Tuesday Night Takeover
Silverquill, the Disputant
EDH May 23, 2026

Silverquill, the Disputant Spellslinging Tokens

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Commander Overview

Silverquill, the Disputant is a super awesome commander from Secrets of Strixhaven that does some pretty typical Orzhov things, but being able to copy our spells for almost no investment allows us to play a spellslinger tokens deck with a pretty big control subtheme. While it may contain some of the same cards, it does not play like a typical Orzhov tokens or spellslinger deck, and plays much more like a control shell where we control our opponents’ actions. At the same time, we build up our resources and use our commander and cards like Culling the Weak and Dark Ritual copied to play a huge Debt to the Deathless or Exsanguinate for way too much. This deck is different, but that’s a very good thing. I think this deck is a blast to play, at least for the pilot. Your opponents may groan when they see this one coming out.

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Bracket 2 Spellslinging Tokens Orzhov
Command Zone

Silverquill, the Disputant

Legendary Creature — Elder Dragon
$218.36

Creature 15

1 Adeline, Resplendent Cathar $2.62
1 Ainok Strike Leader $2.76
1 Baron Bertram Graywater $0.33
1 Blood Artist $1.53
1 Dark Confidant $4.04
1 Emeritus of Truce $3.40
1 Kambal, Profiteering Mayor $6.37
1 Leonin Lightscribe $0.45
1 Monastery Mentor $0.63
1 Morbid Opportunist $0.33
1 Nine-Lives Familiar $1.27
1 Ophiomancer $0.83
1 Papalymo Totolymo $0.29
1 Sedgemoor Witch $12.21
1 Welcoming Vampire $2.27

Instant 22

1 Anguished Unmaking $0.85
1 Culling the Weak $15.22
1 Dark Ritual $6.89
1 Deadly Dispute $0.43
1 Despark $0.35
1 Duty Beyond Death $0.32
1 Entrapment Maneuver $0.52
1 Erode $8.61
1 Inkshield $3.67
1 Moogles' Valor $0.72
1 Mortify $0.25
1 Path to Exile $0.97
1 Raise the Alarm $0.28
1 Rally the Monastery $0.20
1 Rapier Wit $0.10
1 Repel Calamity $0.11
1 Secure the Wastes $4.81
1 Sheoldred's Edict $1.23
1 Swords to Plowshares $1.25
1 Thraben Charm $0.35
1 Tragic Slip $0.31
1 Will of the Mardu $2.27

Sorcery 19

1 Antiquities on the Loose $0.21
1 Blot Out the Sky $1.41
1 Bond of Agony $1.50
1 Breach the Multiverse $10.02
1 Call to the Feast $0.26
1 Dark Petition $3.60
1 Debt to the Deathless $0.37
1 Decode Transmissions $0.11
1 Distract the Guards $0.20
1 Divine Congregation $0.17
1 Exsanguinate $0.42
1 Helping Hand $0.34
1 Hop to It $0.22
1 Horn of Valhalla $0.92
1 Lingering Souls $0.17
1 Martial Coup $0.25
1 Night's Whisper $0.31
1 Shadow Summoning $0.11
1 Torment of Hailfire $41.53

Artifact 4

1 Arcane Signet $0.40
1 Sol Ring $1.04
1 Talisman of Hierarchy $0.41
1 Twinning Staff $17.92

Enchantment 4

1 Bastion of Remembrance $0.35
1 Black Market $5.09
1 Sothera, the Supervoid $3.40
1 Tolls of War $0.22

Land 35

1 Bojuka Bog $0.58
1 Castle Ardenvale $0.26
1 Caves of Koilos $0.49
1 Command Tower $0.31
1 Godless Shrine $9.69
1 Isolated Chapel $0.32
1 Midgar, City of Mako $2.48
14 Plains
1 Realm of Koh $0.30
1 Shattered Sanctum $1.85
11 Swamp
1 Vault of Champions $17.15

Tokens Used 19

Ally
Clue
Copy
Goblin
Human
Human Rogue
Human Soldier
Inkling
Monk
Moogle
Pest
Rabbit
Snake
Soldier
Spirit
Treasure
Vampire
Vampire Rogue
Warrior

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

How to Play the Deck

Playing the deck feels a lot different than almost all Orzhov decks, since you are less focused on doing typical Orzhov things like Aristocrats and much more on stopping our opponents and preparing to cast a huge X spell to close out the game. Silverquill is a huge part of this deck and the main reason it works, efficient removal spells like Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile and Erode get considerably better when you sac a simple 1/1 token and get to do it again, apply that en masse and you can really devastate your opponents boards.

