As far as Magic: The Gathering archetypes go, the Witherbloom College from Strixhaven offers some of the most satisfying, thanks to a finely balanced background of life and death powering the school’s beliefs. Internally, there may be a power struggle between its deans, but it makes for some fantastic lore and some even better deck mechanics.
In Secrets of Strixhaven, there are some truly powerful cards on display for the black and green clan, and we’ve picked our top five from those revealed so far, as well as some 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 themselves thriving across formats.
- Intermediate Chirography
- Blood Artist
- Oracle’s Restoration
- Pest Rescuer
- Lluwen, Exchange Student
- Pest Mascot
Magic: The Gathering Secrets Of Strixhaven – Witherbloom Pestilence Commander Deck Breakdown
Witherbloom is all about life gain and sacrifices, so here’s what we know about its Commander pre-con, including deck list and possible upgrades.
5
Witherbloom Charm
Standard & Commander
One of the few cards from the charm cycle that we currently rate quite highly is Witherbloom Charm, largely because all three options on the card are incredibly useful in most game situations, and with four copies in a Standard deck, it can add a ton of versatility to your instant repertoire.
For just one black and one green mana, you can either gain five life, sacrifice a permanent to draw two cards, or destroy a target nonland permanent that costs two mana or less.
Both the life gain and sacrifice options mesh well with other Witherbloom mechanics, while destroying a low-mana-value 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 great use of the Witherbloom-exclusive Infusion mechanic, meaning if you gain life at any point in your turn before playing an instant or sorcery, it turns into a more powerful version of itself.
Infusion does not offer the chance to cast the spell for its Infusion cost; if you have gained life, an Infusion spell will only be cast with its Infusion effects.
The base spell gives all creatures -2/-2 until the end of the turn, and this will kill and remove any creatures that have a toughness of two or less. However, if you have gained life before casting, it instead destroys all creatures.
This is a great way to enhance a spell that is already extremely useful in certain situations. You may even find that, based on the board state, you only want to cast this card for the -2/-2. Just be careful not to gain life before casting it if that is the case.
3
Beledros Witherbloom
Commander
This Commander-only version of the Witherbloom elder dragon might cost seven mana to cast, but it’s well worth the outlay if you can get it onto the battlefield.
Not only is this creature a 4/4 flier, but at the beginning of each upkeep, you create a 1/1 black and green pest. Whenever one of these pests dies, you gain one life.
The card states “each upkeep” and not “your upkeep,” meaning you generate a token on every player’s upkeep.
On top of this, you can pay 10 life to untap all lands, but you can only do this once each turn. It also doesn’t state this needs to be done as a sorcery, so this can be done at instant speed to save you if you are tapped but have cards in hand to utilize.
2
Professor Dellian Fel
Standard & Commander
One of two new planeswalkers in the Secrets of Strixhaven set, Professor Dellian Fel has already featured in the debut cinematic for the set, and based on this card, he will see a lot of play once the set has launched.
This card comes with four abilities. The +2 sees you gain three life, while the 0 lets you draw a card but lose one life. The -3 lets you destroy a target creature, and finally, the -6 gives you an emblem that states “whenever you gain life, target opponent loses that much life.”
Given that this card only costs four mana to cast, it, like most of Witherbloom, is quite finely balanced and should see plenty of play across Standard and Commander.
1
Witherbloom, The Balancer
Standard & Commander
This terrifying legendary elder dragon is a 5/5 flying creature with deathtouch, but it costs a mighty eight mana to cast. Thankfully, it has affinity for creatures, meaning 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.
Given some of the potential combos here to get this creature on the board early, we can see this creature making quite the impact in Standard, provided there is enough support from the rest of the green and black cards in the set.
On top of having affinity for creatures, Witherbloom, the Balancer, also gives all your instant and sorcery spells affinity for creatures, too. This, again, means that spells cost one mana less for each creature you have on the board.
Magic: The Gathering – Secrets Of Strixhaven: 5 Best Silverquill Cards
We’re taking a look at the best Strixhaven MTG cards revealed so far for the Silverquill College, the home of white and black spells.
