficult for your opponents to use their cards against you:
- Archangel of Tithes
- Aurification
- Baird, Steward of Argive
- Blazing Archon
- Crawlspace
- Ensnaring Bridge (perhaps not the best option)
- Forbidding Spirit
- Karmic Justice
- Koskun Falls
- Maze of Ith
- No Mercy
- Norn’s Annex
- Reverence
- Silent Arbiter
- Sphere of Safety
- Windborn Muse
Taxes
Another way to hide behind a Pillowfort is to restrict your opponents’ ability to use any of the resources you give them. For example, Rule of Law slows the game nearly to a halt. However, it also makes your opponents’ stuff easier to deal with, since they only play one new threat at a time. Here are some other cards that do that kind of thing:
You have to be careful putting too many of these effects in your deck, because you run the risk of compromising the integrity of your Group Hug deck. A couple of them, though, will help you manage your opponents’ increased ability to get out of control.
Additionally, Group Hug decks sometimes struggle to finish out games. Fortunately, Breena comes built in with the ability to knock your opponents out with commander damage.
New Cards From Strixhaven
Fortunately for us, the Silverquill archetype in the main set seems to be politics. This means that we’ve got a good handful of cards to include here:
What to Take Out
If you are trying to focus on Group Hug and/or Pillowfort, you don’t really need to include any of the cards that have to do with +1/+1 counters. Similarly, Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts, Magister of Worth, Bloodthirsty Blade, and the Vows and Curses can all go. These are cool cards, but they don’t really work very well with Group Hug.
2. +1/+1 Counters (5-8)
Recommended Commander: Felisa, Fang of Silverquill
Next up, we’re looking to take advantage of all of the +1/+1 counters synergies in the Silverquill Statement deck. Breena can give you a lot of counters, but Felisa is the commander that I would choose for this kind of deck. She rewards you much more handsomely for putting counters on your creatures.
In fact, it might even be worth trying to build an Inkling tribal deck with a lot of these same cards. I won’t go over Inkling tribal today, but here are the +1/+1 counters cards I found in black-white:
- Abzan Battle Priest
- Abzan Falconer
- Ainok Bond-Kin
- Alharu, Solemn Ritualist
- Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
- Basri Ket
- Basri’s Lieutenant
- Cathars’ Crusade
- Collective Effort
- Crawling Barrens
- Elite Scaleguard
- Felidar Retreat
- Forge of Heroes
- Hagra Constrictor
- Heliod, Sun-Crowned
- Karn’s Bastion
- Mer-Ek Nightblade
- Mikaeus, the Lunarch
- Nesting Grounds
- Nikara, Lair Scavenger
- Retribution of the Ancients
- Sword of Truth and Justice
- The Ozolith
- Tyrite Sanctum
- Walking Ballista
I don’t think that there is much more that needs to be said about these cards. This deck sort of just builds itself. That’s not a bad thing. In fact, it makes it pretty easy to build.
If you want to lean toward the Inklings or other tokens, feel free to add Anointed Procession, Thalisse, Reverent Medium, Teysa Karlov, and Prava of the Steel Legion.
New Cards From Strixhaven
+1/+1 counters are another common theme in the main set. I’ll also include a couple of Inkling cards just in case you like that iteration of the counters deck:
- Blot out the Sky
- Closing Statement
- Dramatic Finale
- Hall of Oracles
- Humiliate
- Oriq Loremage
- Shadewing Laureate
- Shaile, Dean of Radiance
- Tenured Inkcaster
What to Take Out
This version of the deck more or less requires you to take out all of the opposite cards from the previous version. Basically, take out almost anything that is related to politics or Group Hug.
Everything except Orzhov Advokist, that is. That one can stay because it adds counters to your creatures. Other than that, you should probably take out Vows and Curses as well for this one.
3. Combat Manipulation (4-7)
Recommended Commander: Breena, the Demagogue
This path for Silverquill Statement might look fairly similar to Pillowfort. There are a few key differences, though. First of all, you aren’t necessarily trying to avoid taking damage all together. Rather, you just are providing strong incentives for your opponents to fight amongst themselves. For example, Mystic Barrier gives all but one player a really good reason to not attack you.
Another great way to incentivize attacking someone else is with Curses. There are a few that give the attacker a benefit, but not all of them do. If, however, you are going to run a few, you might as well commit to running all of them. Here are the ones I could find from black-white:
- Accursed Witch
- Cruel Reality
- Curse of Death’s Hold
- Curse of Exhaustion
- Curse of Fool’s Wisdom
- Curse of Misfortunes
- Curse of Oblivion
- Curse of Shallow Graves
- Curse of the Forsaken
- Curse of Thirst
- Curse of Vengeance
- Curse of Vitality
- Overwhelming Splendor
- Torment of Scarabs
- Trespasser’s Curse
If you have all of these Enchant Player spells, Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist and Armored Skyhunter are two of the best cards to have in the deck. Ardenn makes it so you can commit wholly to one player, then change your mind if you need to later on. The Skyhunter gives you more card advantage. Additionally, Bitterheart Witch is a great support card for Curses.
