Tuesday Night Takeover
Quintorius, History Chaser
EDH April 11, 2026

Lorehold Spirit Precon Upgrade Guide

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Commander Overview

The Lorehold school at Strixhaven college are the historians and archeologists of the bunch, making recursion their number-one hat trick.

For the first time in a while, we see a planeswalker heading up a commander deck, and it’s none other than Quintorius. He stays true to theme with a looting effect, a board buff, and spirit creation, making him a big package deal.

The Lorehold Spirit commander deck also comes with quite a few spicy reprints, including Lotus Field, Moonshaker Calvary, and Wave of Reckoning.

In this precon upgrade guide, I aim to fine-tune the creature recursion engine that Lorehold promotes while also keeping the bracket 2 power level in mind.

What We’re Removing

There are quite a few good cards in the Lorehold precon, so it was tough to pick what to remove. The first round of cuts was pretty fast, with big, conventional creatures going first. But I struggled to find 15 cards to remove, so instead we have 13 swaps for this upgrade.

Cards to Remove:

Mana

As is customary with these precons, I’ve removed the filtered lands Ruggend Prairie and Sunscorched Divide, as well as Terramorphic Expanse. Generic sac lands like Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse hold a bit more value in a deck with more than 2 colors.

There was a significant number of mana rocks in this deck as well, so I removed Mindstone.

Creatures

Creatures represented the bulk of my cuts from this deck. The two spirit dragons Ao, the Dawn Sky and Atsushi, the Blazing Sky are cool, but their abilities aren’t super strong. Plus, they are too large for the recursion package in this deck, since most things care about being mana value 3 or less.

I’ve also taken out Kami of Ancient Law, Karmic Guide, Skyclave Apparition, and Laelia, the Blade Reforged. They are good cards, but I feel like they don’t work as hard as they could. Laelia can quickly grow into a massive threat, but by exiling cards off the top, we’re not giving them a chance to end up in the yard, which is what our commander cares about ultimately. And Echo on Karmic Guide is just kinda meh.

While it might be sacrilegious, I’ve also expelled Quintorious, Field Historian. For 5 mana, he does the same thing our commander does, which is nice to double up, but he could be doing more for us.

Noncreature Spells

As far as board wipes go, Tragic Arrogance is one of the better ones. It lets you pick and choose what gets to stay around, but if you’re going to go to the effort to wipe the slate clean, don’t leave eraser smudges! I didn’t choose to replace this with another board wipe, but you could slot in Austere Command or Farewell here.

I’m not sure what it is about Wizards loving Secret Rendezvous, but it was in the Silverquill Influence deck as well. I, frankly, don’t think the card is that good, even for white.

What We’re Adding

We had no real protection for our commander, so I made that a first priority when swapping cards. Additionally, I expanded the enchantments to get a better range of 3 mana or less utility, since the recursion is mainly 3 or less nonland permanents.

Cards to Add:

Mana

The only addition I’ve made is Sacred Foundry for more consistent land-drops. Sunbillow Verge and Sundown Pass are also good additions if you want to take the land-replacement a step further.

Creatures

I added in four creatures to make up for the large gap I created when suspending a few of the more heinous offenders. Fleeting Spirit is a cheap, repeatable way to exile cards from your own graveyard. Giving him first strike probably doesn’t matter much, but by activating his ability, you can create three spirit tokens off Quintorius. At instant speed, I might add.

Flamescroll Celebrant (with the back side being Revel in Silence) is a value add. It doesn’t necessarily help the game plan, but it gives us some protection from other players activating abilities or casting spells. A lot of people sleep on this card, and I wrote a more about it in our Top 10 Strixhaven: School of Mages Commander Cards article.

Next up we have Hardened Academic, a new card from Stixhaven that was absent from the precon decklist. This card is better than Laelia because it lets us up the +1/+1 counter on any creature!

