- Commander Overview
- Lorehold, the Historian
- How to Play the Deck
- Synergy’s in the deck
- Phases of the Game
- Card Breakdowns
- Ramp
- Card Draw/Card Advantage
- Removal
- Protection
- Utility / Support
- Mana Base
- Win Conditions
- Strengths of the Deck
- Weaknesses of the Deck
- Combos Explained
- Dualcaster Mage + Twinflame
- Dualcaster Mage + Molten Duplication
- Approach of the Second Sun + Reprieve
- Approach of the Second Sun + Scroll Rack
- Teferi's Protection + Worldfire
- Sensei's Divining Top + Longshot, Rebel Bowman + Mystic Forge
- Deck Testing/Matchups
- Conclusion
Commander Overview
Lorehold, the Historian is one of the most interesting to come out from Secrets of Strixhaven. Lorehold is a pretty crazy commander, and Miracle is a very strong ability. Being able to cast huge cards like Worldfire or Storm Herd for only two mana can flip the game on its head and put you in control. Since this is a bracket four-deck, we also have a ton of combos that can allow us to end the game if we get put into a bad position. Lorehold is a huge part of our deck, and many opponents will go after them a lot, so of course, we are packing cards like Untimely Malfunction and Deflecting Swat, allowing us to fight opponents’ single-target removal. Lorehold is in a primary role within this deck, as they are the main way we can accelerate far ahead of our opponents.
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EDH BRACKET
High power Commander. It's time to go wild!
- No Restrictions (Other than the banned list)
How to Play the Deck
Playing the deck isn’t hard, but it’s certainly not easy, because of how the miracle ability works, we need to be very mindful of what we draw and treat it as the miracle card if it wants to be cast. This is a bracket four-deck so that I would recommend it for an intermediate to high-skills player. This is a not a deck that should be piloted by a newer player or played at lower power tables.
Synergy’s in the deck
We don’t have any direct synergy packages in the deck, but we do have a lot of combos that work together. Being able to cast big stuff with Lorehold is the biggest synergy in the deck and the main reason that we have huge sorceries in the deck like Storm Herd and Call Forth the Tempest. Casting any of these early with Lorehold can be a humongous momentum swing in the game.
Phases of the Game
Early-Game: Don’t worry too much about the early-game; the whole goal here is to get Lorehold out as quickly as possible. Luckily for us, we do have some decent ramp in the deck in the form of mana rocks like Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, and Bender's Waterskin. All great ways to speed out of Lorehold. We are not a super-fast or aggressive deck.
Mid-Game: The mid-game is where things finally start to happen for us. By this point, we typically have Lorehold out and can miracle some crazy spells. Being able to miracle on opponents’ turns is pretty insane and works great with cards like Fated Clash or Blasphemous Act as a good way to destroy an opponent’s board early.
Late-Game: We are perfectly ok with going to the late-game, even if we aren’t able to keep Lorehold on the field. Never forget that we have a copy of Worldfire in our deck and our opponents don’t! All jokes aside, we are cool with the late game; by then, we have a lot more combo potential and can continue to control the board, whether we have Lorehold or not.
Card Breakdowns
Ramp
While we certainly aren’t a green deck, we are good at ramping with all of our mana rocks like Sol Ring, Boros Signet, and Bender's Waterskin. We are a bit slower than the other b4’s in the format, but we make up for it by being very explosive once we get Lorehold out. Dropping something like a Sol Ring early can allow us to be very fast and go wild on our opponents’ turns.
Card Draw/Card Advantage
This is a bit of a tough part of our deck, Boros is certainly not known as a big card draw color combination, and our deck is no different. Lorehold is one of the best sources of discard/draw in our deck and the primary way that we miracle our cards. We do have some other sources like Faithless Looting, but overall, we aren’t drawing a ton of cards. Because of this, we do need to be pretty aggressive with our mulligan.
Removal
We have all of the removal that you would expect from a Boros deck like Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares. We are much more interested in stopping creature-based combos so our opponents can’t kill us than in anything else. We aren’t a deck that is going to control the board a ton, but if we can miracle into cards like Blasphemous Act, we can certainly be a deck that does. Removal isn’t a huge part of our deck, but we can absolutely stop our opponents.
Protection
We are pretty good at protection. If there’s one thing we don’t want, it’s for Lorehold to die. Because of this, we have a lot of cheap and even free ways to keep them on the battlefield. Cards like Deflecting Swat, Rebuff the Wicked, and Untimely Malfunction allow us to redirect the removal and overall keep Lorehold on the field, which is all we really want anyway.