Other than Curses, cards with the ability Goad or similar abilities are really great for manipulating combat. Most of these cards that show up in black-white are actually in the precon, so I won’t recommend you add them. The only one that’s not there, though, that I think should be is Assault Suit.
New Cards From Strixhaven
Perhaps unsurprisingly, there are not any new Curses in Strixhaven. Nor are there a lot of cards to discourage your opponents from attacking you. Unless, of course, you count the abundance of removal spells that you can threaten them with. I wouldn’t really consider those to be cards that contribute to the strategy, though.
What to Take Out
The cards that you cut from this version of the deck are probably similar to the ones from both of the previous decks. You can probably get rid of the Group Hug cards, as well as the +1/+1 counters cards. However, in this instance you need to hang on to all of the Vows and Curses.
4. Life Manipulation (4-8)
Recommended Commander: Breena, the Demagogue
This strategy for a Silverquill Statement upgrade is a little bit of a stretch. Once you start to think about it, though, it makes a lot of sense. Breena’s card draw ability depends on your opponents attacking each other and having different life totals. Being in control of which player has the highest or lowest life total at any given time seems like a powerful way to influence your opponents. As such, here are some great life manipulation cards that you might consider:
- Ad Nauseam
- Angel of Destiny
- Angel’s Grace
- Axis of Mortality
- Children of Korlis
- Evra, Halcyon Witness
- Hatred
- K’rrik, Son of Yawgmoth
- Magus of the Mirror
- Necrologia
- Necropotence
- Phyrexian Processor
- Profane Transfusion
- Repay in Kind
- Reverse the Sands
- Soul Conduit
- Tainted Remedy
- Tainted Sigil
- Tree of Perdition
- Triskaidekaphobia
- Wall of Blood
- Wound Reflection
As you can see, there’s a very interesting deck here. Not only that, but it’s not your typical white-based lifegain deck. You can include traditional lifegain pay offs. Cards such as Aetherflux Reservoir, Sanguine Bond/Exquisite Blood, or Archangel of Thune. However, the cards I listed above want to use your life and your opponents’ lives as resources, rather than just a safety net.
New Cards From Strixhaven
Very few, if any, of the new Strixhaven cards let you manipulate life totals in the way I outline above. If you want, you can run the Professor Onyx/Chain of Smog combo. Otherwise, don’t look to Strixhaven packs for your Life Manipulation staples.
What to Take Out
Honestly, the only card from the precon that I would recommend keeping for this strategy is Selfless Squire. None of the rest of the cards are necessary to this strategy.
5. Voting (3-6)
Recommended Commander: Breena, the Demagogue
Last but not least, there are a few mechanics in Magic that let each player vote for the outcome of a spell’s ability. There have been a few recommendations in this article that try to take advantage of the political aspects of Commander.
This one, though, probably does it the best. The mechanics Will of the Council and Council’s Dilemma turn the table into an actual court room and the players are the jury.
Unfortunately, there are only a couple of voting cards in black-white. They are:
- Bite of the Black Rose
- Capital Punishment
- Council Guardian
- Council’s Judgment
- Custodi Squire
- Lieutenants of the Guard
- Tyrant’s Choice
Other than these, there are a few cards that help sway the votes your way:
And since the deck is going to need a few more slots filled up, here are some more cards that encourage group interaction:
- Alliance of Arms
- Deadly Designs
- Lethal Vapors
- Shared Trauma
- Tempt With Glory
- Tempt With Immortality
- Wishmonger
Unfortunately, opponents’ participation in these cards don’t technically count as voting, but it feels pretty similar.
Lastly, if lobbying fails and you just need vote your way, just take control of their turn. That’s what all good politicians do, right?
And for fun, throw in Choice of Damnations.
New Cards From Strixhaven
Needless to say, there are no cards in Strixhaven that let you vote, or let your opponents weigh in on any decisions that are made, so Silverquill Statement deck won’t get any new voting cards here.
What to Take Out
Similar to the previous section, you could probably gut the whole deck and not really keep any cards from it. With one obvious exception. Magister of Worth is a card that is already included in the precon, and should definitely be included in this deck.
Silverquill Statement – Conclusion
And with that, this upgrade session is adjourned. Thank you so much for making it to the end. Let me know which one of these builds you like best or are going to build. If you have any suggestions or comments, feel free to leave them below or find me on Instagram or Twitter.
More Strixhaven
If you want to open some of the new Strixhaven cards, to upgrade your deck with, you can purchase a booster box on Amazon. In addition, you can find all Strixhaven cards here.
If you want the shiniest and the rarest card, you can check the Strixhaven Collector Booster contents here.
More Commander
Would you like to check upgrade guides for other Commander 2021 / Strixhaven decks? They are listed here:
- Lorehold Legacies Upgrade Guide
- Prismari Performance Upgrade Guide
- Witherbloom Witchcraft Upgrade Guide
- Quantum Quandrix Upgrade Guide
However, if none of these precons suit you, you can find all Commander precons here.
Until next time, enjoy Magic and have fun with your upgraded Silverquill Statement Commander deck!
Shouldve included feaster of fools especially paired with akroan horse u can summon feaster of fools by tapping a bunch of 1/1 solder tokens