Synergy’s in the deck

The biggest synergy present in our deck is with our commander, Silverquill, which is the biggest part of our deck and the card we are fully built around. Because of that, we have cards that work with our commander, a lot like Secure the Wastes, which is not only a great way to get some board presence but a good way to get some chump blockers for the deck as well. Horn of Valhalla is another awesome addition and can help us transition to a more beatdown-oriented strategy if we need to start pressuring our opponents earlier than expected. The same is true for Adeline, Resplendent Cathar, another great attacker for the deck that can allow us to be quite aggressive.

Phases of the Game

Early-Game: The early-game is a pretty boring time for us, get some early creatures/tokens out and try to get Silverquill out as quick as we can, cards like Culling the Weak and an early creature or a card like Dark Ritual can help accelerate this greatly and allow us to have a huge head start on the game but without that we don’t do a ton in the early-game, play some creatures, some support cards and some mana rocks and that’s about it.

Mid-Game: The mid-game is where we begin playing the board police role. By this point, hopefully, we have Silverquill out already, and we can start using its casualty ability to copy all of our removal spells and hurt our opponents a ton. We have more than enough removal in this deck, even without Silverquill’s ability, that we can easily control the board and effectively “Police” it. We will take attacks if they are very open, but overall, we aren’t super aggressive at this stage of the game, mostly attempting to stop our opponents from going wild on us.

Late-Game: When our opponents life total is getting low and we have a lot of value in our hand, is when we start getting to a great point in the deck, being able to hold something like Debt to the Deathless in our hand all game and finish off our opponents is very strong and the primary way that we close out games with our deck. We can stay as lowkey as possible until the late game, then strike and finish off all or most of our opponents.

Card Breakdowns

Ramp

Orzhov is not a color combination known for ramping.

Still, we have some good generic options in Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, and Talisman of Hierarchy as cheap early game rocks that help us with the overall goal of getting out Silverquill as quickly as we can. While we don’t always want to use them before we have Silverquill out, Culling the Weak and Dark Ritual are two very cheap and strong options to accelerate getting our commander out. We are not a deck that ramps a ton, but we almost always can play Silverquill one or even two turns early.

Card Draw/Card Advantage

This is a big benefit of being in Orzhov, we actually have some awesome card draw sources that become even stronger when we have Silverquill out and can copy them, cards like Deadly Dispute and Night's Whisper allow us to fill up our hand easily for almost no mana investment, allowing us to draw even more removal and control the board even more.

Removal

This is a huge part of our deck, with cheap cards like Despark and Fracture to cards like Tragic Slip, we have a ton of different ways to remove our opponents’ stuff. At the same time, these are great on their own; being able to copy them with Silverquill is one of the best things we can do in this deck, and the main way that we can control the overall pace of the game. I also really like Martial Coup, which is a great way to leave us as the last board standing and allow us to do some additional damage. Torment of Hailfire is not only a huge finisher for the deck but an insanely stupid card when copied, and can easily devastate all of our opponents. We are very good at removal within this deck, even if we don’t have Silverquill on the field.

Protection

Protection is not the strongest part of our deck, but we do have some good ways to protect ourselves and our creatures, and of course, Silverquill helps a bunch with this. Cards like Entrapment Manuever can allow us to produce a ton of tokens that are not only additional Silverquill fodder but also great attackers/ blockers if we need them. While it doesn’t directly work with Silverquill, Inkshield is a great way to amass a huge flying board, and if used in response to a big attack, can easily be a finisher for the deck. Moogles' Valor is a little pricey, but by the time you need it, you usually can cast it pretty easily, and being able to create an army of temporarily indestructible moogles is extremely strong for the deck. If an opponent tries to stop us with a board wipe, we also have Duty Beyond Death, which is a another great way to protect our board en masse.