Utility / Support
Let’s highlight some of my favorite cards in the deck! Storm Herd is such an awesome card, and even if we are a little bit lower than our starting life total, making twenty or even thirty Pegasus’s can really make the game easy for us. Disrupt Decorum is a card that did a lot of work for me during my testing games. Being able to cause chaos and force our opponents’ important attackers and commanders to attack can really disrupt them while leaving us unscathed. One of the best cards in this deck is Rise of the Eldrazi, an absolute machine of a spell that gets even crazier when we make it only cost two mana! In my testing,, many opponents did not survive the extra turn I took.
Mana Base
Boseiju, Who Shelters All is the only really interesting non-basic that we have in the deck. Being able to make our spell uncounterable can be very strong at bracket four tables and allow us to get off spells our opponents normally would like to stop. Overall, we have a very efficient manabase that lets us get out all our colors, but for the most part, we have on-color duals.
Win Conditions
We have many ways to close out games, including attacking with our army of Pegasus from Storm Herd, but for the most part, we close out the game with our combos. For a full explanation, you can find all of the combos down below.
Strengths of the Deck
We can be extremely explosive once we get our commander out.
While we are reliant on our commander, we do have combos that don’t involve them, allowing us to close out games even if we can’t stick them to the board.
Weaknesses of the Deck
Our opponent is a huge part of our deck and a card that our opponents will constantly target. Always try to have some protection in your hand.
Without our mana rocks, we can be pretty slow against other bracket four opponents, we certainly aren’t dead in the water but are less explosive.
Combos Explained
Dualcaster Mage + Twinflame
Combo Sequence– You have enough mana to cast Twinflame.
Steps
Results
- Infinite LTB.
- Infinite ETB.
- Infinite creature tokens with haste.
- Infinite magecraft triggers.
Dualcaster Mage + Molten Duplication
Combo Sequence– You have enough mana to cast Molten Duplication.
Steps
Results
- Infinite LTB.
- Infinite ETB.
- Infinite creature tokens with haste.
- Infinite magecraft triggers.
Approach of the Second Sun + Reprieve
Combo SequenceResults
- Win the game.
Approach of the Second Sun + Scroll Rack
Combo SequenceSteps
Results
- Win the game.
Teferi's Protection + Worldfire
Combo SequenceSteps
Results
- Each opponent’s life total becomes 1.
- Exile all cards in hands and graveyards.
- Exile all permanents opponents control.
- Mass Land Denial.
Sensei's Divining Top + Longshot, Rebel Bowman + Mystic Forge
Combo SequenceSteps
Results
- Infinite card draw.
- Infinite draw triggers.
- Nearinfinite damage.
- Nearinfinite storm count.
Deck Testing/Matchups
I tested this deck against three different decks
Game 1: Vs Jodah, The Unifier. Matchup Record: 3-1
A good matchup, but certainly don’t underestimate them. Jodah can get out of hand quickly, but they are pretty much on the same pace as us. Just try to control them early and combo off before they can do anything. Cards like Teferi's Protection help a lot to survive their huge attacks.
Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Teferi's Protection, Penance and Fated Clash.
Game 2: Vs Winota, Joiner of Forces. Matchup Record: 2-3
Overall, a tough matchup. Winota is a lot faster than us and can hit like a truck after just a couple of combats. We need to find cards like Blasphemous Act or other ways to wipe their board. If we can do that a couple of times, we’re good. This is not a impossible matchup, but can be a bit of an uphill battle.
Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Blasphemous Act, Swords to Plowshares and Radiant Scrollwielder.
Game 3: Vs Vren, the Relentless. Matchup Record: 3-0
This is a great matchup for our deck; we don’t really care much about what Vren does, and we are perfectly ok if the game goes long. Just protect Lorehold as much as you can and follow the typical game plan, and you should be just fine.
Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Rebuff the Wicked, Teferi's Protection and Smothering Tithe.
Conclusion
Thanks so much for reading to the end! Lorehold is such an awesome commander, being able to play miracle cards is truly fun, and you haven’t lived until you cast a Worldfire for only two mana. Lorehold stands well against a lot of bracket four but can struggle a bit against the control-heavy decks, which is pretty typical of Boros. Overall, I had a blast testing and playing this one and thought it went very well.