And finally, I added Drogskol Reinforcements. This is kind of a game-ending card in the right circumstances. It grants all your spirits melee, and pretty much makes them immune to Blasphemous Act or other damage-related removal. They can still be killed in combat, but this card is like 50 cents, making it much cheaper than Akroma’s Monument or similar cards.

Enchantments

The next area I aimed to improve was the nonland, noncreature permanents. Monologue Tax and Tocasia’s Welcome are great, but we could buff up the enchantment selection.

Both Warleader's Call and Renewed Solidarity grant our spirits a buff. Warleader’s Call also pings people for damage whenever a creature enters, which is great if you exile a lot of cards from your graveyard to make spirits. Renewed Solidarity is like a budget Anointed Procession, where it creates a token copy of each token that entered on your turn. Not as versatile, because it’s an end step trigger, but we’re balling on a budget here.

Next up is protection. Deification is one of the few planeswalker protection spells out there, and it;s a particularly good one. It’s cheap to cast and only 15 cents to boot.

Finally, we get to Underworld Breach. This card scares people because it’s part of many different infinite combo loops in cEDH. But, we’re not trying to combo off here. Breach works great in our deck because we benefit from exiling cards from our graveyard. Plus, this allows us to recur instants, sorceries, and other enchantments, which is more difficult than recurring creatures in this deck.

Artifacts

The new Ark of Hunger card is another ping effect that helps our gameplan. It also has some lifegain and a mill effect that make it quite versatile.

For more card draw, and more mana later in the game, I’ve included Matzalanti, the Great Door. This card used to be expensive, but they’ve reprinted it so many times it’s an affordable option for card draw every turn.

Instants and Sorceries

I didn’t mess around with the instants and sorceries too much, as many of the cards in the deck were okay. I did throw in the new Borrowed Knowledge card, because it’s a great wheel effect in our color identity. I also included Take the Bait, which prevents all combat damage to you as a player and planeswalkers. Plus it creates another combat step and goads all the creatures, so it’s a very powerful political move.

Deck Upgrades

If you want to take a look at the price for each of the upgrades, here’s a look at what you’ll be spending:

Suggested Upgrades


ADD Fleeting Spirit
CUT Atsushi, the Blazing Sky
High Priority Gameplan $0.10

ADD Hardened Academic
CUT Laelia, the Blade Reforged
High Priority Gamplan $0.40

ADD Drogskol Reinforcements
CUT Skyclave Apparition
High Priority Buff $0.55

ADD Sacred Foundry
CUT Rugged Prairie
High Priority Mana $10.76

ADD Deification
CUT Karmic Guide
High Priority Protection $0.22

ADD Take the Bait
CUT Tragic Arrogance
High Priority Protection $5.56

ADD Warleader's Call
CUT Kami of Ancient Law
High Priority Damage $7.72

ADD Renewed Solidarity
CUT Ao, the Dawn Sky
High Priority Gameplan $6.99

ADD Flamescroll Celebrant
CUT Quintorious, Field Historian
Mid Priority Protection $0.16

ADD Matzalanti, the Great Door
CUT Mind Stone
Mid Priority Card Draw $2.05

ADD Borrowed Knowledge
CUT Terramorphic Expanse
Mid Priority Card Draw $0.17

ADD Underworld Breach
CUT Sunscorched Divide
Mid Priority Gameplan $13.09

ADD Ark of Hunger
CUT Secret Rendezvous
Low Priority Gameplan $0.33

Upgrade Cost $48.10 TCGPlayer Buy Upgrades ManaPool Buy Upgrades WNYGaming Code "TNTSUB" (-5%)

Conclusion

I think the Lorehold commander deck is one of the more powerful options from the Secrets of Strixhaven lineup. Quintorius is a cool commander with versatility, and the alternate commander Excava, the Risen Past, is recursion on a stick.

With a few upgrades, you can fine-tune this deck and make it more reliable and formidable. And thankfully, most of the replacements I’ve made are fairly inexpensive!