Utility / Support

Let’s focus on some of my favorite cards in the deck! Kambal, Profiteering Mayor is a very strong and cheap card for our deck. If an opponent at the table is on a token strategy, this can be pretty devastating for them, but most often, we can use it to drain and gain our opponents quite a bit. Leonin Lightscribe is another great card for the deck, and if we have a big army of tokens, which we do pretty often, and we can keep casting and spellslinging, this is an amazing way to get a huge board and just kill an opponent through combat. Since we are spellslinging quite often, in the deck Monastery Mentor is one of the strongest creatures we have, being able to produce an army of prowess tokens is so awesome and can get out of hand extremely quickly. Ophiomancer and Nine-Lives Familiar both serve the same purpose in the deck: they produce very consistent fodder to sacrifice to Silverquill’s casualty ability, allowing us to keep the copying going.

Mana Base

Not a super interesting mana-base, Bojuka Bog is always such an easy inclusion in these Orzhov decks, and it’s just as good in our deck. Midgar, City of Mako is a very cool land for the deck and is a nice and easy source of card draw that can be copied, and with all of our tokens, is extremely easy to do. Realm of Koh is another cool token producer for the deck and a great option if we don’t have a lot to do in the late-game. I found that thirty-five was the perfect number for the deck; I tested versions with thirty-six and thirty-four and found that thirty-five provided the most consistent landbase.

Win Conditions

While we can technically win through combat the typical way we win is through waiting till the mid-late game or whenever our opponents have low life totals and finish them off with a huge and copied Debt to the Deathless and Exsanguinate. Breach the Multiverse or Torment of Hailfire are also awesome options to copy and can easily win the game for us.

Strengths of the Deck

We are very good against creature decks since we have so much removal and can very easily copy it all.

We can remain quite lowkey throughout a lot of the game until we strike really hard at the end, catching most opponents by surprise.

Weaknesses of the Deck

Our deck lacks a lot of explosiveness without our commander.

Aggressive decks can punish us a lot early, normally not enough to kill us, but they can chip in for some good damage before we can stop them.

Deck Testing/Matchups

I tested this deck against three different decks

Game 1: Vs Mu Yanling, Wind Rider. Matchup Record: 5-2

This was a great matchup for our deck, killing all of their creatures that allow them to crew makes them sit around with nothing but useless vehicles with no possible driver, they really cant handle all of our removal and once their crew creatures are dispatched we can easily beat them down with tokens and finish them off with a huge Debt to the Deathless.

Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Debt to the Deathless, Tragic Slip and Breach the Multiverse.

Game 2: Vs Arcades, the Strategist. Matchup Record: 6-1

Outside of one game where they were really aggressive and I had a very slow start, this is a great matchup for our deck and one I didn’t have much trouble with. Just kill Arcades and play the long game, and you shouldn’t have much trouble. If left unchecked, they can get quite scary, but overall, this is a great matchup for our deck.

Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Twinning Staff, Sothera, the Supervoid and Papalymo Totolymo.

Game 3: Vs Farmer Cotton. Matchup Record: 4-3

A very interesting matchup for our deck, while we are a removal-heavy deck, we are not super amazing in the token mirror. We do succeed if we get cards like Martial Coup, but overall, they aren’t super boardwipe-heavy. Farmer Cotton is in Selesnya, and that allows them to get huge extremely quickly. The food synergies in their deck can also threaten our primary win conditions. In this matchup, I try to be a lot more aggressive than in other matchups.

Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Bastion of Remembrance, Baron Bertram Graywater and Kambal, Profiteering Mayor.

Conclusion

Thanks so much for reading to the end! I hope you all enjoyed it. Silverquill has been a blast to play; it’s a very interesting take on an Orzhov strategy that still manages to combine all the fun expected Orzhov stuff, like the tokens. While my playgroup didn’t love playing against this one because it is so removal-heavy, it’s a blast to pilot. Silverquill is very strong, and I would expect that all eyes will come your way when you drop them.

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