Please take a look at the full upgraded decklist below

Boros Bracket 2 Graveyard
Command Zone

Quintorius, History Chaser

Legendary Planeswalker — Quintorius
$140.83

Creature 33

1 Angel of Indemnity $0.85
1 Anger $0.48
1 Augusta, Order Returned $0.44
1 Balefire Liege $0.40
1 Claim Jumper $0.47
1 Conspiracy Theorist $0.38
1 Containment Construct $0.31
1 Drogskol Reinforcements $0.56
1 Drumbellower $4.38
1 Excava, the Risen Past $1.60
1 Flamescroll Celebrant $0.16
1 Fleeting Spirit $0.10
1 Guardian Scalelord $0.90
1 Guardian of Faith $1.03
1 Hardened Academic $0.35
1 Hofri Ghostforge $0.34
1 Kirol, History Buff $0.17
1 Lorehold Archivist $0.57
1 Millikin $0.34
1 Moonshaker Cavalry $5.21
1 Naktamun Lorespinner $6.13
1 Quintorius, Loremaster $0.39
1 Relic Retriever $0.99
1 Remorseful Cleric $0.26
1 Selfless Spirit $0.36
1 Serra Paragon $1.30
1 Spirit of Resilience $0.88
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob $0.33
1 Sun Titan $0.30
1 Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle $0.33
1 Vanguard of the Restless $0.67
1 Venerable Warsinger $0.25
1 White Orchid Phantom $0.40

Instant 4

1 Lorehold Charm $0.24
1 Path to Exile $0.87
1 Swords to Plowshares $0.78
1 Take the Bait $5.48

Sorcery 8

1 Borrowed Knowledge $0.18
1 Ceaseless Conflict $1.59
1 Faithless Looting $0.27
1 Fateful Tempest $0.47
1 Rip Apart $0.38
1 Seize the Spoils $0.20
1 Sevinne's Reclamation $0.35
1 Wave of Reckoning $2.43

Artifact 11

1 Arcane Signet $0.35
1 Archaeomancer's Map $1.44
1 Ark of Hunger $0.35
1 Bitterthorn, Nissa's Animus $7.17
1 Currency Converter $3.31
1 Fellwar Stone $0.64
1 Matzalantli, the Great Door $2.52
1 Patchwork Banner $2.05
1 Perpetual Timepiece $0.36
1 Sol Ring $1.17
1 Staff of the Storyteller $0.97

Enchantment 8

1 Advanced Reconstruction $1.38
1 Deification $0.25
1 Monologue Tax $2.30
1 Primary Research $0.23
1 Renewed Solidarity $7.02
1 Tocasia's Welcome $0.78
1 Underworld Breach $13.03
1 Warleader's Call $7.74

Land 35

1 Battlefield Forge $0.36
1 Clifftop Retreat $0.30
1 Command Tower $0.24
1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin $8.99
1 Exotic Orchard $0.34
1 Fabled Passage $0.96
1 Fields of Strife $0.13
1 Furycalm Snarl $0.33
1 Glittering Massif $0.35
1 Lorehold Campus $0.26
1 Lotus Field $4.36
1 Mistveil Plains $0.39
6 Mountain $0.19
11 Plains $0.17
1 Radiant Summit $0.60
1 Sacred Foundry $10.83
1 Sacred Peaks $0.10
1 Study Hall $0.24
1 Temple of Triumph $0.37
1 Turbulent Steppe $8.35

Tokens Used 5

Copy
Phyrexian Germ
Rogue
Spirit
Treasure

EDH BRACKET

1
Exhibition
2
Core
3
Upgraded
4
Optimized
5
cEDH
Bracket 2 // Core

The average current preconstructed deck.

  • No Mass Land Denial
  • No Chaining Extra Turns
  • No 2-Card Infinite Combos
  • No Game Changers
  • Few Tutors
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